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Sonic and Sash: Tides of Chaos 3
Phantom Forces
Act 5
Chapter 29: The Pack Reunited
Yuki was left pacing around the medbay as preparations where underway for her upcoming assignment on Westside Island, after having heard word of it from Zik. She had some knowledge of the area, but was left at unease regarding the location of Zavok in particular. A volcano. Certainly not ideal for anyone whose powers relate to ice. But with the other members of the Deadly Six helping, she was somewhat at ease, knowing she wouldn't have to do much of the raw heavy lifting.
Suddenly, a knock at the door interrupted her train of thought. "Hey, can I come in?" Zeena's voice asked from the other end.
"...Yeah, sure." Yuki responds, before the door opened, revealing Zeena holding some clothes, namely a dull purple jacket and pants with a white scarf and slate talon-shaped boots laid on top of it all.
"Thought you'd appreciate this." Zeena spoke, passing the clothes to Yuki.
Yuki was left somewhat silent, but she took the clothes. They were somewhat baggy, but extremely lightweight, so they would not hinder her flight. "...This is..." She spoke, trying to find the words for what she was thinking. "...This is beautiful. Where did you get this?"
"I found it in the back with some other sets of clothes." Zeena answered. "I don't know your size, but I thought it'd look good on you."
"It's close enough." Yuki smiled, before her expression grew serious. "So, when are we going to leave?"
"An hour or so. If you want to try that outfit, you should get changed now." Zeena spoke.
Yuki nods. "Right. Tell the others I'll be at the dropship shortly." She responds.
"Got it." Zeena acknowledges as she walks off, Yuki changing into her new outfit shortly after.
The ships were already airborne by the time the one lone dropship split off from the pack, headed for Westside Island. Tensions and adrenaline were running at an all-time high as the Resistance finally made their move on the Empire, ready to strike with their most powerful- and devastating- operation yet.
OPERATION: SCRAMBLED.
The flight to Westside Island for the Zeti group was filled with their planning for their launch of assault onto the volcanic base on lockdown on Hill Top Zone, the magma already now starting to singe the entire island from underground. Smoke started to rise from the burning foliage as the ship would soon touch down next to a hidden cliffside, out of view of the Badniks or security systems in the area. The five Zeti would shuffle out as they and the falcon regrouped to go over the plan of attack.
"Alright..." The falcon spoke. "Now, if everything goes according to plan, we should have this done in little under an hour and be on our way to regroup with the rest of the assault force. Everyone remember their plan of attack?"
"Tubby and I are on damage distraction." Zazz said. "We'll just keep the boltbrains out here shooting at mindless destruction while you and Zeena sneak in and find the boss, and Master Zik finds the rock."
"And I'm on backup in case anything goes wrong." Zor said. "Clockwork's resting in the ship right now so the moment you guys hit the panic button I'll let him out."
"Well hopefully if things go smoothly we won't need that said panic button." Yuki said. "Everyone ready?"
The rest of the Zeti nodded.
"Alright... we've only got one shot at this, so everything needs to count." She said. "Let's get to it."
The others nodded as the group split off across the Zone on foot. Zik would leap up the rock precipice nearby before finding a small air circulation vent leading into the base. Staff in hand, the small blueberry of a Zeti smashed the cover open before slipping inside and out of sight. Both Zeena and Yuki would find a back entrance into the underground magma facility and slip in as a set of Egg Pawns came out for patrol, the door just barely coming down as Zeena pulls her tail in. The last two of the active Zeti made their way up to the highest clifftop on the mountain and looked down onto the facility below them.
"Well then, ready for some wanton destruction Zomom?" Zazz grinned, summoning his gigantic metal moon into his arms.
Zomom nodded. "I'm ready for this!"
