Many thanks to cutiegirl30109 for reviewing my fic.
This chapter was really fun to write. I don't really know why, but it was. w00t. XD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tails ran after Sonic toward the hangar, ignoring his aches from the previous night and setting aside his worries for their survival. When he emerged through the door of the hangar, which was actually just a large garage perfect for housing a plane; he saw that Sonic was already situated on the Tornado's nose.
"You ready?" Sonic began stretching his legs as he addressed his best friend.
"Let's fly." Tails approached the side of the plane and vaulted into the cockpit. He flipped the power on, and as the plane buzzed to life he examined its condition. "All systems normal," he reported, relieved. He was afraid that the repairs he made on the strained engine would do no good.
The door retracted and revolved outward, concealing itself on the ceiling of the hangar. Tails eased the plane forward and turned it onto the fairly long strip of pavement Tails used for the runway. Sonic glanced back at him and gave him the thumbs up. Tails nodded and pushed forward on the throttle gradually. The Tornado began to speed down the runway, trees and plants shaking and rustling in its wake. When the plane reached a desirable speed, Tails pulled back on the flight stick and the plane lifted off of the ground. Buildings and cars and people began to shrink as the aircraft gained altitude, and wind whooshed past the windows surrounding the cockpit.
"Sorry I cowered on you earlier," Tails said sheepishly.
"What? Oh, hey, don't worry about it. I probably would have reacted the same way."
"No, you wouldn't have," Tails replied, and he was right.
To his surprise, Sonic chuckled. "Jeez, Tails! You have to stop getting so down on yourself. You need a little self confidence."
"Sorry."
"See, there you go again."
Tails grinned, but immediately became serious again. "It's closer than I thought. You should probably get inside the cockpit."
The artificial storm raged in front of them. The blue streaks of lightning continued to curl through the pitch black clouds at an increased pace, creating drum-like booms as they spawned friction with the air. The wind picked up immediately and began to emit a high-pitched whistle. Tails's long bangs were snagged by the wind and thrashed wildly about. Sonic, heeding to his buddy's advice, appeared in the seat next to him. At the press of the larger button on the panel's left side, a glass covering protruded from both windows and encased the top of the cockpit, causing the whistle to die down and the vigorous winds with it.
"That's new," Sonic observed.
"I threw it in while taking a look at the engine."
"Miles Prower," Sonic patted his shoulder; "thank God for your timing."
"Hold on…we're going to experience some major turbulence."
Almost immediately after Tails's statement, the Tornado began to jostle around. Sonic buckled on the safety belt and tightened it. Tails strengthened his grip on the controls, ensuring that the aircraft remained under his manipulation. Tails's visibility was eliminated completely – all he was able to see was the smoky essence of the clouds billowing around him and occasional bolts of lightning snaking across them in front of the plane.
Two minutes later the situation hadn't changed. Worry washed through Tails's heart. "I can't tell where we're headed."
"What do you mean?"
"I…" Tails trailed off. "I think we're lost."
"We're not lost. What's on the radar?"
"Nothing. The heat and matter that's being created with the storm is interfering. That thing could be any - "
Lights suddenly blew out, leaving the Tornado's cockpit in total darkness. Sparks radiated through the control panel. The warning buzzer began to go off, but immediately faded away.
"Damn it!" Tails's low and acute voice snapped through the cockpit. "The storm's magnetism shorted out the power! I've totally lost control of the plane!"
The shuddering and vibration that besieged the cockpit turned into a violent churning. The aircraft's whirring sound became deep and anguished as it lost altitude.
But then, as suddenly as it went out, the power came back on. Tails's control abruptly guided the plane again, and it jerked upward. The normal whirring sound returned, and the intense shaking subsided.
"We dodged a bullet there," Sonic murmured.
"More like the bullet avoided us," Tails corrected him. "Hey…"
Tails peered at the radar. A green object appeared on the right side of the screen, and it stood out brighter and larger than any other of the readings. "Sonic, I think we found the generator."
Tails veered to the right. The signal came closer and closer to the center of the screen. "Tails, slow down! I think I see it."
