Nicole observed the fight through her sensors.
Even while directing the rest of the battle she paid special attention to the tiny blip in the sky that was the Tornado Two. Two of the most important mobians on the planet were on board, and in danger. The temptation to try and intervene was almost overpowering, but she had her orders. Nicole-Prime may have felt few compunctions about bending the rules, but as the Nicole-Typhoon she considered herself more conservative than that.
As an AI given control of an actual warship, she knew that if she showed too much 'initiative' that went against orders, she'd be seen as a threat. And rightly so! She had to set an example. Nicole-Typhoon hadn't lied when she'd told Sonic that she and the Prime shared a synchronous memory and persona, but just having the same memories, information, and objectives didn't mean they were identical or that they came to the exact same conclusions.
Her conclusion was to let the organics play out their vendettas, at least for the time being. Besides, she had a measure of statistical confidence (one could call it faith) in Miles Prower and the Tornado Two. The latter was a well oiled fighting machine, and the former was the premier pilot on Mobius, and a powerful organic thinking machine in and of himself. Watching as the two pilots, Miles and Jet, danced through the sky amid a symphony of explosions and cannon fire, Nicole felt confident in her conclusions. He and Sally had a very high chance of success.
Ahead of her, the Battlebird fleet arranged itself in battle lines.
Long range saturation fire had already crippled the Antigua and the Belize (after she switched targets). Both Battlebird captains had strayed too far from the Port Royale, trying to intercept the Prince Edward, and Nicole had slashed them with a barrage of cruise missiles. Many had been shot down, but the few that made it through lit the two enemy ships up like roman candles.
The Antigua was an "Eleuthera" class War Sloop: a war-era design for a light ship that could carry a destroyer-level armament and act as a squadron leader. Its main weapons were missiles and a single 5-inch gun. Less dangerous were the fleet's two "Leogane" class Royal Sloops, the Belize and Curacao. They were obsolete designs, but she knew many of the enemy marines had been launched from those ships, and they likely had much of the loot from Facility-7. They would be easy enough to knock out when the fight got to closer quarters.
With the Curacao being only a nuisance, Nicole decided to detach a wing of Cyclones and cripple it for later capture. That left the BBA Nevis, another War Sloop, the BBA Nassau, a Light Cruiser, the BBA Guadeloupe, a "Montserrat" class Refit Cruiser, and the BBA Port Royale, a "Tortuga" class Brigandine. Four versus her own three. In fact, though, it was more like three versus three. The Guadeloupe was not designed for front line combat; it was a makeshift drone and fighter carrier. Her commissioning plaque would be another fine prize to parade through the streets of Knothole.
"Have the Prince Edward and the Prince James break to points 24,15,18 and 14,15,16," Nicole ordered, sitting casually in the Captain's chair. To better fit the part, she'd generated a holographic version of a Great War Captain's ceremonial uniform. "Have them circle around the flank and take the Guadeloupe. Let the Typhoon draw first blood."
'We lost the initiative…' Tao silently cursed, weighing his options. Even with the Antigua and Belize undamaged, he'd hoped to avoid a direct confrontation like this. With the Typhoon and her escorts capable of chasing his fleet down, he'd hoped to be able to tie her up with fighters and drones and then make a break for it. Unfortunately those new enemy fighter craft had not only managed to save the crew of the Prince Emerson, they'd torn a bloody swath through the Battlebird formations.
Already, enemy craft were hitting the damaged Antigua and the still operational Curacao. Reports were flooding in of damage to external turrets and weapons systems. At this rate, his destroyer cover would end up a little more than flying scrap. There was no way to escape, which left them with a fight. Tao watched carefully as the two enemy destroyers turned and started to maneuver away from the Typhoon. He recognized the strategy.
'They're going to circle around the flank and hit the Guadeloupe…' he reasoned.
Sending in a line ship to draw fire while quicker escorts hit ships in the rear was hardly uncommon, although the strategy had fallen out of favor among mobians in the last war. The Guadeloupe was a refit of a captured civilian vessel. The Hover Drive was underpowered for her class, and her weapons weren't a threat to even destroyer class vessels. It was also all but useless now that his fighters and drones were scattered in a million pieces across a hundred square miles of battlefield.
"Have the Guadeloupe shore up the Curacao. Direct the Nassau to our flank, and have her engage those destroyers."
The Nassau was a good ship, with a good crew. Originally laid down as a training cruiser, the Armada refitted them to be combat-capable. Armed with a mix of older 127mm (the venerable 5-incher) and 64mm guns, along with a single Pulse Laser and a good power plant, she was quick in a sprint and fairly tough. Hopefully, Captain Tsang could knock out the two destroyers and come about in time to help her flagship.
"As for the Typhoon…" Tao's eye narrowed. "We'll handle her ourselves."
Jet spun away from a flurry of explosions, angling his fighter to move erratically through the air as it spoofed missile after missile. Crashing up and into a cloud, he stalled, inverted, and pulled a kulbit maneuver. The Tornado Two wasn't the only plane with three dimensional thrust vectoring and canards. Even as he went through the maneuver, two plumes of fire erupted from the forward swept wings of his Ba-190 Butcher Bird.
Two missiles fired, and almost immediately they started to loop around, turning a hundred and eighty degrees. Jet throttled and pulled up and away, even as his missiles began to give chase to the Tornado. The other plane shot away like a star, pulling up and spoofing the first missile before spinning like a top and doing the same to the second, spitting chaff and flares into the air. Jet swooped in from behind, unleashing an infrared heat seeker. The Tornado actually stalled, slowing and popping a flare and letting the missile shoot by before pivoting in place and turning, coming back out of its stall.
Jet's grin widened in excitement.
