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MadameMirage77: Hey again, thanks for your comment! And so far nope, no Rough and Tumble (I mean maybe later on but they'd be rly minor characters in that case) and no Fiona either. Regarding Amy though: I know! And there has been a few portrayals of her that were rly good, and I just – she could be great. (I don't rly have a problem with Boom!Amy tbh but I haven't watched season 2 so hmm) Thanks for sticking by! And cliffhangers are good ;)
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"Chemical Plant is down."
Tails cheers internally and continues typing. Sometimes it feels as if typing and coding are the only things he's good for, but then again, no one else is actually any good at it apart from Tekno or Espio, maybe Rouge, so he's the leading expert here on something. Also an expert on repairs, spaceships, coffee-chugging for children, and working for 20 hours in a row – thankfully Sonic doesn't know what kind of hours Tails held before they got him back. He'd take it as his big-brotherly duties to chew him out for it…
-At least it won't take long to dismantle the defense system of the Death Egg now that Chemical Plant is down. And speaking of Sonic: he better get down to the hangar now if he isn't already there… but first: "Any word from Amy or Fog?"
"Fog said that they'll be returning with the ships to space as soon as possible, but there's been no messages from Amy…" Tekno trails off. They stare at each other.
"She'll call soon, she's probably just occupied right now." Tails knows that, logically, she is almost certainly busy right now. Chemical Plant is still dangerous even if all the tech is shut down – heck, she could be trapped somewhere! Or a hundred other terrible fates that Tails is not allowed to consider at this moment, because if they don't get Sonic to the Death Egg in time then they'll all be in big trouble and then they'll be of no use to anybody…
Just work. It's just a few lines more, and then…
-[Shutdown complete]
It's up to you now, Sonic.
Nearby…
The lightshow battle rages on outside of ARK, with Sonic watching impatiently (let me do something!) through a window after having been summoned down to the hangar. The main floors had been crowded and buzzing with frantic activity and panic – and down here it's just Sonic… oh, and that one mechanic lady who told him to shut up and is now preparing one of the smaller ships that came without weapons, and therefore weren't of any use. (Unless you just want to try and leave the ARK in a mad rush and hope for the best…)
The elevator hisses behind Sonic. He turns excitedly, expecting the pilot but instead seeing- "Rouge?"
"Oh don't look so shocked," says the bat herself, strolling into the hangar. "I know how to pilot."
"Well let's go then, c'mon." Sonic practically bounces over to their ship, where the busy mechanic lady looks up and huffs. She slams an open panel shut with a bang and says,
"No weapons, no anythin'. Watch out or get toasted."
"Got it," says Rouge with a mock-salute. "Stupid you guys don't have more armed ships..."
"We can't all be Tails," Sonic replies absently, slipping inside the ship. The interior is all in shades of blue, and when he looks closer the controls indicate the ship originally came from Apotos, though obviously there's been a bunch of modifications made. There's room for the pilot, one more, and some cargo – and already there are some crates stacked there, and when Sonic goes snooping, they're full of those bombs Rouge uses. Aha.
"How do these things even work?" Sonic holds one of the bombs up as Rouge climbs inside.
"You press on the heart and then they'll blow in a few seconds." Sonic stares and Rouge smirks. "Don't worry, I modified these. They'll blow in fifteen minutes after activation."
"…Five minutes would be enough."
"Don't fucking tempt fate."
They get into their seats. Rouge starts the engine and the dashboard display comes online, telling them that there's no weather in space and exclaiming that it can't find any maps of the area and is not sure whether this place actually exists, please try again. Rouge slams a button and the display shuts down.
The massive hangar doors start to slide open, showing darkness and stars and an explosion of red against a shimmering blue barrier.
-It's crazy how many people that've been roped into this. When the world split apart Sonic was the first and last line of defense, and now they've got whole towns' worth of people with them, even more on the surface. They've got people out in those ships holding off Eggman's fleet from reaching ARK, a space colony also full of their people – like wow. The resistance really grew while he waited for his execution, and now he's making decisions that could affect thousands of people – while those people watch him make them.
Sonic isn't sure where he's going with this. He's no good at following orders, going solo would be better. Just that – it'd be so much easier to go solo. So much less in the balance. It'd be easy, it'd be fast and fun and reckless and none of his friends would follow him (except Tails), and then he'd die.
Then Infinite would kill him.
(then what about Tails?)
-Rouge yanks a lever and the ship abruptly shoots out of the hangar, and she takes them flying below the ARK, where all the railings and whatnot still hang around. Sonic remembers how Knuckles once made them crash right here because of his damn Master Emerald pieces and grins to himself, Rouge making the ship blast off toward the shield while swearing quietly about the constructions. (and it's not bad being part of a group, Sonic thinks. Even a drifter longs for home when it's storming)
Anyway, power-of-friendship talk aside, Sonic harbors a personal hate for the Death Egg and blowing that ugly excuse of a space station out of the sky is going to be a pleasure. Just, if it was only him then it wouldn't have been as much as a duty as it is now. So that's – something he thinks about and gets uncomfortable about when he's got any time to think. Like how he really wants to blow the Death Egg up, but also he really doesn't want to return there, so-
"Hold on big blue," Rouge warns, seconds before sending their ship flying through the shield surrounding ARK, "Space battle up ahead."
