Chapter Three: Flying Fortress
Sonic woke up, dizzy and aching all over. He was in the Station Square Hospital, in one of their hospital beds. There was nobody in the room but him. Sonic rubbed his head, throbbing with pain. Sonic sat in the bed for about an hour, pondering.
"I really did fail, didn't I? Are Tails and Amy dead? What happened to them when the robot got them? When Shadow came, why'd he have to get killed? There was so much I would've told him... Tails... Amy... don't be dead..." Sonic thought, eyes gaping at this realization. "Don't... be dead... I'm sorry... Why? Why'd this happen? Who is this devil that haunts me? Why'd I fail that town? They were counting on me, Sonic. I... I never... the town counted on me... I failed them... I let them down... and hundreds have died..." Sonic just sat astonished. "My friends... gone... just like the guy said... and he makes me live to suffer..."
Eggman looked at one of his screens providing vital information on his three flying fortresses, including the one he was in. The one docked at Angel Island had an intruder.
"My little guard robots there will handle it," Eggman thought. Eggman continued watching the screen. A moment later, it showed that 20 guard robots had been destroyed. When a few minutes passed many more were eliminated.
Eggman pounded his armchair, saying, "Who is it you lousy computer?!" Eggman pressed a button to show the viewing of a local camera. The camera was destroyed before he could get a look at the intruder. Eggman returned to the screen with data - no more robots were being destroyed, and the intruder was nowhere to be found.
"I'll send in one of my Destruction-series robots to investigate," Eggman muttered as he had one randomly selected. The robot was then swiftly sent on its way to Angel Island.
Rouge had made her way into an unused hallway aboard the docked fortress on Angel Island. She slowly and lightly walked across the metal flooring to keep from being detected.
"I'll just get to a computer, hack into the old doctor's network, and get all the information I need for the president. Then I can get those jewels of mine," Rouge planned out in her head.
"I do believe you're intruding, Rouge the Bat," the voice that had been speaking to Sonic said. Rouge quickly turned around. There appeared to be nobody there, but it was difficult to see in the poorly lit hallway.
"I'm willing to give you a deal - you seem to be a reasonable spy," the voice stated.
"What do you want?" Rouge asked.
"I only want you to leave, and not intrude on the doctor's plans. I could turn you in you know - trespassing is against the law. But I won't. In fact, if you leave now, I can give you something of value," the voice instructed.
"Quit my mission at this point? I don't think so," Rouge said.
"You're only doing it for the reward. Here," the voice said. A group of sparkling jewels appeared a few feet from Rouge. Rouge stared at them in disbelief.
"How many are there?" Rouge asked.
"At least twenty. Keep them for yourself. Just don't come back, and don't intrude on the doctor's plans. If you don't, I'll kill you the next time I meet you, which I would hate to do," the voice ended. Rouge waited a few minutes before taking the jewels and flying away.
"Now to tell Robotnik to send his robot back," the voice muttered. "No reason to waste another."
Sonic stared at the ceiling above his hospital bed. He had begun crying for his lost friends.
"I'll never see them again..." Sonic whimpered. "Why did this have to happen?" Sonic thought as someone walked in. To Sonic's amazement, it was Shadow.
"How are you feeling?" Shadow asked.
"Shadow? How are you alive?!" Sonic asked back. "First I see you're alive despite falling to the Earth from space. Then I see you were bashed straight into that building, before it all collapsed on you!"
Shadow thought about it for a moment, a concerned look on his face as he said, "I'm not sure. I know I was killed. Both times. At least I thought I was. And then I came back. Both times. I don't understand how, but I've escaped death in some manner I cannot be sure of twice now."
"Weird..." Sonic said. "But I'm glad you're all right."
Shadow crossed his arms, "Have you heard a voice lately, but not known who the owner of it was?"
"Yes, why do you ask?" Sonic replied.
"I believe the owner of that voice is connected to everything," Shadow said.
"Everything?" Sonic questioned.
"I believe the voice belongs to a being named Esimed. I don't know much about him, minus his abilities," Shadow explained.
"You met him?" Sonic asked.
"He spoke to me a few weeks ago, but didn't show himself to me. So how are you feeling?" Shadow asked again.
"I'm... I'm okay," Sonic replied.
"It's time to go then. There isn't much time," Shadow said.
