Because We're Sonic Heroes

Chapter 19: Egg Fleet

"Mwahahaha! You fools must all have a death wish! Witness this invincible battleship, built by the hands of a genius. It's power…unmatched throughout the universe!"

The four teams stood on separate ships of the Egg Fleet, but it was a meaningless fact, for they were all headed to the same destination. The Egg Fleet was huge, spanning across the entire morning sky, preparing to seize the third day. No matter how long it took, the heroes would reach the flagship the one true doctor was hiding on.

"Once we start a job, we finish a job! That's our policy," Vector replied confidently back at Eggman's booming voice overhead. "We're Team Chaotix!"

"If you want a fight, you've got one!" Amy exclaimed. She pointed forward, cuing Cream and Big to get moving. "Let's get that bloated buffoon!"

"You'll regret this, doctor…" grunted Shadow, casting out a hand. "Even if I'm not real…I'm still the Ultimate Life form, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were at the edge of the fleet as well, Sonic sporting a cocky pose before running onward with his team.

"Alright, Eggman…let's get this party started…"

. . .

"Okay, I'm sure you managed to overhear us on our job policy," Vector began into the communication device, grinding on the rails that wove between all the ships. "So, let's finish this job by you telling us what to do next."

"You next mission, which if we're lucky will be your second to last," the client started, sounding like he was on the edge of victory. "Infiltrate the fleet's whale shark flagship. Be careful not to be detected by enemies."

He hung up, and Espio seemed a bit irritated.

"That's our second to last mission? Get through Eggman's metallic flying school of fish without being detected? I had in mind that we'd be doing some more sabotaging of some sort…"

"Maybe we're getting to that," suggested Vector. Their grind rail ended on one of the ships, cuing them to take cover before they were spotted. "Maybe that flagship we've gotta get to is Eggman's main base of operations, and if we hit him where it really hurts, then perhaps the entire armada will fall apart!"

"Logical, but we can only find out for sure once we get there."

With that, Espio went silent, camouflaging himself and telling his team to stay close.

. . .

Team Rose was already on their toes for the morning- they had hardly announced their presence on the fleet when missiles started barraging out from nowhere!

"Looks like we may be in over our heads this time, guys!" Amy called, diving to the ground to narrowly avoid a stray missile.

"As scary as this place is," Cream began, cringing at the sound of an explosion. "It has to be where Froggy and Chocola are! Eggman admitted to taking them, so if he's here, they will be too…right?"

"If they're not, there's no place left to look," Big sighed. He shook his head. "It was easier to find Froggy back when he had a tail, that's for sure…"

"They're here somewhere guys, I can feel it," Amy assured, turning around to give them a smile and thumbs up. "We also promised to help Sonic take down Eggman, so we can't forget that either…I know that as soon as we show that fool we mean business once and for all, he'll probably hand back our friends on the spot!"

"Right!"

. . .

"We…are flying very high," Rouge commented, glancing down at the planet still spinning below them. If Eggman wasn't stopped, however, who knew if it would ever spin the same way again? "Hmm…we might even be on the edge of space!"

CRASH!

"Space?" Shadow trailed, having rammed right into a wall. He stumbled about a bit as he pulled himself together. "Did you say SPACE?"

"Uh…yes? Why? Does it spark anything?" Rouge asked, palpably eager. Shadow rubbed his forehead and looked bewildered.

"Mmrm…I feel like it's supposed to, but it's not…and everything you've told me just isn't clicking either…"

"It…It's all right," Rouge choked out, trotting next to Shadow. "Either they just need to come back on their own, or…or…"

"There's nothing to come back at all," Shadow finished gravely, Rouge sighing in defeat.

. . .

"Wow, that ship down there looks like a huge sting ray!"

"…we are at a lethal height in the air and you're worried about the shape of a ship?"

"I'm just trying really hard not to fall!"

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were grinding the rails down to their first destination, descending towards the first airship they hoped to decimate.

"Oh, come on," scoffed Sonic, leaping off the rail and freefalling. "This is nothing! Let's keep moving!"

"Nah," Knuckles replied, throwing up his hands as he alighted on his feet. "Let's just stick around and watch the view!"

"Just remember," Tails reminded them, flying down to join them. "We just need to find Eggman's flagship and bring that down. The rest of the ships will have no command and cease the invasion plan."

