Chapter 3: The Straight Arrow
Amy and Sonic look at the information from Tails to see an article about the Rift Specter and the Onyx Compass.
"This is an ancient artifact which has unknown origins. There is a bunch of legends about this artifact for it has the power to rend Time and Space for those who can wield its power but someone broke it into pieces so no one can abuse its power. All eight pieces are scattered to unknown corners of the world but you would need an Onyx Compass to track down the staff's unique energy. There are a few compasses left with the first one being stolen by that red guy and the last one being stored in another museum called the Museum of Natural Sciences and History in Apotos. I already contacted the guys there to let you guys in the warehouse area," Tails aid.
"Thank you, buddy," Sonic said.
"I knew we can count on you," Amy said.
"Cool, I need to get ready. This is going to be rough. Also, we need to start tracking down the Chaos Emerald as well. That specter is going to be drained of any power and needs to be recharged to unleash its full power," Tails said.
"We will take it from here Tails," Sonic said.
"Cool, I need to tell this to the others to let them know. Also, Team Dark as well, GUN needs to be aw
"Good luck out there," Tails said as they park their things to head for Apotos which is on the landmass of Eurish which used to be called Europe in the past.
"Wow, we can go to Apotos like that time during the Dark Gaia crisis a few years back," Amy said as she is happy she can spend time with her boyfriend at an exotic location.
"It's been a while since I been there. After we take that Compass, we should spend some time there," Sonic said as they gather their bags to head for the airport where Sonic's tornado is packed in the private hanger Tails owns.
"That would be so fun but first the Onyx Compass," Amy said as they arrive at the Station Square Airport to see some familiar faces.
"Yo Amy and Sonic," Mighty approaches Sonic and gives his old friend a handshake.
"Yo, what's up Mighty and Ray? Good to see you here," Sonic said.
"Likewise, why are you guys here? Vector send you to do some chores again?" Amy asked.
"Kind of, We are looking for some missing cargo. Could be related to the break-in at the Station Square Museum," Ray said.
"Yeah but we are getting pay anyway which Vector cares about the most," Mighty said.
"Yep sounds like Vector to me," Amy said
"We need to go, see you guys later," Sonic said as they separate to head outside onto the airstrip to get to the hanger to see the red biplane. "Time to get to the skies and head for Apotos," Sonic said as they place their bags into the underside compartment. Sonic gets into the pilot's seat and Amy is in the co-pilot's seat. They get the engine going and the plane is going into the air with Amy letting the rush of air flow into her quills.
"Oh, this is so good. The view is amazing up here," Amy said as they are high into the clouds for it will take a few hours to get to the airport in Apotos which is in a region that used to be called Greece.
Elsewhere Tails is talking with the others to contact his current girlfriend Cream on the video chat on his lab monitor. "Hey Tails," Cream said as her sweet smile makes Tails' heart feels funny.
"Hey Cream, I need to tell you about what is happening now," Tails said.
"Oh yeah, I saw the news recently and Amy told me what happened. That big red guy and those weird inkblot monsters," Cream said.
"Yeah cool, I can tell you other details," Tails tells his girlfriend about what the plan is.
"Okay find these pieces of this staff and seek out the Chaos Emeralds. I have been training with Amy with my weapon. This baton umbrella," Cream shows her boyfriend to show her a colorful umbrella that is reinforced to smash things.
"Oh, you have a weapon like Amy huh?" Tails asked.
"I am not a little kid any more Tails. I want to aid in Team Sonic. I and Cheese worked very hard for this," Cream said.
"You are becoming more like Amy huh Cream," Tails said.
"Of course, Amy is like the big sister I never had. You know that," Cream said as she has recently become 13 years old with Tails himself becoming 14 years old. Even Cheese who has become a Hero Chao only a year ago.
"Yeah I know, things are changing," Tails said as Cream likes his voice getting deeper.
"You were so cute before and now you are becoming so handsome," Cream said as Tails is blushing from this.
"Oh, thanks sweet pea," Tails said as Cream air kisses the screen.
"Thanks for the update. See you later Tails," Cream said with a cute little wink to shut off the video link.
Tails look over at the old flowerpot which held Cosmo's plant is on gone without a trace. "Sorry, Cosmo but I needed to move on. I hope you find some peace as I did," Tails said as he resumes to call the other teams like Team Chaotix and Team Treasure.
"Yo Tiara, what's up," Tails said as he meets a 23 years old brown-furred cat lady dressed in a red leather bodysuit fitting her tall curvaceous figure.
"This is Tiara Boobowski speaking, what's up Tails? You need something?" she asked.
