Sonic and the Freedom Fighters
Chapter 17: Launch
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. All characters portrayed in this story, unless specified otherwise, belong to SEGA.
-Tails' House-
It didn't take long for Sonic and Tails to return from the Neon Skyline Zone back to their house, finding themselves the first ones back. Not that this surprised Sonic; even taking into consideration the fact that their target was the furthest away, the journey to the Neon Skyline Zone only took around twenty minutes for them thanks to their speed.
"Mission successful, first ones back, and done in under an hour." The blue hedgehog bragged. Tails, however, simply sat down on the ground, concern written all over his face.
"I hope the others are doing okay." Tails said. "If they're facing anything like Metal Sonic…"
"They'll be fine, Tails. They're probably gonna pop in any second, Emerald in hand." He assured Tails. Before he could continue, though, two heard a faint sound of unknown origin, one that sounded like someone was screaming.
"What's that noise?" Tails asked. Noticing that the sound was not only getting louder, but also seemed to be coming from above, the two looked up…
…and immediately, their vision was greeted with the sight of Sally and Amy falling towards them! The two didn't have time to think, question or even run as all they could muster was a brief yell of shock and confusion before the girls landed on top of them, sending them crashing into the ground, leaving all four of them dazed momentarily.
"What the-?" Sonic muttered as he regained his senses, before he and Tails climbed out from underneath Sally and Amy and turning to face them. "Sal?! Amy?!" The hedgehog exclaimed in surprise.
"Sorry about that. Are you guys okay?" Sally replied, rubbing her head in discomfort.
"Wait, wha-? Where did-? I mean, how did you-?" Sonic stammered, trying to make sense of their unexplained appearance, only to be interrupted by an amused chuckle, turning to see Rouge the Bat gliding down to land beside the group.
"I take it that was your first time, Sally?" Rouge asked rhetorically.
"First t-? Wait, first time for what?" The blue hedgehog asked, completely confused.
"You're not gonna believe this…" Amy started.
-Angel Island-
Meanwhile, on Angel Island, Knuckles stood in front of the altar of the Master Emerald in a meditative state, his eyes closed and his arms crossed, still recovering from his previous battle with Metal Sonic, when his concentration was interrupted by the feeling of the Master Emerald calling out to him Curious, he opened his eyes and turned around to see what the Emerald wished to inform him about. The Emerald glowed brightly, and an image formed within. The image was simple, yet instilled a great sense of shock within the echidna, as what he saw was a gargantuan, imposing spherical fortress suspended in the air, consisting of light grey metal, but most notable of all, it featured the unmistakable image of Dr Eggman's face plastered across the front of it.
It was the Eggman's flying weaponised fortress, the Death Egg.
Almost instantaneously, Knuckles realised that this was why Eggman wanted the Emeralds. But this revelation caused new questions to surface. Was this a vision? It wasn't unusual for the Master Emerald to show him events that had yet to happen. Did Sonic and the others fail and lose the Chaos Emeralds they accumulated? Did Eggman find another power source while they were distracted?
He was so shaken, that he didn't even notice Metal Sonic speeding towards him until it was too late, at which point the robot rammed into the echidna full force, knocking him to the ground. The echidna pushed himself back up as Metal Sonic turned towards the Master Emerald and inched toward it, before Knuckles tackled the robot and knocked him back. Metal Sonic quickly recovered and went on the offensive, swiping his claws at the echidna, who blocked the attacks before grabbing Metal Sonic's arm and tossing him away from the altar. With that action buying him some time, he turned back to the Master Emerald and outstretched his arms towards it, before closing his eyes and focusing. In response, the Master Emerald shone brightly, followed by the ground suddenly shaking as Angel Island began to climb higher into the sky.
Knuckles broke his concentration in enough time to block an attempted attack from Metal Sonic as the robot rushed at him from behind, before the echidna followed up by punching Metal Sonic twice, both times forcing the robot to stagger backwards. Upon trying to attack once more, however, Metal Sonic dodged to the side before the robot struck him in the side, causing him to wince and stumble back a few steps. Knuckles attempted to strike again, only for Metal Sonic to evade before grabbing him and slamming him into one of the nearby pillars, cracking it in the process. The echidna struggled to get back on his feet, only to be greeted by the sight of Metal Sonic gathering energy within the cannon built into his chest. Knuckles barely had enough time to brace himself as Metal Sonic unleashed a powerful energy beam at him, the impact sending him crashing through the pillar behind him and throwing him off the shrine.
With his only opposition incapacitated, Metal Sonic turned toward the Master Emerald and approached it before grabbing it and using all his strength to lift it, the Emerald slowly being removed from its resting place on the altar, inch by inch. The robot resorted to using his built-in jet engine to expedite the process, eventually tearing the Master Emerald from the altar, cutting of the supply of energy to the rest of the island in the process. Knuckles could only watch as the robot flew off at top speed in the direction of Eggman's fortress. Forcing himself back to his feet, he pulled out his Warp Ring and tossed it into the air in front of him.
