Chapter 9: Skyscraper a Go! Go!
"Helen!"
Flicking his rotary namesakes from behind, the orange kitsune launched himself forward seconds after making the startling realization that Eggman's stray missile was on a crash course for Chuck's car.
"Tails?" The blue hedgehog, whose gaze was previously affixed on Missile Wrist, twisted around to find his younger brother charging headfirst down the road. "Where are yo—" Tracing his path, Sonic gasped when he saw where the missile was going. "Damn, I need to juice!" As he was charging a spindash, however, he was struck by the oversized arm of the mech, sending him careening through a semi-truck and into the windshield of a parked car.
"Wooahhooohoohooo!" Eggman couldn't contain his laughter, watching as he basked in the delight of a well-earned blow. "See, Sonic! This is why you can never underestimate my brilliance! One false move, and it's roadkill for you!"
Tails heard the impact behind him, but he knew Sonic would be okay. Keeping his eyes on the missile, he noticed its trajectory rapidly declining. Diving to the side, and rolling into a ball, he avoided the resulting explosion, finding himself under a parked truck seconds before debris painted the vehicle. As the dust settled, he peeked his eyes out from under the pickup to find Chuck's car flipped over.
"Nooooo!" Running across the charred street, the young fox got on his knees to investigate the aftermath: everyone appeared okay, their seatbelts keeping them in place. Chuck and Helen's palms were touching the ceiling as Amy and Cream dangled aimlessly.
"Hang on you guys!" Tails yelled as he ran to the front passenger seat. "Are you okay, Helen?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she replied as she looked around. "How about you, Grandpa? Cream, Cheese? Amy?"
"Nothing a little missile can do to stop these old bones," Chuck replied with a hardy laugh. "But this…this is rather uncomfortable."
"We're fine," Amy added from the back, wrapping her arm around Cream. "We've been through worse, right, Cream?"
"Right!" She replied with a cheery smile.
"Chao, chao!" Clutching their master's ears, the chao flipped themselves over and began flapping their fairy-like wings, now floating next to the two Mobians.
"This is gonna be tricky," Tails opined as he opened the door and crawled forward. He couldn't just unclick the seatbelt, as she would just fall over and likely make her condition worse.
"Need a hand?"
Turning around, Tails smiled in joy as he saw Sonic standing next to him, a grin on his face but clutching his arm. Tails' smile quickly evaporated, replaced with a concerned frown.
"Sonic, you're hurt!" The young kitsune approached his older brother, but Sonic simply shook his head.
"Just a scratch. It'll take more than hurling me through a semi to bring me down!" The two heard Missile Wrist stomping about, trying to find its prey. "No time to chat. Let's get them out of there and then teach Egghead a lesson!"
"Right!" Tails replied with a look of determination, furrowing his brow as the brothers focused their attention back on the car. "Sonic, I need you to unbuckle Helen's seatbelt. I'll stick my arms out and catch her before she falls." Nodding his head in acknowledgement, the blue hedgehog got on his knees and crawled to the open door, his finger approaching the button as the orange fox got into position.
"Are you ready, Helen?" Sonic asked.
"Y-yeah," she replied, keeping a brave face.
"Pressing in three…two…one…and…" Clicking the red buckle with his gloved finger, she was kept in place by Tails' steady arms. Placing one palm behind her head, and the other against her back, the kitsune slowly pulled the young girl out of the car. Once she was entirely out of the vehicle, Tails returned to his feet and cradled her in his arms. Helen felt safe and secure as she rested her face against Tails' furry chest.
"Sonic, can you grab the wheelchair from the trunk?" Tails asked as Sonic stood up, dusting the pebbles from his knees.
"Sure thing, lil' buddy!" Zipping to the back of the car, the trunk was already partially opened, the wheelchair still secured by the bungee cord. Removing this cable, the blue hedgehog rolled the wheelchair to Tails, who gently set Helen down.
"Thank you, Tails! Thank you, Sonic!" She bowed her head in gratitude.
"No need to thank us, Helen," Tails replied while scratching the back of his head. "That's what friends are for, right?" The young girl chuckled as she gave him a thumbs up in response.
