Preface: Hello again! You may notice I'm early today - my school's doing a hybrid schedule right now, and I'm at home today, so I figured why not post during my off-period. Before we start, I have a quick update on the uploading schedule: after this chapter, there's only two more and an epilogue left, so this will be the last chapter uploaded on a Friday; chapter 9 will be up on Tuesday, and chapter 10 and the epilogue will be up Thursday. With all that said, onto the chapter!
10/31/20 update (original uploading 9/25/20): updated copyright notice
CHAOS HAVEN
Previously...as they explored the strange world of Whisker Haven, Sonic, Tails, and their friends, including Ms. Featherbon, have went onto Little Planet, which can also travel to Whisker Haven, liberated both it and a kitten named Treasure, and have found a way onto the Death Egg Model S to stop Metal Sonic's plans. Shortly after getting on, however, Tails got sucked into a strange chute leading towards the Prison Hall.
Now...he continues his journey, shortly before he begins to get back to others.
Roll Call
Sonic the Hedgehog - Issac Ryan Brown: Fastest thing alive. Hero of Mobius.
Miles "Tails" Prower - Kate Higgins: Tech-savvy sidekick. High-flying pal.
Chapter 8:
Prison Escapade
[Character Selected: Tails]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Death Egg Model S, Transport Tube]
Tails lost track of the time as he slid through the tube. Was this a garbage chute? Would he be thrown into the atmosphere? Could he save himself in time?
Suddenly, he was thrown out of the tube. With a yelp, he hit the ground and heard a small "Ow!"
"Oh, man," he said, in a daze. When his vision focused again, he saw that he had fallen into some sort of prison area, and had landed on an orange tiger cub wearing a blue headband with a feather. "Oh, sorry, little guy!"
[BGM: Friend Like Me Instrumental]
The tiger got up and stretched. "Eh, don't worry about it," he said, "I'm fine. But after what I've just escaped from…" He shuddered. "I'm probably gonna have nightmares for weeks!"
"Nightmares for weeks?" Tails repeated in shock. "Let me guess: were your friends being put into robot shells?"
The tiger was surprised. "How'd you know?"
"Because I saved one of your friends." Tails had a thought. "Say, wanna team up and try and get ourselves outta here?"
"Sure thing!" The tiger heard a strange buzzing noise. "What is that?"
"Oh, my walkie-talkie!" Tails pulled it out of his hammerspace area. "Let's see if I can reach the others!"
[BGM: Alan Menken - The Cave of Wonders]
Tails began to fiddle with the walkie-talkie, trying to get a clear signal. Once it seemed clear enough, he shouted, "Sonic! I'm so glad I reached you! I'm in this weird prison area, but I've teamed up with this tiger cub to try and get out."
"So you're okay?" he heard Sonic answer on the other end.
"For now. Wait up for me!" Tails finished before hanging up. "Say, I never got your name, little guy!"'
"I'm Sultan!" answered the cub as they began walking.
"So you are a sultan, or your name is Sultan?" asked Tails as he took out his Miles Electric and began to hack into the Death Egg Model S's map system.
"The second one," clarified Sultan, chuckling. "Say, what're ya doing?"
"Trying to find our way outta here," answered Tails. "Almost...ah! There we go! There's an elevator not far from here! We just keep going straight."
The two continued to walk forward. The prison hall was rather creepy, with its empty cells. "Are there more where these came from?" asked Tails.
"Yeah, and all my friends were in there," said Sultan. "I managed to escape, but they sent some robot guys after me. Don't worry, I took care of them."
Tails nodded in approval. From the looks of things, this tiger cub, who likely had never encountered anything like this in his life, had managed to escape from a cell and defeated a group of Badniks to boot.
[BGM: SEGA SOUND TEAM - Boss!]
Suddenly, some weird noises were heard from the darkness. "Uh-oh," said Sultan, "looks like they're back!"
"Ah, don't worry about it!" said Tails. "Let's take care of them together!"
And so, the two leaped into action. The balls that the Ball Hogs spat out were caught by Sultan, and he threw them at the Chanispikes, causing their spikes to fall off and destroy the Ball Hogs. The Slicers' scythes were thrown at Tails, but the fox cub caught them with his tails and sent them at the Shellcrackers, slicing their giant claws off.
"Wow! You've got two tails!" complimented Sultan as he wrangled with a Scarab.
"Took ya long enough to notice!" said Tails, performing a Super Sonic Spin Attack through a Macha-Bu. "That's why they call me Tails!"
Before long, there was nothing but robot rubble and Rockies, Beckies, and Peckies hopping around happily.
