Sonic eXcluded
I do not own Sonic, Tails, Amy etc. Douglas Smicktor is my character, so you no use.
Intro
Doctor Eggman frowned, looking down at the large blueprint in front of him. He had looked over this particular plan many, many times. Sometimes to make modifications, sometimes to use as reference for helping to make other blueprints. But this was actually the first time he had sat down, and actually studied it with the intent of bringing it 'to life'.
It was not going to be an easy task, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, this was not his own plan. He had inherited it from his father, Doctor Julian Robotnik. The same Robotnik with an unhealthy obsession of replacing his mortal body with machinery. The same Robotnik who had taken over Mobius, casting nearly all of its royal family members into something known only as 'The Void'. The same Robotnik who had caused the Great War between himself and almost every furry on the planet.
Julian was a master of mechanics, but had a strange way of working. He preferred to work on small projects and huge projects. Rarely did he attempt any 'middle-sized' projects. Which explained why the mass-produced 'SWAT-bots' were all basically the same, and therefore easily beaten. Small projects, such as the 'Spy-Orb' and his own physical enhancements (He replaced his arms with mechanical ones, and most of his brain and senses with computers. He was said to have two sinister looking LED sensors instead of eyes).
His huge projects were certainly that. Robotropolis, the centre of Julian's empire, was a whole city built of steel, metal and machinery. A robotic city, hence it's name.
Eggman happened to be looking at another such plan. But not of a city. It was of something entirely different. Something so sinister, so ingenious, and so dangerous, that the Freedom Fighters did everything in their power to stop it from being created. When spoken of, many people actually shivered with fear, such was the effect of its mere mention.
Project Doomsday.
AKA 'The Death Egg'.
Doctor Ivo Robotnik, nicknamed 'Eggman', is the son of Julian Robotnik. And although sharing the same mechanical minded genes from his blood (The Robotnik family had a history of high IQs and technological skills, as proven by Eggman's grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik), Eggman knew that if he were to build this 'Death Egg', it would be the biggest thing he'd ever attempted. Which was the problem. The plan was complex, and required a level of skills that Eggman had yet to attempt to use.
To say it would be a challenge would be an understatement.
This leads into the second problem. When saying that the 'Death Egg' is a huge undertaking, words do not really do it justice. It would require not only a lot of time, effort and wielding, but metal.
That was something Eggman simply did not have enough of right now.
When the Chaos Control warped Eggman and his fortress to this planet called 'Earth', it only took the robots currently in the base at that time. The stockpile of metal that Eggman used when building a machine was located far away from the base so was not taken.
Sure, the Doctor had an emergency stockpile, but that was running thin. Especially after the failure of 'Grap-Lor'.
There were also various other problems that did not relate to the 'Death Egg' plan. Sonic and his friends are still a threat, and have one Chaos Emerald. The rest have yet to be found. Eggman had his suspicions that other people from Mobius were taken into this world by Chaos Control. News reports and intelligence seem to state that a large portion of 'newly discovered land' has appeared. Access to this area has been blocked off until further investigation. Not that anything this planet could offer could prevent Eggman from taking a look for himself.
It also seemed that the government of this world was watching Eggman. Not too long ago did his sensors pick up what seemed to be a spy team monitoring activities on 'Eggman Island' itself. It also seemed that there were spy satellites watching Eggman's base as well.
'Bothersome.' Eggman thought. 'All that technology is being wasted! I could put it all to much better use!'
Eggman stroked his moustache thoughtfully as he continued to think up his next move.
'The poor humans, they rely on those things far too much, just like that thing called the 'Internet'. I mean, all sorts of nonsense is put on that! Like that weird website about 'fanfiction'! Imagine! People wasting their time reading about that blue rodent Sonic, and not about me! It's preposterous!'
Eggman shook his head a little.
'They use those satellites for communication, television, monitoring the world… All that potential just being wasted!'
Eggman smirked a little at the idea, when another one came to his head.
'Wait… It seems that they ARE relying on those satellites a lot!' He thought. 'Hmm… That gives me an idea!'
Immediately, Eggman rose from his chair, and left his studying room in a grand gesture, even though no one was in the room. He walked out the door, his boots causing a sharp clanging sound to emanate every time they took a step. As the Doctor walked, any robot carrying out orders quickly stopped what it was doing, and saluted its creator.
They were programmed to do so of course. Giving robots a degree of free will and thinking could be a dangerous thing. Proof of that was…
"Hiya Doc!" The high-pitched voice of the messenger of the Eggman Empire, Bokkun, came out of the robot that appeared in front of Eggman.
"…" Eggman said nothing, smiling a little and brushing past the hovering machine.
"HEY!" Bokkun was insulted by that action. "WHAT 'CHA THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
"Sorry…" Eggman said over his shoulder, not really feeling sorry at all. "But I have a plan to put into action."
"Huh? Hey, a plan?" Quickly, Bokkun put his jet pack into action, flying up and staying level with Eggman. "Can I help? Huh? Canicanicanicanicani?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Eggman said, trying his best not to be annoyed by the child-like robot as he walked up to a reinforced door that towered up to the ceiling.
The Doctor placed his hand onto the handprint, and waited as the door checked it.
"Access granted." The door's computer system stated. "Welcome back Doctor."
The doors opened up, and Eggman walked into his command room, with Bokkun following.
"Decoe!" The Doctor said as soon as he entered. "Bring me my E-Series cards!"
"Right away Sir!" The golden robot replied, quickly getting up from the small table he was at, and rushing off to get the requested cards.
Bokkun flew over to the table where Bocoe was still knelt on a cushion at. The table had cups, saucers and teapots on it. Odd, since robots don't drink tea. Or consume anything, especially since neither Decoe nor Bocoe have mouths. But enough with pointing out flaws in the plotline.
"Here are your cards Sir." Running up to the Doctor, who was by now sat in front of his main computer, with the deck of cards on a sliver platter.
Without acknowledging the action, Eggman took the cards and pressed a large button on the consol.
"Computer, I need something capable of collecting satellites without damaging them, AND has the ability to make a quick getaway." Eggman stated, placing the cards into the slot opened up by the button press.
Closing the slot's lid, Eggman reached over and pulled down the handle, activating the 'Robot Reels'. The Doctor sat back and watched as the reels on the computer screen spun, before each came to an abrupt halt on the same image.
"Perfect!" Eggman smiled at the picture, before turning around and throwing his fist up into the air in a victory pose. "Have Gobblein depart immediately!"
In the underground holding bay of the island, 'Gobblein' aka E-90, was slowly being lifted up to launch position. The robot was strangely constructed, and was mainly painted green. The front had a slanted head with a red tip, yellow 'accessory' headgear, and cold blue eye sensors. On the robot's main body were many holes for firing projectiles out of. Although the central part of it seemed to move a lot more, indicating that the frame around it, which had two large jet engines on the back, was far more sturdier.
As it got into position, large chunks of grass began to disappear on the island, revealing the exit of the launch bay out of the holding bay. A few seconds after that, E-90 flew out of it, its jet engines blazing fiercely. The only thing that showed was the vapour trail leading up into the sky.
Episode 8 – The X Factor
Part 1
Topaz slammed her fist against the desk; angry at the report she had received. She had hoped that returning to her post in Area 99, at least for a little while anyway would be a good thing. It wasn't starting well.
It seemed that Douglas is still NOT giving any information about the activities of Sonic. Not to mention that he is STILL denying any involvement with them. The so called plan thought of to keeps tabs on Douglas wasn't going as well as she'd planned. Especially since the house party at the Thorndyke residence a few weeks ago.
After Douglas had left, he had been traced to a bar. By the time Topaz and Stuart got there, he was gone, and had somehow vanished off of the radar. He couldn't have left the city of course, and he was back in the mansion the next day. It was almost as if he had become invisible for a while…
"Calling Topaz, calling Topaz! We have a possible code red situation; over!" Her personal radio crackled into life.
"This is Topaz…" She responded into her radio. "What's the situation; over?"
"An unidentified flying object just left Eggman's base about five minutes ago, that's all we currently know. We assume it's some kind of rocket, but…"
"Okay, I'm on my way to the command room now; over and out." Topaz cut off the voice, before heading out of her office.
'That Eggman's always up to something…' Topaz thought, running down the corridors. Within a few minutes, she was through the doors and in the command room.
"Okay, what are we dealing with here?" Topaz asked, although the tone of her voice made it sound more like an order.
"We're still not sure yet!" One of the operatives in the room replied. "We can't seem to identify it yet, but we've sent instructions to the spy satellites to look at whatever is up there!" The man pointed to the large map on screen, which showed the satellites as white dots, and the unknown craft as a red one.
"Wait, so this thing is in outer space?" Topaz asked again.
"Technically, yes Ma'am."
"E-90 is now in position." The hollow voice of the computer stated.
"Well now…" Eggman said, relaxing back in his chair. "Time for a little fun!"
The Doctor reached forward, and pulled down a switch. He watched on the screen as he was shown the results of that action. It triggered the giant 'mouth' of Gobblein to open up. From inside the 'mouth' a long slithering tube with an odd red cap on the end came out.
Eggman smiled, grabbing another switch. "Super… Sweeper!" He said, pulling it down.
Topaz glanced around her, as alarm klaxons sounded out in the base.
"What the hell is going on now?" Topaz shouted out.
"Communications are offline!" A voice shouted back.
"It's the satellites!" Another voice called out. "They're… They're!"
Topaz looked up at the central screen, and noticed that there seemed to be a lot less white dots than before…
"GONE?" She shouted at the screen.
"Yes… Yes Ma'am…" The second voice confirmed.
"But… But that's impossible!" She replied, shaking her head in shock. "This can't be happening!"
But it was happening. The Super Sweeper was collecting all the satellites though the hole in the red cap, down the tube, and into the large storage container that made up the central body of Gobblein.
"Just look at all my shiny new toys!" Eggman laughed as he watched the image of the satellites being collected. "Oh well…" He gave a sigh of disappointment, which was probably phoney. "It's too bad I have to grind them all into robot parts! Who would have thought recycling could be so much fun! AND cost effective!"
Eggman turned around, looking at Decoe and Bocoe, who were knelt on cushions before a table, drink out of cups.
"…What ARE you doing?" The Doctor questioned, a slightly angry, and also a little confused, look forming on his face.
"Uh…" Was all the robots could offer, as sweat drops formed on their heads.
"My… My God!" The second voice called out. "Its… This thing is making all the satellites disappear!"
Topaz could only frown with a dark look at the image on the big screen.
'Heads are gonna roll when the President hears about this…' Topaz thought. 'And it damn sure ain't gonna be mine.'
"SOMEBODY ALERT THE PRESIDENT!" Topaz screamed out, causing the men in the room to rush about in panic to comply with her order.
'I really hope this isn't supposed to be educational…' Tails thought, not impressed by this TV programme Cream and Cheese loved to watch. It was of some strange pink fuzzy creature with blue hands and feet.
"Do you know what I like to do best boys and girls?" The creature asked. "I like to dance! Dancing's lots of fun and its good exercise too! Hey! I've got an idea! Why don't you dance with me?"
The door to the living room opened, and Douglas, dressed in jeans and a T-Shirt that read 'Beauty lies in thE eyes of thE beerholdeR'. Douglas looked at Cream and Cheese, who were trying to dance along with the creature on TV. He shook his head. The Teletubbies were much better. He shrugged his shoulders, and took a seat next to Tails.
Before Douglas could say anything, the door opened again, but this time Ella entered, carrying something.
