Land Factory Theta, 10:12am, 19 days after the Anomaly.
"What makes you say that?" Belle asked.
"Well, if she was here, she would have noticed all the commotion and confronted us. That and the fact there is a set of footprints leading out of the building." Amy answered, as they exited the factory.
"Do you have any idea where she went?" Belle asked.
"Well, let's see." Amy began. "From here, there are only three real directions she could have gone. We came up from the south so she hasn't gone that way. The leaves the Northeast and Northwest. Any other direction is either too mountainous to traverse easily, or leads to nowhere.
We know Eggman is already heading Northeast towards the HQ, and his new accomplice is staying behind to oversee the production. Given the state the factory was left in, she clearly intended to come back, which she would not be planning to do if she was following Eggman, therefore, she is heading Northwest. Over there there isn't anything except Paradise Prairie. I don't know what she plans on doing there, but I highly doubt it's anything good." Amy deduced.
"That's some solid detective work. You should join the Chaotix!" Belle joked.
"Hmph." Amy smirked. "Come on, we should go." she beckoned Belle to follow her.
"Lead the way." Belle acquiesced. The pair wasted no time running through the trees and rolling hills that peppered the landscape along the route. For all they knew, Eggman's new accomplice could be taking over the town right this very second.
It was a surprise, therefore, to see Van Gale approaching them seemingly empty-handed, and completely unarmed, no less. Amy and Belle stopped in the middle of the road and waited while she came to a stop in front of them.
"I take it you must be Eggman's new accomplice." Amy accused, crossing her arms.
"I am. Well, I was at least. I'm not sure how much longer I plan to stay that way." Van Gale replied.
"What were you doing in Paradise Prairie?" Amy got straight to the point. "Nothing there is of any strategic benefit to you."
"So I heard." Van Gale replied. "If you must know, I wanted to find out more about those flicky things that show up from time to time."
"Yeah, we know what they are. You used to see them a lot more often out here in the wild, but given how so many them have been trapped by Dr Eggman, you barely ever see them anymore." Amy explained in a passive-aggressive tone.
"Really? Because I doubt an animal that small could possibly power a robot that large. That would seem physically impossible. A weather spirit could do it, sure, what with the natural magic they have, but an animal like that? Surely not. How would it even work? Do they just run around on a little hamster wheel? Van Gale was in denial.
I'm sorry?" Amy seemed dumbfounded. "You've be working for him for how long? And you still haven't discovered even the most basic of his cruelty. He's been doing that ever since the start! How could you possibly not know this?"
"How was I supposed to know? He's kept quiet about himself around me. I've only known him for a couple of weeks, and I've only been here for about 4 or 5 days. Sure, his attitude towards Sonic, Tails, and the little rabbit girl seemed a little extreme, but I chalked that up to his long-standing feud between him and you guys."
"A couple of weeks?" Amy did the maths in her head. "You're not from here, are you? You must be from one of the worlds we fell into."
"Yeah. Eggman came knocking at my door one day and with our mutual interest in science, we began to build a great friendship, or so it seemed. He seemed to have a vendetta against Sonic in particular, which I could understand, having had my life's work destroyed before."
"And then when you came here, you rolled through every village you came across, placed them firmly under Eggman's thumb, and upon getting to base, started building more units for him, facilitating a full-scale invasion, so he can take over, again! He's marching on Restoration HQ as we speak. If that falls, what do you think happens to this place!?" Amy shouted.
Van Gale stopped and stared at her, speechless, like a deer in the headlights as she processed what consequences her actions would have.
"The expedition... Has he been lying to me this whole time?..." The last few pieces of the jigsaw finally came together in her mind. "…God! How could I have been so stupid! What else has he been lying to me about? What else did he keep from me? About the flickies? This war that apparently happened? This metal virus I keep hearing about?" She began to panic, breathing erratically as the avalanche of revelations weighed on her head.
"Hey! Hey, wait!" Amy rushed over to help, putting an arm around Van Gale's shoulder as she crouched down and curled herself into a ball.
"What have I done?" Van Gale looked up at Amy tearfully.
