Egg Port Factory Alpha, 13:05pm
"So Tails, what's the plan?" Sonic asked with a smirk.
"We split up into three separate teams. Amy, Shadow, you two will head down the left flank and cut off the generators for the Badnik factory. Tangle, Whisper, and Belle, we need you to create a quick escape route for when we defeat him. Normally this wouldn't be needed, but since this Eggman base is built on stilts above the water, whatever we end up defeating will probably take the base down with it."
"Understood." Whisper replied quietly, as Tangle gave a small thumbs up.
"Sonic and I will keep Eggman at bay until the rest of you have finished your tasks. According to Rouge, Eggman already has five of the chaos emeralds, so we need to act now before he has all seven. We want to put Eggman's plans to bed before any citizens get put in danger."
"Yeah, we've had enough trouble from him as it is." Sonic replied. "Ready?"
"Always." Tangle replied.
"Then let's go." Sonic responded. Sonic and Tails then dashed off to tackle the Eggman threat head on. Amy and shadow barrelled down the left flank, with Amy whacking the badniks in front of her while Shadow spindashed his way past the ones further ahead.
"You need to be faster, Amy." Shadow hissed. Amy wordlessly swung a motobug flying past his face in response.
"What do you want, a medal?" Amy retorted, smashing another badnik as she did so.
"Hmph." Shadow huffed, barrelling through another set of badniks as they rounded the corner into the generator room.
"There should be a power switch somewhere around here." Amy began looking around. "There!" she pointed out in front of her. "Want me to launch you over there?"
"No. I can do it myself." Shadow insisted, bouncing on yet more badniks before arriving at the console. Amy followed, whacking badniks as she went.
"You have the hammer." Shadow crossed his arms.
"Then get out of the way." Amy raised her hammer and swung at the console, shattering it and rendering the production facility inoperable.
On the other side of the facility, Tangle, Whisper and Belle were finding it a lot easier to get around.
"So what did Sonic want when he asked for an escape route?" Tangle asked.
"Sonic can't swim." Whisper replied quietly.
"Right. So we should look for a way that gets him to dry land." Tangle added.
"Like the way we came in?" Belle suggested.
"Yeah, but quicker." Tangle replied.
The three of them scanned the area around them for a bit. Whisper pointed forward to show them the way, and Tangle and Belle duly followed.
"Here?" Tangle asked. Whisper nodded, aiming her wispon at part of the wall and blowing it apart with a loud boom. Belle covered her ears at the sound of the explosion, before her attention was turned to the oncoming troop headed their way.
"Badniks!" she called urgently.
"Cover me." Whisper commanded quietly as she aimed at another section of wall.
"On it!" Tangle replied as she leapt into action, grabbing one of them with her tail and whack-a-mole-ing all the others in its wake. Belle was ready to kick any that came her way, but Tangle had it covered.
"Done." Whisper replied, having opened up another section of wall, creating a path underneath over the water.
"Then let's go." Tangle ran on ahead to catch up to Sonic, as Belle and Whisper followed behind her.
Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails were rushing forward and just about approaching Eggman's command centre. Tails leaned against the wall
"We go on three." Tails motioned. "1… 2…"
"Why bother? I can see what you're doing from here." Eggman cackled to himself. "Here, I'll even open the door for you. Saves me having to rebuild it." Eggman opened the door they were up against, as Sonic and Tails ran in.
"Well, well, well! If it isn't the blue buzzkill himself!" Eggman grinned evilly atop his eggmobile, rubbing his hands together.
"What's the matter, Egghead?" Sonic quipped. "Were you not expecting me?"
"Ha! Like I, the mercurial Dr Eggman, would miss a chance to put an end to the likes of you!"
"You sound serious." Sonic chuckled. "What did the doc order today? Mac and Cheese? Fried Eggs." He called out confidently.
"Hedgehog a la mode!" Eggman returned the insult. "Allow me to introduce my newest creation. Behold!" And he opened a shutter behind him to reveal a giant robot with 8 arms, seven of which were holding a gem of some kind.
"Prepare to meet Arm-egg-eddon!" Eggman announced proudly.
"Looks more like an Eggtopus to me." Sonic laughed. Tails watched the robot carefully to look for any weak points.
"Heads up, Sonic. Eggman's robot will probably try to use Chaos Control. And he seems to have the Phantom Ruby and the Warp Topaz as well."
"Oh great. A teleporting mecha." Sonic grumbled. "Thanks Tails! You work on getting the Emeralds free while I disable that extra arm."
"Roger." Tails responded.
"Open fire!" Eggman commanded, as the robot let loose a barrage of missiles from its shoulders.
"Incoming!" Tails warned, dodging a missile as he attempted to prise one of the emeralds from the robot's grasp. Then, demonstrating its power. The robot held a chaos emerald in the air and teleported to the other side of the room.
"I could keep this up all day!" Eggman grinned.
"So can we!" Tails replied, yanking the first emerald out of the robot's hand with all his strength. Sonic then spindashed into the free hand, which recoiled on impact, Sonic's razor sharp quills slicing the hand off the robot.
Sonic continued to dodge the missiles the robot was firing, sometimes managing to send a few back the way they came. The robot was unaffected though, since chaos control allowed it to teleport wherever it pleased.
"Tiring so soon, hedgehog?" Eggman mocked as the hedgehog wiped sweat from his brow.
"I'm just getting started!" Sonic replied back, arming another spindash and aiming at the robot's next free hand. The robot used chaos control once again, but this didn't matter, as Sonic's spindash bounced him from wall to wall until he hit is target, felling another one of the robots arms.
"Urggghhh, you're not getting the best of me!" Eggman growled. "Smash that hedgehog! With your fists!" He ordered, as the robot clenched his remaining hands into balls of metal and began pounding at the ground whilst Sonic and Tails continued to outwit it with their speed. The humungous rumbling noise it produced could be felt from all corners of the base, immediately alerting the others to Sonic's current battle.
Despite its inability to hit Sonic or Tails, Eggman and his robot seemed to have the upper hand, as its constant attacks gave the pair no time to think of an effective strategy. That was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Amy and Shadow, who busted through the doors, and Tangle, Whisper and Belle, who followed behind them, startling Eggman, who was not expecting such a large force.
"Oh, I see you brought your friends along…" Eggman chortled to himself. "Arm-egg-eddon! Grab them!" He barked, pointing angrily at the seven heroes scattered around the room.
The robot took his master's orders at his word, opening its hands to grab everyone, who were anticipating it's every move. Consequently, the emeralds, as well as the Phantom Ruby and Warp Topaz were flung into the air. As the gems were about to land, the Phantom Ruby and the Warp Topaz collided, setting off a chain reaction. A huge seam of Energy sparked through the two gems as well as the 5 chaos emeralds present, and everything became a flash of white.
Tails opened his eyes to see sky above him. Feeling very sore and incredibly groggy, he sat up and looked around. This place looked completely unfamiliar to him, and he'd seen most of the world already. Everything looked different, from the shades of the grass and the sky, to the patterns on the rocks. It felt natural, sure, but not the way he knew. Over in the distance, he saw a large concentric wall. Barricade Town had one of those, but this one looked vastly different. At last he stood up and looked around him seeing that city was the only thing for miles around. It was at this moment that it dawned on him what had happened.
"We were… fighting Eggman, in his base. And now I'm here. But where am I?" He thought to himself. "And where's Sonic?"