Day 14 – 13:37 – Station Square – Downtown Area
THE city bustled and buzzed with its usual noises. Though, most of the citizenry were of a subdued mindset as they went about their daily activities. Dr. Eggman had not been seen for two weeks, yet the recent criminal activities that rippled in the news were enough to raise suspicions of his presence, in one form or other. The fact that Sonic the Hedgehog had been central to these phenomena reinforced this. The average Station Square resident knew anything that involved Sonic usually brought Eggman as a consequence and vice-versa. Some "socially conscious" citizens debated the merit of a super-fast anthropomorphic hedgehog and his crew of super-powered, super-intelligent, and other such "unique" friends and their destructive conflicts with a mad technocrat. The logic was that the hedgehog led to the Eggman, therefore the city might be better off without the former. However, the general consensus of the silent majority was that the latter caused the former to react in the name of justice, like any policeman or soldier that tried to defend the city – or even a citizen defending hearth and home, for that matter. So, the grumblings of a few were just that.
Sonic, Tails, and Amy did not have the bickering of others in mind, as they sat at a street-side café. They had finished a lunch and were in deep discussion about the goings-on of the past week.
Amy daintily sipped from a steamy tea-cup then turned to Tails, "So, you think that Eggman might have hired more goons to come after us?"
Tails responded as he reached for his glass of milk, "Uh-huh. It never fails: Eggman always has more tricks up his sleeve. We all know that. The thing is that there's no telling how many he's hired. It may have been three or thirty." He drank deeply of the milk as he finished the statement.
"So? What, we're supposed to be on alert all the time or something?"
Tails chuckled as he wiped the thin trail of milk from his upper lip, "Well, it's not like we're not always concerned about when Eggman's going to strike again. It's just that we have to be a little more careful. After all, Captain Cold set up a jewelry store robbery just to attract Sonic. Trickster ambushed us in broad daylight at a public park. Then, this Mirror Master guy actually attacks you in a dressing room and trapped Sonic in a mirror. Like I said: careful."
Amy frowned a little, "What does 'careful' mean? That we'll have to use disguises? Or go into hiding?" After a moment of reflection, she smiled a little then turned to Sonic who sat across from her, "Of course, being cooped up in a safe house, together, wouldn't be too bad."
Sonic, who had been silent up until then cleared his throat a little, then took his glass of water and gulped it down speedily. Finally, he said, "I don't think that'll be necessary. You know Eggman, once he gets his mind on something, he doesn't like to let up until he gets what he wants." He laughed a little with a wink to both his friends, "Or, we send him packing."
Tails and Amy responded with smiles to their leader's confidence, the same determination and savoir-faire that saw them through all their troubles, both when with him or without him in times of trouble. Their trust in each other was what made them friends and what helped them to battle Eggman.
Day 14 – 13:47 – Station Square – Nearby Rooftop
EGGMAN grunted at his enemies' disparaging conversation. As he sat in his Eggmobile, the Doctor wore his goggles down over his eyes, which gave him a telescopic view of Sonic and company at the café. His hovercraft's built in supersonic ear provided him the benefit of eavesdropping, as well. Next to him were his hired helpers.
Mirror Master held a compact mirror that granted him a ringside seat next to Sonic and his friends, via the reflective surface of the café's main window. With a snicker, he commented, "Well, Doctor, it seems that the hedgehog's got you figured out."
Trickster, with his magnifier-kaleidoscope agreed in the form of low giggles.
Captain Cold, who used traditional binoculars to spy on their collective targets, lowered his viewing device and smirked to Eggman, "You know: if that were me, I wouldn't take that kind of talk lying down."
Eggman harrumphed, "Well, it's a good thing that I'm not you, because I'm not even going to take it standing. If anything," he sneered as he pulled back his goggles, "I'm going to make sure that it's Sonic that lies down. Permanently," Eggman turned to the Rogues, "Are you three ready?"
The trio faced Eggman and nodded. Eggman smiled at them, then turned and sneered at his foes, "Let's begin."
Day 14 – 13:58 – Station Square – Street Level
TAILS had just finished an interesting joke that had Sonic and Amy in a good laugh along with their twin-tailed companion. It was a good day.
CRASH!!