"I won't answer that." Amy responded. "What matters now is how you can make things better." She spoke softly, consoling Van Gale as she buried her head in her arms and began to cry.
"How bad was it? How much suffering was I responsible for?"
"Well, one of the robots we fought at the portal threw a kid into a concrete block, so you tell me." Amy stated.
"I didn't tell them to do that!" Van Gale seemed shocked and surprised that Eggman's robots had violence built into them. "I just told them to fetch the chaos emeralds..." her voice trailed off until it was only a whimper as she cried into her arms for another minute or two. Finally gaining enough composure to look up again, Amy waited for her to speak.
"How can I? I can't fix... this." She gestured at herself. "I've already made a complete dogpile of things already. I made those robots, I sent them to Robotnik, and a child I don't know was indirectly bloodied by my own hand. Please tell me at least you managed to stop them." Van Gale pleaded.
"Yeah, we defeated them." Amy assured. "And we've taken down the production line at the factory too." She added.
"Did you keep the records? There's a room upstairs where Eggman kept some of his design work. I was about to read it, but then you arrived." Van Gale asked.
"They should be there, don't worry." Amy assured. "Come with me. Perhaps we can fix this, together." She encouraged. Hopping on Van Gale's Eggmobile, Amy took the helm and began to speed off back towards the factory, having picked up Belle beforehand.
"Ah, Hello. Who might you be?" Van Gale noticed the little wooden Marionette for the first time.
"Oh, me? I'm Belle." She replied. "I was built by a man named Mr Tinker, but he's sadly no longer with us."
"Aw, what a shame. I assume he was a nice man."
"He was." Belle stressed. "What's your name?"
"Victoria Van Gale." The meteorologist replied. "My expertise is in weather patterns. And you are?"
"My name is Amy Rose. I ran Resistance/Restoration HQ from the start of the war up until the Metal Virus was vanquished. If you still need any confirmation that Eggman is the evilest bastard around, I can tell you all about it."
"Perhaps you should start from the beginning. I need to know what to expect."
Amy began right from the very start, detailing how Eggman began with trapping animals, and then hoarding the Chaos Emeralds, and how she, Tails, Knuckles, Sonic and the others all met. She'd only got as far as explaining the Master Emerald by the time they arrived back at the factory, with Van Gale looking increasingly traumatised, her eyes on stalks.
"You okay?" Belle asked, waving her hand in front of Van Gale's eyes.
"I'm fine." Van Gale insisted, appearing to snap out of her depressive stupor.
"Okay." Belle replied uncertainly, as the three of them hopped off the Eggmobile, and walked inside the broken factory.
"Wow, you really made a mess of this place." Van Gale remarked.
"It's the least we could do." Amy smiled proudly. "So , where are these books you mentioned?" She asked.
"This way." Van Gale led them to the elevator, and the three of them went inside and travelled to the top of the mountain.
The doors opened to reveal the breakroom and kitchen. Amy poked her head into the breakroom as Tangle and Whisper were sharing a coffee, staring lovingly into each other's eyes. Whisper glanced at Amy and pointed her out to Tangle with a knowing look. Tangle turned around to face Amy, looking slightly flustered.
"Oh. Hi." Tangle said awkwardly. "You're back!"
"Yes." Amy replied matter-of-factly. "Did you find anything while you were up here?"
"Uh, yeah! There was a bunch of folders and stuff full of Eggman's old plans and robots. We left them there in case you wanted to read them, but I doubt you'll be that interested. Did you manage to find... whoever it was?"
"Yep." Amy replied. "I brought her back with me."
"Hello there." Van Gale chimed in, making herself known to them. Tangle and Whisper immediately tensed.
"Are you sure about this?" Tangle asked, bracing her arms up defensively.
"I'm sure." Amy replied. "From the sounds of it, Eggman has been deceiving her and manipulating her to do his bidding. Where are the books?"