"There you are, you slippery vermin!" The three spun around to find Eggman, floating alongside his mech, now with bent legs and arms raised in a fighting stance. "I don't know what's worse: you being afraid of a little fight or thinking you could escape from my clutches. Wooahhooohoohooo!"
"Dream on, Eggface!" Sonic retorted as he rubbed the base of his nose. "With your terrible aim, you put people's lives at risk. I just had to take an intermission to help these folks is all."
"Help these folks, you say?" Eggman snickered as he pointed at the trio below. "Missile Wrist, ATTAAAACK!" Raising its arm, the mech aimed at the young girl and fired, shooting its arm like a deadly projectile.
"Helen!" Sonic and Tails yelled as they simultaneously charged a spindash. Letting themselves fly, the two collided with the large fist, sending the arm flying back and hitting Missile Wrist in the chest, causing it to fall to the street below.
"Sonic, you distract the mech while I get everyone else out of the car!" Tails pointed at Missile Wrist, who was already getting back up.
"You got it, little guy!" Sonic replied with a thumbs up. Charging another spindash, the blue hedgehog sped toward the robot, jumping onto its head and peering up at the evil scientist controlling the death machine. "Hey, Eggman!" Sonic proceeded to stick his tongue out while pulling one eyelid down with his middle finger. "I bet you can't catch me!" Adding another rude gesture to the mix, he turned around and slapped his behind.
"Wise guy, I'll show him!" Sonic's taunting worked perfectly; Eggman's face was now red with rage, and his fists were shaking. "Missile Wrist, I don't want you to stop until you've annihilated that blue buffoon off the face of this miserable planet!"
"You'll have to catch me, first!" Sonic launched himself off the mech's head and dodged the laser blasts the robot shot from its chest. "Hey, over here!" With a long whistle, the blue hedgehog proceeded to run up the side of a tall skyscraper.
"How foolish!" Eggman jeered. "If his concern was to limit casualties, then he utterly failed!" As if reading his creator's mind, Missile Wrist tore through the front entryway of the building. Stepping into the center of the lobby, nearly trampling over the panicking pedestrians, the mech lifted a single arm up to the ceiling like a superhero and activated its thrusters, launching itself through the various floors before eventually crashing through the roof.
"You may run," Eggman declared, floating alongside his creation in his Egg Mobile atop the building, "but you can't hide."
"Run?" Sonic laughed. "I don't ever need to run from you. I figured fightin' up here would be safer than dukin' it out in the streets."
"Safer, ay?" Eggman pointed to the hole in the roof. "Given all the damage we already caused, your calculation was a bit…inaccurate! Wooahhooohoohooo."
"Regardless," Sonic replied as he took a few steps forward, gently clutching his bruised arm before taking a fighting stance, "your little rampage ends now!"
"Oh? I'd love to see you try to stop me. Missile Wrist, attack!"
As the blue hedgehog and the mechanical menace were exchanging blows atop the skyscraper, the orange kitsune was hard at work removing his friends from the car. He started with Cream, unbuckling her seatbelt and gently pulling her out of the vehicle, placing the rabbit on her feet.
"You doing okay, Cream?" Tails asked as he wiped the dust from the young bunny's shoulders.
"I'm doing better now, Mr. Tails!" Cream replied with a smile.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese added, landing back on the young bunny's head.
"And now for Amy…" The young fox repeated this ritual for the pink hedgehog, who expressed her thanks with a warm hug. Finally, Tails opened the driver's door and unbuckled Chuck's seatbelt. Given his size, he didn't require much assistance getting out, and he swiftly joined his Mobian friends along the side of the road, observing the people running out of the building invaded by Missile Wrist moments earlier.
"Sonic is up there fighting Eggman all by himself!" Amy exclaimed as she withdrew her Piko Piko Hammer from her hammerspace, flames growing in her eyes as she stomped forward.
"Wait, Amy!" Tails rested a palm on her shoulder. "We need a strategy before rushing in to help Sonic."
"What's there to plan?" Amy asked as she spun her hammer around in her hands. "We should be able to take down Eggman with our combined strength." She swung her weapon in the air.