"Well, I will need to speak with you about our current mission against this new threat," Tails said.
"Oh yeah, I heard about the news and from Amy as well. Another dipshit to worry about' Tiara said.
"Yes, your ice powers will be very helpful from what Amy and Sonic told me," Tails said.
"Well, I will get the team rolling. Honey, Sticks, Gemerl, and Shade will be aiding you when the time comes," Tiara said.
"Thanks, princess, you are so helpful," Tails said.
"Please don't call me that Tails. I can't be called a princess if I have nothing to rule over," Tiara said.
"Oops, my mistake. See you later Tiara," Tails said.
"Bye Tiara," Tails shut off the line for him to resume his work.
Within hours, Sonic and Amy got the plane to land at an airport in a private area. They are in the United Federation city of Apotos. Sonic spots the large windmills brushing against the winds. "Good to be back here," Sonic said as he slings his bag over his shoulder.
"Yeah, let's head for our hotel and set up here. I want to get the ground running and see all the wonderful sights," Amy said as they go into the airport to see all the Mobians and Humans walking by to enjoy food or going to buy presents for their loved ones.
"This airport looks very nice, not looking too rundown," Amy said as she hears her stomach growling. "Oh my, you hungry baby?" she asked.
"A snack would be nice right now," Sonic said as they go over to a pretzel shop called Pretzel Run which has a good selection of snacks based on pretzels. "Oh boy, those pretzel dogs do look good," Sonic sounding excited to see fresh pretzel dogs on display through the glass.
"Indeed," Amy said as they both got their orders with Sonic getting two pretzel dogs with cherry lemonade and spicy mustard dipping sauce. Amy grabs a large cup filled with pepperoni pretzel nuggets and melon juice. Amy buys a cinnamon sugar pretzel for them to share.
"This is quite the haul," Sonic said for them to sit at a table to lead their spread thee. He bites into the pretzel dog with Amy grabbing a nugget for she eats it. "This is pretty good," he said as Amy nods her head.
"Yes, this pretzel shop is a local brand. It's very fresh and warm unless other shops that sell them pretty stale," Amy said.
"Yeah, I hate it when your food is not fresh but taken off some tray and slapped into the oven to be reheated," Sonic said.
"I know right but as long as it's good. It's what matters," Amy said as they finish their pretzels for them to enjoy it. "Oh boy, that was tasty," Amy said.
"Yeah, those dogs hit the spot," Sonic said as Amy shares her cinnamon pretzel to break it in half.
"We can share this, it smells pretty good," Amy said as they take a bite into it. "Oh my, this is tickling my taste buds," Amy said as Sonic shares this same delight.
"Yeah, this is smashing my tongue into dust," Sonic said as they finish their snacks for them to head out of the airport with bags in hand to get into the city to be greeted by the white marble buildings, beautiful coastlines, graceful windmills in the hills nearby and the open friendly environment. "Good to be back," Sonic said as both of them are amazed by the city's beauty.
"Yes, it's good to be back. Come on, let's go to our hotel," Amy said as they head towards their hotel complex to see it's just as pretty as the surrounding buildings.
"Very impressive," Sonic said as they go into the huge lobby to check in and grab their card keys
"Enjoy your stay in our beautiful town of Apotos, you two," the clerk said as they swiftly head for their room to see it's quite nice.
"I paid on this nice little pad for us to enjoy. It's like the other hotel we went to before but in a different style," Amy said as Sonic looks around to whistle to enjoy it.
"Quite nice," Sonic sets down his bag on the couch in the living room. "We should set up here and head out to the Museum," he said as they get out of the hotel to go to the museum for one of the Deadly Six is looking over the Museum of Natural Sciences and History in the shadows.
"Zomom, we need to seek out the other compass and destroy it. We can't allow our enemies to have the means to track down the pieces," Zavok said via psychic link.
"Fine gees, I going to eat those rats alive," the large round Zeti said.
"Keep that up and smash them under your girth," Zavok said as Zomom is ordering his Unbound to attack the museum.
"Time to smash," Zomom said as he throws himself into the side of the building to create a hole with alarms coming up. He waves his hands to use his electromagnetic powers to disable the alarms and cameras but it was too late GUN forces are coming towards the museum.
Amy and Sonic can hear the alarms going off with them speeding towards the Museum with citizens humans and Mobians alike running away from the monsters. "These guys again," Amy said as she taps her Crystal Ring on her wrist to activate her magic to get into her magical battle dress.
"Let's do this Amy," Sonic said as he kicks the Grunt into a car with Amy knocking away the incoming monsters with her hammer.
