Chapter 6
Launch Base
"This thing is incredible…" I said as I followed Metal Sonic through one of the Death Egg's many corridors. Now I had thought I had seen a big ship when I had originally seen the Flying Battery battleship, but this thing was gigantic! It had to be at least a half a mile high!
"Yes, my master has spent many a year working on the Death Egg," said Metal Sonic as he led me into the control room. Sitting at the captain's chair in the middle of the room was Robotnik. He had his back to me and Mecha, and was stroking his mustache with his left hand.
"You've arrived. Good," said Robotnik. I walked up to the chair, which then turned around to face me.
"Yeah, but I still don't like the idea of leaving my island alone. I feel I should be up there," I said, not keeping it a secret that I wished to return to my home as soon as possible.
"Do not threat. I only need you for about an hour or so. I need your help in installing the lens into my new robot. Then you are free to go back to your island," said Robotnik. I nodded a yes, and then Robotnik stood up and walked out of the room. I followed, and Metal Sonic followed me. We walked down a few corridors, then went into an elevator. After we reached the docking bay, I followed Robotnik over to what was basically a giant robotic version of Robotnik himself. I didn't realize it, but my mouth started to hang open.
"Yes, I know exactly how you feel, Knuckles," said Robotnik. "It's one of my greatest creations." I looked over at Robotnik, who walked over towards a crane which had the lens attached to the hook. "Now I need you and Mecha to go up to the head and attach the lens to the cables inside." I sighed, hating the fact that I had to work with the blue robot again. Metal Sonic and I were really starting to get annoyed with one another, often snapping words back and forth. But we both cooperated as Mecha lifted me up to the head about ten stories up. The lens followed us up, and Mecha grabbed it, pulling it closer to us.
"Take the cables and attach them while I hold it in place," said Metal Sonic. I nodded, then crawled into the head of the robot. It took me a few minutes, but I finally found all the cables that needed to be attached. I crawled back out of the head, then set to work attaching the cables.
**********
"So now what do we do, Sonic?" asked Tails as he stood between Mighty the Armadillo and Espio the Chameleon.
"Well, we can't very well attack this thing directly. We'd get killed before we could even get to it," said Sonic as he tried to think of something. Mighty and Espio joined the thinking, trying to come up with a possible solution. But it was Tails who snapped his fingers first as an idea came to mind.
"This thing is so big, it has to have one major propulsion system. I'll bet that if we could destroy or even disable even one engine, then it won't be able to maintain flight," said Tails.
"Yeah, but that still doesn't tell us how we can get close enough to try and take out the engines," said Sonic. Tails looked back at Mighty and Espio.
"Do you two think you can help us one more time?" asked Tails. Mighty looked over at Espio, who nodded his head.
"Sure, kid. We can help," said Mighty.
"Okay, here's the plan. Mighty and Espio will go and find some kind of explosive device and plant it somewhere on or near the engine housing. While you two are doing that, me and Sonic will keep the security busy," said Tails. Everyone gave a nod, accepting his plan of action.
"How do we let you know when we've planted the bomb?" asked Espio. Sonic reached into his pack and pulled out two radios that he had intended to use when they had first arrived on the island.
"You guys can reach us over this radio. We're on frequency 101.9," said Sonic. Mighty took the radio, gave Sonic and Tails a thumbs up, and then he and Espio took off towards the southeast to get around to the back side of the base without being detected.
"You ready?" asked Sonic.
"You bet!" said Tails. The two friends started off towards the front end of the base, and had only gone about a quarter of a mile before they set off the first security measure. A warning siren sounded as a robotic bird came flying out of a hanger hidden in the nearby mountain's side. Tails spotted it first; just barely dodging it as it dive-bombed him from above. Sonic heard the sound of its small engines and looked up to see Tails lock in an aerial chase with the robotic bird.
"Hang on Tails!" cried Sonic. He then ran off towards the nearby mountainside. Running up the side, he then leaped off and went into a spindash, slamming into the robot bird's head, causing it to go into a spiral as it fell towards the ground. It didn't explode when it hit the ground, but instead just came to rest in the snow. The two Mobians didn't notice it at the time, but the bird's internal camera was still sending back video information to Launch Base's main computer.
