Disclaimer: Sonic and all related characters and settings are copyright Sega Corporation. None of it belongs to me, but all property is theft, man. Whatever that means.
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Chapter Three - Women and Hyper-Intelligent Eggmen First!
"We have to stay near the bridge!" Tails shouted to his hedgehog friend, who was getting further away from him by the second. "It makes sense he'd have his escape system in this area, wouldn't it?"
Sonic said nothing, and skidded around a corner to perform another circuit of the corridors around the bridge. Tails was right; the escape pods had to be around here somewhere. Feet pounding furiously on the floor, he tore through the dying ship, fuelled by his desire to escape this deathtrap. In his desperation, he was forgetting that Tails couldn't run -- or fly -- as fast as he could. They were getting separated!
"Sonic, wait for me!" Miles wailed. He could hear the cold dark metal beneath his feet creak horribly. It sounded like a person moaning in agony, and it was getting louder. The fox flew higher and dreaded to think what could be causing such a noise on the lower floor.
He stopped abruptly as soon as he realised what it could be, the floor ahead of him glowing an ominous red. Just as he turned to retreat, flame shot up from the lower decks, tearing through the metal and causing the whole ship to shake. The force of the explosion threw Tails out of flight and he was thrust backwards, landing on his back on the cold floor.
Steadying himself, he headed right back for the entrance to the bridge. It would be difficult, he was only a young boy, but he would have to confront Eggman, and order him to allow the pair to use the eggscape mechanism. Tails was certainly not threatening by nature, but he could take on Robotnik or Eggor any day. Besides, he couldn't follow Sonic now. The only way to find him would be to get Robotnik to determine his location on his heat-sensor thing.
Unless Sonic had already been claimed by the explosion.
No, it can't have happened! Tails screwed up his furry little face and headed back in the direction he'd come from.
Sonic too had felt the power of the explosion on the lower floor; it had almost made him lose his footing. Where Tails had got to was a mystery, but he was certain the fox must have taken a different route. Eyes peeled for either Tails or an escape capsule, Sonic took off down a long passage, spotting at the end what was probably both!
"TAILS!" he screamed at the escape pod. He couldn't understand why the door was closing, but guessed that maybe Tails thought he'd died in the explosion. Sonic sprang towards the capsule, arms outstretched, trying to grab the door before it shut. The door was hinged at the top, so it was fairly easy for Sonic to grip hold of the bottom and try to force it open.
At that moment, there was a strange suction noise. It was like the sound you get when you run a vacuum cleaner over a large flat object and it is sucked in by the pressure, or when you open a particularly stubborn pickle jar. The escape capsule suddenly detached from the ship, with the unfortunate hedgehog still gripping the base of the door!
"Yaaarrgghhh!" he yelled, finally summoning enough strength to throw open the shutter. Feet lodged in a crack in the ground, he managed to hold the pod to the flagship. But the wind from outside was incredibly strong -- probably because the ship was plummeting -- and he had trouble keeping a hold. Plus, he could never jump into the capsule now, with the gale forcing him back. Eyes clamped shut, he held tight and tried in vain to pull the pod closer towards him.
Then, it happened. The fire had spread to the primary fuel tanks, and the resultant explosion span the ship right around. The noise was unbearable-- it was as if the entire ship was screaming, not as one but as a collection of components. Every metal wall, engine and computer clanked, screeched or buzzed as the ship turned quickly.
Despite the disorientation, Sonic managed to leap into the pod during the brief moment when it was positioned directly below the ship. The door slammed shut behind him, held with a strong vacuum, and the force threw Sonic into the capsule quite hard. Thankfully, though, he landed on something large and very soft.
"That was close," Sonic gasped. "Tails? Are you okay?" He finally opened his eyes and peered at the face just a few inches away from his own.
"What are talking about, you stupid animal?!" the large, soft thing replied.