Knuckles saw her, sitting at the bottom of the staircase that led to the Master Emerald - Tikal. Knuckles walked over to see if she knew what was going on, or what had happened to him.
"Another is with us," Knuckles heard Tikal say. Knuckles got closer, and saw that next to Tikal was a firm puddle - it was Chaos. Knuckles stopped to stay a short distance away.
"What's going on?" Knuckles asked clearly. Tikal turned her head to face Knuckles.
"You are within the Master Emerald," Tikal explained.
"It must've been whoever-that-was, with all those ships Eggman was bringing in, back on the island. When I get out of here he's really going to get it!" Knuckles said angrily. Silence followed for a minute. Knuckles asked his nagging question, "Now how do I get out?"
"What strange power that brought you here, I do not know, but the only way to leave the inner reaches of the Master Emerald is to be released," Tikal explained. Knuckles froze in his place.
He knew the answer to it, but he had to ask, "You mean... I'm stuck here?"
"Tails? Where are we?" Amy asked. She had woken up, but wasn't sitting in the back seat of the plane anymore. She was inside some kind of strange, small metal cage. She couldn't stand up in it, or even lay across, and it was pitch black where she was at. She felt the cage - there were many small bars that went vertically and horizontally all around the perimeter of it. With no way to see or even know where she was, Amy sighed and leaned against a side of the cage, stumped as to what to do. Meanwhile, Tails was in a similar predicament. He was also in a cage just like Amy's, but had come up with a plan to escape and had the means to do so. Tails pushed a small button on his left shoe - he didn't have to be able to see to find it. From the bottom of the shoe emerged an electronic device designed to cut through metals. Tails quickly and easily used it to cut through the bars and escape, flying through the darkness to try to find Amy and a way out.
"So what is this place?" Sonic asked Shadow, as they walked into the room of a small abandoned building.
"Professor Gerald Robotnik used this building as storage for some of his equipment, and would come here to test experiments with nature he could not do so in the ARK. We're going to use this teleporting system of his," Shadow explained before pressing a series of buttons on a small console.
"Where are you going to?" Sonic asked.
"I must confront Esimed. He will be at ARK," Shadow explained
"Know how to defeat him?" Sonic asked.
"No, I can only guess. I'll teleport you first to your destination," Shadow stated.
"Where're you sending me?" Sonic asked, stepping onto the electronic pad.
"One of Eggman's three flying fortresses. Your friends are there," Shadow said.
"What?!" Sonic gasped.
"Eggman would have teleported the robot that enveloped Tails and Amy. I know which fortress Eggman resides at, so they would more than likely be there. Now off you go," Shadow said before sending Sonic away.
"See ya," Sonic said before vanishing. Shadow stood in thought for a moment.
"Don't worry Maria... Earth will be protected. I am needed here. As I return to home, I can only hope you give me the strength to not fail," Shadow whispered as he was teleported away.
Sonic ran down the hallways, taking out guard robots along the way. He was used to this kind of stuff. Suddenly, from under the flooring emerged one of Eggman's large and powerful machines. This one was small enough to fit in the hallway, but was still about three times larger than Sonic. The armless, blue and green humanoid robot sped towards Sonic, firing a series of bombs from its head. Sonic sped under and jumped over the blasts, then in a quick U-turn headed back to face the robot. As this happened, Tails came out from the end of the hallway, seeing Sonic fighting the robot. Sonic didn't notice, but Tails ran as quickly as he could to come help. The robot turned to its side and instantly arms emerged, stretching out 50 feet each down both ends of the hallway, one flying right past Sonic. From the ends of the arms emerged wall-like hands that filled the space between the ceiling, walls, and flooring. It essentially created a small room with only the robot and Sonic. Sonic, confused, stopped before reaching the robot, which began beeping - slowly at first but quickly gaining speed. Tails heard this and reached the wall the robot created, blocking Tails off.
"Sonic! SONIC!! GET OUT OF THERE!!!" Tails yelled. Sonic heard Tails outside yelling, and quickly attempted spin dashing away, but couldn't penetrate the walls the robot created to keep him inside. The beeping stopped, and the robot exploded. The blast blew Tails back ten feet, and when he got back up, nothing was left but a deep, dark, and long hole in the hallway. Tails looked down the hole, seeing that it seemed to go down for tens of stories. Tears filled his eyes instantly.