"Snack time everyone!" She announced, entering the room. Amy followed her in, also carrying a similar item.
"Here we go!" Ella said, as she and Amy placed the items they were holding onto the table in front of Douglas and Tails, whose mouths practically watered at the sight before them."Ella showed me how to bake homemade Apple Pie!" Amy proudly announced.
"I think our little Amy here has quite the knack for baking! I might be out of a job soon!" Ella added.
"Hey Ella." Amy looked up at the maid. "Maybe Sonic will like some pie!"
"Everybody loves pie!" Douglas said. "Either that or Strudel, but it's their decision. Personally, I like both…"
Tails licked his lips. "He can have the other one…" He thought out loud, reaching out with his hands towards the pie in front of him.
"Oh no you don't!" Amy stated. "That pie's for Sonic!"
This didn't stop Tails, as he reached out and took a hold of the plate. But in an unfeasibly quick action, Amy tried to whip the plate away from the fox. Due to the fact that Tails still had his hands on the plate, this action caused the kitsune to go flying over the table, across the room, and hit the wall-mounted wide screen TV face first.
"AMY!" Douglas roared, snatching the pie out of her hands. "That was unnecessary, uncalled for, and not very nice either… Consider this a confiscation." Douglas said, before quickly running out of the room with the pie.
"HEY!" Amy shouted, before Knuckles entering from the open window of the room interrupted her.
"What's going on here?" Knuckles eyed the room suspiciously, but more so the fox slumped underneath the TV, holding his head.
"Mi…Mister Tails!" Cream said, in a shocked and teary voice. "You… You broke the TV!" The rabbit looked at the static that now replaced the TV show.
"Chao!" Cheese said.
"It wasn't my fault!" Tails grumbled. "Amy and her Sonikku…" He added under his breath.
"That was our favourite show…" Cream said, sadly, as if it was the most catastrophic incident in her entire life.
"Is that all?" Knuckles said, picking up the remote control. "I think I know how to work this strange appliance." The echidna then pointed the remote at the TV set, and pressed a button.
Everyone in the room looked to the television. Nothing had changed.
"Maybe this will work." Knuckles pressed another button. Nothing. Knuckles then pressed all the buttons on the remote, which eventually caused the TV to power off into standby mode.
"I tried." Knuckles shrugged, tossing the remote behind him and sitting down. "Hey, who made the pie?"
"Now… Now we can't watch our programme!" Cream began crying loudly, and was joined by Cheese.
"Oh my!" Ella exclaimed.
Through the open window, Sonic jumped in, having been rudely awoken from his nap on the roof by the crying.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Oh hey Sonic!" Knuckles said, helping himself to a piece of the pie. "Cream and Cheese are crying about the TV being broken."
"THAT'S what they're crying about?" The hedgehog asked, not seeing any reason to be crying over such an issue.Knuckles simply nodded in reply, as he took a big mouthful of pie.
"Hey, is that Apple Pie?" Sonic questioned, noticing the pie and taking a sniff.
"What'll we do?" Amy asked. "Now I can't watch my cookery show!"
"Or Mrs. Thorndyke in the 'Movie of the Week'!" Ella stated.
"Or the Martial Arts matinee." Mr. Tanaka added, who had just entered the room having completed mowing the lawn.
"It's terrible, I know." Sonic said, helping himself to a second portion of the pie, having devoured his first piece whilst the others were speaking.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" A high-pitched laugh rung out, catching everyone's attention. The owner of the voice, a small purple robot with a mailbag with 'EGG' printed on it, flew in through the open window and landed on the table, beside a half-eaten apple pie.
"Ah!" Sonic exclaimed, quickly jumping behind the sofa, as did Knuckles, whilst the others took similar cover.
"That was a disappointing welcome if you don't mind me saying so!" Bokkun exclaimed, annoyed.
The door into the living room opened again, and Douglas, carrying an empty plat and a knife and fork, came into the room, and sat down on the sofa.
"Hey!" Douglas exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.
"At least someone still cares about…" Bokkun started to say.
"There's still some pie left!" Douglas interrupted, putting down the plate and picking up the rest of the pie.
"IDIOT!" Bokkun screamed, enraged.
"…What do you want?" Douglas looked puzzled at the machine.
"I've got a brand new message for Sonic from Doctor Eggman!" Bokkun stated, starting to pull a small TV monitor out of its mailbag.
"Well where's…" Douglas looked behind him. "…Sonic? What are you doing?"
"That thing's dangerous!" Sonic stated, pointing at Bokkun.
"It?" Douglas pointed at the robot with a fork. "Stuff comes out of my ass bigger than that thing!"
"Listen up!" Bokkun announced, switching on the monitor.
The screen flickered into life, showing the image of Eggman. "Greetings my little warthog!" The Doctor announced. "Sorry it's been so long since my last message, but as you can see I've been a busy little bee! Take a look!"
The image then changed to that of the E-90, using Super Sweeper to suck up satellites.
"Is that thing… Sucking up… Satellites?" Douglas questioned the image he was seeing.
"That explains the TV trouble." Knuckles stated.
"It's ruining our TV reception." Tanaka stated.
"It's not getting married is it?" Douglas asked jokingly.
"Don't get any ideas Sonic!" The image changed back to Eggman. "After all, I'm only having a little fun… So stay out of it if you know what's good for you! As I speak, my E-90 is floating above the stratosphere, collecting all matter of space junk, so I can make more and more of my mechanical friends! Well? What do you say to that?" Eggman challenged, before entering into an egotistical laugh.
"Up yours fatso!" Douglas stated.
"WHAT?" Eggman spluttered, not expecting any sort of reply, let alone a crude one.
"Stratosphere? YOU'RE the one visible from space with the naked eye!" Douglas added, flipping the image of Eggman the middle finger.
"SILENCE!" Eggman roared. "It's just as well this scheme is foolproof! Soon even you'll be obsolete Bokkun!"
Upon hearing this, the messenger began crying out at the thought of being rejected.
"Ha! You suck!" Douglas taunted the robot, putting his right hand on his forehead, giving Bokkun the 'Loser L' sign.
"Enough!" Knuckles stated, jumping back over the sofa and kicking the monitor off the table. Which for some reason caused Eggman to call out in pain as if he'd been kicked.
"Right, what's this 'E-90' business Eggman was talking about?" Douglas then asked, before starting to eat the pie he was holding.
"Maybe that was the robot sucking up the satellites." Tails answered, stepping out from his hiding place. "Eggman calls his robots E-Something, so E-90 will be the serial number of the machine. I wonder what a stratosphere is?" Tails thought aloud.
Almost on cue, Chuck rushed into the room from the outside door. "It's a layer of air miles above us!" He answered the question. "It's as high as the sky!" He added, dramatically pointing upwards.
Tails frowned, not sure if the answer was a good thing or a bad thing in this situation.
"We can do without you cry-baby!" Chuck stated, picking up Bokkun by the back of its neck.
"No! Put me down!" Bokkun screamed as Chuck took it outside.
A few moments later, a loud explosion was heard, followed by high-pitched laughing. Chuck then re-entered, visibly the victim of a terrible explosion.
"Ha! Now you suck!" Douglas taunted the man, putting his right hand on his forehead, giving Chuck the 'Loser L' sign.
"Very funny…" Chuck rolled his eyes. "…But this is serious Douglas! Eggman's causing havoc, miles above anyone's reach."
"Well, the only aircraft we have if the Tornado…" Douglas shrugged, "…And no offence intended Tails, but I'm not sure that it can reach THAT high."
"Well…" Tails looked thoughtful, and was about to speak, as Sonic jumped back over the sofa, and the others came out from their hiding spaces.
"Come on Tails!" Sonic stated, giving the fox the thumbs up, and a smile full of confidence. "Why not? I'm game! Come on, let's go!" Sonic had already headed off towards Chuck's lab before he had finished speaking.
"Uh, okay! I'm coming!" Tails quickly headed after the blue hedgehog.
By the time the others had reached the garage, the Tornado had already revved up, and was heading down the road. Tails was in the pilot seat, and Sonic was in the passenger.
"We can do it!" Tails said, although he may have been saying it a little to convince himself.
"You bet!" Sonic replied, with total confidence in himself, and his best buddy.
The others could only watch as the 'plane took off and into the air.
"Good luck you guys!" Amy shouted, waving at the Tornado. "We'll be waiting for you!"
"Come back safe Mister Tails!" Cream stated.
Knuckles, Chuck and Douglas looked less sure about the success of this mission.
"Storage of E-90 has reached maximum safe level." The computer's voice informed Eggman. "E-90 is returning to base."
The Doctor did not acknowledge this, as he was writing something down on a piece of paper.
"…I'm plotting my schemes…" He thought aloud while scribbling the words down. "…Where ever I go… They're perfect… Uh… Perfect… They're perfect I must say… NO!" Eggman scrunched up the paper, and threw it away, into the large pile of previously rejected ideas.
"Danger! Possible hostile Aircraft on direct course to intercept E-90!"The computer stated.
"HUH?" Eggman spun his command chair around to look at the monitor.
"Aircraft classified as 'The Tornado' of Miles 'Tails Prower, ally of Sonic T. Hedgehog."
"I warned them!" Eggman stated, typing in commands to the computer. "Gobblein! Zap those meddlers!"
"Wow! Look at that thing Sonic!" Tails stated, as the Tornado flew closer towards E-90.
"I see it Tails." The hedgehog replied. "But you know what they say: 'The Bigger they are…'?"
"The harder they fall?" Tails offered.
"Naw, 'The Harder they hit'! Let's bust up this robot!"
"Okay!" Tails said, encouraged by the hedgehog's words.
Suddenly, and without warning, the large central turret placed in the centre of E-90 fired out a large laser beam out of its lift port, followed by similar beams from the central and right ports. All the lasers were aimed at the Tornado.
With all the reflexes and experience of a pilot four or five times his age, Tails was able to manoeuvre the 'plane out of harms way, and still keep a course headed towards the robot.
"Good going little bud'!" Sonic encouraged. "Move in closer!"
The fox only nodded in reply, focused on reaching the target.
The giant front 'jaw' of Gobblein opened, accompanied by the whirring of gears. With it open, both Sonic and Tails could see the huge red cap of the 'Super Sweeper'.
'What's it doing now?' Sonic thought. Thankfully, Tails anticipated what the machine's next move would be, and didn't break course. It looked like the Tornado would be heading straight into E-90's 'mouth'.
Just when it looked like this, Tails sharply brought the 'plane to the side and out of harms way. A moment later, the robot's 'jaw' snapped shut. Looking behind him, Tails smiled.
"We're moving too fast for it!"
"Let's finish it off!" Sonic said, smirking.
Tails nodded, pulling the 'plane back towards E-90, preparing to attack the machine from behind.
Quickly, the central turret of Gobblein rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, and began firing at the Tornado again. This time, the gun fired all three ports at once. This caused Tails to bank the 'plane sharply before it got hit.
"I think that was TOO close!" Sonic stated, leaning in closer towards Tails to emphasise his point.
"Don't worry!" Tails replied. "I think I've got an idea…"
Before Tails could state what his plan was, a rear hatch in E-90 opened up, and thousands of tiny packages flew out, carried by the back draft from the robot's engines.
"Dumping excess luggage?" Sonic asked jokingly, as indicated by the smirk on his face. "Remind me never to fly with Eggman Airlines!"
"That's no luggage!" Tails called in alarm. "That's…!"
Once again, Tails was interrupted, as the packages began exploding in front of the Tornado.