"THEN LET'S WRECK SOME SHIT!" Zazz yelled, throwing his metal moon as fast and as hard as he could into one of the metal support towers, snapping it like a twig and causing the other load bearing supports to collapse around them, sending the whole rock shelf to come crashing to the ground. Zazz let out a roar as he lept down and smashed an Egg Pawn underneath him, Zomom delivering a body slam onto a whole platoon of them as the scrap metal flew into the air around them. The large rotund Zeti would then charge straight for the first Egg Pawn nearby and throw a punch, cracking it in two and sending the metallic corpse flying into other Badniks and smashing them as well. The yellow Zeti would then summon his horde of cubes into a gigantic mallet and start swinging it in a circle as the robots around them were shredded into pieces. Alarms started sounding as more Badniks swarmed out of emergency hatches of the mountain base...
As the Egg Pawns rushed by with the alarms blaring in the halls, the green Zeti and falcon slowly slipped out from the side hallway in the ensuing distraction.
"Well... they're certainly doing good work out there..." Yuki said. "Alright, you can sense where the big red lug is, how deep is he in this place?"
"It definitely seems deeper than I was initially expecting..." Zeena said, taking a deep breath. "His energy signal is coming from a massive lower chamber of this place."
"Joy..." Yuki grumbled, the two sneaking around a corner towards an elevator. Yuki would then summon a massive icicle and slammed the doors open with it, shredding the metal inwards and opening the shaft, revealing the heat particles floating up from below. The green Zeti would take a small peak in as her face was hit by a wall of heat, the complete bottom of the shaft ending in a molten pit of rock.
"Well..." Zeena said. "I don't suppose your cryo powers can freeze lava can it?"
Yuki merely deadpanned at the Zeti.
"...gonna chock that up to a hard 'no', then." Zeena said, looking down the elevator shaft. "...this is gonna make things a whole lot more awkward..."
Zeena would look over to the falcon. "We can't just call the elevator?" She asked.
Yuki shook her head. "Too risky. Security cameras in every elevator." The falcon replied. "The shaft itself is the only way down."
"Alright... then looks like this'll be the hard way..." Zeera said, activating her energy whip and latching onto the underside of the elevator crossbeams. Taking a deep breath, she'd swing into the shaft, her feet latching into the side of the rocky wall. The zeti would glance downwards towards the molten slag pit, feeling the heat rising up even from the distance she was at. Swallowing a bit, she started repelling down into the pit, keeping her eyes open for the next door towards the lower section of the base.
-CHTUNK-
Zeena felt herself slip a bit as she lost her footing on the wall, gripping onto the energy beam for dear life as she glanced upwards.
The elevator was creaking...
"...oh. God. No..." Zeena squeaked out as she started sweating bullets.
-CAKCHUNK-
The zeti screamed in terror as the elevator's safety brakes snapped, sending the scrap steel hurting towards the molten slag pit. The falcon panicked and fired off an icy blast that froze the elevator in place, causing Zeena to nearly have a heart attack she she stopped mere centimeters from the molten iron, almost feeling like she'd burst into flame any second.
"Zeena!" Yuki yelled. "Are you alright?!"
"I-I think so..." Zeena sputtered, trying to shimmy up her energy rope, before feeling a jolt again as the elevator jerked downwards. "What was that?!"
"I don't know how long the ice will hold!" Yuki said. "Get out from under there!"
The Zeti would panic shimmy up the energy rope as she soon reached the underside of the elevator, the large hunk of metal jerking downwards more and more as she climbed up. She'd then take her legs and smashed her feet through the floor of the elevator, creating a massive hole in the back corner as she slipped into the elevator itself. The large metal box was creaking as it started to shift downwards more and more towards the hot pit. Soon locating the upper hatch, she'd slam it open from a hard kick as the metal of the elevator groaned and creaked more; this elevator wasn't going to hold for long, Zeena needed to act fast. Quickly spotting a outjutting metal beam above her, she quickly shoot out her energy whip and latch onto it, making sure it had a tight link with it before-
The gratuitous sound of screeching metal fills her ears as the entire elevator breaks away around her from the failing ice and plunges into the molten pit below. Zeena sighed in relief from where she was hanging; that was TOO close for comfort.
"Alright..." Zeena said, reeling herself up, seeing the hatch they needed to go through. "Well, found the entrance..."
Sirens were blaring from above as rumbling caused small amounts of dust and pebbles to fall from the ceiling in the bottommost section of the base, catching the attention of the large red Zeti checking things below.
