...Yeah.
IT'S GO TIME!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley jogged through the empty, yet chaotic; city anxiously. He resisted the urge to snap his body around to observe anything behind him every few seconds. He eventually stopped on the sidewalk to calm himself and think things over. That's when he felt another surge course through the ground.
He whipped around, his shining copper hair flapping into his face. There weren't any buildings surrounding him. He waited for three painful seconds, and another explosion rocked the area. Bradley caught himself as the ground jerked and a violent wind rushed past him. Satisfied with his actions, he continued down the sidewalk and went down the bend.
He noticed something in the grass by the sidewalk about fifty feet in front of him. Curious, he quickened his pace and squinted. With a jolt of shock, he realized he recognized what was lying in the lush lawn. Bradley knelt next to Manny, one of his classmates. He was only slightly acquainted to Manny; but he could recognize him anywhere by his blue hair. It was his natural hair color; a mystery. His parents wouldn't let him dye it.
Bradley confirmed Manny to be knocked out cold. He looked fine. Bradley stood over him for a moment, unsure of what to do, and decided to keep moving and tell the nearest person he saw. He resumed on his way. Eventually he made it into the densest building square of the city; passing only three people. The first happened to be a kindly young police officer who looked professional and on the job. Bradley informed him of Manny, and the cop told him he would get help and that Bradley should flee to safety. The other two people were scurrying past, holding their briefcase and backpack over their head to protect themselves from invisible debris. But he passed other things. He saw bodies strewn about the city. The amount of those who had lost their lives astonished him. Most of them where killed by the explosion itself, while the others had suffered their demise by debris. Bradley did not stop to acknowledge any of the people. None of them he knew. He prayed, however. It was the least he could do.
In the square, Bradley saw no signs of activity, hostile or otherwise. He turned around to head the other way but felt another quake in the earth. Slowly he rotated his gaze back toward the maze of buildings surrounding him. Wide-eyed and stunned, he opened his mouth to utter a single word.
"Shit."
Bradley dropped his bag and sprinted down the pavement. He took huge and furious strides, caring only that he covered as much distance as possible. He found them to be unearthly quick. One. His time was up when he counted to three. He dug his toes into the ground as he ran. Everything was a confused blur. Two. Bradley squeezed his eyes shut involuntarily. Desperate, he braced himself with his arms and dove, like in the movies. Three!
He slammed into the ground and slid across the street. Dazed and out of breath, he pushed himself up warily and looked around frantically. Even though no one was around, he felt foolish.
Suddenly he felt a wave of energy pulse out from behind him, and his hearing was shattered by a deafening exclamation. Bradley felt himself being brought off of the ground. Everything went in slow motion. His limbs flailed out as he soared through the air. He collided with the ground. Then again. And again. It seemed like some giant had grabbed him and was repeatedly slamming him across the ground. Finally he stayed on the ground, and he slid to a stop and remained sprawled on the cold road.
Bradley's thoughts were few and indiscernible. Somehow it felt nice to lie there, engulfed in ignorance of the moment. Slowly he regained control of his thoughts, then his limbs, then his will. Bradley opened his eyes and lifted his head. His jacket was a ripped and tangled from contact with the pavement. He saw his gym bag in pieces ahead of him. He was going to have to pay for a new gii and equipment. That was the least of his problems.
He had numerous scrapes, bruises, and gashes all over his body. The worst one was a large gash on his right hip. The pain seemed to hit him all at once. Bradley laid his head back down. Then he planted his hands behind him, lifted his legs up, and vaulted them forward, with them the rest of his body. Bradley flew onto his feet and stood in defiance. He ripped off the remains of his jacket, revealing the light, smooth Under Armor muscle shirt that he was sporting underneath. Bradley gazed coldly at the buildings in front of him, which that had been standing proudly just seconds ago but that were down in a crumbled mess. Ignoring any surge of pain, he strolled up to the wreckage and spat in it.
He walked up to his bag, all his movements cool and careful, and searched the tattered mess for anything that might have survived. He found his leather survival gloves to be intact. He pulled them on. He equipped himself with his army knife and a short piece of a pole he found laying next to the bag. Bradley turned away from the rubble and began to walk away.
Something made Bradley stop. In a sudden motion he whipped around and thrust an accusing finger at the wreckage. For a second he thought he was crazy, but then he made out the black outline of a cloaked figure behind the carnage. Pronouncing each word with meaning and distaste, he growled: "I'm coming after you all." The figure was gone in a flash.
\_.|._/
"There it is."
"What the hell is that? It looks like a spaceship!"
Sonic and Knuckles were behind a building, peering at the giant craft that belonged to Theta Black. Sonic gaped at it longer while Knuckles replied smoothly, "It probably could be used as a spaceship. It's made as a 'screw you' to common knowledge."
Sonic couldn't help but be amazed by the aircraft's elegance and style. He glimpsed the giant insignia on its body and grinned. "They do like to sound their arrival with a fanfare of trumpets."
