Chapter 11
"Would you just let go already you pesky rodent!?" shouted Eggman as he guided his hovercraft over the jungle south of Emerald City. Sonic was still hanging onto the side of the craft, despite Eggman's best efforts to shake him loose so far.
"Not gonna happen pal!" shouted Sonic as he held on tight.
"Alright! I've had enough of this!" cried Eggman as he gunned the hovercraft's throttle and pulled back on the controls, sending the hovercraft into a steep climb. He then threw the controls hard to the left, causing the craft to start to rotate around in a circle, rapidly gaining speed as Sonic tried to keep his grip on the craft. Suddenly, Eggman threw the controls hard in the opposite direction, causing the craft to screech to a stop and start spinning hard to the right. As it began to perform the maneuver, Sonic finally lost his grip on the craft, dropping into a clearing directly below them where a massive stone temple was erected amide several stone pathways. "Haha! That did it!" shouted Eggman. But as he tried to get the craft back under control, he realized that it was spinning too wildly to regain control. Letting loose a cry of terror, Eggman did the only thing he could do. He cut power to the engines, realizing he'd have to wait for the craft to stop spinning as crazily as it was before he could regain control. He did a few calculations in his head, realizing that his current trajectory would take him somewhere near the eastern edge of Emerald City. As Eggman's craft flew away, Sonic watched its out of control flight through the tops of the trees till it was out of sight.
"Well, at least he won't cause a problem for a little while," said Sonic. Suddenly, a ball of pink light flew down in front of him, startling him. What in the world is that thing? he thought to himself as he watched the ball dance around in front of him for a few seconds before it started heading in the direction of the front of the temple. It then stopped and stood still, as if waiting on something. Sonic then heard a whisper of a female voice in the back of his mind. Follow me. There is something you must see, my friend, whispered the voice. Sonic shook his head, wondering if he was just hearing things. But the ball of light started to move once again towards the entrance to the temple. "Okay…I guess I'll follow you," said Sonic as he started walking after the ball of light as it started following the temple steps up to the entrance, coming to a stop as Sonic began climbing the same steps after it. As he reached the entrance, the ball immediately took off into the interior of the temple. Sonic watched the ball as it flew deeper into the temple, walking inside after it. The entire inside of the temple was lit up by torches, which Sonic wondered how that was possible considering that the outside of the temple looked to be thousands of years old and there was no one he knew of living around the area. Then he recalled that the pyramids on Floating Island also held similar torches that had been lit for countless centuries according to what Knuckles had told them last year.
"Wait up!" he hollered at the ball as it raced around a corner. Sonic took off at a run, racing around the same corner as he entered a giant open room. Pools of water were on both sides of the room, with a single bridge stretching the distance of the entrance to the room to a small platform on the far side. Sonic watched as the ball of light flew down the bridge, coming to a stop at the far end. Sonic walked out onto the bridge, looking at his surroundings. Various carvings were etched into the walls, while some places held small murals depicting various scenes on them. As he reached the end of the bridge, the ball of light flew up at the wall in front of him, illuminating a giant mural that dwarfed the others.
"What in the world is that thing?" Sonic asked himself as he stared up at the giant mural. It depicted what appeared to be a giant sea dragon rising out of the ocean and destroying what appeared to be a city. As he stared at it, he realized that for some reason, the sea dragon looked vaguely familiar to him, but he had no idea why. Without warning, the ball of light flew down in front of his face and exploded in a flash of light. "Hey, what-?" was all Sonic was able to say before the light swallowed him up. When the light had faded, Sonic was gone.
Just outside of the Emerald's Glow hotel, Tails finally touched down on the city sidewalks, letting Amy down as he landed alongside of Gamma. The trio had finally arrived back in the city after traveling more than a mile over ocean where the Egg Carrier had been about to take its final plunge into the ocean.
"Thanks for the lift Tails," said Amy, turning around and giving Tails a hug, which caused the young fox to jump slightly as he hadn't expected the gesture.