"Hmph... so the runts have arrived..." The zeti growled, before glancing behind at the cage at the back wall. "No doubt here for you, worthless fake."
"..." If there was anyone in that said cage, they were choosing to remain silent.
"Not even going to growl about it?" Zavok taunted. "Hmph. Pathetic. Not even you could stop me, what makes you think your failure of a group can?"
"..."
"Fine then, remain silent. It will make your end all the more forgetful." Zavok growled, lumbering to the center of the arena and setting the last Chaos Emerald into a slot of a machine. "It won't matter once you all are buried within the rubble of this fortress."
The bubbling of the magma started to swell from the Emerald's energy flowing through the machine. mechanical whirring as something started to stir from underneath the magma...
...before a large mechanical hand shot out of the magma, gripping onto the floor.
The phantom Zavok grinned. "Now this... puts a smile on my face."
"HEEHEE, LOOKATEMRUN!" Zazz yelled as he hurled his moon bowling-style at a horde of escaping Egg Pawns, sending them flying either off cliffs or into the boiling lava pools, melting them into slag. "This is way too easy! Why weren't we put out on the rescue team to break in?!"
"Uhh, probably because we'd just bring down the base with us inside of it." Zomom said, taking a massive bite out of an Egg Pawn he grabbed, chewing before spitting back out the scrap. "And I dunno about you, but my figure ain't exactly what we call, 'slim'."
"Awww don't say that, ya ain't fat!" Zazz said, shredding a Mallet titan to pieces with his claws. "Ya just... horizontally challenged!"
Zomom deadpanned.
"What, I'm tryin'!" Zazz said, before an explosion occurred from a nearby cliff as a massive mechanical canine burst from the rock face and slammed onto the ground, roraring in anger as it seemed to glare down at the two Zeti.
"Awww, who's this cute little pet?" Zazz snarkily commented. "Scramble doc got a new toy?"
The mechanical mutt roared before charging straight at Zazz, looking to trample him. Zazz merely chuckled as he leapt to the side, the dog stamping by as it skidded to a stop to try and turn around. Zazz would then summon his moon back into his hands again and throw it fast and hard at the dog. The beast would let out a roar before catching the moon in its maw, catching Zazz off guard.
"Hey! We ain't playin fetch here boy!" Zazz yelled, running at the massive mechanical mutt. "Give that back!"
The massive mechanical dog did give it back all right... at a hard force right into Zazz's face flattening him right into the rockface of the arena.
"Whoa!" Zomom yelled, seeing Zazz slammed into the side of the stones. "Hey! You wanna go?!"
The dog roared as it charged right for Zomom, the rotund zeti holding his ground as he held his hands out in front of him. The robotic dog lunged at him...
...and Zomom grabbed the hound's face, gripping hard and soon suplexing the entire massive machine, sending it sprawling onto the ground as Zazz finally pulled himself out of the crater in the wall.
"Awww, I missed all the fun!" Zazz said. "Damn it!"
"Well, guess that's that..." Zomom said. "I don't think there's much else we can do is ther-"
The creaking of metal from nearby indicated that they weren't done as the massive machine soon reared back up from the crater it slammed into, and was soon filled with rage as it lunged at the two Zeti.
"Incoming!" Zazz yelled. "Ya want more?! BRING IT YOU STUPID MUTT!"
The heat grew higher and higher as Zeena and Yuki made their way lower into the depths of the base, the piping's heat emanating from the walls causing the green zeti to sweat feverishly. Yuki, while still trying to keep her cool, was also showing apparent signs of heat fatigue.
"How... close are we?" Zeena panted.
"Almost there..." Yuki answered. "Ancients above I wasn't expecting the heat to be this bad..."
Zeena coughed a bit. "Yeah... somehow the heat is getting worse than I expected... is it supposed to be this hot down here?"
"Not to my knowledge." Yuki spoke. "But the heart of the base is close, the Emerald radar is growing stronger in signal. Once we get the stone, we need to get the hell out of here."
