Sorry I haven't updated in a while. School is a bitch. Homework is even bitchier. Here you guys are.
Chapter 20: Fiery Metal Combustion
Bang.
"…Ugh…what happened?
Bang!
"What's that sound?"
BAM!
"Whoa! What's happening?" Tails asked completely confused. Just then he looked out the window of the cockpit of the ship they were in and saw many red medalled robot blasting at him.
BAM! BAM! BAM! As the shots were fired more turbulence over took the grounded vessel.
"Sonic! Where are you!?" Tails looked aimlessly around the cockpit for Sonic put didn't find a sign of his hero. The confused and still a bit dazed fox looked at the side of the ship and spotted a huge gapping hole torn through the solid steel of the ship. Tails put two and two together and deduced where Sonic was.
"Oh No! Sonic!" Tails poked his little head out of the hole and looked down at the scenery. They weren't over the ocean or anywhere near it for that matter. The whole area looked blood red and had an early sense to it that would probably make a tough body building solider run away in terror.
The ground soil looked extremely unhealthy and skulls and other remnants of a regular mortal body were sticking out of random places. Tails then looked up at the sky. It was blood red as well, but it was slightly darker then every other piece of scenery around. Before Tails could examine some more numerous lasers struck the ship violently.
"What the?" Tails looked further down at the area he was located. There were numerous robots firing at the rusty broken ship. Closer examination showed they were also heading toward something else. Tails recognized the unconscious figure in a heartbeat. "SONIC! Wake Up! They're after you! SONIC!" Tails screamed.
Below him the blue hedgehog began to groan and poke his head up. He looked around as if he were the most confused being on the entire planet. Considering what had happened to him and Tails recently he wouldn't be surprised if he were.
"W-what happened." Sonic looked up and saw all the robots firing at his ship. Sonic immediately remembered Tails and wondered if he was still in the ship. Without hesitation the blue hedgehog got on his feet and ran toward the attackers. The robots noticed him almost immediately as about half of them turned to face the hedgehog. The other half continued firing on the vessel.
"Oh, you what to play huh?" Sonic smiled as they all shot numerous and equally deadly shots at him. The hedgehog easily maneuvered himself through the stampede of raging bullets and managed to get close enough to them for a homing attack. Sonic jumped at did the attack on one robot successfully destroying it, however the rest began to shot fire balls at him instead of bullets this time.
These weren't so easy to dodge considering the balls exploded on contact with the ground and it sometimes caused Sonic to get thrusted off balance. Sonic managed to get close again and gave another robot a head butt to his metal chest. Bad idea. Sonic was rolling on the ground in pain in a matter of seconds.
"AHHHHH! Damn it!" Sonic shouted as he grabbed his head. He looked up to see the robot he destroyed earlier reform, as well as the chest of the robot he just now head butted. "Double Damn it!" Sonic lingered there on the ground wondering what to do. He then turned his attention back to the ship, which was still getting fired on. "No way are they hurting my little buddy." Sonic got up and tried to run toward the ship but was unexpectedly tackled and brought down by the robots.
"Ack! Get off of me!" Sonic shouted and began to struggle. Meanwhile Tails was starting to get worried. He couldn't escape through the hole or he'd be blasted to no end if he did. The fox grew even more scared when the glass broke at the top of the hatch on the ship. Glass rained down on the frightened fox as he began pushing at the side of the ship hoping by some miracle he'd be able to break free. Tails put slammed his hand on the seat in frustration not knowing the glass was covering the entire thing.
"YEEEEOOOOOOW!" Tails shouted as he lifted up his now bloody yet still gloved hand. He began removing the imbedded pieces of glass from his hand when another bang caused the ship to shake and fall apart. Sonic stared unwillingly at the scene before him. The ship crumbled into pieces before his eyes.
