Author's Notes:
My special thanks go out to everyone who reviewed! While I'm not doing this for review counts or anything like that, it gives me vital feedback on what my readers find particularly interesting or shocking and what my writing makes them feel. To me, that's invaluable. I try and answer any direct questions in reviews that I can by making personal PMs, but sadly, that means I can't really get in contact with any Anonymous posters.
I'm not normally much for author's notes, and I'm not really like some authors I know who can and do write a long introduction to every chapters, addressing reviews. Even now, I'd like to keep this to just three paragraphs. I've finished COA:ACO (it ended up running an extra chapter), and will be uploading chapters 10 and 11 promptly.
It was a hell of a lot of work doing the Reload; much more than I thought it would be when I started working on the project. I had initially assumed it would just be a matter of making some changed to most of the fanfic's scenes, but it's grown so far beyond that premise…! It's still shocking to me! Well, you've come this far, right? Ok then.
Time for the finale.
"The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise"
- Tacitus
THE CYCLE OF AGES
CHAPTER TEN:
Countdown to Extinction
Doctor Robotnik could only watch as his fleet tore itself apart.
Floating holographic displays bore out scenes of Metal Madness: it had started with a single Egg Predator class New Destroyer, turning about and opening fire on a nearby Egg Hunter class Defense Destroyer. Seconds later, firefights erupted between cruisers, destroyers, and even strike craft. More than half the fleet slowed and in an act of unmatched insanity, turned on the other half.
More than a hundred kilometers to the east, the GUN Fleet Remnant that the Armada had been chasing began to turn. Diverting his attention to the rout-turned-battle, the so called Eggman quickly determined the nature of the corruption sweeping through his forces. Infectious code was propagating all throughout the Eggnet, carried worldwide by the network of communication and observation satellites overhead.
It seemed impossible anyone could launch an InfoSec Attack of this magnitude.
By design, the Eggnet had very limited access points for two way transmission of data. Even Minibosses and Underbosses had only limited permissions. The security wasn't simply digital, either. Security was administered through coded point-to-point quantum entanglement. A system wide corruption on this scale was only possible if something with full access became compromised, and even then, that corruption would be checked and contained by the regional Tails Doll Networks.
Something like this... would require either his personal access codes (impossible), or the almost simultaneous corruption of an S-type Underboss and the entirety of a regional Doll Network. Working, Eggman narrowed down the initially infected satellites, confirming his suspicions. Yes: there was only one place where this could have happened. There was only one region where the Underboss and his corresponding Doll Network were in close proximity.
Metal Sonic had turned.
Eggman sneered at that; he had been so careful this time, keeping the robot's personality and AI intact while enforcing obedience and loyalty. Metal Sonic's adaptability and independence had always been a great strength and one the doctor hoped to retain. But his loyalty had also always been an issue. With this last iteration of the design, Robotnik had put special attention and care into finding a workable balance between the extremes of a mindless servant and a thinking being. Metal had worked perfectly - just perfectly - for more than a year now.
Things had been going so well with MetalSonic that Eggman had even upgraded him with some more exotic features. Shadow's presence on the roster had made it seem less and less likely that Metal would be strictly needed for Anti-Sonic duties, so Robotnik had hoped to diversity the robot's repertoire. It had seemed a safe bet at the time. Now... Now everything was in shambles.
Metal Sonic had gone rogue at the worst possible time. It was impossible to guess how. Had he encountered some kind of virus or hack during his attack on the Overlanders? Had the berserker cell modifications caused a malfunction? Had a glitch or conflict developed in his logical permutations? Communications had been knocked out over the battlefield... perhaps that had caused it? Isolation from the Eggnet and the oversight of the Tails Dolls?
Eggman narrowed his eyes, watching the displays.
The Eastern Egg Armada, it seemed, was about to be destroyed or converted wholesale. What was left, the GUN New Navy would pick off when it finished coming about. Twelve cruisers and twenty three destroyers, all top of the line models, lost. Catastrophic would be a good word to describe it. It went without saying that Metal Sonic himself was a complete loss at present, as was the Second Combot Legion stationed with him.
"Tsk."
The mad genius turned calmly from one screen to another.
