Before we get to the story, I've got some disclaimers I'd like to issue:
- All official characters and locations belong to Sega and Sonic team. Otherwise, all characters and locations belong to me.
- Those of you who've read Freedom Series 3 may note a large leap from this story to the last one. That's because the Sonic Movie occurs between this fanfic and the last one. I suppose you could kind of consider the Sonic Movie to be Freedom Series 3 ½ in my chronology. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, don't worry. You'll learn all the important stuff that you'll need to know about it in Chapter 1.
- While we're on the subject of stuff you need to know to understand the plot, I've written this story so that you can understand what's going on even if you haven't read any of my previous fanfics. Although, to get the full enjoyment out of this fanfic, reading Freedom Series 1-3 is highly recommended.
- Now that we've got those things out of the way, enjoy the story!
FREEDOM SERIES 4: THE LAST OBSTACLE
Prologue: Too Easy?
August 1st, 2316 – 4:00 PM – Citnalta, Naeco
"Come on! Hurry it up! They're coming!"
"Move goddammit! We're gonna die!"
"Get that truck off the road! It's blocking the way!"
Similar cries were going up all over the place, as literally thousands of cars inched down the Lorac Highway Bridge going across the ocean. In the background, the city of Citnalta burned as Robotnik's soldiers attacked it. Amidst the shouting, horns blared, and the sound of gunfire and explosions thundered in the distance. People who'd given up on trying to drive out of town grabbed what they could hold in their hands, and took off running down the clogged bridge between the jam of cars and trucks.
An atmosphere of terror, anger, and confusion pervaded the entire area, affecting everyone that was in it. Despite the advance warning from the authorities that Robotnik was planning to attack the city, nobody seemed to be prepared for the invasion. Now those who had lagged behind were paying for it dearly, as they were getting caught in the middle of the fighting.
A thundering noise assaulted the people's ears, as Robotnik troop transports flew over the expressway. Their bright lights blinded people who tried to look up at them. The ships resembled nothing so much as giant black bird predators, preparing to snatch up their prey. A chorus of screams went up, as more people abandoned their cars and started running.
Robotic foot soldiers started to jump out of the drop ships. One landed on top of a green sedan, completely crushing the roof and the family of cats inside it. Others fell on top of people, and their weaker flesh and blood bodies quickly gave way to the more solid metal bodies of the soldiers.
Even as each soldier started to fall, they were already readying their laser rifles. Soon, the entire bridge was a light show of white stun beams flying everywhere. Many were gunned down instantly, and most of the ones lucky enough to survive the first wave of fire quickly weren't so lucky the next time. People leaped off the bridge into the water to get away, but it was hopeless. The soldiers on the bridges picked off the swimmers easily.
Adding further to the chaos, one of the drop ships fired a cannon volley at the bridge itself, sending up a huge explosion. Cars, cement, and people blasted up into the air amidst the flames, as an entire section of the bridge collapsed into the sea. Great plumes of water flew up, swamping anyone who was trying to swim away from the chaos.
But then suddenly, one of the drop ships exploded, and fell into the water. Everyone, including the robots, turned to look up and see what had caused the disruption. Another aircraft could be heard approaching in the distance, but this one seemed to be helping the civilians instead of attacking them.
Even with the Land of Darkness' perpetually dark skies, the aircraft started to become visible. A blue and yellow biplane appeared amidst the dark clouds, the noise of its engine seemingly filling the air as it got closer and closer. An emblem of two tails was visible on the tail wing, in addition to the word "SONIC" stenciled across the rear of the plane. Cheers rose up among the people as they recognized who was coming.
"Look! It's Sonic and Tails!"
"We're saved!"
"You robots are all dead now!"
The biplane fired off a series of yellow lasers, and they struck the side of another drop ship. The transport exploded in a geyser of flame and debris, before plunging into the bay below. Laser fire from the drop ships turned away from the people, and focused instead upon the new target.
The biplane went into a barrel roll, dodging all of the shots like they weren't even there. In response to the attack, twin streaks of white smoke flew away from the aircraft, streaking towards two more of the troop carriers. About seven seconds later, they were nothing but burning hunks of metal plunging downward to the water.
"All right Tails!" Sonic shouted out, as he stood on the top wing of the plane, looking back at his fox friend. "Great work!"
"Thanks Sonic!" Tails said, giving a thumbs up.
"Don't take all the fun though!" the hedgehog replied. "Drop me off on the bridge! I wanna do some of the fighting too!"
"Roger!" Tails replied, flying lower.
Meanwhile, Sonic unstrapped his feet from the plane's wing, as he prepared to jump. Tails was now flying directly above the Lorac Highway Bridge at a frightening speed.
Sonic wasn't phased in the least though, as he turned around and nonchalantly said, "See ya later Tails! Good luck!"