This was proving to be the best duel he'd had in recent memory. No: this was proving to be the most fun he'd ever had, fighting with someone in the air! Engines flaring, he pulled up and started twirling, the Tornado matching his maneuvers as the two planes broke cloud cover and soared into the sky. Breaking away and flying in different directions, Jet allowed a laugh to fill his cockpit. Yes! This was fun!
"Hey, kid," Jet spoke up, knowing his adversary was listening. "You ever save Fiona, huh? I don't think I shot her anywhere vital."
"I did, actually," came the response, a moment later. "She squealed like a pig."
Jet laughed again, almost mad with glee - what a fun fight this was!
"Is that so!" he replied, not bothering to hide his amusement. "What did you do? Break her fingers? Use electrodes? That's pretty cold hearted, doing that to the lady you claim to love."
"I have my ways with girls, Jet," the foxboy's voice was calm and considered. "I plan to do the same to Wave when I bring you three in."
Jet's smile diminished, morphing into a faint sneer.
"You can't break a Babylon Rogue that easily, kid!"
"Maybe." The kitsune didn't sound put off by the comment. "I won't know until I try."
Jet's sneer grew slightly. Wave was like a sister to him; the thought of her being mistreated by anyone didn't sit well with him one damn bit. As a rule, he didn't have a whole lot of loyalty to groups or people or leaders. Even the Armada had just been a means to an end. The name of the Babylon Rogues was important to him, along with the power and mystique it carried with it, but even his pride as a Rogue meant nothing if he couldn't lead his comrades. He was the best; it was his responsibility to watch over them and make sure they lived with pride.
"You out of missiles, kid?"
"You have something in mind?"
"Let's settle this with our guns."
"…Fine by me."
"Jet may be out of missiles," Wave said to herself, activating the last of her long and medium range weaponry. "But that doesn't mean I am."
Targeting the Tornado as it dueled with the Butcher bird, turning and twisting and coiling at mach speeds, Wave hesitated on the trigger. Jet would probably be pissed at her interrupting his duel, but he did have a tendency to lose himself in the thrill of competition. If he had a weakness, it was that he always needed her to kick their team in the ass and point it in the right direction. There wasn't time to dick around in some midair pissing contest.
The Tornado was distracted, caught between Jet and her missiles…
tap-tap
"What the…?"
Wave looked up, at the source of the sound, and saw a blue hedgehog tapping the glass of her cockpit with his finger. Seeing her notice him, he waggled his finger in a 'no,no,no' gesture. For a few seconds, Wave just stared; slack jawed at the sight, trying to process just how in the name of all things holy a damn hedgehog got above her plane when she was currently cruising at an altitude of twenty thousand feet. Then she looked past him, and saw what he was riding on.
It was… some kind of supped up extreme GEAR.
No: it wasn't just a GEAR. Someone had rigged a GEAR to a weapons platform, using it as a control surface. Large engines coupled with an air system must've been what let it get so high. Was it possible that it used a magnus effect to generate the extra lift, creating a pocket of turbulence as a result of inverted air circulation? Of course! And if that were the case, a GEAR could be used to control the turbulence, creating lift in almost any direction. It was ingenious! And to build it into a weapons platform…!
"One of his inventions..." Wave realized, just then, amazement turning into anger. "Why you…!"
Afterburning away, Wave made a wide turn and came around, targeting the new GEAR and its rider. It had to be Sonic. She'd never met him, but everyone knew who he was. Shooting him down wouldn't only destroy yet another annoying foxboy innovation she had failed to think up, it would get her in the history books. Granted: it wasn't really the sort of reference she wanted, but it would make for an interesting footnote.
She had two mini missile pods left.
"Let's see how well that piece of junk moves!" Wave yelled, and set the systems to hot on the new target. Sonic shot off to the left when she fired, making almost a ninety degree turn and corkscrewing before rising up into the air. Her flurry of missiles, all sixteen of them, raced up after the target designated by her radar and guidance computers. Sonic zipped around like a fly on speed, leaving a trail of blue behind him like an afterimage. Diving back into the mass of missiles, proximity explosions filled the air; bright red and orange dots lighting up the sky.
For a second, it looked like she'd hit him.
And then he buzz bombed her, shooting by her right side. Wave cursed and tried to turn, keeping him in her sights. Most planes could only illuminate a target in its forward cone, but her Ba-223 "Kite" was a little different. It could illuminate targets in almost any direction. Even as she turned, Wave released another set of munitions: two missiles left their rails, spun around in mid air, and acquired their target. She then followed up with two more.
Fires blooming behind them, the missiles accelerated almost to Mach 5 in fifteen seconds. They were 'smart' weapons, with both active/passive radar and infrared homing. Even the Assault GEAR wouldn't be able to outpace them. Even Sonic himself never got much faster than Mach 1, according to common lore. The warheads on the missiles weren't huge, but it wouldn't matter with a small unshielded target like that. Wave watched with anticipation, turning to face the direction of her target, as the four contrails looped and curved.
Sonic corkscrewed again, but then he did something unexpected: turning his board, he coasted for a half a kilometer before blasting off in another direction. The g forces involved would have turned any normal mobian to paste, and even the missiles couldn't keep pace with the maneuver. Turning as tightly as they could, they tried to follow him, but Sonic made another ninety degree turn, and then another, and then another. Making a blazing square in the sky, Sonic then dove and short towards her.
'Is he trying to ram me?' Wave watched, eyes wide, as Sonic got closer and closer. The missiles were still following him when he shot straight up. This close, one of them exploded, catching another, and then another, and then the last one. Four balls of smoke and fire filled the air, but out of the smoke a blue form emerged. He seemed to have some kind of… shield around him.
And then he plowed straight into her wing.