"Say, that was pretty cool out there!" said Tails. "And you crossed another squadron on your own?"
"What can I say?" said Sultan, shrugging. "I'm a little ball of super energy in an extremely handsome package!"
[BGM: End]
Suddenly, a stray shot of a Buzz Bomber was sent flying towards the two. "Woah! Look out!" cried Sultan.
Quickly, Tails swung his tails around. The bullet deflected off of them and hit an odd button. The button caused a trapdoor to open from the ceiling, which a ticking alarm clock fell out of. "Well, that was totally random," he said.
The clock suddenly started to ring. Not wanting to alert someone, Sultan brought his paw down onto it extremely hard. "Snooze…" he muttered as the clock was destroyed. But it also released some purple gas that caused the two to become delirious.
"What did you do?" cried Tails.
"I did?" retaliated Sultan. "How would I know...that...the clock..waaaaasss...riiiiiged…"
The two suddenly passed out and did not wake up for quite some time. When they finally did, they were in a cell, manned by an EggRobo Badnik with a blaster gun.
"Dang it!" cried Sultan. "It was a trick! They deliberately set this up to trap us!" He began to claw at the bars of the cell. "C'mon, Tails! Don't just sit there!"
Unfortunately, Tails was just sitting there, in doubt of himself. He had failed Sonic. This was his fault.
But then, he suddenly had a flashback to a moment during his first adventure with Sonic…
[Flashback]
[World Change: Mobius]
[Location Change: Kingdom of Acorn, Uncle Chuck's Lab]
[BGM: Masato Nakamura - STH2 Sky Chase Zone ~ Mega Drive Version ~]
The long, perilous journey through the Metropolis Zone was complete. Dr. Eggman had escaped into the sky, but Sonic was determined to follow him.
And so, he and Tails had arrived back at the Kingdom of Acorn, where the Tornado was currently parked outside of Uncle Chuck's lab. But Tails was just sitting there, depressed.
"C'mon, little buddy!" said Sonic. "Use that smarts of yours and fire up the Tornado! The rest of the Freedom Fighters are countin' on us!"
Tails shook his head. "Just go without me. I'll just slow you down."
The fox cub had said that a lot throughout that adventure. But every time he did, he'd immediately counteract that statement. And now that he was saying it here, after all those accomplishments, Sonic was finally fed up with it. So he walked up to Tails and punched him hard in the cheek.
Tails began to cry. "What was that for?"
"Because I am sick and tired of you not believing in yourself!" answered Sonic. "Every time you've put yourself down, you'd do something amazing! Like in the Mystic Cave Zone, when you saved me from that dumb spike pit! Or in the Casino Night Zone, when you realized those slot machines were rigged and saved me a lot of rings! You even got a lot of rings when we went into the Special Zone for the Chaos Emeralds!"
Tails perked up. "I did, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did. And you can't keep doing this. I believe in you, little buddy. And you gotta believe in yourself, too."
[End of Flashback]
[BGM: Jun Senoue - Believe in Myself... Theme of Tails Instrumental]
Tails did one last tear wipe and stood up. Sonic's counting on me, he thought, and so is Sultan. I have to get us out of here.
Tails walked up to the EggRobo. "Hey, buddy! There's an escaper!"
The EggRobo fell for the trick and Tails grabbed its blaster. First, he shot the EggRobo clean, and then he shot the security grid and opened the cell.
"Nice job!" said Sultan. "C'mon! I think we're almost to the elevator!"
The two began to run towards the elevator. Just before they reached it, though, five modified EggRobos fell from the ceiling.
[BGM: Tee Lopes - Theme of the Hard-Boiled Heavies]
"Rats! The Hard-Boiled Heavies!" gritted Tails. They had been modified by the Phantom Ruby and began to rebel against Eggman, so why they were down here was a mystery.
"Well, well, well, looks like our little prisoners have broken out!" said the Heavy King, the leader of the Hard-Boiled Heavies.
"Looks like we gotta blast 'em!" said the Heavy Gunner. He aimed his blaster at the two, but Tails grabbed Sultan and twisted his tails up, flying into the air.
"Hey! You can fly!" said Sultan, impressed.
Tails began to scope the area. He saw a button that read "Garbage Chute" and chuckled at the irony. "I'm gonna throw you onto that purple one," he said to Sultan, pointing at the Heavy Rider. "Grab its mace, and I'll take care of the rest."
Sultan attempted a thumbs-up, and then Tails threw him onto the Heavy Rider. She attempted to hit him with her mace, but the tiger grabbed it and swung it back at her. She wasn't destroyed but she was still stunned.