The small metal cafe table was crunched underneath an icicle that split it in two and sent the teacup and milk and water glasses into the air, with their contents tossed into the wind. The heroic hedgehogs and fox were forced to scramble out of their seats. It was a good day.
"Look out!" a waiter shouted as a lethal hailstorm plummeted into the café and its adjacent section of sidewalk. Men, women, and children scrambled for cover or simply fled as their afternoons were also ruined. Fortunately, none of them were targets, as the aimed projectiles were meant to scatter everyone who was not in the planned fight.
Amidst the screams of the civilians that cleared out, Sonic called out to Tails, "Where are those things coming from?"
Tails had already gone airborne to survey the situation above the heads of the humans that dwarfed him, "Up there, on top of that building!"
"Thanks, Tails," Sonic returned as he leaped up from his hiding place behind a small concrete flowerbed that separated the sidewalk proper from the café's open air dining area. Once up on his feet, Sonic raced toward the building full-tilt, with a plan to deal with Captain Cold – it was too obvious for it not to be him. Sonic reached the building's base in seconds then dashed straight up its vertical face; a little thing like gravity would have to be ignored. That was when he was confounded to see Trickster literally drop out of the sky. He did not know what shocked him more: to see Trickster, or to see Trickster free-fall toward him, atop a pogo-stick. The momentary surprise was enough for Trickster's pogo stick to collide with Sonic's chest and sent the sprinter-hedgehog back to the street in a tumble. Never one to give up Sonic used his redirected momentum to touch off from the building and began to run back down it. He saw Trickster had already reached the street and made his way toward Tails and Amy. The icicles had stopped, so it seemed like Trickster was the greater threat at the moment.
"Well, well," Trickster declared as his pogo-stick landed a few feet from Tails, whereupon he dismounted with a broad grin. "If it isn't my little assistant, again; up for another performance?"
"No way," Tails spat from overhead.
While still airborne Tails cocked back a fist and zoomed downwards at the caped villain. Trickster saw this and easily sidestepped the attack as Tails came toward him and swung for a punch. Trickster dodged Tails and let him swipe at his cape, which Trickster pulled with the flourish of a matador. "Ole!" Tails pulled out of his dive and turned to either attack or defend, once he saw what the situation called for. What he saw was Trickster and his pogo-stick, which he shouldered like a rifle. With a wild grin, the renegade circus performer pulled a hidden trigger that caused the bottom of the pogo-stick to explode in a muzzle-flash and sent a bolos-rope in Tails's direction. Unlike Trickster, Tails did not have the benefit of a beforehand notice, which meant that the bolos caught him perfectly. Fortunately for Tails, the bolos only ensnared his upper torso and arms. Tails's rotor-blade appendages were unimpeded by the restraints. In order to escape his predicament Tails fought back the only way he could: aero-maneuvering.
"Ha-ha! Now this is what I call fly-fishing," Trickster laughed as he wrestled with his pogo-fishing-rod.
Tails struggled and grunted against the cable's tension, with Trickster's weight and leverage and his self-propulsion evenly matched. It was true that he could lift Sonic, but that was when Sonic wanted to be carried, not to mention Sonic was half the weight of an average human. Tails was painfully reminded of these facts as he struggled against this un-average man.
SNAP!
Trickster flew backwards with a "Whoa!" when his cable was split in twain by a blue streak. Tails, likewise, was propelled further into the air when the cable was cut. Fortunately for the latter, the slack in the cable allowed the bolos enough freedom of movement so that the fox-boy could shrug them off. Both looked to see Sonic, as he slid like a baseball-player along the ground, and both realized that he was about ready to come back for another shot at Trickster. Or at least, he would have been.
A laser shot blackened the ground a few inches in front of Sonic's face, in his slider position. The shot came from Mirror Master's pistol, as he leaned out of the darkened café window. He completely revealed himself with a determined grin on his face and his blaster aimed at Sonic. "Now," he said, "where were we?"
Sonic smirked, "I think I remember." Trickster and Tails were left to their own devices as Sonic looked to take care of Mirror Master.
Trickster smiled at Tails for a moment, when, suddenly, a pair of rapid-paced feet got his attention. He heard the sound of someone as they ran up behind him, though Trickster knew that the clip-clop sound did not match Sonic's frenetic pitter-pattern. True enough, what he saw was a smaller, pinker, more female hedgehog.
