(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO, GO, GO, GO; LET'S GO!

Episode 2: The Challenge

"You think you can work out the controls?" Okida asked, peering down through the entrance hatch to one of the Turtle Mech's. Tails had clambered inside the cockpit and was testing the complex looking set of levels, buttons and switches. So far, all he had been able to do was open up the back armour, nearly putting a laser cannon in Okida's face. Turtle Mech's had green painted armour to reflect their name and tank like treads. The cockpit a small space just behind two sheets of armour so protect the pilot; several cameras hidden at each side gave the pilot the opportunity to survey everything around the Mech in a 180 degree angle.

"I managed to pilot that old Yahger of yours." Tails replied; throwing a few switches and hearing the engine in the back of the machine hum in unison. "How hard can working this thing be?" Before Okida could think of a suitable reply, Tails flipped something he shouldn't have and two sheets of armour pulled themselves aside and a small missile bay slowly rose to fill the void. Okida yelped and hit the deck and two of them launched forward unexpectedly, flying through the air before colliding into the air of one of the Raptor Walkers, knocking it over. The ground shuddered with a loud crash as the Mech collapsed to the floor.

"Perhaps you should endure some training before we put you behind the wheel of anything larger than a bus." The bat stated as Tails hurriedly climbed out of the machine, most of the personnel running around like headless chickens.

The current G.U.N command had put top priority on this Mech project. The Nuclear arsenal currently held by the US Government; although they would never admit it, simply could not be used. It would cause far too much damage to the environment, so they were forced to rely on more traditional means of warfare. Over ten billion dollars was already being invested in the Walker program, in fact within a single year most of the defence budget was being directed this way. The admiralty was already looking into the possibly of sea going Mechs.

"Hey Omega; how's it going?" Rouge the bat, current agent of Freelance division asked one of the militaries most advanced fighting machines. Capable of taking on several Mech's at once and with Giant Wing gone, Omega was now considered to be the most advanced piece of fighting technology ever created. The fact it was Eggman who made him was a closely guarded secret intend to boast morale. Despite various upgrades and modifications, Omega's design repaired basically the came. Two large arms housing machine guns, missile and an assortment of other deadly weaponry on each side of the large torso. The legs were short and stumpy, but those didn't need improving. If Omega wanted to move fast, he would simply convert from combat to mobile mode extracting a pair of wheels from inside his body. His large flat head rotated around one hundred and eighty degrees to stare directly at the female bat, who hovered lazily in the air behind him with a broad smile on her face.

"Upgrades complete." Omega stated in his usually flat emotionless voice. "All systems fully operational. Target designate Rouge's current status?" Rouge hesitated before realizing it was his way of saying; I'm fine and how are you?

"Can't complain." Omega nodded, before lifting both of his barrel sized armed and rotated his entire torso around to fire at several targets on the other side of the Walker bay. Each straw dummy exploded in a firestorm of bullets and missiles. "Nice…" The female bat commented. "But I doubt Eggman';s clunkers are going to stand still." With a few flaps of her wings, he advanced out onto the firing range.

"Rouge, what are you doing?" Topaz asked her from the sidelines.

"Just providing Omega here with a moving target that's all." She replied, before turning back towards the large combat robot. "Ok then, let's see if you can hit me with all that fancy weaponry." The female bat added with a sly smile on her face. Omega actually seemed to hesitate before several hidden compartments inside his arms opened up and two machine turrets rose upwards. With a few flaps, Rouge was instantly in the air.

"Ok, try it now." Tails shouted as he pushed himself out from underneath the Mech. The Turtle Walker they had been working on that suffered a blow out and Okida was currently up top trying to make the controls work again. The Major preferred to be working down here, instead of being stuck in his office with the very increasing IN pile. Most of which he had absolutely no idea how to do.

Chris Thorndyke was stuck in his own head, trying to solve a problem himself. This problem had been dogging him for the last few days and he was no closer to solving it then when he first started. Chris' hair had grown longer, reaching past his shoulders now. His height had increased as well. He was a clear two foot taller from when Sonic and the others had first met him. Deep in thought, he didn't look where he was going and walked into the side of the Turtle Mech.