"Over here." Tangle replied, pointing at a shelf where a large red folder was jutting out from the rest of the books. Amy picked it up and opened it out to the first page. On it was Eggman's first design, a mechanism for trapping flickies and making them into robots, powered by their own life force. Van Gale looked appropriately horrified, and began to apologise profusely.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I I'm sorry." Van Gale stuttered. "I didn't know. I know I built these, but the power cores were already assembled, and I thought it would be powered by conventional natural resources, not LIVE ANIMALS!" She shouted. "If I'd known, I would have... I'd have stopped... I'd have said no, I'd."
"It's okay. Your apology is accepted." Whisper consoled her quietly, laying a hand on her shoulder. Van Gale eventually managed to gain the confidence to turn to the next page. On it were more robots of different varieties, all using the same mechanism.
She kept turning the pages until she got a third of the way through, where the regular designs gave way to more complicated machines, such as Metal Sonic, the Death Egg, and some of his larger mechas. Further on, about halfway through the book, there we more of his grand plans, of conquest, and of building that damn theme park amongst it. Control of everything, just as she had heard from Timothy. Van Gale's expression of shock gradually withered into one of anger, and she flicked furiously through the rest of the pages until she got to the last, an early prototype design of what would eventually become the metal virus, and underneath, a brief description of Eggman's philosophy behind it.
"The ultimate punishment for the ultimate humiliation. If somehow, Sonic is able to defeat me while the world is in my hands, then I will reduce this world to nothing and find somewhere else to rule."
Van Gale had seen more than enough. Any pretence that she could ever reconcile with Eggman was now well and truly out the window.
"We're burning this one." Van Gale ripped the last page out of the folder and handed it to Amy. "I dread to think what would happen were he to use this idea... somewhere else."
"Point taken." Amy took the page and stashed it away. "This won't be the only copy he has though, physical or digital. I'll get Tails to look into it when we have the time."
"Ah yes, him. Eggman mentioned he was pretty good at science. I take it he and Sonic have already made it back to this world?"
"Yeah, they got back a good while before us. They're currently pursuing Eggman, and all those bots you built." Amy grumbled. "As far as I'm concerned, we're done here. We should head north-east. Maybe if we move quickly enough, we can get there in time to help out Jewel and the others."
"Help out with what?" Van Gale asked.
"Jewel is assembling as many people as she can to take on Eggman before he gets to the HQ. You coming with us?"
"Of course, I owe you enough as it is!" Van Gale quickly accepted. "We'll take the Eggmobile. It'll probably get there faster, too. Eggman did design it to keep up with Sonic, after all."
"Good. Then let's go." Amy commanded, as the quintet headed downstairs and out to where the Eggmobile was parked. After hopping on one at a time, Van Gale turned on the ignition and the gang set off. The group flew across the landscape at great pace, hovering over hills and fields as if they were nothing.
"How fast does this thing go?" Belle asked, ducking underneath the side to protect her face from the wind.
"As fast as the wind will let us?" Van Gale answered, as they darted over another hill. Without any robots to march through, or any villages to liberate, Van Gale and co were catching up to Eggman at an extremely fast rate, as they beelined directly to HQ.
This did not go unnoticed by Eggman, who, prone to betrayal as he was, had installed a tracker on the other Eggmobile in order to keep an eye on her. As Eggman watched the flashing red dot on his console hurtle towards his location, he saw it prudent to call her and check in. Van Gale was nonetheless surprised to see Eggman's face appear on the console.
"Ah, Robotnik! Didn't expect to see you here!" Van Gale faked enthusiasm.
"Victoria! I see you've finished your studies. I take it you were successful?"
"As good as I could have hoped for." Victoria hid her true intentions.
"What about the Chaos Emeralds? Do you have them? I need them pronto considering what we're up against."
"I'm sorry, what are we up against?" Van Gale asked. "Surely Sonic and his band of friends wouldn't require a whole army to defeat, unless you have further... more ulterior motives?"