"You got it, suck on this. Fire," Amy cast fireballs from her hands to strike several Grunts. She smashes a nearby Grunt to make it disappear but she gets hit but a dark beam to knock her into a car.
"Ames," Sonic looks up to see a warped bird-like Unbound called Flyers begin hovering in the air to begin shooting them with energy blasts. Sonic runs along the buildings to use his Homing Attack to strike them down in mid-air.
"I am okay, don't worry about me," Amy said as her magic dress can keep her protected by her launching herself to bash the Flyers with her Hammer. She lands on top of him to empower her mallet with wind magic and unleashes a gust of wind to blow away the Flyers and Grunts to trap them in a vortex.
Sonic uses a Light Speed Attack to enter into a rapid-fire attack chain which takes them out all at once. Amy uses her ear to slam onto the evil bird to knock it down onto the streets and slam her hammer onto it crushing it to black ooze.
"Good teamwork," Sonic said.
"Likewise," Amy said as they see the hole Zomom made to get inside. "Gee. Seems like our guest got here first," she said.
"We need to get to the underground sections of the museum and grab that compass before they do," Sonic said as they go to the lobby for they see a weird dark orb with yellow eyes and a weird smile which is called a Possessor.
Sonic and Amy see this black orb strikes a skeleton of a T-Rex in the center of the lobby. "Oh, crap," both of the hedgehogs said as the bones of the dinosaur began to be corrupted by the Unbound making it able to move and turning the bones dark purple.
The Unbound T-Rex leaps at the two as it stomps onto the floor to emit a shockwave to knock them both into the walls.
"Gee, they can turn inanimate objects and give them life. Pretty interesting," Amy said as the Unbound T-Rex opens its mouth to unleash beams of dark energy to cut into the walls.
"Less geeking out, more fighting," Sonic uses his Spin Dash to avoid several beams of dark energy. He slams into its foot but the T-Rex kicks him away with Amy summons towers of flames to strike the monster.
The monster unleashes a wave of energy to cancel out the spell to shake up the whole lobby. "Eat this," Amy tosses her hammer to hit the skull of the monster. She recalls the weapon magically back onto her palm and smashing onto its leg breaking it to pieces. She calls down spikes of rocks to pin it down onto the floor with Sonic using a Spin Dash to blitz into the evil monster to smash it to bits.
"Good work Ames," Sonic said as Amy feels happy to please her man.
"Thanks, I have been practicing and I am a quick study when I am motivated," Amy said as she is practicing hard to be a proper co-leader of Team Sonic.
"So hungry to watch rats dodging bones," Zomom leaps into the air to perform a belly flop unleashing a thunderous shake and knocking them off balance. "I am going to eat you both to crave my hunger," Zomom said as Sonic and Amy are confused by this rotund creature.
"Who are you?" Sonic asked.
"Zomom of the Deadly Six. My Mistress Witchcraft wanted me to take the Onyx Compass so you can't track down the pieces of the Rift Specter," Zomom said as he exposed their plans like the idiot he is.
"Noted, thanks for the information big guy," Sonic said as Zomom catches himself.
'You trick me," the big Zeti said.
"You played yourself, buddy," Sonic said.
"Sonic, I will keep him busy while you fetch the keycard from the office and head into the underground warehouse where the Onyx Compass is located," Amy said.
'Good plan," Sonic kisses her on the lips for luck. "I will be back," Sonic said as he runs to the offices with Amy feeling warmth in her chest.
"Oh, that wonderful man," Amy said as she fixes up her magic dress to prepare to fight the monster. "Okay, you fat piece of crap. Bring it on," Amy said as Zomom is offended by her choice of word.
"You call me fat; I am going to crush you and eat you whole. Pink rat," Zomom said as he slams his fists onto the floor to unleash waves of energy. Amy slams her hammer onto the floor to launch her over the shockwaves as she slams her hammer onto his body to knock him into a wall.
Zomom bounces off the wall and launches himself into Amy to send her flying into the air. "Oh boy, he moves faster than he looks," Amy was surprised by the speed of this large rotund being.
"Chew on this," Zomom opens his mouth to use an energy beam with Amy defecting it away with her hammer to hit a wall instead. Amy is peppering the big Zeti with fireballs to blast against his body but it doesn't slow him down.
"Gee, keep down you fat blob," Amy said as Zomom is getting angry to grab onto the skull of the fallen T-Rex skeleton.
"Don't call me Fat!" Zomom tosses the skull with surprising speed and strength. Amy rolls out of the way for the skull and tears through the wall to see GUN soldiers pointing their laser rifles at Zomom along with their machine troopers.
"Amy Rose," one of the GUN agents said as she knows her.