"YES!" Eggman called out, punching the air in victory at the images Gobblein's cameras were relaying to him. "Egg-Cluster Bombs! There's no way fox-boy could've avoided that!"
Unfortunately for the Doctor, he was wrong, as suddenly, and with brief trails of flames running of the tips of its wings, the Tornado flew out of the flames of the explosions.
"WHAT?" Eggman exclaimed, as the Tornado flew up close to E-90. "Keep your sights locked on the enemy!" He ordered.
In response, a red target-marker appeared over the Tornado. The target stayed over the 'plane as it began to move out of range and off the screen.
"Where did they go?" Eggman demanded.
"Sensors detect enemy craft is currently moving itself under E-90, and will shortly return back into range." The computer replied.
"Follow it then!" The doctor ordered.
As the Tornado came back on screen, this time Gobblein rotated itself to keep a lock onto it. So, and the 'plane circled around and around, the machine spun around and around. Eggman watched this, and as the result of many revolutions, he became extremely dizzy.
"I feel ill…" Eggman groaned, his goggles seemingly showing spirals.
Tails brought the Tornado out of its motion, leaving the robot spinning around. The young fox smiled. His plan had worked, just as he thought it would.
"Here goes!" He announced, pressing his thumb down on the red trigger button.
The Tornado's guns fired out of the little vent just before its rotor blades, aimed at the E-90. Within seconds, sparks flew off of the central turret of Eggman's robot, followed by a small explosion of fire and smoke.
Satisfied with the first run, Tails flew the Tornado ahead of Gobblein, before bringing it back around for another attack. Again the kitsune activated the guns, firing at the 'head' of the machine. Once again, small sparks flew off, but there was no explosion. The rest of E-90's bodywork was far stronger than the turret had been.
Now it was the robot's turn to change course, banking hard off and turning around. This left the Tornado chasing after it.
"Stay with it!" Sonic shouted, leaning to the side.
"Just hold on tight!" Tails responded, glancing down to the readings of the 'plane's systems. "We'll catch up with it in no time!"
"Urgh… Get me another bucket… Just in case…" Eggman groaned, waving his hand in the air while the other covered his forehead. "I still don't feel well…"
"Yes Lord Eggman." Decoe and Bocoe replied, carrying of a rather full bucket of a recently produced substance from the Doctor.
"Enough of this…" Eggman glanced at the screen. "E-90, initiate 'Drop and Burn' manoeuvre."
With a burst of steam and the clicking of gears, the central storage tank of E-90 began shaking. In a few seconds after that, the tank was dropping from the rest of the machine. Carried by the momentum from Gobblein, it began freefalling backwards.
Into the path of the Tornado.
Both Tails and Sonic screamed, and the fox had barely enough time to react to the oncoming green mass. Sharply Tails pulled the 'plane out of harms way, before looking back at the tank now behind him. The fox was very surprised to see two rockets begin firing out of the tank, and propel it into the distance.
"What was that?" Sonic asked, also looking behind him.
"Beats me Sonic." Tails replied. "But whatever it was, I guess Eggman wanted it intact."
The fox turned his attention back to flying, and allowed the Tornado to travel through a thick cloud formation.
Eggman watched the monitor once again, and saw the Tornado fly out of some clouds.
"Excellent!" The Doctor said, rubbing his hands together. "Soon E-90's storage tank will return and I'll have lots of lovely scrap to play with!"
He grinned evilly, placing a hand on a leaver.
"Now that I have those bothersome twerps right where I want them, it's time for some fireworks!" He said, pulling it back.
"I thought we were tailing that thing!" Sonic said, seeing Eggman's machine now facing them.
"It was!" Tails replied.
At that moment, rockets fired out of the missile tubes of Gobblein, coming towards the Tornado. The projectiles whistled through the air as they left trails of smoke behind them.
Tails didn't even have to say anything, or be told anything. He began quickly moving the 'plane around, staying one step ahead of the rockets coming towards him. Thanks to this, the missiles blew up safely behind the Tornado, as it continued towards E-90.
Sonic flashed his trademark grin, patting Tails on the shoulder. The fox nodded in reply, knowing what Sonic was planning. The hedgehog unclipped his seatbelt, and jumped high into the air from his seat. He knew that Eggman would have armed his machine with 'Hedgehog-Seeking' Missiles. Indeed, the next batch of rockets began heading up towards Sonic, and away from the Tornado.
Sonic flipped around in the air, taking himself back downward. He homed in on the first rocket, bouncing off it. This caused the missile to spin around, and explode behind the hedgehog. Sonic did the same with the second one, the jump causing the rocket to fly into the explosion from the first, creating a bigger cloud of flames and smoke than before.
With the third, Sonic spun his legs around in the air, kicking the rocket backwards. The hedgehog watched, his face emotionless with focus, as the missile whirled into the 'head' of the E-90. A large cloud of smoke covering where the head would have been then followed. Sonic smirked, allowing himself to fall safely downwards, and into the passenger's seat of the Tornado.
"No problem!" Sonic stated, clipping himself back in.
But there seemed to be quite a problem, as when the smoke cleared, E-90 was still completely intact. There didn't even appear to be a scratch on it.
"What'll we do now Sonic?" Tails asked, now slightly worried. He was out of ideas.
"Don't sweat it bud! We'll figure out how to beat this thing!"
"Doctor, we have your bucket for you." Decoe stated, holding up the item.
"Don't interrupt me when I'm about to win!" Eggman stated, pushing some buttons on his control consol.
"Yeah! Don't interrupt!" Bokkun stated, floating over Bocoe's head.
"That goes for you too bomb-boy!" The Doctor snapped.
Before the messenger could reply, Decoe put the bucket to use, quickly slamming it over the robot and onto the ground. Bocoe then sat on the top of the bucket, trapping Bokkun inside it.
"They think they're so smart, don't they!" Eggman said to himself, ignoring the high-pitched squeals coming from the bucket. "Well, we'll see about that when they get a taste of the Super Sweeper!"
The large jaws of E-90 opened up wide once again. This time, a crack of electricity came out of the large red cap at the back of Gobblein's 'mouth'. An instant later, another burst. Soon, many flares of electricity came out of the cap, as the Super Sweeper activated. The noise of the Sweeper was tremendous, as it worked powerfully to drag anything in could into it. Of course, with no storage tank, anything sucked in would have to be destroyed.
Its effect was instant, as the Tornado began to get pulled toward the machine.
"IT'S SUCKING US IN!" Sonic shouted over the roar of the Sweeper.
Tails only grunted in reply, his hands locked around the control stick. The fox was trying with all his might to bring the 'plane out of the powerful suction it was in.
It seemed it wasn't working, as the 'plane only budged a little, still being pulled closer toward Gobblein.
Sonic gritted his teeth, small beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. This was defiantly not going how he had planned. What was worse, at least to him, was that Douglas might have been right about the Tornado not being able to handle this.
With another pull, Tails managed to pull the Tornado a little more out of the Sweeper's pull, but still not enough to bring it to safety.
'Come Tails!' The fox thought to himself. 'You HAVE to do this! You CAN do this! And you… You…!'
Time froze for a moment, as Tails' mind cast itself back many years ago. Way before he arrived on this planet Earth and met Douglas.
It was during the 'Great War of Mobius'. Back then; Tails was just a little kid, longing to be just like Sonic. He wanted to be one of the great Freedom Fighters, like Sonic, and help battle against Robotnik. Not the Eggman of nowadays, but Doctor Julian Robotnik.
Tails could see himself, sat on a little log beside the fabled 'Ring Pool'. The sun was shining down, causing the water to sparkle. A soft breeze rippled through the tall trees, causing the water to ripple. It was a nice relaxing day. One that many of the other inhabitants of Knothole could not enjoy as much as he did.
Then again, Tails wasn't a Freedom Fighter, so didn't have to deal with the stress of missions and all that. His problem was doing enough to convince Aunt Sally that he was ready to do missions just like Sonic.
The young fox didn't understand it then. He was smart, everyone told him so, brave, AND he could fly with his tails. Why shouldn't he go out and help the fight?
Tails sighed, and looked down at the control box he had in his left hand. He had been trying to fix a problem with his R.C. 'plane for over and hour now. It seemed to be a loose screw in the box. The fox had been using a small screwdriver to try and fix the screw back in place, but wasn't having much luck. Hence why the craft in question was sat on the grass beside the log. It seemed that no matter how much he tried, it just wouldn't work.
Depressing to say the least.
The kit's ears perked up, upon hearing heavy footsteps coming down the path towards the pool. He turned his head, looking over his shoulder. The person he saw made a small smile appear for a moment.
"Hi Aunt Bunnie." Tails said, in a clearly depressed tone.
"Well I do declare!" Bunnie Rabbot, the partly robotisized rabbit, said. She was dressed, as always, in her purple top. No need for any pants or skirts, since her legs were completely metallic now, as was one of her arms. "Ya'll seem to be mighty sad."
"Yeah…" Tails replied, looking back to his screwdriver.
Bunnie walked over, and sat on the log beside the fox.
"Another of those inventions of yours?" She asked, looking at the control box.
"Yeah…" Tails said.
"An' you've been out here all by yourself tryin' to fix it?"
Tails just nodded in reply. Then a thought struck him, which caused him to quickly look at 'Aunt' Bunnie.
"Aunt Sally wasn't worried was she?" He asked, sounding a little worried himself.
This caused the rabbit to giggle a little, before resting her hand on the kitsune's shoulder.
"Naw. Sally-girl's been worrin' about RoBUTTnik, not to mention Suga-Hog…"
"Sonic?" Tails asked.
"Your poor Aunt Sally's got it into her pretty lil' head that Sonic spends more time with the 'Underground' than her."
"Why would Aunt Sally be worried about that?" Tails asked.
Bunnie smiled, shaking her head. She wished for a moment that she could go back to Tails' age, and be naïve about the 'joys' of romance.
"So, what's up with this box of tricks ya got then?" She asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, it's this little screw…" Tails replied, looking back at the box.
"A screw loose huh? You know Suga-Hog says that about Antoine sometimes."
That comment made Tails snort out a laugh, which the fox quickly stopped, in fear of getting into trouble. That didn't matter to Bunnie; she'd gained the reaction she wanted.
"So this tiny little screw has taken up your afternoon huh?" Bunnie asked.
"Yeah, but it's not just that, it's…" Tails started to explain.
"Ya'll know that all us Freedom Fighters have been mighty impressed, right?"
"Huh?"
"All these gadgets you keep on buildin', plus your school work. You're turnin' into one smart kid, ya know that?"
Tails blushed, looking away from the rabbit, getting embarrassed from the complements.
"It's nothing really…" The kit said, still looking away. "…Just a little hobby…"
'Oh mah stars!' Bunnie thought. 'If that ain't the cutest sight I've eva seen!'
"You're gonna be a great Freedom Fighter one day." Bunnie added.
Tails' head shot up and looked at Bunnie.
"You… You think so?" He asked, although his eyes seemed to silently plead for a specific answer.
"Of course!" Bunnie confirmed, smiling warmly.
"Wow! Th… Thanks Aunt Bunnie!"
"Don't worry your little head about it! All ya gotta do is believe in yourself."
'Believe in myself?' Tails thought. 'Hey… Believe in myself…'
With that, Tails looked back at the control box, and carefully brought his screwdriver up.
Bunnie watched as the twin-tailed fox used the tool inside the box. A few seconds past, with Tails fiddling with something deep inside of the item he was trying to repair.
Suddenly, the tiny engine in the R.C. 'plane started up, before humming into life.
"I did it!" Tails beamed happily. "Did you see Aunt Bunnie? I did it!"