"No…Tails…" Sonic said in a still struggling voice. All of a sudden the robots were all whacked off of Sonic's back. Well they fell and broke open the figure that helped him out ran toward them and struck them all in what seemed to be their metal hearts. Once they were all struck the exploded and didn't reform. The figure then approached Sonic and knelt down to him.
"Hey there. Are you al-" He began but never got to finish as Sonic ran toward the area where the robot were still firing on the crumbled ship, making sure none of it remains. Before Sonic could attack them many glowing arrows struck them all where their hearts were located. They all exploded, right on cue.
Sonic ran toward the pile of scrap and began digging and searching for his buddy. He found not a single aspect of him.
"Hey! Is this who you're looking for?" Asked a seemingly annoyed voice behind him. Sonic turned around immediately when he heard it. There stood an orange ferret and a gray raccoon. In the gray raccoon's hands was his now unconscious fox friend.
"Tails!" Sonic said as he ran toward them both. "Wow! Thank you for saving him…uhhhh…" Sonic hesitated.
"My name is Scorch. Scorch the Raccoon." He said blankly.
"My name is Sonic…"
"Like I give a damn. Here! Take him before I get his blood stained all over me." The raccoon stated harshly. Sonic took Tails from him and watched as the raccoon turned around and walked away from Sonic.
"Don't mind him. He's always cranky." Said the orange ferret.
"I never would've guessed." Sonic said sarcastically as he shook the ferret's hand. "Like I was saying I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Nice to meet you Sonic. I'm Citrus the Ferret. I'm the one who took out the robots that were on top of you. Scorch is the one who shot the arrows at the robots shooting your ship and saved your fox friend. He really is a nice guy… he just doesn't show it. By the way why are you two hanging out in a place like this?" Citrus asked not knowing that Scorch was listening to their conversation.
"I don't know how we ended up here. One second we're looking for someone and heading over the ocean and the next we get sucked up in a huge red tornado. Weird huh?"
"Not at all. That's how most of our residents end up here."
"It is?"
"Yup. Tell me, who were you guys looking for?"
"Some dude named Combustion Fire…" Sonic began before he was tackled to the ground by Scorch. Before Sonic could react Scorch slammed his foot on Sonic's chest and pointed a glowing arrow at him.
"Scorch! Get off of him!" Citrus demanded.
"Hell no! He may have come to assist Combustion." Scorch said.
"But he said he got swept up in the tornado. It was an accident."
"But he also said he was looking for Combustion as well. I will not let a ally of that bastard get away from me."
"Whoa! Hold on! We're not your enemies. We came here to defeat Combustion." Sonic explained.
"…Defeat him? Sorry no way that's ever happening." Scorch said pulling back the arrow.
"Scorch just hear him out." Citrus plead.
"Errrr…fine! You've got 5 seconds to explain what exactly it is that you mean…and two seconds have just passed.
" We came here to defeat Combustion and take his chaos emerald. That's it." Sonic said telling the truth.
"…" Scorch hesitated.
"Scorch, I know you've had trouble trusting anyone new since 'that day' but I don't sense an bad vibes coming from that guy. If you don't trust him at least trust me. He might be of some use to us." Citrus spoke as a means of trying to calm his friend down.
Scorch moaned a bit before finally putting down his arrows and walking away. Citrus then helped him up.
"What's up with Wesley Snipes over there." Sonic asked.
"Oh something happened to him when he was eight that everyone here can relate to. He used to be so incredibly nice but now…" Citrus caught sight of the two tailed orange fox that was knocked out of Sonic's hands when he was tackled.
"What's his name?" Citrus asked pointing to the fox. Sonic immediately rushed over to Tails and picked him up only to see him awakened with a confused look on his face.
"Tails. You okay?" Sonic asked.
"…Uhhhh…I guess so…where are we Sonic?" Tails asked.
"Your in Magma Mill. The inescapable realm of fire." Answered Citrus.
"Who are you?" Tails asked.
"I'm Citrus the Ferret. And you?"
"Ummmm…my name is Miles Prower…but my nickname is Tails."