Knuckles looked at Sonic strangely for a second, then realized what he meant. "I guess so." He twitched with alarm as another explosion rattled the city. "Tails needs to hurry up. We don't have any time."
Tails was a quarter of a mile away from them, situated next to a palm tree near the beach. He was holding a large device in front of him with both hands, facing Theta Black's aircraft. Information was flowing into the device. Tails studied the rapidly moving text for a few minutes and turned the device off once its activity ceased. He scaled the tree and vaulted off of it, using poles and buildings in front of him in a similar manner to hop across the city. He didn't fly because it would take too long.
When he spotted Sonic and Knuckles he jumped off of the shingle of a window and bee lined diagonally toward the ground. He landed softly in front of them and relayed, "About 81% of the craft is hollow. Twenty to fifty life forms were found, and there is a huge radioactive pulse coming from somewhere near the center of the ship. There's four entrances, or openings, rather – the main one in front, which is sealed; one in the side, one on the roof, and one – quite strangely – on the bottom."
Knuckles frowned. "I didn't expect there to be so many members inside. They usually all come out during raids."
"Maybe this isn't a normal raid," commented Sonic, distracted. His eyes were glued to the side of the craft. Knuckles and Tails followed his gaze, and found that the first visible activity on the craft was occurring. Three bright white lights illuminated in succession – after this, they all flared. In the decreasing daylight, a splash of brilliance erupted from the side of the ship – then nothing. The three of them waited for something else to happen, but it was in vain. The craft sat there as if nothing had happened.
Another quake rattled the city, followed by a faint, but still commanding; boom. "We have to find a way to get in there," Sonic said quietly. "Now."
Tails was quick to answer. "There shouldn't be any reason that we wouldn't be able to approach. My scanner detected no energy pulses or field around the exterior of the craft."
At that, Sonic was gone. It took Tails and Knuckles a moment to discover he slipped away, and then they followed him.
Sonic was in front of the main door. It was easily three times his size. He scanned the wall around the door. It was riddled with panels and mechanics. Sonic realized quickly what it would take to open the hatch, but he tried to pry it apart from the middle anyway. "Sonic," Tails said. "Even if I could get us in there, there's no way of knowing for sure if the thing that's causing the explosions is in there or not. I think we – "
Sonic waved his hand to cut him off. "Two things," he began quickly. "Thing One: did you happen to catch some giant, shiny doomsday device out there; if so, then tell me now." Sonic actually waited for a response, then continued. "Thing Two: you said yourself the scanner detected a huge radioactive pulse coming from somewhere near the center of the ship. Key word: radioactive. We can infer from modern technology, Tails. Whatever is giving off that pulse is powering something outside of the craft."
After Knuckles did a silent double take at Sonic, he added, "This is just the beginning. It's going to get worse and worse from here."
Cornered, Tails dropped his gaze. "I'll do what I can."
Sonic and Knuckles looked at him for a plan. He closed his eyes for a few moments, the gears in his mind going at light speed. Then he lifted his eyes to the ceiling of the ship and said, "It appears as though a code will unlock the door. That being said, if I can get into the panel, I can trigger the function that would set off the mechanism as if the code had been inputted.
"We can't do this here. Obviously we're liable to get busted by the enemy. The roof is so vast that it'll be less risky to get spotted up there. We're going to have to be light." Directing the next words at Knuckles, he added, "We don't need twenty to fifty members on our tail." Knuckles nodded.
"Once we get inside, I'll use my scanner again and get a virtual compass of the layout. First we need to get on the roof."
Tails backed up and covered the fifty or more feet to the top of the craft in one leap. He landed carefully on the tiered roof, followed closely by Sonic and Knuckles. Tails took out his scanner again and brought up the data from the previous scan. "The entrance," he said slowly, "is approximately seventy meters NNW of us…" He pointed in the exact direction.
They plodded towards it, Tails hovering above the surface using his tails with Sonic and Knuckles running lightly beside him. Knuckles tripped over the tiered floor once, but righted himself with a smooth, but heavy, handspring. Tails huffed at him unconsciously. "Stop," he said after a short while." Sonic and Knuckles struggled to screech – silently – to a stop while Tails bent down. He examined the patterns on the roof where he was. "The hatch," he observed, referring to the slight drop into smooth metal at the edge of his feet. He found the panel for the opening mechanism not long after. Sonic and Knuckles kneeled down to watch.
He pried it open using a tool from a small set he always kept with him – then stopped. He turned to look at them. "This is way too simple."
"Keep going," Sonic said simply.
Tails uneasily continued. He poked around in the wires until he found the one he wanted, and cut it.
A barking beep came from the mechanism, and the hatch suddenly sprang open. The three of them, having been situated on it, dropped. They fell for a few moments and slammed into titanium. The door above them shut itself. After a few seconds of initial shock, Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles pulled themselves to their feet and glanced at each other.
"We're in," Tails murmered.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'MA CHARGIN MAH LASER
:D