"So…what? Tons of metal ships are just supposed to careen back onto the planet?" Knuckles asked. "There's gotta be something wrong with that."

"You've got a better idea, Knuckles?" Sonic asked, peering out over the horizon on the top of a pole. Knuckles folded his arms and grunted.

"No, not really, but-"

"Then there ya go." Sonic returned his gaze to the groups of ship sailing through the sky. "Huh…it looks like each "school" has a massive battleship with little ones surrounding it…at least the Egghead got creative!"

"Sorry to break it to ya Sonic, but we don't have time to admire his craftsmanship."

Sonic front flipped off the pole and landed in front of Tails. "No problem, buddy. I was just scoping out what we're up against."

Sonic took the lead, he and his closest friends dashing off to go finally save the world.

"And by the looks of it…I think we're in for a lot."

. . .

The Chaotix were surprisingly alone on the ship they were walking on, Vector whistling at the sheer craftsmanship of it all. Espio was just stalking cautiously, just in case there was an ambush waiting for them.

"This is boring!" Charmy cried, his shrill voice piercing the silence. "Hey, Egg Pawns! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Charmy, we're supposed to be avoiding them, not drawing their attention!" Espio hissed under his breath, blending in with the surroundings the moment Charmy had shouted. "Your carelessness could compromise us…"

"Relax, Espio…" Vector walked ahead and hit a switch, opening the way down into their current ship. "There's no robots on this craft, and if there is, it's not like we can't take them out before they alert Eggman."

"Never be overconfident…" huffed the chameleon, but said nothing more as the team descended. The opening took them to the front of another ship, where Charmy took the lead and flew them over. As soon as they landed, Espio vanished into thin air and released several shuriken, just to make sure the coast was clear. When they all clanked against the metallic floor, Espio scooped them up and moved forward.

"Eggman must be really rich," Vector commented, looking very thoughtful as he followed Espio and Charmy down a corridor. "I wonder where he gets his funding?"

"Inheritance?" suggested Charmy.

"Sounds like the most probable explanation."

Eggman really must've been rich, in order to build endless robots, several aircrafts, and to be able to equip them with defense mechanisms. Espio was disabling a wall of lasers as the other two discussed Eggman's income.

"Maybe he has a second job as a waitress," snickered Charmy. Before Vector or Espio could correct Charmy's crazed statement, their airship lurched and sent the three off them rolling towards the edge. Vector let out a startled wail, which was surprisingly better than his singing, as he grabbed the ledge at the last moment and caught Espio.

"This is why we don't get distracted," Espio sighed.

"Even when you're dangling precariously on the edge of an aircraft on the limits of the atmosphere, you still feel the need to complain, eh?"

"Don't worry guys- I'll take the lead!" Charmy exclaimed. He grabbed Vector's arm, and although it was a bit of an awkward struggle, Charmy managed to get them to safety.

. . .

Amy felt her heart beat faster as adrenaline coursed through her body. She and her team were currently freefalling, and when you could see the majority of the planet on your way down, it was quite a rush. However, Amy landed somewhat shakily on a grind rail and heaved a sigh of relief.

"I can't believe we're up so high…"

"I see nothing but clouds down there. Better be careful not to fall," Big stated with immense intelligence. As Amy truly did focus on not falling, Cream couldn't help but shiver at the sheer size of the Egg Fleet. Dozens upon dozens of ship sailed across the sky, higher than the clouds, and if they ascended anymore, they'd be in space.

And that thought made Amy frown.

The three of them alighted onto a different airship, this one with grind rails twisting all around and platforms that weren't even connected. How they all managed to fly as one was beyond Amy, but then again, she never really understood Eggman's technology to begin with.

Big battered down a wall of boxes sitting in their way, followed by a cautious Cream carrying them over the gaps. Eventually something started shooting at them, and in a panic, Cream released.

"No- that'll put us in the line of fire!" Amy cried on the way down. Cream's eyes widened as she looked down- not only were turrets firing at them, but three Egg Pawns were as well. Cream instantly gasped at her mistake and she flew down to catch Amy, but wasn't fast enough to retrieve Big. The two girls watched as Big bounced on the ground, narrowly avoiding the recent round of projectiles. Once he landed on his feet, he whipped out his fishing rod and snagged one of the Egg Pawns, snapping it into the air and bringing it down on the other two.