"Nice to meet you Tails."
"Hey! Are you three coming or what!" Scorch shouted from a distance.
"Come on you guys. I'll tell you more on the way." Citrus said running after Scorch. Sonic and Tails agreed and ran after him.
Eggman's flying fortress
Metal Sonic browsed threw Eggman's computer and checked every file he could find but he couldn't find anything on Eggman's REAL plan. If only he knew. If only Eggman actually told his employees anything then maybe he wouldn't need to do this. The robot grew more frustrated with every unsuccessful search.
The robot even checked Eggman's restricted area where he needed a special password to get in. The password was 'Tom and Jerry'. Metal had no idea why.
He was about to give up when he came across a small icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It was the first time Metal had noticed it. It looked like Eggman's famous symbol. The robot moved the curser onto the icon and clicked. As soon as the small sound was heard an ass load of files jumped out at him on screen. Metal immediately started searching them all.
He eventually came across a file that was marked 'Kitsune war plan'. Struck by curiosity Metal opened the file and began reading. His eyes scrolled through every sentence, every paragraph as fast as lightning. When he was finished he just sat there amazed.
"So… Eggman's planning on going to war with the world… but what does this have to do with the kitsune." Metal wondered. Eggman could be using the war as a distraction so he can reach coordinates 000 before anyone else. Only a sick and evil man would use a full-scale war as a diversion. That sure sounded like Eggman. Satisfied that he had gotten a real answer he turned off the computer and went to go speak with Darkness through the walkie-talkie alone in his room.
As he snuck down the hall toward his room he felt a very weird presence. The robot ignored it and claimed it to be the wind. He then headed into his room not knowing of the visitor watching him from around the corner.
"HaHa! I got it all on tape. Time to so ." Bokkunn said as fled off to his master with the video camera in hand.
Back at Magma Mill
"Take a good look around you guys. This is I, Scorch's, and all of us struggling survivors' home." Citrus explained. Sonic and Tails looked around the area in disbelief. It was so ruined, dark, and down right creepy.
"This is your home?" Tails asked.
"Yup. We are all frightened and very cautioned people. Merely setting your foot outside the underground shelter was a life risk. Ever since Combustion Fire showed up we've lived like this in agony. As soon as he got on our island he began killing people for no good reason. He made the rest all do chores. He said he was going to kill off all the woman, children, babies, and seniors since they were 'apparently' not strong enough to work." Citrus explained.
"Really?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah. We were put in four separate lines. One line was filled with the men who were to get to work immediately while the other four lines filled with random people went to separate areas to be either thrown in the fire pit, put in a poison gas chamber, hanged, on shot. Since me and Scorch were about 8 or 9 when it happened we were lumped in with the huge pile of woman, kids, babies, and seniors."
"So how come your still alive?" Tails wondered.
"Because they're weren't enough men to complete the stressful task they wanted us to do so they gave us all a strength test. We were made to go from one end of a small field to the other with a bag of bricks on our back. They gave us an untold time limit to do it. Since Scorch and I were determined enough we made it through, plus the field wasn't very big. However, the seniors about all failed. A large amount of woman made it through. A large amount of kids made it through as well. The babies were all thrown in the fire pit instantly."
"Wow…this Combustion guy seems a lot more ruthless then Karst is." Sonic admitted.
"I know. That's not even the worst part though. We were made to work on Combustion's new temple all day everyday without rest, food, or water. Since this place is very hot that became a huge problem. Not only that but the cabins we slept in were REALLY cold. The somehow got it to be that way using some sort of machine. We weren't allowed to sleep with blankets, sheets, or pillows and we were only given 6 hours of sleep. The guards we so cruel they even played with our lives."
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"For example, one day they were all having this party and they forced some of us to come in so they could play with us. Some of us we strapped to the wall and shot at to see if they could hit a certain area on our bodies. Some of them were hung from the ceiling by their necks, which killed them instantly, and whacked at with sticks. As for me, well, I was one of the lucky ones to only get a beating. I passed out a couple of times and woke up with water splashed all over my face."
