Chapter 7:
Tails stared down at his feet, backing another few steps away from the group. He didn't know what to do. Amy had asked him for his advice, but he had none. How could he let them all down? And now Shadow, Sonic, and Knuckles were going to risk there lives, and he couldn't tell them anything that would help.
"Shadow, if you're really sure that this is the on-" Rouge was cut off by a sudden change in the robot. They all watched with apprehension as the robot suddenly stopped its slow advance, coming to a complete stand still. All of its guns stopped firing, and it just stood in the dirt, motionless and silent.
Then, from out of dozens of newly opened portals spaced out around the top half of its body, what seemed like hundreds of car-sized flying robotic drones began pouring out. They all watched, transfixed, as the sea of iron robots began racing off in all directions. Wave after wave flew out, quickly disappearing from view as they made there way to there unknown destinations. The drones were round, like the mother robot, but they had no legs and their heads were on the bottom.
Suddenly, as they watched the last few drones sail away beyond the city, Tails was lifted off of the ground by an unknown force. It seized a hold of him, dragging him into the air with invisible hands. He was whisked away so fast, that he couldn't even yell for help.
Tails watched helplessly as his friends shrunk in the distance, unaware that he was being abducted. He managed to lift his head slightly and his eyes grew wide with panic. One of the drones flew above him, but instead of a red beam coming from its head, like the mother robot, a blue-green aura radiated around him, holding him suspended under the drone as it flew away with him.
Within a few seconds, the wasteland vanished from his site, and was replaced by narrow iron walls. It must be have been one of the portholes that the drones had flew out from, and this rogue drone had brought him inside the robot for reasons unknown.
The tunnel opened up abruptly to a long, dark hallway lit only by a few eerie lamps spaced out every few yards. Tails tensed as he felt the drone's aura loosening its grip on him, and slowly forced his two tails to spin. Faster and faster until he broke free from the drones hold, flying back a little ways as it lost all power and crashed to the ground with a thud.
Tails landed cautiously, keeping his distance for a few seconds. It didn't move. He took a few steps forward. Nothing. Tails knocked tentatively on the drone, the echoes loudly sounding throughout the hall. He looked down the hallway, which curved to the right a ways down. He took a deep breath.
"Alright, Tails. Come on, you can do it," he encouraged himself. "There's no where else to go. You have to find a way out of here. Maybe even a way to beat this machine from the inside." Tails gulped as he began to ease his way down the hall. The dimly lit corridor was wide, but not cavernous. His shoes clanked along the metal grates of the floor as he approached the curve. This must be the outer rim of the interior of the robot, so the hallway would continue to curve around the length of its round body.
Tails jerked to a standstill as a bright light flashed just around the bend, illuminating the floor in front of him with a pulsing, whitish light. He tiptoed closer until he saw the origin of the glow. A huge iron door was embedded in the side of the wall. Bright, intensely pulsing light radiated from under it. Tails stared at it for a moment, not sure what to do. He could continue down the hall, hoping to find some sort of escape hatch, or he could try to get this door open and find out was going on.
"Come on. Get the door open. You have to find out what's going on. Everyone is counting on you." Tails tried to pep talk himself, but he still trembled as he reached out and felt along the cold surface, knowing that his friends probably didn't even need his help.
He ran his hands along the length of the door, the light still pouring out from beneath it. Tails stopped as he felt something beneath his hand, eyeing what looked like a small lever. He took a deep breath and then pulled the switch.
A small clicking noise sounded from the door, and it slowly began to rise up. The flashing light bathed Tails in its glow as the interior of the robot was about to be revealed. He nervously blinked in the light until the door rose above him, allowing him to peer in the unknown chamber.
He slowly stepped in, his heart pounding, and gasped at the size of the room. It was every bit as big on the inside as it was on the outside. Computers and wires lined the walls and massive monitors were displayed throughout. But what was in the center of the room, the source of the light, caused Tails to feel fearful confusion as he stared in utter shock.
A massive cylindrical dome rose from floor to ceiling, transparent, like glass. Inside it stood a huge crystal like casing, suspended above the ground by a matching pedestal. Seven smaller pedestals, like golden poles, were evenly circled around it, six of which were adorned by a glowing Chaos Emerald.