"Ow!" Tails shrieked as the loud ringing of vibrating metal amplified dangerously inside the Walker. Rubbing his head, he pulled himself out from under the machine looking ticked off.

"Oh, sorry Tails." Chris apologised quickly as the fox paused to let his headache subside. "Can I ask your advice about something?" He asked, looking back for a moment. Tails nodded in reply before turning back to his work, rummaging through the underside of the Mech. The boy hesitated for a moment, looking indecisive. "Well, I've just been told I could be accepted into a G.U.N cadet program. Half the students in my high school have." Tails hit his head on the bottom of the engine before emerging with a blackened face. He removed his goggles, leaving an almost comical binocular like-clear patch around his eyes.

"I've heard they were going to do that." He stated. "But I didn't think they'd be doing it this quickly." He looked up towards the top of the Turtle Walker. "Hey Okida, you know anything about that?" There was a moment of silence before the bat stuck his head over the top

"About what?" He asked, hanging a large wrench over his shoulder.

"About the G.U.N cadet program."

"Oh that." Okida stretched the top of his head, trying to remember that briefing he had turned up for half asleep one early morning. "I think they introduced it as a career choice after Saddler was apprehended. The establishment thinks this skirmish with Eggman could go on for some time." With that, he returned to his work.

"The problem is…"Chris continued, sitting down on a stool next to Tails. "I don't know whether I should join up or not." Tails paused. That was a difficult, life altering decision to make. With the present situation, G.U.N needed all the man power it could get. But it was Chris' choice ultimately. Tails couldn't tell him to join up because of the need for supposed security. He was not about to draft him.

"What do your parent's say?" The fox asked, leaning back against the side of the Mech. Chris managed a humoured smile.

"My dad wants me to inherit his company and my mom flatly refuses to let me sign up." Tails rolled his eyes.

"Well let me ask this. What did you want to do, before Eggman turned up I mean?" Chris paused briefly at that question.

"Well I…I always wanted to be a scientist like Grandpa." He admitted. Ever since he was a small boy, living alone in the Thorndyke estate, he had watched his grandfather create complex machinery out of nothing but a few scraps of metal and a motherboard. He had always wanted to be a great engineer like Chuck and had showed a great talent for it, but then Eggman arrived and everyone just seemed to get side tracked.

"Chris, at the end of the day; there's only one piece of advice I can give you in good conscience." The human looked up expectantly. "Even if G.U.N is at war, it's your decision whether or not you pick up a rifle and go hunting robots. No one has the right to order you to put yourself in harms way. So all I can tell you to do is to follow your ambitions." He stuck himself back under the Mech, replacing his goggles. "Eggman certainly follows his." There was a sudden loud explosion as a female bat came flying through the air trailing smoke, before spiralling and landing with both feet on the ground next to the Turtle Walker. Rouge's gloves had been burnt and her fur was a mess and a thin trail of smoke was rising from the burnt patches on her arms but she didn't seem all that bothered by it. In fact, she looked rather pleased.

"Ok, Ok Omega, you hit me." She laughed, patting down the burning ends of her fur.

Without any warning what so ever, the large information screen at the far end of the chamber flipped itself on, showing a signal presently being broadcast around the entire world. Everyone just dropped what they were doing when they saw the broad, sadistic smile of Eggman himself staring down at them.

"Greetings G.U.N." The Doctor sneered at them. "For all your boasting, you've still no closer to stopping me; and now I stand on the verge of achieving my goal." Stepping aside, Eggman revealed a horrifying scene behind him. The city of London stood in near ruins, a flag with the Empire's symbol had been hoisted above the flaming ruins of Buckingham palace, Dreadnaughts standing to attention everywhere in the now occupied city. Many buildings stood burning. The air above it black with the smoke from the flames. The large bulk of the Egg Carrier 3 could be seen floating just above the Thames to the left, the harbour quickly being converted to accommodate the battleship's needs.