He needed to get the Master Emerald back, and fast…
-Tails' House-
"You did what?!" Sonic exclaimed, barely able to believe what Sally and Amy had just told him explaining the reason for their sudden appearance.
"To be honest, I don't even know how I did it. I guess I just got lucky." Sally admitted, herself still unable to process the truth of the matter.
"Good thing you did, though. We'd have been in a very tough situation." Amy interjected.
"Still, it seems a bit unusual for someone to acclimate to Chaos Control this easily without prior contact with Chaos Energy." Tails wondered. "Are you sure you haven't used them before?"
"Not even once." Sally replied, before she was reminded of something. "Oh! Speaking of, did you manage to get the Chaos Emerald?"
"We did, but…" Tails started. "We had to fight Metal Sonic to get it. He managed to get to the Neon Skyline Zone before we did."
"I had a feeling. Eggman attacked us at the exact location of the Emerald we retrieved. He must have been spying on us." The chipmunk hypothesised.
"That's not all. You remember that thing we found in the Shadow robot? Now Metal's got one too." Sonic explained.
"Wait, what? What thing?" Amy asked aloud.
"Um, mind explaining whatever you're talking about for those who aren't in the loop?" Rouge inquired.
"There was a Shadow replicate that attacked a G.U.N. base yesterday. We found a device that was capable of absorbing and circulating large quantities of Chaos Energy." Tails explained, causing Rouge's eyes to briefly widen in shock.
"That doesn't matter right now." Sally interjected, redirecting the focus of the group onto her. "As long as Antoine's team succeeds on their end, Eggman's forces will have no power source for this device." She continued, followed by the distant sounds of approaching vehicles. The group turned to see Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor, Cream and Cheese approaching them on their Extreme Gear.
"Ah, speak of the devil." Sonic muttered.
"We're back!" Cream cheered as she hopped off Rotor's board before running up to the Amy and wrapping her in a tight hug, which the pink hedgehog was more than happy to return, before the young rabbit noticed Rouge. "Oh! Hi, Miss Rouge!" She greeted as she parted from Amy.
"Well, hello to you too, Cream." The older bat replied, crouching down and playfully rubbing the top of the young rabbit's head.
"Antoine, was your team successful?" The princess asked.
"Oui, ma princesse." The coyote replied as Bunnie pulled out the grey Chaos Emerald and tossed it to Sally.
"You guys didn't happen to run into trouble, did you?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah, how'd ya know?" Bunnie replied.
"Lucky guess." The hedgehog snarked.
"So… what now?" Amy inquired.
"Well, with the Chaos Emeralds in our possession, this gives us time to figure out what Eggman's plan is." Sally explained. "In the meantime, I suggest that we keep the Emeralds stored-" The princess didn't have time to finish her sentence as a large portal suddenly appeared in the air, and after a few seconds, out staggered Knuckles, hand firmly clutching his side as he took a couple of steps towards the group, the portal closing behind him, before collapsing to his knees.
"Knux!" Sonic exclaimed as he rushed over to help the echidna back onto his feet. "What happened to you?"
"Metal Sonic." Knuckles muttered breathlessly. "He ambushed me on Angel Island… and he took the Master Emerald!"
"What?!" "No way!" Several members of the group exclaimed amidst the resulting collective gasp of shock.
"How?! I thought we trashed him!" Sonic asked.
"He must have absorbed the energy from the Master Emerald." The echidna surmised, prompting an irate sigh from Rouge.
"Really, Knuckles?" The bat admonished. "You couldn't even keep the Master Emerald away from Eggman for five seconds?"
"Guys, we have bigger problems to deal with!" Sally interrupted, her voice gradually filling with panic. "If Eggman has the Master Emerald, then that means he can supply his robots with Chaos Energy." She continued before gripping the side of her head in a combination of stress and self-directed anger. "Why didn't I think of this?! If I knew he was going to go back after the Master Emerald-"
"Sally!" Amy shouted as she grabbed the princess's shoulder, snapping her out of her panic. "It's not your fault! Besides, we should focus on getting the Master Emerald back before-" Her attempts to calm the leader of the Freedom Fighters down was cut short by a faint tremor surged through the ground.
"What was that?" Bunnie asked as another tremor occurred, this one stronger than the last and accompanied by a low rumbling sound.
"Uh…" Antoine muttered, a look of pure terror on his face as he pointed at something in the distance. The team turned to look at what was causing their teammate such unrest… and found themselves staring at an ominous spherical fortress with Eggman's face emblazoned on it as it slowly rose into the air, towering above the city in the process.
"What… What is that?" Sally asked, herself unnerved along with the rest of the Freedom Fighters. Sonic, standing next to her, merely glared at the rising fortress, fist tightly clenched.
"Trouble." He replied.
Their fight was about to get a lot harder…