Van Gale's Laboratory Mk III, 9:34pm, 8 hours after the Anomaly.
"There. Finished. Eggman stared proudly at his handiwork. It had taken a few hours of tinkering and hard work, but the water wheel was finally finished.
"Wonderful." Ms Van Gale smiled gleefully, already brimming with ideas about what to make with the power they now possessed. "What should we build first?"
"Well, since you're asking, I have a few robots that I'd like to build." Eggman rubbed his hands together.
"I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that just yet. You'll have to teach me." Van Gale replied.
"Oh, it's simple, once you get the hang of it. We'll start off with some easier robots for building first, before we move on to larger things."
"Oh, and I can use my meteorology knowledge to make a weather station! You know, one that can move." She suggested.
"You wish to use this technology to measure the weather?" Eggman questioned her ambition.
"Oh, not just that, back when I had my first laboratory, I could create some small scale weather events. Of course, to create anything larger, I'd need the help of the weather spirits, which'll be difficult, especially if that blue haired girl tries to stop me again." Van Gale explained.
"That sounds… oddly familiar." Eggman noticed. "The weather spirits too. Conceptually they sound similar to some things I might find in my world. Surely they can't be that hard to acquire?"
"It took an awful lot of effort." Van Gale replied. Care to hear me explain in further detail?" she asked, sipping from a cup of coffee.
"Gladly." Eggman replied. And Van Gale then rambled about how she managed to 'lure' a weather spirit to her lab, and how it attracted a lot more weather spirits with it.
"I've done harder things before." Eggman mused. "For what it's worth, I think your mobile weather factory is a splendid idea, Victoria." Dr Eggman flattered her as he grinned to himself.
David's House, Trolberg, 3:54pm 7 days after the Anomaly.
"Evening!" David called out to his family as he arrived home from school.
"Oh, there you are son." His dad replied. "Your fox friend wanted to speak to you about something."
"Oh, okay." David took off his shoes and hopped upstairs. It hadn't taken long for David's parents to find out Tails was living with them. David's dad was the first to notice his slippers had gone missing, and first to see an unusual pair of shoes in its place. A short explanation had cleared everything up though, and the family were enjoying the company of their new houseguest.
Tails on the other hand, whilst happy to be well fed and rested, was struggling to come up with any ideas on how to use the Phantom Ruby to make a portal home. Ball after ball of scrunched up paper filled David's bin until it could fit nothing more.
"You okay?" David asked him as he plonked down his schoolbag in front of his bed.
"I'm fine." Tails replied dismissively as he stared deeply into the blank piece of paper in front of him.
"You don't look like it." David pointed out, acknowledging the stack of waste paper next to him. "You look the way I do when I have homework." He joked.
"Yeah." Tails sighed, dropping his pencil onto the page. "The neighbours have been doing DIY all day. I can hear the drilling from here."
"The library should be open still, it'll be nice and quiet in there." David suggested.
"Won't the people there be judging me?" Tails worried.
"Doubt it. I'm sure Hilda probably told Kaisa already."
"Who's Kaisa?"
She's the town's librarian, and a witch too. Don't worry about her. She's good, like Frida. David answered.
"Are there bad witches?" Tails asked.
"There are a couple." David replied. "Victoria Van Gale practices necromancy as well as science, for example.
"She sounds pretty powerful." Tails packed away his pen and paper and stood up. "So, where's the library?"
"I'll show you, once I can get into my home clothes." David replied.
"I'll go and make us some hot chocolate." Tails decided, going downstairs and making drinks, additionally making cups of tea when the parents asked for it. Once that was over and done with, David and Tails headed out, setting off towards the library.
What had been a sunny day that morning had already clouded over by this part of the day. David considered going back for an umbrella, but it was already fairly breezy, so he decided against it. The pair arrived at the library fairly quickly and Tails marvelled at its grandeur.
"This place looks amazing!" Tails gawked. "I'd love to read some of the books in here, you know, when I have some free time."
"Wait until you see the inside of it." David teased, as they walked inside. Kaisa was standing in front of them, re-shelving some books that some other kids had left lying on the table.
"Hello David." Kaisa waved. "Hilda and Frida are on the table over that way if you're looking for them."
"Thanks." David replied quietly. He and Tails quietly shuffled over to the table as Hilda and Frida looked up at them.
"Oh, you're here." Frida exclaimed in mild surprise. "Glad you could join us."
"Tails needed somewhere quiet to work." David explained. At that moment, Kaisa approached them, holding a large book in her hand.
"I think you'll find this useful." She spoke, handing the book to Tails, who opened it to find it was chock full of advanced physics equations.
