A/N: This and the previous chapter were going to be one, but it was decided it would be better to make it two separate ones. I should really stop doing that. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: It's obvious I don't own the franchise, or else I would actually try to make something good with it.
Chapter 11: A Rabbit's Trouble P5
Hidden within the burger shop of Station Square was one Amy Rose, and the little rabbit girl that had bumped into her. The two were crouched down next to a table booth, avoiding the windows as much as possible. A few of the other customers gave them curious looks, but the pair paid no mind to them.
"Okay, I think we lost him now," said Amy, gently putting one of her hands on the shaky girl's left shoulder. The gentle gesture was able to calm down the younger one a little, but her lips still trembled a bit. "Now, do you think you can tell me what this is about? Why is one of Robotnik's robots after you?" the rabbit in the orange dress stayed quiet as she stared at her own hands laying on her lap. "Why don't we start small, and introduce ourselves? I'll go first. Hi, I'm Amy Rose. What's your name?"
"Cream," said the rabbit, a small smile slowly gracing her face as she brought her head up to make eye contact. "It's very nice to meet you Ms. Amy."
"Just Amy will do," Amy laughed a little at just how polite the other girl was. It was all cute and innocent. She's never before come across someone that uses the word Ms right before a person's first name. "And you're the nicest person that's ever bumped into me, Cream."
Cream couldn't help but chuckle a little at the remark. "Sorry about that," she said. "I've just been running from that thing for such a long time. Mama always tells me I should always watch where I'm going."
"Where is your mom anyways? Shouldn't you be with her right now?" said Amy, moments before catching the younger girl's lips once again quivering as tears began to build in her brown eyes. "Oh, oh my. She's not-? I mean, is she-? I didn't mean to-? I'm so sorry!"
"He took her," whispered Cream so low that the hedgehog didn't quite catch it. It didn't take long for her to repeat herself though; this time louder, while sobbing. "He took mama away!"
"There, there, it's okay," said Amy very softly, embracing the crying girl. A stream of tears could be felt falling on her red dress as she continued to hold the rabbit close, while gently rubbing her back to soothe her. "Tell me exactly what happened, please."
"We-we were on our way to the Chao Garden w-when he just came o-o-out of nowhere," sobbed Cream, pushing herself deeper in the older girl's chest for comfort. "H-he captured us, and too-took us somewhere in the jungle. The Mys-the Myst-the-"
"The Mystic Ruins?"said Amy, just before feeling a nod from the younger girl's furry head.
"One night, mama helped get me away, but, but," Cream started to cry harder than she did before as she continued on. "BUT SHE'S STILL THERRRREEEEE!"
The pink girl didn't say anything. She just let the other girl weep, and let it all out as much as possible. As soon as Cream's cries turned into sniffs and hiccups, Amy walked out the door alongside her. The robot that was chasing them wasn't in sight, but it still wasn't a good idea to stay in one place for too long. They needed help, and Amy knew just where to get it.
"Come on, Cream, we're going to the Mystic Ruins," said Amy as she pulled said person by the hand, getting her to follow from behind.
"The Mystic Ruins?" said Cream as they continued to walk to the train station.
"That's right," said Amy with a smile that said "things are going to be okay". "My friend Miles lives there. If anyone can help you, it's him."
"Really?" said Cream, eyes showing signs of amazement and hope in them.
"Trust me," said Amy cheerfully. "I've seen him dealt with Robotnik before. We'll get your mom back before you know it."
"What's Mr. Miles like?" said Cream, smiling in excitement at the thought of being reunited with her mother soon.
"He's amazing!" said Amy, stopping in her tracks before turning around to face the rabbit, who couldn't help but jump a little at the excitement she heard in Amy's voice. "He's strong, brave, smart, and the nicest person I've ever known. I think he might actually be smarter than Robotnik. He's very handy with tools. And I'm sure he's made some more inventions since I last saw him. But sometimes it can be hard getting his attention when he's working, but I always manage to do it," she briefly thought back to all the times the fox would jump in surprise whenever she refused to be ignored by him; he was just so cute. "Though he can be a bit shy about himself and his accomplishments, that's one of his many charms."
Cream stood there in silence as she listened to the hedgehog gush over the person they were going to seek help from. She figured that the two must be really close if Amy is talking so fondly like that. After all, it's not like it was going to turn out that the older girl was really obsessive or anything like that, right? What kind of girl would she be if she didn't give her friend space after all?
"Wow! He sounds great!" said Cream, receiving a nod of agreement. "I can't wait to meet him."
Almost as soon as those words left Cream's mouth, a fox with two tails was seen wobbling on his feet across the street from them. Of course, the rabbit girl didn't know of the significance, but Amy sure did. They had found him before even reaching the train station.
"Miles!" Amy said happily as she dragged Cream along to the other side of the street, somehow dodging all the cars as she did so.
