(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)
Flip card 2;
Name: Leviathan
Description: The third made General of the Machine Federation.
-
The ice cracked, splitting completely in two as a black monster heaved itself up into the air.
As soon as the massive front of the battleship sized General was up above the frozen surface of the water, the radar sensors on the top of its head began scanning the icy wastes around it. Few traces had been left by the escapes, but enough heat residues still existed to pin point in which direction they had gone. Not only that, but thermal imaging was showing the heat trail of a ship here by; although it was not able to pin point the exact location.
That ship of theirs had to be around here somewhere. It had to be under some sort of stealth mode, waiting until he or his forces got bored and left. Unfortunately for them, Leviathan could sit here all day waiting for them if he had to. Or better yet, he could make them move.
Divining back under the ice, the Metal X general scanned the underbelly of the frozen territory, searching for the exact spot he needed. If a ship that big was hiding, then it had to sit still. Any movement whatsoever would reveal their location. This in turn meant that their vessel was sitting on the ice itself.
Not for much longer it wasn't at least.
Several concealing pieces of armour all over his gigantic body pealed back to reveal a multitude of torpedo launching holes. Pausing only long enough for the clan robots serving as his crew to load the ammunition, the General launched a full barrage into the ice.
With a tremendous crashing sound, a geyser of icy cold water erupted up above the surface; blowing fragments of frozen water for miles before subsiding. The effect of that blast could be felt on the Blue Typhoon as the shockwave nearly tipped the ship onto its face. Big, who was still fishing 'Eskimo style', looked up as a dark shadow fell over him. The colossal body of the Blue Typhoon was swinging dangerous towards him, threatening to roll over at any moment and crush him. Exclaiming loudly, he grabbed what fishing equipment he could and his frog and bid a hasty retreat as the ship's hull rolled over his spot.
The explosion had done more than simply blow a hole in the ice. Cracks began racing up and down everywhere in sight as the ground beneath their feet became unstable, threatening to give way at any moment.
"The ice can't support the ships' weight anymore." Tails began, his fingers running over the controls at the main helm. "We have to take off."
"Even with the Holo-clock on they'll detect the engines firing up." Eggman warned him, complying with the demands for a lift off all the same.
"We'll just have to risk it." The fox replied, pulling back on the controls. Big made it back onto the ship just in time as the engines at the back of the ship roared to life, melting the snow and ice around them and with a sudden thrust; the Blue Typhoon as suddenly in the air. The sudden force of the take off nearly threw Big out the cargo bay door through which he had just come.
A moment later, the snow and ice for at least two miles began collapsing in a domino effect, sheet after sheet sinking beneath the waves before a gigantic hole was torn below them and out of which, the colossal form of the Metal X General; Leviathan slowly began to rise; every turret on his back rotating around to face directly towards."
This is Leviathan." A voice stated, projecting into the communications system of the Blue Typhoon. "Third General of Metal X, and leader of the Navy force clan." Eggman grunted; turning off the camouflage the Blue Typhoon was under. They knew where they were now, there was no point wasting energy with necessary stealth.
"Hey, I remember you." Sonic stated with a short grin, glancing down through the window towards the giant below him. "Boy you sure put on a few pounds." The blue hedgehog joked."
I assume you are the one you destroyed my fellow General Equinox and stole his Chaos Emerald?" Leviathan asked contemptuously.
"It was a team effort." Sonic replied. The Machine Federation leader remained silent for a moment, before he replied to the jest by opening fire on the vessel with a full barrage of missiles and laser blasts. "Some people can't take a joke." The Blue Hedgehog added as the ship shook under the assault.
"The Egg-shield is holding." Eggman reported. Since his vessel was partly his creation, he installed a couple of proven defences and offensive devices of his own which he thought might come in handy at some point. "Let me handle this Tails." The doctor added, looking back up towards the fox. Tails glanced down at him with a confused look on his face. "If there's one thing I know, it's how to win in this kind of fight."
"You didn't do too well against us." Sonic reminded with levelled eyes. Tails nodded and transferred all controls to the lower helm. Eggman gained a sadistic grin as a set of moveable key pads like the ones Tails had been using projected out towards him from the console. Taking one in each hand, the Doctor assumed control of the ship's movements.
"Why do I suddenly have this sudden sinking feeling in my stomach?" Amy asked out load. The Typhoon did a sudden left turn and the weapons on that side of its bulk all rotated around at once, their barrels pointing downwards.