"What I'm saying," Tails replied, "is that maybe Sonic lured him away so he could take on the mech by himself, reducing the probability of collateral damage or injury to his friends. Plus," he continued, raising a finger to the air, "the skyscraper above is not wide enough for all of us to take on Eggman safely. There's a good chance we will fall off."
"You can just fly us back to safety, though, right?" Amy asked. Chuck, Cream, and Cheese's eyes wandered between the two as they argued.
"Assuming I'm not busy or incapacitated," Tails replied. "I just don't want to see anyone here get hurt, and I'm sure this is part of the reason why Sonic chose to run up the building: to limit the size of the playing field."
"I guess you're right," Amy said, giving up on her arguments as she returned her weapon to hammerspace, her downcast face pointing to the cement below.
"Don't feel bad, Amy," Cream said, pulling at the hedgehog's red dress, "we can always help out the injured, right?"
"…Yeah, you're right, Cream! The pink hedgehog lifted her in the air before giving her a big hug. "Let's go provide some supp—" She was cut off by fast-approaching sirens. Off in the near distance were multiple vehicles with flashing lights heading straight toward them.
Chuck grabbed Cream's hand. "Everyone, get off the road!" Amy and Tails followed Chuck and Cream as they made their way to the relative safety of the sidewalk, watching as the ambulances drove past and stopped near the destroyed entrance of the building. The medical personnel leapt out the back of the emergency vehicles and started tending to the injured. Next came multiple fire trucks, the firefighters connecting their hoses to the hydrants, ready to tackle any potential flames. Finally, various police cruisers arrived at the scene; several officers poured out of their cars and entered the building in gas masks while the others helped the medical personnel with the injured.
"It looks like they already have things covered," Chuck observed as he put his hands in his lab coat pockets. "In fact, we would probably be in their way if we offered any assistance, not to mention the fact they have never seen Mobians before…we could just make things worse."
"But still," Tails replied, "it would be nice if we could help…" Slight pangs of guilt and self-doubt started to fill his mind, reminded of when he felt like a miserable failure not long ago, when his capture by Eggman forced Sonic to go super, whereby losing the Chaos Emeralds, followed by his inability to get his Chaos Emerald detector invention to function. He had since got the devise to work, and even went super himself in his last confrontation with Eggman before Chaos Control sent them all on a one-way trip to Earth, but unlike their last battle, where he played a pivotal role, he felt more like a bystander than an active combatant. (1)
Tssssstt, Tails? Can you read me?
"Huh?" Glancing at his wristwatch communicator, he found an image of Knuckles the Echidna sitting in an all too familiar cockpit. "Hey, wait a minute…are you in my plane? How are you even piloting her?"
"It's not too complicated," Knuckles replied, "but the tricky part will be picking you guys up."
"What do you mean?" Tails asked as he tilted his head in confusion.
"Look up."
The gang peered into the sky to find the Tornado flying in a holding pattern, performing figure eights as its pilot tried to determine his next objective.
"You can't fly all the way down here, Knuckles," Tails replied with concern in his voice. "It's far too dangerous, and the odds of hitting a traffic light or a pedestrian are too high."
"Yeah, I know," Knuckles grumbled. "Can you guys get up here and help Sonic by yourselves?"
"Even if we wanted to," Tails replied, "we decided against it. Sonic led Eggman's mech away to minimize casualties, and besides," the young fox rubbed his nose, "Sonic's taken care of more deadly mechs than this one in his sleep! Maybe you should just stick around as back-up?"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Tails," Knuckles said as he peered down at the battle below with binoculars.
"Wh-what makes you say that?" Tails' voice cracked as his arm started to gently shake.
"The fight looks more evenly matched than you'd think. Sonic's weakened from the surgery, remember?"
"That's right," Tails replied with a snap of his fingers. "Plus, he sustained a big hit earlier while fighting Eggman's mech."
"So…what are you thinking?" Knuckles shifted his focus on the group below.
Rubbing his temple with his gloved fingers, an idea came to him. Turning to Amy, he said, "I could fly us up there with my tails. I should be able to get just high enough for Knuckles to pick us up in the air."
"Sounds like a plan!" Amy exclaimed as she exchanged a fist bump with the prodigious kitsune.