Once the girls were safely on the sidewalk again, Amy let go of the other girl and called out to her friend once more. He was responsive, but not as quick as she would have thought. Every time he made to turn his body, he would start flailing his arms in circular motions as he begins to tip over before righting himself back up. He was unable to keep himself balance, and was forced to put one hand against the wall for support. Not only that, but he was shaking his head as though he were sleep deprived.
"A-amy...?" Miles nearly yawned. "What are you doing here?"
"We're in Station Square. I live here, remember?" said Amy, confused by the fox's forgetfulness. Then again, she had to admit that he didn't seem completely there.
"Oh...right," mumbled Miles in embarrassment. Darn Robotnik and his knockout gas!
"Anyways," began Amy before gesturing over to Cream. "This is Cream. And she needs your help."
"W-what?" said Miles, while trying to blink the drowsiness he was still feeling from the gas away.
"Please, Mr. Miles," pleaded Cream with her hands clasped together as though she were asking someone with high power and status. "Can you rescue mama?"
"Your mom?" said Miles, earning a nod for confirmation. "Why not asks the police for help?"
"Whenever I tell them Mr. Robotnik has her, they all think I'm just telling a joke," said Cream with her hands to her side as she looked down in depression.
"Why did Robotnik kidnap your mom?" said Miles, rubbing his eyes with the back of one hand. "What does he want from her?"
"I don't remember what he called it, but he was sure mama had it on her," said Cream with a finger on her chin, while trying to think about the answer herself.
"Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all?" said Miles. He had a feeling that the answer was right in front of him, but he just couldn't think straight.
It was then that Amy had to unfortunately interrupt them. "Oh no! It's that robot again!" she yelled.
'Not another one...!' thought Miles in exasperation. He turned around, getting ready to take out what he expected to be another of those E-100 series. However... "Either I'm still suffering from side effects, or that's a different kind of robot."
Indeed it was, for this particular robot looked like a walking hourglass that was much wider than the last two he fought. Its metallic body was painted green with some red and white lines, and a dash of gray at the bottom. The shoulders were black and cylinder-like with the left one carrying a headlight, but the rest of its arms had the same green, red, and white color scheme like the majority of its body. The hands looked like black pincers, minus any sharp edges to them. There were no legs to be seen, so the machine must be using some sort of built-in propulsion unit as far as the two tailed boy could guess. There also appears to be a black bumper in the front being held by two yellow bars. The center of its forehead-as it were-was a pentagon outlined with red and filled in with yellow; most likely its targeting system. On either side of the pentagon was the letter E, and the top of the head looked like it could literally flip. Of course like most robots', the optics were red.
"I already tried taking care of it myself," said Amy. "Any ideas, Miles?"
"Yeah," replied Miles, letting out a breath before turning to the girls with a serious look. "Run!"
As the girls stood there with their eyes wide in surprise, the boy dashed forward as much as he could without fumbling on his own feet towards them. Once the young lad was close enough, he grabbed both of the girls by one of their wrists, and forced them to run along behind him. Amy and Cream soon got over their shock, and began running on their own with their wrists released from Miles' grip.
Miles didn't usually run from one of Robotnik's creations before getting an idea of its strengths and weaknesses, but right now his brain was in no mood to think of a plan during a mid-battle if simply attacking doesn't work. Amy had pretty much said she couldn't take the thing down, so it must be wearing pretty thick alloy to resist her hammer attacks. He'd be lucky if his ring would be able to put a dent in it if that was the case. He had a few electrorbs left, but he didn't trust himself enough to use them in his current condition. The only thing the fox could think of to do was lose their pursuer as fast as possible.
The three ran for nearly twenty minutes before they came to the ocean at the edge of Station Square. The robot was behind them by about four blocks, and was gaining on them. There weren't many places for them to go that they could get the machine off their trail, so it looks like they may have to resort to just a head-on fight after all.
As the still dizzy boy genius began to take his fighting stance, he heard his pink friend yell for him. Turning his head over his right shoulder, he saw Amy pointing at a cylinder elevator of some kind right next to them. It was brown on the outside, and different combinations of blues on the inside. Looking up higher, the fox could see a series of bridge tubes connected and leading to bigger areas. The sign up above had the name Twinkle Park written on it.
"Come on, this way!" Amy cried out.
As Miles made his way over to enter the elevator leading to the theme park along with his female companions, he glanced at a hovering monitor that made his cheeks feel warm when reading the advertisement.
'Cute couples get in for free...' thought Miles as he entered the contraption with the girls. 'Only Amy Rose could come across something like that in a situation like this,' he sighed heavily in his head. 'Is she hoping we can get in because of what the monitor says? She does know that there are three of us here and not just two...right?'