"Whoa…"

"Look out!" shrieked Cream, still holding Amy by the hands in midair. Big glanced up to see the turret preparing to fire again, and he wasn't sure how to defend against it. As he flinched and prepared for the worst, Amy suddenly went flying into it, bursting on contact and preventing anyone from getting hurt.

"Yikes…" Amy trailed, rubbing her head as her static shock wore off. "Nice use of Thunder Shoot, Cream!"

"Thanks," Cream replied dejectedly, landing back on the ground. "I shouldn't have dropped you guys…"

"It's all right Cream; I've made much bigger slip-ups than that."

Cream looked curious. "Like what?"

Amy started to walk away, only to halt at Cream's question. Her ears slightly drooped in the process.

"Well…there was this one time where I was so obsessed with my own goals that I completely neglected how my friends felt about their own problems." She folded her arms and sighed. "Then, when I thought I finally had what I wanted…it all went wrong."

She turned and faced Cream, once again smiling.

"But at the same time, I figured out that trying to get what I want isn't as important as helping my friends…which means you guys come first, no matter what."

Cream had caught on to what Amy was saying and laughed…while Big pointed out that there were more grind rails up ahead and that it'd be very wise to not fall.

. . .

Team Dark was now descending at an alarming pace, thanks to a yellow grind rail. They were all used to the winds whipping by them as they rode the rails, but being so high up, the feeling was much different, almost like the air hardly had a presence. Rouge was deterred by this, while Shadow was visibly indifferent and Omega never really had an opinion on such matters anyway. Omega had much more important things to process.

"Must eradicate all Eggman robots!" he roared, leaping off the rail and taking aim at a pack of robots on the deck of the ship below them. Rouge grabbed Shadow and flew him down afterward, with the bat quickly veering to the left afterward.

"Whoa, what was that for?" Shadow asked, not enjoying being whipping around without forewarning. Rouge just pointed down, where a large cannon has blasted its ammo where they were once flying. Omega was off to the side, launching missiles with the intention of blowing up some metal.

"We've gotta watch out for those cannons," Rouge explained, setting Shadow on the ground. "Just stay out of their target range and we should be fine…"

"No problem," Shadow assured, joining alongside Omega and jumping into the fray as well. Rouge simply hovered in the air and allowed the boys to do their thing. As usual, the Egg Pawns were destroyed instantaneously, with Shadow walking away and Omega searching for more robots.

Rouge took the lead, carrying the group in flight formation to an upper part of the airship. Shadow released instantly, landing on the ground and blasting forward. Omega fell with a violent-sounding clank as Rouge looked completely confused. Shadow ran over to a grind rail, using it to reach the next ship. Rouge and Omega caught up with him afterward, after Omega blasted down a robot.

"Eggman's armada…" Shadow trailed, Rouge's perking up now that Shadow had finally decided to speak. "It's actually a magnificent sight."

"But why so many?" Rouge whispered. "I mean, we can count them by the dozen, crossing the sky like…a school of fish."

"Regardless!" shouted Omega, raising his guns. "We must destroy all of Eggman's ships!"

"No, Omega," Shadow interrupted. "We only need to destroy one ship- the flagship, which is the one that he's probably supervising him armada from…"

. . .

"It's probably a shame that I'm having fun," chuckled Sonic, riding the loops that the grind rails made in midair. "But I'm too high on adrenaline to care! Woo hoo!"

"Get too careless and you'll go flying off the edge," Knuckles warned. He and Tails were below Sonic, whirling their way through a squad of robots arriving on the deck. Knuckles eventually snickered as he crushed an Egg Pawn. "Yeah, I'd bet you'd hate landing on your head after falling from this height!"

Sonic narrowed his eyes and jumped down to join his friends. "You don't even know what you're suggesting."

Before Knuckles could drum up some sort of response to that, Tails shrieked and instinctively took off into the air. Sonic and Knuckles braked to a stop and veered out of the way of a pink laser. Sonic rolled onto the ground, groaning and glancing at their attackers.

"Are you guys all right?" Tails asked, sounding slightly hysteric. Sonic sat himself up and nodded to the best of his ability.

