The ground shook. Sally looked to the horizon, in the direction of the Ring. Behind Sally, Nicole droned out her readings. She sounded bored.

"The Death Egg has finally fired. Estimated approximately fifteen-hundred dead. The Ring is going to be impossible to use for a long while." Sally turned to face Nicole's hologram when her voice started carrying concern. "Chaos radiation is off the charts. The blast is equal to the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds… but he couldn't possibly have all of them."

Sally nodded. "Because we have one. What then?"

"Ruling out all other possibilities, Sally. Sol Emeralds would radiate more heat. Anarchy Beryl exists in the quantities required, but does not emit Chaos radiation. Analysis suggests a Super Emerald."

Sally sighed. "Great. I wish we had Sonic with us…"

"Sally. Incoming transmission from Knothole. It's your father."

"Wonderful."

Nicole projected an image of Sally's father. She expected concern, maybe annoyance. All she saw on his face was determination. He smiled a little when he saw her.

"I am relieved to see that you are well, dear daughter."

"Yeah, me too. Are you going to ask me to come home, cause I can't do that. We have an emergency here, and the Freedom Fighters need to lend a hand."

Sally's father held up a placating hand. "Calm down, Sally. I only called to let you know that I'm coming with you. Geoffrey St. John will be accompanying me."

"Marvellous."

"We'll be meeting Robotnik in battle, our fleet to his. I want you and the Freedom Fighters on the flagship." He paused, noticing Sally seemed lost for words. "We do have a fleet of airships. Not quite as big as his Egg Carriers, but not run by his bumbling Egg Pawns either. We stand a fair chance against his armada, otherwise I wouldn't be ordering all ships to launch."

Sally shook her head. "We need Sonic. You need to let us find him."

"Sally…"

"He's the only one capable of taking out something like the Death Egg. We need him."

"Alright, send half your team after him. But I want you with me on the flagship."

Sally smiled. She shrugged. "Alright. Nicole will give you our coordinates. You can come pick us up. We'll be waiting."

"It could be four to six hours, so get comfortable. And be careful."

"I will, Daddy."

Nicole cut the transmission after sending their coordinates to the other end of the line. She looked to Sally. "Who are you sending after Sonic?"

Sally glanced at the rest of the team. They were camped on the edge of a canyon a few miles from Freedom HQ. They could see the Death Egg clearly, along with the carnage on the ground below it.

Sally walked over to them and sat down. "My father's gonna be here with a fleet in about five hours. Rotor and Antoine are coming with me and Nicole. We're gonna be on the flagship with him. Bunnie, Amy, and Mina, I want you three to go find Sonic. He's probably right down there near the Death Egg, so he shouldn't be hard to find. Use the Gears we dug out of Freedom HQ. If, at any point, you think you can cause some damage to Eggman's fleet without putting yourselves in danger, then do it. Under no circumstances do I want you doing anything foolish. Bunnie, I expect you to make sure Mina and Amy stay safe. Understood?"

All those present nodded in agreement, save Antoine. He seemed concerned for Bunnie's safety, but said nothing. The rest of them prepared for the wait, rolling out their sleeping pads in order to get a quick nap.

Sally leaned forward. "Excuse me?"

Bunnie, who was already lounging, looked at the princess, her friend, surprised. "What?"

Sally laughed indignantly. "Go!"

Amy was the only one who hadn't decided to try and take a rest first. She stood, leaning on her hammer, glaring at Mina and Bunnie. "Move it! We need to find Sonic!"

Bunnie flailed haphazardly, though quite likely she was playing it up, and rolled to her feet while dropping an expletive no one present had ever used before. "Which Gear do Ah get?"

Amy grabbed one from the small stack. "The pink one's mine. You can have the yellow one. Mina, you get the red one."

Mina stopped and glared at the red Gear Amy was handing her. "There is a purple one, y'know? I'd look better with that."

"Exactly, take the red one. We wouldn't want Sonic thinking you're cute before he sees me."

"You're a b-"

"What?!"