…With a very large hammer.
Amy shouted as she approached her target, "I'll teach you to mess with us!" Suddenly, Trickster's priorities changed.
Tails was unsure of how to react to this situation. That was why he did not launch an aerial attack on Trickster, while Amy had his full attention. Once he got over his initial stupefaction, he began to do just that until a pillar of ice grew up in front of him. He looked up to where the blast of ice came from and saw the Rogue Sonic called "Captain Cold" as he rode down on Eggman's Eggmobile; he held to the side of the craft with one hand, while he lined up another shot with his cold gun in the other.
"Not so fast, kid," Cold declared, "Trickster's already got a dance partner. How's about we do a little tango?"
"Fine by me," Tails defiantly responded and flew to attack Cold as Eggman steered his craft toward the fox.
What ensued was an intense game of "chicken" that saw Tails and Eggman on a collision course, while Cold fired off shots from his cold gun – all of which Tails managed to dodge expertly. At the last minute, before they could collide, Cold dropped off from Eggman's craft, since they had reached a safe enough altitude. Since Cold was the one he had went after, Tails had already been off-center to Eggman's hovercraft, so it was easy for him to completely veer off from Eggman, while Eggman did likewise vis-à-vis Tails.
Cold had, meanwhile, landed on the ground with a small tuck and roll along the surface. He then fired off another shot from his cold gun, while he reached for the other with his free hand. Within the space it took for his reflexes to act, Cold soon dual-wielded both cold guns at Tails who glanced over his shoulder a second too late and received a blast to his rotary appendages. It was a glancing blow, but just enough to freeze the base of his tails and backside together. He lost altitude, but maintained enough lift to land safely on a sidewalk, away from Cold and his guns. Though, he was very alert for his opponent's actions as the cold and chill literally rolled up his spine from the layer of ice on his bottom. For safety, he ducked behind a parked car. Cold, who did not want a repeat of the events in the jewelry store decided to pour on his ranged attacks, thick and fast. He began to fire off icicles again, with quick-draw-gunslinger rhythms. The frozen bullets pelted the car and began to reduce it to frozen Swiss cheese as the windows were shot out right away, the passenger side door became an icy pin-cushion and the passenger side tires were blown out. For Tails, on the driver side of the car, it was a monstrous cacophony.
Amy, for her part, had better luck with Trickster. While he used a variety of absurd tactics and, of course, tricks, she managed to dodge and even parry a few attacks with her hammer. He tried razor sharp jacks, an acid-spewing seltzer-bottle and an exploding whoopee cushion. Amy even had to dodge a yo-yo with spring-loaded razor blades. This was harder to do. The jacks simply whizzed by her, without a second thought. But, in the case of the booby-trapped yo-yo, when this weapon recoiled on its tether, it would come with equally lethal force back at her from behind. Occasionally, she tried to deflect the weapon with her hammer by way of a "bunt" maneuver. Unfortunately, the blades would retract and the tether would return the device to Trickster's hand. Finally, she resolved to disarm Trickster of this persistently offensive device. When Trickster made another attempt to "walk the dog" across Amy's face, she let the projectile pass by unimpeded. But, when Trickster tried to recall the device once again, Amy threw up the handle of her hammer in its path. True to form, even with the blades fully extended, the yo-yo snagged onto the hammer handle, just below the head, and wrapped its cord around the handle until it was effectively tied. It was then that Amy used both hands to pull the hammer as hard as she could to either rip the device from Trickster's hand or fling him to the ground.
Trickster, for his part, realized that he was in a literal bind. But, rather than despair, he matched the determined look that came onto Amy's face with a sly grin. He activated his anti-gravity acrobat's shoes and used their propulsion to combat Amy's impressive, though not surprising, strength.
Amy was far from ready to surrender the "tug of wills." Amy's desire to win manifested itself physically in her hammer's handle when it elongated further and reached down to the ground. Once she had something to lean the hammer against, Amy wrapped her hands around the upper part of the handle, just below the dangerous yo-yo blades, and threw her weight, muscle, and knowledge of leverage into a triple-effort against Trickster. With a strained smile back at Trickster, she realized that, ever so slightly, the situation was turned to her advantage. Trickster saw this, as well.
