Chapter Nine - Diversionary Tactics
When the duo arrived back at the base they were both congratulated on a job well done.
"Hey now, I can't take all the credit. Kira was putting in just as much work as I was." He said. "So, what's our next move?"
"I think I've figured out a way to finally put a stop to the Phantom Ruby and Eggman." Tails said proudly.
"Great work Tails, just tell us what we've gotta do."
"Based on the readings I've got, it looks like the Phantom Ruby needs a tremendous amount of power to function on a wide scale which only the Death Egg can supply. All we have to do is stop the energy transfer and boom; its practically unusable and Eggman and Infinite are vulnerable."
"'All'? Last I checked the Death Egg was a heavily fortified, highly guarded space station. We barely escaped in one piece last time we were there." Knuckles said.
"True, but as always I have a plan and a three stage one at that." He said. "First things first, we'll have to distract Eggman if we want to get anything done. Someone's gonna have to go in and stir up some trouble to keep the heat off the rest of us. Step two; while he's occupied with dealing with that a group of us can sneak into the Chemical Plant and remotely access the Death Egg's weapons and defense systems and shut them down. And then step three; with the defense systems offline we can blow that hunk of scrap to kingdom come. No Death Egg, no Phantom Ruby."
"Y'know, that's just crazy enough to work. So now we need a distraction. I'll handle that."
"No way Knuckles. You're too easily distracted. Not exactly a good trait for a distraction." Amy said. "On top of that you're the commander, we kinda need you here."
"I'll go. Eggman won't be expecting me, and it might even catch him off guard." Kira offered.
"Good point, then you've got your orders rookie. We've got one day left before Eggman sets his plan in motion so let's hustle. Stay connected on the comms." He said. "Head to Green Hill and keep Eggman distracted for as long as possible. Sonic; you, Silver, Rouge and Shadow stay on standby and be ready to go to the Chemical Plant as soon as I give the word. Tails, you and the other Sonic get ready to board the Death Egg when the systems go offline." Kira armed herself with her drill and took a deep breath before heading out.
"Kira be careful, looks like some troops are picking up an unidentified heat source." Amy radioed. "Its...a multilegged battle mech? That thing's energy levels are off the charts! Stay on your toes!"
"So Eggman had another weapon waiting in the wings?" Myke asked. "I hope she'll be okay out there."
"As long as she makes as much noise as possible she'll be fine." Knuckles said. Despite his best efforts to stay as emotionally distanced as possible he was definitely just as worried as the others were about her. Myke could see it in Knuckles's eyes and although the two were near constantly butting heads and hated each other, the echinda's eyes said it all. He cared about Kira just as much as he did. Usually he'd take extreme delight in the fact that Knuckles was finally showing some sign of remorse about this whole situation but right now, he just wanted Kira to make it back to base safely. "Alright, Sonic you guys go while Kira's got them distracted. We have a good window so lets make this count."
"Got it, lets go." They headed for the Chemical Plant, staying under the radar so they didn't blow their cover. Kira meanwhile was getting ready to head back.
"Wait, wait! There's a massive energy source headed your way! Its that battle mech again!" Amy said. "It cannot reach the Chemical Plant, it'll blow their cover!"
"Sonic, you and your team pick up the pace over there!" Knuckles ordered. "Kira, you keep that thing stalled as long as possible!"
"Roger that commander!" She said. She rain like her tail was on fire, dodging huge chunks of rocks the Crab Mech was kicking up as it gained on her. She was quickly running out of room to run and had to think fast. Up ahead she saw a low rock formation big enough to take the mech out if she could trip it up. She needed it to be close enough to hook one of the spikes on its many legs or something sturdier. She glanced back just as one of its legs was about to overtake her, launching out and hooking the top of the left middle leg. She grappled onto the spikes on the third leg, using the momentum to wrap her line around all three before disengaging the line and going into a tuck and roll. With three of its legs out of commission the Crab Mech was sent tumbling forward, skidding into the rock formation which collapsed on top of the overturned heap as Kira took off running. "Mech is down, you guys are clear to go!"
"Great job Kira. Keep them nice and busy." Knuckles said with a proud grin. "Sonic, what's going on on your end?"
"We're almost at the Chemical Plant." He said. "Is Kira doing okay?"
"So far so good. If she keeps this up I'll have to stop calling her Rookie." He chuckled. "Now, get to the computers and shut down the Death Egg's defenses. Tails and the other you are already in position, waiting to go once they're down."
"No problem, I've been waiting for my turn to bust some heads. We'll be in and out before you know it." After signing off with Tails, they headed in, looking for a quick path to the computer room. Once they found it Rouge went to work hacking into the system and dropping the Death Egg's shields and weapons system.
"And that should do it. Death Egg's weapons and defense systems offline. Now's your chance to get in." She said.
"You heard the lady Tails, make this count." Silver said.
"Got it, we're going in." He said.
"You guys are making this sound like its a cake walk." Vector said. "Just because the weapons are offline doesn't mean its not still a Death Egg."
"Don't sweat it. We've got it covered." Tails and Sonic went relatively easy and smashing whatever looked important on their way to the power supply. However, it wasn't long before the defense system kicked on.
"What happened? I thought we shut it down?!" Knuckles asked.
"Its probably gone into auxiliary power. Don't worry though, we're not far off from the power supply." As they continued causing general widespread destruction, something Sonic knocked into a reactor caused the Death Egg to shudder violently. They knocked a few more things to it before coming to the power supply. "Alright, lets see...Aha!" Tails picked up a piece of one of the many destroyed Egg Pawns lying around and threw it directly into the gears of the Death Egg's power source as well as shut off a bunch of cooling valves to the core. "Okay that should do it. Let's get off this thing, its starting to collapse." The two made their way off the Death Egg and back down to Mobius thankfully just before the whole thing exploded. Amy had hacked into a satellite in orbit nearby and they cheered as they watched it explode.