Zeena nodded as the two slid down into the ring-like platform, soon looking around the area to try finding the Chaos Emerald... and then something caught Zeena's eye.
Something red and caged.
"ZAVVY!" Zeena yelled as she rushed towards the back cage.
"...mmh?" The figure merely groaned out as he looked up from the back of his cell. "...Zeena?"
"Oh thank above you're okay!" Zeena said, trying to look around the front for a way to open the bars. "Just hold on! We'll try to get you out-"
"ZEENA! MOVE!" Yuki yelled, Zeena whirling around...
...only to get smashed against the bars by a gigantic mechanical hand, her screams of pain echoing across the cavern as the hand grabbed her, reeling up before slamming her back down into the ground, leaving a Zeena shaped indent in the metal plating.
"And here I was expecting a little more awareness from the real deal. Pathetic." The phantom Zavok's voice dripped with disappointment as he stood atop the massive metal spire currently half-submerged in lava. "This is all the rescue team that decides to come for rescue? A disgrace of an original zeti and a walking fried chicken?"
"Say that again and you're becoming my next pincushion." Yuki growled, trying to form icicles but the extreme heat starting to melt them before they could even solidify.
"Hmph, big talk coming from someone who can't even function their own powers in this environment." The false Zavok growled, cracking his knuckles. "Luckily, it looks like I won't even need to dirty my hands for this clean-up."
Zeena grit her teeth as shakily got to her feet, soon summoning her snowman head mace. "Who the hell do you think you are..." A look of fury appeared in her eyes. "To be stealing our leader's look and name?!"
The phantom Zavok merely chuckled darkly as the metal spire began grinding and moving upwards, churning as the massive hulking frame rose from the boiling lava below. A second massive mechanical hand shot out of the lava, grabbing the other side of the ring-like arena before fully propping itself out of the molten iron mantle. The mechanical monstrosity, hulked above the arena on it's two massive arms, glaring down at the green zeti with its two massive spotlight-like eyes.
"I am merely the Zavok that should be." The faux Zeti said, standing atop the massive mechanical golem. "And this... is the Ifrit. Your end to your story."
The mechanical monstrosity roared as it moved, massive slots on the arms swinging open as it ejected explosive barrels from the slots, detonating on the ring below. Zeena growled as she swung her mace and used it as a fulcrum, launching herself directly for the fake Zavok in a fit of unbridled rage. The phantom Zeti, however, merely swung a hard backhand and smashed the female Zeti into the wall, her barely managing to squirm out of the way before the massive mech brought its hand down where Zeena once was, which would have most likely crushed her in an instant. The impact of the hand onto the stone wall sent a massive tremor through the cavern, stalactites falling from the ceiling and embedding themselves into the ground and lava below.
Yuki meanwhile almost found herself completely useless in this situation; the extreme heat was rendering her ice manifestation completely null, meaning there wasn't much she could do to wage the tide in her favor in that aspect. She still had her wits, meaning that she might be able to think of something at the very least...
And then the lightbulb hit her.
Rushing over to the cage where the real Zavok was located, she'd start prying away at the lock on the cage while Zeena was busy with distracting the massive mechanical monstrosity... neither side noticing Master Zik finally sneaking in and finding the scuffle taking place.
"Well then." Zik spoke, soon landing on the top of the false Zavok. "It seems my objective has become twofold."
"What the-" The false Zavok growled, throwing the Small blueberry off him as Zik landed on a small spire sticking out of the water. "You've got a lot of nerve to challenge me old man..."
Zik merely snorted. "Hmph. I have no nerves for nothing more than a false icon of the Zeti strength." He spoke, the venom dripping in his voice.
The false Zavok roared. "Very well. You wish to die by my hand? Then SO BE IT!" And thus the false Zavok lunged for Zik, as the blue small Zeti merely dodged to the side as the faux Zeti smashed the pillar apart into pieces, tumbling into the molten slag below. Leaping out of the magma, the fake Zavok roared and started firing off massive fireballs from his maw directly at Zik. The blue Zeti kept bouncing between stalagmites from the lava, floating almost gracefully across the spires while the fireballs collided and destroyed them.