**********
"There, I think that does it," I said as I connected the last of the wires to the lens. Metal Sonic looked it over before giving me a nod of approval. He then flew down to the floor below, leaving me up at the top of the robot to get down by myself. I sighed, then glided off the robot, landing next to Robotnik.
"Well done, Knuckles. I guess you can go back to your island now," said Robotnik. I turned to leave, but before I had even taken five steps, an alarm started blaring throughout the whole docking bay. All three of us ran out of the room and took the elevator back up to the main control room. Metal Sonic ran over to one of the computer consoles and started to search for the source of the alarm. Another ten seconds later, he turned to Robotnik.
"Sir, Robo Flicky 2X-36 has been taken off-line after engaging an intruder," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik looked at him with a rather confused look on his face.
"Who could it be? I thought you said you took care of the hedgehog and fox?" said Robotnik. Metal Sonic looked back at the console, double-checking the data before answering.
"It has to be them. The Robo Flicky's camera recorded a fuzzy picture of something blue and something orange running towards the base," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik let out a yell and brought both fists down onto his command chair.
"Blast that hedgehog! Put all security on alert!" cried Robotnik. He then turned towards me, fire in his eyes. "I want you to find those two before they can do any damage."
"Sure thing, Doc," I said. I then turned and dashed out of the room, glad that he wasn't having Mecha tag along for once.
**********
Sirens blared all around the perimeter of Launch Base as Mighty and Espio made their way around the enormous compound. They had been about halfway to reaching the far side when the alarms had started. But they realized that they hadn't set them off when all of the Robo Flickies and Swatbots had taken off towards the front end of the base, leaving the backside almost completely unguarded.
"Looks like Sonic and Tails have their attention," said Espio as another Robo Flicky flew by overhead.
"Yep. Let's make good use of their diversion. They would hold their attention forever," said Mighty.
"Look, over there," said Espio, pointing towards an area of the base nearby. Mighty looked over to see what appeared to be a recently used construction site. "I'll bet there's some explosives of some kind there."
"You're probably right. Let's go," said Mighty. They both looked to see if the coast was clear, then they made a dash for the site. After they had looked around for a few minutes, Espio finally found what they were looking for.
"Hey Mighty! Is this enough?" asked Espio as he took a case of dynamite from the back of a hover-truck. Mighty whistled as he eyed the case.
"More than enough. Let's get this on that thing, pronto," said Mighty. The two friends started running towards the one elevator tower which looked like it went up to the engine housing area.
**********
"Watch it! Another one's coming at you from above!" shouted Sonic. He then threw himself into a spindash and bounced off the body of a Swatbot, knocking it to the ground. They had just entered the base and were already having a tough time out-performing the security. Tails was busy doing his best to dodge the Robo Flickies while Sonic was busy trying to fight his way through the dozens of Swatbots that had shown up only minutes after their initial Robo Flicky attack.
"Sonic! There's too many of them! We have to get out of here!" shouted Tails as he dodged another kamikaze run made by a Robo Flicky.
"I know! Get down here and we'll outrun them!" cried Sonic, who started running further into the base. Tails started a dive towards Sonic, then pulled up next to him. Sonic reached out his hand and took Tails', then sped up even faster, breaking the sound barrier open with a sonic boom. The pursuing Swatbots and Robo Flickies soon fell so far behind that they had lost sight of them, and Sonic decided that they had reached a point far enough away to take a quick break.
"Man that was rough," said Tails as he slumped to the ground next to a giant glass tube with a metal door in the center. Sonic nodded in agreement as he sat down next to Tails.
"I hope Mighty and Espio had better luck getting by the security than we did," said Sonic. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the glass tube. Tails already had his eyes closed, but his ears suddenly perked up.
"Sonic," he whispered opening his eyes. "I hear something." Sonic opened his eyes and looked around, but he didn't see anything.
"I don't see anything," said Sonic. It was then he felt a faint shudder go through the glass tube. Turning around, he looked down the glass tube and saw a capsule coming towards them. Both of them backed up slowly as the capsule slowed down, coming to a rest in front of the metal door. Then the door whooshed open, revealing someone who they had hoped they wouldn't run into.
