After we took the Egg Shuttle back to Tropical Resort so we could take the elevator back home, we ended up finding a horde of aliens dancing all around the resort, celebrating the fact that all their friends had been released. Though some of the Nega Wisps still resided, they weren't as violent or vicious as before, meaning that my message just may have finally gotten across.
"With all the generators destroyed, we can blow this joint and head home!" Tails exclaimed. "We did it, dude!"
"We?" I mocked, scratching my head. "I don't remember you fighting off any insane robots."
"True," Tails gave me, holding up his hands. "Well, good job to you on inventing a translator that allowed us to speak to the aliens and figure out exactly what we needed to do so we weren't running aimlessly around the park and looking like idiots."
He then folded his arms and smirked at me.
"And let's not forget about how you took care of the flooding incident back at Aquarium Park which otherwise would've resulted in you drowning, hmm?"
Tails then slapped his forehead and chuckled jokingly.
"Oh no, wait, that was ME."
"Hmm, good point," I stated casually enough, although I slipped him a thumbs up. "Either way, we can get out of this crazy place and go home!"
The aliens started circling happily around us, giving us their thanks in their own way.
"Looks like the aliens are happy to be going home too," Tails remarked. "Heh, I think we're in the middle of a party!"
"The middle? We ARE the party!" I laughed, starting to dance. "I think we're their guests of honor!"
"Totally!" Tails agreed, just as I began busting out my best breakdancing routine. I was happy enough spinning around crazily on the floor, while Tails started flying above me to be with the aliens.
At long last, everything was right with the world...or so I thought.
. . .
"Ho, ho, ho…that fool Sonic thinks he's won because he destroyed all my generators," Doctor Eggman chortled to himself, watching his monitors as he twirled a finger amusedly in his mustache. Orbot was ignoring him as always, while Cubot was doing his best to stay alert. "Well, the mind control cannon is full enough for what it has to do…"
He rose from his seat in a dramatic display, casting his palm to the sky before clenching it dramatically.
"I WILL have the last laugh!"
Cubot applauded the doctor's resolve, but naturally Orbot had to intervene.
"The last laugh? How is laughing last special?" he asked, sounding genuinely serious. "Isn't that like being the slowest to get the joke?"
"Yeah, I laugh last all the time!" exclaimed Cubot, with yet another new voice chip. "People look at me like I'm an idiot! Forgetaboutit!"
"That's because you ARE an idiot!" howled Eggman, whirling around and scowling.
Cubot was silently thoughtful for a moment before facing the doctor again. "You talkin' to me?"
"Yes, I'm talking to you! There's nobody else here, so I MUST be talking to you!" Eggman became even more worked up, clenching his fists as his mustache stood out on end. "Why haven't we fixed your voice chip yet!?"
"Yo, quit bustin' my batteries over here! I been workin' on it all day!"
"…what does that even mean?!" Eggman shouted. "Oh, nevermind…!"
In a huff, he hit a button on his desk to send it beneath the floor, replacing it with a control panel of sorts.
"In a few seconds, it won't matter anyway, since the world will only have one thing on its mind…"
"What's that, Boss?" Orbot asked, taking the bait. Eggman flashed a toothy grin and chuckled.
"Heh heh…ME."
Cubot and Orbot gasped in spite of themselves as Eggman threw the switch to the mind control cannon, unaware of the impending devastation he had just caused…not by hypnotizing the masses below, but by bringing destruction onto his own creation…
The cannon itself was sticking out of the center of the Tropical Resort, surrounding the space elevator and perfectly poised to hit the world below. Back up blasters emerged from the edges of the Resort, consuming so much electricity that it caused the whole Zone to lose power. It sparked purple a few times, not because it was working…but because the arm of the "Big Boy" was still lodged in the side, causing energy to leak out.
Just when it looked like the cannon was about to fire its hypnotizing ray onto the world below…the hole created by the robot arm started to crack and get bigger, eventually shooting up the side of the cannon. The cannon caught on fire, and massive clouds of smoke started to rise. It erupted completely after that, and the ray it was creating to fire among the masses below imploded on itself…all the Hyper-Go-On power stolen from the Wisps went haywire, stray blasts hitting the moon and every nearby planet except for the one it was supposed to hit…and finally, a large ball of that unstable energy started expanding out, consuming everything and slowly destroying Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park…
It was almost the equivalent of a black hole.
Back in his headquarters, Eggman was eagerly awaiting the moment the world was enveloped in the purple hypnotic gas that was the key to his world domination, only to instead see his entire plan collapsing in on itself. It was as if someone had pulled a single pin out of his well-oiled machine, and all that he'd worked for just came to an abrupt halt…
"No…NO!" Eggman bellowed, gawking at the monitor before him. "This can't be happening! It's backfiring! Impossible!"
He pounded on the seat of his chair, completely throwing a tantrum about it. Cubot was innocently watching when Eggman kicked the chair, causing it to ricochet around the room and clonk into the cubical robot.
