Author's note: I got my computer back from the repair shop sooner than I expected to. Here's the next chapter; sorry for the delay!
Now D.M. and N.S. have me torn. N.S. wants Leo to keep his human body, while D.M. wants the bird body back. I hate getting caught in the middle of something like this; there's no way to please everyone, so I have to settle for pleasing myself.
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Chapter 29: Seven Emeralds, Seven Heroes
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"What the-?" Both Eggman and I turned to look at the entryway, and we both balked upon seeing who was standing there. It was Tails.
"Looks like we didn't arrive a moment too soon," Tails commented. "I was able to trace the signal of your last call to its source."
"Well, how did you get here so quickly?" I shouted. "And just what do you mean by 'we'?"
Tails turned. "All right, everyone, come on!"
Nack stepped forward, as did W.T., Skyler, Kitty O'Brien, and Lightning Tiger. "What is the meaning of this?" Dr. Eggman demanded to know.
"Don't hold back, Leo," Nack yelled down. "We're here to help you."
"My brother told us everything," W.T. explained. "After what you did for us, we're happy to help you."
Even the Egg Dragon hesitated as I spoke to the crowd. "Thank you, everyone. I would never have made it this far without all of you helping me. Tails, your science improved me in new ways. Kitty, if not for that broadcast of yours, I never would've known to come to that base."
"What about me?" Skyler interjected.
"I didn't forget about you," I shot back. "The fiasco with you atop the Tower of the Sky taught me a valuable lesson: it's not the body that matters; it's the brains behind it."
Kitty jumped. "That's it! I have to take that line down. My viewers will love it!"
Tails swooped down and grabbed me, carrying me back up to the entrance. After giving him my thanks, I looked among my friends. "Listen," I began. "I have a plan that will require everyone's help, but if it succeeds, the Egg Dragon is going down. Here's what we do …"
I explained everything in a low volume, so Dr. Eggman wouldn't hear us. "Just execute your parts of the plan when I call out the numbers," I finished. "All right, let's do this!"
Those words said, Nack leaped down into the room and landed right in front of the Egg Dragon. Tails and W.T. jumped down together, as did Kitty and Lightning (those two were friends by now, I suppose). Skyler was last. I remained up in the entryway.
"One!" I yelled out. Skyler pointed, making a cloud in the middle of the room. "Two!" I followed, and Nack drew his gun and shot a … cork through the cloud, causing it to break and spill rain, just like I planned it.
Soon the room was flooded with a layer of water which was not interrupted by the Egg Dragon's force field, not that Dr. Eggman cared. I bent down to yell to Tails. "Tails! How deep is it?"
"Two inches," Tails yelled back.
This wasn't enough, so I yelled "One!" and "Two!" again. Skyler and Nack repeated their parts of the plan, and the water level increased. "Four inches," Tails yelled.
"Still not enough. One!"
And so it repeated, until I checked the depth again. "One foot, six inches," Tails told me, and that was sufficient, so I called "Three!"
W.T. recognized this as his signal, and he got into the surfboard position he'd used to transport me back in the Cave of Aqua. When Lightning heard my call of "Four!", he jumped on top of W.T.
My next call was a "Five!" which was W.T.'s cue to get moving. While he was moving, Lightning began to focus his powers and charge up an electrical pulse which levitated between his hands.
Meanwhile, Kitty heard my call of "Six!" and jumped onto an air grate two feet or so above the floor. Her claws were just the thing for clinging to it. "Seven!" prompted Tails to air-lift Nack above the ground, and "Eight!" was Skyler's indication to generate one more cloud and climb atop it.
"All ready!" Lightning suddenly yelled, indicating that his electrical charge was at full power. "Nine!" I responded, and Lightning balanced his charge over one hand while jumping up and using the other hand to grab Kitty's leg.
I didn't ignore W.T. "Ten!" I yelled, giving W.T. his cue to jump out of the water as he approached Skyler. Skyler grabbed W.T. and pulled him on top of the cloud he was standing on.
Now was the time for the finale. "Eleven!" I yelled, and Lightning dropped his charge into the water. Between Tails carrying Nack, W.T. and Skyler on top of Skyler's cloud, and Kitty and Lightning on the air grate, none of us were actually in the water.
The Egg Dragon, on the other hand, was overcome by the electrical pulse, since it was in the water, and the water wasn't kept out by the force field.
The electrification was sufficient to short-circuit the Egg Dragon and deactivate it and its force field. I jumped down once the electricity was dead, and the seven of us salvaged the Chaos Emeralds and the keycard.
"Now THAT is what I call a plan you can count on," Skyler joked. I felt like clobbering him for that one, but I held back.
Taking the keycard, Tails spun his tails and flew back up to Sonic's holding cell. "Don't worry about a thing, Sonic," Tails called, "I'm releasing you!"
Sonic looked up. "TAILS! How's Leo? Is he okay?"
"Well, yes and no… I'll show you when I've got you out."
Tails ran the keycard through the lock. After a few seconds, a red light came on. Confused, Tails tried it again, but nothing happened. After a moment of thinking, Tails realized the problem.
"Rats!" Tails said to himself. "The electrification must have demagnetized the keycard! It'll take a miracle to save Sonic now…"
Meanwhile, we had problems of our own. Dr. Eggman had managed to escape somehow, and on his way out he set the Death Egg III to self-destruct. This was not a good sign.
Self-destruct sequence activated, an electronic voice announced. Death Egg III will self-destruct in fifteen minutes. All electronic locks will now be automatically released.
Back at Sonic's holding cell, sirens filled the air. The lock suddenly popped open, and Sonic swung open the door.
"I guess that's as good a miracle as any," Tails said with a laugh. "Come on, let's join the others."
As Sonic and Tails jumped down into the mechanics lab, we all greeted them enthusiastically. I nearly hurt my hands when I tried to hug Sonic.
Suddenly, an evil laugh filled the air. Dr. Eggman stood in the door frame. "Are you planning to escape?"
"That was the plan," Skyler replied sheepishly.
"In that case…"
BEEP! Dr. Eggman manually shut the door behind him as he fled. Tails inspected it, but it wouldn't open again.
"Great," Nack muttered. "Now we're trapped in here, and without an alternate escape route, we're finished!"
As if that line were a stage cue, the air grate, which had been weakened by the combined weight of Kitty and Lightning, now fell off, revealing an open air shaft that was big enough to run through.
"Deus ex machina," Sonic joked. "Let's go!"
"Not so fast," I interrupted. "I've got to do something first. Everyone, pass me the Chaos Emeralds." Everyone complied, and I closed my eyes and concentrated my thoughts on them.
While I did this, I heard voices from my companions. "The Chaos Emeralds!" "They're starting to glow!" "I haven't seen anything like this before!" "I have, but not this way!" "I wish my cameraman was here; my viewers would love this!" "Kitty, for Pete's sake! Don't you ever think of anything besides that stupid show of yours?" "Hey, hey, hey, when you're a famous newscaster like I am, you're always thinking about your show."
There was a flash of light, and I knew that the process was complete. I passed the Chaos Emeralds over to Sonic, and examined myself to make sure it'd worked. It had; my feathered bird body was back on me, and I felt excellent.
Self-destruct will commence in twelve minutes, the electronic voice reminded us.
"This is much better," I commented. "Come on, let's get out of here! I saw a multi-seater spaceship in the hangar that should do the trick!"
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I think I'll drop it there. I've said more than enough for one chapter.
Quote of the Chapter:
"The door locked behind me. That was the first hint that something was wrong. The second was when a group of robots approached me."
-Narrator, Agent S, Ch. 1