War-Time Adventures
Six months had gone by since it had all happened, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. The sky was a pure blue, the clouds were fluffy white, and the grass of the Green Hill Zone was a bright, vibrant green. Everything was quiet and peaceful as the various critters moved about happily. A little gray rabbit was the first to hear it coming and with a twitch of his nose, he jumped into a bush to hide. A few flickies and chipmunks were still playing as the small breeze that had been blowing slowly ceased like the tide receding right before a tsunami. The chipmunks ran for cover as they felt troubling vibrations in the ground and it was several seconds later before the filckies flew away hurriedly as they saw it racing toward them. Faster than the blink of an eye, a blue blur dashed through the area with a gust of wind. There was a cloud of dust and grass as he skidded to a stop at the top of a hill. When the dust cleared, Sonic the Hedgehog was standing there, looking out over the rolling hills and valleys of the zone. He spotted something of interest on the next hill over and was there in a flash. Sonic knelt and gently touched the soft petals of one of the native purple flowers that grew in Green Hill. The plant was in full bloom, its petals spread wide and relaxing scent wafting through the air. It was perfect. Sonic went to pick the lovely blossom when his wrist communicator buzzed and rang.
"Hello?" said Sonic as he stood up and answered it.
"SONIC!" came Tails' panicked voice on the other line, "Where are you?! You need to get over to my place right NOW!"
The azure hedgehog was already breaking into a run as he tried to calm his best friend, "Slow it down Tails, I'm on my way. What's happening?"
"It's Eggman! He's attacking Chun-Nan! I'm looking at the news right now! There's drones firebombing buildings and Egg Fighters in the streets, and and, it's just chaos! What are we going to do!?"
"We're going to do what we always do: Stop him. Get everyone else rounded it up and fire up the Tornado. I'm almost there." With that Sonic hung up and ran even faster. 'I guess that visit will have to wait.' thought Sonic as he blasted over the hills and into the Emerald Forest towards Tails' house.
When Sonic arrived, Knuckles and Amy were just getting there as well. They all went to the garage door as it rumbled open to reveal Tails' pride and joy: The Tornado. He jumped in and started the engine. The plane came to life with a roar of its engine and settled into a low rumbling purr. Amy and Knuckles got in the back while Sonic took his favorite spot on the wing. In no time they were in the air and speeding towards their destination on the other side of the world.
"Why the heck is Eggman attacking Chun-Nan anyways?" shouted Amy over the plane engine, "It doesn't make any sense!"
Knuckles cracked his namesakes as he replied, "Who knows and who cares! All that matters is that we stop him and help those people. Right Sonic?"
Sonic nodded as he said, "I just hope we get there before it's too late. Tails, can't this thing go any faster?"
"She's going full throttle! I do have something but… it's still in the experimental stage." said Tails hesitantly as he tried to push the plane to go faster. "I installed a Chaos Emerald in the plane not only for power but in the hopes of creating, for lack of a better word, a warp drive. Basically Chaos Control for the Tornado. But I'm still tinkering with it and I have no idea if it'll work."
"We got no other choice Tails. At this rate all of Chun-Nan is going to be a pile of ash. Do it."
Tails looked back at Knuckles and Amy who nodded in agreement before taking in a big breath, "OK. Here goes nothing. Hang on you guys!" He punched various buttons on the dashboard and grasped a knob surrounded by black and yellow stripes to indicate danger. "Initiating Chaos Drive… NOW!" He turned the knob and the plane lurched forward at amazing speed. There was flash and the plane was gone.
In another brilliant flash of light, the Tornado and its passengers appeared above Chun-Nan unharmed. The sky was filled with big plumes of black smoke and Eggman's flying drones. The drones were dropping bomb after bomb on the defenseless city and the flames washed over everything like waves of water. Dozens upon dozens of Egg Fighters were marching in the streets and destroying everything in their path. The heroes were shocked and stared down at the destruction, unsure of where to start their relief efforts. A high pitched scream rang out from below as woman cowered before an Egg Fighter armed with a chainsaw sword.
