Chapter 18: Lightning Round
March 21st, 2314 – 3:00 PM – Robotnik's Base
Tails wasn't sure what would be on the other side of the door, but it wasn't what he expected. The door led them into a large, circular room, with a seamless glass window running all the way around the wall. Computers of all sorts covered almost every inch of the room. Most of them built into work stations below the window. Even more computer monitors hung from the ceiling. A large black leather chair sat in the middle of the room, and it looked like it was designed to accommodate a very large man. A set of computers just for the chair was also on a table in front of it.
However, there was one thing that Tails didn't expect at all from this room: Robotnik wasn't here.
"What the...?" Sonic whispered. "Where's Robotnik? I thought for sure he'd be here."
Tails didn't respond. He swept his eyes across the room, trying to think of what he should make of this. Was this some kind of trick? Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the tower in a blinding flash and shaking the foundation with the thunder. Tails heard a weird sound after the thunder though. It was like some kind of humming noise...
He didn't have time to ponder the sound any further though, when there a loud booming noise blasted at his eardrums. A split second later, there was a bright flash of light at the front of the room. Electrical bolts danced across the computers, before all of them blew apart in a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was a big hole in the tower wall where it had been. Tails looked in bewilderment at the inexplicable blast. However, once his ears finished ringing, he heard the all too familiar sound of the jet engine of Robotnik's ship.
As the egg-shaped vehicle appeared into view, Tails saw Robotnik had made some modifications to it since their last fight. A giant lightning rod stuck out of the back of the machine, while stabilizing wings stuck out from either side of the craft. A massive cannon hanging from the underbelly cackled with electricity.
"Hello runts!" Robotnik called out. "We meet again! I must say, just like your fathers, you've done a very good job making it this far by yourselves."
"Just like our fathers?" Sonic asked.
"This situation we are in right now. It feels...nostalgic." Robotnik said. "Six years ago, in Robotnik War I, I was holding the city of Reppoc in Lufetsaw with my army, when I noticed two life forms breaking through all of my defenses with ease. They managed to get all the way to the City Hall, which is where I was at the time. Anyway, we had a battle on the roof, a bit similar to the fight we are about to have. During the fight, I sorely underestimated your fathers. They were able to capture me."
Sonic and Tails smiled.
"Don't get so cocky you insolent children!" Robotnik snarled back. "You won't escape from me this time! Now, prepare to meet your fathers in the afterlife!"
The cannon on the bottom of the ship charged up, as it gathered energy. Sonic and Tails prepared to dodge the shot, but oddly Robotnik seemed to be aiming too high to hit them. As he fired, there was a bright flash of light. A beam of electric energy came out of the cannon, and it struck the roof over their heads. The two heroes looked up as the ceiling exploded inward and started collapsing.
While Tails ducked underneath a metal computer desk, Sonic rolled off towards the other side of the room. The debris collapsed all around the table. Fortunately, the metal of the counter seemed to be holding, and the falling metal stopped coming after a few seconds. On the other hand though, now the rubble had him trapped under the table.
"Tails!" Sonic called out. "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay! But I'm stuck down here!"
Tails tried to move one of the pieces of the ceiling out of the way, but it hardly budged even when he put all his strength behind it.
"Hold on!" Sonic yelled. "I'll help you out!"
Sonic revved up a spin dash, and then a second later the rocks in front of the table were blasted to pebbles by the attack. Tails coughed hard as the dust entered his nose, but he easily managed to crawl out through the cleared passage.
"Thanks," Tails said through his coughs.
"Hey...no problem," Sonic said, helping him up.
"You're not done yet are you!" Robotnik called out. "We're just getting started!"
The two looked out to see Robotnik's egg ship hovering outside through one of the holes in the tower's wall. Strangely, he appeared to be waiting for something. All of a sudden, a lightning bolt struck the lightning rod on Robotnik's ship. The rod glowed white, as did the cannon on the bottom of the craft. Apparently his beam cannon relied on the power of the lightning bolts for energy.
"All charged up again!" Robotnik shouted. "Ready for another go?"
There was another loud humming noise, and Robotnik fired a shot inside the tower. It blasted apart a wall behind Sonic and Tails, showering them with metal and glass.
"We can't fight him in here!" Sonic said. "If that cannon doesn't hit us, we'll get crushed underneath something instead! We have to go up!"
"Right!" Tails said back.