"Ulterior? This world will be ours, Victoria! I will settle this score with Sonic once and for all, and once that blue menace is six quills in the dirt, we will rule this world together, just me, my minions, and you of course. That is what you agreed to did you not? You were so desperate to leave your world, where you had so disgraced yourself in the eyes of your peers that you were cast out, left to fend for yourself in the wilderness until I came to your door. Without me, you were nothing, unable to stand up to a mere child! You have talent, sure; the way you could control the weather at will, I could see some of myself in you, but only a true genius like me would have the necessary vision to direct that power. That's why you need me, Victoria. Now where are the Chaos Emeralds?" Eggman demanded.
"You're right. Perhaps I'm not a visionary thinker like yourself, nor do I have such strong a will as you do. But one thing I do know is when to admit I am in the wrong, and for that, I'm sorry." Van Gale began. "As for the Chaos Emeralds, they are safely where they belong, aren't they Amy?" Van Gale turned to face the pink hedgehog, who promptly stood up and made herself known, as she and Van Gale stared him down.
"Amy Rose!? Oh, you vile, double-crossing rat, you traitor, you wretch! How dare you betray me like this! After all I'd done for you! I cannot believe you would do this to me, when I've done nothing to deserve this!"
"Is that so?" Amy interjected. "Because I have a long list of possible reasons. You could fill a book with them. Maybe it was the way you strung her along, lying to her, keeping her oblivious to your true nature, a complete mirror image of what you pretended to be. Maybe it was because you only managed to see good in her when it could benefit yourself, or maybe, just maybe, it was because she finally saw the truth of what you are. A monster. A man so spiteful, he would destroy all life on his home planet, and so arrogant to think he could take whatever world he came across next." Amy recalled the conversation between him and Sonic on Angel Island. "You deserve nothing, and you should thank your lucky stars that Sonic has a bigger heart, because I certainly would not be so merciful in his position."
"Pah. Your threats mean nothing to me." Eggman chuckled. "Once I am done with my plans here, I shall return to your world, Victoria, and you shall witness how easily I can take control of it, provided of course you live long enough to see it."
"You have me mistaken, doctor. As I recall, you were the one who came to me with nothing. Initially I thought your passion for science was genuine, that you really cared, that you would use your brilliant mind to think about someone other than yourself. But no. Your Ego, coupled with your thirst for conquest trumps all, even to your supposed friends. Perhaps this is why you face betrayal so often. Goodbye Robotnik, and may your callousness precipitate your own collapse." Van Gale elegantly rebuked.
"Fine. Dig your own grave. You will regret this, Victoria! For as long as you live!" Eggman angrily ended the call.
"Good riddance." Van Gale chuntered, through gritted teeth.
"If only." Amy huffed, as they pressed on.
Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails were hot on Eggman's heels, disposing of any robots (mostly his remaining Necrobots) which were left to occupy neighbouring towns along the route. Despite the robots slowing them down considerably, Sonic and Tails were now only 24 miles from the Emeraldville plains outside the city, where Jewel had assembled a modest crew of resistance veterans and the occasional citizen, along with Rouge, Gemerl, Omega, and the Chaotix.
"How many towns have we got between here and HQ? We can't be too far now." Tails asked wearily.
"Nothing from here on out." Sonic replied. "I should know, I've run it enough times."
"Right." Tails acknowledged as they sped off over the horizon. Within a few minutes they made it to the fields outside Emeraldville, where Jewel was patiently waiting.
"Ah, Sonic! Glad to see you made it!" Jewel welcomed them, as Sonic and Tails came to a halt in front of her and her cohorts.
"And just in time, too." Sonic replied. "We didn't spot Eggman or his forces on the way here. How long have we got, and what are we dealing with?"
"Our advance scouting party came on the radio a minute ago and told us Eggman was about 5 miles from here. We have about 15 minutes to get in position. So far, he has about 8000 robots, some of them Egg Pawns, some of them Egg Robos and some other kinds of robots too. "Jewel began." Certainly not as large as some of his previous armies, but certainly enough to overwhelm our regular soldiers here." She toned her voice down as she spoke.
"Of which there are about 500." Rouge pointed out.
"So you need us to draw as many robots away from the front as possible so the rest of you have less to power through."