"Target locked; nine-o-lock." Becoe told his master, whose grin expanded inanely as his thumbs slammed down on the trigger button. The air outside was suddenly full of laser fire as Eggman shot nearly everything he had done towards Leviathan. The General, who had not been expecting his degree of firepower was struck head on, a large sheet of the armour on his back riddled his holes before he descended back beneath the waters and disappeared.
"Launching depth charges." Decoe announced pressing a button in front of him. At the back of the ship, a large door opened and a large collection of round metal objects with the Doctor's face painted on them began dropping towards the water. Hitting the water they hardly made a splash, but as soon as they dropped a good distance below the surface; they began exploding with cataclysmic force. Water was sent flying up into the air and the ice around the edge cracked and broke off, widening the hole.
As soon as the explosions stopped, Eggman looked down towards the battered ground below. There was no sign of the enemy, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there. After a few moments with no counterattack, the Doctor sighed out load and leaned back in his chair.
"Incoming!" Chuck yelled up. Eggman looked up in confusion, trying to understand what was going on. But by then it was too late, like a whale; Leviathan shot out of the water and up towards them. While very submarine like, The General had mostly fish like qualities including a thick swishing tail at the back, fins and a large gaping mouth. A mouth which were wide open as the general soured towards them, dozens of metal teeth lining the inside.
"&$$ing hell!" Eggman cursed, grabbing the controls and slamming them right down. The Typhoon went into a nose dive, narrowly ducking under the metal lunge. Leviathan soured pas them by mere meters, carrying on over them.
"Hey, Free Willy!" Sonic commented; looking up as the whale like robot shot overhead before falling back towards the water again.
"Your mind's wandering again." Amy warned him. The Doctor, now annoyed, snarled and took hold of the controls; swinging the ship around to the right. The front cannons opened fired, hitting the General across his underbelly several times before he disappeared below the water.
"Direct hit Doctor." Becoe reported, but quickly changed his tune as, apparently undeterred; Leviathan curved around in the water for a second charge. Poking his colossal head above the surface, the Machine Federation leader opened his mouth opened as far as it would go and began gathered energy; the barrel of a laser cannon protruding from his mouth.
-
Bark had been in this prison for about two days now, served food only twice every twenty four hours and never let out of the cells. All the polar bear could see through between the bars was the cell on the opposite side of the corridor. The interrogators, being machines; apparently didn't understand the meaning of the word compassion. Every once in a while, one of them was taken away to be asked a few questions such as, what was their vessels weapon capacity, now many crew members on board what sort of thing. The room they took them to was obviously a torture chamber.
The interrogators strapped their subject into a metal harness and then fed a current of electricity through it. Not enough to kill; but enough to give the subject a great deal of pain. Bark had only been through the procedure once, and he was profoundly glad for that.
Eventually, he mused; they were going to start using mind altering drugs or something like that to pry information out of them. There was a loud clanking succession of foot printed and the polar bear pressed his nose to the bars, trying to see what was happening.
It was the guards, bringing the latest subject of 'interrogation' back to their cell. Two small, humanoid robots in what looked like swat gear were dragging a mobian by the arms along the floor. Bark grimaced. It was Tikal.
One of them pulled the cell door opposite from his open and the other shoved her in roughly. Once inside, they closed and locked the electronic device holding the door shut.
"You metal scum." Bean, who apparently didn't know when to keep his beck shut, shouted out from between the bars of his cage a little further down. "Do you get some depraved pleasure in torture?" One of the robots turned its head towards him. Slowly it marched over, reached through the bars and grabbed the duck by his bandana. It smashed him against the metal poles between them a few times, before releasing him; letting the mobian dropped to the floor.
"A machine can't be insulted Bean." Hare, in the cell on the left hand side of Bark's told him. The mobian rabbit had been through the interrogation more than the rest of them, and his brown fur had been torched a far lighter shade. "So save your energy you something productive."
The duck, who was now lying on the bottom of his cell, chuckled loudly as their guards marched away, their clanking footsteps becoming fainter and fainter. Finally they disappeared altogether as they left, a metal door shutting behind them.
"What's so funny?" Bark asked him. Bean sat up, another of his psychotic grins playing over his bill.
"I managed to break this off the metal guy when he grabbed me." He replied, revealing a thin piece of steal probably about no bigger than a hair pin.