Sonic looked up towards one of the holes in the ceiling, and he easily jumped up through it. Tails quickly followed behind. If they weren't so busy fighting, the roof of this tower would make for quite a spectacular view. With how high up they were, they could see across the Land of Darkness for miles. Instead though, the view meant danger. One misplaced step could send Sonic falling to the rocks far below. Tails would need to keep an eye out for his hedgehog friend.
The cannon fired a shot at Tails, but he easily jumped back to avoid it, and landed safely back down on the metal roof.
That cannon may be strong, but it looks like it's quite hard to aim at small targets. Not to mention it takes a long time to recharge.
The cannon shot struck the section of the roof where he had been standing only a second before. This caused the roof to begin breaking apart, and the cracks in the metal were moving towards Sonic. The hedgehog jumped to avoid the collapsing floor, but his leap was sending him straight off the tower roof. Fortunately, Sonic didn't fall over the edge when he landed, but he was pretty damn close. He was frantically waving his arms around to maintain his balance. Sonic was actually starting to fall over the edge when Tails grabbed his arm and pulled him back to safety.
There was no time to give thanks though. Robotnik fired again, this time at the base of the tower, and the entire building felt like it was shaking from the impact. Sonic and Tails were having trouble just trying to maintain their footing from the artificial earthquake. They fell through a hole in the roof and smacked down to the floor below. It was incredibly painful to get back up again, but Sonic and Tails shook it off and shambled to their feet.
As the building continued to shake though, Sonic realized that the cannon shot had done more than just make the building shake. The floor started to lean underneath their feet, as the view from the hole in the wall in front of them started to tilt downwards towards the ground. The tower this control room was in was toppling downward due to the cannon damage. There was a terrible sound of screeching metal, like nails across a chalkboard magnified a thousand times, as the building ripped away from the main structure of the base.
"What do we do Sonic!" Tails yelled. "The whole tower is going to fall down the mountain with us inside it!"
Sonic looked back at Tails. The hedgehog's eyes showed pure terror, with the way they were darting around nervously, trying to look at everything at once. However, they seemed to stop on something behind the fox. Tails whirled around and saw that he was looking at the hole in the wall in the back of the room, which had been shot open by Robotnik's third cannon shot. It would provide a good way for them to escape.
"Tails, get to the hole!" Sonic said. "I'll follow up behind you! Once we're there, fly us away from the tower!"
"Got it!" Tails yelled.
He started scrambling across the floor to reach the door, but it was getting harder fast with how the floor was getting more and more vertical. Eventually, Tails started flying since he couldn't maintain his footing anymore, and he felt Sonic latch onto his foot. Tails looked straight up, and flew as hard as he could towards the exit that was now above them. With an extra burst of speed, they finally escaped through the opening and out of the tower.
Now that they were out in the open sky, they looked down. Below them, the big tower fully fell over, and then it started rolling down the side of the mountain. Eventually it crashed into the refuse yard they'd used to enter the base. Several of the refuse trucks were smashed into metal pancakes by the force, and piles of metal were blasted apart. It finally came to rest just as it started to enter the trees.
"Most impressive!" Robotnik shouted to them. "I've totally underestimated both of you!"
All three of them were now hovering in the air. However, Robotnik started to charge up another shot. Tails steeled himself to dodge. As the gun unleashed its torrent of electrical energy, the two of them easily avoided the shot.
"Good work Tails!" Sonic said.
"Thanks, but what do we do now Sonic?" Tails asked.
"It's our turn to fight back this time. Here's what we're gonna do. You fly us towards Robotnik's ship, and throw me towards it. I'll go into a spinball attack and smash into it."
"But won't you fall?"
"Yeah, you can catch me while I'm falling, can't you?"
"Erm...I guess. Are you sure about this?"
"Well what else can we do? We don't have any other ways to attack a flying enemy."
Tails let out a sigh.
"I guess you're right. Okay then, hold on!"
Tails put on a burst of speed and shot towards Robotnik's ship. The doctor began to grin as they got closer. When they were about fifty feet away, he reached with one hand towards a control that was out of sight.
"Tails! Turn left!" Sonic screamed.
Tails jumped a bit at Sonic's sudden yell, but obeyed all the same. As they moved to the left, Robotnik fired a torrent of lasers where they had been before. They only barely missed the pair.
"All right! Now fly right us up to him! And get ready to throw me!" Sonic yelled.
Tails again did as Sonic asked. They were now flying straight towards Robotnik's ship. Robotnik started sweating, as he was having trouble trying to turn the ship around to shoot at them. Meanwhile, Tails brought his arms back and tossed Sonic forward. Sonic launched into a somersault so that he was in the shape of a spiky ball.
