Sonic and the Freedom Fighters
Chapter 11: The Bigger They Are...
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. All characters portrayed in this story, unless specified otherwise, belong to SEGA.
-Tails' House-
"So, these Emeralds produce a powerful energy called Chaos Energy?" Sally summarised, having spent the last few minutes learning about the significance of the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic. She was seated on the couch of the living room, holding the Chaos Emerald they had obtained yesterday in her hand, while Sonic casually reclined on the table in front of her.
"Yep." Sonic replied simply.
"And you can use that energy to do what, again?" She asked, unsure.
"Depends. You could use 'em to teleport from one location to another, stop time, pretty much anything that suits your mood, really."
"Right. Now, here's where I'm confused. Is it only a select few individuals that can manipulate this energy?"
"Actually, no. As long as they have a Chaos Emerald, pretty much anyone can use it. You just need to focus really hard to tap into it." The blue hedgehog explained, before letting out a small chuckle. "Man, you seem to be taking a massive interest in those things."
"I just can't shake the feeling that I've come across these Emeralds somewhere before." Sally said, diverting her eyes to the Emerald in her hand.
"You mean, in a book or something?" He asked, confused.
"No, I mean physically. This 'Chaos Energy'... I feel like I've felt it before..." She muttered before holding the Emerald closer to her face, sensing the odd power that seemed to emanate from it, and closing her eyes as if trying to concentrate. Sonic looked at her with a curios expression, wondering what it was she was trying to do, before she suddenly recoiled back in shock with a gasp, her eyes opening and her hand losing its grip on the Emerald, letting it fall to the floor.
"Sal! Are you okay? What happened?" He gasped as he quickly jolted to her side, concerned by the shocked look in her eyes and her apparent breathlessness.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She assured him. "I think some sort of image flashed in my head."
"An image? Of what?" He asked her, even more confused.
"Uh... some sort of canyon, I think." She muttered, struggling to remember as she recovered. "It was only for a split second, so-" She continued before she was interrupted by the sound of a door swinging wide open behind them followed by excited footsteps running towards them.
"Guys! I found the next Chaos Emerald!" Tails triumphantly cheered as he stopped at the side of the couch while holding the radar in his hands.
"Seriously? Where?" Sally asked.
"Not too far from here, actually. It's in the mountain range just north of the city."
"Oh, no sweat. I'll be there and back in no time." Sonic said as he stood back up.
"Hold on, Sonic." Sally called out as she too stood up, picking up the Chaos Emerald she dropped and placing it on the table as she did so. "If there really is another Chaos Emerald nearby, Eggman will definitely be looking for it as well, and I doubt he'll be relying on his regular Badniks to retrieve it. We'll get the rest of the team up to speed and go there as a group."
"Well, okay, but if we do that, then Eggman could just take the Emerald before we even get there." Sonic argued.
"Hmm... good point." She relented, looking off to the side in thought until a plan formed in her head. "Okay, I have an idea. Sonic, you go on ahead and look for the Emerald. I'll get the rest of the Fighters ready and meet you at the rendezvous point. I'll send you the coordinates as soon as we're airborne."
"Alright, sounds like a plan." Sonic replied enthusiastically. Tails handed the radar over to him before he sped off.
It didn't take long for Sally to get the rest of the team up to speed, nor did it take long for them to prepare. Everyone had gathered their equipment and headed towards the jet.
"Hey, Sally!" Sally stopped in her tracks as she heard a familiar voice, turning to see Amy and Cream walking towards her, as well as a small blue creature, a creature Sally recognised as a Chao, hovering around the young rabbit.
"Hi, Miss Sally." Cream said as she approached.
"Chao, Chao!" The Chao, Cheese, greeted as well.
"Hey, guys." Sally replied cheerfully.
"Uh, Sal?" Rotor called from behind Sally, grabbing her attention
"Don't worry, Rotor, I won't be too long. Get the jet started up in the meantime." She assured him, before turning back to Amy and Cream. "What brings you here?"
"Well, I realised that Cream actually hasn't met all of the Freedom Fighters yet, so I decided to swing by and give her a proper introduction." Amy responded, before tilting her head slightly to look over Sally's shoulder and observe the rest of the Freedom Fighters entering the jet. "Seems like I timed it poorly, though. What's going on here?"
"We've detected a Chaos Emerald in the nearby mountains. Sonic's already gone ahead, and we're just about to meet up with him." Sally explained.
