So it looks like we're going just a solely Celeste chapter and save Sonic's stuff as well as waterway stuff for next time. I think after some thought, I think the chapters for this arc are generally going to be shorter. Trying to keep it monthly but we'll see how things will go.
At any rate, enjoy the chapter!
Trials of War: A Sonic Forces Rewrite
Chapter 30-
Life Will Change
"As such, it is important for us to remember that we, the Knuckles Clan, have been gifted by Chaos itself as the top of the food chain." Chief Pachacamac declared. "No other clans, no other beings and certainly not silly little animals like the Chao shall ever come close to what we possess. Our Clan is uncontested as the most powerful above all else!"
Tikal wished that she could be anywhere else at the moment. But sitting in a field, watching her dad pace around and explain the evils of outsiders and how it was absolutely right for him to slaughter the Chao was her fate for taking Knuckles' place.
She figured it was a fitting enough punishment, given how she was largely against her father's decisions both in that circumstance and dealing with the resistance. Come to think of it, she didn't really agree with the way of life that the Knuckles Clan had decided to uphold.
The idea that they were superior beings to all those that they had encountered, including other tribes; hunting anything that moves as long as it wasn't an Echidna and their bastardization of their religion with how they viewed Chaos, the Master Emerald and the world at large.
"Tikal! Tikal! Are you listening?!" Pachacamac shouted at her.
The princess blinked only to look at her father who was giving her a pointed glare, impatiently tapping his foot.
"I apologize father. My mind was elsewhere."
Pachacamac frowned. "Yes. Instead of following my guidance and believing in the ways of our people, your mind was busy wandering to thoughts of outsiders and animals. How can I expect you to be among the leadership of our clan if you do not share the same ideals that I do, hold the same strength that I do?"
Tikal rolled her eyes at this to which her father's frown deepened.
"By Chaos, I at least hope the man you wed will have even half the strength and will that I have in my right mitten." He grumbled.
Tikal repeated the action, this time with pursed lips as to keep her mouth shut.
Pachacamac turned away. "It is important that we keep to our ways for the future. Had it not been for that silly resistance, not having one of our own at their helm, they'd have never been allowed to stay here. Other races on our land, bah! I can respect him having underlings to control, but he treats them like equals! Absolutely disgusting."
Tikal really wanted to say something at that point but knew to keep her mouth shut and let her father just go on his rant. She knew better than to get in the middle of it once he had gotten started as he would just continue going on and on and list all the reasons why he knew she was wrong whether it be through what he believed Chaos had taught them about their tribe or otherwise.
"Chief Pachacamac!" A gruff voice called out, cutting him off as he was just getting to the good part about vermin like mice, hedgehogs and other Mobians of those particular species.
Tikal let out a sigh of relief at this and looked towards the source of the voice along with her father. It was one of the guards who had been standing guard outside the Master Emerald Shrine, nearly stumbling over himself as he desperately tried to catch his breath.
"What is it?" The chief asked.
"An outsider is approaching our land."
Pachacamac frowned. "Yes, one of the lost one's silly contraptions. I have told you many times to ignore them."
"Yes. One of those machines are approaching us, but…" He trails off.
"What? Out with it boy!"
The Echidna hands the chief a telescope that Pachacamac looks into. High in the sky, he spotted a resistance ship flying towards the island… lead by none other than a red panda flying through the sky and surrounded by a mystical aura.
"Protect the Master Emerald at once!" He roared.
The guard quickly nodded and ran back to his post to which Pachacamac and Tikal quickly followed after.
~Trials of War~
"Commander… S-Sonic and I have split up and I'm headed towards the central laboratory now."Celeste stuttered.
"You're doing a great job, Celeste. You'll make it down there in no time. I'll be in touch if you need anything." Knuckles replied.
"R-roger…"She replied and hung up.
Celeste walked down a white hallway doing her best to compose herself after everything that had just transpired. After seeing all those bombs and how Sonic had reacted, it was tough to try and focus on what was ahead.
Never before in her life could she have imagined someone like Sonic to be able to lose their cool like that, not when he had that unshakeable winning smile and did everything he could to make sure that everyone was okay.
He was always full of smiles and laughter and the most she had ever seen of him was a determined frown when things were tough. But never anything like that. Never before in her life had she seen such unbridled rage from him or really anyone she had known for that matter.