The smile on his face was so bright now, that Bunnie couldn't help but smile back.
Tails then fixed the back panel on the control box on, and began to work the controls. Soon enough, the little 'plane began moving through the grass, before taking off into the air. Tails kept on smiling as he made the craft fly over the pool and around the clearing.
As Bunnie watched the kit playing, she noticed out of the corner of eye someone. It was Sonic. He was smiling as well, and gave the rabbit the thumbs up. Bunnie winked, and mouthed the words 'Anytime' to him. Of course, Tails didn't see this, as he was too pleased with his own accomplishments.
Time began to unfreeze, and the fox's mind returned to the situation at hand.
'Come Tails!' The fox thought to himself. 'You HAVE to do this! You CAN do this! And you… You…! You WILL do this! Why? WHY? I believe in myself, that's why!'
With an almighty final tug, the Tornado suddenly pulled free from the Sweeper, and off away from the machine.
Tails breathed a sigh of relief. Self-confidence was a wonderful thing sometimes. All he had to do was perfect it's use.
Sonic quickly wiped the sweat from his brow. He didn't want his little buddy seeing that he was worried for a moment. He glanced over his shoulder, and he sight that greeted him was not what he wanted to see.
"It's coming up behind us!" The hedgehog exclaimed. That was true. E-90, it's massive 'jaws' still open, was now chasing the Tornado.
"I know a way to shake it." Tails said under his breath.
E-90 followed as the Tornado headed up into the air away from it. On this course, Gobbelin would catch up in a matter of seconds. Tails then sharply brought the Tornado downwards, believing the steep decline would buy him and Sonic some breathing space. This was not the case, as E-90 began heading downwards as well, just as quickly as the Tornado did.
Sensing this plan wasn't working, Tails glanced around. He spied a large formation of fluffy clouds. Without another thought, he brought the 'plane sharply up again, and into the clouds.
E-90 brought itself to a halt, maintaining its position in the air. The machine was thinking through its next move. The loud roaring noise was heard again, as the Super Sweeper activated. This time, streams of white began moving into Gobbelin.
"I can't believe it!" Tails said, extremely surprised, as he looked over his shoulder at what was happening. "It's swallowing up all the clouds!"
Before Sonic, who was also looking back, could reply, something rather catastrophic happened. Something that if you were in the position Sonic and Tails were in, you would never, in a page full of 'ever's, want to happen at that moment.
Mechanical failure.
The Tornado's engine, unable to keep up with the repeated strain of multiple sudden sharp moves, spluttered, as dark smoke poured out from it. When the smoke stopped, rotor blades slowing down followed.
"OH NO!" Tails exclaimed, quickly pushing various buttons on his controls. He knew that without the rotors going at full speed, the Tornado wouldn't be able to remain airborne for very much longer.
Which was what happened next.
The 'plane began falling downward, rotors first, spinning uncontrollably round and around. The screams of Sonic and Tails accompanied this. Tails screamed because he knew they were in danger, so he was once again pulling back on the control stick, trying to bring the Tornado back up. Sonic screamed because he saw that the 'plane would crash into the ocean. Water was his worst fear, so he was covering his eyes as he screamed, praying to the Ancient Walkers for a miracle.
The Tornado continued to fall and spin, all the time Tails working furiously to stop it and bring himself and Sonic to safety.
'Not like this!' Tails screamed in his mind. 'It's NOT gonna end like this!'
The control stick gave way a little, and the Tornado stopped spinning. That was part of the problem solved. The rotors were speeding up slightly, but still not enough.
'Come on… COME ON!' Tails thought again, straining with all his might to prevent a watery crash.
"COME ON!" Tails roared, pulling back the stick with a mighty grunt.
It was just in time. The rotors spun back at full speed, and the Tornado levelled off, its wheels just inches above the water. The fox panted, sweating heavily, but much more relieved. He gently flew the 'plane up and away from the ocean. He looked back. E-90 was nowhere to be seen. Eggman must have presumed (as he often did) that the job was done as called his machine back to his base.
Tails also noticed Sonic. He was curled up in his seat, his hands covering his eyes, and was visibly shaking. It was the first time Tails had EVER seen him like this.
"Sonic?" Tails asked, concerned.
Sonic peeked through his gloves, with still frightened eyes.
"Tails?" He asked, his voice shaky. "What happened?"
"We made it, but Eggman got away."
Sonic slowly, still feeling the effects of a rare near-death experience, uncurled himself, and looked behind him. He saw the ocean far below them, and no E-90 in sight.
"We failed, didn't we." Tails said, more a statement than a question.
Sonic sighed, nodding. "Yes." He flatly stated, accepting the reality of the situation.
Silence between the two followed, as the Tornado began the long flight back to the Thorndyke Residence.
"The situation is far more worse than we thought Mister President." A medium sized man with brown hair stated.
"Go on." The President said, knowing that his Aide would tell him the truth, no matter how bad it was.
"Whatever this new machine of Eggman's is, it's a far more dangerous foe than any previous machines." His Aide concluded.
"It has the ability to increase its aerodynamics…" A suited woman started to explain. "…By dumping it's cargo hold, which itself safely transports itself back to Eggman's base."
"Not to mention the usual offensive and defensive capabilities Eggman's robots possess." The Aide added
The President sighed, before looking at the woman standing looking out of the window.
"You were right Topaz." He stated. "Eggman shouldn't have been taken lightly after the wrestling incident."
"Like I said, it must have been a fluke." Topaz replied, still staring out of the window. "There's no way any man on this planet could have destroyed a machine like that. Douglas is good against humans, and has a way with animals as well, but against robots…"
"He has gone after Eggman a few times." The suited women pointed out.
Topaz turned around to face the room.
"With all due respect to your Aide Mr. Wise, to Miss Cooper, and to yourself Mr. President; this is not the moment to be talking about the successes of the past. We have serious problems with right now. This thing of Eggman's has taken all of what the Tornado could give, and didn't even have a scratch on it. And if Sonic couldn't beat it…"
She didn't need to say anything more to get her point across.
"Suggestions?" The President asked.
The other people in the room, including the President's own bodyguards, just looked to the floor, out of ideas.
The President sighed, before standing up.
"There's the laser defence system of our military satellites…" he started to say.
"But Sir…!"
"I know Topaz, I know. That's why I'm afraid that we'll have to hope Sonic and his animals can come up with something."
'There's more enthusiasm in a Graveyard…' Douglas thought, comparing the sight of the living room.
Apart from a few words when Sonic and Tails had returned, no one had really spoken. Everyone could guess from the look on the blue hedgehog's and twin-tailed fox's faces.
Failure.
Douglas felt a little bad right now for another reason. He had been right in saying that the Tornado couldn't do it. That fact was achieving nothing. In fact, the situation right now was achieving nothing.
Knuckles was just standing with his arms over his chest. Maybe in meditation or something, it was hard to tell. Chuck was sitting down on the far right of the sofa, spending his time rubbing his temples in frustration. Sonic was up on the roof, lying down and staring at the sky. Mr. Tanaka and Ella were keeping Cream and Cheese busy. Amy was sitting on the far left of the sofa, casting worried glances at the other people in the room.
Tails seemed to be taking this the worst. He'd been sitting in the far corner of the room, a painfully sad expression on his face, staring down at his shoes practically since he'd come back. It was awful seeing the kitsune like this. Usually he was so happy, so get-up-and-go. Now it was so different…
Douglas glanced over at Tails. Then the purple-haired human had to blink and do a double take. It was freaky. He could've sworn that for a moment, he had seen Chris where Tails was sitting.
'That was weird…' He thought.
But maybe that was a sign. It had happened before, on the odd rare occasion. Douglas had always assumed it was just his mind playing cruel tricks on him. But this time… There was something different…
Tails looked up. Douglas was walking over, and was now knelling in front of him.
"Hey." Douglas said.
"Hey." Tails replied, with much less enthusiasm.
"Okay, I know you're feeling bad about this whole thing, and I can understand that it can't feel good right now."
"You do?" Tails asked, a hint of interest appearing.
"Oh sure!" Douglas sat in front of the fox. "I've had my fair share of losses too."
Now, the others in the room were listening and watching Douglas with interest. This included Sonic, who had just jumped off the roof and was listening through the door.
"I mean…" Douglas continued. "Everyone messes up once in a while. You've just gotta take a step back for a moment, think about what happened, and plan out how to prevent that happening again. I once heard a motto from some club that said 'Adopt, Adapt and Improve'."
"Okay…" Tails was a little confused now.
"Okay, forget about that. Here's a better one: 'You live what you've learned.' "
"Uh…" Tails said, trying to think through what it meant.
"It means that it doesn't matter how many books or things you read to prepare yourself, unless you experience it, you don't really learn it."
"Oh!" Tails said, understanding.
"Life is a learning experience! You've got to take the good with the bad, and keep on going! Even if that means changing once in a while."
"Now Douglas…" Chuck said, standing up. "I know what you're getting at, but we're up against a foe that's more powerful than we thought."
Douglas stood up, and walked into the centre of the room. "So? We've beaten all the other robots before! This is not any different! This is NOT any different!"
"But how do we beat it?" Amy asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Douglas asked, looking around.
He was met with confused looks.
"WEAKNESSES! Our weaknesses and that E-90's weaknesses! Exploit theirs, and prevents ours!"
Chuck slapped his hand into his face. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"
"Well think now then! Everyone! Get in here, and let's think this through!"
With that, Sonic burst through from the outside into the living room, and Tanaka, Ella, Cream and Cheese came in from the hallway.
"The problem is that the Tornado's too slow!" Sonic stated, as Tails got up to his feet.
"Now we're getting somewhere!" Douglas stated.
"That robot can release its main storage tank to speed up." Tails confirmed.
"Okay, now, how do we combat this?" Douglas asked.
"Perhaps, much like the battle of the Tortuous and the Hare, slow and steady will win this race." Tanaka said.
"How will that work?" Ella asked
"Uh…" Tanaka pondered, a sweat-drop appearing on his head.
"Next!" Douglas said.
"Let us taunt it!" Amy suggested. "It may become so cross that it will make a mistake!"
"Like what?" Chuck asked, sounding annoyed at the suggestion.
"Well…" Amy sheepishly started to reply, before realising there wasn't much more to her plan.
"How can we make the Tornado faster? That is the question we're trying to answer here!" Douglas stated, throwing his hands into the air.
"What you need to do is crank that bird up a notch!" Sonic piped in.
"Ahh!" Everyone in the room replied together, agreeing.
"Good work!" Douglas said to the blue hedgehog, before turning to face the fox. "Tails, can ya do that?"
"Well, I could try…" Tails pondered, rubbing his nose with his finger thoughtfully.
"What about the Chaos Emerald?" Cream suggested.
"Chao Chao!" Cheese added.
"That would not be a wise idea." Knuckles stated, shooting down the idea.
"Why not?" Douglas asked.
"Just one Chaos Emerald contains huge amounts energy. It would only take a tiny amount to run the Tornado. All the excess energy would be extremely dangerous, since it would have no where to go."
"I see." Chuck stated, understanding the problem Knuckles was pointing out. "That would make the Tornado liable to explode at any moment."
"To put it bluntly, yes." The guardian confirmed.
"Fine. Then we need to find a way to burn off this excess…" Chuck said, before pondering the situation for a moment.
"You see Tails?" Douglas looked at the fox. "NOW we are getting somewhere!"
"But I don't want to waste all that energy!" Tails stated.
"Hmm… Good point." Sonic stated. "It could be useful."