"Hello, Sssonic. I'm so glad you decided to join us," said Metal Sonic as he leaped from the capsule, his engine blasting him forward. Sonic grabbed Tails hand and jumped to the side, just barely missing Mecha's charge. Sonic then dove into the capsule as Metal Sonic made a turn around. The capsule started spinning rapidly in place as Sonic tried to keep his eyes on Metal Sonic. He couldn't see him from the speed by which the capsule was spinning, but he could hear the steel-blue robot tossing curses left and right. Then the capsule shot upwards, taking them up three stories to the next area of the base.
"Boy that was close," said Tails as they jumped from the now parked capsule.
"Yeah. I guess we'd better keep moving before Mecha decides to join us," said Sonic. They both started running further into the base, both hoping that Metal Sonic would be a little while in catching up.
**********
I had been walking around the perimeter of the base for about a good fifteen minutes trying to find some trace as to where Sonic and Tails had gone, but the only thing I had come across was the sparking remains of some Swatbots and Robo Flickies. I decided that they had already entered the base, and started back towards the Death Egg to report in. I was preparing to walk around from the back end of the battle station to the elevator lift which lead to the main docking bay when I noticed to small figures doing something up near the engine housing. This set off an alarm, as I was pretty sure that Robotnik had already checked the engine housing way before I had even arrived on base.
"Hey you two!" I yelled up at them. They both continued with their work, not paying me any attention. Either they hadn't heard me, or they were ignoring me on purpose. I yelled up at them again, this time getting a response as one of them waved at me. I waited patiently as the two figures walked calmly into the elevator lift and rode it back down to my level. The doors opened to reveal a black armadillo and a violet chameleon.
"Hey there. What are you doing here?" asked the chameleon in voice that suggested he found me as suspicious.
"Tell me what you're doing here," I said. The chameleon looked over at the armadillo, who then looked at me.
"Listen here, Red. All I know is that we were supposed to do a final maintenance check on the engine housing before take-off. And I don't remember you working here before," said the armadillo. I suddenly felt embarrassed. These two were only doing their job, and I had blamed them for something before even finding out what their story was.
"Sorry, I've just been kind of edgy with people lately," I said, extending my hand to the armadillo. "My name's Knuckles." The armadillo took my hand and gave it a shake.
"The name's Mighty. It's a pleasure to meet you Knuckles," he said. "And this here's Espio." I took the chameleon's hand and gave it a shake.
"Well, I'll leave you two alone to your work. I need to get back to the control room," I said. Mighty and Espio waved their good-byes as I walked away. Five minutes later, I was up in the control room with Robotnik. I had forgotten all about asking him if those two should have been there the second he had started ranting and raving about the room after I had told him I hadn't seen Sonic or Tails.
"I can't lose now that I'm so close to winning!" cried Robotnik. I stood silently out of range of his anger as he continued to pace back and forth. After a few minutes, he sat back down in his chair. After I was sure he was done with his fit, I approached him.
"Hey Doc. I'm going back to my island. I have this funny feeling that Sonic and Tails will go back there very soon," I said. Robotnik scoffed, then looked up at me.
"Some kind of ancient echidna telepathy?" asked Robotnik sarcastically.
"It's just a feeling. One I'm pretty positive will happen," I answered. Robotnik waved his hand as he dismissed me. As I walked out of the control room, the station's PA system spoke up.
"Death Egg countdown at twenty minutes and counting," said the computer voice.
**********
"Where exactly are we going?" asked Tails as Sonic sped through the base. For some odd reason, all the security seemed to have vanished. Nothing had attacked them for the last five minutes. Suddenly, Sonic's radio crackled to life and Mighty's voice sounded out from within.
"The bomb's in place. Once this thing tries to fire its lateral thrusters, boom!" said Mighty's voice.
"Good work, you two. I don't think there's anything else you can do, so get out of here before you get spotted," said Sonic.
"Sure thing, and good luck," said Mighty as the radio cut out. Sonic let out a sigh, then looked over at Tails.
"Well, looks like we did it," said Sonic. Just then, the sound of metal hitting concrete caught both of their attentions. They both whipped their heads around just in time to see Metal Sonic approaching them.
"You didn't really think you could get away that easily, did you hedgehog?" said Metal Sonic. Sonic didn't waste any time as he grabbed Tails hand and dashed off, Metal Sonic in hot pursuit. The chase continued all across the east side of the base until Sonic saw something that might stop Mecha.