Warning lights and the tortured screech of the computer filled Wave's world as her plane vented fuel and started to spin. Quickly checking the instruments she confirmed the hit, and looking to her right, she could see the damage with her own eyes. That insane hedgehog had actually rammed her! Who the hell rammed an airplane at six hundred miles per hour?! Not designed to take an impact of that magnitude, her all wing aircraft was starting to come apart. It wouldn't be long before she stalled, entered a death spin, and crashed.
"Damnit!" she cried, not caring over which frequencies, just that Jet and Storm heard her. "I need to bail! One of you guys better catch me!"
Hitting the eject lever, Wave closed her eyes as the hatch blew open and a rocket motor shot her ejection seat free of the flaming wreck that had once been her proud Ba-223 jet fighter. Opening her eyes, now well out of the cloud of spiraling, fast moving debris, Wave felt her ejection seat move. With a hiss, it fell away, and she adjusted her feet as her shoes locked into position. Gliding on her Type-W flight style GEAR, Wave held out her arms and found her balance.
Unfortunately, she was now some five miles in the air.
"Wave!" Jet hissed, and felt his plane quake as a solid hit scored against its fuselage. A warning light popped up, indicating that one of the fuel tanks had been punctured. The green goshawk's eyes widened as the realization set in. He'd been… shot down…?
"You should pay closer attention," Miles voice came in over the comm. Then, as if to rub it in, the kitsune added, "Hmm! Isn't that a surprise? Another pet project of yours that didn't quite work out?"
"Fiona…"
"Hmm!" Jet mused out loud, waving his gun dramatically. "Isn't that a surprise? Another pet project of yours that didn't quite work out? Fiona here's told us some interesting stuff about you, lover boy."
His own words…
"Damnit!" Jet turned away from the dogfight.
Taking off her now useless helmet, Wave tossed it and pulled down her goggles. The air was freezing cold this high up, even in her flight suit. How the hedgehog survived without one, she couldn't imagine. Maybe he was just stupid enough to not care about it…. Or, more likely, that strange shield protected him. The air was thin up here, too, so it had to be something like that. Retrieving a new facemask from one of the pockets of her flight suit, Wave put it on and sucked in a long deep breath.
Going into a slow spin, she started to look for Jet or Storm.
It was actually an amazing view. She'd never used the ejection seat herself, only on dummies, so she'd never really thought about it before. It was like skydiving from an incredible height, and on her GEAR, she could move wherever she wanted. As long as it was down. Far below, the whole world seemed stretched out for her viewing pleasure. She could even see distant Starlight City and the lines of the Mobian Armed Forces. To her left, she could see the fleet battle: the Nassau was exchanging fire with two smaller mobian ships, and the Port Royale and the Blue Typhoon were firing salvos at each other.
Then she saw Storm's fighter/bomber climb up towards her. Leveling her board, she gently alighted on his wing. His Ba-177 looked pretty badly beat up, but it was a tough plane, just like its pilot. It was holding in there. Looking around, she saw a blue streak circling them. Sonic pulled around, matching their speed and course, as if daring them to try something.
He even waved.
'Cocky bastard…' Wave thought bitterly. 'If he just stayed crawling on the ground where he belonged, I'd teach him not to mess with us!'
The roar of a machine gun cut off any further thoughts, and she turned to see Sonic speed off, avoiding the spray of fire. A smile grew on her face when she saw the source of the attack. Jet's Butcher bird swooped in, flying close and covering them. Wave's expression wavered, though, when she saw the damage to it.
She'd built all their planes herself, and the Butcher bird was her masterpiece. Now it was shot up. The armor had been able to cushion most of it, but one or two shots had punctured a fuel line. Wave almost wept to see it in such a shape. Worse even than the damage done was that she knew, she just knew, that Jet had gotten it while flying back to help her. Turning her head more, she saw a distant dot against the sky.
A light blue beam lanced out, blowing off the right wing of Storm's fighter.
"Storm!" Wave yelled, even knowing he couldn't hear her. Pushing off the intact wing with her board, Wave took to the air. She had to put some distance between herself and the flaming wreck before it blew. To her relief, Storm ejected, using the same system she had. His plane fell away, burning. A second or two later, it vanished in a fireball.
Storm was less steady on his GEAR, unused to being so high up. Jet's plane raced under them, and they settled on its wings. The ground was closer now, maybe just a mile away. Behind them, Wave could see the blue blur, Sonic, crisscrossing the sky. She could also see the Tornado Two. It wasn't moving much, but it was much more deliberate in its motions, as it took all the time it needed for a perfect shot.
'He's… just going to pick us apart…' she realized.
And there was nothing she could do about it.
"We've got them!" Sally exclaimed. For a moment, she tried to reach over and pat Miles on the back, congratulating him, but the straps keeping her in her seat prevented it.
"Look!" she instead focused on a distant rumble. "The Port Royale's going down, and I think the Nassau is turning to try and run. We won!"
"No."
Sally blinked, taken aback by his answer. "What do you mean: no?"
"This was never about the Armada," Miles explained, his voice hard and unsympathetic. "This was always about them. The Babylon Rogues. Crushing the Battlebirds again means nothing to me. But breaking the Rogues. That… I'm looking forward to..."
That tone of voice… it was nothing like what she remembered of him.
"Tails, you aren't going to…?"
"It would be so easy," he replied, and the power of the Tornado Two sung all around him. Jet's plane was losing fuel, and couldn't afford to maneuver with Wave and Storm on its wings. The Tornado had them dead to rights.
"The flip of a switch," Miles continued. "And they disappear. Never to cause trouble again. Doesn't that sound easy?"
"It isn't how we do things," Sally said, her voice stern. "You've beaten them. You've won."