"You catch that, Knuckles?" Tails asked.
"Loud and clear," he replied as he started increasing the radius of his flight pattern.
"You ready, Amy?" Tails asked as he bent his legs and started spinning his rotary namesakes.
"I'm always ready to rescue Sonic in his time of need!" she replied with stars in her eyes.
"Then let's g—"
"Wait!"
Tails let his namesakes droop, spinning around to find Cream addressing the group, arms raised and hands balled into fists.
"I want to go, too!"
"Chao, chao!" Cheese added with an equally serious furrowed brow.
"But Cream," Amy replied, placing a hand on her shoulder, "this mission's going to be dangerous. Maybe you should just stay with Chuck?"
"I've gone on many dangerous missions though," Cream sternly replied.
"Well yeah, but not by choice," Tails retorted. "Remember what happened last time, when Eggman captured you and held you prisoner?"
"I was overpowered!" Cream exclaimed. "You saw all the Badniks I destroyed before Eggman captured me, right?" (2)
"Oh, I saw them," Amy replied, recounting the visit she and Sonic took to Vanilla's home to console the grieving mother whose daughter was recently taken against her will. "You did an amazing job, but Vanilla's backyard's gonna need some serious work." (3)
"We don't have time for this!" Tails yelled, starting to lose his patience. "Amy, grab ahold of my ankles. Cream," the young fox started spinning his namesakes once more, "we'll see you later."
"But wait!" Cream extended an arm out as Tails hovered in place, just high enough for Amy to grab his legs.
"Now, now," Chuck patted the young bunny on the shoulder, "it'll be okay. What about we go get some ice cream while your friends take care of Eggman?"
"But I don't want ice cream!" Cream retorted. "I wanna help save Mr. Sonic!"
"Tails, Amy, and Knuckles will be more than sufficient, I'm sure," Chuck replied, trying to reason with the distressed rabbit. "Besides, I don't think they would wa—" The aging scientist gasped as Cream lunged forward, gripping Amy's ankles.
"Ohh, what is that?" Tails wondered out loud, noticing the sudden shift in weight. He peered down to find Cream dangling below Amy. "Cream? I thought we told you to stay behind."
"Too late now!" Cream replied with a mischievous grin.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese added from between her ears.
"Well…" Tails was already higher than several of the buildings, and he was within 20 seconds of crossing paths with Knuckles and the Tornado, "…okay Cream, you win, but you're so grounded when we get home."
The orange kitsune shifted his focus on the biplane. "All right, gang, we gotta time this right. Cream, let go of Amy on my command." Tails aligned himself perfectly with the oncoming biplane, hovering a mere few feet from the propeller. "Now!" Cream let go, landing gracefully in the backseat of the cockpit.
"What about me?" Amy asked, peering up at the orange fox.
"When Knuckles circles back around," Tails replied, "you will need to drop into the cockpit, too."
"But what about Cream?" Amy asked.
"Knuckles, have Cream sit in your lap," Tails said into his communicator.
"Already on it," Cream replied from the back seat, flipping over the front seat and surprising the red echidna as she planted herself in his lap. "You're good to go!"
"Chao, chao!" Cheese added as Cream gave tails a peace sign and stuck out her tongue.
"I swear, that girl hangs around Sonic a little too much." Shaking his head, Tails aligned himself with the center of the aircraft once more, and on his call, the pink hedgehog let go of her grip on his legs, landing in the back seat.
"And now for me…" Tails hovered in place and waited for Knuckles to circle back around once more. With ease, the fox grabbed hold of the left-most wing, clasping onto his plane as Knuckles kept a steady flight path, gradually increasing his altitude so they could reach the top of the skyscraper.
"How are you doing out there, Tails?" Knuckles asked through his communicator.
"I'd much rather be in there right now," he replied as he tightened his grip. Thankfully, they soon made it to the roof, watching from above as Sonic was breathing heavily, a single hand against his lower belly.
"What's the matter, Sonic?" Eggman taunted. "Are you tired already? Missile Wrist has only just warmed up, and you're sweating bullets!"
Damn…if only I had more time to recover from the surgery…
The blue hedgehog tightened his fists as he stared into the eyes of the mech. Assuming a fighting stance, Sonic allowed the robot to make its next move.