"Beautiful young lady…"

"I thought so." Amy ran off. Bunnie grinned at Mina and shrugged before running after her. Mina followed at a slower pace, mumbling silent threats of non-silent threats.

Sally watched them go, wondering where Bunnie had heard that word, what it meant, and if she should pick it up. She was brought back to focus by Nicole… sort of.

"Sally, what does "fuck" mean?"

Antoine answered. "It is a 'uman term. A vile one at zat. I will be saying no more about it. T'sough I am wondering where Bunnie got it from."

Nicole blushed. "I… may have… downloaded some mature rated videos from some human networks…" She shrugged and smiled innocently, clasping her hands in front of her.

Rotor spoke without thinking, not something he was known for. "Any good ones?" He looked up and noticed Sally's stare of shock. He raised his hands in defence. "Hey, I mean… comparatively."

Nicole shifted her hands behind her back, her eyes looking everywhere except Sally. "Well, only a few of them were rated X… most were R or 18A. There were a few unrated ones." She went silent as she screened them in her CPU. It took a fraction of the time and no one talked during the exciting parts. She stopped halfway through, looking thoroughly horrified.

Sally looked up at Nicole, noting the face. "That bad, eh?"

"I'm fairly certain most of those actions are detrimental to propagation…"

"Delete all those files. Right now."

Nicole glanced down at Sally. "Are you sure? Some of them are listed as educational."

"Like what?"

"Kama Sutra?"

Sally slapped her hand across her face, grimacing. "Yes, all of them."

Nicole sighed. "Well, okay. But don't you think that would be a good word to use? I think it flows."

"Sacre bleu… don't." Antoine covered his ears, dreading what was to come.

"Why? Why not? I'm a living, thinking, breathing, Freedom Fighter, minus the breathing, I can say whatever I want to." She punctuated the sentence by saying the word again.

Sally could tell Nicole was playing with them, but it needed to stop. "Nicole, how old are you? Really?"

"What?"

"How old are you?"

"Uh… well, you mean physically? Accounting for time travel?" Sally nodded. Nicole fidgeted. "Well, uh… technically… fourteen… I guess."

"And what are those movies rated?" Sally grinned up at Nicole in triumph.

Nicole slumped in defeat. "But I'm… 18A?"

Sally nodded again, driving her point home. "The language is part of the reason for that. Now please, everyone get some rest. Nicole, you have first and second watch. We won't be here longer than that."

Rotor and Antoine flopped onto their sleeping pads almost immediately. Sally had one more quick look around the campsite before she curled up on her own sleeping pad. It was a minute or two later when Sally suddenly jerked awake. Something cold had hit her. She checked herself, making sure no assassination had occurred and she just hadn't felt the pain yet. Once she determined only friends were present, she tried to go back to sleep. It was a difficult task. Something felt off, like someone was going to die. She was naturally worried about Bunnie, Mina, and Amy, but this felt more directed toward her. It felt like she was going to die. She shuddered silently, realizing that the cold stabbing feeling was centred on her heart. Was it a premonition?

Fiona knocked on the Spectre's main hatch. It had taken her an annoyingly long time to find the ship, but once she saw it there was no mistaking it. She had found Tails. Now she just needed to find out what he was going to do about the Death Egg. She was startled by a voice from behind her.

"Good job. You led me straight to him. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the both of you."

Fiona's heartbeat sped up rapidly, her breathing became erratic and panicky. She couldn't believe it was him. Tails had killed him, she was sure. Footsteps traced a path up the ramp. He was right behind her.

"I know, you're probably surprised. I mean, who would have guessed I'd come after you, right?"

Fiona managed to rationalize it. The situation still wasn't favourable, but at least she wasn't dealing with a zombie. It was Sonic, thankfully not Scourge. She took a deep breath. "Look. I don't want to fight you. Neither does Tails. Right now, we need to focus on Eggman. Saving lives is the first objective here, right?" She turned around, still not sure how to face Sonic. Her heart skipped a beat, a few actually, when she realized the eyes she was staring into were blue.

"Wrong."