Tails ran onto a raised platform overlooking the bridge. He was having a hard time keeping a hold, what with the ship's spinning, but he quickly found a rail to hang onto.
"Robotnik! Find Sonic and help get us both out of here-- or else!" Tails yelled triumphantly. He sounded tough. Unfortunately though, only Eggor was present now and he didn't look at all intimidated by Tails's threat.
The ship tilted further, until the floor of the bridge was completely vertical. Eggor was fastened tightly in his seat, but Tails had to take flight and lower himself down to the robot's level.
"Where's Robotnik?" he demanded. "And where's Sonic?"
Eggor pointed to a screen in front of him that was displaying a complicated map of sorts; "he's on the escape capsule," he turned to Tails, "I think they both are."
Tails peered at the screen in disbelief. There were indeed two lifeforms in the capsule, and they were undoubtedly Sonic and Dr. Robotnik. The fox's first instinct told him that Sonic must have turned coward and left with Robotnik, even if it meant leaving Tails here to drown. He quickly denounced this theory in his own head, though. Sonic would never do that.
Eggor was facing a conundrum. His last orders had been to make sure Sonic and Tails, or at least one of them, went down with the ship. But now, his master was trapped with Sonic, and in possible danger. Should he sacrifice himself in order to get rid of a minor threat, or should he save himself -- and Tails -- so that he can find his master and rescue him from Sonic? It was a difficult decision to make.
Yeah, right.
"I'm going to separate this section of the ship from the rest." Eggor said calmly. "There should be enough power to get us to land." Tails lowered himself into a huge chair -- probably Robotnik's, considering its size- and buckled himself in.
"Fine," Tails said, "but we're only allies until I've found Sonic, okay?"
Eggor hadn't mentioned anything about allying with the fox, but he silently agreed. After checking to see that Tails was strapped in, he pulled a lever.
There was a series of ghastly clicking noises surrounding the bridge as thousands upon thousands of tough bolts slid out of place. Tails's eyes darted from one window to the next, watching as each section of the ship broke off and slipped downwards. A piercing screech filled the room as Eggor started the ship moving forwards, and the metal walls of the bridge scraped across the detached exteriors of the ship. The racket was deafening, but the process was a real sight to behold.
Eventually nine tenths of the entire ship had broken off, leaving the bridge, which rolled upright and continued innocently through the air.
Tails watched the various extremities drift down to Mobius's waters, vanishing as they sliced through the thick layer of cloud below them.
"That was incredible!" he gasped, "but is there anywhere for us to land around here?"
"I see a cluster of islands north of here. We can make it there in time, easily." The robot replied.
The tiny semi-ship cruised very slowly through the wide blue skies, making its way toward the islands.
Sonic grabbed Robotnik's collar and demanded to know where Tails was. He didn't, of course, actually expect him to know, but he thought that if he appeared threatening to Eggman, he wouldn't have his mistake pointed out to him.
"Listen up, you, my friend had better be okay, or there's going to be trouble!" Sonic paused and then said in a much more fearful tone; "he will be okay, won't he?"
"See for yourself." Robotnik replied quietly, pointing out of the window at the small bridge, which was coming close to land. Tails must have destroyed or overpowered Eggor, he thought. It didn't occur to him that the robot might actually have teamed up with the fox.
"Ah!" Sonic exclaimed, "we have to land on that island! How do you steer this thing?" Sonic felt around the walls for some controls, but Eggman knocked his hand away irritably.
"There are none! Now stop that before you touch something important!" Robotnik had more than one reason to be angry with Sonic. Not only was he trying to hijack the capsule now, he had also somehow managed to escape death twice in one day! Robotnik wasn't used to this kind of emotional strain.
"No controls? Then how are we going to get to the island?"
"The capsule is programmed to land in the sea, then propel itself toward the nearest area of dry land it can detect." He pointed against the window at a larger area of land quite some distance away from the one Tails and Eggor were about to land on.