"Tails, you stay in the air and try to thin out the drones. Knuckles, Amy, and I will be on the ground. Let's go!" ordered Sonic before jumping from the wing with Knuckles and Amy following his lead without hesitation. The Egg Fighter was raising its sword and the woman, too frightened to move, screamed again. There was a flash of blue and the sword hit the ground harmlessly. The robot looked around in confusion before turning to see Knuckles' fist rocketing towards its screen. The blow landed dead center, knocking it back only to be thrown forward by a swing of Amy's hammer. Knuckles then finished it off with another punch to the head before turning to deal with another robot that was coming up behind him.
"Let's split up!" suggested Knuckles as he punched through the torso of the Egg Fighter and ripped out a fistful of wires and parts, "We can cover more ground."
"Good idea. Keep your communicators on and don't be afraid to call for back-up. If you see that fat egg floating around, give me a holler. I want to deal with him myself."
"Got it!" said Knuckles and Amy as they dashed off in different directions. At this point, the Chun-Nan military had at last gotten mobilized and their ground units were spilling into the streets guns ablazing while jets were taking to the skies.
"Attention aircraft, identify yourself immediately or be shot down!" crackled a voice through the radio on the Tornado. Tails was bobbing and weaving around building rooftops in pursuit of one of the drones. "This is your last warning! Identify yourself or be shot down!"
With a frustrated growl, Tail hit the button to reply, "I'm Tails the Fox and I'm here to help! Sorry if I'm being rude but I'm kinda busy shooting down these drones and some help would be great!"
"… Glad to have you." With that, the jets broke formation and began pursuing the hundreds of drones flying above the city. Tails returned his full attention to the slippery little drone that was evading him. At last, it flew right into his crosshairs.
"GOTCHA!" shouted Tails triumphantly as he pulled the trigger and two missiles launched from the Tornado and blew the drone to a thousand pieces. "Yes! Now for the rest."
As Tails and the Chun-Nan Air Force battled in the skies, Knuckles was helping rescue workers dig survivors out of trapped buildings while Amy was clearing the way for emergency vehicles, and people trying to evacuate. Sonic was running about as fast as he could go, creating huge twisters to suck all of the air from the fires engulfing the buildings and to keep them from spreading. He stopped as he heard a shrill, distressed scream, "HELP! OVER HERE! HELP PLEASE!" Just as he turned to answer the cry, a fire truck screeched to a halt and deployed its ladder. The firefighters were pulling a woman from the third story of an apartment building that was nearly engulfed in flames. But even as they brought her down to safety, the woman continued to scream and she pulled against her rescuers.
Sonic dashed over as they got her safely to the ground, "What's the problem here?"
"I have no freaking idea! We just saved her and she's screaming and hollering and trying to get back into the darn building!" replied a firefighter with a shrug.
"My baby is still in that building you idiots!" shrieked the woman as she tried to run back towards the apartments.
The firefighter stopped her and held her back, insisting "Lady, we didn't see a baby! It was just you!"
"No, no! My little girl was standing right next to me and when I turn around again she was gone! She must have gotten scared and hid! You have to let me in! PLEASE! I have to save my baby!" pleaded the woman as she fought harder.
"Well what the heck are we still doing here, let's get that little girl!" said Sonic as he prepared to dash at the building.
Once again the firefighter stood in the way, "Not happening; that building is coming down any second! It's suicidal! I'm sorry to say, lady, but she most likely already dead. " The words of the firefighter struck Sonic as horribly familiar and he stopped for a moment, frozen, as he remembered. The sounds of the woman and firefighter arguing seemed so distant suddenly and time felt stopped.