A loud crunch of metal sounded as Sonic crashed into Robotnik's ship and bounced off, while the doctor howled with rage. Tails didn't take time to look though, because he was already focused on grabbing the hedgehog again. Sonic uncurled out of his ball and started falling to the ground. Frantically, Tails dived and grabbed a hold on his arm. Now that Sonic was safe, Tails took time to see what damage had been done. There was a dent in the ship the size of an artillery shell, and Tails grinned a little seeing that.
A large bolt of lightning flashed past Tails, making him shriek in fright. He wasn't especially fond of lightning and decided to fly lower to keep from getting shocked. They were now hovering a couple dozen feet above the ground.
"Tails!" Sonic yelled. "What are you doing!"
"It's the lightning, Sonic," Tails said. "I don't wanna get hit."
"But if we don't go up there we won't be able to fight back!"
"What's the matter you runts?" Robotnik called out. "Afraid of the lightning?"
Tails growled a bit at that comment. It was amazing how different he'd felt the last time he'd met Robotnik. Tails had been too scared to even look at him, much less fight him. Now though, he was so angry that he didn't care about anything but killing him. He flew up again to continue the battle, with Sonic in his grasp.
"Tails!" Sonic yelled. "We're in range now! Throw me!"
"All right Sonic!" Tails shouted. "Here I go!"
Tails flew straight up towards Robotnik's ship, and yanked his arm up as fast as he could to throw Sonic. The hedgehog easily flew upwards and went into his spiky ball shape. Sonic collided with the bottom of the ship, next to the lightning cannon. This time though, the hedgehog's foot got tangled up around one of the laser cannons, and he was stuck on it. He was now hanging by one foot from the gun, and frantically waved at Tails to help.
"I'm coming Sonic! Hold on!" Tails yelled.
Tails didn't get more than a few feet though, before another lightning bolt shot down from the sky. The bolt struck the fox and charged his body with millions of volts of electricity. Tails instantly went unconscious and fell to the ground below.
---
"Tails! No!" Sonic screamed as he saw the lightning bolt hit his adopted brother.
The fox instantly went limp and fell through the sky, landing with a sickening bounce on a patch of dirt down below. He wasn't moving.
"Tails!" Sonic yelled, as he was on the verge of tears. "Get up! Please!"
There was no response at all though from Tails. He sat there, looking as still as death. As the time passed though, Sonic's tears faded away and rage took its place. Tails was dead now, and if Robotnik has never challenged Tails to come back up again it wouldn't have happened.
"Robotnik!" Sonic screamed. "It's time to finish this! I'm going to kill you!"
"We'll see about that Sonic!" Robotnik called out from above. "Hang on if you can!"
Suddenly, the ship began diving and rolling. Robotnik was trying to throw him off by bucking the ship all over the place. His leg slipped, but he just managed to flip over and grab the laser cannon with both arms. He held on for dear life as Robotnik continued to swing the ship all over the place.
Next, Robotnik did a dive towards the rocks below. Sonic's eyes widened in terror, and he flipped himself upwards like a gymnast so that his entire body was curled around the barrel of the laser cannon. The rocks passed just inches below him as Robotnik zoomed across them. He actually felt a few graze the tips of his quills.
"Still down there Sonic?" Robotnik called out.
As Robotnik pulled back up into the air again, Sonic realized he'd had enough. He was going to climb up there and kill Robotnik now. He saw what looked like a pipe running alongside the ship, probably for fuel or something, and made a grab for it. He easily latched on, and now he was hanging on the side of the ship. He actually managed to poke his head over the side, and saw Robotnik flying along in his ship.
That turned out to be a mistake though. Robotnik pulled out a laser pistol and fired a shot at him. Sonic ducked down to avoid it. Robotnik then swung his arm around over the side of the ship, and blindly fired at Sonic. Fortunately, all the shots missed. Finding a foothold, Sonic catapulted himself on top of the egg ship. He was now standing beside the cockpit where Robotnik sat.
Robotnik looked up in terror, and once again brought his laser gun to bear. Sonic kicked it out of his hand, knocking it over the side of the craft and down to the ground below. Unfortunately, the kick also hit the flight stick in the cockpit, which sent the vehicle into a sickening spin.
Sonic grabbed onto the windshield of the craft, struggling to hang on as the world spun around them in a blur of colors. While the spin only lasted several seconds, it felt like ages. The ship scraped across a few rocks and bounced back into the air, nearly causing Sonic to bounce off in the process.