And that strange power that had come from his body… She'd never seen anything like that.
And it wasn't like it was unwarranted. What she had seen with Sonic in that room was horrifying. The mere idea that someone in this world was capable of unleashing that much destruction on the planet shook her to her very core. She knew that Doctor Eggman was evil but this… this was something else.
Still… to see someone like Sonic get so-
She stopped at the thought of that. Someone like Sonic. She had realized that it had been a long time since she thought of him in that way. Like a celebrity or some sort of force of nature, untouchable by all.
Ever since that day when she had accidentally found Sonic on the Death Egg, the blue blur had been nothing but kind to her, so quickly had he become her friend and accepted her as if she were another member of his family like Knuckles or Amy. He had helped her and protected her like she actually was his own blood.
Now she had protected him from… whatever that was.
Despite how scary it all was, it made her smile to know that she was there for her friend like that. Had it been before the war, or even before she had joined the resistance, she didn't think that she'd have been able to do that for him, or anyone, for that matter.
It made her happy to know that she could be a friend to him and she hoped that she would continue to be able to be that for him. But first she had to get the information from Eggman's lab and get out of there in one piece.
She turned back to worry again though.
…What happened to Sonic?
~Trials of War~
"Commander… S-Sonic and I have split up and I'm headed towards the central laboratory now." Celeste's voice came from the other end of the computer, her voice a tad shaky, a touch of fear in her voice.
Knuckles smiled and nodded at this. "You're doing a great job, Celeste. You'll make it down there in no time. I'll be in touch if you need anything."
"R-roger…" She replied and hung up.
Knuckles let out a sigh of relief at this, stretching in his chair a bit.
Amy looked to him with a smile and said, "So far, so good."
Knuckles nodded. "Yeah. As far as things go, Eggman's forces haven't really given us too much of a problem."
"And nothing's gone wrong over on our end." Amy noted.
"So looks like it should be smooth sailing from here."
"Commander Knuckles! Commander Rose!" A voice cried out from the front of the room.
"Why is it always something?" Amy groaned.
The two turned their attention towards the door and in came a single human man with short brown hair, wearing a khaki police uniform which included a badge that read Tom Wachowski: Central City Police Department Sherriff.
"We've got a huge problem." Tom shouted.
"What's wrong?" Knuckles asked.
"A ship appeared in our airspace. It's one of Eggman's and unless I'm sure. We haven't stolen any for a while."
The two's blood ran cold.
"E-Eggman… Has he…?" Amy shuddered.
"He couldn't have." Knuckles frowned. "There's no way that Eggman would be able to find us on Angel Island! How did he-"
"We don't know that for sure."
"Doesn't matter. I'm going over there to see what's up." Knuckles insisted as he got up from his chair and began to race out the door, following after Tom who had already run out as well.
"What about the mission?" Amy insisted.
"Relax… You got this, right?"
"I do not!" Amy shouted. "Don't leave me here alone! Knuckles! Knuckles!"
But he was already out the door.
Amy sighed and got back to work hoping she would manage the task ahead.
~Trials of War~
Celeste had been walking through the hall for some time and still hadn't really made any headway in her search of the doctor's central office. Occasionally, she would find sliding doors which would lead to new rooms but most of them were not what she was looking for ranging from observation decks to other robot assembly lines and other weapons of mass destruction to a room where she found boxes upon boxes filled with Eggman's selfies.
But now it seemed she had finally found it.
Before her was a long pristine corridor and at the end of it was a single sliding door.
She clicked her com and tried to phone HQ.
"Knuckles?"
Amy's voice came from the other end instead. "He had to step out. What's up?"
"I think I've made it to Eggman's main lab, there's this hallway with nothing there in my path."
There was a pause for a moment.
"Amy?"
"While it's true that Eggman uses his lab so maybe it's clear but that's not his style. I doubt he'd just make it where you could just waltz right in. Stay alert."
"Gotcha." Celeste nodded before switching off her com.
Slowly, she began to make her way down the hall, carefully tiptoeing around to make sure that she didn't trip over any traps.
Along the way she took notice of a small trip wire along the floor and was very careful to step over it.
And as soon as she touched that floor past the tripwire, the plate along the floor lowered into the ground and there was a mechanical hum that came down.
