Note: For those of you who are unaware, this story takes place between Hover Beside and Hover Beyond.
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Hover Beside: The Mercia Incident
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Across the cool, moonlit skies over the nation of Mercia soared a small, black, two-seater fightercraft. Occupying the side-by-side seats were the two seventeen-year-old heroes, Tails and his girlfriend Kaolin. They had been assigned to investigate the claim that Snively was constructing high-grade explosives in a privately-owned facility near one of the nation's largest cities. The remainder of the Freedom Fighters would've assisted them, but they were already preoccupied with an important assignment. The others weren't worried anyway; they knew the duo was completely capable of handling it on their own.
They found an open area in a forest a good distance away from the facility and decided to land there. Since the ship probably lacked the stealth needed to avoid detection by the high-tech scanning devices Snively most likely acquired from the late Doctor Robotnik, they thought it'd be best to use their gift of natural flight to cover the rest of the journey. The humming of the ship's low-profile engines reduced in tone as it was gently set down and decreased in power output. After the computers made their final beeps and chirps before shutting off, silence prevailed amongst the craft, and Tails and Kaolin undid their crash harnesses. Tails sat there for a few moments, contemplating their mission with folded hands, and Kaolin looked over at him with slight concern.
"Is something wrong, Tails?"
Tails let out an apprehensive sigh, and answered as he slowly turned his head toward her, "It's just, Snively has been after my head ever since my final run-in with Robotnik three-and-a-half years ago. Honestly, I'm tired of his antics. I'm tired of him trying to kill us and our friends. We need to make this our final encounter with him."
Kaolin knew what Tails meant, and she agreed. Snively had to be stopped, otherwise he wouldn't stop. He had become so steadfast in his pursuit of vengance that each subsequent encounter with him progressively got more and more vicious. They could only imagine what could be in store for them this time. With that, they got up from their seats and gave each other a warm embrace, along with words of encouragement. The two then exited the ship and took to the air, making sure to stay amongst the trees.
In a matter of minutes, they reached the south side of the building. It had the least amount of cameras, according to satellite images, and though it wasn't the most logical place to break in structurally, that gave them more of an element of surprise. Both of them had pistols drawn, and cautiously approached a window. Using a small laser device, Tails silently cut a circle in the glass, removed the cut piece, and climbed through the hole. After helping Kaolin through, they went behind a large crate, checked carefully for patrol units, and began navigating their way toward the center of the building. The only sounds were those of their own footsteps on the polished concrete floor, and the hum of various machines. As they came around a particularly large mechanical unit, they started hearing metallic clicking, like someone was tapping a steel pipe on the floor. They rapidly hid behind one of the units, and saw a guard droid with four pointed legs and three scythes for arms scuttling its way across the floor. It appeared as though it was looking for something, and the two vulpine operatives knew they had probably been detected. The imposing machine looked around curiously, emitting beeps and twitters as it analyzed its surroundings. Hoping to avoid an unpleasant encounter, the two Freedom Fighters began to slowly walk backwards toward a cluster of vats filled with cryogenic liquids. Though Kaolin was trying her very hardest to stay quiet, her elbow collided with a toolbox, resulting in a loud 'clang'. The robot immediately snapped to attention and sped to their position, prompting them to fire a few shots and run. They were pursued into the cluster of cryogenic vats, which meant great danger for them. If a bullet struck one of the tanks just right, or if one of the robot's scythe-arms did the same, it could spray deadly-cold fluids on both of them. Apparently, that was one of its protocols, because it did just that; going around and puncturing vats. The ruptures weren't huge, but instead were small for the purpose of creating a freezing spray. The droid was well-programmed, and this truly worried Tails and Kaolin. Adding to the frustration, they weren't able to fly due to how narrow the pathways were, and because of a network of grated walkways above them connecting the vats.
As the robot rounded a corner, Tails fired a shot directly at its face (or what appeared to be its face), but the bullet was quickly blocked. Astonished, Tails took off once more, and the robot continued its pursuit, puncturing the vats along the way. While they ran, Kaolin got an idea and stopped abruptly. In shock, Tails shouted for her to keep going, but instead, she aimed her gun and fired at a tank ahead of the droid. The resulting gush of cryo-liquid froze the joints of two of the droid's legs and one of its arms, causing it to trip, and the affected appendages broke off immediately. As it attempted to regain stability, Kaolin shot another tank, and remainder of the robot was frozen stiff. Another well-placed bullet ensured its demise, shattering its computer core.
