Sonic balanced on the tornados wing as it flew across the wide, open sea. He could see the dolphins swimming in the crystal clear water below him and could hear the chirps of birds flying above him. The sun beat down on him and made him fan himself lightly with one hand.
The sky was a brilliant blue, dotted with a few clouds and illuminated by the sun. The froth flying up from the ocean was cooling Sonic down as he looked toward the horizon. He smiled as, in the distance, a dolphin performed a back flip and landed with a soft splash back into the water.
He stretched his arm out and a small, blue bird landed on his finger. Sonic let his rest there for a few minutes before throwing it into the air and watching it fly happily toward the distant shore.
"Tails?"
"Yeah Sonic?"
"How far?"
"Two miles."
Sonic turned away from his friend and frowned. He began to think of the day they had first met, the day he landed on South Island. He'd stayed there for a long time before Eggman had showed up. He remembered the day tails had chased him around the Emerald Hill Zone, laughing as he twirled his twin tails.
Then he had followed him across the island, risking his life as they battled against Eggman's evil robots and traps. Sonic smiled as he remembered Tails yelling at him to 'kick Eggman's egg-shaped butt!' as he fell out of the sky as they reached his base.
He wasn't going to get shot down this time.
Tails had lovingly restored the Tornado after he trashed the Tornado 2 on the Ark, the Whirlwind on a mission on Angel Island and burned out the insides of the Whirlwind 2 during a race around Mobius. He's won as well. Tails had decided to restore his original, and favourite, plane and use it as they had used it before. To defeat Eggman.
Sonic held the green chaos emerald in his hand and began to remember all the things the emeralds had put them through. Then he smiled as he remember the look on Eggman's face as he transformed into Hyper Sonic and sent him hurtling toward Mobius, the Master emerald out of his grasp once and for all. He threw the emerald into the air and caught it again.
"Chaos…CONTROL!"
He felt the pull as the emerald's power made him faster that light. He teleported to an island near their destination. He pulled out Tails' binoculars and looked through them. He scowled as he saw the giant factory, pumping tonnes of toxic liquid into the sea. He knew he had found it. Eggman's master robotiziser.
Swiftly, he dove into some foliage as two of Eggman's drones flew overhead. He grasped the emerald and used it to teleport above them. He landed on the top of one and began to bounce between them until they fell apart. Sonic zipped down and grabbed he bunny that fell out of one before teleporting back to the small island. He released the small creature and resumed spying on the base.
There was a large pipe, big enough for the Tornado to fit through, that was pouring oil into the sea. Sonic pressed a button on the binoculars and sent a picture of the pipe to Tails. He grabbed the emerald and teleported back onto the Tornados wing.
"You'll need to slip inside and turn of the oil flow. I can fly through it though."
"Nice one."
With that, sonic leapt of the plane's wing and teleported onto the small island once again. He looked through the binoculars a final time, trying to get a rough idea of the layout, before teleporting onto the side of the structure.
He prised open a hatch and dropped inside, noiselessly. Sonic knew he was going to have a problem. He wasn't used to stealth and he couldn't risk using Chaos Control because Robotnik would detect the energy; he had pushed it teleporting onto the outside of the plant, doing it inside would be suicidal.
He decided that the air vents would be the best way forward and leapt up, into one. It was dark inside and the cold, re-circulated blew against him. He sped along the narrow vents, pausing briefly to check the hatches to see if he was near the control room. He found numerous rooms, including one which contained a large number of files labelled 'that blasted hedgehog'.
He checked the next hatch and froze with fear and anger. He was overlooking the robotizing facility. He shuddered as he saw the small animas, pulling at their cells as they were transformed into mindless robots. Sonic struggled to stop himself bursting through the vent and destroying everything in sight. Eventually he moved away, desperate for vengeance against Eggman.
He looked through the hatch after that and saw a room filled with machines and control panels. Deciding he had found his target he spun through the vent cover and landed in the room. He winced as the remains of the panel hit the floor with a metallic clang.
Sonic moved quickly toward a monitor and began to look at it. He was not the technical genius, Tails was, and he had no idea what he was doing. He pressed a button and the screen in-front of him came to life. He looked at the options, his finger pausing over the one labelled 'Robotizing controls' before selection the oil options. He managed to disable the oil flows and then shut the console off.
Silently he leapt back into the vent and burst off toward the hatch he had entered by. He peeked out of the hatch, checking for patrols, before jumping from the vent and opening the hatch.
He climbed onto the outside of the facility and checked that the oil had been switched off. It had. He leapt up and bean to grind along a thin wire toward the island. When he reached the island he used Chaos Control to warp back to the Tornado. It was much closer to Robotnik's plant. Tails was flying low to the sea, trying to avoid the sensors. Sonic smiled at him and Tails nodded. Sonic raised the emerald again.
The plane emerged 100 meters away from the pipe. Tails tweaked the throttle and Sonic leapt from the wing into the co-pilot's seat. Tails pushed forwards on a control and the plane shot forward. Sonic blinked as the plan flew into pipe. Sonic help up the green emerald so that it would illuminate the pitch-black pipe. It was too risky to use a torch.
Tails tweaked the controls and Sonic gripped the handles in the seat harder as the plane shot off faster through the pipe. He glanced down at the monitor; it showed a blueprint of the facility.
"Tails!"
"Yeah Sonic?"