He had been so happy just moments earlier; almost on the verge of giggles even. Shadow had reported success in his attack on Knothole and Eggman had even had the pleasure of finally seeing its accursed city shield materialize and then vanish on the scopes of one of his spy satellites. Without the Chaos Emerald it had no ability to maintain the levels of power required for a two kilometer wide shield, much less the cloak. It had been a sight he had longed to see and expended much effort and energy to enjoy.
The disaster in the East, thanks to Metal's corruption, instantly soured the otherwise auspicious turn of events in Knothole. Even with Knothole City shield-less and vulnerable, he no longer had the effective power projection to strike at it. At least not conventionally. In time, the Eye of Helios would turn on Knothole and burn it off the face of Mobius, but that would be some time from now. It would have been so much quicker to consolidate and re-route the air fleet after finishing off GUN.
Elsewhere, things were also going awry.
Obviously, the peace conference on Angel Island was about to collapse. News of Shadow's attack would have reached there some time ago. There would be no explaining it away. The Mobians would be enraged by the betrayal and the war would pick up where it left off... or nearly so. The two week ceasefire had been a boon to the Empire's forces. Units that had been near the breaking point due to lack of supply and maintenance in the field were back to nearly one hundred percent.
Idly stroking his moustache, the mad scientist wondered if Snively had been successful in finally offing that annoying little Princess with R-71. That would certainly be enough to turn an old man's frown upside down! Princess Sally had been quite the irritating little pest over the years, and it would be simply wonderful to imagine her hemorrhaging and choking on her own blood. It would be a suitable end for the miserable little creature. Ideally, Sonic would even get to watch as his beloved Princess meet her end.
"Oh, but that would be nice," Eggman mused aloud, but... it also wasn't likely. The Princess had been taken into seclusion due to a sudden bout of illness. Still! There would be other chances to watch her die, he was sure of it. It was much more important that Snively return alive and intact. He was a necessary and precious part of what would become Helios, after all.
The sound of quick footsteps, Mobian ones (the stride was simply too small for most humans or humanoid robots), interrupted Robotnik's contemplation. He ignored the intrusion for the moment, returning his attention to isolating and containing the damage from the new Metal Sonic situation, and the still-intact and dangerous GUN Fleet Remnant.
Both really did need to be destroyed.
"Where are you headed, Metal?" Eggman pondered the hypothetical aloud. If he was Metal Sonic, and he was malfunctioning, where would he go? Most likely the robot would have two targets, those being his creator and his primary target. The question was really whether Metal would go after Sonic first or his dear 'father' Robotnik. That was a mathematical tossup.
Maybe, both at the same time?
Regardless, the humans needed to be stamped out. At the moment, they were more of a threat than the Mobians. The Western Egg Armada wasn't the equal of the fleet assembled in the East, but it would have to suffice. The relatively minor Southern Fleet could be brought up at flank speed to support the push. By then Helios would be in the air and fully charged and he could take his time wiping all his enemies off the map.
One hand hovering over a holographic display, Eggman confirmed that the Network Corruption had been basically contained and that his new security routines had closed up any infection holes. It would be impossible to clean the system completely, at least without physically destroying the infected Networks, but only some regional systems had been severely compromised. Robotropolis and most of the fleet assets were still protected by their Tails Dolls. It was an infuriating setback, but nothing to panic about. Not now that he had Six of the Seven Chaos Emeralds...
"Doctor," Shadow prompted, growing tired of waiting.
"Yes, Shadow, I know." Eggman spun to face his more capable servant. "Let's see it."
The black hedgehog nodded once, holding out his left hand. The amethyst Chaos Emerald, perfect and flawless, glowed faintly in the ultimate life form's glove. This was, as Eggman recalled, the Emerald from Downunda.... the very one that had once been used to power and control a New Black Doom and Black Arms Army.
That had proven to be an interesting mission report. Of course, there was no actual evidence to connect the sudden rise of a new Black Army to GUN but Robotnik was fairly certain they had a hand in it. After that whole affair, Sonic's sidekick had managed to escape with the Emerald.... but only by leaving his subordinates, the Downunda Freedom Fighters, to die. Oh yes. That had been amusing to read at the time.
'And now the Emerald is ours,' Eggman thought with an amused chuckle. 'What a meaningless sacrifice they were! How wonderful…!'
The rotund man smiled smugly.
"Superb work as always, Shadow. Feel free to add it to the Eclipse Chamber as soon as you leave... You've certainly earned it."