'No… Not again… Never again…' thought Sonic as he looked up at the window the woman had been rescued out of. Sonic jumped up onto the fire truck, off the ladder, and into the burning apartment. Immediately he began to cough as thick black smoke filled his lungs. Sweat was pouring down his face and body from the intense heat of the fire. Sonic took a step forward and the floorboard gave way under his foot, crashing into the inferno below. Furiously wiping the sweat from his eyes, Sonic continued forward, as quickly and carefully as he could manage. He mostly kept his eyes looking downwards to see any signs of the little girl. All of the doorframes were blocked by fire so she had to been somewhere in the room. Through the black haze, Sonic spotted what looked to be the remains of a sofa. He carefully shuffled over and looking down, saw the corner of a blanket sticking out. Using all of his might, which was quickly fading as he inhaled more smoke, he shoved the furniture aside. Lying there on the floor was a small girl clutching a ragged looking blanket.
Sonic picked her up and she mumbled weakly, "Mummy…"
"Don't worry sweet pea, we're going back to your mom right now." said Sonic as he put the blanket over her face to block out some of the smoke. The building creaked, groaned and actually began to shift as the floor rumbled under the stress. Sonic dashed for the window, the ceiling coming down in fiery chunks. He jumped out as the boiler in the building's basement blew and the whole thing collapsed inward. Blinded by the smoke, he missed the ladder and landed roughly on the roof of the fire truck before falling to the pavement. Luckily, he had managed to land on his back so the little girl was unharmed.
The woman ran over, arms open, "My baby! Is she alright!?" Sonic got to his feet and took the blanket away from her face. Now that she was out in the fresh air, the girl perked up a bit and began to cough. Sonic handed her to her mother who kissed and hugged the child, "Oh thank goodness! My baby!" Tears were streaming down the woman's face as she looked at Sonic, "Gaia bless you Sonic the Hedgehog! Thank you so much." She then ran off to join the crowd down the street that was leaving the city as fast as they could.
"That took some serious guts… Either you're crazy or insanely brave." Said the firefighter as the rest of his crew began hosing down the burning wreckage and the fires around it.
Sonic shrugged, "I guess I'm a little bit of both. But I wasn't about to let that little girl die in there. I gotta go, be careful." With that Sonic blasted off again to do whatever else he could to help.
This went on for hours; most of the city was on fire and burning to the ground, hundreds were trapped inside collapsed buildings, thousands were running in the streets from the Egg Fighters as well as trying to evacuate. The soldiers of Chun-Nan were overwhelmed and while G.U.N. had finally arrived as well, things were still engulfed in chaos and panic. The Chun-Nan Air Force, with Tails' help, had managed to shoot down most of the drones but the damage was already done. On the ground Knuckles, Amy, and Sonic were fighting hard to destroy the Egg Fighters and help with rescue/evacuation efforts. Finally, as the moon rose to illuminate all the destruction, all of the robots and drones just shut down.
Everyone was startled and confused as the Egg Fighters fell over where they stood and the drones dropped out of the sky. However, without their interference, rescue efforts went faster and people could at last be removed from the areas that had been hit the worst. It was nearly dawn before Sonic and his friends were able to get in the Tornado and start home, confident that Chun-Nan and G.U.N. could handle the situation. Tails put the plane on auto-pilot and everyone settled in for a little nap on the way home.
A few hours later, the boys were jerked awake by Amy's screams. She was sobbing hysterically and one quick look below them revealed why. They were flying above the area where they had made not just their homes, but so many memories and it was all destroyed. Just like Chun-Nan, the sky was blackened by smoke and fires dotted the Emerald Forest and Green Hill Zone. There were craters everywhere and upon closer examination, the places were each of their homes stood were now nothing but smoking craters and piles of debris. The four of them could only huddle together in the plane in shock. Even Angel Island's lush vegetation was in flames but thankfully, it was still floating in the sky.
The Tornado, landed automatically outside what was left of Tails' house and the fox jumped out in tears, "NO! How could this happen!? Who could do this?!"
Knuckles' gaze was fixed on the silhouette of Angel Island as it burned, "It was a set-up. Eggman got us away from here so he could trash it. That why we never saw him at Chun-Nan…"
Sonic slammed his fist into a nearby blacked tree angrily as he growled, "That creep! He's trying to get under our skin! Well it's not going to work! We're going to his base right freaking now and stop this!"