"At the end of the tunnel is an oil drum. If we can plant explosives in I can rescue the animals…"
"…Chaos Control into space and blow it up!"
"Right."
Sonic and Tails exchanged nods before ploughing through the tunnel. Sonic pulled up the throttle in the Co-Pilots seat and waited for Tails to switch control. He waited a minute before the red light flashed and he was in control. He pushed the plane as fast as it would go, before slowing down when he saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel.
The plane burst into the drum and Sonic pressed a button. The planes jets turned upside down and began to hover. Tails spun his tails and took off. He was carrying a bag with him, pausing at intervals to place an explosive on the side of the drum.
Sonic flew the plane into a ledge and landed it. Sonic wasn't as good a pilot as Tails but he managed to land and secure it safely. Revving up, he grasped the emerald in one hand and thought about how he was going to free the animals. He had a vision of the cages and knew what he had to do.
Taking off at amazing speed, Sonic sped up the wall and began to spin. He tried not to make much contact with the walls as a single spark could spell the end of their mission. He reached the ceiling but span on, bursting out of the drum and appearing in a vent system. Looking ahead, he saw the vent he had used before. Swiftly, and without hesitation, he ran through the ducts.
He fell into the same control room he had last time and immediately cut power to everywhere but the lights. He felt a shudder as the base's engines override kicked in and fell to the floor as a few of the heating implements exploded. The screens around him began to fade before finally they were all black.
Sonic jumped back into the vent and came out in the robotiziser room. He saw the looks of relief on the animal's faces as he fell onto the floor holding the emerald. Spinning, he took off and began bouncing off the wall, destroying all the badniks to free the animals, before slamming into the robotiziser.
Eyes wide, the animals watched in horror as the machine grew brighter and brighter. They screamed as the light spread through the wires. The light began to engulf the room. They backed away but the light spread through out the room. They watched as it zapped them.
Sonic flipped out of the machine and landed on the island. He looked at all the bewildered animals, looking at themselves and wondering why they weren't robots. Sonic threw the emerald in the air and caught it. As he caught it he transported back into the facility. The animals, realising what had happened, began to chant "SONIC, SONIC!" before fleeing into the forest.
Clutching the emerald he raced through the base. He occasionally warped through a sealed door but otherwise remained moving. Eventually he came to the core of the base and began to focus the powers of the emerald. He wished he'd had time to find another but there hadn't been time. He eventually succeeded in making the base teleport.
He collapsed on the floor and began to pant. He was drained of energy after the huge amount of energy he had used to transport the base. He let the emerald rest on the floor for a minute as he recovered.
Eventually, he climbed to his feet and picked up the emerald. He was just about to Chaos Control when a hard object slammed into him. Sonic flew to the wall and collapsed in a heap. Groaning he looked up. His vision was blurry but he could make out two shapes. One was black and a similar build to sonic, the other was red and extremely fat.
"Eggman…" He groaned as he tried to regain his vision. The black figure move with lightning speed and Sonic found himself dangling a foot from the ground with a metallic hand around his throat.
He blinked and shook his head, his vision slowly returning. The first thing he saw was Eggman smiling evilly at him.
"Hello Sonic. So glad you could join us."
Sonic reached down and tried to grab the emerald, deciding to teleport away and deal with his attacker then. But he couldn't feel it. He realised he had dropped it as the robot, if that's what it was, had slammed into him.
Slowly, Sonic looked down, only to be hurled across the room before he could see his attacker. He landed against a wall, his head pounding. He realised that he had just walked into the worst nightmare of his life as the mystery figure.
"I believe you know my new associate. Meet my newest servant…"
"SHADOW…?!"
Sonic's mouth dropped as he saw his friend. He was entirely metal, a row of metal spikes ran down his back and his eyes were an evil red. He was black except for a hatch on the front which was gold. He looked like one of Sonics old foes.
"He bears a striking resemblance to Metal Sonic don't you think?" Eggman laughed before clicking his fingers and smiling as Metal Shadow slammed him against the wall.
"Hmmmm…time is running short. I would like to stay and watch you die but I have another engagement." He held up Sonic's emerald and laughed. "Enjoy your death! Shadow, let's go."
The Metal Shadow hit him once more in the stomach and walked away, leaving Sonic motionless on the floor. Just as he reached the door the robot froze. Sonic watched as it began to spark and shake before regaining its composure and leaving. The real Shadow had been used in the robotizision!
Groaning, Sonic got up and limped toward a wall. He realised he had lost. The robot had beaten him, Eggman had the emerald and the facility…was still going to explode. His eyes widened as he spun around and ran toward a door. He ran as fast as he could, the sound wave he was creating destroyed everything it touched.
He reached an emergency door and flew into it. It burst open and he flew out into space. He felt the familiar feeling as he was sucked back toward Mobius. Groaning, he turned and looked at the plant. It didn't explode, but imploded. The lack of gravity made it an odd spectacle to watch.
Turning away, Sonic looked toward Mobius and saw a tiny speck. He directed his descent toward it. About 10 miles from the ground, Sonic landed in a heap on the wings of the Tornado. It wasn't like the last time; last time he'd done this he'd save the world and recovered the Master Emerald. This time he'd been beaten up, almost killed and hand-delivered Eggman an emerald. He tried to think what Eggman wanted with the emerald but collapsed before he could come up with any ideas.