"Is that what you call winning?" he asked, hands on the trigger. "How many times did you beat Nack, just to have him show up again later? How many times have we beaten the Eggman, just to have him come back? Your cry of 'victory' is premature."
Sally couldn't believe what he was saying. "Premature?"
"Victory isn't just beating someone," he continued. "Victory is when they never cross your path again, in a month, a year, or a lifetime!"
'He's going to kill them!' she realized, with a start.
"Don't do this."
For a few seconds, he just sat there, saying nothing.
"Don't do this," she said again. "Let them land. We can…"
And then he fired.
Wave thought she was going to die.
One moment they had been cruising along, getting ever closer to the ground. Then, a heartbeat later, they were leaves in a storm. Jet's plane, the Butcher bird, had leapt up from under them. A wave of heat passed over her as fuel caught fire, tossing her into the air.
'Jet! Storm!'
And then there was only the sound of fury.
Wave tumbled, forcing her eyes open. The world was spinning all around her, but she could see Jet's plane. It was mostly intact and careening like a top, the tail wobbling as it spewed fire. Wave tried to focus her eyes on the spinning cockpit, trying to see whether it was empty or not. The shot had cleanly cut off one of the plane's wings, but the fuselage had escaped miraculously intact.
"Jet!" Wave tried to scream, but she couldn't see him.
And then the Butcher bird exploded.
"JET!"
"You yell too much."
Looking up, she saw him, already calmly balancing on his green Type-J GEAR. Running a hand through his head feathers, the hawk glanced over his shoulder at the tumbling, burning pieces of his fighter plane. A pensive look crossed his features, and then he faced forward, determination filling his eyes.
"Wave. Follow me." He held out his hand.
She took it without hesitation.
Riding down towards the quickly approaching ground, Jet maneuvered the two of them over to where Storm was caught in a spin spiral. Holding his board close to Wave's, he created a turbulent wave between them. Passing by their larger comrade, Storm instinctively caught the wake and recovered. The three Rogues shot down towards the ground, but the fall had been just short enough that they managed to recover. Each one used a last second jet of air to cushion their collision, recover, and pick up forward momentum.
The chase was on.
"Tails, did you…"
"I said it would be too easy," he cut her off. "Autopilot: engage. Control lock code Delta-Delta-Omega. Holding pattern: angels eleven."
"Wait!" Sally tried to say more, but then a sudden gust of wind filled the cabin, tossing her back against the seat. Miles didn't bother ejecting. His system wasn't quite as… refined as Wave's, though he had to admit that adding GEARs to the ejection system was very interesting. He simply jumped out of the cockpit and pressed a concealed button on his glove. When he did, a gold colored object shot out of an internal compartment on the right side of the Tornado Two Custom.
Connecting in midair with his own GEAR, Miles silently admonished himself for not adding an assault pack to it. Sadly, there just hadn't been the time or opportunity lately to make the required changes to the Tornado Two. Luckily, there had been time to make a few improvements based on the assault pack concept. His Yellow Tail Mk3 wasn't just your average flight type GEAR.
Racing up alongside him, Sonic appeared on his new Blue Star IV.
Exchanging a quick nod with the hedgehog, the two of them hit the ground. As they did so, the assault pack on Sonic's board disengaged. Releasing its hold on Sonic's board, it took off and assumed a holding pattern. Up ahead of them, the Rogues took a sharp turn. They were headed into an area littered by debris and ruined war machines. Today's battle had even added a few.
"They're headed for the canyon!" Miles yelled.
"I know!" Sonic yelled back, over the fierce winds. "Go high! I'll go low!"
"We'll meet in the middle." The kitsune agreed, nodding his head. "Got it!"
The Babylon Rogues had only a slight lead over their opponents. Sonic swerved left and right, avoiding the assorted wrecks in the way. Pressing his board for more speed, he hunkered down to provide a lower profile. He had little love or hate for the Babylon Rogues; they were really more of a pain in his little bro's side, but he'd heard that their leader, Jet, fancied himself the fastest thing on the planet. That… was something Sonic the Hedgehog couldn't just let slide.
Up ahead, he could see the three Rogues heading for The Scar proper: a massive gash in the planet that had been caused by the self destruction of the Scrap Brain Zone. The old name was Gigan Valley, but maybe Gigan Canyon would be its name after the war. In the here and now, it was still infested with Eggman robots, mining and doing salvage work. Hitting the edge of it and using it for a jump, Sonic spun like a top before angling down to build up speed.
The canyon itself was about a four hundred meters wide, on average, and half as deep. Innumerable crags and outcroppings made it a treacherous place to navigate, and the occasional robot taking pot shots at passerby didn't exactly make it much safer. Where the Rogues thought they were going, Sonic had no idea. Maybe they were crazy enough to think they could ride in one end and out the other unscathed. Facing that sort of daredevil craziness in an opponent…
Sonic grinned happily.
'I like your style, guys!' he thought, jumping and flipping off one edge of the sheer cliffs to the other. A rotund Eggman robot standing next to a mining machine extended its arm, firing at the Rogues in the distance, and then Sonic when he got closer. Racing up an old landslide and into a cave, Sonic swerved, trying to avoiding the shots of that robot, and then two others that popped out, eager to put their seldom used security protocols to use.
The Rogues dashed up along a wall and then broke up. Two headed into a mining tunnel, and the other headed higher. That latter one had to be Wave, since she caught a jump and used it to propel herself higher than Sonic himself could with his speed type GEAR. The inside of the cave was dark and treacherous, with mining gear and more robots littered on the floor and even the ceiling. Slapping aside a robot bat with a light on its rear (where had he seen those before?) Sonic kept moving.