Once the three were lifted to the top, they ran until the bridge led them to two doors; one of them being the real entrance to Twinkle Park. Despite his slightly groggy state, the young fox noticed the door was sealed shut with a detector of some kind in place, which was probably used to see if anyone had enough money to get in. Just as he was preparing himself to ram through it, the door opened all on its own before he even took another step forward. Looking around, Miles saw that Cream was right behind Amy, and therefore the detector couldn't spot the rabbit.
"I wonder why it just opened up all of a sudden?" said Amy, while tilting her head to the side. If she were to take a look to her right she would see a gobsmacked fox staring at her. "I was going to smash through it with my hammer, but this works too."
'I don't know if I should admire her more for not getting distracted by the advertisement, or be disappointed that I was,' thought Miles, just before they all quickly dashed inside the theme park.
What a theme park it was. The place was just massive. There were the usual attractions, such as bumper cars, a race track, and a few small but fast rides. The life size castle with a bunch of rollercoaster tracks going in and out of it no doubt had plenty of other entertainments as well. It's just too bad there wasn't time for any of that.
"Okay, I think we've got a five minute head start," panted Miles. "If we keep moving, we should lose it by the time we leave."
Unfortunately, it wasn't more than five seconds later that a rocket missile hit the ground before their feet. Expecting to see something a little more familiar, Miles looked up and spotted a purple version of the blue robot he fought in Casinopolis. The number on this one read as E-105, making the fox wonder just how many of these things Robotnik has made thus far. This of course was the first time Amy or Cream has seen a robot of this design, and it worried them that there was now another of Robotnik's creation about to cause them all trouble.
"Amy, take Cream and go on without me," said Miles as he got out his gold ring. "I'll take care of this one. I can't promise that I can stop the other one as well, but I can still buy you some time," the hedgehog girl was about to make a protest, but was stopped. "I've already dealt with two others like this one, so I'll be fine. Get going!"
As the girls ran off ahead, Miles took a battle stance. Well...as best as he could at any rate. He was still having some trouble keeping his balance. If he had told Amy that though, then she wouldn't have taken off with the other girl and instead stayed and help him fight. The big green robot would have caught up to them if that had happened, so he had to decline telling his friend about his dizziness. Besides, he shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with another of these E-100 series even in his current condition, right?
The purple robot then jumped down from the roof it had fired from, and landed a few feet in front of the yellow-orange lad. "Surrender all Chaos Emeralds in possession," said the robot with its blaster pointed at him.
"Just how many of you are there?" Miles sighed tiredly.
"E-105 Zeta: fifth and current of the E-100 module machine series," the robot now known as Zeta responded. "Last warning: surrender all Chaos Emeralds in possession."
With only a slight delay, Miles threw his ring at the machine. Unfortunately, his aim was off a little and missed his intended target. Even more unfortunate was that Zeta had manage to fire a rocket missile before the ring could return to the fox's hand, hitting him in the chest and making him skid backwards on his back for a bit. By the time he got back on his feet with his ring back in his hand, another projectile was headed his way. Reacting quickly, he tossed his weapon in the hopes to intercept the oncoming attack with it. The two objects just barely made contact as they began to pass by each other, but it was enough to set off the rocket missile prematurely.
The ring itself had kept going until it hit the tip of the robot's left shoulder before returning to its owner's hand. It was no surprise that there was no damage on the metal soldier from something like that. Miles then decided to take advantage of his own capability of flight, and the machine's lack thereof. It wasn't long before he regretted his decision after he went with it.
'It all seems so hazy,' thought Miles, squinting his eyes to help his focus. With the sight of three purple figures below him, it was suffice to say that it wasn't working. If that wasn't bad enough, the three figures were starting to spin clockwise in a circle together. 'This was a bad idea. I think...I think this is what they call vertigo.'
As he continued to look down, he saw three gray blurry objects from below heading his way. As the objects got closer they started to swirl together. Miles felt like his own eyes were spinning just by watching. Pretty soon though, the three became one, and the boy realized too late what it was he was looking at. The impact to his chest from the rocket missile had caused his entire body to do some backflips in the air against his will. When he had finally stopped moving, he was upside down with his tails still keeping him up in the sky.
Miles lightheadedness was starting to feel worse in this position, and he swore that he could literally feel the blood rushing to his head. He knew that he should right himself back up, but his head just felt so heavy. As he closed his eyes and held his head in an attempt to ease his problem, another projectile had hit him dead center. This time the fox had lost altitude and came crashing down, face first.
"This may be more difficult than I thought," Miles groaned, pushing himself up as the purple machine began to step towards him. He nearly fell on his back when he stood straight up, but he was just barely able to manage to keep himself steady. "Going for a full frontal assault is not an option at the moment," he dug into his fur and pulled out a round gray device. "All I can do now is hope I can aim this close enough and short-circuit it."