"Oh no." She gulped.
Suddenly panels on the walls and ceiling began to open up and from them, appeared two things. From the ceiling was a row of blaring red alarms and from the walls were a bunch of tiny robots not too dissimilar to Starline's starbots only in the classic Eggman red and black color scheme.
She yelped, quickly running down the hallway as the robots gave chase and fired all sorts of lasers at her. Without much thought, she pulled up her hoodie in hopes of making it to the door.
She was able to make it and quickly ducked into the laboratory just before they were able to get to her where the door quickly locked behind her.
Celeste let out a sigh at this only to jump at the sound of banging on the door. It looked to be holding up for the most part so she did her best to turn away from the door and try not to eye it. She was gonna have to work quickly before the Badniks got to her.
"Okay, it looks like I'm in." Celeste let out a sigh of relief, still slightly eying the wall in fear.
"Great work, Celeste. Input the drive and grab all the data you can and then get out of there." Amy announced.
"R-right…" She shakily nodded.
Before starting off, she took a once over of her surroundings once again, finding herself in a dark room only illuminated by the pale blue lights of these pods that lined the room, each with little cubes inside. She looked a little confusedly at this, wondering what sort of strange science Eggman had been doing with them. At the end of the room was a large supercomputer showing lines of code.
She then ran through the room, her footsteps clanging and echoing through the room along with the light sloshing of the liquid in the tubes around her.
But she arrived at the computer and pulled out the flashdrive, quick to find the port for it and pushed it into the slot.
The screen then changed from lines of code and instead changed to a screen showing off a report with the Eggman logo in the top right corner, a silhouette of a familiar jackal was shown and atop it all, were two words.
PROJECT INFINITE
Celeste looked up at this with wide eyes and then, it began to rapidly scroll down the screen as all the data began to get uploaded to the drive.
~Trials of War~
Still doused in multicolored energy, the panda girl descended from the parted clouds and softly landed in front of the Emerald Altar.
With that, the energy faded and she let out a sigh of relief flipping her hair and looking around only for several spears and wispons to be shoved in her face.
"Chaos." The panda girl sighed as she raised her hands up in the air in surrender.
Just then, the same transport which had been following her landed next to her. The door slid open and out came Commander Tower with his hands behind his back and an about business look to his face. That was until he got the same as the panda.
Three people had a mixture of fear, fury and fluster coursing through their veins during this standoff: Commander Knuckles the Echidna, Chief Pachacamac and Commander Abraham Tower.
"What is the meaning of this?!" The three roared only to look at one another in confusion.
"Commander Tower…?" Knuckles asked looking at the man in confusion.
"Knuckles. This is not the welcome that I expected from the resistance?"
Knuckles was about to respond but Chief Pachacamac cut in. "You dare to step on my land?"
Commander Tower frowned at this. "Yes, I dare to- wait, are you an ancient Echidna?" He scanned the warrior, taking in his tribal getup and looking even more confused.
Knuckles sighed. "Yeah… that's been a development…"
"More time travel?" Commander asked.
Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "More time travel? What do you mean, more time travel?"
"You mean you don't know?" Commander Tower asked.
"No…?" Knuckles asked confusedly.
"I do not understand what is going on but if you do not leave this place immediately then you will be-"
"Relax, gramps." Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Robocop is with us."
"Robocop?!"
"Respect your elders, young one. I have half the mind to-"
"Um. Yeah, hi. Excuse me?"
Everybody turned their attention to the one who spoke up again and they looked to see the same panda who had been leading them through the sky as she still had her hands up.
"While this is a very riveting conversation, I would absolutely love it if you guys would stop pointing all your sharp objects and weird guns in my face. So back the heck off!"
They all looked at each other and the resistance members who were all pointing their weapons sheepishly put down their weapons and left, going back to Knuckles side.
The Echidna however still didn't lower their weapons and kept them trained on her and Commander Tower.
"Hey, guys. Lay off!" Knuckles shouted. "We said it was cool!"
But Pachacamac stood unwavering. "I do not know what the temperature has to do with this but that does not explain her. The strange powers that she exhibited are still of great concern. Who are you, child?"
The panda rolled her eyes. "Name's Echo."
"And you dare to come to our land with ungodly abilities?" Pachacamac glared. "I have half the mind not to kill you stand for the threat you pose."