Shadow inclined his head.
"And Rouge the Bat!" Eggman turned his attentions to the canny chiropteran. "A pleasure to see you again, my dear! Though I must say... I had expected to hear from you sooner than this."
Put on the spot, Rouge shrugged nonchalantly.
"I didn't want to blow my cover early," she explained, then slyly added, "I think I came through in the end, wouldn't you say?"
"Very much so." Eggman stared down at her. "So, you wish to be an Underboss, hmm? Of where?"
"If I get to choose," she said, pretending to think about it a bit. "I'd say the Western Continent. It's quiet. Remote. Not a lot of trouble from the locals. Cat Country is also well known for its mineral wealth... and its gems!"
"Of course, of course!" Eggman smiled graciously. "As soon as we have the Seventh Emerald, you'll have your personal continent. And more."
Rouge smiled right back. "Sounds wonderful. As soon as I have some insurance, I'll happy tell you everything I know, including the location of the Seventh Emerald."
Eggman's smile faded just a fraction.
"Of course," he cordially replied. "I have a room set out for you... your old one, actually. If you need anything, feel free to make use of the facilities here. My house is your house."
Rouge inclined her head respectfully.
"Go on now," he concluded, shooing them both away with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Shadow. After you finish with that Emerald, I'll take a look at that substance on your arm."
"Yes. Thank you, Doctor."
As the two left, Eggman's smile vanished entirely. The bat was being more than a little coy... but he supposed it really was only sensible. The truth was that he did have something of a bad reputation. He even considered letting Rouge keep her little Underboss command out in the boondocks. She really was very resourceful, and a potentially valuable resource. It would be a waste to just roboticize her after he had all the Emeralds.
Turning back to the screens, he immersed himself in his work; there would be time to ponder Rouge's fate later. For the time being, he would just see how she fit into his plans and then go with his gut. If she came through with the Seventh Emerald... well, there was room for generosity in his heart. He could let her enjoy life for a year or two before both she and Shadow became well and truly redundant.
Robotnik smiled twin rows of great white teeth.
It wasn't betrayal, per say. It was simply a matter of efficiency.
"Arm still numb?"
Shadow blinked at the question, and the supposed concern. He didn't bother to look down at the still polymer encapsulated limb. It was still numb, and he still had no way to remove the damn stuff he'd been sprayed with. It was quickly rising up his personal list of "things I hate more than normal." Whoever came up with this stuff was a real piece of work.
"Yes," he finally said. "Still numb."
Rouge walked alongside him, resting her hands behind the small of her back.
"I'm sure the Doc can fix it!" she assured him. "IQ of 300 and all that."
"Well..." Shadow felt his normal impulses ease up a bit. Rouge had been nothing but helpful, and now she had been responsible for helping him get two of the precious Emeralds. Taking a look at her, and the easy, confident way she acted, he relaxed a bit.
"I should hope the Doctor can do something," he replied, shaking the trapped arm slightly. "I don't want to go through life with it like this."
"Mm," she muttered in agreement.
"Have you..." he paused, not quite sure how to make idle conversation. He thought back to Maria, and her friends, and how they acted. "Have you done anything interesting these last few months?"
She smiled brightly at him. "Oh, this and that! Took a trip down south to the Ginger Islands... went out by Casino Night."
"Before or after...?"
"Before you came through and raised Hell."
"Ah. Well, those places seem... nice."
"Casino Night is really nice if you know where you're going and don't go out of your way to make a scene," she explained, stars (and rings) in her eyes. "The lights, the sounds, the extravagance!"
"The noise, the pollution, the people..."
"The lights and fireworks!"
"The disorienting strobe lights and the fire hazards."
She stared at him like he was from space. She'd obviously forgotten he literally was from space.
"You know you liked it," she insisted. "Why else would you end up competing on Bingo Highway of all places?"
"It was only to get the Chaos Emerald." He held up the one in his left hand. "That's all. I don't exactly enjoy pinballing around a thousand feet in the sky."
"You hedgehogs are built for that kind of thing." Rouge chuckled. "I'd compete, myself, but no spines. Where are we, anyway? I don't remember any of this being here before."
He nodded slowly in understanding. "Most of this area would look new to you. We're inside Helios now, not the city."
"Helios? What's that?"
He opened his mouth as if to reply, but didn't.