"But that's absolutely miles away from where Tails will be!" Sonic wailed unhappily as the capsule dropped into the sea with an undignified PLOP. Eggman just sat back with his arms crossed, looking upset and aggravated.
"You should have thought about that before you leapt in here, shouldn't you? The capsule might not even make it to land with the… added weight."
"Added weight? You're the one with the weight probl-" Sonic was cut short by the loud buzzing of the capsule's propellors at the rear. The noise wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it would certainly prevent any further conversation between the two enemies. They just sat there, as far apart as they could get in the cramped capsule, staring at each other with a look of sheer hatred. The tension was unbearable.
"I'm going to try to land us on the beach," Eggor murmured to Tails, who was pressed against a window staring at the back of the ship. "Then we'll have a soft landing, and the ship won't get too damaged."
"What's left of it!" Tails added excitedly. Although he had lost sight of the escape capsule as it had fell into the sea, Eggor had assured him that it was programmed to take its passengers to land. Tails --although he wasn't sure if he should-- found the idea of Sonic and Robotnik being stranded together rather amusing. He wished there was a way he could have it filmed.
"The fuel tanks will burst when we hit the sand. However, it's the wrong sort of fuel to fly this bridge anyway," Eggor said quietly. Tails swung around to face him, a shocked look on his face.
"And spill into the sea?" the fox shouted, "we can't do that! Land in the forest, then maybe the fuels tanks won't get hit."
"I told you, the fuel is useless to us now." Eggor replied testily, "the ship can be used again, so long as it doesn't get damaged."
"Look, it's not worth trying to explain it to one of Robotnik's machines, but we just can't let the fuel leak. Okay? Land in the forest, or I'll take the controls and do it myself."
Eggor just did as the fox said. His programming was telling him to land the ship where he had originally planned, but another part of him knew that Tails was right, for whatever reason. Perhaps it was the animal that was literally trapped inside Eggor's shell, the squirrel called Kevin who had once helped Sonic and Tails defeat Robotnik after being rescued from Eggor's old form, that was telling the robot to go with Miles's plan. He would usually allow his programming to take precedence over his instincts, but without Dr. Robotnik around he thought he might as well go along with Tails.
The ship dipped gently into the trees. The landing was a lot easier than Eggor had imagined, but he could still hear the smashing of windows and the chugging of fans as they became blocked with leaves and twigs. Tails was looking out of the window, eyeing the fuel tanks. Eventually, the vessel came to a stop, held firmly upwards by the strong trees. Eggor clanked over to a small door in the floor and threw it open, revealing a shaft leading downwards out of the bottom of the ship.
"We'd better have a look around and see if we can get to where Sonic and my Master are." Eggor said awkwardly, motioning for Tails to go down the shaft. The fox hopped out and flew gently down to the ground, landing on a rough blanket of dead twigs. He didn't think much of this island. The desert island movies he'd seen had always portrayed the islands as tranquil paradises, decorated with lush green plants and palm trees. This just looked like the same grotty old deciduous woodland you see on the mainland.
Tails shielded his eyes from the blinding sunlight and peered upwards. Amongst the blurred leaves dancing in the light wind he could see the solid outline of the battered ship, and just about make out Eggor's form stumbling down a rope ladder he had tossed out of the door. He stood back as the robot landed clumsily beside him.
"This place isn't very nice at all," Tails muttered, "there's a funny smell-- I don't like it."
Eggor didn't reply. None of Robotnik's machines had odour detectors, partly because such a thing would be utterly pointless and partly because it would mean the unfortunate death of Dr. Robotnik's very clever 'My robot's got no Odour Detector. How does it smell?' jokes.
"Well, let's see what we can do with this place," Tails sighed sadly. He thought of Sonic, who had doubted Tails's piloting abilities earlier and acted so selfishly many times in the past. Then he thought of Sonic trapped on a small island with only his hated archenemy for company.
Tails's despairing frown dissolved and was replaced by a wicked, cruel grin.