"Oh great plan." Hare remarked sarcastically. "You can chip away at the bars with that piece of junk. It make take you a few decades, but we'll be out before we turn white I'm sure of it." Bean just shrugged.
"Not a bad idea, but I thinking more along the lines of picking the lock." With that, he put his arms through the bars and began fiddling with the square device that held the door shut.
"Careful…" Bark warned him. "It might be alarmed." Bean, who up to this moment had been calm, started sweating. A machine could easily be alerted by a silent alarm. They could already be on their way to rip his arms off or something. He wouldn't put it past that Dark Oak.
Tikal pushed herself up into a sitting position. Those robots didn't know the meaning of the word mercy. They kept asking her questions and when she wouldn't or couldn't answer they gave her a painful electric shock. But what distressed her the most was her complete isolation. While on this ship, or at least in the brig area; she couldn't teleport away nor summon assistance from Chaos or Maria. To make matters worse, she couldn't sense Shadow anywhere around here anyway.
A loud clicking was brought to her attention followed by a loud 'yah-ho!' from Bean's cell.
"SHUT….UP!" Hare hissed at him, trying to make him by quiet before he alerted something to their escape attempt. Bean clamped a hand over his beak and quietly as he could pushed the rusty door to his cage open. Once outside in the corridor, he looked around for the key card the robots used to open the doors. He couldn't waste time picking the locks of the other three. Eventually finding it tied to a hook on the wall near the entrance to the cell-bay, Bean quickly had them outside into the corridor.
Tikal was still quite weak and needed Bark's help in order to even stand on her own two feet.
"Ok, what's the next part of the plan?" Hare asked. Bean suddenly looked apprehensive. "You do have a plan right?" The mobian rabbit continued.
"Well er…" Bean hesitated. Hare smacked a palm into his forehead. "Hey, I'm working on it!" The duck told him, crossing his arms.
"Work faster!" Hare snapped.
"Look, HERE'S the plan." Bark told him, using his command voice to steer the conversation around from a punch-up. "A ship this big has to have a launch bay where they keep some fighter plans of some kind. We steal one and fly away." All three of them, Tikal included were left staring at him,
"That's all?" Hare asked eventually, spreading his arms out wide. "Well for a minute there, I thought we were going to have a hard time with it!" His tone was so sarcastic Bean grimaced.
"You got a better plan?" Since none of them could come up with anything even slightly better than that, Tikal included, they had little option but to adapt a strategy around Bark's idea.
Pushing the door to the cell bay open a little, Hare peeked outside to take a look. Greeting there was another corridor, this one just as dirty and dark as the first. Luckily, the two robot guards were not standing outside so the rabbit was free to push the door open completely.
"We have to find Shadow." Tikal told them as Hare double checked the coast was clear. "We can't leave without him."
"What makes you think he's even on this ship?" Hare asked as they ran down the corridor, one eye constantly kept on the look out for monitor's devices of any sorts.
"He's here alright." Tikal insisted. "Somewhere…above, on an upper level." She added after a momentary glazed expression.
"We don't have time." Bean told them as the rounded a corner, coming to a large metal door baring the way. "Any second now they're going to find out that we got out of the cages and they'll be combing the ship for us." He added, approaching the keypad on the side and attempting to crack the code. Suddenly a loud blaring nose erupted through the air and the lights above changed to a blood red.
"Like right about now." Hare commented dryly.
-
Leviathan's next assault was devastating. Laser fire, mixed with missiles bombarded the shield enclosing the Typhoon and it took all of Doctor Eggman's piloting skills to avoid getting them blown to pieces. Whenever a counter attack was attempted, the Machine Federation general simply dived beneath the surface of the water and when necessary under the ice where the thick sheet gave him adequate protection.
"This is getting us nowhere." Eggman declared, after a fresh round of weapons fire hit the side of the shield, causing he floor beneath their fleet to shudder violently. "We can't even pull out to fly away. We try that and he'll blast us to pieces." The Doctor looked up when he noticed Chuck worked at the controls next to him, his fingers a blur as he began typing away as fast as he could. "What are you doing?"
"He might be a powerful robot." The grey haired man replied with a short grin. "But he's still a machine. And all machines have an electronic brain, and an electronic can be hacked."
"You can hack into this oversized metal whale from here?" Tails asked, slightly in awe.