Ahead of him, Storm and Jet started spinning, creating whirlwinds. Sonic leaned to the side, his hand almost touching the ground, letting his momentum push him up the side of the wall. He hung there, passing robots and tornados, until the cavern split. Jet and Storm both hung right, and Sonic followed them. Mining lasers swiveled and fired, long beams of red light that they had to swerve and duck or jump to avoid. The obstacles slowed the two rogues slightly, and Sonic caught up just a little more.
They then jumped up, grinding, into a mining cart monorail. Skidding along it, they headed up and into another section of the caves. Sonic quickly jumped and followed, jumping when a mining cart suddenly appeared, traveling under the rail with a load of ore. The top part, connecting to the rail, would have tossed him had he not hit the jump right. Up ahead, more of the mining rails came together in a massive cavern, crisscrossing and filling the air like a metal web.
Below the transport hub, smelting from foundries filled the air with acrid smoke and a poisonous haze. More Eggman robots in a dozen shapes and sizes milled about, working tirelessly. Then an alarm sounded, and flying security robots started to head towards them. Most were the rotund Eggman mockeries he'd originally used on Angel Island (back then, they'd been state of the art), but others were mining refits. One swooped down with diamond sharp claws, designed to shred through rock. Sonic jumped and tumbled between its claws, putting on a new burst of speed as the rail dipped downward.
Ahead of him, Storm shot ahead of Jet, who slowed slightly. The big Babylonian jumped down from one rail to another, and his smaller leader followed. The reason for the new arrangement became clear when Storm batted away a 'WARNING' sign that was otherwise preventing travel down that route. Not wanting to be left behind, Sonic also jumped, taking the opportunity to quickly smash one of the clawed bots heading up to intercept him. Not surprisingly, they seemed to prefer going after him rather than the Rogues.
"I suppose I'm still 'Priority One: Hedgehog,'" Sonic mused, landing and heading after his target. They were making this interesting, at least! He hadn't had the opportunity for fun like this in a long time!
Sonic soon found out why this particular track had a WARNING sign on it. Entire pieces and sections were missing. Jet resumed the lead position, jumping off the rail and onto another section hanging from the ceiling. He then jumped back down, leading Storm and Sonic out of the network of caves and back into the canyon itself. The gorge here was a straight drop down into a bottom filled with rather un-inviting smoke. Up ahead, Sonic could see the tips of Starlight's towers, well in the distance.
Grinding along the rail, and then jumping some twenty feet to catch another intact rail line, Sonic caught up just a bit more. Jet and Storm kept having to jump over broken sections of track, or over construction signs. A couple seconds after he started to feel just a bit too clever, having found a shortcut, Sonic's eyes widened as a whole train of carts headed his way. On the upperside of the rail the train was just a series of bumps waiting to send him flying. Jumping off the rail entirely, Sonic angled himself to catch another rail that headed upwards; parallel to the route Jet and Storm took.
Facing forward, he saw both headed into a processing facility.
"Oh, this is just great…"
Sure enough, Jet and Storm ducked and slid right inside. Sonic did the same, following his rail line. Inside was a spiraling system of more rail lines, and molten steel falling in great waterfalls of red and orange. Trying to follow the layout with his eyes, and find a short cut, Sonic jumped again. More Eggman robots swarmed in, firing and surging at them. Sonic bounced off one, smashing it and using it as a springboard to hit another, and then another. Grinding along a rail, he then dropped down and found himself just a hundred paces behind Storm. The big Rogue looked over his shoulder with shock.
"Yo." Sonic gave him a friendly wave.
Storm gave an angry growl, and flipped around. Facing backwards now, he held out his hand, palm facing the opposite direction. Grabbing hold of the first thing to get in range, he seized a mining robian by the arm and tossed him onto the track. Sonic winced in sympathy (his Uncle was still a robian after all) and jumped over the flailing body. Just because he was sympathetic, didn't mean he'd screw himself over. Besides, robians with Eggman programming were just as dangerous as any other robot.
Storm them grabbed a piece of piping. Holding it in a way that would make a mobster proud, Storm slowed and tried to get in melee range. Swinging it wildly, and with enough force to spin someone's head around, Sonic ducked and dodged every strike. For someone who had fights with Knuckles every couple months (or so it felt like), Storm's strength and skill weren't a particular problem. Letting the bruiser lean into a swing, Sonic jumped right over him, bounced off his head, and landed behind his back.
"Hey!" Storm roared, flipping around.
But Sonic was already ahead of him, and had no further interest in a fight. Ahead of the hedgehog, Jet was still racing along at top speed. Sonic smirked; he still had that bet to look forward to, and Jet's tail feathers were almost in reach. Then they finally emerged out of the processing facility, back into the open air. Jet sped up, and then passed over a switching station. Instead of changing lanes, though, the Babylon Rogue jumped clear into the air.
Sonic followed without wondering where the hell they were actually going. What mattered was that Jet was right there, and that Sonic was about to catch up to him. Turning in midair, the leader of the Rogues faced Sonic. For a few seconds, the two coasted along, flying over the ravine. Then Jet... lifted his finger to his face, pulled down one of his eyelids, and stuck out his tongue.
'What?' Sonic gave a shocked look. 'How dare you?!'
Pushing up his nose with his thumb, Sonic rolled up his eyes.
Jet responded by pulling back some of his head feathers and opening his mouth stupidly wide. He then spun around, smashed a mining robot, and landed on an outcropping of rock, riding it up to an edge in the canyon. Sonic followed; a sour look on his face. Jet had beaten him in that round, but he'd have the last laugh!
The Rogue led them up the side of the canyon, and then he jumped again. Sonic was right behind, and halfway across the canyon, he saw a purple and yellow blur swooping in from another direction. Seeing Wave and Miles, Sonic guessed that the 'high road' had become closed for repairs. Not that the blue one minded. This just meant he got to savor his victory even more.