"S-S....Sonic? Sonic?" Tails stuttered. "Sonic? Sonic!!!! Sonic, answer me!!! PLEASE SONIC BE OKAY!!! I'M SORRY SONIC!! I'M SORRY!! I FAILED YOU- I FAILED YOU!!!" Tails began yelling down the hole, tears streaming. "SONIC!! SONIC!!! COME BACK!!!" Tails screamed. In the middle of this guard robots began storming into the hallway. Tails instinctively defeated them all, and afterwards flopped to the ground, crouching into a dark corner. "Sonic..." he let out, face wet. "Sonic's dead... because I failed him..." Tails cried. Tails saw the laser blaster of one of the guard robots lying next to him. Tails stared at it sadly for several minutes. "I failed him..." he said aloud again, picking up the weapon. Tails stared at the silent hole again. "I failed him..." He put the weapon up to his head. "I failed him..." he repeated, staring at the hole Sonic's remains would be lying at the bottom of. "I failed him..." Tails pulled the trigger.
Amy stared into the darkness. Amy stared, knowing not what to do, for hours. She never felt so alone in her life. She couldn't know if Tails was all right, or even Sonic. Would anyone save her? Was there any way to escape? She had tried using her hammer, but it was useless against this metal.
"It's hopeless..." Amy thought, staring at the shadowed ground sadly. Amy slapped herself. "I can't give up hope! Not yet! I'll get out of here!" Amy said aloud. An hour passed, and trying everything she could think of, was unable to escape. She couldn't think of what to do, or what to tell herself. Was there a way out? What was going to happen to her? How long would it be before she's killed?
"I can't think such things!" Amy slapped herself again. "I CAN'T GIVE UP HOPE!" she exclaimed, echoing in the darkness. Amy whimpered to herself - there was nobody there to help her. "But is there any hope?" Amy thought as she began to cry alone.
Eggman pounded the arm rests of his chair.
"Sonic and his allies keep destroying my masterpiece machines! If only Esimed would let me just kill him! Then Sonic won't keep destroying my robots! Sonic thinks he's so good and nice, but he's a killer! He kills all my perfect robots without any remorse!" Eggman complained to himself. The message-sending device rang, and Eggman pressed a button on his console.
"Doctor Robotnik? Prepare your robots and your fortress. The time has come," Esimed said.
"Well it's about time," Eggman stated.
"Patience is key, Doctor Robotnik, to my master's plans," Esimed reassured Eggman.
"How many robots will it take to do this?" Eggman asked.
"I would think just a few. It didn't take much effort to destroy Rendion. This time you're bringing you're fortress. And if my plans are executed without fault, you shouldn't have Sonic's allies aiding him, and Sonic himself will be little of a challenge in the state of mind he will enter. You DO have the mutated fox and pink hedgehog in their cages, correct?" Esimed asked.
"Of course. Sonic just came a little bit ago - he should be at the bottom of the fortress if my wonderful robot's wall-creating function worked as I'm sure it did, since I made it," Eggman said with a smile.
"Not without my master's help, you wouldn't of made any of those Destruction-series robots," Esimed replied.
"So? It was me that got them made," Eggman said.
"Right. Now remember, for the plan Sonic needs to witness their deaths," Esimed instructed.
"Yeah I know. I want to go pick some robots now," Eggman said, turning off the message-sending device before Esimed could say more.
"Now which robots will be the ones?" Eggman mused, looking concerningly through the deck of robot cards, now smaller than how it started out.
"Oh, I just know Sonic's going to hurt you..." Eggman said sadly. "I don't care what that no-good Esimed says. What does he know anyways? I'm the mastermind here! I'm a genius! I have a chance to kill Sonic, if he's not dead already, so I will! He will never harm one of my robots again!!"
Sonic felt like a train ran over him.
"My aching... all of me..." Sonic moaned, trying to sit up. He had survived the robot miraculously, but he was now lost deep inside the flying fortress.
"Man... I thought I heard Tails back there... then the robot exploded... that was a close call back there..." Sonic thought, remembering how he used the blown hull of the robot to shield himself from the explosion, and to avoid death from falling down the pit by forcing the hull into a metal wall to break his fall. He still got badly injured, but he wasn't in critical condition.