The entire world was left staring in horror at the fate of the English, huddled masses forced by the large robots and those who had joined with the Eggman Empire into buildings that hadn't been damaged for processing. "Consider this a warning to the rest of you." Eggman declared as he stepped back in front of the camera. "Surrender now, and your country will more of less be allowed to run itself; with my garrison troops patrolling the streets of course." A wide grin crossed his face and he wrapped his fingers together. "Or you could choose defiance and have your cities burnt to a cinder. Everyone loves decisions don't they?" With that, the image buzzed and disappeared to be replaced by the emergency broadcast image.

A long silence endured for several minutes, everyone left staring into space ominously, before Okida opened his mouth.

"Crap." He cursed, running his fingers through his head fur, barring his fangs.

"So now what?" Tails asked. That was the question on everyone's lips. Eggman had showed a terrifying military superiority, taking down a country under G.U.N's direct control in less than a single day. Once this got out, the entire world's population would be terrified. There'd be mass panic in the streets.

Tails eyes widened when something he'd forgotten came flying back to his immediate attention.

"Chuck!"

The radical transformation of the city of Bristol shocked Bark. Less than half an hour ago it had been a pleasant place to look at and now they were forced to hide in dirty alleyways avoiding searchlights cast down by the large walkers that patrolled the streets.

More of the civilians had been rounded up by now and put into what the three of them could only describe as concentration camps inside some of the buildings. Already some of them were being taken out, marched in a line to start work on construction of something that they couldn't quite make out from their hiding place. One thing was very clear through.

Within a single hour, Eggman had reduced the British people to slaves.

"We have a problem." Bean remarked. Hare levelled his eyes.

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed." He replied sarcastically. "So what now? You're the fancy G.U.N agents, come up with something."

"Well we could turn you over to Eggman for safe passage over to France." Bean began with a brief smile, looking up as if deep in thought. Hare turned and grabbed the green duck by the bandana around his neck, pulling him roughly forwards.

"I don't take jokes at my expense very well." He stated angrily. "Do I make myself clear?" Hare held up a large fist ominously. Bean swallowed hard.

"Perfectly." He said his bandana chocking him. The hare let him go.

"Are you two finished?" Bark asked impatiently, tapping his foot. "Look, what we need to do is get back to that manor, retrieve Prof. Thorndyke and his friend and then escape somehow." The polar bear stated, staring out from the corner to see if that Dreadnaught had gone yet. It was still there at the top of the street and to Bark's dismay is had been joined by more of those small humanoid robots they had seen fighting the Flying Dogs. Hare rolled his eyes

"Well duh. Give Captain Obvious here a gold star." Bark looked back him sourly. The rabbit like mobian stuck his head out to get a better look as well. Those smaller robots were at least seven foot tall and clad with black armour very much like a knights. Their hands were large and claw like, cloven with only two fingers and a large thumb. In their left hands the two of them had a blast laser rifle, a gauge on the side glowing bright red. A similar glow emitted from their one side eye in the middle of their heads. They did not friendly. "If we can get over there, we can travel through the city without being spotted." Hare pointed to a manhole with the lid blown off, flying on the other side of the road. It was clear if they tried to run for it, those robots would spot them in an instant.

"Now what we need here is a distraction." Bean commented, reaching into his fur and withdrawing another of his explosives, a wide sadistic grin on his face. Hare and Bark cast each other a worried glance. "Don't worry; I'm a professional explosives expert." The duck stated before launching himself up the side of a fire-escape above them.

"A professional pillok more like." Hare commented dryly.

Bean climbed up to the roof, keeping out of sight behind a roof of chimneys, gradually working his way across the rooftops to some point he seemed worthy. Looking out from his hiding place, he could see the stationary Dreadnaught standing on the road below level with him. This was the perfect place.