Landing together on the other side, the five riders swerved around a large caterpillar-like digging robot with half its body stuck in the wall. The cavern walls dipped and zagged, and the group had to jump up, and then down and then up again as well as cut left and right and then left. Jet jumped again as the edge gave way to a sheer drop. Taking to the sky, Sonic glanced down and saw a massive robot shuffling around at the bottom of the gorge.
They finally landed on a small artificial outcropping dotted with landing pads. While wide open, it was far from obstacle free. Jet literally had to plow through surprised Eggman robots in their way, while others tried to jump, grab or shoot anything that caught their fancy. Sonic spun like a top, slicing them apart as they got close. Behind him, Storm batted robots away with his fists, Wave smashed them with an oversized wrench, and Miles flipped, eviscerating them with his tails.
Through the hail of gunfire, plasma, and claws, the riders emerged, jumping through the air and onto a winding pipe that ran parallel to the sheer walls of the canyon. Taking a quick look behind, Sonic saw Miles sparring with Wave and Storm, and focused his attentions on Jet. The pipe they were currently on led all the way to the end of the canyon and up to the edge of Starlight City. There was no other route to take, either down or to the sides, or even up.
Going faster, pushing his board to the limit, Sonic caught a slight gust from Jet's GEAR and caught it, speeding up. Finally, finally, he got close enough. Reaching out for a bet winning handful of feathers, he was stopped just short as Jet spun around and grabbed his wrist. Blocking a punch to the face, Sonic smirked, face to face with the Babylon Rogue leader.
"Not bad!" Sonic complimented.
"It's been fun!" Jet agreed, the two of them pushing against each other and trying to throw the other off the winding pipe, less than a meter wide. Adjusting their stances and stabilizing their boards as they fought, the hawk and the hedgehog exchanged blows. A forearm to Sonic's face made him wince, but he replied with a blow to Jet's left eye. Another blow split Sonic's lip. Another sent blood flying out of Jet's mouth. Then the two butted heads, smirking at each other.
"We'll have to do this again sometime!" Sonic said between clenched teeth.
"You enjoy getting beat that much?" Jet quipped, spitting blood.
He reached up and grabbed Sonic by the ear. Sonic responded by grabbing the bird's goggles. Their boards skidded and scraped the pipe below as they head butted again and again before taking turns trying to push the other off the edge and into the deep abyss below. Reaching the very end of the pipe, the two hit the curb and flew through the air, still fighting. Even when they hit the ground, rolling and skidding, they were exchanging blows.
Finally, Sonic managed to tuck his board under his body, and use his stomach muscles to pull the rest of his body upright. Jet tumbled for one or two seconds and then flipped back upright as well. Sonic turned around, smirking despite the blood dribbling down his nose and chin. In his right hand, he held an emerald green feather.
Jet reached behind, and felt through his tail feathers.
"Unbelievable." He wiped his bloody beak. "You magnificent bastard…"
They were in the abandoned husk of Starlight City now. Taking a turn, Jet headed down an empty street, up an alley, and then into a district populated by vast, empty warehouses. Detecting his presence, the doors to one opened wide. Inside, the Rogues personal airship waited. Sonic sped up and cut in between him and the slowly opening bay doors.
"I think this little race is over," the hedgehog announced, licking his bloody lip.
Jet just glowered at him.
"It's all over!" a voice concurred. A second later Storm crashed to the ground, board flying off his feet and skidding across the empty warehouse. Wave managed a more dignified stop, but her headscarf was undone, her feathers wild, and her flame-emblazoned flight jacket torn. Looking behind him, Jet saw Tails standing between them and the door out.
"Hey," Sonic called, holding up the stolen tail feather. "You owe me a drink. And this time, I get to pick which one!"
"You didn't like the water I treated you to last time?"
"Actually, no, I didn't. It didn't even have ice."
"Damnit!" Wave fell to her knees.
Miles stepped off his GEAR, craning his neck back and forth. His twin tails flowed through the air behind him, ready for anything. He had a black eye from the fight before, but it didn't seem to be affecting him any. Storm's one good blow had been partly blocked by the fox's hands, when he found his tails occupied with Wave's attacks. He took a few slow steps towards the Rogues.
"You didn't think you'd get away with it, did you? As for the Chaos Emerald you stole…" he smirked, now, a mirror image of Sonic's ever present expression.
Except this smirk bared canine teeth.
"As for that Emerald," he said, with some relish. "It's a fake."
Jet crossed his arms.
Storm clutched his shoulder, trying to stop the flow of blood.
"A fake?" Wave turned to glare at the kitsune. "You think we were after the Emerald?"
A moment of confusion flickered across Miles' face.
"You were," he stated.
"You idiot!" She snapped, standing back up. "Tao wanted the Emerald. Does it look like we have it?"
Sonic raised an eyebrow. "I don't see it."
"Then what were you after?"
Wave snickered. It was a small chuckle as first, but soon grew into a full blown laughter. Jet closed his eyes, taking the whole thing in stride. Sonic still seemed perplexed, and Tails' own confusion soon mixed with annoyance and anger.
"What were you after?" he demanded. "What did you take?"
Wave's bout of laughter died down, and she held up her hands in defeat.
"Find out for yourself," she said, "You're the genius here."
"I don't know where you get this," he growled back at her, grabbing her arm and pulling it down. "This thing with me. I did what I had to do, stopping the Armada!"
"I don't care about that!" Wave tried to pull her arm free, and when she couldn't, she settled for punching him in the face. "I don't care about the Armada!" She hit him again.
He finally grabbed her hand.