Tails did as Sonic said and gained altitude before letting off of the throttle. Straining his keen eyes out the windshield, Tails discovered it as well. The generator was suspended in mid-air and moving with the storm, a glow pulsing from it ever other second. It appeared to be a giant egg with electric currents visibly running across its surface. As it glowed, Tails noticed an insignia printed on its side. Tails leaned forward to study it, and was set aback after examining.
"That's not Eggman's symbol," the teenaged fox realized.
A large intricately and spiffily shaped 'T' jutted in and out of the lines of an ellipse. A diagonal streak began at the left end of the ellipse, ran through the center of the T – not overlapping it, however – and ended at the right side of the ellipse. When Tails looked at it, it sent a cold shiver tingling down his spine.
"Do you know what organization it represents?" Sonic breathed, eyes glued to the strange marking.
"Not a clue. I've never even seen this anywhere before…"
"Tails, we're losing altitude. Shoot the generator!"
Snapping out of his awe-stricken state, Tails grabbed the firing stick and pushed the button on the top, holding it down. Long blue plasma bullets rapidly careened out of both of the barrels that were mounted on either side of the plane. Tiny explosions began to form where the bullets hit. Tails continued the assault, keeping his thumb parked on the button. Gradually the explosions became larger until the generator was engulfed in flames and blast. It began to sink down through the air, and the storm started to wear down. Tails let his thumb off the button. Keeping the Tornado steady became easier as the buffeting winds died down. The quivering in the cockpit began to cease. Tails made a 90 degree turn and revved the throttle. The aircraft stopped plummeting and climbed back into the air, soaring away from the neutralized generator.
The clouds turned a brighter color, and the blue lighting faded away. Eventually, rays of sunlight penetrated through the fake clouds and they disappeared entirely. Tails retracted the glass covering that was placed over their heads by pressing the same button that had put it up. A faint kaboom could be heard behind them as the generator collided with the salt water and became no more.
"That was fun," Sonic proclaimed in his usual tone of voice. Tails grunted and kept the airplane in the same direction. Station Square became a dot in the background.
Sonic gave Tails a puzzled expression. "Tails, where are you headed? Shouldn't we head back home and explain this to the girls…before Amy gets worried again?"
Tails didn't want Amy to get worried again. He knew she wouldn't be so lenient on him next time. "Not yet. There's someone I need to see about this insignia."
"Someone…" Sonic realized who he meant, and fell back into the seat. "Oh, God…Tails, we haven't seen him in three years."
"All the more reason to go see him." Tails grinned at him playfully. "If he tries to 'kill' you again, I'll stick up for you, alright?"
"Yeah, okay." Sonic unbuckled himself and leapt onto the nose of the plane again in one swift motion.
\_.|._/
Angel Island had many large grassy expanses, perfect places for Tails to land the Tornado. The plane touched down near the south edge of the floating island, and slowed to a stop in the meadow with the large willow tree – which was now even larger. Sonic hopped off of the front of the plane, and Tails unstrapped himself before jumping out of the side, not bothering with the door. Landing softly, he stood next to Sonic, taking in the details of the environment.
"Not much has changed," Sonic mumbled absentmindedly. "Everything just seems…bigger."
Tails agreed with a slight nod. "We shouldn't waste any time."
He started off at a hard jog, which still sent him hurtling past the objects in the meadow. Sonic trailed behind him with a blank look on his face. The hedgehog didn't like Knuckles the Echidna's grasp on the world and attitude towards others, but knew Knuckles could help them with these sorts of things. Tails knew that Sonic always treated their visits this way – with defeated reluctance.
The red echidna was in the same spot he always was when he was on Angel Island. In the middle of the island there was a large pedestal of sorts, the south side covered with several stairs. Knuckles sat on the top stair, the luminous green Master Emerald laid in the indentation behind him. It was his duty to guard the Master Emerald, the mother of all the Chaos Emeralds; a duty given to him by his ancestors – or, at least, that's what he babbled about. His eyes were shut, so Tails knew that he was either deep in though or angry about something. He suspected the latter.