"Shadow?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Nothing I guess," he relented. "Helios is what the Doctor calls the parts of the city that were redesigned to handle flight."
"Flight; you mean like Angel Island?"
"Yes and no." Shadow led them down a clean grey metal corridor. "From what I've heard, just getting a chunk of land into the air isn't that hard. Most of the new sections are to keep everything intact once it's in the air and to make it self sufficient. The rest is to power a defensive and offensive system of some sort."
"Must be something pretty big if you need all these Emeralds," Rouge speculated. "I don't think the Death Egg used all seven, did it?"
"That was a bit before my time," Shadow responded. "I hadn't been thawed out yet. No, most of the systems are built around something called an Eclipse Chamber. It was a weapon designed by Professor Gerald Robotnik..."
"The Doc's grandfather, right?"
Shadow nodded, a bit more enthusiastically now. "Yes. Gerald was a great man... versed in many scientific and academic fields, from archeology to zoology. Back when it first formed, GUN put him in charge of building weapons and orbital defenses. He ran most of the projects on board the ARK... I remember back when the orbital ring was still being built. It was... quite a sight."
He shook his head to dispel those old memories.
"Anyway, the most important project on the ARK was a really large beam cannon, powered by the Seven Mobian Chaos Emeralds. As a last resort, this weapon was supposed to be able to destroy the Black Arms before they reached Mobius. But GUN ran into problems... they couldn't find all the Chaos Emeralds to make Eclipse work, and everyone was worried about the Mobians attacking us while we were fighting the Black Arms."
He frowned a bit.
"I guess that doesn't matter anymore. No one ever got Eclipse working, but now... we're close to seeing it at full power," Shadow's tone morphed from nostalgic and introspective to excited. "I'll finally be able to see Maria's face again!"
"Maria?" Rouge asked. "I've heard you mention her before."
Shadow immediately clammed up.
"Oh!" Rouge ribbed him playfully. "She a friend of yours?" The bat then winked. "She a... girlfriend of yours?"
"N-n-no!!" Shadow blushed down to his roots. "I mean, no! No! We were just friends! Good friends!"
"You dog you!" Rouge gave his shoulder a quick jab. "What breed was she?"
He quickly resumed a stony expression, fighting down the embarrassment from before. Clearing his throat, he hugged the captured Chaos Emerald close to his chest with one arm. Rouge backed off a bit at the reaction but sensed he at least wanted to say something.
"She wasn't a Mobian."
Rouge's mouth formed into a perfect little "o"
"You - you mean?"
He shook his head again. "Like I said, we were close friends. She wasn't very healthy and I was made to cure her, to help her. That was one reason I was made anyway... but it was more than just that. She taught me what it meant to be more than just an experiment or a prototype. I... I cared for her, but things happened. She died."
Rouge lent a sympathetic hand on his arm. "Shadow..."
He looked ahead, focused and determined.
"Everything I've done... everything I will do... is to atone for letting her die. I know nothing I do can bring her back but I can make sure this world never makes another Maria suffer or cry! That was Maria's dying wish! I'll wash away her tears and save this evil world!"
"Is that why you're collecting the Emeralds for the Doctor?" Rouge quietly asked.
"Eclipse is the answer," he replied. "Eclipse will bring peace. Doctor Gerald said it himself once: Eclipse will bring peace."
"Here…" Shadow pointed down to the end of the hall, and to a large airlock-like door. A reinforced catwalk separated what was beyond that door from the rest of the superstructure. Getting closer, Rouge could see that the inner wall was actually spherical. It was just so large, so high, that one could only see that it was curved from a distance. It was a sphere suspended within an even larger sphere.
Intermittent flashes of lightning ran along the wall's smooth surface along with blue and yellow will-o-wisps. The flashing balls of light swept around at high speed, zipping between the two curved surfaces. Rouge tried to estimate just how large either of the spheres were, either the innermost one, or the hollowed out area it rested within, but the perspective was messing with her sense of scale.
Stepping inside a small room past the first door, Shadow motioned for her to stay in place. The door in front of them remained closed while the one they had just passed through shut and locked with a mechanical whirr. A second later, and a faint mist filled the room.
"Don't worry," he quickly said, guessing what she was thinking. "This is just a decontamination room."
Rouge still breathed in a little warily. Staring down at his still encased right arm, Shadow sighed. Even the De-con spray wasn't removing the gunk.