"Father!" Tikal shouted.
All eyes turned to the girl as she was now standing protectively in front of Echo. "What do you think you're doing? How can you not see that this one is blessed with Chaos' power?"
Pachacamac frowned. "An outsider cannot be endowed with the great power from above. It is not possible."
Echo glared at him. "Hey, man. I just got these powers. I don't know where they came from but I just literally flew hundreds of miles just to get to that stupid glowing rock."
"It is true. I can sense it within her." Tikal insisted. "And I am not letting you harm another being of Chaos! Not again!"
Pachacamac frowned and glared at his daughter while the other Echidna guards held their weapons at the ready, waiting for the word to do whatever the Chief had wanted.
"Guards..."
Both Knuckles and Tower stepped up next to Tikal.
"IF you wanna touch the panda, you're gonna go through us." Knuckles barked.
Commander Tower gestured to his side arm. "I will not hesitate."
Tower glared at the three of them before letting out a loud groan. "You all have much to learn."
He then turned and walked off, his men shortly following behind.
Tikal let out a sigh of relief and fell to her knees. "Thank you so much."
"Of course." Knuckles nodded.
"Are you alright?" Commander Tower asked, looking to Echo.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks for the help." She nodded at them.
She then went over to the ship to greet her friends as they all piled out of it. Tikal left to go tend to her own devices as well, leaving Knuckles and the Commander alone only to be joined by both Lieutenant Topaz and Professor Pickle.
Knuckles looked confusedly at the group. "Okay, I'm lost. I get that the Panda girl figured out a connection to the Master Emerald. Sonic comes here all the time with that. But how do several members of a conquered military organization and our captured soldiers just appear at our front doorstep?"
"Well... a lot of the members of GUN were picked up on the way." Tower admitted. "We were not destroyed, but rather scattered to the wind and forced into hiding after Eggman destroyed our base of operations. We're really just the division in Station Square, but we can hope that those in other areas of the world survived as well."
"Alright. That makes sense." Knuckles shrugged. "And you two?"
"Well… that's a little bit of a complicated story." Topaz admitted, scratching the back of her head.
Professor Pickle shook his head. "What do you mean? It is quite simple really. Those of us who had been guests of the Doctor up in that ridiculous metal ball in the sky were rescued by none other than Sonic and Tails."
Knuckles entire world froze at the mention of the second name. "D-did you say?"
Topaz nodded. "Yes, Tails was present on the Death Egg with Sonic and he was able to free us."
"And he was also down in Station Square about a month ago." Commander Tower confirmed. "He and Sonic were headed towards his lab down in the Mystic Ruins so that they could fix Omega."
Knuckles couldn't believe his ears. After all this time, Tails was alive and kicking and out there exploring the world, fixing robots and freeing people from captivity. He was practically bursting with excitement at the thought that he could actually reunite with him.
"I-is he here?!" Knuckles asked.
Topaz frowned and shook her head. "When leaving the Death Egg, The Tornado got struck by some of the debris and crashed somewhere on the planet. We have no idea if they're okay or if…"
Knuckles looked down at this and turned away from the group. "I- I- see…"
Professor Pickle then crossed over to him and put a comforting hand on the echidna's shoulder. "Cheer up, young chap. If I know Sonic and Tails then I am sure that they are fine and are likely off giving Eggman what for somewhere out there!"
Knuckles let out a shaky smile at that. "Y-yeah… you're right."
He then stopped and realized something throughout the conversation that he had been ignoring.
"Did you say Sonic was with him?"
"And there's the time travel that I had mentioned." Commander Tower chuckled.
He and Topaz then launched into their encounters with Tails and the younger Sonic, about how Tails and Omega had been traveling together with a hedgehog displaced by time and their whereabouts throughout the war, all while Professor Pickle threw in his little anecdotes while they did. Topaz was sure to leave out Tails' emotional state during the whole conversation.
Knuckles took in the story and nodded. He dismissed them, telling them to go out and get settled in with the resistance and returning to Amy.
~Trials of War~
Celeste watched with baited breath as all of the data rolled down the screen at an incredible rate.
~Trials of War~
Amy let out a sigh of relief. "Great work, Celeste. Input the drive and grab all the data you can and then get out of there."