"Awesome, they did it! Now the Phantom Ruby's power should be down to almost nothing!" Amy said happily. Meanwhile, Eggman had taken to chasing Kira himself before eventually losing her in the rolling green hills. Unbeknownst to him, she was hiding nearby out of sight to eavesdrop on his plans. The doctor growled angrily as he was informed the Death Egg had been destroyed again.
"Those resistance pests and their clever little plots piss me off so much. They're like something on your shoe you can't wipe off!" He ranted.
"Looks like they've taken our legs right out from under us, doctor. Quite literally at that." Orbot said, earning a glare from Eggman that sent him hiding behind Cubot.
"Only five hours left...Infinite. Let's make a tactical retreat for now and remobilize our forces." He said.
"And by 'tactical retreat' you mean to say flee with our tails between our legs?" Infinite asked, adjusting his mask smugly. He glanced up, locking eyes with Kira who was peeking out but quickly hidden again once spotted. "I am rather displeased about this, doctor." Eggman growled but bit back the more acerbic insults.
"Just shut up and follow me!" He ordered before taking off for Metropolis. Orbot and Cubot went flying after and Infinite hesitated for a second, making Kira's heart race before she heard him depart as well. She made her way back to base where everyone was converged in the planning room.
"Great work, the signal from the Phantom Ruby is much weaker. Mission accomplished." Rouge congratulated.
"This should effectively put a stop to the doctor's 'greatest weapon'." Shadow said. "The Sonics have given us a great opening, lets not let it go to waste."
"Agreed, this is the moment we've been waiting for. Time to settle the score and take back the city for real this time." Silver said.
"With the Phantom Ruby out of the way now, we can smash Eggman into an omelet." Knuckles said.
"Don't count your chickens before you smash your eggs, commander." Rouge said.
"Rouge is right. Just because we've reduced the Phantom Ruby's power doesn't mean Eggman and Infinite are done. We can't let our guard down." Sonic said. The others all nodded in agreement.
"I'll stay here and keep everyone connected on the comm system. Just make sure you all come back, okay?" Amy said.
"Okay everyone, put your game faces on. Our target is the central tower where Eggman is." Knuckles ordered. They started heading out when Sonic pulled Kira aside.
"Hey, I want you to follow me and Tails but hang back a bit." He said softly with a serious expression Kira hadn't seen before. "If things start going south, I want you to pull Tails out of there. Can you do that?" She nodded. "Thanks. I owe you big time." Kira had a bad feeling but pushed it aside as they headed out. She, Tails and Sonic made their way through the city from above looking for Eggman while everyone else engaged in battle on the streets below. Eventually, Amy alerted them that Eggman was up ahead. They spotted him on the roof of an office building, sitting in his cruiser as if he was waiting for Sonic. Tails went with Sonic and Kira perched herself on a higher rooftop nearby. Even though both Sonic and Tails were in plain sight, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen.
"Welcome Sonic!" Eggman said with an unusually cheery grin. "Glad you could make it! To your funeral that is!" Sonic raised an eyebrow at him. "Infinite, do it!" Infinite raised his hand, creating a small black hole no bigger than a ping pong ball in his hand. It floated in the air, as if it was just a normal part of the world, and was inky black in color.
"What is that?" Sonic asked, watching as it simply bobbed around in the air before expanding a bit to the size of a manhole cover as the air around it crackled like a livewire.
"That, my spiky little frienemy, is Null Space." Eggman said.
"Null Space?" He motioned for Tails to stay back and take cover behind a system of air ducts, which thankfully he did, simultaneously motioning for Kira to stay alert while Eggman started monologuing about his invention.
"Its just a little something cooked up by the Phantom Ruby. A cold, dark, closed off little space where absolutely nothing exists." He said. "Goodbye Sonic, my soon to be eradicated nemesis. Enjoy all the nothing!" Eggman moved away from the black hole, as did Infinite, who fired a shot into it causing it to triple in size and start sucking in everything that wasn't nailed down. Tails gripped the air ducts for dear life trying to keep from being sucked in as Sonic tried to stand his ground. He began losing his footing though despite how hard he tried to resist the pull. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and he went flying towards it. Kira quickly leapt into action, hooking her line of the edge of the building as she grabbed Sonic's hand and held on with all her might.
"Kira don't! You'll get sucked in with me!" He shouted. "Get out of here while you still can!"
"I don't care! I'm not letting go! We can't lose you again!" She shouted. She tried to pull him back, struggling against the sheer power of the void as it pulled them in a dangerous game of tug of war. At first she though she could hold out and pull him to safety, but the pull was too strong and her line broke clean in half sending them both screaming into the void before it closed behind them.
"No...no!" Tails yelled in horror as he pulled himself to his feet. "W-we destroyed the Phantom Ruby's power source! It shouldn't have been able to do that!" Eggman laughed victoriously as the fox shook with anger.
"Since you idiots always destroy the power sources of my inventions, I learned from my past failures and had a back up one built under Metropolis. You all played right into my hands and didn't even realize it." He gloated, smoothing out his mustache. "I planned for you to destroy the Death Egg, just like I planned for you to come here. I may not have wiped you out but I finally managed to take care of one of those pesky hedgehogs and that bothersome feline that he's been running around with lately along with him. You have no plans left. Your only option is to make peace with your resistance because in three hours, none of you will ever oppose me again."