"What on Mobius is this stuff?"" he growled, finally displaying some visible aggravation. "Damnit."
"Shadow..." Rouge took the opportunity to ask him something. The de-con room would provide them with a measure of privacy, but she still kept her voice low. "Aren't you a bit worried the Doc will double cross us?"
He looked away. "I wouldn't say worried. I've got my situation well in hand."
"Great," she replied, hands on her hips.
"I wouldn't worry about a double cross, Rouge," Shadow assured her with a small smile. "Like I said, I have the situation under control."
"I hope so..." Rouge didn't argue. "Don't suppose you'd let me in on this great backup plan of yours?"
He laughed, though it sounded suspiciously like "he-he-he-he" – just the kind of particularly evil laugh that always ended up causing to trouble down the road. Rouge sighed. Why did she always end up around guys who had that kind of laugh?
"Naturally, the Doctor has plans to betray us," Shadow casually reasoned. "Just as Snively has plans to betray him. In a situation like that we have to look out for ourselves."
"You wouldn't stab me in the back, would you?" she asked, batting her eyes at him.
He just smiled. "I could ask you the same thing."
"So no one trusts anyone?" she asked. "What a model organization this is. Maybe we can all stab each other in the back at the same time! Snively kills Robotnik, who kills you, who kills me, who kills Snively. Perfect, huh?"
He chuckled darkly at the picture.
"You forgot Metal Sonic, though."
"Oh... oh yeah..." Rouge rubbed her left arm. "He doesn't count anyway. He's too obsessed with beating Sonic, right?"
"Things will work out," Shadow concluded with absolute confidence. Above them, the grates hissed and the cleansing mist cut off. Finally, the inner door opened. Shadow was walking briskly now, obviously quite happy with himself for being so close to his goal. Rouge followed close behind.
Together, they walked up to a large bulk elevator built into a slanted incline. Rather than go straight up or down, the elevator worked diagonally. It took them closer to the center. The walls of the device itself were plexiglas, and revealed a staggering assembly of high technology gizmos and piping, humming, glowing generators and tiny maintenance machines.
'Tails would probably be drooling if he were here,' Rouge wisely kept her thoughts to herself. 'Who knows what even a tenth of all this stuff does?'
A minute later, the elevator stopped, and Shadow opened the doors leading into a curved walkway. Apparently, inside the sphere was yet another hollow space. It was a spherical cavern, lined by metal plates and woven together by piping. It was completely dark except for the dull red glow of emergency lights interspersed every hundred feet. Otherwise, the hallowed out area was bare.
"This is the Eclipse chamber?" Rouge asked, taking it all in. "I don't see the other Chaos Emeralds."
"The Emeralds have to be inserted into the control ring," Shadow replied, walking along the catwalk to and indented surface along the equator of the hollowed sphere. Holding up the Chaos Emerald, he carefully maneuvered it into place. On contact with the wall, a stream of lights coursed through the structure. An orange holographic projection appeared over the Emerald, and then turned green as the gemstone slid fully into the wall.
Shadow stepped back, and the green hologram twisted and turned, different rings locking in place. After a few seconds, the innermost ring turned yellow. The circles then disappeared, only to be replaced by a prominently displayed number: 6. All around the equator of the chamber, other lights and numbers appeared at regular intervals. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Only one spot was obviously still vacant.
"This is it!" Shadow called out, running back to where Rouge still stood. "Eclipse is finally starting up! Amazing, isn't it?"
Blue tinted light began to suffuse the walls, rising up from the middle ring all the way to the top. Intricate lines of light intersected and turned, and even the walls themselves appeared to start moving: revolving. Flashes of yellow began to appear deeper within the chamber, near the very center. Pulsing with power, the entire chamber hummed and purred like a giant engine, building up to a mighty crescendo.
Finally, one of the flashes didn't die out...
In the center of the Eclipse Chamber, a tiny ball of yellow-white light took form.
Shadow reveled in the sight, one good arm held out triumphantly.
"It feels incredible! Even at less than one tenth full power!" He turned to Rouge, clasping her shoulder cheerfully. "This is all thanks to you!"
Rouge grinned, but couldn't quite bring herself to beam at the accomplishment.
'I really hope Miles knows what he's doing...'