"Fine," he grunted with a frown, "you want it? You can have it!"
Amy squealed in shock as Trickster simply released the yo-yo and all of her labors came back upon her. With all of her momentum, weight, and muscle set in one direction, there was little she could do to prevent the rest of her from following. She crumpled in a heap with her hammer next to her and an annoyed look on her face. The situation was embarrassment incarnate. When Trickster laughed heartily at Amy's fumble, the girl scrambled back to her feet, with her shortened hammer and refreshed vigor. Trickster's laughter stopped and his efforts to dodge Amy began.
Sonic zoomed toward Mirror Master and dodged his laser blasts until finally he got close enough to do something he had wanted to do to a Rogue from the first day he learned what they were: delivered a strong punch right to the chin. Mirror Master flew backwards from the solid blow and landed on his back, addled from the experience. Sonic stood over him with a smirk. It was then that Sonic noticed Eggman, who had remained uninvolved in the whole affair.
"Come on, Eggman," Sonic jeered, "doomsday machines, killer robots, and copycat hedgehogs aren't good enough to beat me and my friends. What made you think these guys would be enough?"
An intense energy pulse jarred Sonic off his feet with a direct blow to his side. The hedgehog tumbled to the ground and glanced over his shoulder at Mirror Master. Fortunately for Sonic, it had been a stun-blast and not a lethal shot. Still, it did not help that his right arm had gone numb.
The mirror-themed villain rubbed his chin and spat at Sonic, "You call that a punch? Flash hits a lot harder."
"You were saying, Sonic?" Eggman ribbed his foe.
Sonic did not respond, instead he hopped up into a sprinter's position and took off on a hot run; away from Mirror Master. At this, the human laughed, "Ha! Look at that! Sonic's already thrown in the towel." Mirror Master then turned to take aim at Amy, who had Trickster on a literal run. The clownish fellow had taken to the top of a car for refuge, but Amy had none of it and had set about the systematic destruction and flattening of the car, to reach Trickster who tried to defend himself with the occasional dirty trick, only to have an enraged Amy duck and dodge it. Amy did not see Mirror Master as he lined up his shot, "Too bad for her."
WHAM!
Sonic tackled Mirror Master from behind and brought the man down face first into the sidewalk. When his laser pistol flew from his grasp, Mirror Master tried to reach for it. But, this only exposed his arm to Sonic's grasp as he grabbed the former's arm and pinned it behind his back. With a grunt and snarl, Mirror Master attempted to free himself.
Sonic leaned down to where Mirror Master could see his face and smiled, "Sorry about that punch earlier. See, I was holding back. Normally, I smash through robotic armor and weaponry; didn't want to hurt you too badly, after all." He then winked, which caused Mirror Master to grunt and snarl and struggle even more.
At that moment, Amy had finished the demolition of the car that Trickster had used as "high ground." "Had enough?" she demanded of the festive felon as he retreated with fear on his face.
Trickster dropped to one knee and threw up his hands, "Yes! Yes, I surrender, O Mistress of the Mallet!"
Amy smiled, her hammer slung over her shoulder, "Smart move."
"Why, it'd take a fool not to see what kind of incredible warrior you are," Trickster declared with a grateful smile on his face. "Cute, too, young lady," he added with a wink.
Amy beamed and turned to Sonic, "See? He appreciates me, Sonic! And he's one of the bad guys." Sonic merely rolled his eyes.
"Bad guy?" Trickster asked with hurt in his voice. "Why, Miss Rose, I can show you I'm just as good as the next person." With that, Trickster reached into his cape and pulled out a small item, then turned back to Amy, "Here," he said with a toss.
Amy caught the item with her open hand and looked quizzically into her newly occupied palm. When she turned it around, she saw that it was a very handsome Sonic the Hedgehog stuffed plush doll. Amy's features melted out of affection. "Aw…" she mumbled dreamily. She spun around and held the doll up so that Sonic could see it, "Look Sonic: it's you! Isn't it cute?"
Sonic's rapid-fire memory surged forward and Sonic's features went from mild annoyance to extreme concern, "Amy! No!"