"You too Sonic!" Tails said back.
The hedgehog leaped off of the plane, going into a somersault. Even as he landed, he plowed right through his first soldier robot, shearing the machine in half.
"Thanks Mr. Sonic!" someone said.
Sonic turned around to see a young brown collie, looking no older than ten, smiling at him. The hedgehog smiled back.
"No problem!" Sonic replied. "Now hurry up and get out of here!"
"But my mom and dad are trapped over there!" the kid shouted, as he pointed at a large motor home in the middle of the road.
Two soldiers were firing inside the vehicle through the windshield, while another was trying to break in through the side door. Sonic looked back at the kid.
"I'll save them! Be right back!"
Sonic jumped up on top of an abandoned car.
Shouting, he said, "Hey morons! Don't you know that breaking and entering is illegal?"
All three of the soldiers turned away from the motor home and fired at Sonic. However, even before they fired the first shot, the hedgehog had already jumped down. The robot trying to break in through the side door quickly met his end, as Sonic smashed cleanly through his head. The other two soldiers ran around to the side to catch up with Sonic. However, by the time they got around to the side, Sonic had already run all the way around the vehicle and run them through from the back.
He then jumped into the motor home through the broken windshield, his feet crunching on the broken glass.
"Hey! I got rid of the robots!" he called out. "You can come out now!"
Two collies opened the bedroom door at the rear, looking immensely relieved. These two were definitely the parents of that kid Sonic had just seen. The mother's eyes widened in surprise.
"Wow! We just got saved by Sonic!"
The father just let out a sigh.
"I've had enough excitement for one day... Where's our boy?"
"You mean me dad?" the boy said, as he climbed in through the window.
"Son! You're okay!"
The family of three quickly hugged.
"Hey! Get out of here!" Sonic shouted. "There's probably more robots on the way!"
"You're right," the father said. "Let's get out of here, everyone."
The three collies barged past Sonic and ran out the door.
"Thanks again Mr. Sonic!" the boy said, as they left through the side door.
"Anytime kid!"
Sonic stepped out of the vehicle, and one second later a roaring explosion engulfed the entire motor home. The hedgehog was sent flying through the air, smashing into the guardrail on the side of the bridge. Sonic cried out in pain, as he curled his arms around his body to soothe his injuries.
Rolling to a stand, he looked to see what had caused the blast. A huge, black tank rumbled down the bridge in the opposite direction, crushing through the cars as if they were made of nothing more than paper. The tank paused for a moment, adjusting its aim to target Sonic, and then it fired. The shell landed between a pickup truck and a hatchback, causing both of them to go up in a roaring fireball. Fire spread to other vehicles in the area, which set off their gas tanks as well. The flames now covered one entire section of the bridge, blocking Sonic from getting to the tank. Or so the tank's driver thought.
Sonic jumped up on top of a semi parked nearby, and used the long trailer as a runway to build up some speed. He easily jumped across the roaring flames, and landed on the other side. The tank moved its gun to aim at Sonic, although the hedgehog was far too fast and the gun far too slow. Sonic jumped and went into a spin, flying straight towards the cannon's barrel.
Sonic cried out in pain, for the metal was too strong to break through. The hedgehog landed on his feet, and rubbed his head to soothe the pain. After a moment, he looked up and saw that while he didn't smash through the barrel, he did manage to bend it rather nicely. Sonic grinned, as an idea entered his head.
He moved to stand in front of the tank, and shouted, "Hey! Take your best shot! Right here!"
The tank complied, and fired a round. Unfortunately, since the barrel was bent, the shell couldn't get out, and so detonated as it hit the bent portion of the cannon. The ensuing explosion caused the entire top part of the tank to explode, sending metal shards flying everywhere. Smirking, Sonic dashed past the tank to take on his next opponent.
Up in the air…
Meanwhile, Tails had gotten the attention of Robotnik's jet fighters, although he wasn't worried. They were no match for the speed and maneuverability of the new Tornado 2 biplane. The fox went into a dive, and took off towards the beach at the other end of the city. He was flying so low, that he could see the waves crashing against the shore. It was a beautiful sight, although this was no time to dwell on it. According to his radar, the enemy fighters were right behind him.
Tails pulled back on the stick, sending the plane arrowing straight up into the air. Once he'd gotten significant altitude, the fox sent his plane diving back down towards the water again. Predictably, the jet fighters copied his move. Tails smirked, and engaged the afterburners. The sea below rushed up to meet him at a dizzying speed. At the last second, he pulled up. Tails could actually feel the ocean water spraying past the Tornado 2 for a moment, before the biplane hurtled back up into the air.
One of the jet fighters pursuing him was not so lucky though, as it splashed into the water attempting to imitate his maneuver. The other one was farther back though, and thus managed to avoid crashing like its counterpart. However, Tails was nowhere in sight as it pulled up. The jet's computer did a calculation, trying to determine where the fox could have gone.
