This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 4: Apocalypse Soon
After several hours of trudging through the thick woods, the rescue party from Knothole finally made it to the mountains, but now had to deal with a new obstacle, how to actually get on the floating island.
The island itself was not far off the ground, but it was floating over a lake; and although they had brought much rope, there wasn't enough to get them onto the island. Tails could fly, but only had the strength to bring one person at a time, and only if they were light.
They pondered for a few minutes to decide how to get up there. Various ideas of building a bridge or ramp were considered, but such ideas were passed up when they looked up.
Tails was the first to see it. "The island, it's moving!"
Everyone looked to the landmass to confirm that the island was indeed taking off, heading for who knows where. In a futile effort to flag it down, everyone started to scream at it.
"Come back here!"
"Bring Shadow back!"
Bunnie was the only one not interested in having the island return its prisoner. "Take me with yah!"
Geoffrey was the only one not calling out, realizing that it only made him look as stupid as the others. Instead, he looked around, trying to find some last possible effort to get the attention of whomever was on the island. Off to his left, he looked up and saw a swarm in the distance, heading for the floating island.
"Oh no, it's Robotnik."
He whistled to get their attention. "Hold it! We have bigger problems; Robotnik's here. Everyone, into the forest, there's nothing we can do but watch. Tails, fly up to the island and find Shadow and Rouge."
Tails flew off while Geoffrey directed everyone to the trees. Bunnie was not happy with the plan.
"But we can't just do nothin'."
"Unfortunately from down here we can't do anything, so nothing is about the only option we have left."
* * *
Tails flew with all his might to reach the top of the island. Once there, he started to stalk about, looking for Shadow and Rouge while trying to avoid being seen. From off in the distance came a wail of a loud horn. Fearing he had been seen, Tails scooted into a patch of bushes and looked out as more horns were heard, and echidnas scurried about to answer the call. The group were conglomerating at the northeast shore of the island, where the attack from Robotnik was coming from.
Believing he was no longer the attention of the echidnas, Tails left his hiding place and started to search.
* * *
Elsewhere on the island, Shadow and Rouge also heard the wail.
"What's that?"
Shadow listened intently to the noise. "If I'm right, that's a battle horn."
"So, we're under attack. I bet you can guess by whom."
* * *
Shadow and Rouge headed off in the direction of the horns to see what was coming, or more specifically, what Robotnik had sent their way. En route, they were flagged down.
"Shadow! Rouge!"
Shadow stopped and turned. "Tails?! How'd you get here, kid?" Shadow almost kicked himself for asking such a question.
Rouge walked up to Tails. "Tails, honey. Did you come here by yourself?"
"No. Geoffrey and a bunch of others are below, but they have no way to get up here."
Shadow crossed his arms. "Either way, we're still on our own."
Rouge faced him. "I say we find Tikal. Ack!"
Shadow turned to see Tikal standing behind him. "I figured you'd show up sooner or later."
"The island is under siege."
"We kind of figured that out ourselves." Replied Rouge.
"Come, this way."
The four of them headed to the edge of the island, a bit to the side of where most of the echidnas had gathered, though there were smaller groups around the perimeter and in town in case of a side attack.
Shadow looked out at the oncoming storm. "Looks like Robotnik's throwing a battalion at us."
The robotic air force soon reached the island, firing guns and missiles at anything in range. The echidnas also fired a counter attack, many of whom possessed energy attacks similar to Knuckle's Thunder Arrow.
Shadow and the others watched as bullets and missiles struck the ground near the echidnas. Some of the echidnas used their powers to generate force fields to protect them and their comrades; but some were gunned down, others blasted off their feet, their bodies projected several metres into the air. The counter offensive also had its share of hits. Some of the flying machines had dense armor that took a few hits to penetrate; but some were downed with one hit, while the tougher ones went down with a few lucky shots to a weak point.
Some of the fighters moved through the air quickly, propelled by large jet engines that carried them overhead past the initial defence. They dropped bombs on the echidnas, some of which were blocked by the shields, others landed and caused massive damage. As they flew past, they were intercepted by oncoming fire coming from the town. They continued into the fire, shooting at the buildings, destroying some, setting others on fire. When one was shot down, they crashed in a blaze, destroying anything in range with the shock, or the fire.
Shadow, Rouge, Tails and Tikal had hidden behind some boulders.
Rouge looked over to Shadow who was peeking his head out over the rock. "How are they doing?"
"Eh, roughly even." Shadow ducked back to avoid a bomb that exploded some distance away on the other side of the rock. "I wouldn't say we're doing too well though."
The four were knocked to the ground when they felt the earth shake beneath their feet.
Tails quickly floated up off the ground. "What was that, an earthquake?"
Shadow was in serious doubt. "On a floating island?"
He crawled away from the rocks and approached the edge to get a full view of the action. Feeling the vibrations in the ground, he looked down.
"Tails, come over here."
Tails joined him at the edge.
"Something's going on over there, can you fly down and see what?"
"Sure thing."
Tails floated down to examine what Shadow had pointed out. Attached to the side of the island was a giant machine, out of which, torn up dirt was pouring out of a large hole. Tails returned to report his findings to Shadow, Rouge and Tikal who had since joined him.
"There's a huge machine there, and it's eating up the island."
"Oh no."
Shadow looked back to Tikal. "What is it?"
"The chamber where the Master Emerald is stored, it is buried inside the island."
"Great! And Robotnik's drilling through the floor!"
"We have to do something. Some of my people are guarding it, but if anything happens to the Master Emerald, this island will crash to the ground."
"Rouge, you and Tails get out of here. Find a break in the robot line, and make a break a for it."
Rouge did not like where this was going. "I'm not leaving you here!"
"Get going! I've got to try and stop Robotnik; if he gets that emerald, then not only is this place doomed, but Knothole as well!"
Reluctantly, Rouge and Tails did as they were ordered and left. Shadow went with Tikal.
"Come, the entrance to the underground vaults is this way." Tikal led Shadow towards the village that was now half engulfed in flames.
Shadow looked up to see a falling attack ship coming straight at them. "Look out!"
Shadow grabbed Tikal, and without even thinking, triggered his Chaos Control. A green bolt fired from the spot as the plane struck, turning the area into an inferno. They stopped when they were in front of the main hall.
"Looks like my Chaos Control is back."
"Come, we have to stop Dr. Robotnik from claiming the Master Emerald."
A frown appeared over Shadow's face. "Even if it means destroying it."