Missiles shoot past them and an explosion blooms just as they're swerving around two smaller Egg Fleet ships, projectiles following them through a cloud of dust. Sonic sits on the edge of his seat with his fingers itching for the controls, remembering how it was to ride the Tornado back on Mobius-
An explosion rocks one of the largest Egg Fleet ships which is right ahead of them, and chunks of metal the size of cars splinter off and block their path. Rouge makes their ship roll to the side, but something still smacks into them and Sonic can do nothing but grit his teeth as the ship's interior lighting goes from blue to alarming red.
"C'mon, c'mon…"
Rouge makes a loop while trying to avoid a missile, and almost dives straight into another ship. The view from the window becomes a blur of black and red as she takes the ship through a series of spinning manoeuvres to avoid crashing into the enemy fleet, at last pulling them out of the mess and darting away. And then suddenly the Death Egg is basically right up in their face and Sonic stops cheering.
Their ship flies closer, now out of the way from any weapons fire. Sonic and Rouge stare out at the space station, looming and dark. And without any defense.
-for as much introspection as Sonic had time to whine about, it sure would be a shame if he now got himself killed here. Caution is key, eh?
They slip in through an open hangar entrance, landing without any trouble. Inside the Death Egg the lights are all dimmed, and after Rouge has killed the engine an eerie quiet reigns…
"…So how do we do this?"
"Just grab some bombs and head to the heart of this place. I'll wait with the ship."
"Well alright then." Sonic removes his seatbelt and goes to grab himself some bombs. So he's got fifteen minutes after he activates the first one – better just target everything that looks important, then. Oh, and be back in time, obviously. Though that shouldn't be a problem…
Ten minutes later…
He runs through large and empty halls, dimly lit and sometimes with the echo of his footsteps as the only sound. Deactivated laser cannons, robots standing still in corners like statues or zombies. The memories. Sonic's hand aches and he keeps turning around, switching lanes, taking shortcuts because – because it's too large, too empty in here. Racing against some clock he's set himself…
He can't wait for this place to be gone and spacedust.
Getting rid of this ugly lump of floating metal will pretty much solve all their problems, won't it? Tails said it was this space station that powers the Phantom Ruby, which means when it's gone Infinite can eat dust. Hah! Honestly, taking out the Death Egg would've been pretty damn important even without it being, you know, potentially used to destroy the resistance in one blow.
He's already stuck a bunch of explosives in what he judged the most important room, and then he used five more minutes to find the machine rooms and put some bombs there, and hey, still five minutes left. No point in hanging around here anymore than necessary – this place sucks – so he starts heading for the hangar earlier than he needs to.
Obliterating this place can't undo all the evil it's done, but it sure will stop it from doing any more.
He's almost at the hangar when he runs into a locked door. Frowning, he takes a turn left – and runs into another locked door. He backtracks, going to the right and running through a long corridor which seems to lead right out into space-
Until Sonic sees that no, it's just another locked door.
-where am I going?
He stops and tries to think clearly.
He could break the door.
Sonic looks up again, determined, and starts to collect chaos energy-
-and halts immediately, pulse rocketing, spinning around with fists raised to face – nothing. Empty corridor. But he feels it, he can sense it as clear as an emerald, that terrible overwhelming-
"What have we here?"
Sonic spins around, and there he is, glowing faintly red in the dimness, feet barely touching the floor. He looks so out of place but still it fits too well, and if the walls were whiter and the lights harsher then Sonic would've thought that everything up until this was a just a dream. A dream where he could do what he wanted and die where he wanted instead of slowly waiting and waiting for-
"You in time-out or what?" Sonic asks, willing his voice to stay steady and playful. "Egghead finally had enough of you running the show in Shamar or what?"
"Shamar was but an ant on my path," drawls Infinite, his head cocked to the side, the hair moving just barely in some non-existent wind. The Phantom Ruby pulses deep red in his chest, and Sonic looks for exits, of which there are none. What little chaos energy he's got in hand feels like a candle compared to Infinite's wildfire, and Infinite says, "You, on the other hand – you're a mouse, a clever little mouse that has eluded the traps and gotten its cheese, thinking it's safe… Until the cat comes out to play."
"You know you're a jackal, right?"
No Silver here. No Gadget. No anybody-
Infinite throws out his hand and a cascade of red shapes fly forward, Sonic ducking at the last second. His limbs don't feel like they should and this scares Sonic more than anything else, that just a- just a few bad weeks, a few bad scars could make Infinite seem like something he can't fight-
"You can't win," Infinite tells him. "You can't win! You struggle along like vermin, but you can never win."
"We can't surrender," Sonic spits back, hands clenching till it hurts. "We cannot lose, we can't give up or lie down and I'll never stop trying. You-"
"What will you do," Infinite interrupts in a low growl, "When all your allies are dead? When I've burned every country and killed every fighter-"
"As long as I'm here that will never happen."
Infinite stares down at him with his one yellow eye. "Then what will your dear friends do, when I've killed you?"