"Beware my giant spiky ball!" Sultan shouted, swinging it at the Heavy Gunner, causing him to drop his blaster. But then, Sultan suddenly felt his tail be trapped in an ice cube.
"Hahaha!" laughed the Heavy Shinobi. "You underestimated the power of my katana!"
"And you underestimated my sneakiness!" Tails shouted from behind him. When the Heavy Shinobi noticed the fox, he jumped into the air and threw a Asterion Badnik at him. Tails simply dodged it and let it press the 'Garbage Chute" button. The chute suddenly opened up, and the gravity of the atmosphere began to suck in the Hard-Boiled Heavies.
Unfortunately, Sultan was still stuck, so he also began to be sucked in as well. "Here, let me help you!" he heard Tails say. The fox seemed to be reaching his hand out to the tiger, but before Sultan could grab it, Tails was shot by the Heavy Gunner's missiles and was revealed to be the Heavy Magician in disguise.
"Thought you could fool him, did you?" said the real Tails, setting down the blaster as she joined the others in the atmosphere.
"So, you may have defeated the rest of the Heavies," said the Heavy King, "but can you defeat me?" The king charged up his scepter and began shooting balls of energy at the two. One managed to hit Sultan's frozen tail, freeing it and allowing the tiger to pounce onto the Heavy King.
With the king distracted, Tails charged up a Spin Dash and drilled straight through him, causing him to fall into the garbage chute, though Sultan was still on him as he fell. Quickly, Tails shot his hand out and grabbed Sultan's paw.
"Quick! Press the button!"
At Tails's command, Sultan shot out his foot and pressed the button again, causing the garbage chute to close. The two began to catch their breath. "That. Was. Awesome!" cried Sultan. "I've never been so scared and so excited in my life!"
[BGM: End]
Tails got to his feet. "And here we go! The elevator!" He pressed a button, causing a sliding door to open up. The two eagerly stepped inside and waited for the doors to close and the elevator to start.
Here we go. We're coming, guys.
[Character Selected: Metal Sonic]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Death Egg Model S, Testing Chamber]
Metal Sonic looked back at the monstrosity in front of him. The Hyper Metal Sonic had been powered up using a Phantom Ruby Prototype, causing it to take on the monstrous form that Metal himself took on when he used the original Phantom Ruby.
"And with that," he announced, the tests are complete. My loathsome copy won't know what hit him."
Scratch and Grounder rushed into the chamber. "Say, Metal," asked Scratch, "about those other robot Sonic clones you made, should we put those out, too?"
"Indeed," said Metal Sonic. "Simply put out every single powered robot Sonic you can find. Make sure there are at least two of each, including the powered-up Hyper Metal Sonics."
"What about you?" asked Grounder.
"I shall consult the Chaos RIngs," Metal answered. "Harnessing their power alongside the power of the Master Emerald shall be my backup secret weapon…"
To be continued...and next time: the final(?) battle!
Next chapter: "Night of Not-Quite-A Thousand Robo Sonics!" The gang's all back together again, and just in time, too - Metal Sonic's secret weapon is about to be unleashed: two of every single robotic version of Sonic ever made! Will Whisker Haven fall under the metallic ruin? The penultimate battle of Chaos Haven!
Postface: Chapter complete! I sure hope you liked the characterization of Tails here - the idea of him doubting himself during Sonic 2 appealed to me for some reason I can't remember while I was originally writing the story. Either way, it's a far cry from his Forces characterization, right?
Trivia time! This is the first chapter to have had this name changed - I originally called it "Prison Break!" and changed it because it was less of a 'break-out' than an 'escapade.' A new character arrives: Sultan! He is the pet tiger cub of Jasmine from Aladdin and one of the six main Palace Pets in Whisker Haven. His role was originally filled by Taj, another pet of Jasmine's whose an elephant. I replaced him because I thought Sultan fit better. As for the Badniks he and Tails encounter, at least most of them are from the Genesis games' final zones. And as for the Hard-Boiled Heavies, those guys are from Sonic Mania. They're a band of EggRobos who excavated the Phantom Ruby when it first appeared, and the ruby gave them modifications and free will, so they slowly started to oppose Dr. Eggman. Don't ask why they're helping Metal Sonic, though - maybe they thought Metal's doing this to surpass Eggman? Either way, the true reason why Metal's doing this probably won't come up until the epilogue, and I'll admit, it's a bit silly...
That should be it! Please read, review, and share, and I'll see you next time when the penultimate battle comes! Stay diamond, everyone, and have a good Yom Kippur to any Jewish readers of mine!
-Alfred
~Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him are properties of Sega Corp. The Palace Pets and everything related to them are properties of The Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~