"As all right as I'm gonna be after nearly being barbequed by a pink laser…" he stared hard at the robot, trying to figure out if he could recall seeing it before. However, its red and yellow color scheme and humanoid-like nature didn't quite register. "Strange…I have no idea what kind of robot that is."

"It doesn't matter!" shouted Knuckles, leaping off the ground and launching a fist at the contraption. "Anything made by Eggman can't be good!"

"There's always Omega," Sonic thought aloud. Tails, meanwhile, rapidly shook his head and flew towards the echidna.

"Knuckles! We have no idea what this robot is capable of! Throwing yourself at it may not be-"

Knuckles crashed head first into the droid's shield, causing him to collapse onto the cold metal floor with a massive headache. The droid then proceeded to grab Knuckles and charge up another laser.

Before it could, however, a blue and yellow blur bowled into the droid's legs, forcing it to lose its equilibrium. This also caused the robot to release Knuckles and fire a haywire shot. Tails uncurled away from Sonic and dragged Knuckles out of range while Sonic whipped up a whirlwind and redirected the onslaught of bullets the angry android was now firing.

"Looks like your temper is just as bad as Knuckles'!"

"Say what?" Knuckles grumbled, grabbing his head and moaning loudly. Tails simply folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently- clearly something he picked up from Sonic.

"I told you not to dive head first into certain situations…and what happened? You literally dove head first into one."

"Argh, forget it," Knuckles grunted, glancing at the robot and how Sonic was doing his best to redirect its attacks. "How are we going to beat this?"

"Well, we could always rip off its shield and deliver a full frontal attack-"

"YAAAH!"

Tails and Knuckles gaped as Sonic propelled himself out of his little blue tornado, extended his foot, and brought it down in the android's hidden head. A shatter and an explosion rang out afterwards, with Sonic landing on the remains and happily giving his team a thumbs up.

"…or Sonic. We can just use Sonic."

Knuckles landed his face in his massive palm. "Of course."

. . .

"How could we have reached this altitude already?" Espio wondered, still a bit offset about his latest brush with death. He grinded on the rail to the next shark-shaped ship, watching the clouds pass carelessly below him. Charmy followed behind, his eyes visibly rolling in circles.

"Flying this high makes me dizzy!"

"You're a bee!" cried Vector. "You're supposed to be used to flying, aren't you?"

"Well, duh! But when's the last time you've ever seen a bee fly at the edge of sky, huh Vector?"

"I dunno, I'll have to recount all my previous trips of almost entering space!"

Espio groaned at the misconduct and tried to focus on keeping his balance- if he fell, then so would the other two. It would be much easier if they weren't bickering like two kids in the back seat of a car though.

When they finally reached solid footing, Charmy flew the group over several machine guns, gaps between platforms, and from aircraft to aircraft. Eventually they found another series of grind rails, which gave Charmy a brief break.

"There's so many of these flying ships…it can only be Eggman's armada," Espio contemplated.

"Armada! Armada!"

"Everything's run by robots," pointed out Vector. "Guess the doc's pretty lonely."

"The path of evil tends to be a lonely one," agreed Espio. Charmy simply scratched his head.

"I still don't get it- Eggman's supposed to be good now! What would his incentive be for suddenly coming back?"

"Well…" Espio looked deep in thought. "If all the Eggmen we fought previously were robots, then could it be possible that there's a robot controlling the whole armada?"

"Well someone's gotta be controlling the robots," huffed Charmy. "After all, it's not like a robot itself is pulling strings behind other robots, right? …right?"

"Now we're just mass guessing." Espio jumped off the grind rail and into another ship. "Let's just get to the main deck, shall we?"

Charmy complied instantly, but Vector, for whatever reason, felt very unsettled.

. . .

Big closed up his parasol as the gust from a ventilation fan ended, which Team Rose used to reach a higher part of the airship. Amy gazed at the ongoing sea of metal sharks and other sea creature-like crafts, and wondered which one Eggman happened to be operating from. However, she didn't have time to figure it out when Cream quickly pushed her out of the way of a projectile.

"We have to stay away from those markers," Cream realized with fright in her voice, pointing to the encircled spot where they once stood. "That's where the cannons aim at!"

"Well, that's useful to know," Amy comment, blowing her bangs out of her face. "Much more useful than telling me not to fall!"

She gave Big a look, to which he only shrugged.