"Sure thing Amy," said Tails, rubbing the back of his head as Amy released the hug. "Anyways…What are you planning to do, Gamma," he asked, looking up at the robot. Gamma had been silent the whole trip, not revealing any of the thoughts that had been going through his AI matrix for the last thirty minutes during their flight.
"Unknown. I know now that Dr. Eggman is an enemy to the E-series robots, so I deleted his master registration from my memory," said Gamma.
"So does that mean you don't want anything to do with him anymore?" asked Amy.
"Correct. However, I do not know what to do now," said Gamma. Hearing this, Amy smiled as she took ahold of Gamma's hand.
"It'll be okay. You can come home with me," said Amy happily.
"Uh…You sure that's a good idea Amy?" asked Tails, suddenly having a bad scenario play out in his mind of Amy bringing a combat robot home with her.
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything to my parents," said Amy. "So is that alright with you Gamma?"
"That will suffice for now," said Gamma.
"Then it's settled," said Amy as she started walking in the direction of her apartment complex, Gamma following after her.
"Just be sure to let your parents know he's on our side now," called Tails after the two of them, Amy responding by waving her hand a few times as they continued to walk away. As Tails watched the two go around the corner and out of his view, he sighed. "Well, looks like this whole mess is finally over with," he said under his breath. Suddenly, the sound of metal hitting concrete caught his attention as he looked down the street to see Eggman's hovercraft bouncing down the street. That's Eggman! I thought Sonic made sure he wouldn't be back! thought Tails as he ran into an alleyway and out of Eggman's sight. He peered around the corner as the hovercraft finally came to rest on its side along the sidewalk.
"Curse that annoying Sonic!" shouted Eggman as he tried to get the dizziness to lessen after having ridden the hovercraft's madly spinning ride into the city, falling miserably as he fell out of the craft. Tails watched as Eggman stood up, then knelt down to the ground, looking like he was about to vomit. After a nearly twenty seconds, he finally gathered himself before righting the craft and hopping back in. "Okay…So Chaos failed me and the Egg Carrier is ruined…At this point, I've got no choice."
"What in the world is he talking about," whispered Tails under his breath. He watched Eggman punch in a few commands into the hovercraft, then turn it out towards the sea. Tails followed the hovercraft's line of sight, suddenly gasping at what he saw rising out of a small island off in the distance. Please don't tell me he's really gonna fire that thing!? shouted Tails mind as he stared at a giant missile rising out of the island.
"Adieu, Emerald City! Soon, you will be transformed from rubble into New Robotropolis!" laughed Eggman as he hit the ignition button for the missile. By now, people had lined up along the sidewalks as they stared at the missile, everyone letting out a cry of terror as it launched from the island.
"He didn't!?" shouted Tails, watching with horror as the missile fly by overhead. He crouched down and placed his hands over his head in a futile gesture to shield himself from the blast. A few seconds later, he could feel the tremor wave that the missile had caused from hitting the city. But as seconds passed and he realized that he had not died a fiery death, he cautiously stood back up and looked back towards Eggman to see the doctor throwing a fit.
"Oh of all the lousy, cheap pieces of junk!" shouted Eggman as he slammed his fists into the hovercraft's controls.
"By the heavens of Mobius…It was a dud!" cried Tails, realizing that the missile had failed to detonate when it had impacted with the city. People all around were looking around in stunned disbelief, realizing that their lives had been spared by a freak chance of luck.
"Fine! I'll do this the hard way! I'll just go to the missile and set it to manually detonate!" cried Eggman, gunning the hovercraft's controls.
"Oh no!" cried Tails as Eggman's hovercraft took off towards the middle of the city. Where's Sonic at? He should be here to stop him! he thought to himself as he watched Eggman's craft go over the top of a nearby building and out of sight. Suddenly, it occurred to Tails that there was no time to wait for Sonic to hopefully show up in time to stop him. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Tails walked out from the alleyway. Alright…There's no telling if Sonic will show up this time. I have to take the initiative and try and beat Eggman to the missile. I might be the only one that can stop him! he thought as he twirled his tails together and took to the air. As he cleared the building, he spotted the missile sticking out of an office building near the center of the city. He also noticed that Eggman had a head start on him.