"Did they at least feed you?" Sonic asked a little amazed by the sense of cruelty he was hearing.
"No. They, on very rare occasions would give us some moldy bread and dirty dishwater to feast on. Being desperate as hell we all drank and ate it down and didn't complain. Our work continued, still with no rest, food, or water, and one by one we all began to die. They noticed we were all beginning to eat the very dirt we worked on for food and began tormenting us by eating fresh and wonderful tasting food in front of our faces! This one kid named Tray, who was my very good friend next to Scorch couldn't take the abuse so he lunged at the selfish guards and tried to snatch away their food. They beat him down hard then put a gun directly into his mouth and shot him."
"Is that why Scorch is so mad, because he lost a friend. I'd be sad if I lost Sonic as a friend." Tails admitted.
"No…he sad because of a different reason…you see…Scorch…he…" Citrus had a very hard time explaining this. "…He used to be a very sensitive, shy, and all around nice person. I remember the first time I met him…"
Flashback
Eight-year-old Scorch sat alone in the forest counting the amount of shells he owned. There were only seven of them so it didn't take him long. He was so board and lonely he didn't know what to do with himself. That's when he heard footsteps coming from behind. He turned to see the three neighborhood bullies towering over him. Scorch was so oblivious to the outside world he really didn't know who they were.
"H-hi… I'm Scorch… do you wanna play with me."
"Play with you? HAHAHAHAHA! That's funny kid. Who are you anyway?" asked the tallest bully.
"S-s-s-s-scorch?" He answered hesitantly.
"Well from now on your name is Wimp!" Said the kid next to the apparent leader.
"B-but my name is…" Scorch began when he was suddenly grabbed by the patch of fur in front of his neck and lifted up.
"Your name is whatever we tell you it is. Got that!" Shouted the mean juggernaut.
"I-I-I-I." Scorch was scared. He grew even more scared when he saw the bully pull back his fist. Suddenly the bully yelped in apparent agony. Scorch turned his head slightly to the side to dodge the in coming rancid breath of the tall child. Soon after the bully fell the ground crying. The two others stood confused until they were met with the same agonizing blow to the back. The both fell and cried along with him.
Scorch stood there confused until an orange ferret jumped from out of the trees and landed in front of the Raccoon.
"Hey there. You alright?" Eight-year-old Citrus asked.
"…Uh-huh." Answered equally eight-year-old Scorch. When Citrus saw the bullies get up and look toward them Citrus hid in the bushes leaving Scorch by himself. Suddenly he heard Citrus' voice.
"Try to follow my words with your mouth as best as you can…and make sure to look mad." Citrus said. Scorch didn't know where he was going with this but he mentally agreed. When the bullies stared at Scorch with confused and teary eyes they began to hear him, or rather Citrus, speak. As he was told Scorch put on the best mean face he could and tried to follow his words as best as he could.
"That's what you punks get! And if you ever mess with me again I'll come straight to your house and set each one of your throats on fire! Understand!" Scorch tried his best to mouth Citrus's words. The bullies hurriedly got to their feet and ran away crying. Citrus got out of the bushes and watched the Ten-year-old menaces leave.
"Uh…thanks…but won't they come back to beat me up again?" Scorch asked.
"Naaaw. Those bullies are real wimps. I've seen them cry when they get a small scrap on their arm. I mean a REALLY small scrap. So, my name is Citrus, what's yours?" The friendly ferret asked.
"…Uh…Scorch…Scorch the Raccoon."
"Nice to meet you Scorch." Citrus answered back happily.
End flashback
"Since that day me and him became very close friends. He began to learn that he was going to have to stick up for himself and learn to be strong. There was this one other time when I fell from a hill and landed in the forest near the area where some of the wolves live and feed. Since I was unconscious Scorch had to save me. I thanked him over a million times for that." Citrus said a bit overjoyed.