"Not could, would." Knuckles said. "If you're going to use a Chaos Emerald, you might as well use it to its max."
"Does anyone have any better ideas of how to deal with this energy?" Chuck challenged.
"Well…" Tails said, rubbing his nose again. "We could install… A back-up engine… That way with two engines instead of one, the energy would have another outlet!"
"Awesome!" Douglas stated.
"Do you really think that TWO engines could contain that kind of power?" Chuck asked, unsure that this would work.
"If we want to be Doctor Eggman, than it's sure worth giving it a try!" Tails replied.
"What do you think Knuckles?" Douglas asked.
"I'm no mechanic, but I don't think that even with an extra engine, the Tornado still wouldn't be able to handle it."
"What about a jet engine?" Amy suggested. "Isn't that better and faster?"
"Two jet engines!" Douglas exclaimed. "What about that?"
Knuckles nodded. "That could work I guess."
"Now hold on people!" Chuck said, waving his hand. "In order to do that Douglas, we'd have to COMPLETELY redesign the Tornado, inside and out!" Chuck turned to look at Tails. "Are you sure that you have the know-how to do that Tails?"
"Well, I've never had to do anything like this before… But…"
"You can do it Tails!" Sonic encouraged. "I know it."
Knuckles smirked, nodding in agreement.
"Mister Tails can do anything!" Cream stated, to which Cheese happily agreed.
"Oh, I got faith in my boy here!" Douglas said, gently ruffling up the fur on Tails' head. "He got the skills!"
"Well…" Tails was about to say, before he looked at Amy.
"You can do it Tails!" She said, winking at the fox.
Tails gulped, before a serious expression came over his face. "I'm sure gonna try." He stated.
"Come with me Tails." Chuck said, with a sparkle appearing in his eyes. "I've got something that might interest you." He winked at the fox.
Douglas smiled, knowing exactly what Chuck was talking about.
"In fact, I'm certain it will." Chuck said, grabbing tails by the arm and leading him off towards his lab.
"What was Mister Chuck talking about?" Cream asked.
"Oh, don't worry." Douglas said. "Just a man holding on to his dreams…"
"Where are we going?" Tails asked, as Chuck took him over to underneath the wooden stairs that led up to Chuck's lab area.
"Just watch." Chuck said, smiling, before putting his hand on a bland-looking brick in the wall.
The brick wasn't bland for much longer, and it suddenly flashed into a green light, before a part of the wall opened up. Revealed was a small metal chamber. Before Tails could question what it was, Chuck had pulled him inside. The eldest Thorndyke then pressed a large button, shaped in a downward pointing arrow.
The door closed, and the chamber began moving down. Tails guessed that this was some kind of hidden elevator. But where did it lead to?
Tails wouldn't have to guess for much longer, as the lift suddenly stopped, and the doors opened up. The fox looked out, but all he could see was darkness.
"What's this?" He asked.
With perfect timing, bright lights came on from the roof of the room, revealing the contents to Tails. The kitsune gasped, amazed by the sight.
"It's my secret laboratory!" Chuck proudly announced
"It's amazing!" Tails said, looking at Chuck. "It's even bigger than the one I have back on Mobius!"
"No one part from Douglas knows about this place." Chuck explained. "It's taken me years to construct. I just can't keep away from inventing, and sometimes I need time away from the outside world. Especially when Tanaka is looking to take me to those boring weekly sessions he signed me up for."
There were all kinds of tools, worktops, designs, prototypes, equipment and projects all around. It was a scientist's dream come true. Just ask Chuck.
"I think you'll find everything we need." Chuck said knowingly.
"Sure!" Tails nodded.
"All right then, let's rebuild the Tornado!"
"Yeah!"
Flip Card 1 - Chuck
Full Real Name: Chuck Thorndyke
Nickname(s): Professor Chuck
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Likes: Inventing, adventures, excitement
Dislikes: Short Circuits, unnecessary and expensive entrances, being around old people.
Identifying features: Spiky grey hair, usually dressed in lab coat
Flip Card 2 – Topaz
Full Real Name: CLASSIFIED
Nickname(s): Topaz (codename)
Gender: Female
Age: CLASSIFIED
Likes: CLASSIFIED (although has been rumoured to have shown great interest in the life of Douglas Smicktor-Thorndyke)
Dislikes: CLASSIFIED (although has been rumoured to dislike working with any partners or teams)
Identifying features: Short hair, wears small earrings, usually seen in full military uniform.
Part 2
It was almost twenty-four hours. A full day since Sonic and Tails had failed to defeat E-90. Since then, Tails and Chuck had locked themselves up in Chuck's secret lab to remodel the Tornado.
"I know he can do it, but tell me the truth Knuckles." Sonic said, looking out at the sun slowly began to rise up over the mountain. "Do you think Tails can pull this one off?"
Knuckles, who was standing beside the hedgehog on the roof of the Thorndyke mansion, pondered the question for a moment. "Without a doubt, yes." Was his answer.
Sonic smiled for a moment, before the expression vanished.
"Why did you ask?"
"I wanted a relatively unbiased opinion." Was Sonic's reply.
"Nice to know I'm so neutral around here." Knuckles frowned.
"Well, you're only with us until you can get back to the island, right?"
"Yes." The echidna didn't even need to think about that answer.
"So you've not connected with any of us, right?"
Knuckles' nose twitched slightly. "That's true." He replied.
He had some conflicting thoughts weeks ago about Amy, and focusing his 'protectiveness' that he reserved for the Master Emerald on her. But he had pushed those thoughts way out of his mind. He hoped. As the Guardian of the Floating Island and the Master, he could not risk becoming emotional towards anyone. It would put the Master, and the world, in grave danger.
'I've been lonely all my life.' He thought. 'Does it matter?'
"Therefore I can count on your view." Sonic concluded.
"You're strange hedgehog." Knuckles said, hoping to end the conversation.
"Strange? What can I say, it RUNS in the family!" Sonic said, putting emphasis on the bad pun.
Knuckles shook his head. "I hate you sometimes…"
Douglas carefully opened the door, peeking inside the living room. Amy, Cream and Cheese were slumbering on the sofa. They had attempted to stay up all night to see when Tails would finish, but had fallen victim to the dreaded sleep.
'Disgustingly cute.' Douglas thought. 'Hey, I wonder if they'd mind if I woke them up by clanging some pots together…'
Just then, the TV crackled into life, changing from noisy static to a blank white screen. The noise was enough to wake up Cream and Cheese. Cream blinked, before realising that the TV was working again. This made her smile.
What didn't make her smile was the logo 'EGG TV' appearing on the screen.
"Huh?" Amy said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"GOOD MORNING!" Came the greeting from Eggman, as he suddenly burst onto the screen.
"AHH!" Amy screamed, falling off the sofa onto the floor.
"AHH!" Cream screamed, scared by the sight of Eggman, and nearly squashing Cheese out of fear.
"THE TV'S FIXED!" Douglas shouted, jumping over the back of the sofa and taking a seat.
"It's time for the one and only: DOCTOR EGGMAN SHOW!" Eggman announced, before the image on the TV switched to a wide shot of his 'Eggman Island' base, with the words 'Dr. Eggman Show' over it.
"This programme is coming to you LIVE via satellite from a beautiful island in the southern sea!" Eggman added.
Amy blinked in surprise, not understand what she was watching.
"He's scary!" Cream stated.
"Nah, most pilot episodes are of this quality." Douglas shrugged.
"Today's show is brought to you by the amazing Super Sweeper! For a cleaner, safer stratosphere!" Eggman continued to speak over the shot of the island, whilst many robots ran about his 'TV Studio'.
"Places for musical interlude!" Bocoe shouted out, waving a rolled up newspaper as if he was the director. "Prepare lights and cameras!"
"Lights ready!" Bokkun announced, screwing in a light bulb into a light, and directing it downwards, ready to switch it on.
"Cameras ready!" Decoe said, turning the camera he was operating to film Eggman.
"Coming to you Doctor in five!" Bocoe counted down. "Four! Three! Two! One! CUE!"
Bokkun switched the spotlight on, and the viewing audience were 'treated' to the sight of Eggman standing in the spotlight, holding a microphone.
"I am the Eggman!" He sang, badly. "That's what I am! I am the Eggman! I got the master plan!"
He grinned, pointing at the camera. "Ha! Your 'American Idols' don't haveanything on me! Besides, who's the most brilliant scientist in ALL the universe?"
Eggman then spun around on the spot, before leaping forward towards the camera. He came up so close to it, that the image of the left blue lens of his glasses was projected to anyone still watching.
"Huh? Huh?" Eggman hinted, before taking a step back and smiling again. "Why it's Doctor Eggman!"
Topaz shook her head, disgusted at the sight of Eggman gloating. It wasn't even funny.
"Ma'am! We have a situation!" One of the crewmen shouted up to her.
Taking a sip of her coffee, she turned and sat down in the command chair. She looked up at the large electronic map on the main computer screen.
"Situation?" She asked.
"The enemy hostile has been launched again!" The same man shouted again.
She sighed. "Then I'm afraid we have no choice. Put me through to the President at once. I need to request permission to launch a counter-attack."
"Understood!"
Topaz frowned, taking another sip. She secretly hoped Douglas and his animal friends could find a solution, and quickly.
"SONIC!"
The blue hedgehog recognised the voice, and quickly jumped down off the roof and ran over to Chuck's lab. In a second, he was standing in front of the owner of the voice.
"Did you finish it?" Sonic asked.
"Yep!" Tails gave the thumbs up. "I sure did! Let's get the others so I can show them!"
Sonic smiled. The tired glaze over his blue eyes, the dirt and oil in his fur, and the fact that his tails were slumped on the ground behind him were obvious signs that Tails had been up all night working on this. Yet he was still eager to show everyone what he'd accomplished.
Sonic couldn't help but feel proud to be this guy's hero.
Just a minute later, and everyone was standing in front of the entrance to the garage of Chuck's lab house. Lined up side-by-side, as if on parade. Cream, Cheese, Ella, Amy and Sonic had beaming looks of anticipation of their faces, ready to see the fruits of Tails' work. Tanaka and Knuckles looked as indifferent as they usually were, but on the inside they also were excited about this. Douglas had a stupidly large grin on his face, as if he'd just won the lottery. If he had any sort of a childhood, he'd say he felt like a little kid again.
Tails and Chuck were the only ones who were really calm, although Tails was nervous about what the others would think.
Chuck glanced down to the twin-tailed fox, who looked up and nodded to the man. With that signal, Chuck pulled a small remote out of his coat pocket, and pushed the green arrow button on it.
The shock that followed was profound.
The button had activated the lift mechanism, but instead of lifting up the garage doors, the whole BUILDING that contained Chuck's lab began rising up from the ground. A small portion of stonework that had been used as the foundations of the building rose up, but underneath that was something quite different.
Metal support beams, steel bolts, and other mechanical parts were now clearly visible, and still the building rose up higher.
Cream, Amy and Cheese gasped at the sight. Sonic just smiled. Ella, Knuckles and Tanaka's jaws seemed to hit the floor. Douglas continued grinning like an idiot.
As the building rose further, it was now clear that there was a holding bay underneath. Finally, the building stopped moving, and inside the bay contained a sight that blew their minds away.
A large, almost fighter jet craft stood before them. Painted almost completely silver, apart from the yellow nose cone. On the back were powerful jet engines, and the wings of the craft seemed to have the ability to bend in to accommodate the tight space it was in. There were also a number of seats for extra passengers, as well as the front cockpit for the pilot.