The doll "beep-beeped" in rapid succession, Amy's smile was replaced with confusion and suddenly the doll burst into a bright light and fierce explosion. Amy was propelled backwards by the blast and knocked to the ground. The charge used in Trickster's latest explosive decoy had been more powerful than the one used against Sonic, since the results had been less than effective. So, when Amy hit the ground, she did not clutch at her head or writhe in agony whatsoever. But, it was still far from lethal. Instead, Amy dropped her hammer and passed out; the hammer disappeared with Amy's consciousness. Trickster smirked at his handiwork.
Sonic panicked, "Amy!"
That was all the room that Mirror Master needed. With his arm freed up a little, he swung his elbow up into Sonic's jaw and sent the blue fighter off his back. At that same moment, Trickster dashed over to Amy and scooped her up. Mirror Master had rearmed himself, as well. Sonic looked up from a sitting position, as he rubbed his sore face and saw that he had a predicament on his hands, in spades.
The car had splintered and twisted into horrendous shapes by this point. Tails covered his ears as he tried to think straight amongst the screeches and other noises that the car made like death moans. Captain Cold's ice attack rendered this increasingly difficult. Tails hated when the pressure was on. He had been around Sonic enough to know that there was a time for thinking and a time for acting. At that moment, he needed action more than anything. But, his more analytical side had yet to formulate a plan. It was because of this that he had occasionally locked up in a fight. He needed more time. He needed something, anything. An icicle pierced the driver side door just over his shoulder, which caused Tails to shout in panic. He needed something and he needed it quickly.
Captain Cold thoroughly enjoyed his little shooting gallery. The car that Tails hid behind was the only one on that side of the street and it was simply a matter of time until the icicles he used would turn it into an indefensible scrap heap. He figured it might last another minute. To some extent, he wished that his flame-throwing fellow Rogue Heat Wave were on hand, that way he could have pierced the gas tank and something "faster" could have been accomplished from there. Still, the windows were completely shattered, the tires all exploded, the passenger side doors were caved in and filled with holes that would soon be big enough for further shots to demolish the driver side doors. It would not be long…
Suddenly, on his right, Cold caught sight of a hubcap that whistled over the car and a small orange-yellow head as it ducked back behind the automobile. He smirked and pointed his guns at the hubcap as it lazily veered toward him, "Nice try, kid, but it'll take more than that." A full-blast shot hit the hubcap, sent it back toward the other side of the street and encased it an ice-block that soon slammed it into and cemented itself to the wall of a building behind the parked, damaged, car. Then, there came another hubcap. Cold almost felt like laughing, but instead hopped up on his feet and leveled both barrels of his guns on the flying saucer. Just before it came close to him, he sent it away inside an ice block identical to the one that he made earlier. Pleased with his spot-on shooting skills, Cold turned his attention back to the car, once again. However, this time, he was nearly flabbergasted by what he saw next. Tails ran across the street, out in the open, completely defenseless; he was simply in the middle of a sprint and headed straight for Cold. The hardened felon could not believe such a rookie maneuver: a frontal-assault against an opponent armed with long-distance weapons. Cold's hands dropped to his side, in amusement. But, with Tails still some distance away, he quickly raised up one arm, sighted the fox – who did not seem to offer a change in course or the least bit of a flinch – and simply said, "Stupid, kid."
KA-BOOM!
Everyone in its vicinity had their attention turned to the car as it exploded in a fireball and quickly became a smoldering wreck. Except, of course, for Tails; he knew the car would explode. It was he, after all, who used the hubcap distraction as a window of opportunity to tear a long strip of upholstery from the car's interior. It was he who had activated the car's lighter so as to ignite the strip, after he placed one end inside the gas tank and left the other end to dangle out as a "fuse." It was a long shot, but it worked. It worked so well and Tails was so proud of himself that he almost wanted to offer Cold an explanation for how he pulled it off. Instead, he offered Cold his two feet as he jumped into a high-flying kick and planted both feet in the man's sternum. The sheer audacity of all this had proven that Tails had spent quite a bit of time around Sonic, thankfully.