"Hold STILL!" The phantom Zeti roared, soon lunging in an attempt to grab the small blueberry of a Zeti. Zik merely turned to the fake Zavok as he got close and merely platformed off his head, sending the faux red beast into the lava below with a heavy crash.
"Hmph." Zik huffed, soon looking off to Zeena struggling with trying to deal with the massive hulking golem. Another massive slam of the golem's heavy hand just barely scraped Zeena, the knuckles of the mech lighting up from the slam. "Zeena! The hands!"
"Huh?!" The green Zeti said, looking to the hand, eyes widening. Summoning her snowman head, she'd swing it fast and hard into the lights on the hand.
The mechanical golem roared in pain as it lost its grip, collapsing into the lava as suddenly the scalding cavern was flooding with the magma of the displaced monstrosity. Yuki barely had the time to move out of the way as the magma engulfed the cage where the real Zavok was contained. Both Zeena and Zik would leap above onto the underhanging platforms on the ceiling, seeing the massive beast within the magma.
While Yuki was in flight, she'd notice something at the top of the massive beast. Was that...
"This thing's running off the Chaos Emerald!" Yuki yelled to the other two. "Get that thing out of it before it comes back online!"
Both Zeena and Zik nodded before rushing for the golem's head, scaling it's body before reaching its head, the large glass covering housing the emerald inside. Zeena summoned her snowman mace again before slamming it down hard on the glass dome, cracking it. The beast roared as it threw the two Zeti off, the magma level lowering again as the golem gripped the edges of the arena. The massive beast shifted as both Zeena and Zik were on the move, keeping watch for the golem's next move as the explosive barrels were ejected for the arms again while Yuki kept her height, looking to attempt to make a divebomb for the head.
Zeena gripped tightly to the snowman head, soon swinging it hard into the lit up knuckles of the hand while the beast was stationary, causing it to roar in pain as it lost its grip, plunging into the magma again. Zik leapt into the air as he swung his cane at a stalactite, sending it drilling into the glass dome, lodging it hard into the cranium and causing the machine to jolt and jerk out of control.
"That looks like it did a lot of damage!" Zeena said, extending her energy tether and swinging around a stalactite before landing back on a platform. "One more hit should-"
A squawk in peril would catch both the Zeti's attentions as they would whirl around to see the phantom Zavok gripping Yuki by the throat.
"Stand. Down." The phantom Zavok growled, tightening the grip around the falcon, causing her to choke out another gasp.
"Ghh-!" Zeena clenched her fists. This was far and away not the situation she wanted to find herself in; any other false move wouldn't guarantee the safety of the falcon, but they couldn't just give up now!
Zik sighed, resigning to a resting motion. "I hate to admit defeat, but you've caught us at a bad time..."
"You think?!" Zeena hissed, glancing back at Master Zik before looking back to the fake Zavok.
The copy merely grinned at the other two Zeti. "And so you both stand down... pshht, typical. I should've known you both would have grown soft from that past humiliation."
Zeena grit her teeth, glaring daggers at the fake Zavok. Her arms trembling, she was doing everything in her power to not burst into rage right then and there and attacking Zavok, knowing very well it'd cost Yuki's life.
"Hmph, can't even come up with a witty remark to try and spit any sort of vitriolic bile at me?" The copy spoke, soon whirling and throwing Yuki hard into Zik, tossing the two away. "Absolutely disgraceful."
Needless to say, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"I WILL FUCKING END YOU!" Zeena roared, her energy spiking as she lunged directly for the fake Zeti, her nails extended as she started slashing at the hulking red impostor. An enraged roar ripped ripped through her throat as she slashed fast and hard, the fury of a thousand suns burning brighter and hotter than ever before...
...but in the end it was all for nought.
Without another warning the massive red zeti gripped the green one's left arm in his massive hand, snapping Zeena out of her rage-induced stupor. In less then a fraction of a second, Zavok twisted the arm fast and hard, dislocating the arm from its socket entirely. Zeena cried out in agony as the pain surged through her body, throwing her out of her state and leaving her open for the massive red copy to grab her by the face and throw her fast and hard into the wall of the prison cage. The impact knocked the wind out of her, denting the massive steel door, pain surging across her entire body. Collapsing to the ground from the dent in the door, she'd struggle to get to her feet before feeling her face gripped hard by a red hand, lifting her off the ground as she could feel the energy building up in the palm, feeling like it was burning her entire face...