"I heard you land," came the dark, rough voice of the echidna. His eyes remained hidden by their lids. "You're not welcome to simply barge onto the island without permission."
"Why don't you put up some 'No Trespassing' signs?" Sonic boldly mused.
Knuckles growled behind his teeth. "I want you to leave."
Tails stepped forward. "We can't. We need you for something."
Knuckles seemed troubled. "Was that Tails?" His eyes opened. They were a deep purple and were darkened with a serious and mature air. He proceeded to look the kit over, flabbergasted. "What the heck happened to you?"
"Aging. It tends to happen sometimes…always a bit of a shock when it decides to come around."
The echidna's eyes narrowed. "What do you need me for?"
"Identifying a symbol." Tails took the pad and pencil he grabbed out of the Tornado and began sketching. As he did so, Sonic queried, "Have you ever heard of artificial storms?"
Knuckles stood and crossed his arms. "Yes, I have. Powerful man-made storms that are fueled by some sort of machine. Why?"
"We ran into one, and we saw this on the machine." Tails finished and handed the paper to Knuckles. He examined the paper closely, and scratched his muzzle. "I thought that was a legend…"
"You know the symbol?" Sonic sounded genuinely surprised.
"Theta Black," Knuckles said quietly. A chill ran throughout Tails's entire body as he heard the name of the organization. "I've heard stories. They say it's a rebel group that sides with neither Eggman nor the free nations. They're an independent group of Mobians and – strangely enough – Overlanders."
"Overlanders?" Tails blurted, superstitious. Overlanders generally wanted nothing to do with Mobians – the four-fingered humans hated them as a race. Calming himself, he questioned, "What's their purpose?"
"No one knows for sure. But they despise anyone who is not a recruit in their team, and have been known to kill mercilessly. I didn't know they had the technology to build an artificial storm…in that case, we have to be wary, because they're advancing as a group."
Sonic paced around the stone pedestal. "They sent the storm to Station Square," he said. "Maybe they planned to attack the humans while they were out of balance."
"They're coming." Knuckles looked up from the paper. "Whenever they send an object to an area that contains their insignia, they're coming to that area. Sonic may be right."
"Tails, did you hear that?" Sonic slapped Knuckles on the back. "He just agreed with me!"
"Don't push it," the echidna grumbled.
Tails felt he needed to point out the obvious. "They're mistaken if they think the artificial storm worked. The generator's busted."
"Theta Black is known for spreading fear more than destruction and wealth in their numbers." Knuckles addressed Tails. "If they come, they're going to be causing trouble in Station Square for a while."
\_.|._/
"Why would Theta Black want to cause trouble the last pure human city?" Tails wondered aloud as he piloted the Tornado back to Station Square.
"To expand their 'empire', most likely," Sonic replied from the plane's nose. "Either that, or to eradicate the humans."
"Why would they want to do that? They've been existing peacefully here, not causing any trouble with anyone."
"I don't know. Knucklehead said that they are known for spreading fear, so it could be a way of making a statement to either the free nations or Eggman."
Tails was scared about how much sense the blue blur was making. "I believe you've hit the nail on the head with one of those reasons."
The nineteen-year-old hedgehog shrugged. "Most likely. I'm just throwing out some crap."
As Tails was approaching the beach, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He glanced to the left, and squinted. When he realized what he was looking at, he immediately drew back to the controls. "Sonic, hold on! We're landing on the beach."
"What –" the hedgehog began, but the Tornado made a dive. Tails straightened the plane about ten feet off of the ground and let it glide down on the sands of the empty beach – at least, almost empty. Tails quickly leapt out of the cockpit and broke into a run upon landing.
"Tails, what the heck is going on?" Sonic ran after Tails, but found the fox to have stopped after several meters and screeched to a halt next to him. The blue blur looked down and realized why Tails had landed on the beach.
Laying unconscious in front of them was a pale blue female fox.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commence fan characters. Oh noes.
Oh, and by the way, the reason why Sonic's 19 while Tails is 14 is because of their ages in the Archies - they're only 5 years apart in them (biologically 4, because of Sonic's time spent in space).