"Then what do you care about?" he asked, earnestly. This was like Fiona all over again. "Why do you hate me so much?"
"You…" she tried to free her fist, but he had her by the wrist. He may have been smaller than her once, but he'd always been fairly strong, and now he was well outside her league.
"What?" he asked again.
Standing by himself, eyes still closed, Jet sighed.
"You ruined my life," Wave finally said, glad to get it out. Glad to say what she hadn't been able to before.
"I never even met you before this year…"
"When you left… the Armada," Wave explained, her voice growing bitter. "I took over your position. But no one trusted me. They were afraid I'd do what you did and turn against them. I couldn't do anything, go anywhere… I couldn't meet anyone like me, or share what I learned. And whenever they looked at me, I know… they saw you…"
He let her go, and Wave took a step back, hands clenched at her sides.
"And nothing I ever did…" She looked up at him with proud, angry eyes. "Nothing ever let me step out of your shadow! You can't imagine what my life has been like, thanks to you!"
Miles stared at her, and then he closed his eyes.
"I don't regret what I've done." He opened his eyes again, determination written in midnight blue. "And I can't say I'm sorry for what I don't regret. But I do know how you feel."
"For a long time..." he sighed, avoiding looking at a certain someone. "I never thought I could step out of Sonic's shadow. I thought: why can't I do anything more than this? When will I be recognized for my accomplishments? What's the point in trying to be the best, when I can never catch up? What's wrong with me?"
Standing by himself, Sonic shook his head slightly. "Geez…"
"But there's nothing wrong with me," the kitsune continued, looking only at Wave. "And there's nothing wrong with you. I could count the people who rival your skills on one hand. But if you think just skill and ability will make others recognize your greatness, you're wrong. Greatness is not something you can build. It comes from changing people's lives, for better or for worse."
Wave seemed to digest that, but still frowned.
"That may be fine for you, but I can't…"
"You can!" he yelled, interrupting her. "You can. If you actually tried. You didn't have to work for the Armada. You chose to!"
His lack of sympathy made her flinch.
"You worked for them because it was easy! Because you didn't want to risk leaving them…" He took a step towards her, tilting his head. "You think it was easy for me? Even if I was a slave, even if I was just a mutant freak they found useful, they became what little family I had. But I knew I couldn't live with myself, with what I did, working for them."
"They'd have hunted me down!"
Miles turned to Jet. "Look over there. He'd have protected you. Storm would protected you. And for what it's worth…" He turned back to Wave. "I'd have protected you, too. So would Sonic… even though he's the kind of guy who'd jump to anyone's defense."
Wave looked at Jet, and the green hawk offered a thoughtful nod. Even Storm, now getting back on his feet, expressed the same. They had never been in love with the Armada, but it had been a necessary evil. The Eggman controlled so much of the world, how else were they supposed to make a living? Even if they found treasure, like their fathers had hunted for, what were they supposed to do with it? Things had been so hopeless back then. And they had been birds, so the Armada had accepted them. Welcomed them.
Had she… really been holding them back there?
She looked behind her and saw Sonic. The cocky hedgehog was cleaning his ear with his pinky, looking blasé about everything around him. She had always thought his life so easy. He was the Great Hero of Mobius, after all. Who had ever heard of him having trouble? Just like his sidekick. Hadn't they had everything handed to them on a silver platter? Super powers? Friends? A home?
"What does it matter, anyway?" Wave asked, running her hand through her messed up head feathers.
"It matters," Tails assured her. "Because if you want to change - if you want to help - then I'll do what I can for you. But if you stay my enemy… then I won't give you another chance. I'll bury you. Along with everyone else I've killed today."
The words sent an uncomfortable chill down Sonic's spine.
He hadn't really been paying attention, but thinking back, he supposed a lot of mobians had died today. Really, the blue hedgehog was used to dealing with robots. He couldn't recall ever actually taking a life, as least not on purpose. For a second, he remembered toasting to his little buddy 'kicking ass' the other day. He hadn't really thought about too much then, either.
As a general rule, he'd been happy to let Tails manage his own affairs even before they moved to Station Square. Sonic wasn't interested in technology stuff, or tactics, or this or that part of the city that needed to be fixed or maintained. When his little bro went into his workshop, Sonic went off and did something that was actually interesting. Sometimes, he'd help try out some new toy, or use some new invention on one of his adventures, but that was basically it. Had Tails killed people before? Taken in a broad context, as the Captain and creator of the Blue Typhoon and all those planes and missiles, he obviously had.
"Let's forget the past." Oblivious to Sonic's thoughts, Miles held out his hand to Wave. "The future is what I look forward to. You'll still face trial, but I have enough clout to stay an execution."
The lilac Rogue took his hand, but with some residual vexation.
"Don't think I'll stop trying to prove I'm better than you," she hissed. "I don't really believe that crap you spewed, but don't want to hang, either."
He nodded, shaking her hand. "Fair enough. You can come to your own conclusions."
"Man, what a day!" Sonic interrupted, suddenly turning to his right. "All we need now is for the Eggman to show up and…"
And nothing happened.
"Huh." Sonic turned back to the beaten Babylon Rogues. "I guess he's busy."
"You know," Miles spoke up, a little louder than necessary. "I'm sure his life doesn't revolve around bursting in at inopportune times and attacking you, Sonic."
Sonic rolled his eyes. "We'll see."
The kitsune fox just shook his head in exasperation. "So what were you doing, anyway, breaking into one of my facilities? If it wasn't the Chaos Emerald, what was it?"
Jet replied, speaking up when Wave just grumbled something unintelligible.
"The Flames of Iblis," he said, explaining it without flare. "We collected the five Arks of the Cosmos from around the world. Wave discovered that, together, they form a power source called Iblis. Or Solaris. Or something."