"Hang on Tails!" cried Sonic. He pulled Tails in front of his chest, then curled up around him in a spindash. Trying his best not to have any part of Tails in the way, he slammed into a large plastic pipe, smashing through it and ending up inside a maze of he pipes where Metal Sonic couldn't follow without getting soaked. Sonic uncurled himself to find a dazed Tails clutching onto him with an expression of pure terror in his eyes. Sonic took a quick glance back to see that, indeed, Metal Sonic had stopped chasing them and was watching them through the pouring water.
"Tails? Are you all right?" asked Sonic as he pried Tails of him. The young fox slumped to the ground and let out a loud breath of air. He then looked up at Sonic, giving him an angry glare.
"You know, you could warn me before you do something like that again!" cried Tails.
"Sorry, but at least it worked," said Sonic, pointing back at Mecha who was still staring at them. Tails looked around to see that there was no way to get around the pipes to escape.
"Yeah, great work," he said sarcastically. "Now just where are we supposed to go?" Sonic thought about it for a moment, then an idea hit him.
"Take a deep breath and don't let go," said Sonic as he took Tails' hand. Tails had a good feeling he knew what Sonic was planning, and he didn't like it.
"You can't seriously be thinking of doing that!?" he cried. Not waiting to see if Sonic would confirm his guess, Tails took a deep breath and gripped Sonic's hand even tighter. Sonic then plunged into the rapidly flowing water and was immediately swept into the large pipe, Tails being pulled in behind him. Metal Sonic watched them disappear, then keyed his Comm link.
"Sir, they got away again. They went into one of the water pipes. There's no way to tell where they'll end up," said Metal Sonic.
"Forget them. It's too late for them to do anything to stop the Death Egg's launch. Come on back," said Robotnik's voice. Sonic's and Tails time in the pipe didn't last more than a few seconds, but the ride was intense as the pipe twisted and turned in all directions. Then they were spat out as the pipe ended, leaving them lying on top of a much larger pipe wide enough to allow them to sit side by side with not threat of falling off.
"Well, that wasn't that bad," said Sonic. Tails just gave him a glare as he stood up and shook the water from his fur. Sonic did the same thing, and then the two friends continued their trek through the base.
"You know, while I'm sure that Mighty and Espio put those explosives where they needed to go, I still think we'd better stick around at least until that thing launches. If the explosives don't bring it down, I'll have to inflict a bit of Super Sonic damage," said Sonic.
"That might be a good idea," said Tails. The two Mobians then started heading for the Death Egg itself, intent on catching a ride if necessary.
It took a second for my eyes to adjust after the blinding flash was done, but I didn't care. It was good to be home. I looked down from the edge of the island to see the immense Death Egg preparing its launch sequence. I didn't know why at the time, but just looking at the giant battle station sent a chill down my spine. It was if the thing pulsed evil from within. I shuddered, then started on my trek back to the interior of my home. I figured I would make a stop at Mushroom Hill before I went back to my steering spot. I always enjoyed a walk through the giant mushroom forest when I found the time.
**********
"Sir," said Metal Sonic as he looked up from a console. "I spotted the hedgehog and fox. They're heading for the underbelly of the Death Egg." Robotnik snapped upright. How could they be so close to the Death Egg?
"What's their ETA?" asked Robotnik. Metal Sonic looked over the console then turned back to him.
"ETA three minutes," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik slammed a fist down onto his armrest. It was too close. The Death Egg would launch just as soon as they made it to the underbelly. Robotnik stroked his mustache as he went into a deep thought.
"I will deal with them personally. Let them reach the underbelly, and their demise," said Robotnik as he got up and walked out of the control room.
**********
"Come on, Tails! I can hear that thing's engines powering up!" cried Sonic as he ran towards the underside of the Death Egg. Tails tried his best to keep up, but Sonic was just too fast.
"Go ahead!" shouted Tails. "I'll catch up as soon as I can!" Sonic gave him a thumbs up, then sped up even faster, breaking the sound barrier open. They were almost there, only a quarter of a mile left. Sonic was suddenly jolted as the vibration from the Death Egg's engines firing shook the whole base. Sonic went into a flat out run. He knew he wouldn't be able to get inside the thing now, but he didn't care. He just wanted to be somewhere on the thing when it left the docking bay. Now running at almost Mach 2, Sonic saw that a platform was hanging by two poles from the underside of the battle station. The only problem was that the Death Egg was lifting off the ground and moving out over the water.