"Well, can we come with you?" Amy said excitedly.
"Uh, I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Sally replied nervously. "Granted, this should be a simple retrieval mission, but there's every chance that Robotnik himself or one of his more powerful constructs could be in the area."
"So? This wouldn't be my first fight with Eggman and his robots." Amy responded, pulling out her Piko-Piko hammer and resting it on her shoulder for emphasis.
"That's not what I'm concerned about..." Sally continued, subtly gesturing towards Cream.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Even if we do run into trouble, Cream's certainly no pushover." Amy assured once she realised, though Sally still did not look convinced.
"Please, Miss Sally? I promise I won't get in your way." Cream pleaded innocently, causing Sally's expression to soften as she crouched down to the young girl's eye level.
"Okay, just as long as you promise me that you'll stay out of the front lines if things get too dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt by involving yourself in a battle you can't win."
"Okay, Miss Sally. I promise." The young rabbit replied, before Nicole's holographic form suddenly appeared beside Sally.
"Preparations are complete, Sally." The holographic lynx informed her.
"W-Wait, who's this?" Amy asked, caught off-guard by the sudden arrival.
"Oh, right. You remember Nicole, yes?" Sally said.
"W-W-Wha-? You're Nicole?"
"Correct." Nicole replied with a smile.
"...Okay, what did I miss?!" Amy asked aloud, completely flabbergasted, causing Sally to chuckle in slight amusement.
"I'll explain on the way."
-Mountains-
Over at the mountain range, Sonic had just reached the area where the Chaos Emerald apparently was according to the radar.
"Alright, it should be around here somewhere..." Sonic muttered to himself as he looked around for the Emerald, before being interrupted by a sudden beeping noise. He pulled out his Miles Electric as it showed a map of the surrounding area, with a blue blinking dot appearing some distance to the left of his current position.
"Those must be the coordinates Sally was talking about." He guessed as he put the device away and continued his search. "Where is it? Did it fall off the cliff or someth-" He wondered aloud as he checked the radar again, cutting himself off as he noticed the dot signifying the Emerald's location inching towards him. "Wait a sec. Is it... moving?"
His question was answered as a large metal sphere flew out from behind the cliff and hovered in the air, looking up to see that the object was Eggman's Egg Mobile, with Eggman himself holding a yellow-coloured Chaos Emerald in his hand. "Of course." Sonic snarked.
"How rare to see you out and about without your little troupe, Sonic." Eggman remarked. "Not that it matters. This time I-"
"Listen, Egghead. I'm kinda in a hurry here, so how about you skip to the part where I trash your robot's butt and take the Emerald." Sonic interrupted.
"If you insist..." Eggman retorted surprisingly calmly, pressing a button on the command console on his Egg Mobile. From behind the ledge, the gargantuan form on the Egg Carrier rose up sinisterly, the underside opening up and suspending a large humanoid mech from numerous cables before the mech was oriented upright and suddenly dropped to the ground.
The mech itself was much larger than Eggman's usual mechs, even with the lower half of its body obscured by the cliff. It was mostly red and black in colour, with a few yellow accents dotted around. The upper body consisted of a spherical upper torso with the arms connected by cylindrical joints attached to the spherical shoulders, and connected to the lower body by a thick cylindrical "spine". The mech also had what seemed to be double-barreled cannons attached to the forearms, and a large missile pod on its back.
"Allow me to introduce one of my most powerful creations yet, the Egg Titan!" Eggman gloated as he hovered backwards towards the Egg Titan, the cockpit opening autonomously as he entered and closing with him inside. A circular insertion port appeared as the Egg Mobile settled into position, and Eggman inserts the Chaos Emerald into the port, the interior of the cockpit lighting up. "It's over, Sonic! Your futile escapades end here!" Eggman's voice boomed from the mech as it came to life.
"Oh, please. If I had a-" Sonic tried to reply, but was cut off by having to dodge the Titan's arm as it slammed down on the ledge.
Meanwhile, onboard the approaching Freedom Fighter Jet, Cream, who had been introduced to each member of the Freedom Fighters, was seated beside Bunnie, swinging her feet innocently as she started to get acquainted with the partially-roboticized Freedom Fighter. On the other side of the bay, Sally had finished explaining the events that led to Nicole's new form.
"Wow." Amy muttered, just barely able to take in the recent information. "So now, it's not just hacking into things, but you can fight as well?"