She paused and listened to the raidio chatter on the other end before clicking her headset again. "Great work finding the pressure points. Now the others can pull the lever and Green Hill will be the beautiful place it used to be."
Amy casually leaned back in her seat at this as she continued to listen only to perk up again. "Wow! You really blow me away, Sonic! Now blow that place sky high and we'll be sending a good message to Eggman!"
At that the door slid open and in walked Knuckles the Echidna who looked deep in thought.
"There you are! While you've been playing big strong tough guy with GUN and the others, I have be- hey, what's wrong?"
Knuckles just shook his head and sighed. "Tails is alive."
Amy stopped. "What…?"
Knuckles smiled now. "Tails is alive!"
Amy brought her hands to her chest, tears in the corners of her eyes, beaming at the thought. "Knuckles, that isn't funny. Don't play with my emotions like this…"
"Tails is alive!" Knuckles cheered now, pumping his fist in the air, the proudest smile on his face.
Amy was out of her seat now, com still muted but still on her face as she joined him, jumping up and down and letting out an almost childish like cheer at the thought of her long lost friend being out there.
"This is amazing, Knuckles! Oh where is he! Is he here right now?! Can I see him! Oh, I can't wait to see his cute little face, it's been so long since-"
"Amy, Amy… Calm down." Knuckles laughed. He then let out a sigh. "Honestly, we're not really sure where he is. While he did free the people up on the Death Egg, they uh… separated after and we honestly don't know where he and the others went."
"Oh…" Amy frowned for a moment before smiling again. "Still this is great news, we have to let Sonic know, right away!"
Amy turned on the com again and tuned it to Sonic's end. "Sonic-"
Suddenly though she was cut off by a shrill scream and the sounds of fighting on the end of the com belonging to Celeste.
"Help! Help! Somebody help!" Celeste screamed.
"Celeste?!"
"Celste?" Sonic asked on his end.
"Sonic! Celeste is in trouble. You need to get over to her right now!" Amy insisted.
"I'm off!"
Knuckles frowned. "Man, just when everything was going our way too."
"There's always something…" Amy sighed. "I just hope Sonic and Celeste will be able to get out of there in one piece."
"We'll have to tell him the good news after he saves Celeste. Oh man, I can't wait to see the look on his face." Knuckles grinned.
Amy nodded. "We're almost through with this mission, just have to hold out."
The two were getting ready to return to their seats only for someone else to run into the room again. This one was an orange ferret wearing shorts and having yellow lightning designs running down his back.
"We have a huge problem!" The ferret yelled.
"At this rate, it can't get any worse." Knuckles sighed, rubbing his temples.
"What is it?"
"Doctor Eggman has deployed Shadow and Infinite!"
"What?!" The two leaders of the resistance shouted.
Knuckles slammed his fist on the wall, causing a small crack to form. "Dammit! They must have caught wind of our raid in Green Hill. Now they're going to pick us off one by one!"
"We have to let the teams know now!"
"No!" The ferret shouted.
Both were confused and looked at him.
"Eggman's not headed for Green Hill Zone!" The ferret corrected.
"What?!"
"Yeah. In fact, they're both headed towards Holoska. I don't know why, we haven't touched that place since the raid on the Death Egg, but they seem to want to get there in a hurry."
Amy was quick to run back to her seat and went to the holographic screens, it wasn't long before till she pulled up a world map and it showed to angry red dots heading from Metropolis towards Holoska.
"I- what?" Amy looked confusedly. She then quickly got to typing at the computer again, her fingers flying across the keyboard in record time to pull up a satellite uplink of the frozen landscape.
Angry red smoke was billowing from the Chemical Plant and from the looks of things, lots of Holoskans were making their way out of the factory and back towards their village.
Knuckles eyes widened in shock. "What could possibly be in Holoska that cou-"
And then it came to him.
"If I know Sonic and Tails then I am sure that they are fine and are likely off giving Eggman what for somewhere out there!"
The encouraging words of the professor bounced around his mind as if he were a pinball in Casino Night Zone. If they were busy taking care of Green Hill Zone then the only one person in the world who was capable of doing that much damage to an Eggman base and warrant the attention of not one, but two of Eggman's generals was…
"Tails!" Knuckles shouted.