Cold reeled back on his feet, lost his balance and fell flat on his back, momentarily stunned. Both of the lead Rogue's cold guns flew from his grasp as he impacted with the asphalt. One dropped to his side, while the other bounced a couple feet away. After he reoriented himself, Cold reached for his closest gun, only to see Tails's small foot stamp down on his wrist and the object of his attempts scooped up into the boy's hands. Though the youth clumsily clasped the weapon in both his hands, since his pre-adolescent's hands had to make up for an adult's one, Tails wielded the weapon effectively and pointed it directly at Cold. The humor of the pun escaped both fox and human when the former shouted, "Freeze!"
Cold's face shifted into a slight, bewildered smile, "Now, that. That was pretty impressive, kid." Tails kept the gun focused on Cold, but returned with a more vigorous – albeit winded – smile.
"Yeah, yeah," Trickster's snide voice called over, nearer to the café. "But, I do believe the little action hero forgot one thing." Tails glanced at Trickster, while his foot stayed on Cold's wrist and the cold gun was aimed back at its original owner. He did not like what he saw: Trickster, with Amy hugged up to his body in one arm… and a rubber chicken in his free hand. Trickster then resumed his commentary, in a simple, matter-of-fact, dead-pan fashion, "I've got a hostage."
Tails was flummoxed one moment then horrified the next when Trickster squeezed the rubber chicken's neck and a large switch-blade popped up out of its mouth. Still, he set his jaw in a determined scowl and countered, "Okay. You've got Amy. I've got Cold. Want to trade?" Tails glanced back at his bargaining chip for a split-second. Cold at least gave the impression that he was not about to make a move, himself. There was no tension in the muscles of the arm that Tails still had pinned beneath his sneaker.
"Trade?" Trickster retorted, "By the look of it, I've got two to your one." With a toss of his head over his shoulder he motioned toward Mirror Master and Sonic. Sonic was still in a sitting position, with Mirror Master over him, his laser pistols in hand.
"Give it up, kid," Cold offered his advice, "the exploding car aside, you've been beat by superior strategy this time."
Tails's shoulders slumped, in saddened defeat.
Cold spoke up as he carefully raised his free hand up, "Sorry, kid, that's just how this all played out. You put up a great fight. Now, I'll take that back, if you don't mind."
With a sigh, Tails quietly passed the cold gun back to the Captain. He then stepped aside and let the man get to his feet. Cold, on his feet, pointed the gun at Tails and marched him forward, his hands interlocked behind his head.
"Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!" Eggman clapped his hands in delight as his Eggmobile lazily drifted toward the scene, "Excellent. Excellent! You've done a wonderful job, gentlemen. Now, if you'll just gather them all up, I'll deal with them, myself, and then you can-"
Eggman's statement was left unfinished when Tails, as he passed Trickster, kicked Captain Cold in the shin with the heel of his shoe. As Cold yelped and stumbled back in surprised pain, Tails then shoulder-butted Trickster in the hip and caused the unsuspecting Rouge to fumble his rubber chicken knife, though he tightly gripped Amy. With an incredibly small opening made in the disastrous situation, Tails pulled at an object tucked away in the wrist of his glove. Before anyone could react to stop him, the fox pulled back his arm and threw the object with a basic baseball pitch. Just before Cold could restrain him from behind, Tails cried out, "Sonic! Catch!"
Eggman saw it as it soared through the air. It was a small, golden object that glinted in the afternoon sun. It was like a discus, which helped it glide through the air, but minus a center. It was a ring. But, not just any simple band, it was, "A power ring!! Get it, you fools! Don't let Sonic touch it!"
By default, Captain Cold and Trickster were already outside the ring's path and unable to intercept it. This left Mirror Master as the only person between Sonic and the ring. Mirror Master, who kept his eyes on Sonic only chanced a fleeting look over his shoulder to see what all the consternation was about. It was an unfortunate position that the universe had conspired against him in order to set up his immediate downfall. He knew he shouldn't have looked simply because he knew that one should never take their eyes off of a speedster – regardless of their age, species, sex, etc. However, he also knew that not to see what was going wrong would have been just as disastrous. It was, indeed, a no-win situation; at least for him.
For Sonic, everything, if he managed to capitalize on the turn of events, was set for a resounding victory. First, there was Mirror Master. Rather than engage him, Sonic deftly grabbed at his belt while his head was turned and pulled himself up the man's body, using every possible foothold to propel himself up and over the taller mammal who lost equilibrium and fell on his side. Once in air, Sonic made a grab for the ring.