"Like I said..." The false Zavok said. "Disgraceful."
Zeena struggled, trying to break free, but felt the grip just tightening more and more. A few tears started forming in her eyes, soon just accepting her fate...
...that was until a large burst was heard and the metal door was blasted off its hinges and slamming the fake Zavok away, slamming it into the gigantic mechanical golem, causing it to roar.
It was at that moment Zeena would feel herself being picked up around the waist, being hoisted up onto a shoulder.
"You okay?"
Zeena craned her neck over to see who was carrying her. She smiled ever so slightly.
"H-heh... thanks Zavok."
None other than the actual red Zeti leader himself was now carrying the femme fatale of the six, a massive kanabō in the other hand as he glared down his impostor. "Hmph, and this is what the Ruby created as a copy of myself?" He growled, glaring the creature up and down.
"You..." The fake Zavok growled, gripping its fist tightly as a fireball formed in his mouth, before spitting it out at the real Zavok. The red Zeti merely gripped to his kanabō and swung hard, disintegrating the fireball in one fell swing.
"And not even the same tact as myself." The real Zavok spoke.
"SILENCE!" The fake Zavok roared, lunging straight for the real one...
...only to the be completely reamed in half from the real one bringing the kanabō straight down onto the impostor, splitting it in half and causing it to disintegrate into the red static known of Phantom Ruby copies.
"...and that takes care of that." Zavok said, leaping up to the higher scaffolding and setting Zeena down. "Stay here."
"Heh, n-not like I can do anything else in the matter..." Zeena said as Zavok leapt back down into the main arena, getting ready to thrash the golem to smithereens as soon Zik and Yuki had rushed up to the other Zeti.
"Zeena!" Yuki cried, rushing to check her vitals before checking her arm. "Shit..."
"That's a nasty dislocation..." Zik spoke. "I've seen only two of these in the millennium I've been alive, and in both cases the resulted in a complete loss of the limb... she'll be lucky if she doesn't lose her arm from this..."
"No! No, that's bullshit!" Yuki spat, looking at Zeena. "It'll be okay! I swear!"
"Yuki... It's okay..." Zeena softly smiled. "J-just get me-"
Yuki grabbed the shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through Zeena as she winces in pain.
"What are you doing?!" Zik shouts. "You can't just pop an arm back in!"
"Yeah, well I'm going to!" Yuki growls, trying to push the arm. It was no use. Push, push, try as she might, it would not budge. No! No! I won't let her lose an entire fucking limb because of me!
Zeena's teeth began to chatter. "I-Is it getting cold?!" She asked, before looking at her shoulder. A thin layer of ice was forming in spite of the surrounding heat. Yuki was grunting, pushing as hard as she could before...
Pop!
The green Zeti's arm was put back into place, Yuki left panting from the effort.
"Y-Yuki, you-" Zeena began, only to be tightly hugged by Yuki. Without a word, Zeena simply returned the hug in kind.
Zik was stunned silent. He could not tell if her was merely hallucinating at the sight before him or if he had just witnessed a miracle happen right before him.
Of course, the moment would be short-lasted as the rocking explosion from the massive golem would catch everyone's attention, soon Zavok leaping back up, gripping to the Chaos Emerald.
"Hmph. Well now." Zavok said, tossing the gemstone to Master Zik. "I believe this what you came here for, isn't it?"
"Indeed." Zik spoke, catching the emerald. "It is good to see you safe and sound."
"As are you." Zavok spoke, before noticing the falcon and Zeena hugging. "And... she is?"
"Long story." Master Zik responded. "We don't have much time now; we'll need to-"
At that moment the island rumbled a bit before the lava started rising in the room, bursting in from the walls. "...well then." Zik spoke.