"Okay…He'll spot me for sure if I fly straight in his direction. And once he sees me the race is on. However…If I fly around the buildings, below his line of sight, I just might beat him there without him even suspecting I'm trying to beat him there," said Tails, taking off as he flew down below the skyline of the city, racing around the buildings as he headed towards the missile. Praying against hope that he was fast enough, Tails poured on as much speed as he could muster out of his twirling tails as he flew deeper into the city limits. As he rounded one final building, he finally came upon the missile, realizing that he had indeed beaten Eggman to it. Landing on top of the missile, he opened the control hatch on the side, looking at the complex wiring underneath it. "Oh man…This thing looks like it'll be a lot tougher to stop than I thought…" he said under his breath. Taking a quick glance up, he noticed that Eggman's hovercraft was closing in fast, and he could see the doctor flailing his arms about madly. Tails returned his attention to the wiring, going over in his mind similar schematics that he had studied a while back. As he studied the missile's workings, a crowd had begun to gather below on the city streets, including the local news station that operated out of a building just down the street.
"Get away from my missile you little brat!" shouted Eggman's voice as he came within shouting range of Tails. Realizing his time was up, Tails grasped the wire he thought was the correct one, closed his eyes tight, and yanked hard. As the wire was pulled out of missiles inner workings, Tails waited with baited breath as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Daring to open his eyes, he stared at the wire he now held in his fingers, a nervous smile etching its way onto his face as the realization that he had indeed pulled the correct wire out hit him. His smile quickly turning into a fit of nervous laughter, he looked over at Eggman as the hovercraft came within twenty yards of the missile and stopped, a furious Eggman glaring back at him.
"So you managed to disarm my missile you little pest," hissed Eggman. "Still, don't think this is over. I always have a backup plan in place." Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard coming from down the street. Tails and the rest of the gathered crowd all turned to the noise to see a giant four legged walker robot leaping from rooftop to rooftop, heading in their direction. The walker was equipped with two rocket launchers on each side of the central pod. As the walker reached the missile's landing spot, it jumped down off the roof of the building it was on, landing in the middle of the street as people started running inside buildings to get away from it. The only humans brave or foolish enough to stay outside were the news reporters. Eggman laughed as he landed his hovercraft into the fitting socket on the central pod as Tails flew down to the street below.
"Now then, you annoying little ball of fur. I'll give you one chance to save your own hide. Away with you, before I make you my first victim," said Eggman, looking down at Tails as the two tailed fox stared up at the giant walker.
"I'm not scared…"whispered Tails under his breath. Gathering every last ounce of his courage, he pointed up at Eggman, his face full reflecting how serious he was at the moment. "Eggman! I won't let you wreck this city! I may not be as strong as Sonic or Knuckles, but I'll bet I can still hold my own against you! Bring it on!" Eggman stared back in shock as the double tailed fox made his proclamation, never having guessed that the young mobian would actually stand his ground against such overwhelming odds.
"Very well then, Tails. If you truly think you can stand up to my Egg Walker, then let's see you do it!" cried Eggman as he pointed the rocket launchers at Tails, firing them both at the young fox. Tails quickly took to the air, barely getting out of the blast range of the rockets as they slammed into the city street, blowing chunks of asphalt everywhere. Tails then dive bombed the central pod, delivering a solid kick to it, causing the walker to lurch to the side slightly. However, it quickly recovered, the pod training its rocket launchers towards the flying fox.
"Okay…That didn't work very well," said Tails under his breath as he watched another pair of rockets get launched from the weapon emplacements. Dodging both of them, Tails retreated further down the city street.
"Hahaha! You honestly didn't think this would be a walk in the park, did you?" laughed Eggman as the walker started stomping towards him.
"Sonic's always said that Eggman's machines always have some kind of weakness. I just need to figure out what this one's is and fast," said Tails to himself as he studied the walker as it tromped towards him. Then an idea hit him. Those legs are holding the central pod in place, and as long as the legs aren't damaged, any attacks I make on the central pod won't bring it down. But if the legs couldn't support the pod anymore, that could bring the whole thing crashing down, thought Tails. "Yep. It's my only chance."