'That's sounds like me and Sonic.' Tails thought.
"But as I said something happened to him that was a lot worse than the way everyone else lost their family." Citrus took a deep breath then continued. " Combustion's men…they gave Scorch a pistol and… the told him…they told him if he didn't shoot and kill his younger brother then his parents would die!"
Sonic almost lost his balance when he heard that. Tails just stared out at Citrus' teary face in pure shock as he continued on.
"So… Scorch…he didn't do it… so like they said his parents got killed and him and his little brother were sent to work. His little brother soon died from searing pain and hunger, not to mention he was completely dehydrated. He's always thought till this day that his family died because of him, but that isn't true. Since then I've been the only family Scorch has had, well, me and all the other kid survivors. I'm 14 now and so is Scorch. Everyone else that survived and lives with us are 13-15 and there is one 16-year-old but that's it."
"…I never imagined such cruelty could exist…I just…can't understand…why would he…?" Sonic began.
"None of us knew. It was all completely unexpected. Him and his men just came here said hello, played nice for a while, then Combustion started killing everyone. It all happened so fast. Hey! We're here!" Citrus shouted.
Sonic, Tails, and Citrus have been talking so long while walking they didn't even notice they had arrived. Scorch stood by the door tapping his foot in frustration waiting for them to catch up. When he finally saw them round the corner he sighed in relief.
"Nice of you guys to show up. I was beginning to thing the scout bots found you." Scorch said in a slightly bored tone.
"Yeah sorry, I was just explaining to them what happened to this place." Citrus apologized.
"…That's nice…lets' just head inside." Scorch said turning toward the boulder and taping a few buttons on the panel that seemed to just appear out of nowhere. In reality it didn't because it was just covered up by another panel that looked exactly like a piece of a rock and had the same texture. Soon after that a small hatch door opened up in front of them.
"After you." Sonic said to Scorch and Citrus. Citrus went in first, the Scorch, then Tails, then finally Sonic. The hatch immediately closed when everyone was inside. Once inside they began walking down a dark tunnel. Tails was always afraid of the dark so he felt slightly uncomfortable. Luckily Sonic noticed his discomfort almost immediately.
"You alright Tails?" asked the curious hedgehog.
"…Uhhhh…yeah." Tails stuttered while looking around the dark cave.
"Come on, you don't have to put on that tough guy act with me." Sonic said pulling the fox closer to his nice warm chest. Tails smiled and continued walking. "You feeling any better?" Sonic asked.
"…A little." Tails said smiling. Scorch heard their sounds of happiness and friendship behind him. It was rare that he ever felt that feeling inside him anymore. Suddenly a hand came to his shoulder.
"You gonna be alright buddy?" Citrus asked.
"…I'll be fine…" Scorch said in the first compassionate voice heard come out of the raccoon's mouth since Sonic and Tails arrived. Maybe he wasn't as grouchy as first predicted.
They continued walking down the tunnel until they reached another door. Scorch quickly typed in the pin number in the hatch panel next to him and opened it. As soon as they got inside they noticed many teens of 13,14,15, and apparently one 16-year-old sitting around. They all turned and spotted Sonic and Tails.
"Hi there." Sonic said in a cheery tone. As soon as he did however many lasers were pointed directly at him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What I do?" Sonic asked. The scared fox hid behind Sonic immediately.
"Hey you guys, calm down! This is Sonic the Hedgehog and behind him is his little friend Tails." Citrus explained.
"Apparently they're staying with us so don't anyone make any kind of move on them." Scorch warned.
"Hey, wait a minute! How do we know they're not one of Combustion's spies!" Shouted someone in the back.
"We were just about to give them an I.Q check and a mind scan actually." Citrus stated.
"A what?" Sonic asked.
"The I.Q test is to see how smart you are and the mind scan tells us if you're working for Combustion. I know you guys will pass with flying colors though." Citrus said with a grin.