"Correct. But as of now, I've only scratched the surface of my new form's capabilities. I've been experimenting with new ways to manipulate the energy circulation, such as forming a defensive barrier, and-"
"Hey, Sal? You might wanna take a look at this." Rotor's voice interrupted the conversation, the alarm in his voice causing Sally to leave her seat and walk towards the pilot's area, taking Nicole's computer with her.
"What's wrong?" She asked, walking towards them, noticing the gigantic Egg Titan mech attacking something in the nearby cliffs.
"Well, that's... troubling." She muttered.
"What do you want us to do?" Tails asked.
"We can't let Robotnik get his hands on the Emeralds, no matter what." Sally replied after a second of thought. "Take us in. Once we get close enough, open the doors and we'll jump out and assist Sonic. You two get this thing a safe distance from here and regroup with us." She turned to the others in the bay, who had turned to look at her with confused or concerned expressions. "Everyone else, get ready for battle!" She informed them, and they instantly readied themselves.
"Sit tight, Sonic." Sally whispered to herself.
Meanwhile, Sonic was doing his best to avoid the giant mech's attacks, noticing that the mech was a bit faster than its size would indicate, most likely due to the Chaos Energy currently circulating throughout its systems. After several close misses, the Titan activated one of its arm cannons and began firing energy blasts at the hedgehog, who responded by running along the cliff to evade them. He jumped onto a large rock formation before jumping off as the Titan fired at him again, and charged at the mech using his Homing Attack. Instead of leaving any damage, however, the hedgehog bounced harmlessly off the surface, much to his surprise. As he landed, the Titan fired at him and managed to blow Sonic back a few feet, who fortunately managed to land safely as the Titan aimed at him again.
The fight was interrupted by the Freedom Fighter jet flying overhead, with the Freedom Fighters, sans Tails and Rotor, dropping from the jet and landing on the ground, along with Amy and Cream. Cream staggered back a bit after witnessing the mech towering over the group.
"Cream, get back." Amy told the young rabbit, holding her hammer out defensively.
"What's the situation?" Sally asked.
"Good news, found the Chaos Emerald. Bad news, it's in that thing." Sonic replied. Eggman suddenly tried to strike the group with the Titan's fist, but the group quickly avoided the attack. The group, minus Cream, all retaliated swiftly by attacking the arm of the mech as it pulled back, but surprisingly, none of their attacks seemed to leave even the slightest scratch on the surface of the robot.
"Nothing seems to be working!" Antoine said, slightly alarmed. As if in response, the Titan launched a volley of guided missiles from the missile pod on its back.
"Guess we'll just have to use his own attacks against him." Sonic suggested as he ran towards the mech. He jumped into the air, leaping of the missiles as they flew past, and landed on the head of the mech. He stood still with his arms folded as he watched the missiles chase after him... only to suddenly turn back towards the rest of the group as he prepared to jump off.
Bunnie and Nicole fired a few energy blasts at the incoming missiles, destroying most of them, but a few unharmed flew out from the resulting smokescreen. Fortunately, Tails and Rotor appeared at that moment, with Tails firing a few energy blasts from his energy cannon, destroying most of the remaining missiles, and Rotor putting himself into the path of the last remaining missile and grabbing it by the edges of the nose, before tossing it into the cliffs at the side.
"Wait, what the-" Sonic muttered in surprise as this occurred, before turning his attention to the mech underneath him. "Okay, Egghead, what gives?" The hedgehog asked, tapping the Titan underneath with his foot.
"Ha! This mech uses a state-of-the-art guidance system that automatically redirects the path of the missiles if they would ever inadvertently strike it." The doctor gloated from inside the mech. Sonic jumped off the head of the mech and landed beside the rest of the group.
"Okay, so our attacks barely leave a dent and the missiles are smart. Any other suggestions?" He asked. Almost as soon as he said this, part of the Egg Titan's chest area began to open up, revealing a large cavity that started to glow brighter and brighter.
"Yeah. Take cover!" Antoine hollered, resulting in everyone diving out of the way as the Titan fired an immensely powerful beam of energy from its chest cavity, destroying most of the land immediately in front of it in the process.
"What was that?!" Rotor exclaimed.
"That cannon seems to be stimulating the Chaos Emerald with a large amount of electrical energy and converting the resulting pulse of Chaos Energy into a powerful laser." Tails analysed as the Titan's cannon began to charge up again.