"What's wrong Tails? Giving up so easily?" asked Eggman as the walker reached the young fox, who up to this point hadn't made any attempts to get out of the walker's way. Tails held his ground as the front left leg of the walker rose up and started dropping to land on his head. But at the last second, Tails leapt backwards as hard as he could, just missing getting squashed by the leg. As soon as his feet touched ground, he rebounded as fast as he could, covering the distance between him and the leg before the leg could move. Twirling his body around as fast as he could, he slammed both of his tails hard into the middle of the leg of the walker, the leg's frame crumpling inwards as walker started to tip over towards the now imbalanced leg. But Eggman managed to get the craft back under control moments before it toppled, the walker slowly regaining its balance.
"I'll make you pay for that fox!" shouted Eggman. But he wouldn't get out another threat as Tails flew around to the back left leg and repeated his attack on it. Once again, the walker started to fall towards the ground, Eggman struggling to keep the craft from falling over, barely catching it before it fell. But it would prove to be enough damage to end it, as Tails flew high into the air and dove straight at the central pod, twirling his body around as fast as he could as he flew at it, his tails connecting solidly with the central pod. This time, the pod had no good legs to stabilize itself from the blow. Eggman began cursing as loud as he could as the walker slowly started tipping over, quickly gaining momentum as its center of balance had nowhere left to go as the walker crashed to the city streets. Eggman quickly detached his hovercraft from the pod, flying away from the wreck just seconds before it exploded in a shower of metal pieces.
"You will pay dearly for crossing me you two tailed pipsqueak! Next time, you're mine!" shouted Eggman as his craft flew off into the twilight of the evening, heading for the jungle.
Realizing the danger was over, people began pouring out of the buildings, rushing over to thank the two tailed hero. Realizing that he was about to get mobbed, Tails quickly twirled his twin tails together and took to the air, hovering over the city streets as people continued to shout praises towards him. It was then that the realization of what had just transpired hit him.
"I did it…I actually did it!" cried Tails to himself as he hovered in place in disbelief of what had just happened. "I did it all by myself, without Sonic or anyone else around to help me out!" He then started heading off in the direction of the Emerald's Glow hotel, figuring it would be the best place to wait around for Sonic to get back from whatever it was he was doing. Oh man…Sonic's never gonna believe me when I tell him what just happened, thought Tails with a smile as he flew off into the evening.
Sonic groaned as he rubbed his eyes, trying to get them to adjust after having just been flashed with the burst of light from the pink light ball. As his eyes recovered, he realized it was now night and he was no longer inside the temple, but rather the jungle. As he looked about, there was a soft orange glow coming from just beyond the tree lines of the jungle he was in that caught his eyes.
"Where the heck am I at?" said Sonic to himself as he walked out of the jungle and into a clearing. A river ran through the clearing with a stone bridge erected over it. At the end of the bridge was an altar of sorts, but something was definitely wrong. The whole altar was ablaze with flames, which puzzled Sonic as to why this was the case seeing as how the structure looked to be made from stone. It was then he spotted someone standing at the foot of the altar. Maybe they know what's going on around here, thought Sonic, racing across the bridge. But as he reached the other side, he came to a halt, having just noticed something he hadn't been able to see from across the bridge. Strewn all across the grounds of the altar were the lifeless bodies of dozens of chao. "What in the world happened here?" he asked himself as he started to walk in the direction of the mobian standing at the foot of the altar. As he got closer to the person, he realized it was an echidna girl standing there. She was holding her arm in pain, looking off in the distance.
"Why did this have to happen?" she cried, looking off into the distance. Sonic raised an eyebrow after hearing the echidna speak. For some reason, her voice sounded familiar to him. She then looked over at Sonic, her face taking on an angry glare. "You should never have let him go, Artemis!"
"Let who go? What are you talking about and who is Artemis?" asked Sonic, walking towards the girl. As he got a good look at her face, he realized it also looked familiar to him. But as to why, he had no idea.