The pedestals pulsed with violent bolts of electric lights, causing the Chaos Emeralds to charge up with there own glow. Then the Emeralds fired electric charges at the crystal, which radiated and pulsed, as if the Emeralds were charging it up with there intensified energy. A blast of light fired up the dome from the crystal, disappearing into a portal at the top of the dome.
"Six Chaos Emeralds? That explains how this thing could be so impenetrable. But what is in that crystal? What's happening to the Emeralds?" Tails crept slowly closer, peering inside the dome to the crystal within, but the light made it impossible to see if there was anything inside it.
Then, all at once, the Emeralds stopped their electric barrage, and died down to a dim glow. The beam shooting up from the crystal faded slowly, until only the crystal remained glowing. The light slowly dimmed, pulsing with a few last glimmers of white, and Tails' mouth dropped open. He gasped in total shock.
"Silver?"
Cream suddenly froze in alarm. She looked frantically around, panic growing in her heart as she looked at all of her friends. Fear radiated through her body as she realized that someone was missing. "Where is Tails!?"
They all immediately forgot about the tension surrounding Knuckles' plan of attack, looking all around for their two-tailed friend. But he wasn't there. A cold, biting feeling settled in Sonics' stomach, a numbing sensation of total loss.
"Tails!?" He cried, but no reply came. "Tails!? Tails!?"
Knuckles, Cream, and Amy joined in, calling out to there missing friend. Rouge took to the air, hovering above them, looking from her high advantage point as far as she could see.
Shadow gripped his Chaos Emerald tighter, until his knuckles hurt, but he didn't join the rest in calling for Tails. His mind was swept back to a time long ago, a time when someone he loved had been taken from him. He couldn't do anything to save her. And now, he felt once again helpless to save an innocent child from the danger that surrounded them. He felt his eyes grow wet, but he didn't wipe away the tears, merely blinking his eyes until a single tear rolled down his cheek.
He looked over to Sonic, who was still desperately calling Tails' name. "Sonic. We have to act now. The robot must be stopped. Whatever has happened to Tails, he'll be able to handle it on his own."
Sonic shot Shadow a menacing look. "No! We can't just forget about Tails! I have to find him. One of those drones must have done something while we weren't looking. Knuckles, come on, we have to find Tails, now!" Sonic then sped away, blazing over to the crashed Tornado, searching the wreckage in the blink of an eye. No sign of Tails.
He began searching all around the perimeter of the robot, running faster and faster, the wind swirling behind. He didn't stop his search, didn't let up his speed for a moment. The feeling of dread sunk deeper and deeper into his heart with each step he took. Anything could have happened to his best friend. Why hadn't he kept a closer eye on Tails?
Sonic veered off, running along the forests edge, making a full sweep from left to right in a matter of seconds. He stopped close to the downed Tornado, the dread that had been his driving force, now was weighing him down to a standstill. The smoking remains of the plane brought painful tears to his eyes. Tails was gone. Gone. He hadn't been there for him. He hadn't been able to save him. Where was he? What had happened?
"Sonic." Sonic looked over his shoulder, a look of hopeless anger on his face.
"Shadow. Can't you take care of that machine by yourself? Just go. I have to find Tails."
"Sonic, you can't just quit on us. Tails would be disappointed in you if you just gave up. Tails never gave up on you. The only place you haven't looked is inside that robot. If we take it down, then we just might find him there."
Sonic just blinked back at Shadow. He was right. Tails would be disappointed, no, ashamed of him if he just left the robot to attack the city. And he just might have been taken hostage by one of those drones. But, maybe not. If he stopped looking for Tails now, then he might never find him. Sonic closed his eyes tight, pounding his head, as if trying to beat the right answer out of his brain.
Shadow turned away, looking back at the city that was enveloped in an eerie red light. He had never been good at, had never even tried to say a few lines of encouragement to anybody before, and probably never would again. Still, he had had to say something to snap Sonic out of it. They needed him for the attack, though he would never admit it straight up. And, he really did mean the part about Tails being in the robot. It was the only place close enough, and impenetrable enough, for a small fox to just disappear into.