He threw the electrorb as hard as he could, and hoped it would land where he needed it to. Miraculously, the orb had managed to clink against Zeta's chest, causing the robot to pause in its movement and look at the small sphere now laying on the ground. Optics and eyes both watched, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, the boy worried and begged for it to be a delay reaction. No such luck.
"And now a full frontal assault has become my only option," said Miles with his eyes widening in surprise and panic.
With the enemy distracted, Miles ran forward and tackled the mechanical adversary. As the machine stumbled back a few steps, the lad had whipped his tails at it, forcing it back even more. Combinations of punches, kicks, and tail whips were thrown at the robot, but they were not as strong or as fast as they usually were. It was only thanks to Zeta's inability to be flexible that Miles was able to land every hit. Unfortunately, his attacks began to slowdown even more to the point he was backhanded by the blaster arm.
Zeta's metal body was covered in a series of dents-the deeper ones no doubt caused by Miles using his ring as a brass knuckle-but none of them were a threat to its existence. The purple robot then changed to its roller mode, and sped towards the fox. The collision caused the boy to be tossed in the air before the machine made a sharp turn around and repeated the process moments before he could hit the ground. This happened again and again, but it was soon turned into a blessing in disguise.
Each time the twin tailed lad was sent flying in the air, he went a bit further and stayed a bit longer before coming back down. It eventually got to the point that he could finally use his current predicament to his advantage. At the newest height he was at, Miles could easily use the force of gravity to increase his coming attack exponentially.
Using his connection with his gold ring, Miles released his grip on the weapon before constantly front-flipping straight down. He held his entire body as straight as he could with his hands raised above his head and clapped together. The ring, inches away from his grasps, followed his movements and then some. Because it often follows the direction the boy guides with his hands due to the link between the item and person, the ring was spinning at a near-blur pace as it moved along with him. If anyone were to look overhead they would swear that he was literally cutting air.
Zeta's scanners couldn't keep up with the movement of the ring, so therefore it went completely unnoticed. If the mechanical foe had noticed, then perhaps it would have stopped its own repetitive attack before getting its head sliced in half. The head was still attached to the body, but it would take at least over an hour before the machine could repair itself and function properly again. With that said, the fight was now over.
"I better catch up with Amy and Cream before that other robot does," Miles panted, his body swaying side-to-side as he staggered along the way. He had seen a green dot passing by on the ground during his descent, but he was hopping it wasn't what he thought it was.
The girls in the meantime were still running through the rest of the park until they saw a big anthropomorphic cat with dark violet fur sitting by the poolside...fishing? Seeing something so random and out of place, the girls couldn't help but stop in their tracks and blink. The two were standing to one side of the feline as he pulled his fishing lure out from the water before casting it in again.
"Umm...what are you doing?" said Amy, already feeling silly for asking something so obvious.
"Fishing..." replied the cat.
"What are you hoping to catch?" said Amy, unsure of what else to say.
"A friend..." stated the cat.
The hedgehog's brain went numb for a moment. That was the last thing she would have expected for an answer. No, scratch that. That's not even an answer she would have expected at all.
"What's your name?" said Cream cheerfully.
"Big.." said the feline as he pulled out his lure before recasting it again after seeing he didn't catch anything with it yet.
'I know there are plenty of people that have names that relate to their physical features, but big...?' thought Amy. She was soon over the weirdness of the name, and put on a more cheerful expression like her little companion. "Nice to meet you, Big. I'm Amy. And this is Cream."
Cream rested her hands together in front of herself before giving a little bow as she smiled politely. "It's very nice to meet you," she said.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, but we have to go," said Amy, grabbing the rabbit girl, and pulling her along.
"Do you think he'll find his friend that way, Amy?" said Cream in pure curiosity. She never heard of anyone being able to fish in a pool before, but she's also never heard of a fox having two tails before either.
"I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were him," said Amy with a bit hesitation. They had put some distance between themselves and this Big fellow, so she wasn't worried about him hearing her comment.
Just then, they heard a big splash, and turned to see a very big bass hanging on the end of the fishing line, struggling as it did so. The cat unhooked it before laying it down and going back to fishing again. Cream had watched this with the curiosity one would expect to find on a child like her, but Amy had to blink several time before her mind could keep up with what she saw.
"Then again...maybe he'll be just fine," said Amy awkwardly.
In mere moments, the green robot from earlier came crashing through one of the walls, and began to give chase. The girls took off in almost the blink of an eye, heading inside the castle to try to get as far away as possible once again. All this, and Big was still just sitting down and fishing for Froggy.
A/N: I really hope I did Cream justice in this chapter. She's a kid whose mother has been kidnapped, so I imagine she would have plenty of reasons to be sad and scared at the moment.
I honestly wasn't sure how I wanted the Miles vs Zeta fight to end, but I think the final results works.