"I have to stop this right now!" shouted the girl as she started running up the stairs of the altar.
"Hey! Don't go in there, you'll be cooked alive!" shouted Sonic. But it was too late as the girl had already made it up the stairs and had passed through the flames. Suddenly, a blast of white light exploded from the altar, Sonic shielding his eyes as the light engulfed him.
As the light faded and Sonic's eyes readjusted once again, he realized he was back in the middle of the jungle. The twilight of the early evening had given way to full on night time, the stars twinkling above his head through the treetops.
"Just what in the world is going on? Who was that girl and why do I feel like I've seen her before?" asked Sonic under his breath. Suddenly, a familiar noise caught his ear, causing him to look up through the trees just in time to see Eggman's hovercraft go flying by overhead. Whatever's going on, I can figure it out later. I'm betting Eggman has some kind of base out here somewhere, and he'll lead me right to it without him even knowing, thought Sonic, a grin forming on his face as he took off after the craft. After following Eggman for nearly ten minutes, Sonic screeched to a stop as he came to the edge of the same clearing Knuckles had been in earlier that morning. Suddenly, the ground opened up as the secret hanger opened up, allowing Eggman to fly his craft inside. "Bingo," said Sonic to himself as he ran over to the edge of the opening, peering down inside. Now devoid of the giant airship that had once adorned its space, Sonic could see that only a handful of cleaning robots were bustling about the floor of the hanger. Spying Eggman's craft enter an alcove near the top of the far end wall, Sonic realized he wouldn't get to him without going through the lower levels of the base first.
"Well, no time like the present to make an entrance," said Sonic as he hopped down into the hanger, landing in the center of it. All the cleaning robots turned to the sound of the hedgehog hitting the metal floor, each one immediately letting out a high pitched cry to inform the base of an intruder. Sonic groaned and held his hands up to his ears, trying to block out the sound. "Cut it out you loud mouths!" he shouted before dashing towards the nearest one, curling into a spindash as he barreled the robot over, the machine's cries going silent. Sonic then zipped around the hanger, disabling each of the robots as fast as he could. As the final one fell to his attacks, he came to a stop. "Well, safe to say Eggman knows I'm here now." As if on cue, speakers crackled to life inside of the hanger.
"As if I wasn't already having a bad enough evening, now you decide to crash into my hidden base," said Eggman's voice over the speakers. "Well, as luck would have it, I anticipated such an event occurring, seeing as how it always seems to happen. As such, I've got a little surprise in store for you Sonic."
"Oh yeah? Another one of your mechs I'm guessing?" asked Sonic, shaking his head at the thought.
"Not quite. I have an old friend that's been waiting to have some fun with you," said Eggman's voice.
"Really? And who would that be?" asked Sonic.
"Let's just say it's someone I'm sure you'll remember quite well who you barely managed to survive against the first time you met," said Eggman's voice over the speakers.
"Well, I'll be interested to see who you have up your sleeve," said Sonic before running out of the hanger and into the first level of the base.
Back at the command center for the hidden base, Eggman cursed to himself as he walked out of the control room and into his laboratory. I was hoping to have more time to prepare him, but Sonic's forced my hand. I'll just have to hope that the modifications I made to him will stand up to that hedgehog, lest he wind up destroying the whole base, though Eggman as he walked up next to a tube containing what appeared to be a robian hedgehog. But unlike robians, the robot was decked out for combat. Razor sharp claws tipped its fingertips while a laser cannon was imbedded in its right wrist. Thrusters were attached to its feet, as well as a wheel on the back of each of its ankles.
"Time to awaken, mecha bot one. You're old playmate has come a calling and I need you to defend the base from him," said Eggman as he opened the tube, the robot's orange, fly-like eyes lighting up as the robot powered on. "Now go forth and destroy that miserable hedgehog once and for all!"
"I'm glad my parents were very understanding of this situation," said Amy as she walked into her room. Gamma followed in after her, closing the door behind him. "I was worried what they'd think bringing you home with me."