"Stop him! Stop him!!" Eggman shrieked.
Captain Cold, not to be one to let a prisoner get in his way, violently shoved Tails out of the line of fire – there was no time for gentility – and aimed at Sonic. He squeezed the trigger and let fly with his trademark intense cold and ice. Sonic was inches from the ring when he saw the white beam thrust upwards at him. With determination in his every fiber, Sonic stretched his arm even further and shouted with a roar of defiance. A moment later, the cold beam struck the hedgehog and spread a thick crust of frost across his entire body. With a thud, the rigid body struck the ground, Sonic's mid-air pose locked into place.
Cold grinned wickedly, "Got him."
Suddenly, the ice-statue's right hand crackled and hissed as steam wafted into the air; a bright yellow light could be seen emanating from it.
"You idiot!" the Eggman bellowed, "You got him too late!!"
A power ring is everything that its name implies. Though they sometimes occur in nature, often they are man-made objects. Or, rather, fox-made, since Tails had become quite the ring-smith in his years of knowing Sonic. They were wonderful items, actually, that left little pollution, which led to Tails using them in almost all of his major vehicles, including his Tornado-class biplanes, and various weapons systems. However, the most fascinating item of interest was the fact that a power ring could be used not by mechanical devices alone, but by certain biological organisms as well. Tails had never made such use of a power ring, nor had many of the people that he and Sonic knew. Hedgehogs, by and large were the most compatible ring users, at least that was Tails's theory. Amy may actually carry two power rings on her person at all times: her bracelets. But, Tails was never sure and he never bothered to ask or scan Amy; largely because it went against his personal code to take anything without permission, including energy signatures and readings. Shadow, another hedgehog, never really used them ever, nor was Tails as close to him as he was to Sonic. So, even though Tails could make rings, he could never fully grasp their properties, beyond basic mechanics. Yet, this was a good thing, since he was able to use this basic mechanical knowledge to create power rings that specifically reacted with Sonic's personal life-force energy signature or "aura" as he dubbed it. That aura and the ring that Tails had tossed moments before were, at that moment reacting and quickly overcoming Captain Cold's ice barrier.
In moments, the encapsulating ice was shattered by the explosion of intermingled energies within Sonic and the power ring. Sonic emerged from the blast of ice and light and somersaulted backwards onto his feet. Faint whispers of electricity bounced between the spikes on his back and between his ears. When Sonic's eyes tightened with righteous fury, they offered the intimidating appearance of lightning that played across their corners. Sonic smirked at Cold and Trickster, who were now side by side, with Amy still clutched up in Trickster's arms.
"Aw jeez," Trickster sighed with annoyance adding a bizarre flavor to his despondent tone, "now don't that look familiar?"
Cold remained silent and quickly fired off another shot from his only cold gun. It was futile as Sonic side-stepped it and launched himself with even more breath-taking speed than he previously demonstrated earlier directly at Cold. He made a valiant effort to fire again, but before he knew what was coming off, he found his cold gun knocked out of his hand and a small, but powerful fist had come into contact with the underside of his chin. Cold was fortunate that Sonic, whose power ring-boosted punch could have completely dislodge the head of any Eggman robot, was the type to take living beings prisoner. So, instead, he was merely rendered unconscious.
Trickster turned to face Sonic and blurted out, "Hey-" but that was as far as he got. With a high-flying spin kick Sonic clipped the side of his head and sent him reeling. The blow only glanced off Trickster and left him stunned, but awake. Amy fell out of his arms as he went backwards onto the pavement, but she never touched the ground as lightning quick reflexes allowed Sonic to grab her, scoop up Tails from off the street, and bolt around a nearby street corner to drop them both off and rocket back to the battlefield.