Picking herself up, she, Cream, and Big quickly jumped back to lower ground, hoping to get out of range of the cannons. Then, once they got close enough, Cream tossed Big at the cannons, where he proceeded to smash them and clear a way forward.

Cream then returned to the lead, carrying the group up to a midair spring. They bounced to the next airship, this time Cream not letting go until she was sure it was safe.

Of course, it's never safe.

Big stepped in front of the girls and held up his parasol in front of him as a red and yellow droid advanced upon them, its gun smoking from the latest shots. Amy and Cream poked their heads around the cat, only to retreat once more when another round was fired.

"Wow, this guy's mad," Big observed. "Want me to get rid of him, Amy?"

"Don't bother- he's got a shield," Amy huffed, pulling out her hammer. "I guess I'll just have to take care of it…"

"I don't have to tell you to be careful, do I?" Cream asked as Amy ran from her cover. Amy smirked.

"Of course not- now get over here you bucket of bolts! HYAH!"

Cream could only meekly watched as Amy literally threw herself at the robot, only to be deflected by the shield. She landed on her feet and charged again, this time attacking primarily with her weapon. Her swinging left a dent on the shield, but never managed to damage the robot itself. Amy growled in frustration until she noticed Cream out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" Cream exclaimed, noticing that the droid was now taking aim at Amy once again. However, her shrill cry managed to get its attention, just in time for her to hurl Cheese in its direction. As the robot was distracted by Cream and Cheese, Amy rolled behind the creation, brought her hammer up, and whacked it in the back, hitting so hard that its "head" popped off. It ceased to function after that, with Amy battering the remains and Cheese returning to Cream.

. . .

"Come on!" Shadow yelled, soaring through the air after launching off a ramp. He glared down at the group of ships passing below him, but below that was the cloud-covered planet. He titled his head, the sight of the world under him feeling very familiar. "Huh…I always imagined it being a bit…bluer."

He, Rouge, and Omega finally landed on a grind rail, speeding back down to solid ground. However, as soon as they got their footing back, two red and yellow drones arrive on the scene, guarding the door to the rest of the current deck. Shadow grunted and performed a spin dash, only to ricochet off the shields they possessed. Causing a scraping sound when the metal of his shoes grinded against the floor, Shadow landed and looked about for another strategy…

…because Omega's wasn't working.

"Annihilate! Fire! Fire!" blared the battle robot, trying his hardest to make scrap metal fly. Rouge had to tell him several times that simply blasting at the drones wasn't going to work, but Omega carried on nevertheless. Rouge gave up on Omega and turned to Shadow.

"Do you have a game plan?"

Shadow stood straight and nodded to Rouge. "Hopefully it will be more effective than Omega's plans."

"My sensors have picked up that morsel of information, I hope to inform you…"

"Anyway," Shadow continued, pointing to the drones. "All you have to do is stun them long enough for me to get in a strike that they can't block."

Rouge winked at Shadow and weaved between Omega's onslaught. Since Omega's attacks were glancing off the shields, the droids weren't paying too much attention to Omega, but when Rouge flew up and used a more direct assault, their weapons were focused on her.

While they were focused on her, the Black Blur slipped behind them and thrust their heads together. The sudden clash was enough to get Omega to hold his fire as Rouge drill kicked into the discombobulated androids. She gave Shadow a thumbs up as Omega mumbled something about "it would have worked eventually."

. . .

"Who's ready for some parasailing?" Sonic asked, kicking open the doors ahead of them and gesturing toward a silver propeller. Knuckles took one look at it and grimaced.

"As long as we're not going to have a repeat of the jungle escapade…"

Sonic gave a thumbs up and vanished into a blur, cycling around the propeller until it took off. He grabbed on and ascended into the wind, with Tails and Knuckles jumping on. The three of them were brought up by a huge gust of wind, giving them a good vantage point of the situation.

"I wonder what all those are for," Knuckles pondered, gesturing to a group of yellow and black striped metal bars, seemingly floating without a purpose.

"I almost wish I knew…" murmured Tails. "I don't think there's anything to worry about, though. It looks like they don't have much purpose…"

"I think I know what their purpose is," muttered Sonic, turning the propeller to the right. Several bullets whizzed by the team, with Tails and Knuckles emitting startled screams.