"What happened?! What's going on!? Somebody HELP ME!!!" someone was yelling. Sonic recognized the voice. Amy was yelling for help, but the yells were being relayed through an intercom system. She could be anywhere in the metallic fortress. Sonic forced himself to get up, and he began running down one of the main hallways on the bottom floor, searching for a sign of Amy. Ten minutes passed and he continued to hear Amy's pleas for help. Sonic searched, room after room, destroying guard robot after guard robot, trying desperately to find Amy's location. It seemed like hours to Sonic before he found the room she was in. Sonic turned on a dim light to see Amy was in a cage just before it vanished. Sonic ran over to a square hole to see that the cage was falling rapidly straight down the chute. Sonic jumped in and began running down the hole as quickly as possible. He caught up to the cage and stood atop of it as it continued falling at a quickening pace.
"Sonic! Look out!" Amy yelled pointing at a series of small, spike-covered robots that were flying at an incredible speed down the chute towards them. Sonic quickly spin-dashed the corners atop the cage to break it open, and threw the gate straight up for the robots to fly straight into. Sonic then grabbed Amy and quickly ran up the chute. The rest of the cage fell with a crash beneath the two. A few moments later they were out of the hole and back in the room that Amy was in just before the cage was released down the chute.
Eggman yelled furiously, "Bah! Forget witnessing friends' deaths! I'll just have everyone in here die at once! I'm not taking any chances! That's right, no chances! And then I'm going to use all my robots! Not just a couple. I'm going to use them all!" Eggman quickly pushed a series of buttons and entered several passwords the computer requested. The screen displayed "Activated: Self-Destruct Sequence." Eggman pressed a button on his chair and it morphed into a small hovering vehicle he began to fly with. Eggman pressed a few buttons to teleport all of his new robots to one of his other flying fortresses so they wouldn't be destroyed. An overhead doorway opened up and Eggman quickly zoomed out of his flying fortress, leaving everything and everyone within it to die within the massive explosions that would follow in a few minutes.
"Whoever gave me those jewels back in the other fortress wasn't kidding," Rouge thought as sirens went off all around her. "This fortress is going to be destroyed any minute now." She quickly ran to a computer console within the bridge.
"It's a good thing I got all of Eggman's data already. Time to cancel this so I can find what his plans are," she thought while pressing a series of buttons. A few moments later the main screen showed that the self-destruct sequence was canceled.
"That doctor must have been in a big hurry. That was rather easy to enter his database. Now to find what's next on Robotnik's agenda," Rouge told herself while searching through Eggman's computer systems. After looking through several files she had a good idea of what the doctor was going to do, and it contained only bad news.
Sonic and Amy found Tails lying on the ground. Tails was crying in the corner of the hallway Sonic had thought he heard Tails at, while he was fighting that robot.
"Tails? What's up?" Sonic nudged Tails. Tails looked up to see Sonic, still alive and well. Tails stared in disbelief.
"Sonic?" Tails continued crying. "I thought I had failed you... I thought you died!!" he sobbed.
"It's okay Tails... It's all right. I thought you and Amy had died back in Rendion, but you're both okay. We're going to make it, Tails. We're going to get through this alive, or my name's not Sonic," Sonic assured Tails, helping him stand up. Tails wiped away his tears.
"I... I tried killing myself... I couldn't even do that," Tails whimpered, holding up the weapon that failed to fire earlier. The guard robot that had used the weapon had used up all of its energy before Tails destroyed the robot. The weapon was useless when Tails had picked it up and fired the trigger.
Sonic and Amy were nearly sobbing by this point as well when Sonic continued, "It's all right, Tails... It's all right." It was then that Rouge flew in to where the three were talking.
"I had a feeling you three would be involved somehow," Rouge said.
"What are you doing here?" Sonic asked.
"More spying and jewel-earning. It's time for everyone to leave this fortress though. There's escape pods down this hallway, as well as a plane. I can set it to self-destruct before we escape," Rouge explained.
"Good to know you're on our side still," Sonic said as the four made their way to an escape pod. Tails got in his plane, the Typhoon, as the doorway opened for them to vacate. Rouge pressed a series of buttons on a computer console and the fortress was set to self-destruct once again. The escape pod and Tails' plane were flown away from the fortress, and a few minutes later the fortress was destroyed.
"So where are we going?" Amy asked.
Rouge explained, "I found Eggman's plans. He's going to attack Station Square with a series of powerful robots and one of his two remaining flying fortresses."