"Oh well, it's your funeral! Missile Wrist, do your thing." The evil doctor increased his altitude, pulling out the recently prepared popcorn from the portable microwave installed in his console. "Why am I not filming this? To think my weakest mech will be the one to take down Sonic once and for all? This was a piece of cake. Wooahhooohoohooo!"
Missile Wrist approached the blue hedgehog and shot some missiles from its chest. Sonic spindashed forward, using each projectile as a launch pad to reach his mechanical target, hitting the robot in the head and causing it to lose its balance. Steadying itself with its arms, however, Missile Wrist only appeared to take minimal damage. Within seconds, it proceeded to launch its right arm at the blue hedgehog, surprising even him with its quick reflexes and fast recovery speed.
"Ahhhh!" Sonic was launched across the roof, nearly rolling off the edge. Shaking his head, the blue hedgehog slowly pulled himself up. "Man, today's not my day, is it?"
"You have nowhere to run, Sonic!" Eggman cried as Missile Wrist aimed its right arm at the blue hedgehog, who was now teetering on the edge of the building. "Have any last words?"
"Yeah," Sonic replied. "I'll have a dozen chili dogs, with the works!"
"You insolent fool!" Eggman retorted. "This isn't a game, and this is certainly not a fast-food restaurant. No…this is the beginning of your demise!"
"Say goodnight, Sonic!" Missile Wrist launched its arm at the blue hedgehog, but just before the strike could land, a large hammer collided with it, sending the arm flying.
"Sonic!" Amy cried, running toward her blue boyfriend. She gave him a nice, long hug.
"Nice save there, Ames!" Sonic greeted as she rubbed her back. "I owe ya one."
"Two!"
"Two?" Sonic tilted his head in confusion as he gently withdrew from the pink hedgehog's hug.
"Remember? You still owed me a date, so now I get two dates!"
"Ohh yeah, when I told you to stay in the plane back at Eggman's headquarters, but you ended up falling out!"
"Aaaand you said it didn't count," Amy replied with a grin. (4)
"True," Sonic said as he ran a hand through his quills. "All right, Ames, just add it to my tab."
"I hate to interrupt," called Eggman from above, "but your lovey-dovey rescue plan is about to go up in flames! Missile Wrist, destroy the two love birds at once!"
The mech stood quietly, failing to acknowledge its master.
"Missile Wrist? Wash the oil out of your ears and listen to your creator!" Eggman pleaded, but it had no effect. "But how? It was fully charged and runs off solar energy!" The evil doctor peered into the sky, the sun as bright as ever. "No…it can't be dead…it must've been tampered with…" Eggman heard some clanging from behind the mech. "by none other than Tai—" Eggman gasped as he saw a set of long bunny ears pop out from behind the head. Flapping her ears, the young bunny used them to elevate herself and land on top of the mech, arms on her waist as Cheese floated nearby.
"Cream!? You deactivated Missile Wrist?" Eggman asked in bewilderment.
"Not at all," she replied with a smirk, "but I can certainly deactivate you." She maintained her innocent smile, despite her threatening words.
"What, you? Don't make me laugh!"
"I'll have to demonstrate." Furrowing her brow, she signaled for Cheese to return to her palm. The blue chao complied, sitting in her hand moments before the young bunny pulled her arm back, bending her knees to secure herself for a supercharged throw. "I hate violence, but you've left me no choice."
"Oh no…" Eggman experienced a flashback of his encounter with the young bunny at her home, the gruesome slaughter of nearly his entire band of Badniks leaving a lasting impression on the evil mastermind.
"Here it goes!" Cheese rolled themself into a ball as Cream launched them toward the evil mastermind, bouncing off the unshielded Egg Mobile and sending the doctor flying through the sky.
"Cuuuuurse thaaaaat raaaaabiiiiit!" Eggman cried, his voice becoming less audible as he disappeared into the horizon.
Returning to her arms like a boomerang, Cheese peered up at their owner, as if asking if they did a good job. Cream nodded at them with a smile, causing the small chao to enter a victory dance as their owner laughed in delight.