Again, no one spoke, embracing the magnificent sight.
"Behold…" Douglas said. "The U.S.S. Mother-Fucker."
"DOUGLAS!" Chuck roared, causing Douglas to fall over and fall on his face in surprise.
"WHAT? What did I do?" Douglas asked once he got back up, glaring at Chuck.
"What have I told you about inappropriate language?"
"…You don't like the word 'behold'?"
"THE F-BOMB YOU DROPPED!" Chuck, Ella, Tanaka, and Knuckles shouted at him.
"Oh, that!" Douglas said, rubbing the back of his head and smiling sheepishly.
Sonic had turned away from the others, covering his face with his hands so they couldn't see him laughing. Amy looked to be in a state of shock, blinking to try and determine if she had heard what she thought she heard.
Cream and Cheese, being the youngest, were effected the worst. They became frozen, statue like, un-moving.
"Look what you've done to them!" Ella cried, pointing at the rabbit and Chao.
"Oh come on!" Douglas exclaimed. "If it wasn't going to be me then it was going to be MTV! They're probably faking it anyway!"
Douglas walked over, and lightly prodded Cream on the shoulder with a finger. She promptly fell over onto the ground.
"…" Douglas glanced around, looking at the disapproving glances. "Uh… She'll… Snap out of it?"
Another silence followed, this time an uncomfortable one.
"Excuse me…" Tails broke the silence. "But what's a 'mother-fucker'?"
This time, everyone's jaws dropped. Except for Douglas, who started punching his fist in the air and running around in victory.
"I WIN!" He shouted. "I WIN ONE-TO-NOTHING!"
"TAILS!" Amy shouted, shocked.
"Something wrong?" Tails was confused.
"That's like, one of THE worst words ever!" Amy scolded.
"How do YOU know about it?" Douglas then demanded, pointing accusingly at Amy.
"Um… Uh…"
"ENOUGH!" Knuckles announced, slamming his fist into his hand.
"Tails, what do YOU call it?" Sonic asked.
"The Tornado X!" The kitsune proudly announced.
Another silence followed.
"That, my friends, is an anti-climax." Douglas stated.
"That's the situation Mr. Wise." Topaz confirmed, speaking into the telephone.
"Okay…" The President's Aide replied on the other end of the line. There was a pause, and Topaz could hear voices. Most likely the Aide relaying information to the President. "…The President wants to know if there's been any further activity with the animals."
"No, nothing." Was the response.
Another pause followed. "…The President grants permission." The Aide's voice broke the silence.
"Ma'am! The hostile is in position in the stratosphere, on a course towards our military satellites!" One of the workers on the computers shouted out.
"Thank you Sir." Topaz said, before hanging up the 'phone. "Wait for it to come into range before activating the attack sequence!" She then ordered to all those in the command room. "The President wants this thing destroyed, so I want ALL those lasers to hit it at the same time, understood?"
"YES MA'AM!" Was the unison reply to her demand.
Topaz stood, subconsciously straightening out her uniform jacket as she did. She leaned forward a little, resting her hands on the guardrail, as she watched the computer screen image.
In the middle of the screen was the target hostile, Eggman's E-90. The dark red target marker that covered it highlighted it. Surrounding it at most angles were various degrees and types of military satellites. These had green status markers on them. One by one, the green markers changed to blue, signalling that it was primed and ready to fire.
"Target locked onto Ma'am! Ready to launch attack at your command" Was the confirmation Topaz wanted to hear.
She stood up straight, brushing a loose hair back into place, and gave out a quiet sigh. She really hoped this would work, and the fears she had about this manoeuvre were misplaced.
"Fire." She stated, and sat back into the command chair.
"Thank you, thank you!" Doctor Eggman applauded his own 'singing' talents. "You are still tuned into the unbelievably incredible Doctor Eggman Show! This greatest, and soon to be only TV show that you'll be able to watch!"
Eggman was still having his robots transmit his image to all the televisions in the land. As a result, many had fallen asleep due to the tiresome nature of his 'songs' and the 'stories' of his inventing abilities.
"Now, I will give you all a treat! The next chapter of the utterly stupendous life of ME! Doctor Eggman! This part focuses on why I came about using the nickname 'Eggman'! It started a while ago, when I first started one of my admittedly badly planned ideas known as the 'Dreamcast'. Now, this was…"
Eggman was interrupted by a loud bleeping noise coming from his computer. The noise caused all the robots around to be startled out of their sleep, and crash into various pieces of equipment.
"Hmm? Complications?" Eggman grinned. "A genius like myself must always be kept on his toes!"
Eggman walked over to his computer, and sat down in his chair. The image showed that the target satellites he was ordering Gobblein to retrieve had defence systems. It seemed they were preparing to attack his machine.
"That would imply that I've done something wrong!" Eggman said in mock offence. "E-90! Prepare the Super Sweeper!"
The doctor watched as his computer showed the jaws of Gobblein open up, and the long Sweeper slither outwards. It extended it its maximum length, before stopping.
"Now let's see what these people are capable of!" Eggman stated, relaxing back in his chair, confident that no harm would come to his robot.
The computer bleeped again, and the image on the screen changed back to that of a wide shot of the stratosphere. Small yellow lines were travelling from all the satellites, heading towards E-90. This was the laser defence system in action. Quickly, the laser beams raced towards Eggman's creation, leaving only mere seconds before they all struck their target from all angles.
Not one laser touched E-90.
In a complete sphere around the machine, the lasers stopped dead just feet away from its body. The energy from the beams crackled around the invisible barrier of the sphere, leaving sparks of yellow energy flashing all around Gobblein.
"A feeble attempt at best my friends!" Eggman grinned. "Your level of technology is an ice age behind mine! Only the Tornado could get through to it, and look at all the good that did! Barely scratched the paintjob! Come on Super Sweeper!" The Doctor announced, pressing a large button. "Show your stuff!"
"It failed." Topaz mumbled under her breath, watching as the satellites began to be drawn towards Eggman's machine.
"Was that some kind of force field?" One of the army soldiers in the room asked.
"Whatever it was, it's way more advanced than anything we've come up with!" A scientist next to him stated. "That's some of our top-grade lasers up there!"
"If they can't cut through to Eggman, then we've got no hope!" The soldier said.
The scientist grinned. "Don't count on that!"
The soldier raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"You haven't heard the news?"
"What news?"
"You've heard of G.U.N., right?"
"Of course."
"Well, I've got a friend who's a trainee at their lab on Prison Island. Apparently, they've been retrieving the robots of Eggman's that those animals have been smashing."
"Really?" The soldier was surprised at the news, but not as much as Topaz was, eavesdropping on the conversation.
"Oh yeah! They've been analysing it. You know, looking for weak points, strengths, stuff they can use for their own defences."
"Swiping technology off Eggman then?"
"That's it. Makes sense, try and beat them at their own game."
Topaz blinked, intrigued, yet angry at this news. She hadn't been informed about this. Plus, she didn't like the idea of G.U.N. getting their hands on that kind of technology. Her father had always told her to stay clear of them. He had worked for them as a soldier, and apparently, they had much more than a shady past.
"She'll be fine in an hour or so!" Douglas said, rolling his eyes.
"Cream and Cheese haven't blinked for over five minutes." Mr. Tanaka scolded. "I hardly think that qualifies for being 'fine'."
"Can we forget about this now?" Knuckles stated. "We have an Eggman robot causing havoc in the skies."
"Knuckles is right." Chuck said. "You better get up their quickly and stop this before it gets way out of hand!"
"Yeah, let's lift off Tails!" Sonic said, giving Tails a thumbs up.
"Alright!" Douglas said, walking up to the Tornado X and giving it a pat. "We'll be high flying in no time!"
"Huh?" The blue hedgehog looked at the purple-haired human, a little confused. "Douglas, you can't come with us."
"Will you people get off the swearing issue already!" Douglas said running a hand through his hair. "You guys can keep your cra… I mean, your silly name!"
"Not that! You know the 'plane's only a two-seater."
Now Douglas looked confused, looking at the Tornado X and then back at Sonic.
"Dude, that was the OLD Tornado."
"What?" Sonic didn't understand.
"I guess I forgot to tell you." Tails said, scratching the side of his head, looking a little embarrassed.
Sonic turned around to look at the fox, still not understanding.
"I kinda made a couple more changes..." Tails gave a small smile, as he pressed a button on a little pad he held in his hand.
In response, the back glass dome covering at the rear of the Tornado X popped open, titling upwards at an angle.
"First class baby!" Douglas smiled, pointing at the extra seats.
"You never told me about those Tails!" Chuck said, trying to hide how impressed he was under some faked annoyance.
"Well, it wasn't my idea." Tails said, still looking a little bit embarrassed. "But it was last night, when…"
The elevator into Chuck's secret lab opened up, and Douglas stepped out. His attention was instantly caught by the sight of a very impressive aircraft hanging from wires and chains off the ceiling. Douglas whistled. Even though it wasn't completed yet, it looked like it was going to be amazing. Working on one of the larger 'hulls' of it, was Tails. The fox was carefully placing some circuit wiring in place.
"Hey Chuck." Douglas greeted, as the man in the lab coat walked past him.
Chuck didn't respond, looking the most exhausted that he had been in years. He walked over to beside Tails, looking at the fox.
"Tails…" He began, his tiredness showing in his voice. "You've been working on that all day! Why don't you take a break?"
"It's okay." Tails replied, not looking away from his work. "I'm almost nearly finished…"
"Alright…" Chuck said, yawning, and then turning away.
Douglas watched him walk into the elevator, and push the button to return to the surface. When the door closed, Douglas turned his attention back to the fox.
Tails smiled as the wire fitted in place. His attention then turned to the hand gently tapping his shoulder. The fox turned around, and saw it was Douglas.
"Hey man, how's it lookin'?" He asked.
"Oh, it's fine." Tails replied."Just got some minor adjustments here, then I can work on where the seats are going to go."
"Important part I guess." Douglas smiled.
"Yeah, I need to find the right place for me and Sonic so we'll be able to see everything…"
"What, you're still gonna have just two seats?" Douglas asked, his smile fading.
"Yeah, why?" Tails asked, surprised at the question.
"Well…" Douglas was about to say something, but he shook his head. "Nah, you don't want to hear it. You and Chuck have got all these plans done probably, and…"
"No, no, it's okay." Tails interrupted. "What's wrong with two seats?"
"It's just that, well… You've got a lot of guys in your group. I mean, there's you, Sonic, Amy, Cream, Knuckles, plus me and Chuck; so that's a lot of people, right?"
"Yeah, I guess…"
"But there's only two seats, so not many people will fly? It'll just be you and Sonic most of the time, right?"
Tails nodded.
"But if you need to save more people, like there was after we smashed Eggman at the bank, there's gonna be a problem there."
Tails blinked. Douglas had a good point. In that situation, Sonic and Amy had to cling onto the rope ladder out of the 'plane, as Douglas was in the passenger's seat. Although it wasn't that far a distance, it couldn't have been all that nice.
"Look, all I'm saying is that if we need to do another rescue mission…" Douglas explained. "…That some extra seats would be useful."
"Oh!" Tails exclaimed, understanding.
"It's just a suggestion." Douglas shrugged. "You don't have to do anything just cause I, you know, said something."
"No, no…" Tails said, thinking over what Douglas had pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I'll leave you to it man." Douglas said. "Keep up the good work bud."
"You thought of that?" Amy asked Douglas.
"Don't sound so shocked man!" Douglas said.