Shadow began to walk away, heading off to face the robot with the others. "Shadow, wait." He stopped abruptly, looking back over his shoulder at Sonic. "You're right. We have to stop that thing. We have to stop it from attacking the city." Shadow nodded in agreement. Sonic walked slowly away from his buddy's little plane. He didn't say another word to his dark counterpart, but he was grateful to him for his attempt at cheering him up. Sonic knew that Shadow knew what it felt like to lose someone, and this was his best effort at trying to comfort him. But, he suspected, it would never happen again, after the whole nightmare thing wore off.
The two hedgehogs raced back to the others, who gathered around them with concerned and frightened expressions. "Are you guy's crazy? You can't just go running off like that. We have to take down this robot, now! We have to find Tails!" Knuckles tone was loud and alarmed. He was just as upset about Tails as the others, yelling his distress at the top of his lungs.
"Easy, Knuckles. We all know what we have to do. I'm sure your little friend is fine. He's been through worse before, right?" Rouge's tone was surprisingly soft and sweet, and Knuckles looked at her in confusion for a moment. Then he began to calm himself with deep breaths, smiling slightly at his batty friend.
Cream and Cheese were crying in Amy's arms, who held them tight while visibly trying to blink her own tears away. "Tails is fine, Cream. We have to help stop the robot." She looked at Sonic with fear and concern. "We have to stop it, right?"
Sonic looked over to Shadow. They both nodded. "We have to try. Tails may be inside that thing. Knuckles' plan is the only one we have, so we better get started on it. Rouge, you fly Amy up to that drone. Under no circumstances do you get anywhere near that red glow around it. Amy, I want you to rain as many hammers down on it as possible, ok?"
Amy's eyes glimmered with that familiar spark of hers. Sonic still trusted her? Of course he did. He was counting on her to take that drone down. He needed her, and she was not going to let him down. A feeling of cold detachment, however, still nagged at the back of her heart. Would Sonic just forget about her after it was all over? Could he just be using her for her abilities in combat, a mere tool to help him stop the robot?
"Amy? I'm counting on you. I know you can do it. You and Rouge are the only one's who can handle this. Station Square needs you. I believe in you." Amy had never heard Sonic sound more confident in her before. The bitter tears that lingered in her eyes were replaced by soothing tears of joy. They streamed down her face, cleansing her soul of all doubt.
"Oh, Sonic!" She leapt up and pulled him into a hug. "I felt like you didn't even care about me. Like you didn't even like me. I wont let you down, you'll see." Sonic lightly hugged her back, letting her cry a few moments more, before gently pushing her away and clearing his throat.
"Didn't care about you?" He said softly. "Don't let those nightmares get to you, Amy. You know that I-"
"Come on, everyone. Enough of this. We have to go, right now!" Knuckles stomped his foot and folded his arms impatiently.
"Y-yeah, your right, let's get started," Sonic stammered. "Cream, you and Cheese wait here. Stay put until this is all over with."
Cream wiped her eyes, and blinked at Sonic. "But, we can help, too. Cheese isn't affected by the nightmare beam. We can fly up there with Rouge and Amy and attack the drone, too. I don't want those people to have nightmares anymore. And maybe it will help us find Tails."
Sonic looked down at Cream's determined face. No way should she be allowed to go up there. What if he lost Cream too?
Amy put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. Rouge and I will watch over them. They want to help too. We need them. They'll be fine, I promise."
Sonic took a deep breath. He looked around, getting nods from everyone in the group. "Ok, but don't leave Rouge and Amy's side for a minute. Stick together." Cream smiled at him, and Cheese cheered in agreement.
"Alright, It's time," Shadow announced. He rotated the ring on his wrist nervously. He was the only one who would have to risk everything. Not that he had any problem with that. He was more than ready to give it all he had, never backing away from any dangerous situation. But somehow he knew that his all was not going to be enough this time. Even so, this was his purpose in life, to fight and destroy whatever stood in his way. "As soon as I've used my reserve energy, you'll have to strike fast."
Sonic and Knuckles nodded solemnly. They could feel the tension in the air. This was not going to end well for them. But it had to be done, and it was time to end this nightmarish onslaught.
Rouge turned slightly away, hugging herself and looking down at the ground. "Just, I mean don't, well, just stay safe, alright?" Shadow glanced back at her, his expression softening a little.
"You too," he murmured. Then he raced off to face the monstrous robot, Sonic and Knuckles preparing to charge after him, and Rouge, Cream, Cheese, and Amy took off to begin their aerial assault on the drone.