"Wow, Thanks!" Tails responded, containing his voice as much as he could. "How did you know?" he asked. Kaisa said nothing and walked away.
"She just does." Hilda 'explained'. Tails wasted no time in making calculations, now he had the equations to hand. David meanwhile made small talk with the girls.
"I take it you're helping Frida with witch studies again?"
"Of course." Hilda replied.
"Anything in particular?" David asked.
"A little witch history." Frida began. "The extract here talks about the construction of the Witches' Tower and how the void came to be."
"What's the void?" Tails asked, curious.
"Effectively, it's a living, gigantic endless hole that feeds off of, well anything, I suppose. People included." Frida explained.
"It should be full right now though." Hilda replied. "Last time we were in there we fed it enough vegetation to last forever."
"Hopefully it won't get sick of them anytime soon." David added as Tails nodded with a concerned look on his face. Not long after the conversation died down, a strong gust of wind blew open the library doors.
"The weather seems to be getting worse," Kaisa commented as she rushed to shut the doors again.
"We should go home, before it gets any worse." Frida suggested.
"Agreed. It isn't supposed to be this windy today, is it?" David asked.
"No, it isn't." Hilda frowned. "Something weird is going on." Hilda stood up, and stroked her chin.
"Are you suggesting its artificial?" Frida asked.
"Possibly. We should investigate. Come on." Hilda ventured out of the library and into the wind as the others followed behind her.
"Those clouds look a lot angrier than they did an hour ago." David pointed out.
"You'd think Van Gale would have learned her lesson after what happened the first time!" Hilda shouted over the noise of the wind.
"Are you sure we should be running headfirst into that thing?" David asked, as Hilda broke into a run, forcing the other three to keep up.
"I'll fly back and get us some coats." Tails suggested.
"That would be nice, thanks." David replied as Tails flew off towards David's house. Hilda considered dashing home to get her sword, but decided against it. The four of them regrouped at the north face of the wall, and continued onward, passing through a small gate. The storm grew fiercer as they neared the epicentre, adding to the strong winds with flashes of lightning and pelting rain, dampening them, but not their spirit.
Over the side of a hill, Hilda and co spotted what appeared to be a large mecha in the field below from which lightning shot upwards.
"A robot?" Hilda looked puzzled. "That's an odd choice, even for her."
"Uh oh." David gulped, as he clocked what was going on. Tails initially looked shocked and surprised, but his expression was replaced by one of determination, pressing ahead, as Hilda and her friends chased behind. The four of them stopped within touching distance of the robot, just in time for the pilot to introduce herself.
"Goodness! If it isn't Hilda and her friends. I haven't seen you in ages! You three have grown a lot since I last saw you. And you," Victoria Van Gale looked over at Tails. "Who are you?"
"I'm Tails. Sonic's best friend."
"And loyal sidekick." Van Gale finished his sentence, as the fox stared at her, nonplussed. "He told me about you two."
"What do you mean, he?" Hilda pressed angrily. "And what maniacal scheme are you up to now? These clouds don't just turn up out of nowhere!"
"Oh don't mind her, she's just conducting some experiments. The person you should be worried about is me!" The top half of the bot rotated 90 degrees, revealing the voice to be none other than…
"Eggman!" Tails called out.
"I'm sorry?" Van Gale looked confused.
"You see what they're like, Victoria? They mock me for my bald head." Eggman professed to her. "Of course, after enduring the mocking for so long, I have since leaned into the persona." He turned back around, staring at Tails and the others menacingly.
"Honestly, Victoria, I thought you'd given up on the whole "kidnapping a weather spirit" thing." David accused, gesturing up at the sodden sky.
"Well, I had, but Robotnik here offered kindly to help me with my research, and with a man of his intellect, why would I say no?" Ms Van Gale responded.
"I can think of plenty of reasons." Tails clenched his fists and twisted his namesakes as he adopted a fighting stance.
"Ooh, ready to fight are we? Well get a load of this!" Eggman jeered, firing a bolt of lightning at them. Tails quickly dodged out of the way, as the other three were taken aback at Eggman's propensity for violence.
"HEY!" Hilda yelled at him, incensed at his aggression. "No one hurts my friends!" she seethed.
"You should go, before you get hurt." Van Gale warned them.
"Not until the weather spirits you trapped are freed!" Hilda stood defiantly, as the clouds roared with thunder in response, as if to cheer her on.