Carefully he set the small amount of plastic explosive into a crack in the side of a wall and then inserted the timer, setting it to detonate in two minutes. Leaving his trap ready, he darted back across the roofs nearly revealing himself and then almost slid down the fire escape back to the ground.

"You may want to put your fingers in your ears." He told him, inserting his own digits and bracing himself. Bark and Hare quickly did the same and after a brief moment of silence, there was a loud bang that shook the ground. Rubble from the roof tumbling down to the ground in a rain of brick dust and fragments.

The Dreadnaught, nearly being crushed by the falling masonry turned to investigate, casting its searchlight upwards. The two smaller robots almost turned to look, and that was their opportunity. Despite his large size, Bark grabbed the two of them and darted forward before the robots had a chance to look back. While the Dreadnaught concentrated its efforts of the rooftops, they searched the open manhole and descended into the sewers.

The stagnant water squelched under their feet and Bean found his stomach doing several turns at the smell.

"That's disgusting." He stated before holding his breath.

"It's a sewer." Bark replied. "What did you expect? All the sewers smell the same, no matter what country you're in."

"Dr. Eggman, I have a report from the Egg Moon." Becoe began approaching the hencebot's own creator, who sat in the metallic throne of the Egg Carrier 3 monitoring the progressing upgrading the cities of England to suit his technological needs was going. The reports came flashing up on a holographic display; all stating that work was proceeding on schedule. Within a few more hours, London itself would be ready to start mass production of Bandik's and Dreadnaughts. "Orbit surveillance shows a good number of G.U.N fleet battleships approaching the English coast from the south west. A large air borne attack force is also assembling in France." Eggman only looked up briefly from his work before a wide spread over his face.

"Ah good." He rubbed his hands together and stood up. "Then they've fallen directly into my trap."

"Trap sir?" Becoe began looking puzzled. "What trap?" Eggman didn't answer; instead will a grin he crossed over to one of the many computer panels lining the outside Egg Carrier's bridge.

"Commander, we have incoming. Ready the four points artillery." He stated clearly after pressing a single button acting a com singal.

"Yes sir." Came the reply after a short buzzing of static.

"Four points Artillery?" Decoe repeated, looking confused. Neither he nor Becoe had ever even heard of such a thing. Sailing towards England from the west at that moment was a culminated fleet of battleships and carrier transport boats all carrying at least three of G.U.N's latest Mech's, all armed to the teeth and ready to fight.

After assembling off the coast of Spain, one of the largest naval fleets the world had ever seen was slowly making it's way towards the British Isle. All flying G.U.N colours were hundreds of Battleships, transports and carriers. In response to the invasion of the United Kingdom, the nations of the world had been culminating their forces into this one super sized army. Its military purpose was to crush the Imperial forces and liberated England, but it had a more political reason for existence. People were beginning to panic as more reports on the fate of England came in and it was hoped that this attack would raise public morale.

Which couldn't get much lower.

Stood on the decks, their large cannons pointed inland were dozens of Mech Walkers. Leading the assault was Major Koji Naoko Okida. After being selected for his years of experience fighting the Eggman Empire on Mobius, Okida sat in the pilot seat of his Yahger Mech watching the English coastline draw nearer.

Rising up from the depths of the Thames River came a gigantic metal tower, casting a shadow over the city itself, its spire in the clouds above. It was a perfectly round cylinder apart from a multitude of wires and giant cables that lead from the base. Atop this colossal construction was a single square platform, one each corner of which stood the barrels of a culmination of artillery guns, all poised upwards and ready to fire. This tower stood as the tallest thing above London, the barrel of each gun the size of five story building.

Okida blinked and peered up at the sky, noting something of detail. There was a sudden light on the horizon that he hadn't noticed before. It was too early for the stars to come out, and the moon wasn't due to rise for another two hours. As he watched, this one blinking light separated instantly into thousands of smaller ones. Although their size didn't last long as with each passing moment they grew bigger.