"They're firing at us!" cried Knuckles.

"Yes, thank you for the memo, Captain Obvious," sighed Sonic, trying his best to weave around the deadly projectiles. "I'm trying to get us to a place where we can land!"

Tails and Knuckles had no choice but to hold on for dear life as Sonic battled through the air. Knuckles, however, couldn't resist telling Sonic when to go up and down, much to chagrin of the hedgehog, but he said nothing and heeded Knuckles' instruction.

Eventually, Tails pointed out that they were nearing a large battleship, so Sonic finally released the propeller and landed on the nose of the swordfish ship.

"Thank goodness that's over…" Knuckles breathed, stretching his arms. "Almost thought we were toast…"

"Eh, don't push your luck just yet."

Sonic grabbed Tails and Knuckles and took off as the cannons lined up and down turned and opened fire. A bunch of Flappers soared through the air and swooped down to strike them, but Sonic veered out of the way- as much as he could without whipping Tails and Knuckles all over the place. However, they were running right at a cannon…

"Knuckles, do you think you can punch that out?"

"Have a little faith Tails!" Knuckles wrenched away from Sonic and readied his arm. With one precise and deadly strike, the cannon in front of them became a pile of scrap. "I've taken down tougher contraptions that that!"

Tails grinned as Sonic continued to lead the way, pushing his team toward another small victory, still on their way to the big prize.

. . .

Charmy touched the tip of a purple flower, causing its metal petals to open up and teleport the detectives closer to their destination- or so they hoped. When the blue flash of teleportation faded away, Vector blinked and inwardly cringed. They had to be getting closer to the center of the fleet, for the ship they had been brought to was loaded with lasers, traps, gun turrets, and robots.

"So this is where all the action is being horded!" exclaimed Charmy, to which Espio rolled his eyes.

"Just watch each other's back, boys…" Vector warned, inching into the death-filled obstacle course.

As soon as they revealed themselves, all turrets turned and faced the trio. Espio took the lead and rushed them out of there as the deck was blasted with bullets. They rounded the corner right into a squad of Egg Pawns, where Vector stepped forward and spewed fire. The robots were scorched instantly, followed by the crocodile charging at them and using his fists to completely demolish them. The Chaotix continued to run until Vector smacked face first into a clear glass wall- and reinforcements were coming.

"Aw great, now what?" he grumbled.

"I'll take it from here!" Charmy offered, organizing the group into flight formation. Vector's feet lifted off of the ground just as the Egg Pawn came running, doing what Vector did and smashing into the clear wall.

However, they fell to pieces afterward.

Vector chuckled to himself as Charmy brought them over the wall and set them safely on the other side. The bee then proceeded to make faces in the glass, which drew more low AI robots right into the wall. Espio grabbed Charmy's foot and dragged him along, right into another droid, but this one was different from ones before. It was much smaller than an Egg Hammer, but taller than an Egg Pawn. It was red and yellow in color scheme, and possessed a shield that it was already holding up.

It also almost looked human.

"Looks like this fool won't let us by until we prove our worth!" Vector stretched a little and nodded to Espio. "You get rid of the shield, and Charmy and I will take care of the rest."

"Roger," Espio replied, vanishing and causing a distortion afterward. He snuck up to the droid and kicked its arm, hoping to get it to release the shield with the surprise. However, instead, the robot picked up on Espio's presence and whacked him with the shield before he got too close.

Realizing camouflage was not the answer, Espio returned to sight and began to spin around in a torrent of leaves. They whipped around the robot, trying to pry the shield away from it, but the robot shrugged off the breeze and proceeded to fire at Espio. Espio quickly sidestepped out of the way and gained a flair of determination.

"All right. This might be tricky…"

Espio lunched at the robot, just as it took direct aim at him. He hoped for the best and continued for his target, luckily successfully latching onto the droid. Confused, the metal fighter whirled around, hoping to toss Espio off. Espio had an iron grip, however, and held on tight until he managed to use his foot to wedge the shield out of the bot's grasp.

"Go! Go!" he barked afterward.

Given the cue, Charmy twirled about in the air, holding Vector by the tail and releasing him in a ball of shock. The electrically-charged Vector flew like a projectile at the robot, hitting it right in the torso and electrocuting it. Espio released the robot at the last moment and kicked it into the door, causing it to slide down in a heap. Vector finished it off by jumping into the air and bringing down his fists.