The couple smiled at each other, but their joy was cut short by an airborne wire-bound scythe grazing the fabric on Kaolin's leg. It stuck into a crate before being yanked back to the sentry that launched it, and the machine went on the attack. Tails and Kaolin started to run, only to nearly be struck by another flying scythe.
They made their way into a dense cluster of pipes, which proved to be effective in protecting them from the airborne cutlery. Their safety would be very brief, however, and they both knew they had to find some way around the sentries fast, otherwise more would come and eventually surround them. All they could hear were hisses, hums, and buzzes of various active pipelines and devices within the immediate area, as well as the clacking of the droids' pointed legs. The latter sounds fed Kaolin's already growing anxiety - her paranoia of knife-wielding enemies. It brought back more memories of her nightmarish encounter with that psychotic duck, Bean. Her mind began to become flooded with terrifying images of what could happen to them should they fail, and her eyes darted back and forth repeatedly. Finally, Tails noticed an outlet, and he tugged on her shirt to get her attention. She followed him as he rounded a corner that led to an open area, but bumped into him as he stopped short. More robots had come to assist in stopping them. As they tried to go back into the maze of pipes, there was another robot blocking the way. They had been surrounded.
Wide-eyed, the two looked around, wondering just how they were going to escape. Tails noticed that there was plenty of room to fly, but absolutely no way out. With their backs pressed together, hearts beating in unison, Tails slowly twirled the tips of his two tails on Kaolin's lower right leg, signifying a plan to take to the air. As fast as they could, they leapt and flew high, narrowly dodging the resulting barrage of sharp projectiles. Guns blazing, they took down various robotic units, which, being different models than the first droid, were unable to block bullets. Right as they shot the last droid beyond function, both of them felt a sharp jolt, and they collided with a wall. They had been swatted out of the air by a giant metal hand.
"I'm surprised you defeated my guards. I was sure I had programmed them well enough to at least injure you, but it seems I'll have to it myself!" exclaimed Snively. The demented little man was piloting a huge mechanical suit, and a dark laugh resounded from the loudspeakers. The machine was far more menacing than the one he used during the siege on Knothole all those years ago. "Indeed, I had planned for them to simply disable you so I could watch you suffer before finishing the job. Oh well. It will be far more satisfying this way."
The vulpine couple - dazed, disoriented, and confused - tried to gather their bearings while coping with the intense pain which wracked their bodies. They had slammed into a concrete wall incredibly hard, and as a result, Tails had a splitting headache, and Kaolin was concerned her left elbow was fractured.
Snively unsympathetically mocked his two victims with various insults and expletives while they struggled to get to their feet, and coldly walked toward them, preparing to finish the job without even giving them a chance to fight back. With a hiss and a clank, a large spike quickly protruded from one of the mech's arms. The monster wanted to see blood. "The time has come, fools! No longer will you hinder my plans! No longer will you humiliate me! It's the very end of the road for you," he said with a sadistic grin. "Prepare to be smeared across the room like the insects you are!"
With that, he lunged. A moment before the arm-spike collided with Tails, he and Kaolin gathered enough strength to take off. Small chunks of concrete were subsequently scattered across the room, and Snively quickly withdrew the spike from the wall, muttering obscenities to himself. "NO USE IN DELAYING THIS!"
After they gathered the guns which had been flung from their grip, the two foxes darted through the air and fired at the mech, but the bullets merely bounced off the thick armor.
Snively was beside himself with laughter, and shouted "You're more pathetic than you were in our last encounter!" while escalating his efforts.
"Quit bloviating, Sniv! We defeated you then and we'll defeat you now! We always do and you know it!" blurted Kaolin.