"I take it that you wanted to go into the stratosphere then Douglas?" Chuck questioned, tapping his foot on the ground. "I assume that's why you suggested this."
"That may have been part of it…" Douglas faked an expression of innocence. "But the seating thing is still a good point!"
The look of Chuck's face showed his didn't buy his story.
"Alright, fine! It was about me going along on this! That's why I said about the seats! You're only jealous that YOU didn't think of it!"
"That's not true!" Chuck insisted.
"Oh sure it isn't. Like when you totally didn't want to drive up to Area 99."
"…That was different."
Sonic frowned, folding his arms over his chest and closing his eyes.
"Oh come on! Let me go up there with you guys!" Douglas said. "I never get travel sick!"
"Well Sonic?" Tails asked.
Sonic remained in the posture, before a smile formed from his lips.
"Just so long as you don't get in the way." Sonic joked, before looking up at Douglas.
"Deal." Douglas smiled.
"Alright!" Tails said. "Let's get ready!"
"I CALL SHOTGUN!" Douglas shouted.
Tails pressed another button on his pad, and the front cockpit opened up. Douglas wasted no time in climbing up and into the front passenger seat, behind the pilot's chair. Sonic jumped up, and then downward, landing perfectly in the first of the rear passenger seats. Tails took up his position easily as pilot.
With everyone in, and safely buckled up, Tails pressed a button, and the glass lowered around the seats. After pressing a few more buttons, and checking some readings, the fox took a hold of both of the control sticks, and lightly gripped the,
"Tornado X ready for take-off!" Tails announced, pushing them forward a little.
The rear engines of the Tornado X flared up, and the craft began moving forward out of the holding bay and down the road from Chuck's lab house. Automatically, the folded back wings snapped outwards, holding into normal position.
Amy gasped, amazed that Tails could be able to construct such a thing. She knew he was smart, but this blew her mind away. She felt a little bad about the pie thing from yesterday…
"Let's clear the runway!" Chuck, who was standing beside Amy, announced.
Chuck flicked a switch on his control pad. In response, the palm trees that lined the road from Chuck's lab tilted away from the road, making the Tornado X's path free from trouble.
"Impressive." Knuckles stated.
"I can't wait!" Chuck stated, grinning like a child at Christmas. "I'm so excited I could fly!"
Amy looked a little concerned at the human's statement, but turned her attention back to the craft about to take off.
'Good luck guys.' She thought.
"You ready Douglas?" Sonic asked, smiling.
"Damn right I am!" Douglas replied. Tails had built in a system in the craft to allow conversation between both the front and rear compartments, so Douglas had easily heard the hedgehog's words.
"All right! Let's juice!" The hedgehog stated.
"Tornado X – Blast off!" Tails announced, pulling back on the sticks.
The engines roared into life, as the loud whoosh of air was heard passing out of them. The Tornado X began quickly moving down the road, picking up speed.
"Here we go!" The kistune announced.
Slowly, the Tornado X moved up and away from the ground at a steady upward angle. Douglas glanced over the side and saw the road moving away from them. Soon enough, the craft had left the runway and was now flying over Station Square.
"Tell Westlife I'm flying without wings!" Douglas announced.
"Smooth flyin' Tails!" Sonic said.
"Okay! Get ready!" Tails announced.
"For what?" Douglas asked.
"We're about to enter X Hyper-Speed Mode!" Tails replied.
"Say what now?" Douglas questioned.
The craft whirled, as the 'X-wings' of the Tornado X shifted inward, closing in. This made the craft even more aerodynamic. As a result, the Tornado X raced skyward away from the city at high speed.
Douglas was so surprised that he didn't speak, simply enjoying the sensation. Sonic meanwhile, was smiling. There was no way Eggman was going to win this time.
"Come on everyone!" Eggman announced. "Let's have a sing-song shall we? Ninety-nine satellites in the stratosphere! Ninety-nine satellites in the stratosphere! And if Super Sweeper should take one way…"
"Lord Eggman!" Bocoe exclaimed.
"What is it?" The Doctor snapped.
"Sorry to disturb you, but something is headed on a direct course towards Gobblein!" Decoe explained.
"Yeah!" Bokkun added. "And whatever it is, it's sure real fast!"
"But not fast enough!" Eggman said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll teach them to try and sneak up on me! E-90! Blast that annoyance out of the air!"
"There it is!" Sonic stated, seeing E-90 up ahead of them.
"Incoming projectiles!" Tails stated.
Similar to when the old Tornado and Gobblein had fought the previous day, Eggman's machine had fired many missiles, aimed to take out Tails' craft. Once again, Tails' excellent flying skills meant that the attacks didn't even come close to damaging the Tornado X.
"All right!" Sonic announced, pushing up the glass around him. "Let's do it!" With that said, he jumped high and out of his seat.
In another move similar to yesterday, Sonic began jumping from one rocket to another. But this time, instead of sending the last one back into E-90, Sonic choose to take a big leap of it, heading straight for the robot.
With effortless ease, Sonic landed down on the green body of Gobblein. He smiled. This didn't last for too long. Looking up, he saw the large central turret, pointing straight at him. It didn't help that it seemed to be charging up as well. Sonic leapt out of the way as a trio of laser beams aimed to take the hedgehog out.
Skidding to a halt, Sonic turned and ran towards the turret. Again it charged up, and this time Sonic leapt high over the beams.
'Too easy!' Sonic thought. 'Now I just fall down and smash into that thing!'
To Sonic's surprise, the guns of the turret suddenly pointed upward. An unexpected move that the hedgehog was not prepared for.
"WHOA!" Sonic exclaimed, barely able to twist his body out of harms way as lasers fired up at him.
"Don't worry Sonic!" Tails announced, bring the Tornado X towards E-90, and opening fire with the craft's guns. "I got your back!"
Tails' targeting was spot on, as within seconds, the main turret exploded in a cloud of flames and smoke.
"WHAT?" Eggman roared. "This can't be happening! There's no way that puny 'plane of the fox's could destroy that gun!"
The Doctor quickly began pulling switches and pressing buttons on his computer.
"No matter, I'll put an end to that hyperactive hedgehog!"
Sonic landed safely back down onto E-90. Looking upward, he raised his arm and gave a 'thumbs up'.
"Thanks Tails!" He shouted, before turning his attention back to the machine he was on, with a serious look on his face.
He was just in time to see a hatch open up, and what looked to be some kind of satellite rise out of it. A yellow laser beam then fired out of it, aiming for the Tornado X. It fired beam after beam up at the craft, which had to fly high and away from Gobblein to stay out of danger.
"We can't get any closer!" Tails stated, looking down.
"Using the satellites you stole against us? That's low even for you Eggman!" Sonic said, before taking a run along the top of E-90. He then jumped up, spun himself around in a ball, and smashed right into the satellite. The force of his 'Homing Attack' was strong enough to puncture through one side.
The attack caused the satellite to smoke up, at which point Sonic leapt straight up out of it. It exploded behind him, but Sonic was caught in the force of the air being thrown from the explosion, which sent him spinning out of control upwards.
In the living room of the Thorndyke residence, everyone was watching the fight in the sky. For whatever reason, Eggman was showing the action through his 'Egg TV'.
This allowed everyone to see Sonic regain his balance, and safely land back in his seat in the Tornado X.
"Isn't Sonic the bravest?" Amy asked, lovingly watching her blue hero in action.
"Mr. Tails is the best pilot ever!" Cream stated, watching the battle with awe.
"Chao chao!" Cheese added.
"It appears this confrontation is in our favour." Mr. Tanaka said.
"Looks like it." Knuckles agreed.
"They're still going up!" Chuck pointed out. "Now we'll see if this Eggman is worth what he says he is!"
"Get in close!" Sonic said.
"No problem!" Tails replied, following E-90 through some thick clouds.
After escaping the clouds, the Tornado X easily caught up with Gobblein, and moved up to it. When they were close enough, Sonic again lifted up the glass around him, and leapt out. Once again, he landed on E-90. This time, the speed it was travelling at caused strong wind speed to rush over it. This cause Sonic to lose his balance, and the blue hedgehog had to reach out and hold onto the back wing of the machine to prevent himself from falling.
Now, the Tornado X had overtaken E-90. This allowed Eggman's robot to fire missiles once again. Tails manoeuvred his craft to dodge the missiles, and continued going forward. Distracted by the projectiles, the fox failed to notice that Gobblein had slowed down, allowing the Tornado X to race off into the distance.
"Well well!" Eggman said. "It seems fox boy has a new toy to play with! Impressive I must say."
The Doctor leaned back in his chair. "My father's records said that the Prower family were the most intelligent Mobians on the planet. Too bad my daddy had to throw yours into the Void!"
A rather sinister smile flashed over his face. "And that's where he'll stay! It doesn't matter that you never became a Freedom Fighter, but you were on their side. The side that killed MY father!"
The Doctor composed himself for a moment, straightening out his moustache. "That void will stay closed for all eternity. I'll see to it that you'll never meet your family! But for now, lets see you try and top this! E-90! Let's bag us a hedgehog! Super Sweeper!"
Sonic looked up, still holding onto the wing of E-90. He saw the looming shape of the large red cap of the Super Sweeper coming towards him.
'Oh man!' Sonic thought. 'This ain't cool!'
"Dude!" Douglas exclaimed, looking behind him. "We've left Sonic behind!"
"Don't worry!" Tails replied "Here we go!"
The fox then grabbed a hold of a leaver by his side, and pulled it towards him.
"Booster switch on!" Tails the announced.
Before Douglas could question what the fox was talking about, the whole of the rear section of the Tornado X shifted forward, and the rear seats moved upward to connect with it. This allowed a rear hatch, previously hidden, to be exposed. It opened, revealing a powerful engine, which instantly sprung into life, and powered the craft into the distance.
In a flash, the Tornado X raced back where it was a moment ago, now heading in the other direction, towards E-90.
Sonic gripped onto the wing with all his might, as the Super Sweeper crackled into life. The hedgehog could feel the air around him being drawn into the red cap. Despite his efforts, the rest of his body was being lifted up from Gobblein's wing. Sonic tried his best to hold on, but he felt his grip beginning to be forced loose…
"Sonic!" Tails called out. "Watch out!" With that said, the fox opened fire onto E-90.
"I'm not sure he can hear you!" Douglas stated.
If he did nor not didn't matter, as Sonic was grateful to see the Super Sweeper being hit by laser fire from the Tornado X, and then vanish in an explosion.
"ALL RIGHT!" Eggman roared, seeing his Super Sweeper had just become a distant memory. "Perhaps I've underestimated you and your new transport Tails!"
"Maybe that old dude helped him!" Bokkun said.
"Old 'dude'? You mean Chuck Thorndyke?"
"Yeah! Him!"
"Of course! There's no way ONE great mind could possibly match my skills! So, the hedgehog can't even win battles with his own team of pathetic creatures eh? Well, I can play dirty as well! E-90! Drop-and-Burn manoeuvre, NOW!"
Tails banked the Tornado X around, following Gobblein.
"Yo Tails!" Douglas said. "Check that out."
Douglas pointed at the central storage tank, which had just disconnected from E-90. Tails smiled, knowing that the robot was trying out run him
"Just try and get away!" Tails said, pushing forward on his control sticks to give chase.
"Hold up." Douglas had a confused look on his face. "Big green machines with the ability to drop big green containers, and that can fly… Plus those trees bending to allow a makeshift runway… Do you people on Mobius watch Thunderbirds or something?"
This time, Tails was able to catch up with E-90. The fox pulled level with the back wing, and let Sonic jump safely onto the Tornado X. So advanced was the Tornado X, which it then overtook Gobblein, heading higher and further into the sky.