With that, the way forward opened, and Team Chaotix shared several high fives.

. . .

"You know what, guys?" Amy asked, walking along the edge of the ship they were currently on. "I think we've really improved since we started!"

"I agree!" Cream complied, skipping alongside her. "I got to see a lot of neat things, and I'm not as afraid as I once was!"

"I'm just glad to have someone to talk to besides Froggy," added Big, just not realizing it.

"Well, when I found that picture of what I thought was Sonic in the paper with Froggy and a Chao, I knew that Froggy belonged to you, and that Cream would probably know about the Chao…never would've thought we'd be dragged into this mess!"

"Hmm…" Cream suddenly began to ponder, tilting her head down. Amy noticed her thinking and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, what's on your mind?"

"The picture…the whole reason why we're here," Cream explained. "I asked Sonic if he had taken Froggy and Chocola back at the Power Plant, and he hadn't…and Eggman admitted to taking them last night…"

"Yeah?" Big asked, looking perplexed.

"It doesn't add up! If Eggman took Froggy and Chocola, and there's a photo of Sonic with them…"

"Maybe Eggman tried to frame Sonic?" Big asked, scratching his head. "That's all I can come up with."

"Impossible!" Amy cried, pulling out Sonic's picture. "Sonic's been gone just as long as Eggman…and unless Eggman's good with picture editing tools, there's no way he could've taken a photo of Sonic running, let alone with Froggy and Chocola in tow…"

"Ugh, this makes my head spin…" groaned Big.

"It doesn't help that Eggman has always been a robot every time we've encountered him, as we know now…" Cream trailed, tapping her head.

"Maybe the real Eggman did kidnap them, and his robot decoy admitted it?" suggested Amy, not sure what to think now.

"Either that, or the robot decoy was the one that did the kidnapping."

"Well, Cream," Amy grinned. "I knew you were a smart cookie, but at this rate you might be on the same level as Tails!"

Cream was taken aback by such a flattering compliment, but was interrupted by Big.

"It doesn't matter who took them or where they've gone…" the grown cat whimpered. "I just want Froggy back!"

. . .

"Shadow's Rocket Accel required to blast through."

"Heh heh heh…"

"Oh no."

Omega, Shadow, and Rouge careened out of the top of the swordfish-like battleship, just as it spontaneously started to explode. Large holes formed in the blue metal, looking as though Shadow running through caused the tower to commit suicide. But no, Shadow just rushed his team out of there- he had no idea why it chosen then to implode upon itself.

"I wonder where those pieces are going to land…" Rouge pondered, watching the large chunks of metal hurdle through the atmosphere.

"Either way, that's one blow against the doctor," Shadow said, grinning.

"Humor remains undetected."

Team Dark safely landed on grind rails after being blown into the air, looking for their next destination. Omega wanted to bring down each and every one of the ships (even when Rouge reminded him that the other three teams were on ships of their own) while Shadow was just focused on getting to the flagship. Rouge only wanted two things- for Eggman to be brought down, and to get her hands on the treasure.

Eventually, they came to a series of fans, so they formed Triangle Dive to safely make it across. Once they landed, Shadow dashed forward, with Omega taking aim at all the cannons scattered throughout the deck.

"That'll show him," grumbled Rouge, crushing a cannon herself.

They then ran into a metal propeller, Shadow using a whirlwind to bring it into the air, just like the flowers in Lost Jungle. The team encircled several ships, until Rouge pointed out another battleship firing all sorts of projectiles at them.

"Well, let's take care of another one, shall we?"

Shadow landed on the battleship, with the crew running towards the center, in hopes of blowing it up again. However, right before they could go through the doors, they ran into another duo of red and yellow droids, and this time they were glowing pink.

"They're going to fire!" Rouge cried, grabbing her friends and taking off into the air. The robots launched a large pink laser, similar to Omega's, but luckily it had missed them thanks to Rouge's quick thinking. Shadow let go once again, this time Rouge grabbing Omega before he fell. The hedgehog pulled out his Chaos Emerald and held it high, daring the robots to even think about firing again.

"As if you're the only ones with power pink lasers…" Shadow scoffed, the emerald's glow slowly becoming blinding. "Well, you haven't seen true power yet!"