Mirror Master had a few moments to prepare and he made the effort to launch a couple handfuls of mirrors in Sonic's path, but it was not successful in the least as Sonic was up and over each and every one with a mighty leap. Time seemed to freeze as Mirror Master took advantage of Sonic's mid-air position and reached for his laser pistol again – as long as Sonic was off the ground, he would lose momentum until gravity caught up with him. Mirror Master pulled the trigger and a bolt shot straight for Sonic. Sonic flashed another quick smirk as he silently doubled over and curled into a ball, while his forward momentum began to build up as he approached his target. Sonic concentrated the ring's borrowed energies into a temporary force-field that deflected Mirror Master's shot. Mirror Master even managed to squeeze out two more impotent shots that were soon deflected and Sonic hurtled into him with a high-speed homing attack. Again, had Sonic not "pulled his punch," Mirror Master would have left the mortal plane. To some extent he wished he had, since the impact hit his exposed torso and knocked all the wind out of him and left him gasping and coughing for air to refill his emptied respiratory system. The third Rouge was just as addled and incapacitated as the first two.
Eggman snarled at the situation and hurled vehemence at his long-time opponent, "Curse you, Sonic!" With a growl of frustration, he quickly flipped switches and pressed buttons on his Eggmobile console, "Useless thugs! I guess I'll have to finish this, myself!"
"Are you sure about that?" Sonic quipped, "Shouldn't you just quit while you're ahead?"
Eggman simply growled as missile pods and twin laser cannons emerged from the Eggmobile's hull. A small monitor showed Sonic with a large targeting scope locked onto him, which then beeped when all systems had been focused in Sonic's direction. With a mean-spirited smile, he squeezed the twin triggers on the control stick. A barrage of death was hurled in Sonic's direction.
The seemingly reckless teen smiled broadly and chuckled as he quickly side-stepped the long train of laser blasts that slammed into the spot he formerly occupied. He then leaped into the air and landed on the nearest place to plant his feet: one of Eggman's miniature missiles. The force of his landing destabilized the rocket's servos and sent it into the ground below. Sonic's belief that he could deflect the missiles away from the Rogues was well founded as the first demonstration proved successful. Then, one by one, with his increased speed he hop-scotched his way up stream of rockets; literally. Sonic hit one missile, with his left foot, another with his right, another with both and repeated the cycle. He laughed along the way, as well. On the last one, though, Sonic gripped the nose-cone of the missile in his hand and used all of his weight and agility to twist the missile end over end and send it back toward Eggman.
Eggman attempted to dodge his own ordnance and managed, in a panic, to pull the Eggmobile upwards and out of the weapon's path, but was out of luck when the device's fuel consumption had triggered its fuse and soon detonated. Eggman's upward momentum was boosted by the blast and his craft was sent into a wide, lazy arc over the city skyline – screaming all the way. He was soon gone from sight entirely.
Sonic was not that far from the ground, so, when he fell, he simply tucked and rolled and came to a stop near to the café and the Rogues. Captain Cold had regained consciousness and had staggered to his feet, while Trickster still massaged his jaw in a sitting position. Mirror Master wheezed as he stood propped up against the café's wall. When Sonic touched down, all of the Rogues locked eyes with him. Sonic, for his part stared them all down. Lightning still flickered in his eyes. The Rogues then exchanged knowing glances.
Suddenly, Trickster and Captain Cold scrambled over and into one of Mirror Master's compact mirrors. Sonic shot Mirror Master a harsh glance, which caused the human to hobble over and into the café window's reflective surface. Sonic was then left completely alone in the city street. He then sighed tiredly as he opened his hand and watched as the power ring's physical structure broke down and it dissolved into a golden dust: in the same way firewood reduces to ash. With it went the last of Sonic's supercharge and his tiredness and the lack of fresh adrenaline caused him to slump slightly. Still, he smiled at a job well done. But, there was still Tails and Amy.
"Thanks for that ring, Tails," Sonic said as he zipped around the corner and found Tails, who had managed to get Amy revived.
"You're welcome, Sonic. Besides, you saved us, so it's us who should be-"
"Sonic!" Amy burst out in joyous smiles as she jumped up from her sitting position against a wall and clasped Sonic around the neck, "My hero! You did it, again!"
Sonic sighed as he resigned himself to Amy's aggressive passions; he had fought enough for one day, he felt. He smiled over at Tails who chuckled at the situation. The two boys then exchanged a high-five hand-clasp. Everyone was pleased with the day's happy end and expressed it in their individual ways.
Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters and trademarks are copyrighted by the SEGA Corporation.
The Flash and all related characters and trademarks are copyrighted by DC Comics.