"Seems like this place is going to come down any minute." Zavok spoke. "Figures; Lava Mountain was never known for it's structural stability...
"I don't suppose any of you have a way to quickly get out of here?" Zeena said.
Zavok merely nodded. "I'll just have to hope this still works..." He said, holding up his other hand...
-SNAP-
The snapping of Zavok's fingers echoed across the chamber amidst the rumbling of the collapsing base. Soon enough a long spiraling snake dragon-like mech shout out of the lava, soon landing in front of the three zeti and the falcon like it was a ride of some sorts.
"Oh yeah... kiiiinda forgot Uroboros was a thing." Zeena said, soon hopping onto the dragon mech.
Yuki seemed a bit wary of the mech, but Zeena reassured her. "This thing's safe, promise." She said.
"Alright." Yuki said as she got on right behind Zeena. Soon enough Zik would hop onto the head as Zavok got on right behind the head of the mech.
"Uroboros, move!" Zavok commanded, the dragon roared as it spiraled upwards out of the cavern...
"Heads up!" Zomom yelled as he had swung the horn of the massive dog and let go, sending the entire mech crashing into the side of the mountain, soon tumbling down into the lava below. The mech would roar out in rage and pain as it sunk in, flailing about as its servos were melted into the molten slag.
"Nice throw!" Zazz commented, soon feeling the mountain rumbling. "Wuh-oh, I think our fun's over with that kinda rumble!"
"Something tells me the whole place is about to go up in smoke like a barbecue!" Zomom said, flailing around a bit to try and keep his balance. "And I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to become well done in a matter of seconds!"
"We gotta book it back to Zor! NOW!" Zazz said, hopping on his mechanical moon as the mech flew off in Zor's direction. Soon enough Zomom'z collection of sentient cubes would come and pick him up, ushering him away back towards the ship where Zor was. Things seemed to be going off as magma eruptions were launching into the sky, ash and soot blocking out the sunlight above as it seemed like the entire mountainous region of Westside Island was going up in an eruption.
"Oooooh, that ain't good..." Zazz said, wincing a bit. "Hope shrimpy ain't torn up about his home island turning into obsidian."
"I think we've got bigger things to worry about!" Zomom said, the two soon reaching the ship where Zor was.
"What in the world is-" Zor started before Zazz cut him off.
"No time! We gotta move!" Zazz said, pushing past him. "Nggggh, how do I friggin' start this damn thing?!"
At that moment the roar of a loud dragon would be heard as the three Zeti froze in shock. Was that...?
"I-I recognize that roar anywhere!" Zor said, rushing to one of the ship's windows. "That's Zavok's dragon!"
"Wait, so that means...!" Zazz said, before a voice came over the headsets.
"We've got the Chaos Emerald, get the ship fired up and moving before the entire place goes up in flames!" Zeena said over the comm unit. "The Six are back in action at long last!"
"Alright!" Zor said, running to the control console and started to hit buttons, hoping one of them would be the jumpstart to the ship...
The hum of the engines whirred on as the ship started rising from the ground, soon taking off of it's landing point and to the skies above as the soot and ash as Westside Island was engulfed in a volcanic ashstorm from Hill Top's eruption. Soon enough the massive dragon-serpent mech would slither from the ashcloud, caring the other three Zeti and the falcon.
"Well, good thing those echidnas are underground..." Zeena said, looking to Zik. "Alright master, what now?"
"We regroup with the fleet." Zik spoke, pointing his cane off in the direction of where the empire's main base was located. "They'll need every last bit of help they can get."
"Sounds like a plan then..." Zavok said, rolling his shoulder. "I'm due on revenge on that egg-shaped waste of space."
Zeena nodded. "We do this! Together!"
A cheer was let out between the seven as the ship and the dragon-mech took off after the rest of the fleet...
The Deadly Six have finally been reunited, and with a +1 to boot now! Things are finally looking up as all seven Chaos Emeralds are now in possesion of the Resistance as they head in for the final fight with the Empire, but fist they'll need to cut through the Egg Fleet! Will they prevail? Find out next chapter in Chapter 30: "The Full-Frontal Assault"...