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Sonic Adventure Zero – Death of Angels
By Master hunter
Chapter 9 – The second flying fortress
The platform carrying Sonic and Tails accelerated to the ground and was now dropping very fast.
"Sonic grab my hand", shouted Tails.
Sonic didn't argue and Tails flew into the sky holding Sonic up. The platform crashed into the ground, crushing many trees and some of the giant mushrooms that filled the area. The two heroes landed on the ground safely.
"Shall I call the Tornado?" asked Tails.
"Nah, by the time it gets here Eggman could have fixed the Death Egg and we'd have another fight like the one before. We need to get there before he can repair it and destroy it once and for all", said Sonic.
They dashed forward to quickly skid to a halt seconds later when they heard a door opening. They watched over a cliff as they saw Knuckles come from the wall behind them. Knuckles didn't notice them and continued onto wherever he was going. Sonic and Tails checked out the wall when it was safe.
"This must be one of those secret tunnels that allow Knuckles to travel around the Island quickly", said Tails.
"So we go down one of these tunnels and we'll end up at the Death Egg right?" asked Sonic.
"Maybe, but more likely we would get lost. I think it would be better just to head in a straight line", said Tails.
"I guess you're right. Ok then here we go!" said Sonic before running off through Mushroom Hill.
Once again the area was crawling with Badniks and their quest was soon interrupted by a big woodcutting badnik. It cut off a small chunk off wood and fired it towards Sonic and Tails, separating them a little.
"Here we go again", said Sonic.
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Meanwhile Eggman had left the Death Egg to search for his enemies. He was running out of weapons though he still had one big flying fortress ready, and he had ordered some of his worker drones to build an even bigger Egg Robot, just in case Sonic makes it to the Death Egg again. His Flying Battery flew high above the Mushroom Hill area, frantically searching for the two pests. He knew they were there. They couldn't have gotten that far away from the Hangar Platform crash site.
Eggman knew the woods offered the two pests thousands of hiding places and thus he had to remove them. He landed next to some special hurdles he had made for when Sonic and Tails reached his location. He fired off special rays from a satellite dish that slowly began to kill the plants in the woods.
Knuckles had just caught up with him when he noticed the nearby area had started to turn grey.
"Hey what's the meaning of this doctor?" asked Knuckles Angrily.
"They are here and we need to find them ASAP. I'm sorry Knuckles but this is the best chance we have of finding them", said Dr. Robotnik.
Knuckles didn't know what to think, though he was starting to believe that maybe Sonic had been right all along.
"Ah Knuckles. Sonic and Tails are fighting my wood cutter about 5 miles west of here. Go slow them down", said Dr. Robotnik.
"Ok. But when we have them I want you to switch that thing off", said Knuckles.
Knuckles reluctantly dashed off to the arena where Sonic and Tails were.
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Sonic and Tails soon disposed of Eggman's machine. It was clearly no match for them.
"Another machine designed only to slow us down, not to defeat us", said Tails.
"I know. Let's get going", said Sonic.
Sonic raced off to find Knuckles standing in front of them about to pull a lever.
"Well well hedgehog. Seems that it's not only cats that have nine lives. How on Earth did you survive that crashing platform?" asked Knuckles.
"Meh! Nothing we can't handle", said Sonic.
"You know I did prepare plenty of traps designed to help me fight intruders. This is one of them. The fans beneath your feet should sent you flying into the air where there are more traps", said Knuckles.
Tails examined the floor beneath them.
"Remarkable. How did you create such devices? You don't seem like the type to build machines of this quality", asked Tails.
"I have a lot of free time. Well off you go", said Knuckles.
Knuckles pulled the lever and the fans started whirling. Sonic and Tails found themselves being thrown into the air, though due to their quick reflexes they managed to grab hold of some strong vines on the floor. Knuckles pressed the lever down again and again and the fans started whirling faster and faster. Soon the force was too great and they were sent flying into the air. Once again Tails slowed down their decent and gave them a nice landing. The woods had suddenly turned brown and they knew Eggman was here.
"He's here isn't he?" asked Tails.
"Well it wouldn't be a party without him", said Sonic, "Come on there's still plenty of road ahead of us"
Sonic and Tails ventured on. The brown plants turned to grey they further they went. They soon found the cause of it all as they came across Eggman's satellite dish. They quickly smashed it to pieces only to find Eggman appear from beneath their feet in his traditional Eggmobile.
"It has to be said Doctor, you work fast", said Sonic.
"You have more lives that a cat hedgehog", said Eggman.
"Funny, Knuckles just said that to us too", said Sonic.
"It doesn't matter how strong or how lucky you are. One of my plans will succeed", said Eggman.
"We'll see. Come on then Eggman, bring it", said Sonic.
Eggman flew backwards away from the two Heroes and across the specially laid out spiked hurdles. Sonic shrugged his shoulders and led the charge towards Eggman. The lower hurdles were easy enough to jump over and the higher ones were high enough to walk under.
"What's his game this time?" asked Tails.
"I don't know, but if he thinks these hurdles will slow us down he is sorely mistaken", said Sonic.
Sonic tried to attack Eggman but found whenever he was close enough to hit him a spiked hurdle got in the way. He bounced straight back down to the ground.
"He's stalling for time. We can't hit him as every time I get close those spikes get in the way", said Sonic.
"Now you're catching on Hedgehog", said Eggman.
Sonic and Tails then realised something Eggman hadn't. When they destroyed the satellite dish they also restored the woods and more importantly, allowed the big tree in front of them to grow to full size again. They laughed as Eggman unaware of the tree crashed into it
"ARGH! Where did that come from?" said Eggman scratching his head.