"We have to get that last Emerald!" Shadow declared. "Then everything will be perfect!"
Rouge nodded, more relenting than agreeing.
"If you say so..."
T minus fifty four hours.
Standing on the former flag bridge of the EEV-090762, Miles Prower cupped his hands behind his back. The Battlebird Armada, he truly felt at that moment, had absolutely nothing on him. In less than twenty four hours he had basically hijacked the largest single Air Armada on the planet. It really had to be a record of piracy unmatched in Mobian history.
"Yar," he growled, trying it out.
Grinning excitedly, the kitsune rubbed his hands together. Yes: so far, things were going pretty well. Based on panicked reports over secure military channels, Knothole had indeed been raided by Shadow. He had taken Rouge with him on the excursion, which wasn't totally unexpected, but she had gotten through unharmed. Sadly, a great many had lost their lives in the defense of the Generator... and two dear friends had barely survived at all.
Rotor must've taken Bunnie's old body out of storage. In retrospect, it would have been better to destroy that somehow before he left. She never would have been sent in to fight with her civilian body. Tails accepted responsibility for that oversight. He'd simply forgotten all about the possibility of her swapping one chassis for another.
But what was done was done.
Shadow had taken the Emerald, and the City Shield was almost completely non-functional without it. Miles rather suspected that the city authorities were regretting not taking his advice and investing in backup power plants... even a couple dozen megawatts would have been enough. Stripped of their precious shield to hide behind, the city was in an uproar. For the first time in more than a year, people were afraid again.
Good.
They had grown complacent beneath that shield, hiding in the forest like frightened children. What they had wasn't real peace; it was a false and dangerous security that left them blind to the truth. Shields would never end wars. That job fell to the spear, the sword, and the gun.
Of course, he would be blamed. Well, he was to blame, but he would also BE blamed. Tails accepted that fact. To the world at large, he could be seen as a fool. He had been duped and deceived. And now, he had deserted his duty to pursue a personal vendetta. All that was just fine. All that was necessary.
"Helios, was it? A weapon based on one of the old ARK Orbital Defenses?"
Miles now had a good idea of just what Helios was and what the Eclipse Chamber could do. Truly, Gerald Robotnik had been a genius even among geniuses: a mind without peer! Tails was all but in awe of the man. True, it had taken the loss of that Chaos Emerald to get the information he needed...
But that was ok.
That would work.
"Gentlemen. Fellow pirates. Yar! Avast and project ye me main screen!"
Sadly, his Miles-ified crew lacked the enthusiasm of their Lord Captain. Thanks to his hacking of the Fleet and what was left of the Second Legion, Tails currently had several thousand Robians, Combots, Shadowbots, and other assorted badniks at his command. The ships themselves were automated and also under his control. Among his first acts as "Captain" was to order the re-painting of ships and crew a garish and all-too conspicuous mix of yellow, red and blue. He also ordered the spray painting of as many skull motifs as possible. It would make them great targets.
And it felt good to give the robians something productive to do.
A holographic display popped into thin air a few feet from where Tails' stood, displaying his last request: a fleet review and summary. Less than a hundred kilometers to the south flew a separate formation of airships: these were the remains of GUN's New Navy. They had been warned to watch for a "surprise" and avoid direct contact with the larger enemy fleet, and now cautiously flew alongside Miles' Pirate Armada.
"Ah, the life of a Sky Pirate," Tails chortled to himself. "Looks like we're in range. Burst transmission to contact N-five-eight-one and TFS Vesuvius. Add secure line priority blue-seven-yellow-eight-two."
The holographic screen split into four: one migrated lower to the floor while the other three took up equidistant positions to the front, left and right. Miles frowned and quickly corrected the left and right positions to be closer together, using his fingers to drag the holograms.
And overlander face appeared on the first comm. screen.
Followed by another human.
Then, lastly, Nicole's lynx avatar appeared.
"Warm welcomes from the Ex-Eggman Air Fleet! Now under New Management!" Tails declared, holding out his hands in greeting before clapping them together.
The overlander female on the central screen had chestnut brown, shoulder length hair and light blue eyes that shone with serious determination. This was Aya Florentine, the Captain of the still-grounded Egg Carrier (the ship really did need a new name in Miles' view), and nominal speaker for the Navy Arm of the GUN Remnant. The woman was functionally an Admiral, but from what he understood, most of the New Navy officers preferred to retain their old Station Square ranks.