"Oh man, this is gonna be close!" cried Sonic as he reached the edge of the water. He then jumped as hard as he could, the momentum of his speed sending him almost fifty yards across open air. Sonic curled up into a ball as he fell towards the platform below, landing with a thud as he rolled across its surface. Uncurling, he quickly stood up. He had made it. He looked back at the shore to see Tails flying his fastest to catch up. It took him a few seconds, but he made it as well.
"Phew!" breathed Tails as he tried to catch his breath. "Guess we made it."
"Yeah, now let's just hope that those explosives do the trick," said Sonic. But he noticed that Tails wasn't paying any attention to him. Instead, he was looking off to the side, his eyes wide with terror. Sonic looked over to see Robotnik, once again in his hovercraft, staring them down. He had really gone all out this time. The hovercraft supported two giant arms and the top was covered in sharp spikes.
"Well look who decided to join the party," said Sonic. "Spread out and look for a weakness." Tails went left while Sonic went right, the two of them keeping their distance and waiting for Robotnik to make the first move. He suddenly fired his craft's engines, blasting towards Sonic, who in turn leaped to the side, just missing the grasp of the two hands. The craft slowed, then made an about face and headed towards Tails. Tails tried to dodge the machine, but he wasn't fast enough. The hands locked around his small body and lifted him off the platform.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" cried Sonic as he spindashed at the machine, slamming into the right arm and knocking Tails free from its grasp. Unfortunately for Sonic, he hadn't realized that Robotnik had planned for him to do that. As soon as he had dropped Tails, he whipped the craft around and grabbed Sonic with the hands.
"You foolish hedgehog," said Robotnik's voice from a speaker on the hovercraft's front end. "Did you really think you could win?" The machine then lifted Sonic up into the air and then flung him to the platform below. Sonic landed hard on his side, sending a wave of pain shooting through his body. The hovercraft then curled the hands into fists, and then almost went into a free-fall as it prepared to slam the fists into Sonic. But before the craft could even get within fifty feet of him, the lateral thrusters on the Death Egg fired, causing the explosives to go off. The resulting explosion rocked the entire battle station, and also caught the attention of Robotnik.
"No…Noooo!" he cried. Sonic looked up to see his enemy was distracted. Reaching into his pack, he grabbed two of the Chaos Emeralds, then struck them together, his blue color flushing to hot yellow. The pain faded as the invincibility flooded through his body. Super Sonic then stood up and then took to the air, flying at top speed towards the bottom of the hovercraft. Robotnik was so preoccupied with the explosions ripping his beloved battle station's engines apart that he had totally forgotten about Sonic. So he was taken off-guard when something crashed into the craft from below, causing the hovercraft to go careening out of control. Curses flew from the speaker on the hovercraft as he detached the two arms and flew out from under the now slowing Death Egg.
"Serves you right," said Sonic as he landed on the platform.
"Sonic! Look!" cried Tails' voice. Sonic turned around to see that the explosions from the engine had also shaken loose one of the poles. The other pole was creaking as it tried to remain attached to the underside of the Death Egg.
"Great," muttered Sonic. He dashed over and took Tails by the hands, then leaped from the platform the second the other pole snapped, sending the platform tumbling towards the ground below. Sonic then flew as fast as the emeralds would let him out from under the now falling battle station.
"Well, looks like we did it," said Tails as he twirled his twin tails to float next to Sonic. Sonic was about to agree when he noticed where the Death Egg was going to fall.
"Yeah, we did it all right. The Death Egg's going to land right on the Floating Island," said Sonic. Tails looked and also saw the patch of land just below the plummeting Death Egg.
"Sonic, the damage to those engines are repairable. He could have them up and going again in only a day. I thought it would have hit the ocean, which would have sunk the thing. But since it's crashing on the Floating Island, then we need to go there and finish the job," said Tails. Sonic let out a sigh.
"Guess our work's never done. All right. All aboard for the Floating Island," said Sonic as he went into a nosedive, Tails following right behind him.
END OF CHAPTER 6