Enraged, Snively activated the mech suit's rocket boosters, propelling it around the room in such a manner that caused both of the heroes to struggle in their evasion tactics. Many more insults emanated from the madman as he came closer and closer to swatting them out of the air again. The two split up and flew to opposite sides of their enemy; one to distract, and the other to attack. Kaolin zipped all over Snively's field of vision as Tails landed on his back. He pulled a high-power plasma cutter from his utility belt and used it to quickly cut-open a hatch on the armor, through which he dropped a small timed explosive. He was almost crushed as one of the mech's feet briefly became snagged on a pipe, causing it to lose control, turn around, and slam back-first into a wall. Tails and Kaolin got to a relatively safe distance before the bomb detonated, igniting a fuel tank and sending robotic behemoth across the room. The irate little man maneuvered the mech's arms forward to prevent a frontal collision with a different wall, but as a result, the still-equipped pike rammed through the concrete and ruptured a gas tank. The consequential blast ripped the suit apart and set off other tanks full of combustible fluids and gases, leading to a rapidly-spreading inferno, and the shock knocked Tails and Kaolin out of the air. Thick black smoke shrouded the destruction briefly before escaping through ventilation shafts.
Kaolin groaned as she slowly got back to her feet, and she looked over at her mostly-unconscious boyfriend, hoping he was alright. She wiped the blood from her nose before nudging him on the side with her hand.
"Tails, are you okay? Wake up," she said with nearly a whisper.
Tails opened his eyes and grinned while gazing into hers, "I'm fine...I think." She helped him up, and he continued, "Ooooh yeah, back hurts. Head's spinning a little, too. I'll be fine, though. Let's go see how our...friend...is doing."
The two made their way to the mangled heap that was once Snively's mech suit. Within the battered cockpit lay a beaten man. He was bleeding from various wounds, but primarily from the area of his left wrist. It was sandwiched between two sharp pieces of metal, and both heroes winced when they saw his severed hand a few feet away.
"You...(expletive)...(EXPLETIVE)...animals," he breathed, words saturated to the core with hatred. "You can't win. You'll NEVER win."
Trying to replace his uneasiness with stoicism, Tails replied, "You don't really have any room to speak, considering how you just lost. This has gone long enough, Sniv. I'm tired of you trying to persistently kill us and our friends and family. Your reign of terror ends today." As Tails removed a timed mine from his belt, a bullet whizzed past his head. He and Kaolin immediately switched their attention to the huge, six-foot-tall, lavendar-furred feline who was standing about ten feet away. Within his big hand was an uncommonly large pistol aimed at Kaolin's head.
"Drop the mine and your weapons or else I'll blow her head off," he warned with a growl. Tails and Kaolin slowly complied, and he continued, "I can't let you proceed. You see, I have a lot riding on Mister Kintobor here, and his death would result in unwanted consequences. Now, I'll tell you what's going to happen next. I'm going to tie you both up, and leave you here after I get Snively out of that mech for medical treatm-..."
His words were cut short by another deafening explosion. That blast was the product of the rapidly-progressing fires reaching a cluster of oxyacetylene tanks, and one of the resultant shards of metal could be seen protruding from the left side of his chest. He let out two bloody coughs before collapsing to the ground. With full knowledge that it probably wasn't going to be the last explosion, Tails and Kaolin grabbed their weapons and raced to the nearest exit as fast as they could. They flew out and into the sky roughly twenty seconds before the fires reached much larger storage tanks filled with highly combustible materials, and most of the building was obliterated in a blinding flash that could be seen for miles.
The two landed in a tree nearly a mile away, and watched as the fireball ascended while the remainder of the building roasted in the residual conflagration. They held each other closely, thankful for the privilege of being able to enjoy the other's company for another day. For fifteen minutes, they simply sat there, hand in hand, resting a weary head on the other's. Tails noticed that he was beginning to fall asleep, so he reached into a belt pouch and grabbed a device that was designed to activate the ship's automated piloting system and cause it to seek his location. Unfortunately, it had been broken during the battle. Since it would be nearly impossible to find the ship in a timely manner under that kind of darkness, he decided on staying in the tree until the other Freedom Fighters arrived. He activated a special beacon that only his team could detect, and then looked at his girlfriend. She was already unconscious, ever so softly snoring while leaning on his shoulder. He grinned slightly, scooted closer, and closed his eyes.
A few hours later, Rotor arrived in a small transport craft, and they were taken home safe and sound with the fightercraft in tow.
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End
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Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! If it's not too much trouble, please leave a review!
Canon Sonic characters, places, and objects are copyright of Sonic Team/Sega
Kaolin, other original characters, etc, and the story are copyright of myself, NuclearCookout