Sonic and Tails laughed as they ran past the tree and continued on, only to find a giant chasm stood in there way. The flying fortress that had been flying overhead dropped to the ground to pick up Eggman. As soon as they realised, Tails grabbed Sonic and flew towards the top of the fortress.
Sonic and Tails made their way to the heart of the fortress, though they were soon stopped by Eggman's voice from an overhead speaker.
"Welcome to my back-up fortress, The Flying Battery. Here you will no doubt see many capsules like the ones you've frequently broke. The capsules holding a herd of small animals, which I use to power my Badniks", said Eggman.
"Like it matters egghead. I'll free them all and crash this thing into the ground, just like I did with the Wing Fortress", said Sonic.
"By all means try Hedgehog. Just be careful. Some of them are booby trapped and I wouldn't want you to get hurt. I want to finish you off myself", said Eggman.
Sonic and Tails continued on through the fortress as Eggman laughed. Soon they were stopped again when they came across a lone capsule. It was strange to find one on it's own as the fortress was stacked to the top of the metal prisons. Sonic quickly jumped on the release button only to find it had been a trap.
Two eyes and two chain arms appeared with massive spike balls for hands. Sonic jumped off and smashed into the side of the fake capsule. However it was no use as the sides had been re-enforced making it invincible to their attacks.
"What do we do now Sonic?" asked Tails
There was no time to reply as the fake capsule smashed the ground where they were standing at with its spike hands. Fortunately Sonic and Tails had dashed to the other side. Just as they reached the other side though the fake capsule smashed the ground next to them again. Sonic and Tails jumped back to avoid the attack but this meant they had their backs against the wall.
"It seems to be tracking our movements", said Tails.
"Oh of course, follow me", said Sonic.
Sonic jumped back on top of the capsule and grabbed Tails' hand just as Tails reached the top. Sonic pulled Tails away from the capsule as he himself jumped off the capsule. The spiked hand smashed the place where they had stood, smashing into the capsule itself. It did heavy damage on itself.
Sonic and Tails nodded to each other and jumped on top of the capsule again. They jumped off as the spiked hand smashed on the top of the capsule again. They kept this up until the capsule destroyed itself. With the way forward ahead of them the two heroes took no time to rest and headed straight down the path.
Soon they were staring Eggman right in the face. It was déjà vu as Eggman stood behind a wall of light at a computer terminal.
"This trick again. Are you running out of ideas?" asked Sonic.
Eggman said nothing and the dome above them opened to reveal another giant laser.
"But hey where are the platforms?" asked Sonic.
"Not this time Hedgehog", said Eggman.
"Tails think you can fly me up there?" asked Sonic.
As he finished that sentence the laser fired straight down at the ground. It wasn't threatening though as Sonic and Tails stood at the other side of the small arena. They turned around to find another wall of light had appeared behind them, trapping them inside the small arena. And to make matters worse that wall of light moved closer shrinking the arena further, whenever the laser hit the ground.
Sonic and Tails had their backs to the wall of light as the arena got so small there was just enough room to avoid the laser. If the arena got any smaller there would be no room and the laser would surely kill them.
"That's it. One more blast will give you no room to avoid the other. I've finally beaten you Hedgehog", said Eggman.
The laser fired and, to the two heroes relief, blew up the computer system operating the laser. Eggman's computer terminal blew up. Eggman ran off as the two walls of light started to fade. In front of them the battleship began to shake, with the floor rising. Sonic and Tails dashed to a part where there was a vertical tunnel they could climb. A series of vertical and horizontal tunnels, with a few spike traps lay ahead of them while the floor beneath them continued to rise.
They managed to get through the deadly path and ended up in a huge arena. The floor continued to rise and became very thin as it got high into the air. The floor stopped as it had become nothing more than a thin beam. Eggman dropped onto the beam in a new machine, this one had spiked hands on chain arms and a flamethrower on the top of Eggman's cockpit. The spiked hands grabbed the beam and the machine swung round the beam before stopping to hang under it and edge closer to the two heroes.
Sonic and Tails jumped between the hands and heard Eggman's Flamethrower charge. They quickly jumped to the other side and turned to find that Eggman had indeed fired his flamethrower straight up.
"Whoa! If we hadn't jumped out we would've been barbecued", said Sonic.
"Look he's starting to swing around the beam again", said Tails.
"Now's our chance", said Sonic.
Sure enough Eggman had started to swing around the beam again and as it appeared above the beam, Sonic and Tails struck the machine causing some damage.
"If we can keep that up this weapon will be history", said Sonic.
"Right", said Tails.
Sonic and Tails made sure they kept away from Eggman's machine, jumping between the hands and back out again if it came too close. Every time the machine swung above the beam they landed a hit and soon they did enough damage to make it explode.
"We better get off this fortress", said Sonic.
"But aren't we going to bring it down first?" asked Tails.
"No time. It crossed the chasm for us. We can continue on to the Death Egg", said Sonic.
"Right, lead the way", said Tails.
Sonic and Tails ran down the beam and jumped through a hatch, falling to the ground beneath them.
"Are you crazy? How are we meant to land safely?" asked Tails.
"Look down. We'll be landing in a desert of soft sand", said Sonic, "And look where it leads".
Tails examined the area carefully. It was full of Pyramids, though it ended right at the Volcano where the Death Egg lay.
"Ah I see. Not long now", said Tails.
Meanwhile Eggman watched from a balcony on the Flying Battery.
"You can run Sonic, but you can't hide. We all know where you're heading", said Eggman, "Knuckles has already told me about that area. It leads directly into the Lave Reef Caves under the volcano. It's also a city full of deadly sand traps the houses a haunted Pyramid. It'll be interesting to see you get through Sandopolis"