Unknown to it, Tails had done a complete loop-de-loop. He flew in right behind the fighter, and unleashed a torrent of laser fire. The engines took the brunt of the attack, disabling them. Without any more power, the fighter plunged downwards into the sea, exploding as it hit the surface.
"Phew! That was great!" Tails said.
He looped back around, heading towards the city. More troop transports were headed for the bridge, and he had to shoot those down before they dumped more soldiers into the mess on the ground.
As he flew past the city, he saw the Freedomian Army was handling itself rather well. While Robotnik had more forces, they were all AI-driven, and even today artificial intelligence was no match for an organic brain.
He noticed the Freedomian Army holding a position on top of a parking garage with soldiers equipped with bazookas. Despite several Robotnik tanks advancing on the garage, the Freedomians had the upper hand. The AI-driven tanks only tried to attack by driving down one large street, which bunched them up nicely into a group. The Freedomian rocket launchers made mince meat of the tanks.
Grinning, Tails carried on back to the Lorac Highway Bridge going over the bay. More drop ships were approaching, although Tails destroyed nearly all of them on the first pass before they could deploy the soldiers within. The only two remaining quickly followed after a second flyby.
Tails grinned at his success, but static spitting forth from the radio cut off his little self-congratulation.
"Come in Miles Prower... Come in... This is the Freedomian Army, over."
Tails quickly picked up the radio. "This is Ta... Miles Prower reporting in, over."
Tails felt rather awkward using his real name, considering he was so used to being referred to by his nickname. Before he had time to mull it over, the person on the other end answered.
"We've secured control of the city, thanks to your and Sonic's help. We've destroyed most of the enemy, and the rest of his forces are on full retreat. Please land at Naeco International Airport for a debriefing."
"Roger, over and out..."
At the airport...
As Tails jumped out of his plane, a raccoon dressed in military garb and holding a large rifle came over to meet him.
"Miles Prower?" he asked.
"That's me," Tails said, as he hit the tarmac.
"Come with me. The general wants a word with you."
Tails nodded, and followed after him. He was quickly guided over towards a nearby hangar, where a Great Dane and Sonic were waiting for him. The dog wore a uniform with big rank insignias. Tails remembered his name as General Salt. He and Sonic had met with him several times before, due to them being part of the military as the Sonic Unit. Their late fathers Swift and Kyle had served under him as well. As Tails approached, the general saluted him, and Tails saluted back.
"Excellent work, both of you," he started. "However, there's something else I need to talk to you about. I'm sure you two notice that this attack has been rather similar to other attacks Robotnik has been launching all over the world for the past few months, right?"
"Yeah," Sonic said. "It feels like no real effort was put into this attack, with how quickly it was over. Not to mention, it was pathetically easy to destroy Robotnik's soldiers. I could have taken them on in my sleep."
"Same here," Tails said.
"It's almost like Robotnik's giving up, isn't it?" General Salt said, looking between them.
"Feels that way," Sonic answered. "It's actually getting kind of boring..."
"There wasn't a lot of property damage for such a big battle, and not to mention the loss of life was rather minimal," General Salt added.
"Yeah," Tails said. "It's been like this ever since Metal Sonic was destroyed."
Tails then realized he'd brought up Metal in front of Sonic again, and gave himself a mental kick. He turned to look at Sonic. Fortunately, apart from his eyes narrowing a bit, the hedgehog hardly responded. Tails inwardly sighed in relief.
Most of the time whenever someone mentioned Metal Sonic in front of Sonic, he got really depressed. Then, he started talking about how everyone was wrong when they believed it was best that Metal had been destroyed, because Sonic said he'd become good right before his death.
Putting aside the thoughts, Tails turned his attention back to the debriefing and General Salt's voice.
"You know," he started. "We could have probably handled this battle even without your help. The attack was that poor."
"Do you think Robotnik really has given up?" Tails asked.
General Salt shrugged. "I dunno what's going on in his head right now, but he won't be getting anywhere like this."
He gave a thin smile to the two of them.
"Anyway, you two can go on now if you like. We can handle the cleanup from here."
"Are you sure?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah... It'll be fine. We're bringing in supplies and doctors right now."
Sonic turned to Tails and smiled.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"Sure," Tails replied.
"Let's go then."
The two walked back across the airfield, towards the Tornado 2. Tails had a feeling of uneasiness though, now that the debriefing was over. It just wasn't like Robotnik to be so unenthusiastic about his battles. Had they really broken his spirit that badly after defeating Metal Sonic? Or was he planning something else? Whatever it was, Tails wanted to know about it, but he wouldn't be getting any answers soon, and that frustrated him.
Oh well. He'd have plenty of time to think it over. It wasn't like they would have much else to do once they got back to the hideout...