"You have a nice family," said Gamma. The Flicky bird had also followed Amy home, the blue feathered friend resting on one of the posts of Amy's twin bed.
"Thank you Gamma," said Amy, smiling as she sat on her bed, switching on the TV on the nightstand at the foot of the bed. "Now the real question is what are we going to do with you? You can't live with me forever. After all, my parents said this was only temporary till we found you another home."
"I have been processing suitable outcomes. However, I have come to the same immediate thing to do each time," said Gamma.
"What would that be?" asked Amy, looking up at the robot curiously.
"The last of the E-series robots must be freed from Eggman's control. My older brother, Beta…He is still aboard the Egg Carrier. I must free him," said Gamma.
"There's another robot just like you out on the Egg Carrier? But it's probably deep under the ocean by now," said Amy.
"Unlikely. The Egg Carrier's design allows for landings in aquatic environments. It is probable that when it crashed into the ocean that it was merely left adrift at sea," said Gamma.
"So you're going to go back there?" asked Amy.
"I am," said Gamma.
"If that is what you feel you must do, then I'm behind you one hundred percent," said Amy. She then turned to look at the Flicky. "The other question is what to do with you? I would've figured your family would've come looking for you at some point." She gently took the pendant that was around the Flicky's neck and opened it up. Inside was a small picture of the young Flicky being flanked on either side by a pink and gray Flicky that were both slightly bigger than the blue Flicky.
"Actually, I have a theory concerning this Flicky," said Gamma.
"What would that be?" asked Amy, returning her attention to Gamma.
"Dr. Eggman implanted the E-series robots with Flickies, each one of us robots being powered by one Flicky apiece," said Gamma. Hearing that, Amy cupped her hands over her mouth.
"That's horrible! Only Eggman would use defenseless animals in such a way," said Amy. Suddenly, her eyes opened wide as she realized the full extent of what Gamma had just told her. "Wait a minute…That means…You have one inside you as well?"
"It does," said Gamma, looking down. "While I value my existence, I do not like the thought of imprisoning a living being inside of me to continue functioning. Especially when I believe it is possible that the Flickies powering both myself and Beta might be this Flicky's family members."
"Do you think Tails can make it so you don't have to use the Flicky as a power source?" asked Amy.
"Unknown," said Gamma. "Regardless, I am returning to the Egg Carrier tomorrow to save the Flicky inside of Beta. Then we will worry about the one inside of me," said Gamma.
"I'm going to go with you, Gamma," said Amy, her face turning serious.
"No. I will go alone. Beta has been upgraded since I first met him. It is possible he will overpower me, and if he does, he may come after you. I do not wish that to happen," said Gamma.
"Oh…Alright," said Amy, her face turning sullen. "Still, I'm gonna go ask Tails about finding a way to get the Flicky out of you as soon as we can."
"I appreciate it," said Gamma. Amy gave him a smile, but she turned her attention to the TV after the mentioning of Dr. Eggman came through over speakers. "Oh my gosh! Is that Tails!?" cried Amy, the TV news station showing footage captured only a handful of minutes before now of Tails battling Eggman's Egg Walker.
"Unfortunately, at this time we have no news as to the identity of this mysterious mobian boy who valiantly took on Dr. Eggman to save our city not only from a life threatening missile, but to destroy the robot that came soon afterwards," said the female news reporter. "A reward is being offered by Mayor Pepper to anyone who can provide him with the identity of the boy."
"Wow…I never knew Tails was so brave. He's changed a lot since I was living with him and Sonic. Good for him," said Amy, watching as the news moved on to another topic. "I'm going to have to meet up with him and Sonic tomorrow." Then another thought crossed her mind. One that she had put to the back of her mind ever since it had happened. She looked up at Gamma. "You know, I wonder if either of them would know anything about those visions the two of us saw."
"I assume there is no harm in asking," said Gamma.
"I'll bring it up to them tomorrow," said Amy, suddenly noticing what time is was on her alarm clock. "Oh my. It's already nine thirty. I need to get ready for bed."