"No, you don't!" Sonic exclaimed defiantly as he charged towards the mech with a Homing Attack, only for the mech to block the attack with its left arm. The hedgehog reflected harmlessly off the surface, leaving him in the perfect position for the mech to punch him full force with its right hand and send him flying into the nearby cliff face, breaking it upon impact.
"SONIC!" Everyone witnessing the event cried out in concern as he started to fall to the ground, before his fall was intercepted by Bunnie catching him in mid-air and safely bringing him back down, Sally rushing to his side. The mech tried to finish off the vulnerable hedgehog with another punch, but Nicole suddenly appeared in front of him and Sally, and formed a protective field of energy that completely stopped the mech's attack.
"N-Nicole?! How are you..." Sally asked in bewilderment as she crouched down beside Sonic.
"There will be time for questions later." Nicole reminded as the barrier suddenly ruptured, blowing the Titan back. The Egg Titan tried to fire another volley of missiles at Nicole in an attempt to weaken her barrier, only for Amy to place herself in the path, an enraged scowl on her face.
"Just! Go! Down already!" Amy screamed furiously, punctuated by several swings of her hammer which repelled the incoming missiles and sent them back to the Titan. The resulting explosions broke away the armoured layer of the Titan, revealing a grey underlayer. The Titan retaliated by firing a shot from one of its energy cannons at Amy, who had just enough time to jump back and avoid being hit by the blast, though it still knocked her back and sent her hammer flying out of her hand.
"Amy!" The nearby Cream yelled in concern. Noticing that the Titan was preparing another attack, the young rabbit leaped into the air, her pet Chao following her. The Titan then fired another, slightly smaller volley of missiles at the now vulnerable pink hedgehog. As one of the missiles approached, Cream suddenly dived down and stomped on the missile with both feet, sending it into the cliff face and causing it to miss Amy as the young rabbit leaped back into the air. Cheese nestled himself into Cream's hand and curled himself into a ball, and Cream proceeded to throw the Chao at full force towards the remaining missiles, destroying every last one of them as the Chao ricocheted between them.
"Are you okay, Amy?" Cream asked once she landed back on the ground, her Chao hovering back to her as she helped her friend up.
"Yeah. Thanks, Cream." The pink hedgehog replied, picking her hammer back up as she rushed towards the mech and began attacking again.
Sonic, meanwhile, was still recovering from the heavy blow from the Titan, struggling to get back up as he tried to catch his breath while Sally helped him, a faint yellow glow coming from underneath the cuff of his right glove.
"You okay?" She asked, noticing the faint glow before it suddenly died down with an accompanying crack.
"More or less." The hedgehog groaned, emptying a pile of gold-coloured fragments from his glove. "So, you wouldn't happen to have some sort of plan, would you?"
"It's kind of a risky one." Sally replied.
"Yeah, well, we'll take what we can get."
"We'll need to limit its offensive options so that it's forced to use the cannon in its torso. Once it begins charging, we need to launch someone into the cannon to rip out the Emerald."
"Okay, so how do we do that?"
"I'm working on it." She replied, before turning back to her teammates. "Someone buy us some time while I formulate a plan of action!"
"On it." Nicole responded as she charged up an electrical blast in her palm and fired, striking the Titan in one of its unarmoured areas, completely immobilising it. Bunnie took this opportunity and punched the mech in the back of the knee as hard as she could with her metal fist, making it loose its balance and sending it falling onto its back with a loud crash. With the mech incapacitated, the group fell back and congregated around Sally and Sonic.
"So, what's the plan?" Amy asked.
"We need to break off the armour and destroy the arms, then launch someone into the central cannon to detach the Chaos Emerald." Sally explained before she turned to Nicole. "Nicole, have you found any weaknesses in the structure?"
"The joints connecting the arms to the body seem to have the lowest structural integrity. I would recommend focusing on them." The digital lynx replied.
"Okay, here's what we'll do." She started. "Amy, I need you to redirect the missiles towards the joints to damage the armour. Me, Antoine and Bunnie will break off the limbs once they're exposed. Rotor, you will move round the back while the rest of us distract it and destroy the missile pod once the arms are off. That should force Robotnik to deploy the cannon. Once it opens, Amy, you'll need to launch Sonic into the opening with enough force to break through the mech." Everyone took a moment before nodding in approval of the plan as the Egg Titan started to get back on its feet.