"Basically, yeah." Rouge replied. "Obviously you'll have help from me, Gemerl, Omega and the Chaotix, but you know what to do. As far as we've seen, Eggman doesn't have any mechas or giant robots for us to worry about, so really it should be simple for someone of your talents."
"Piece of cake." Sonic promised.
"Sounds almost too easy. Was Eggman really counting on us not being here?" Tails rubbed his eyes.
"You okay there, Tails?" Jewel asked.
"I'm a bit sleep deprived, but I'll be fine." Tails replied.
"I think that whoever it is who came along with him... Victoria..." Rouge began.
"Victoria Van Gale?" Tails clarified.
"Yeah, her. I think she's holding Eggman back, you know. From what I saw she didn't really look like someone bent on conquest. She's just a bit nutty." Rouge suggested.
"Our intel mentioned that she was left behind to focus on building, so you may have a point. I sent Amy and her cohorts to deal with her, so there shouldn't be any more reinforcements to worry about. Eggman hasn't had the time to bring in robots from his other bases. We checked." Jewel confirmed.
"Sonic, Tails, you will be front and centre in the thick of the action." She continued. "Rouge and Gemerl, you will take the left flank. Omega, Team Chaotix, I want you on the right. Lanolin's group will surround him from the back, and take out any stragglers that lose formation. Is everyone clear about their role?"
"Yes ma'am." Sonic and the others replied.
"Good." Jewel pounded her fist into her hand. "Everyone into formation!" She ordered, as the three flanks split off into their separate directions. It wasn't long after that before the first of Eggman's robots emerged from over the horizon.
"Okay Sonic, you know what to do." Jewel instructed.
"I'm on it." Sonic acquiesced, dashing towards the oncoming slew of robots and spin-dashing them one by one. Tails waited for further orders as Sonic held the robots back. On the other flanks, the robots were advancing, but Gemerl was putting down some suppressive fire to slow them down. Tails then moved down the right flank in order to help the Chaotix fight back.
The first wave of Eggman's forces consisted mostly of Egg Pawns, which proved largely beatable,and still according to Jewel's battle plan. Once Sonic and the other heroes had dealt with the first batch of robots, the next wave of badniks consisted of Egg Robos. These robots had the capability to fly, unlike the Egg Pawns, and Jewel shuddered as they appeared over the horizon, along with the Good Dr himself.
"Well, well, looks like you started the party without me!" Eggman announced himself through a microphone, which could be heard all across the battlefield. "How disappointing. Perhaps I should teach you some proper etiquette, after I crush you under my thumb! Robots, Attack!"
The Eggrobos duly complied, making a charge out onto the battlefield, flying out of the reach of most of the heroes, and taking aim at the rank and file soldiers.
"Tails! I need a boost!" Sonic called out.
"On it!" Tails responded, having just pulled Espio into the air so he could fight. Tails flew over back to Sonic and hoisted him up too, allowing him to chain his attacks on multiple targets. With most of the heroes airborne, the task of tackling the next wave of Egg Pawns fell to the soldiers, and Jewel watched nervously as the battle began to unfold.
While the Egg Robos were now thinning out, the Egg Pawns were drawing closer and closer, as the limited firepower of the soldiers became apparent.
"Rouge and I will deal with the rest of these guys; you go down and help!" Tails commanded to Sonic.
"On it." Sonic responded, slamming down onto the next set of Egg Pawns, with Tails joining him as he beat down the last of the Egg Robos in their flank. On the right flank however, Team Chaotix were not as agile, and a single Egg Robo flew over the front line.
"Incoming!" shouted a soldier as it made a beeline for the city.
"Fire at will!" Jewel commanded, as a few rear gunners fired RPGs at it, blowing it up and taking it down.
"Make sure you keep formation!" Jewel advised to those further ahead. "He's trying to split us up!"
"I figured!" Sonic replied sarcastically.
"Tiring so soon, Hedgehog?" Eggman chortled. "There's plenty more where that came from."
"Not a chance, Egghead." Sonic rebuked defiantly.
Meanwhile, not too far away, Van Gale, Amy and co were quickly closing in on Eggman's forces.