"Okay lets do this." Sonic said completely pumped up.
Leaf forest Gun base
"Okay men…and woman…we've no time to waist. We've got to get to that mountain at once!" Smoke commanded as his men made their way to their ships.
"Uh excuse me!" Shouted Rouge.
"What is it bat?" Smoke said a bit uneasy.
"This Magma Mill place we're headed." Began Rouge.
"What about it?"
"Well, you say it's located in the Crystal Ocean, however…" Rouge pulled a map out of her pocket, twirled it open and began viewing it. "…This place isn't on the map." She concluded.
"Of course it isn't."
"What! You know?"
"Affirmative."
"Then how do you expect us to travel to an uncharted area?"
"Easy, we just go there." Smoke said walking toward his ship. Rouge just smiled and sat in the cockpit with Big.
"Works for me." Rouge said pulling the hatch down.
"Are we taking off?" Big asked while leaning his head up from the seat to face Rouge.
"Yup. Hang on." Rouge warned as the runways became clear. The G.U.N ships all immediately took off toward the skies and headed straight for their destination.
Smoke said in the lead plane focusing on his mission when he heard a voice come from the seat next to him. However, this wasn't possible since no one sat next to him.
"Hello SmokeStack." Said the voice. Soon a shroud of darkness appeared in the empty seat and reformed into a certain cloaked figure.
"What is it now Darkness?" Smoke asked slightly irritated.
"You don't sound happy to see me?" Darkness stated.
"No one is ever happy to see the likes of you running around. Now what is it?"
"I just came to warn you that the 'fate rising' day is drawing near and you still haven't killed the fox have you?"
"So, you came to gloat huh? Well it won't work. I swear I will kill that fox!" Smoke shouted.
"Oh face it Smog breath you'll never kill him. The fate rising will happen and the fox will become a kitsune. And no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter what you say, there is nothing you can do…to stop it."
Smoke sat there and stared at the sky for a while. He was in deep thought. He began to wonder what it might actually to be like to experience the wrath of the kitsune first hand…like his ancestors did.
"What you say may be true…it may still happen…but as long as I'm breathing I'll make it my life's work to kill him! He WILL pay for what he did." Smoke shouted.
"…Fine. Have it your way. I do kind of enjoy seeing you pathetic fools squirm, however." With that said Darkness teleported out of the ship and hovered over the fleet of ships heading straight for Crystal Ocean.
"…My, my…look at all the pawns." Suddenly he was interrupted by a ring in his ear.
"Yes what is it Metal?" Darkness said knowing it was him.
"Sir, I've got some more news. Eggman isn't just planning on heading to coordinate 000 he's planning on started a war with G.U.N in order to distract them from his whereabouts." Metal Sonic said on the other end.
"Oh, is that so." Darkness wondered.
Eggman's base
Eggman journeyed his way toward the robot hanger and began to type in something on his keyboard. Suddenly he heard a familiar zoom come from Bokkunn.
"Doctor, doctor! I've got terrible news! Metal found out you were going to start a war with G.U.N" Bokkunn yelled.
"Oh did he? Well I guess my new war monger will have to take care of things for me." Eggman finished typing in the code he was putting in then all of a sudden there was a huge click. The pod in front of the keyboard began to open.
"Uh. Whose that?" Bokkunn asked.
"My newest companion." Eggman said.
The pod completely opened all the way and out stepped a familiar purple jaguar with a robotic arm and a robotic eye as well.
"Look's like your arm and eye are fully constructed. Welcome to our team…Hang Nail." Eggman sneered.
"I gotta say, it's gonna be fun being a war monger." Stated the now completely evil jaguar.
"Oh I'm sure it will be. Not only that but I'm giving you the pleasure of being the one who has to take down young Miles Prower."
"…Me face Homeless Two Tail again…great! Now I get to beat him a second time. It must be my lucky day."
Again I am really sorry for the long awaited update. I'll try to get it in sooner next time. By ya'll.