"Miss Topaz," Amy said as the blond-haired human clad in her combat gear aimed her grenade launcher loaded with flashbang grenades.
"Amy Rose, we will take it from here," Topaz said as the GUN soldiers along with the robots aimed their weapons at the rotund Zeti. "You are under arrest, raise your hands," she ordered as the Zeti goes what he is ordered. Amy has a bad feeling about this.
Zomom spreads out his hands to take control of the GUN robots to make them shoot at their Human and Mobian handlers. "What the hell?" Topaz cursed as she got behind her APC for her agents were killed by the hacked robots.
Amy looks to see this Zeti has the power to hack robots with their minds. "That is not good," Amy thought as the GUN robots were targeting her. "This brings back memories," Amy said as she and others fought them during the Ark crisis 5 years ago.
Sonic goes to the offices to see Grunts killing the employees with him using his Homing Attack and strong kicks to take them out. "Sonic," one of the museum workers are covered in blood to hold onto a keycard.
"Yeah, you're the guy Tails talked about," Sonic said.
"You are going to need this to gain access to the underground warehouse to get the Onyx Compass," the human worker said as he hands the keycard. "Hurry before it's too late," the human male dies on the floor.
"Damn it, these monsters. I need to get to it fast," Sonic runs at top speed to blow through the museum for Flyers are chasing him from behind. "I got some birdbrains behind me," Sonic is leaping off the walls to avoid incoming dark energy beams from the Flyers.
He bounces off the wall to perform Blue Tornado by using his speed to suck the monsters into it leaving them defenseless to Sonic's quick chains of Homing Attacks. More Flyers chase him with him jumping off walls to curl up into a ball to bash into them to beat them up until they burst into black goo.
He cleans up the Unbound to use his keycard to unlock the gate to let Sonic speed through the underground warehouse. Grunts and Flyers are blocking his path with him using his Boost to smash right through them. He managed to reach the end to find the Onyx Compass in a box.
"Alright, Amy I got the Compass," Sonic presses his comlink on his ear.
"Cool, things are getting rough here. This Zomom can control machines with his mind," Amy said as Sonic is dumbfounded by this.
"Seriously?" Sonic wondered.
"Yep, it's a bit crazy. He made GUN robots turn against the soldiers," Amy said as Sonic is even more surprised.
"This is no joke," Sonic said.
"Yeah, I know. This Deadly Six would be a real problem and I am scared of what their mistress is capable of," Amy said as she is knocking the GUN Beetle robots into Zomom to slow him down. "Shit," Amy rolls away from Zomom's belly flop but the shockwave knocks her back into the streets and crashes into a car.
"I eat you pretty rat. I bet you taste good," Zomom said as Topaz aims her grenade launcher to lob a flashbang to blind Zomom.
"Amy now," Topaz said as Amy nods her head. She rushes in to whack Zomom into the air. She bounces off the buildings to strike him several times. She smashes him back into the street to crack the pavement to get on top of a building to supercharge her hammer with fiery energy.
"Eat this," Amy leaps off the building to head towards Zomom to crash into the Zeti to unleash a big blast of fire. She delivers enough power to badly damage Zomom and knock him out cold.
"Well done Amy," Topaz said as the two women looks at Zavok appearing behind Zomom to look disappointed in him.
"You big idiot. You underestimated this pink rat," Zavok grabs onto Zomom to open a dark patrol. You win this time rat but it's not over yet," Zavok said as they teleport out of there along with their minions.
"Well, that is over and we got the compass," Amy said as Topaz slings her launcher on her back to see the destruction on the street block.
"Well, I need to get some guys to seal this off. Thanks for your help Amy," Topaz said as she shakes the little woman's hand.
"No problem, it's my pleasure," Amy said as Topaz goes over to get some people to set up a perimeter around the area.
Sonic comes back outside to meet with Amy. "Mission complete, good work partner," Sonic said as Amy kisses him on the cheek.
"We did it, baby. Now we got the compass. We can relax a bit and enjoy this city while we are here," Amy said.
"Yeah, we need a short break before getting back home and making our next move," Sonic said as they head back to their hotel room to relax.
Elsewhere Zavok and the Deadly Six are scolding Zomom for his failure. "Gee you got beat up by some pink rat. So embarrassing," Zeena said/
"I know right, so bad," Zazz talking shit to Zomom.
"That pink rat was annoying," Zomom said.
"It matters not, we have the Compass and a piece of the staff. We will bind our time and wait for our next move. If they want to play this game and I will be happy to entertain them in the meantime," Witchcraft said as she dismisses her Deadly Six to their quarters with her focusing on finding the next part of the Rift Specter.