The light finally ended when Shadow shouted "Chaos Control!", causing time around the robots to freeze. Rouge was already holding Omega in the air, so E-123 simply whirled around and fired a laser of his own, which completely decimated the clunkers.

"Whew…" Rouge huffed, lowering herself. "I wonder how much farther we have to go to reach the flagship…"

"I don't know," Shadow admitted, folding his arms and staring over the edge of the battleship. "But we will find it…even if it takes all day and night!"

. . .

All the ships of the Egg Fleet flew at different altitudes, but they were all much too high in the sky in Amy's opinion. It certainly wasn't helping that she was now flying past all these ships with nothing more than a small propeller. She was really hoping that they'd be reaching the flagship soon…

"Anyway," Amy began, cutting herself off from her own thoughts. "Why does Eggman have so many ships?"

"Maybe he had a lot off free time on his hands?" Cream suggested, hanging onto Amy's boots. Amy snickered.

"Ha, no kidding."

"All the ships look so fishy…" Big trailed, suddenly becoming sad. "I miss Froggy, and going fishing together…"

Finally, Amy found a place to land and lowered the metallic propeller slowly. Big landed, followed by Cream and then Amy. Amy turned to Big and patted his arm.

"We're almost there Big, we're almost to Froggy," she promised.

"The last time we were apart, it was for a few days as well…" he reminisced. "Then at last, Sonic helped me get him back from that crazy water creature…and I promised him that nothing like that would ever happen again, and I was wrong…"

As Cream gave Big a small hug, Amy glanced around at their surroundings. They were on a battleship shaped like a swordfish, and compared to some of the other crafts, it was pretty menacing.

However, that's not what Amy was worrying about. She was more worried about the red and yellow droid that was approaching them. She scowled and pulled out her equally red and yellow hammer.

"Another one, huh?"

Using the same one-two as last time, Cream kept it distracted and Amy did a blow from behind. With that, Big pushed open the doors it was guarding. Just beyond them was even more ships, but Amy knew that if they kept forging onward, they'd reach the flagship, the one that housed Eggman…and hopefully get everything sorted out once and for all.

. . .

Team Sonic had taken down a few airships themselves, but they weren't so gung-ho about it. Sonic lead the group over the grind rails, Knuckles used Triangle Dive to glide them over a series of fans, and Tails used Thunder Shoot to dispatch any out-of-reach cannons that had the nerve to fire at the heroes.

"Any sign of the flagship?" Sonic asked, a hand over his eyes as he scanned the area for a ship that stood out from all the rest. Tails glided behind him, looking as well.

"Not yet, Sonic, but we have to be getting close."

"Um, is it possible that it's that giant ship way over there?"

Sonic and Tails turned to where Knuckles was pointing, and sure enough, a huge blue and red flagship was crossing the sky, far behind the rest of the fleet. Sonic grinned and scratched his nose.

"Heh heh, looks like we've found our destination!"

"How are we supposed to get all the way over there?" Tails asked. "Neither Knuckles or I can fly that far…"

"And we all know Sonic definitely can't fly at all," simpered Knuckles.

Nevertheless, Sonic glanced around, seeing that they were on another battleship, and grinned to himself. "I think I've got an idea, but you guys are just going to have to hold on tight and trust me."

He reached his hands back, which Tails grabbed instantly. Sonic glanced over his shoulder and smirked at Knuckles, who eventually heaved a sigh and took hold of Sonic's wrist as well. With that, Sonic dashed away, inside the battleship where there was a conveyor belt going against them. Sonic took a deep breath and exceled, going faster than the conveyor belt and sliding under the row of lasers. The mere friction Sonic was causing was creation a lot of heat and tension, and just as Team Sonic reached the other side of the battleship, it exploded, and the resulting blast sent the team careening into the air and towards the flagship.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Knuckles asked, arms folded and facing Sonic as they flew. Sonic had his eyes closed and arms spread like an airplane.

"No, but I'm feeling pretty good about. At the very least, the blast should send us far enough for Tails to fly us the rest of the way."

He turned to Tails for conformation, to which the fox simply shrugged and said it was possible.

"I just hope the others either get to the flagship too, or reach somewhere safe before we sink these ships…"

Sonic opened his eyes and frowned.

"I hope you're right, Tails…"