"HOW?!" Eggman shouted to the sky, wanting an answer in his moment of madness.
"Yo, what do you mean impossible?" asked Cubot, having dismounted stylishly from his ride around the room. "Your plans have been crushed by Sonic for, like, ever. He stops you like it's his job or something. I can't remember a plan he didn't stop!"
"What are you talking about?! Eggman exclaimed defensively. "He hasn't stopped all of them!"
"Name one," Cubot challenged. Eggman took a moment to ponder as Orbot patted Cubot on the back.
"Way to pay attention, pal!"
By hitting him on the back, something inside of Cubot screeched, but Cubot hardly noticed, as he returned the kind compliment with a thumbs up and a "Thank you, buddy!"
And it came out as the most annoying sound possible to hear by the naked ear.
"Hey! My voice…IT'S BACK!" Cubot exclaimed excitedly, shaking Orbot. "All right!"
"Ah, there's the sweet sound my auditory processors know and love," Orbot sighed contently.
Eggman just looked beside himself as he smacked his forehead.
"Now I remember why we changed his voice chip…"
Orbot and Cubot shared a fist bump as Eggman tried to pick himself up.
"No matter! I may have suffered a small setback, but this thing's far from over!"
He turned back to the screen, still proving to be a reminder of how much his plan had failing. He narrowed his eyebrows and held his trembling hands in front of him, gritting his teeth.
"I WILL CRUSH SONIC!"
Eggman plopped back down in his chair, which started floating up toward a hatch in the ceiling. Orbot and Cubot were left to watch, wondering what was going to happen to them.
"…the man gets an A for effort, that's for sure!" exclaimed Cubot, to which Orbot could only shake his head.
. . .
Back in the Tropical Resort, our celebration was abruptly cut short by all the lights in the place going out, and all the aliens flying away in a panic. The ground started quaking too, and I could only assume that our party was going to have to end for the time being.
"Hey Tails?" I started quietly, watching the aliens rapidly fly away. He turned to glance over his shoulder at me.
"…Yeah?"
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Oh, good. So it's not just me…"
"Well, when I feel the ground shaking beneath my feet and see plumes of dust rising and rubble tumbling and aliens running for their lives…yeah, I get a bad feeling."
Who wouldn't?!
I turned to Tails and gestured towards the exit.
"So, how's about you and me make like Eggman's hairline and recede?"
Tails looked beside himself. "Uh, this isn't joke time. This is running to the space elevator time."
"Sorry, couldn't help myself," I chuckled with a wink. "We're out of here!"
"Yeah, running now!" Tails shrieked, taking off into the air and flying toward the elevator. I was right on his heels, but I stopped to glance back at Tropical Resort one last time.
And it dawned on me that I was really going to miss this place.
. . .
"CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE! Repeat, CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE! All attraction access is temporarily suspended. Please evacuate the park via the emergency exit ahead. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Something told me Eggman was blaming me for this whole mess…but I certainly didn't cause his precious cannon to blow up- I just cut the power from it…
…Didn't I?
Tails and I ran back to the place where we first disembarked off the elevator, only to find that it wasn't there, and knowing how long of a trip it was, there's no way there'd be enough time to wait for it to come all the way back up and go all the way back down before the entire park fell apart.
"We're gonna have to meet it halfway, Tails," I stated seriously, mentally preparing myself. Tails' head snapped to my direction as he gawked.
"WHAT?! Sonic, this elevator is perpendicular to the planet…!"
"And?" I asked, now stretching to ease my nerves, which Tails' panicking was not helping.
"That means we'd be running straight down to the planet!" he cried. "And taking into account the acceleration of gravity…we'd be plunging toward the planet at terminal velocity!"
"Well, that's still faster than waiting around for the elevator to go up and then go back down," I insisted. "And I'm not about to be here when the amusement park comes down!"
"But…it'd be nearly impossible to stop…" Tails trailed, his tails twitching nervously. I kneeled in front of him and put my hands on his shoulders.
"Tails, we're not going all the way down. There's a docking bay at the middle of the elevator shaft, remember? We'll just get on there instead of up here! It'll be faster!"
"But it's certainly not safer," Tails whined, glancing down at the long drop in front of us. I gripped his shoulders tightly.
"Tails, do you trust me?"
"Of course, Sonic," he replied without missing a beat, although his eyes told me that he was still skeptical. "I'm your best friend…it's part of the job description, heh heh."
"Not only that, but you're also my little bro, and everything I've ever made you do was always in your best interest," I explained, holding out my hand. "I wouldn't put you in situations like this unless it was ideal, you know?"
Tails nodded, biting his lip. I kept my hand outstretched.
"Now, show me just how much we trust each other, and we'll both get out of this."
Tails couldn't decline that, so as he silently said his prayers, he latched his hand onto mine, and I fell backward, starting the long trek down at Terminal Velocity.
Cutscenes, cutscenes everywhere! But that only means we're nearing the final stretch, and it's not going to be a plesant ride for anyone...