Chapter 12
Counterstrike
Westopolis burned. Tails couldn't believe his eyes. Marine was also in shock. The Tornado flew over the city as soldiers herded civilians to safety.
"Seeing this, you almost expect Godzilla to come around a corner or something," Tails said to himself as he piloted the blue biplane.
"Who's Godzilla?" Marine asked from behind him.
"Just the star of one of the most successful monster movie series on Earth," Tails replied with a smile. He really enjoyed the Godzilla movies. He just hoped that the others would get back soon. From the looks of things, G.U.N was going to need all the help they could get.
Sonic skidded to a halt. Rouge and the Babylon Rogues were right behind him. Wave didn't look happy for some reason. Then again, seeing an entire city on fire didn't help things much. Sonic had seen the devastation caused by the Black Arms invasion a couple years ago, but from the looks of things, this was much worse.
"So, we gonna help or what?" Rouge asked sarcastically. She already knew the answer.
Without saying anything, Sonic blasted off towards the city, intent on stopping Iblis' army before anyone else could be harmed.
Knuckles and Blaze were cornered. At least twelve lava monsters had them pinned. It didn't take them long to figure out that the violet cat was pyrokinetic, and they changed tactics accordingly. Blaze gritted her teeth. There were too many fireballs flying at them. She couldn't stop them all. It was her idea to take cover behind this wall. The problem was that it was at the end of a dead end alley. Knuckles growled something under his breath. The red echidna couldn't get close enough to take them out. Blaze looked around, getting an idea. She knew that she couldn't fight them off.
"What are you doing?" Knuckles asked.
"Hopefully, calling for help," Blaze replied.
With a gesture, Blaze shot some flames from one of the fireballs up into the air. She was going to use them like a flare, hopefully attracting someone's attention. The makeshift flare cleared the buildings, and Blaze made another gesture. The flare expanded violently before dissipating.
She was about to do it again when a blue blur suddenly started blasting through the attacking lava monsters. The creatures turned to deal with the new threat, but dealing with a supersonic blue hedgehog was easier said than done. The last monster exploded, and Sonic the Hedgehog skidded to a halt.
"Show off," Knuckles said.
"Nice to see you too," Sonic replied. Blaze stood up. Her normally clean fur was smudged with soot and dirt, a fact that irritated her even though she didn't show it.
"Did you…" Blaze started to ask.
Sonic pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald, answering her question. He also explained that the others were helping G.U.N. in other parts of the city.
"We'd better get moving," Knuckles said, "This place is still crawling with bad guys."
Tails banked as a flying creature tried to blast the Tornado with a fireball. Marine ducked down in her seat, trying to make herself as small as possible. The two-tailed pilot evaded another attack, then lined up the monster in his sights. The twin cannons lit up, firing energy-shrouded rounds into the bird like monster, ripping it to flaming shreds. The Tornado flew through the resulting explosion, unfazed by the blast. More of the flaming birds dove at the plane, intent on burning it out of the sky. Tails saw them coming and, much to Marine's discomfort, barrel rolled to evade. It was then that Tails saw it. A massive creature, almost like a tank, bearing down on a group of soldiers.
"Hold on Marine!" Tails called back over his shoulder.
"Incoming!"
Sgt. Deunan Valeri dove for cover as a large fireball slammed into the ground. The large, flaming monster had come out of nowhere and started blasting everything in sight.
"We need Anti-Armor up here!"
Whatever this thing was, it wasn't playing around. Deunan fired off another burst from her assault rifle. She then heard what sounded like a plane engine. Looking up, she saw a blue biplane open fire on the flaming beast. The rest of the unit cheered. There was only one pilot that they knew of who flew a blue biplane. Deunan watched as a pair of missiles leapt from the Tornado and slam into the beast. Fireballs shot out in an attempt to knock out the offending aircraft. She then noticed that there were several of those "Phoenix" creatures chasing it. Deunan watched in horror as one of them slammed into the Tornado, sheering off one set of wings. The plane spun out of control before slamming into the ground in front of the beast.
"Covering Fire!" Deunan shouted to the rest of her squad. "Take that thing out!"
Tails shook his head. At least he managed to keep from crashing into a building. Marine moaned behind him. That was a good sign, another survivor. Grabbing the spirit sword, Tails climbed out of the Tornado. Gunfire erupted from behind him as the soldiers that he tried to help opened up on the large creature that towered over him. It reared back as rockets slammed into its face. Thinking fast, Tails grabbed Marine and made a mad dash for cover. Marine's eyes widened as she saw the massive creature.