"A power source?" Miles asked, his curiosity piqued.
"One equal to the Chaos Emeralds," Wave added.
"Iblis," Sonic said the name. "Sounds weird."
And further discussion was cut off as the sound of war machines and shuttle craft landing nearby drowned out the possibility of conversation. Heavily armed marines stormed the warehouse, and the Babylon Rogues offered no resistance as they searched the landed airship and took the birds away. An hour later, a detachment of Eggman robots did investigate the area, but ultimately found nothing of interest.
Shadow touched ground, briefcase under his arm. The approach to Robotropolis had been free of any interruptions, though as he looked up, the black hedgehog could see the two wings of ED-1002 robots that had escorted them the last four miles. He could have simply Chaos Controlled his way to wherever he wanted, but that irked Robotnick's sense of 'control' over the situation. So he rationalized his order by claiming that it 'drained energy from the Chaos Emeralds' and other nonsense. Shadow obliged him because using his Chaos Control ability was tiring, and worth saving for when he really needed it. Over the last year he had developed his level of control a great deal.
Flanked by his white Combot escorts, Shadow waited.
The landing pad's hanger doors opened, like a giant mouth complete with rows of white metal teeth. Bathed in artificial light, Shadow could make out the outline of several figures approaching him. He narrowed his eyes and recognized them immediately. The shortest, in the middle, was the small human – Snively – and the others were two pair of Combots and three pair of Shadowbots. The latter was a rare sight over the last year, after most of their manufacturing facilities had fallen victim to terrorist attack.
Shadow stepped forward, noting the security all around him.
He smiled. Oh, he was planning on betraying them all right, but not here. Not now. Snively stopped just feet away from the Ultimate Lifeform, and held out his hand, almost petulantly.
"I assume you were successful," he said.
It was not a question, but Shadow answered anyway. "I was."
"What took so long?" The human did ask, this time. Shadow handed over the briefcase, and Snively's arms lurched a bit as the unexpected weight within. Shadow inwardly shook his head. This little human truly was weak.
"Mr. Tweed was not as cooperative as I had been led to believe." Shadow shrugged. "He had me do some jobs for him."
"Jobs?" Snively turned and began the long walk through the open hanger and into the heart of West Robotropolis. Shadow followed, and the whole procession continued apace.
"Eliminating rivals in the city," Shadow explained, with a smile. "Along with other petty tasks. When I was done, he tried to double cross me. He set up a building to explode and informed me that his men were guarding it. When I went inside, he triggered the bombs."
"That would explain why you are minus four Stormtroopers."
Shadow's nose wrinkled at the word. He had never like that stupid nickname for the white Combots he commanded. It reminded him too much of what had happened on the ARK. Still, he didn't let it affect him beyond that, and continued his little story with an almost bland and passionless tone of voice.
"They were lost. Needless to say, after that I had to coerce the Emerald out of Mr. Tweed. He was more than cooperative after I killed his wife and threatened to do the same to his son."
Snively didn't respond to that for a full second.
Shadow raised an eyebrow in surprise. Was the little human shocked? Surprised? Not by what he had done, Shadow suspected, but by how unmoved the one who had done such a thing was by it. He saw Snively turn his head slightly to look at the black hedgehog.
'Yes,' Shadow thought. 'I killed her. Choked her to death with my bare hands. And how do I feel about that?'
The human looked away.
'I don't feel anything at all.' Shadow admitted to himself. 'Not sadness. Not pride. Nothing.'
"You got the Emerald," Snively said, finally.
"Of course I did."
"Did… the Freedom Fighters show up?" Snively had sounded almost hopeful that they would.
"No," Shadow said, simply.
Another slightly uncomfortable pause.
"Good," the human replied. "This way. Project Helios is almost complete, but we've hit a small… snag."
--
Author's Notes:
Well, this is a relative first for me. I've decided to add some notes at the end here, to cover some issues regarding the chapter. I may do this for the others, too (and the previous chapters, retroactively).
This chapter brings the Babylon Rogues arc to a close, and finally brings us back to the traditional Helios arc. But so much else is different from the original story! Don't assume, because you read that one, that you'll be able to guess what's going to happen next. Not only are things very different, but Silver and Blaze are still in the past messing around with the timeline.
I hope my readers enjoyed the little fleet battle here. It's a shade of the fighting in "New World Order" I carried over, though this is the most I'll typically rely on it from a narrative point of view. It was all necessary in driving home the differences between how Tails/Miles contributes to the war (through technology) and how Sonic and Sally do (in a more personal, individual way). The Babylon Rogues get their last big fight/chase scene here as well. I'm glad I could give them a good showing, since we never got to see all they were capable of in the (incomplete) "Through Fire and Shadow" COA prequel comic.
Of course, if anyone has any questions or comments or even requests about the story, I cherish every review I get, and I try and answer any one that posits a question or comment. I've also put a fair amount of COA:ACO based art up on my devart account and my personal archive, including Title Pictures for several chapters (including this one). Check it out. You may enjoy it.
For reference, here are the ships involved in the fight this chapter:
BBA Curacao - "Leogane" class
BBA Belize - "Leogane" class
BBA Antigua - "Eleuthera" class
BBA Nevis - "Eleuthera" class
BBA Nassau - "Nassau" class Light Cruiser
BBA Guadeloupe - "Montserrat" class Refit Cruiser
BBA Port Royale - "Tortuga" class Brigandine
HMS Prince Edward - "Culverin" class DD refit
HMS Prince James - "Egg Slasher" class (captured) War Destroyer
HMS Prince Emerson - "Egg Catcher" class (captured) Defense Destroyer
HMS Frederick - "Egg Enemy" class (captured) Standard Cruiser