"But wait!" shrieked Amy as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "Cream and Vanilla live in this area too and I didn't see their house from the air. We have to make sure they're alright!"
Tails' eyes went wide, "You don't think that-"
Knuckles cut him off, "Only one way to find out. Let's go." Within minutes, they arrived at where Cream's house was supposed to be but it was nothing but a smoldering pile of wood.
Amy let out an anguished sob, "CREAM! Oh my Chaos, no!" Amy fell to her knees crying, "She was just a little girl! Her and her mom didn't deserve this! Why? Just… why?" As Sonic tried to comfort her, Tails and Knuckles picked through the wreckage a bit searching for some sign of the rabbit, her mother, or her pet Chao, Cheese.
"I don't see anything to suggest they were here when the house exploded Amy." said Tails as he put a hand on her shoulder, "Maybe they escaped. We can't give up hope. Right Sonic?"
The cerulean hedgehog nodded, "Tails is right. Eggman is trying to make us give up but it's not going to work! We're going to stay together and beat him, just like always."
Right then, the sound of a helicopter could be heard over head. The group turned to see a black G.U.N. helicopter approaching. It landed near-by and much to everyone's surprise, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega climbed out. Rouge was wearing a G.U.N. vest much like the one Shadow had worn except it had a few less decorations. Omega's rank was welded to his front as well as a small plate that read 'G.U.N.'.
As they came up Rouge said, "I can see this place has been hit too. I'm sorry."
"Its bad here but not as bad as Chun-Nan. You should be over there helping those people. What are you doing here?" snapped Sonic as he placed his hands on his hips.
"Whoa, someone's touchy. What's your problem?"
Knuckles stood beside Sonic, equally hostile, "G.U.N. isn't exactly welcome around here. What do you want Rouge?"
She scoffed and shook her head, "I have no idea what you guys are talking about but I don't really care right now. Eggman is attacking almost every major city in the world and we need your help to stop him."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy at once.
"It is true. Somehow he has managed to amass an enormous army and is sending out legions of troops to the major cities and capitals of the world." Explained Omega as he projected several images of cities around the world thrown into chaos just like Chun-Nan. Thousands of Egg Fighters fighting against battalions of G.U.N. soldiers but they were simply too numerous and pushed through the lines of defense. "You four have a special set of skills that will prove invaluable."
Incredulous, Tails stammered, "But, but that's impossible! The span of time it would take to create all of those robots and-and prepare them and-and the amount of resources required!"
Amy shook her head in disbelief, "Eggman's never done something this big before!"
"My Chaos…" muttered Knuckles, "That must have been why he was so quiet in the last couple years… He was preparing for war…"
"War? Whoa, whoa, let's not get carried away and start slapping crazy labels on this thing." Replied Sonic sternly, "We'll stomp this out just like always. There's no sense in freaking out."
"Really?! Were you not paying attention?! This isn't like one of Eggman's pathetic attempts at world domination. He's going for it with everything he's got!" shot back Rouge, "Knuckles used the perfect label. This is war."
Author's Note:
I'm back you guys! After an extremely long leave of absence, I'm back in business. Boy let me tell you, I haven't just been sitting on my butt either. I finished high school, became single, got a job, and I'm prepping for college! Things are a little hectic but I'm inspired and ready to roll! I'm going to be posting two stories now so check out the other one when you got a chance. Oh, and I'm deeply sorry to say that Werehog20 and I will no longer be collaborating on the series 'Holiday Mayhem'. I'm really disappointed that we couldn't post the newest one; we were so close to being done and it would have been really great but we had such a drama filled falling out, it just couldn't and wouldn't happen. Once again, you all have my deepest apologizes and it's a stab in the heart for me as a writer to leave that series undone. But anyways, I hope you like this sequel to Homefront Adventures. Werehog helped me come up with some of the basic groundwork to start but this one is all me! It's going to be a little darker, have some emotional drama, but still be packed with adventure! So please read, review, and enjoy! :D