The Titan aimed its arm cannon in a futile attempt to strike the group as they swiftly moved out of the way. The mech fired another volley of missiles, this one much larger than the rest, but Amy confidently rushed forward and deflected the missiles back with her hammer. The mech braced as the missiles struck its surface, destroying the armour at the spots where they impacted, including the shoulder joints.
In retaliation, the mech tried to swing its fist down at the young hedgehog, only for her to leap back and avoid it, followed by Sally, Antoine and Bunnie flying onto the shoulder joints, the former two flying on their Extreme Gear and the latter using her rocket boosters, Sally landing on the right and Antoine and Bunnie landing on the left. Antoine used his sabre to cut into the joint while Bunnie readied her blaster and started firing into the damaged area, while Sally hacked away at the right joint with her Ring Blades before thrusting one of the blades into the gash, sending the energy from the blade coursing through the arm and disabling it. Bunnie fired one last, powerful energy blast into the shoulder joint before she leapt off, followed by Sally and Antoine. The left shoulder of the mech began to spark before it exploded, breaking the left arm off.
Rotor, meanwhile, managed to slip around the back of the mech on his Extreme Gear as the mech fought the rest of the group. Passing over a high cliff, he picked up a large rock and carried it as he flew towards the back of the mech as the arms were broken off, before throwing it into one of the holes in the missile pod, completely blocking it.
In retaliation for having its arms broken, the Titan tried to fire another volley of missiles, but one of the missiles collided with the rock, exploding on contact and causing a chain reaction that completely destroyed the missile pod, causing the Titan to stagger a bit before its torso cannon opened up in preparation.
"Now's our chance! Give it everything you've got!" Sally encouraged. Amy prepped her hammer while Sonic jumped onto the head of the hammer, smiling confidently. Amy then spun around with her hammer outstretched before propelling Sonic towards the Titan's cannon at astounding speed, who then curled up as he entered the cannon. The hedgehog quickly grabbed the Chaos Emerald as he closed in and tore through the back of the cannon and out of the mech, leaving a gaping hole. Bunnie flew around, caught Sonic by the arm, and threw him back towards solid ground, the hedgehog landing safely in front of his allies, as the mech began to spark and shake violently, before it exploded and sent Eggman, still in his Egg Mobile, flying off into the distance. After witnessing this, Bunnie landed beside the rest of the Freedom Fighters, and the group breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"That... was close." Antoine panted, the ordeal leaving him exhausted.
"Agreed. But we managed to stop Robotnik from escaping with the third Chaos Emerald." Sally replied, wiping her forehead. "We're done here. Let's head back." She said, prompting everyone to head in the direction of the jet, Tails and Rotor leading the way.
"Amy? Cream?" The chipmunk suddenly called out, the two girls turning their heads towards her. "Thank you for your help." She said, her voice filled with gratitude.
"No problem, Sally. We're always happy to help." The pink hedgehog replied with a smile as the two turned back to follow the group. Sally, however, stayed behind for a second to look at the surrounding cliffs, finding them strangely familiar.
"Wait... this place..." She muttered.
"Hey, Sal." Sonic called out, snapping Sally out from her thoughts. "Everything okay?"
"...Yeah." Sally replied after one last look around.
-Eggman's Base-
The doors of Eggman's base slid open, allowing Eggman into the base, pushing his heavily damaged Egg Mobile along the ground. He paused once he made it past the door, stopping to catch his breath and recover his strength. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to wait long, as Orbot and Cubot approached him, accompanied by two Egg Pawns.
"You two." He panted as he pointed to the Egg Pawns. "Get this to the maintenance hangar, immediately." The Pawns complied and picked up the Egg Mobile, carrying it away.
"I... take it the test run for the Chaos Energy conduction system didn't go so well?" Orbot asked hesitantly.
"Let's just say that it still has a few bugs to work out." Eggman calmly replied, brushing some dust off his shoulder. "I'll make sure the next iteration doesn't have the same issues. Never mind that, though. How's the Chaos Core prototype coming along?"
"Funny you should mention that, sir. The device was completed while you were away." The robot told him enthusiastically.
"Excellent. Let's have a look." He suggested as he walked through the base towards the manufacturing hangar, the two robots accompanying him. Entering the hangar, he approached a large, imposing machine and pressed a button on the console, causing the machine to open up and reveal a light-green, dodecahedron-shaped object that periodically glowed. Eggman picked up the object and held it up to eye level, a sinister smirk forming on his face as the object continued to glow ominously.