Amy looked at him wide eyed. "No. Knuckles, it couldn't be-"
"You know anybody else who could piss off Eggman that much that isn't in Green Hill right now?" Knuckles asked. "If Tails is alive and out there, who do you think would do this?"
Amy's eyes widened. "We need to call a fleet now. If it's really him then-"
"With Shadow and Infinite?" Knuckles scoffed. "They're never going to make it in time! There's only one person that's fast enough to get him out of there now and you know who it is, Amy."
God, I am so excited now.
With Infinite and Shadow out and after the Classic Quartet, there really is only one person who can stop them. Who knows what'll happen there though? Can't wait to get into that. But before we do we've gotta handle Sonic's perspective of things as well as the people in the water way and something else. To go before we finally get to that sweet sweet Reunion.
Some pretty exciting stuff for sure and with not much else left to go, I guess I'll see you all next time but first… Review Replies.
numberjacksoctonauts:
Just when you expected it huh? Looks like you're psychic.
I really like writing a slightly more experienced and confident Blaze. While still Sdifferent and far more composed than that of her Prime counterpart, it's fun to show that she is definitely her dimension's protector and shares some of his mannerisms after growing out of her shell and having more of her own adventures. The competitive and more goofy side that I've given her here is a lot of fun to write. Blaze has honestly quickly become one of my favorites to write honestly.
Pretty cool mashup your friend is working on. Chris was a request and I'm glad to have slid him in somewhere.
Imagine Shadow actually succeeding at that, lol.
You would be correct that this is the first time that Shadow and Omega are meeting up since before the war and needless to say there will be some drama there and we'll see how that goes down in the near future.
Animation Adventures:
I'm glad you liked it! When you first came to me about Chris, I wasn't sure at first if I wanted him in or where in the world I was gonna put him. I could've put him in as a resistance member like Tom here and that was honestly what I was gonna do at first but then I got started thinking about what he would've been like within my world and how "Okay, if Sonic is a bit older, he would be too." One thing lead to another and Holoska prisoner was the way to go especially with the college excursion. Have actually had this planned for a little while, just a matter of getting to the Holoska jail.
Who knows if they'll manage that? Haha.
Dude, the Classic Quartet is just so much fun to write. I knew they were gonna be a trip in this fic but never quite imagined them to be one of my favorite things here. I'm glad everyone seems to love them as much as I do.
Starline and Eggman are meant to be direct parallels to each other, yes. I've greatly enjoyed writing him the way I have even though it's not exactly like IDW. Part of that being when I started he really was just an Eggman simp and wasn't quite ready to break off yet. For the purposes of what I have planned for him in this story, he'll likely stay on the Doctor's side as a support for him and I'm happy to have him be a bit of a light in his life despite the whole evil thing. Haha.
Shadow's an interesting one that's for sure. If only there were some sort of flashback chapter I was planning to show what exactly has been up with him… Hm… Chapter Ultimate Life Form… No… Shadow Episode… No… Idk, I'll think of somethin' ;)
Thanks for the continued support.
The Sensational SpiderDom321:
Definitely a little more of them to come in the future but not nearly as much as before as I'd like to group all four memebrs of the Classic Quartet with other characters once they're in the resistance. You can probably guess who for Blaze and Omaga, but even then I'll be sure to put moments of them together.
Thanks, man. I greatly appreciate the love for the Eggman and Starline scene. I loved writing the two of them here and the bit of backstory for Starline. Writing the backstory for him was a good time and definitely the highlight of the chapter for me. The fact that you would compare it to IDW quality means a lot, really. Eggman's realizing that his reign is likely coming to an end what with all the liberating that the resistance is doing and that this city is one of his last strongholds. It's gonna be fun moving forward for him.
Sonic Adventure 2 is a huge inspiration for Shadow's arc in this story. Like with Tails, a lot was taken into consideration when it comes to putting him on the bad guys' side. It's gonna be a ride when we get to Episode Shadow to get into all of that. But until then, I appreciate what you think of him and that scene.
Chris is in his upper teens, getting that degree. Glad you liked his cameo.
Always glad for the support, man.
SonicDash:
Thank you!
Guest 1:
Eh. I wouldn't say better than IDW. Definitely different though.
CVGWJames:
Seems so.
Alright, see you all hopefully sooner rather than later.