"Good work, Cream!" Sonic said as Cream fluttered down to the roof of the building.
"Yeah, way to go!" Amy added. "You and Cheese make a really mean team!"
"Just like Sonic and I!"
They turned to find Tails sitting on top of Missile Wrist's head, his feet dangling from the top as he spun a screwdriver around his gloved fingers, a grin across his face.
"So it was you who stopped the mech!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Yep!" Tails replied as he scratched the base of his nose with the handle of his tool. "I needed more time to fully deactivate the robot after the initial shutdown, so Cream and Cheese provided the perfect distraction. Defeating Eggman was only icing on the cake!"
"Right on!" Sonic gave the bunny and her chao a thumbs up, which the two returned with warm smiles. This was followed by a warm, loving hug from Amy. Gently releasing her grip on the young bunny, she stared up at the large mech.
"What are we gonna do about that thing?" she asked, pointing at the deactivated robot.
"We should probably be more worried about that." Tails pointed up at the sky to find a news helicopter hovering in place. Inside they could find a cameraperson recording the scene before panning back to an orange haired reporter in the passenger seat.
"This is Scarlet Garcia," she said into her microphone, "and as we have just witnessed, these furry aliens defeated Dr. Eggman when, just moments earlier, Station Square's police department were unable to subdue him. I'm receiving reports that some of the aliens atop the skyscraper are the same ones who escaped from Area 99, although the Department of Defense has yet to verify these claims…and what's this?"
The camera panned outside to find several police helicopters hovering nearby.
"It looks like the Station Square Police Department is looking to investigate the scene. Will these aliens take questions from the police, or will they attack? Or maybe run away? Let's find out."
"We need to get out of here," Tails said to the group as he slid off the mech's head and landed on the roof of the building. He pulled his wristwatch to his face. "Hey Knuckles, there's a rope ladder in the back compartment. I need you to affix it to the door of the biplane and fly over us. Can you do this?"
"Would've been easier if we used that the first time," Knuckles grumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" Tails asked.
"Oh, ummm…nothing," Knuckles replied tersely. Activating autopilot, the red echidna unfurled the rope ladder and draped it out the side of the aircraft before swooping back around and flying over the skyscraper.
"Okay guys, let's go!" Tails shouted. The orange fox was first, quickly climbing up and sitting in Knuckles' lap, taking over the piloting. Next was Sonic, who sat in the back seat alone until Amy climbed up next, sitting in his lap, the blue hedgehog struggling to hide his blush. Finally, Cream and Cheese took their positions in Amy's lap, filling the biplane to an unsafe capacity, but still acceptable in a pinch.
"Time to return to Helen's house!" Tails declared. "But first…" Dialing a number into his communicator, he soon heard Helen's voice answer the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey Helen, it's Tails!"
"Tails! How did it go? Are you guys safe?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Tails replied softly. "We defeated the mech and just need to escape the police before returning to your place. Can you and Chuck make it home?"
"We already have that covered!" Helen replied, sitting in the back of a taxi along with her grandfather. Her wheelchair was secured in the trunk.
"Sounds great! Just be safe, and be sure to watch out for Eggman and his robots. You never know when they'll strike."
"Thanks for the warning," Helen said with a smile. "We'll see you later, Tails!"
"Bye!" Tails waved into the watch, forgetting the young girl couldn't actually see her through the outdated screen of her basic flip phone.
As their new human companions set out for the quiet suburbs, the Mobians flying above took a roundabout route, first escaping the police before finally setting a course for what would become their home base of operations.
That about wraps this one up! I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. As always, feel free to leave a review if you want to share your thoughts or feedback, and if you'd like sneak peeks and writing updates, my social media accounts are listed on my FFN account.
Now that we're well into the sequel to A Prelude to Chaos Control, I have decided to borrow TGN's post-chapter note system to refer to chapters of the prequel. Thanks for the idea, TGN!
1: Tails' journey of repairing his self-esteem is documented throughout Prelude.
2: See Prelude chapter 9: "Loss of Me".
3: See Prelude chapter 12: "A New Plan Unfolds".
4: See Prelude chapters 19 and 20: "Escape from the Base" and "What I'm Made Of (Part 1)", respectively.