"Give me a minute to finalize the connections and I'll be inside his…"
"LOOK OUT!" Cosmo declared, jabbing a finger forward. Eggman looked back and cursed out load as he saw Leviathan jump clear out of the water and come souring towards them again. Water trailing from it's fins as it soured upwards, mouth wide open. If Eggman hadn't force his entire weight down on the controls, the damage to the ship would have been far worse. Instead however the giant general crashed straight into their shield the entire ship spinning to the side. Tails struggled to keep it aloft as Leviathan fell back towards the water.
"Doctor, the Egg shield is at maximum capacity." Becoe warned his master.
"Another hit like that and it will go offline." Decoe added.
"I'm well aware of the situation." Eggman replied with a short growl, righting himself up in his seat again. Chuck struggled back to the control panel, his fingers resuming typing.
"Just keep him off us for a few minutes and I think I might be able to deactivate some of his weapons."
"Well hurry it up." The doctor replied, turning his attention back to the matter at hand as Leviathan launched another set of missiles ground the ground.
"Tails, can you pilot that Turtle Mech down in the cargo deck?" Sonic asked up to his old friend.
"Sure." The fox replied with a quizzical look on his face. "Okida showed me earlier. Why you wanna know?" The blue hedgehog gained a superior smirk.
"I've got a plan." Amy suddenly grimaced, she'd seen that look and heard that tone of voice before. Sonic always adopted them when he was about to do something either very brave or extremely reckless. "Chuck…" Sonic called over. Chris' grandfather looked up briefly. "You keep trying to crack that code." The old man nodded and got back to work. "Eggman, I'll need you to follow Tails' instructions once he passes them on."
"Do I look like the 'obeying orders kind?'" The Doctor asked, making the ship fly up to what he considered a safe distance outside Leviathan's jump range. "Alright fine, as long as whatever you have in mind beats this thing."
"Hey, I was able to beat all your robots wasn't I?" The blue hedgehog asked with a thick smile.
"Don't remind me." Eggman said flatly, turning back to his piloting.
"What you need the Turtle for?" Tails asked, climbing down out of the helm.
"I'll explain on the way." Sonic replied, taking hold of the fox by the arm and racing off.
Leviathan scanned their ship from below the waters. The last few attacks had drained their shield and the vessels movements were far more sluggish. That last ram had done considerable damage to it's propulsion system, the general was willing to wager. He knew perfectly well Metal Sonic was probably going to tear him in half for destroying them, when he had it quite clear he wanted the pleasure of killing them, but what the robotic hedgehog didn't know was that many of his underlings felt that his obsession to hunt and destroy the blue hedgehog was putting their glorious Machine Federation in jeopardy. Once Sonic was gone, Metal Sonic would have no choice but to forget all about it.
Rising to the surface again, Leviathan poured most of the ammunition he had left into once last barrage, striking again and against and again against the point he detected their shield beginning to tear. Several missiles collided into it, an invisible curved wall around the entire vessel was momentarily visible and the chink in the armour Leviathan had been waiting for appeared. Whatever he had left, the general fired straight up and through that hole.
That armour plating on the hull held up, but still the shockwave alone was enough to knock the weapons offline. Eggman cursed again out load as the weapons controls died in his hands.
"I'm in." Chuck declared. "Online with host sever, downloading information."
Leviathan suddenly became aware of a information leek inside his brain. Quickly his diagnostic system traced the leak to a hacker, using a radio signal to remotely break in. And that hacker was somewhere on that vessel. It was trying to shut down his weapons systems, not only that but it was downloading information essential to the success of Metal X. That information could not be allowed to fall into the hands of their enemies, especially not the hedgehog!
Backing off to the edge of the ice, the general began gathering power to his propulsions systems. One last ramming attack would tear their vessel apart and end this quest for revenge their master had them one.
On the front deck of the Blue Typhoon; a large metal trap door slid to one side and a lift rose upwards; the G.U.N Turtle Mech rising into view, a curved tortoise like shape with a green armour back; four large legs supporting the weight. The large barrel of a cannon was protruding through the armour on it's back. Standing on the tip of which was Sonic, looking down towards the water with his arms crossed.
"I'm not so sure of this Sonic." Tails, who was sitting in the cockpit preparing to follow the blue hedgehog's instructions, although with a more than apprehensive look on his face.
"Trust me." Sonic replied. "I know what I'm doing."
-
(In Chris' voice)
Can Bean, Bark, Hare and Tikal escape from the Behemoth? And what about Shadow, will they leave him behind?
Sonic and Leviathan go head to head next time on Sonic X, Crash through the Ice. Don't miss it!