"Oh crap…." He muttered to himself, before slamming his hand down on the intercom. "INCOMING!" The Major screamed and everyone looked up just in time to a gigantic artillery shell go whistling through the air to collide with an escort battleship to the left. The vessel bent under the impact and was forced into the water within minutes, leaving its crew little time to abandon ship. Everywhere shells began raining down all around them, sending ships left and right down into the oceans. The turrets on the front of the battleships were doing little to reply the deadly fire, given the colossal size of each shell.

Even the Mech's marched out on deck in an attempt to save as many ships as possible, but even their firepower proofed futile. The deadly barrage just kept coming.

"Turn us around!" Okida ordered the Captain. "If we go in any further, we'll be blown out of the water!" Ships began turning in the water, desperately trying to evade the deadly metallic rain as the waves produced by the sinking metal smashed against their hulls.

Dr. Eggman watched the results of his new defensive weapon from the comfort of his own quarters in the Egg Carrier 3. The widest smile imaginable had spread over his face. His shelling was driving the invaders to the west at bay and holding off the air force to the south. His power base was secure and construction of England's badnik and Dreadnaught factories should be complete within the hour. He rubbed his hands together and put his feet up on the table in front of him with a bowl of popcorn beside him.

"Doctor." Becoe began, his image appearing in a small caption at the top left hand corner of the screen. "The badnik attack force is ready."

"Excellent." Eggman replied with relish. "You can stop the shelling now. Order the attack. I want every single one of those ships on the bottom of the ocean."

All grew quiet as the loud crashes ceased and the deadly giant metal bullets began to grow less and less. Okida grabbed hold of his Mech's combat controls, its guns and weaponry still held at the ready. It wasn't likely Eggman would stop at defence so the other pilots also brought their Mech's out ready for any further attacks.

"This was a trap!" Okida snarled as his radar picked up a multitude of signals coming straight at them. "They wanted us to attack!" Out of the fog they came, hundreds of them it seemed. No larger than the average Laser Hunter robot but far more agile, flying through the air using the jets on their backs. Bulky robots with curved talons and laser rifles, engulfing the entire fleet like a swarm of locusts.

They attacked without mercy, firing a barrage of laser fire directly into one of the Raptor Mech's knocking it off the side of the ship and into the ocean.

Okida swung his Yahger's missile bays around and fired several projectiles straight at two of the small robots that came across his left. Showing tremendous speed they dodged them and then came straight across the Mech's side, tearing across its leg with their talons.

The Walker buckled, slamming down to the beck on its front, trapping Okida in the cockpit. Forcing it Yahger up, the major fired a barrage of heavy machine gun fire as the two as they curved through the air for anther pass. It managed to catch one of them knocking it down towards the sea, but the other flew straight at his cockpit, sinking a talon straight through the glass, nearly impaling the bat ion the metallic blades.

Snarling, Okida tore his pistol out from its sheath and fired over five rounds straight at the robot's head, leaving a good number of jagged holes in it's Cyclops like eyes piece. But still it kept coming, its cloven hand snapping at him. It came very close to slicing his face, but luckily its oversized arm had gotten trapped between the metallic frame around the cockpit.

These newest creations of Eggman where like nothing the major had ever seen, they greatly exceeded anything being developed by G.U.N technicians. Just how did that Doctor keep outpacing them in technology like this? It wasn't humanly possible!

Delivering a sharp kick, Okida forced the robot of his window screen and reassumed control of the mech. Looking around from his birds eyes view, the major could see these robots tearing into the fleeing boats. At this rate, they'd capsize the ships within a few minutes and everyone would drown. His sensors dipped and he looked down. His instruments were telling him that there were not too far from the French coast. In fact, he had visual, a thick grey line on the horizon to his left. That idiot captain had steered them the wrong way, they'd been going south not back west.

Slamming his fist down on the intercom button, the Major opened a channel to the bridge.

"Beach the ships!" He ordered. "We'll fight them on the land!"

Flip card 1:

Name ;Dr. Eggman

Age; (In his late forties)

Sex: Male

Species: Human…well, sort of.