"Crieky! That's HUGE!" she exclaimed as Tails continued to pull her away. The creature exploded, throwing everybody to the ground. Tails picked himself up off the ground, and came face to face with another lava monster. It extended its arm, and a flaming sword burst into existence.
"Marine, get out of here," Tails said, gripping the spirit sword in both hands. Marine didn't argue. She bolted, heading for the soldiers. Tails sized up his opponent, thinking that he was in way over his head. The lava monster charged at the young fox, sword raised. Tails jumped to the side, slashing with his sword as it passed. The monster turned and threw a fireball. Thinking fast, Tails blocked it with the blade of his sword, then took to the air.
Marine looked back at Tails. He was fighting one of those creatures with a sword.
"You ok?"
Marine turned, and saw a human female in full combat gear. She nodded, looking back at her friend.
Sonic saw the Tornado get hit, and ran to the crash site. He arrived in time to see Tails start a fight with one of Iblis' goons. So far, the young kit was holding his own. Sonic narrowed his eyes when he noticed another creature trying to sneak up behind Tails. With a smile, Sonic dashed off to join the brawl.
Tails blocked another strike, still unable to get passed its guard. There was a sudden gust of wind, followed by an explosion behind him.
"I'll handle the rest of these losers," Sonic said.
Tails smiled, then concentrated on his opponent. After another failed attack, Tails got an idea. The spirit sword had a split blade design. He dodged another attack as he formulated a plan in his head.
"Tails! Watch out!"
The lava monster kicked him in the chest, sending Tails to the ground. It raised its sword over its head, preparing for the final stroke. The flaming blade came down.
CLANG!!!
It worked. At the last second, Tails thrust his sword up, catching the incoming blade with his own. With a twist, the creature's sword was yanked out of its hand. Tails followed with a quick slash, splitting the monster in half, exploding as it went.
"You ok Tails?" Sonic asked as he approached.
"Yea," he replied, "How are the others?"
"We got the emeralds. Now all we need to do is find Amy, and get to Atlantis."
Marine came running up to the pair, followed by a human soldier. Tails asked if she was all right, only to get a hyper reenactment of his fight from the young raccoon. Yup, Marine was just fine. Sonic still didn't know how they were gonna get to Atlantis, especially now that the Tornado was out of action.
"Thanks for the help," the soldier said. "I don't think we would have lasted much longer without you."
"Anytime," Sonic replied.
"I'm Sgt. Deunan Valeri. Thanks to you guys, we just secured Westopolis. If there's anything I can do to help…"
"As a matter of fact, there is."
"So you're saying that this is the source of the attack?"
Everyone gathered around a table in the forward command post as the G.U.N. commander looked over the image of Atlantis. Sonic and Tails both nodded. The others remained silent. Blaze finally spoke up.
"Iblis is using Atlantis as a base, and we need to get there. Unfortunately, we don't have a way to get there."
The commander thought about it for a moment. He couldn't spare any assets on an attack on this mysterious city. However, he did have a group of volunteers standing in front of him. Besides, they seem to know more about what was going on than he did.
"Sgt. Valeri, I want you to give them a quick rundown on jumping," he said, turning to the young woman that had brought Sonic and his friends here. "I'll see to it that we have a C-130 prepped and ready by the time you reach Nellis."
"Yes sir," Sgt. Valeri said, snapping off a salute.
"Jumping? What does that mean?" Knuckles asked.
"I think it means that we're gonna fly over Atlantis and, using parachutes, drop inside the city," Tails said.
"Wait a minute. Parachutes? Are we going to be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?" Knuckles exclaimed, looking a little nervous.
"That'll be ripper!" Marine shouted, not understanding what was going on.
"Not this time Marine," Sonic said, pointing at the raccoon. "It's too dangerous."
"What'cha mean 'it's too dangerous'? I wanna go!"
"Marine, we're going to be facing a powerful being that can control fire even better than I can. We can't take out Iblis if we have to worry about protecting you at the same time," Blaze explained.
"Orright, I'll stay on the plane," Marine finally said.
AN: Sorry for the long delay in updating. Got distracted by real life stuff. PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
Kaylee: I forgive you Rattler.
Rattler: Thank you.
Kaylee: But the readers...
Rattler: *Offers big batch of cyber cookies* Forgive me?
Kaylee: On a side note, Rattler knows that part with Tails using the split blade design of his sword like that is highly unlikely, but makes for a good action scene anyway.