"We have you on our scopes," she stated, still sounding suspicious of him. "I assume you have full control over what is left of the enemy fleet?"
Tails grinned viciously. "Those robots that I couldn't hack, I made 'em walk the plank. It was a long fall."
"And what's to become of this new fleet of yours?"
This time, the speaker was the male human on the left hand screen: a fair haired, strong jawed type named Halcyon Brin. He was a prominent civil authority among the GUN Remnant, serving (as Aya technically did) directly under Mastermind. Miles had actually expected to be dealing with Mastermind himself. As distasteful as the idea was, he preferred not to force GUN's captains to decide between ending the war and turning traitor. That was never an easy decision, Miles knew that personally.
Luckily, Brin had instead made himself available.
"My fleet fights for me," Tails made it perfectly clear. "Not for King Acorn, not for the Freedom Fighters. Me."
It wouldn't do to give the appearance of more than tripling the size of the Mobian Air Force. GUN was very touchy about losing the only real edge it had over the Mobians: their technological superiority and skilled navy. It wasn't just a matter of security. It was a matter of pride.
"Hmm..." Brin seemed mostly mollified.
"My only goal is to crush the Eggman," Miles reminded them. "I have no beef with GUN. What you and the Kingdom do after the war is none of my concern anymore... so long as it does not interfere with my research or my work."
"Very well. Aya, this is a situation we cannot let pass by. How are things going on your end?"
Captain Florentine nodded, agreeing. "My engineers and Miles'… things… have almost finished installing the new boost drive. If it works as advertised, we should be underway in two hours."
"It's the same drive I have on the Blue Typhoon," Miles spoke up. "Except for the dead man's switch, of course. The Emerald powering it is still mine, after all."
"Once again, I must protest..."
"It's fine, Brin," Aya interrupted. "We need it to get the ship running in time to fight. It can fall to pieces as far as I care, just as long as it does so after we win. Defeating the Empire is our number one priority."
The bureaucrat grunted angrily.
"As I explained before, I will be transferring some security personnel and other necessary things with me when I come over," Miles reminded them both. "I don't want anyone tampering with the drives themselves. I will remain in command of my personal fleet but will gladly leave overall command to Captain Florentine."
"Yes. We'll play along for the time being." Aya cupped her chin. "What's this new information you promised us? You said you know what Julian was up to."
"Oh yes, he's been quite busy," Miles then added, just to be clear, "You should know I'm patching in an AI named Nicole into our conversation now. She, in turn, will be patching it through to certain Mobian authorities."
"The Kingdom?" Aya asked. "I thought..."
"As I said, I no longer work for them. However, this information isn't just for GUN's benefit." Miles rocked back on his heels. "We should all know what we have to look forward to in Robotropolis..."
"What on Mobius?"
Charles Hedgehog always liked to think of himself as well informed. He liked to think of himself as well prepared. Well over a years ago, he had resigned himself to a fate of permanent roboticization. He, like many others, could not be conventionally de-roboticized, due to the length of time they had spent in that state. In a way, it was ironic and all too fitting a fate for the Mobian responsible for unleashing the plague of roboticization on the world in the first place. Unsurprisingly, he'd come to develop a rather dour and silently pessimistic opinion of things.
He tried to keep the appearance of high spirits when his nephew and others came to visit, but it was only skin deep (or what passed for it, anyway). Discovering he had an illegitimate child… discovering that his son (his son!) had grown up not knowing his father, only to find out what he had become, mistaking him for the very enemy he had grown up fighting… it had hurt him more than anything. Rush Hedgehog was his son by blood only – a blood that no longer flowed through the body of Sir Charles Hedgehog. A blood that never would.
It seemed, at times, that everything he had wanted to be, everything thing he had ever wanted, he had failed to protect. Failed to hold on to. He had failed his King, failed his country, failed his people and now… he'd failed his son. He couldn't even remember the woman he'd had that one night stand with. Rush had asked, during one of the few conversations they had had, what his real mother's name was.
Charles told him he didn't know.
Just a red headed lab assistant.
Just some lay.
No: Charles Hedgehog hadn't been happy for a long time. But he did what he could, with what little he had left, to make a good end of himself. To put himself to a noble purpose – to aid in any way he could the salvation of the Mobian race and the liberation and restoration of the Acorn Kingdom he had doomed so many years ago. He had known about the danger, and disregarded it… But now… As the ground shook beneath his feet, he realized something new.