Finally though, Robotnik managed to grab the stick and hold the ship steady. Once the ship was still, Sonic gave a little leap and jumped over Robotnik, landing on the back of the vehicle. He was now standing behind Robotnik. Reaching down, he slung an arm around the human's neck and prepared to strangle him to death. However, Robotnik gave a little laugh as he did.
"What's so funny?" Sonic said as he was about to tighten his grip.
"Look at what I'm aiming at," Robotnik rasped out, through Sonic's choke hold on him.
Sonic looked up, and saw that his lightning cannon trained upon Tails' limp form on the ground. He also noticed that the fox was breathing, as he could see a close-up view of the fox through the magnified scope Robotnik was using to aim the cannon. He wasn't dead, but merely unconscious.
"Let me go," Robotnik said. "Or I press this button and vaporize your friend."
The human's thumb on his right hand was now hovering over a sinister-looking red button. Sonic was dimly aware of the humming noise underneath the ship, which meant the lightning cannon had finished charging and it was ready to fire.
"I mean it," Robotnik said. "Do it now."
"And if you kill Tails, I'll kill you too," Sonic shot back.
They were in a stalemate. Sonic had to try to think of something he could do to turn this in his favor, before Robotnik figured out a way to do the same. He realized that in order to keep Robotnik from killing Tails, he'd have to somehow get his hand away from that button. Then he'd have to get the cannon to aim somewhere else besides Tails. After that, he could probably kill Robotnik at his leisure.
Sonic had grabbed Robotnik with both of his arms, so he'd have to let go with his right arm to force Robotnik's right hand away. Then he could reach for the flight stick again to turn the ship in a crazy direction. Even if Sonic was lightning fast with his body, he felt a bit nervous. This was a delicate operation, and Tails' life could be ended in a split second if he screwed up. Slowly, he gathered up his courage.
All right, here goes!
Sonic unfurled his right from Robotnik's neck as fast as he could, and slapped Robotnik's right arm away from the red button. While Robotnik was surprised by the sudden move, he tried to reach back over to the button with his left arm. Sonic was faster though, grabbing the flight stick and pulling backwards on it. The ship went vertical, heading straight up into the air.
Sonic wasn't ready to hold on this time though, and so he fell backwards off of the egg ship. Fortunately, during the struggle, the ship had gotten closer to the ground below, so he didn't have that far to fall. He landed safely amongst the sharp rocks that dotted the mountainside, and scrambled up the side to the ledge where Tails was. The fox's fur was standing up on end from the electricity that had surged across it, but he appeared to be breathing and looked like he'd recover just fine if he got medical attention. Next, he looked back at what Robotnik was doing. He'd managed to regain control of his ship, and was now facing the two of them. Another lightning bolt struck the lightning rod in Robotnik's ship, recharging the cannon to full power.
"You're finished now Sonic!" Robotnik called out. "You don't have that handy little fox to fly you up to me this time! That means I can blast away from up here all I like and you can't do a thing about it! Now eat rocks!"
Robotnik charged up his cannon again, aiming at the mountainside above him and Tails. After he fired, there was a big explosion, which triggered an avalanche. Rocks began tumbling downwards, towards him and Tails. Instinctively, Sonic picked up Tails, and then frantically started looking around, seeking a place where he could take cover. At long last, he spotted a small cave about thirty feet away.
Jumping across the shards of jagged stone as fast as he could, he finally made it to the cave and dived inside. It wasn't a moment too soon, for rocks started rolling straight down over the top of the cave's entrance as he leaped inside. The boulders stormed past the shelter with a deafening thunder. Sonic had to reach up and cover his ears just to block out the rumbling noise. About twenty seconds later though, it was over. The cave entrance had been sealed partially, but Sonic could probably slip out easy enough. He started to get up, and then realized he was still holding Tails.
Maybe I better leave him here. That way I won't have to worry about protecting him while I'm fighting Robotnik.
Sonic gently put Tails down on the ground, and exited the cave.
"You just won't give up, will you?" Robotnik yelled from above. "It doesn't matter! I've got all the time in the world here, since you're stuck on the ground!"
Sonic wasn't exactly afraid right now. In truth, he was actually more pissed off than afraid. He absolutely hated being in such a helpless position. This was his opportunity to end Robotnik's reign of terror once and for all, and it was just out of his reach simply due to the fact that the doctor was hovering like a coward just out his reach. It was such a cheap way to win a fight. Sonic had no idea what he was going to do now. He let out a sigh of defeat.