"If it's a fight they want, we'll give them one." Eggman growled as he reciprocated, blasting a large gust of wind at Hilda. Frida and David quickly grabbed hold of her to stop her from being blown away, as Hilda bore through the pain. Tails began to charge up a spin dash and gave the robot arm a whack, while Eggman was preoccupied.
"Victoria! March us towards the city!" Eggman commanded. "Let's show them how much power we really have!"
"Setting course southwards." Van Gale entered the co-ordinates on her console.
"We need to find a weak point!" Frida raised urgently to Hilda.
"Yeah, but at this rate, we can't even touch them. If that lightning hits us…" Hilda replied.
"I'll keep Eggman busy." Tails suggested. "You three should focus on getting Van Gale out of that pilot seat. If we can get to the controls, we can free those weather spirits!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Frida smiled confidently. "Let's do it." Tails immediately caught Eggman's attention, running towards him and dodging lightning bolts left and right as he managed to get a couple of hits in, while Hilda and co circled round to Victoria's side.
Hilda let out a battlecry and threw herself at the robot, attempting to clamber her way inside, but Victoria Van Gale swatted her away with the flick of a robotic hand. Hilda hit the ground with a thud, but she got up quickly, gritting her teeth, not unhurt but certainly undeterred.
"I need some backup, guys!" Hilda called, as Frida and David distracted Van Gale further, climbing onto the robot arms while Hilda attempted to clamber on a second time. This proved equally as fruitless as thee first, but then, a blue speck in the distance began to approach at breakneck speed.
"Need a boost?" came a familiar voice.
"Sonic! You're here!" Tails cheered joyfully, giving Eggman's robot another whack for good measure.
"Mind if I take over?" Sonic offered.
"Be my guest." Tails replied as he and Sonic switched places. Sonic began to trade blows with Eggman's robot as Tails flew round to Hilda and co. "I'll give you a lift. You know what to do." Hilda grabbed Tails' outstretched hand as he carried her up, before she dropped herself onto the cockpit, right in front of Van Gale. Hilda pushed the nearest lever she could find, which ground the robot to a halt.
"Uh, Robotnik? I think now would be a good time to retreat." Van Gale looked over uncertainly at Eggman.
"You think?" Eggman looked briefly at Van Gale's predicament, and at his robot's battered and slightly smoky exterior. He detached his eggmobile from the robot and hovered over to Van Gale, who joined him as she hopped out of her cockpit.
"You may think you have won, hedgehog, but I'll be back! And you will be sorry!" Eggman jeered as the pair scurried away. Hilda, Frida and David cheered in delight, before opening up the robot's power core, allowing the weather spirits to escape. With the spirits freed, the mass of clouds that had gathered above calmed down, and began to drift away.
"Nice going, guys!" Sonic gave a thumbs up, as the Sun broke out from behind the clouds.
"Thanks!" Hilda replied, running up to him. "You must be Sonic. I'm Hilda, and these are my friends Frida and David. She and the hedgehog shook hands. "I hope your week out here in the wilderness hasn't been too harrowing. It can get a bit scary at night."
"Must be why your town has such a big wall." Sonic chuckled. "It was fine. Those rocky guys don't really bother you unless you give them a reason to.
"Can't imagine it was fun being rained on, though." Frida added. "Why don't you come and stay in the city with us?" she offered.
"Tails has been staying at my house." David mentioned. "He's been busy trying to work this Phantom… Ruby… thing so you guys can get back home."
"Great!" Sonic replied. "Any progress?"
"Sadly not." Tails responded with a frown. The trio began walking back to town with Sonic and Tails in tow.
"Tails, I'm sure you noticed, but didn't Eggman seem a little weak to you?" Sonic asked.
"I'm sure there's some good reasons for that." Tails replied. "With the levels of natural resources here, I'm surprised he even managed to launch a robot this quickly."
"True. Anything I should know about that other lady?"
"Victoria Van Gale, meteorologist, mad scientist, and necromancer." David answered, turning to look at them.
"Supposedly she's a woman of science, but she does know an awful lot of dark magic." Frida added.
"Which makes it strange that she didn't use any of it today." Tails pondered.
"Perhaps she didn't want to reveal that. Eggman seems to be quite short-tempered based on what we saw." Frida hypothesised. "I can hardly imagine what a scientist like him would think if it he found out she was a witch."
"You'd be surprised." Sonic replied.
"To him, power is power. Whatever he can find to pursue world domination, he will use. As we have found out countless times." Tails explained.
"We should keep an eye out." Sonic replied.
"Yeah, that's if you can find him." Van Gale's new laboratory could be anywhere." Hilda shrugged.
"Good thing I'll be looking for him then." Sonic replied, as the five of them walked back inside the city.