He really didn't want to die.
Not yet.
Almost losing his footing, the robian quickly leaned against a nearby wall to steady himself. In his free hand, he held tightly to the small scanning device, and pulled it in close to make sure it wouldn't slip out of his robotic hands. A cloud of dust and smoke seemed to be rising from the location of Robotropolis, and with it, the ground around the city was giving way and collapsing inward.
Charles Hedgehog felt the tremor lessen for all of a second, before starting up again, worse than before. Even as far from the city as he was, very nearly bordering The Ring, it seemed as if the world was coming to an end. But… this was no earthquake.
It was almost like something was…
The robian cursed and scrambled into open ground, as parts of the nearby wall began to rain down. Then, suddenly, and with a resounding crash, the ground itself seemed to lurch, and Charles stumbled badly, falling forward and onto his side. Rolling as his shoulder hit the hard pavement, he looked up and in the direction of the explosion.
It wasn't an explosion; something was rising out of the ground.
Charles gasped, though his robot body never actually took in air, and watched as the slightly curved spire ascended – a hundred feet, and then a hundred more, widening as it appeared out of the ground almost a mile away. Over the horizon of old buildings and ruins, Charles could see another one, farther off, also rising into the air. Then, looking over his right shoulder, he saw one, and then another, rising from behind the cover of a building. Then, they stopped.
"W… what…?"
Before he could ask any more, one last massive crash shook the ground. Crab-crawling backward, Charles avoided more falling debris, as the weak old buildings fell apart, the strain of staying in one piece too much under these conditions. The massive spires, each seemingly more than a mile from the others, then continued their steady rise. Except, after that last crash, the quakes were completely gone. Slowly, Charles got to his feet, curiosity demanding a better look.
He watched, in stunned detachment, as other buildings started to rise up. They were those at the core of Robotnik's city. They were the blocks of metal and mortar and glass that housed his most essential manufacturing and administration systems. Finally, coming up over the rise of the obscuring ruins, Charles saw a wall of dark brown, interspersed occasionally by shimmering silver – metal, catching the light. Looking up as it rose, higher and higher, it took the genius engineer only a few amazed sections to realize what it was.
A whole section of the city… was…
"By the Source…"
The brown and black wall began to taper, and then it became jagged. Still it ascended, higher into the air in total defiance of gravity. Bits of rock and dust snowed down, and Charles instinctively shielded his robotic eyes as a small cloud of debris dusted past him. Looking back up, he could see that the piece of the city no longer had any attachment to the ground… it was floating. Robotnick had detached the greater part of the city of Robotropolis and used it to create an artificial island.
A Floating City.
Framed by the four massive spires that curved, like teeth, inward, the circular Floating City hovered for a moment over the land that had so dramatically birthed it. Narrowing his vision, Charles could see, more clearly now, the details of it. There seemed to be pieces only partially completed, where scaffolding was still firmly attached and piping was exposed. Slowly, the whole thing began to move, and rotate, and the former hedgehog tried to get a measure of the scale of this thing. It had to be at least a two kilometers, maybe three in diameter… The main spires towering well over five hundred meters high. He could also see, just barely, smaller spires, curved outward, deeper in the Floating City itself, rising above the normal buildings.
"Incredible…!" Charles said, as the Floating City revealed that it was something more. As it began to move, in a set direction, the robian knew it wasn't just a Floating City.
It was a Flying City.
At a leisurely pace, the vast bulk began its migration north.
Turning away from the sight, Charles Hedgehog ran. He would send a burst signal to Knothole and then head over in person. They had thought that Robotnik would need, or at least wait, until he had all seven Chaos Emeralds before making his move. It now was obvious they'd been overly optimistic with that particular policy.
As he ran, a nagging thought came to Charles hedgehog's mind. The streets were completely empty. There wasn't so much as a Spyeye or hover-type badnick in sight. Eggman had abandoned The Ring… what was left of it anyway. No: after almost a year of playing coy, after almost a year of building and preparation, Robotnik was once again on the warpath, and he was bringing every weapon, every resource, to bear.
And, with this Flying Island, he'd be fully capable of going anywhere.
Striking anywhere.