"Welcome back aboard!" Douglas greeted, trying to shout through the glass to Sonic.
The blue blur didn't respond, kneeling on the Tornado X's body, but visibly shivering.
"Dude!" Douglas spoke to Tails now. "Either our man out there's suddenly developed a nervous twitch, or he needs a hat and scarf fast!"
"That's 'cause we're close to the stratosphere." Tails explained, still concentrating on flying. "It's fifty below up here, but Sonic can take it."
"You sure?" Douglas questioned, before turning to look at Sonic. "How ya holdin' up there?" He asked the hedgehog.
Sonic replied by smirking, but couldn't hide the slightly unconfident sweat-drop on his head. He was going to show a thumbs up, but something by his feet caught his attention. The ice forming over his feet and hands that were resting on the Tornado X. Sonic couldn't move, being frozen to the spot.
In fact, ice seemed to be forming over the nose cone and the wing tips of the Tornado X. It didn't seem like it was stopping either.
"Uh, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but…" Douglas started to say, pointing at the ice forming under the cockpit.
"Everything's A-okay!" Tails reassured.
Douglas turned around to look at Sonic. "Yo! He says everything's…" The human trailed off, seeing ice travel up and form all over Sonic's body, reaching up to just over his eyes.
"…A-okay…" Douglas mumbled, not quite believing what he was seeing.
Sonic simply smiled, seemingly ignoring the possibility that anything wrong was going on.
"A-okay!" Sonic said, before the ice completely covered him.
"TAILS! Right now the in-flight meals are serving Hedgehog Popsicles!" Douglas said, turning around and grabbing the back of Tails' seat.
"Huh?" Tails did not expect to hear that statement.
Once again, E-90 attempted to take advantage of the target in front of it, by firing more missiles. This time, the Tornado X was aerodynamic enough to avoid these missiles by performing a quick loop-de-loop over them, and then twisting around to bank away from Gobblein.
"Okay, unless we can find some fire or something real fast, Sonic's gonna spend the rest of this fight in a personal ice-age!"
"Try and think of something!" Tails said. "We've got more missiles coming at us!"
'Okay, okay, let's think about this…' Douglas thought, rubbing his forehead. 'There's gotta be some kinda modification that we can use here to help…' He looked around him, hoping to find something useful. There wasn't anything, only a few buttons to open the cockpit, activate the emergency ejector seats, to call for a ring…
"That's it!" Douglas exclaimed. "What about one of those Power Rings?"
Tails nodded, pushing a button. He then pressed it again, then repeatedly.
"It's no good!" The kitsune announced. "The hatch isn't responding!"
"Probably because the thing's frozen shut!" Douglas stated, looking at the ice over the Tornado X's body. "God damn it!" He added, falling back into his seat in frustration. "Too bad you and Chuck didn't fit in a heating system into this thing!"
Tails gritted his teeth, turning the Tornado X to avoid another batch of missiles.
'Come on Tails…' The fox thought. 'There's got to be something you can think of to solve this mess!'
'We need to find a way to burn off this excess…' Tails then heard Chuck's voice say in his mind, almost triggered by needing help to find a solution.
"That's it!" Tails said, pressing a combination of buttons. "I've got an idea!"
Before Douglas could ask what 'it' was Tails had just thought of, a small drawer opened up out of the back of Tails' seat. In it, was a Power Ring.
"Listen carefully Douglas!" Tails started to explain. "Take the ring, and connect it to the YELLOW cable underneath the seat!"
"Okay!" Douglas nodded, guessing it was better not to question Tails' instructions, since he knew how this craft worked. He leaned forward, and carefully pulled out the yellow cable from where it was inserted under Tails' seat. He leaned back, and then picked up the Power Ring.
Just when Douglas was about to put them together, Tails sharply banked the Tornado X to avoid more missiles. Without warning of the move, Douglas accidentally dropped the cable.
"Shoot." Douglas mumbled under his breath, reaching back down for it.
"Hurry Douglas!" Tails shouted. "That last one was way too close!"
"No shit!" Douglas snapped back, grabbing a firm hold of the cable. "Let's see how they like THIS!" And with that, Douglas connected the ring into the cable. He had to look away, as a bright light shined out of the cable's end as a result.
Through the frozen hatch, tiny sparks of ring energy escaped out, and travelled through the ice, and upward. The energy floated over to the frozen hedgehog, and seemed to settle there. Sonic was able to move his head a little, smiling more confidently, feeling the energy travel into him. It was just what he needed, as the ice around him began to gradually melt away.
With a clench of his fist, the ice around his hand shattered away. With a shake of his toes, the ice around his foot broke off. And with a final sharp cry, Sonic stood up, and he was frozen no more.
"Watch out Eggman!" He announced. "I'm all warmed up! Let's go get him guys!"
"YEAH!" Douglas and Tails said, as the fox again pushed the Tornado X forward into the distance.
Once again, the Tornado X returned, almost as suddenly as it had left, heading towards E-90. The difference this time was that Sonic was filled with ring energy. As a result, Sonic leapt off from the craft, homing in on the latest batch of missiles from Gobblein.
One by one, Sonic targeted a missile, smashed into it and destroyed it, and then moved onto the next one. From the eye, all that could be seen was a blue blur travelling from one explosion in the stratosphere to the next. After all the missiles had been dealt with, Sonic paused in mid air for a moment, looking at E-90.
The robot had its jaws open, seemingly looking to snap the hedgehog up in it. Sonic smirked, spinning around in a ball and then dashing towards it. In a second, Sonic had vanished inside Gobblein's 'mouth', and the robot closed its jaws shut.
What followed next was nothing short of catastrophic for the robot. Sonic rattled around the inside of the machine, smashing from wall to wall, ceiling to floor. He tore through wires, circuits, gears, anything unfortunate to get in his path.
From where Tails and Douglas were, hundreds of tiny explosions began appearing all over E-90, before larger ones followed. Just when nearly all of Gobblein was covered with smoke, a final blue blur burst through it, and straight up out of it.
"That was awesome." Douglas said, shaking his head slightly at the sight.
"Yeah!" Tails shouted. "Go Sonic!"
Not a sound was heard, as all those in the Thorndyke living room watched as E-90 disappeared in a large cloud of smoke. The next thing they knew, a large ball of flames replaced the smoke.
It was then the image was replaced by static.
"Aww…" Cream said. "We didn't even get to see the end of the show."
"Guess I need to call the cable guy." Mr. Tanaka stated, leaving the room.
Sonic screamed out in joy, freefalling downward through white clouds. He had beaten Eggman once again, but this time it felt so much better and unlike anytime before.
Leaving the clouds, he suddenly noticed a shadow over him. He looked over, and saw Tails and Douglas smiling at him. He returned the smile, before twisting himself towards the Tornado X, and into his seat.
He strapped himself in as the glass lowered.
"Way to kick Eggman ASS!" Douglas said.
"Okay guys, let's head home!" Sonic said.
"No problem!" Tails said, setting a course back to the Thorndyke Residence.
Eggman looked down at the scene below him. His robots, of all shapes and sizes, were carefully unloading the satellites from the storage container that had been part of E-90.
"Lord Eggman." Decoe said. "Unloading is nearly finished."
"Good." The Doctor replied. "I will examine what treats I have later."
The robot nodded in reply, walking away from the Doctor.
Today hadn't been about a scheme to defeat the hedgehog with, although that would have been a bonus. He now had a fine collection of metal to construct some more machines with, and had once again proved that the defences of these humans were no match to him.
He knew that the parts Gobblein had collected for him would not be enough though. But that could wait for another day. Perhaps next time he would look for materials on a ground level.
Despite being beaten by Sonic in the 'second' round, Eggman didn't feel like a loser at all. Far from it. In fact, this had gone better than he had hoped. He had pushed the hedgehog to the limit, and forced his friends to completely reconstruct the Tornado into something far more advanced.
'That means I need to prepare my machines against it.' Eggman thought. 'A innovator like myself needs to be kept up to date with the latest advancements!' He then smiled darkly. 'Sonic has never been my rival, only a thorn in my side. My intellect far surpasses his. Perhaps Tails will be the one to step up to match wits with me.'
Eggman then laughed, looking up at the ceiling.
"You should've kept you feet on the ground fox-boy!" He said, before turning a leaving the room. Behind him, his robots looked more than confused. Often, they could never understand their master.
"…I'm telling you guys!" Douglas said. "My man here was THE MAN out there!" He motioned to Sonic. "David Blaine's ice stunt was nothing on Sonic's freeze!"
Sonic wished he could feel better about being complimented, but he was unable to. The effects of being coated with ice in the stratosphere had taken their tool. Which was why Sonic was now sat on the living room sofa with his feet in a basin of hot water.
"Sonic!" Ella said, walking into the room carrying a tray with a bowl on it. "I made my special homemade chilli for you. This will make your tummy nice and warm."
Sonic smiled. He liked the sound of that a lot.
"You sure taught Eggman a lesson Sonic." Chuck stated, sitting next to the hedgehog.
"It wasn't me Chuck." Sonic said, waving a figure dismissively. "I just helped out this time. Douglas and Tails were the ones that did it. They were the real heroes."
Upon hearing this, Tails' face lit up with a huge smile. He swelled up with pride hearing this from his hero.
"Speaking of him, where is Douglas?" Knuckles asked.
"Someone call?" Douglas voice said, as he entered the room.
"Sonic was just saying that…" The guardian started to say, before his voice trailed off as he looked at Douglas.
Everyone looked at Douglas. More accurately, what he was wearing on his head.
"M… Mister Douglas!" Cream stuttered.
"Hey Cream." Douglas smiled. "Oh, you've noticed this have you?" Douglas pointed to what was on his head. The flower crown Cream had made for him. "Well, I never got a chance to put it on the other day, and since this is a celebration and all…"
Cream ran over to him, followed by Cheese, and hugged Douglas. She had small tears of joy forming under her eyes.
"Hey, there's no need to cry!" Douglas said, looking down at the rabbit.
"I… I thought you did… didn't like me!" Cream stuttered out.
"Naw!" Douglas waved off the idea. "I like you! I like all of you guys!" Douglas motioned to everyone in the room.
Chuck smiled, having to hold back himself from crying. This is the first time that he'd ever seen Douglas be overly nice to anyone ever since Chris passed away.
"Let's celebrate!" Amy's voice then announced, drawing everyone's attention to her. She was standing in the doorway, holding a tray full of multi-coloured ice creams.
"I made these ice creams myself, for the coolest guy around!"
Sonic looked far from comfortable with that idea, the sweat drop on his head being proof of that.
"That sounds was past Uncool to me." Sonic said.
Next Episode Preview – Voice-over by Douglas
"You'd think a VIP invite to a fancy opening would be great huh? Not a chance with these guys around! A violent need by a certain Doctor to rip up anything that's bolted down all mean that this holiday is going to be anything BUT enjoyable. But with Sonic nowhere near, this doesn't look good! Plus Amy keeps acting weird… Come to think of it, so is Tails…
Next time on Sonic eXcluded: Sun, Surf and Strife. Don't miss it!"
Author notes: Hey people! This episode isspecial because it's been uploaded from school! But apart from that, it's still the same good stuff as usual.
The Mouse of Anon- The Underground becomes united in the not too distant future. Not gonna say anymore than that.
Why-is-buggie-takeN- Check out my profile for the answer to your question. Thanks for the support.
There you go people. I'd better go before my teachers get me in trouble for using up school time. See ya next time!