"So how many of these things did you end up building?" Tangle asked.
"Robotnik said the factory could produce 800 robots an hour, but being unfamiliar with the technology, I only made about 8000 total before you four opened my eyes." Van Gale replied, the wind flapping her hair.
"Guess that's something to be hopeful for." Belle replied sarcastically, as she hunched over behind them, sheltering from the wind.
"How close are we?" Van Gale asked.
"About three miles away. If what you said is correct, we should be approaching the robots right about... now."
Amy was proven right almost immediately, as the backline, consisting of 500 Egg Fighters, came into view. Readying her hammer, she closed in on one of them and began to swing. She missed, but it caught the attention of the Badniks, who turned around an aimed their weapons at Van Gale and the others.
"Wait! Stop! Stand Down!" Van Gale raised her arms in a panic. The robots immediately lowered their weapons in response.
"Woah." Tangle exclaimed, quietly amazed.
"What should I do now?" Van Gale turned to Amy, uncertain of what to do next.
"Can you get them to self-destruct?" Amy suggested.
"Wouldn't that kill the flickies inside?" Van Gale asked.
"No, it frees them actually. I've seen it happen before." Amy recounted her experience with E-102 Gamma.
"Okay." Van Gale took charge. "To any who will listen, join up with you robot brethren in front, and commence self-destruct sequence in T-minus 5 minutes!"
"Acknowledged." The legion of Egg Fighters replied in unison, as they marched at quick pace in front of them.
"How on earth did you manage that?" Tangle asked.
"Well I assume Van Gale had permissions granted to command the robots, but surely Eggman would have taken sole control of them after that call he made." Amy pondered. "Can you explain this one, Belle?"
"Hmm, let me see." Belle thought for a moment. "We know that base was a secret base, and an old one at that. All of the machines we saw were quite old, and none of them were connected to the Eggnet."
"Hence the low security." Tangle pointed out.
"And the folders." Amy added.
"Indeed. With a machine like that, you'd have to hard code the permissions into the bot itself, which works well for us, I suppose." Belle explained.
"Couldn't have gone any better, personally. Come on, let's follow 'em." Amy beckoned them to move.
Back at the battlefield, Sonic and co had managed to defeat Eggman's 4th and 5th waves of Egg Bombers and Egg Pawns respectively, although the heroes had been pushed back a good 40 yards. Sonic and Tails continued to press forward, as the next set of Egg Pawns approached. By now, the final rows of Eggman's forces could be seen peeking over the horizon, and Tails looked somewhat concerned at what was to come.
"What do you see, Tails?" Sonic asked, as he spin dashed another bunch of Egg Pawns.
"It's hard to see, but it looks like Eggman's saving his strongest bots for last. There's some more Egg Robos up next too. He's trying to tire us out." He puffed.
"We know the drill by now." Sonic replied. "I could do this all day."
"Maybe you can, but I haven't slept for over 2 days, we need this to be over soon." Tails huffed.
"Just hang in there, Tails!" Sonic urged. "Stick to the plan!"
"I know!" Tails retorted, as he reached down to lift Sonic up. "Hnnnnngh!" Tails strained as he hoisted Sonic up, his arms a lot weaker than they were an hour ago. Tails dropped Sonic onto the group of Egg Robos, and tried to assist him as best he could. As he landed another blow, his vision began to blur, and he began to feel slightly faint.
*slap*
Tails slapped himself in order to stay awake. Lose consciousness now and he would likely get trampled, or worse, lose the battle for everyone else.
"You okay buddy?" Sonic looked over his shoulder as he busted another Egg Robo.
"I'll be fine. Keep going." Tails replied defiantly, as he rolled and beat back another Egg Pawn. Sonic kept his head down and put his focus back on the mission. Tearing through the battalion of Egg Robos for the next 4 and a half minutes, he successfully took them all down by the time he reached the ground, and joined back up with Tails, who was putting in crazy amounts of effort just to remain standing.
By this point, Jewel had noticed Tails' tiredness and was now directing her backline of troops to support the flank, which helped, but it wasn't going to stop all of them. Tails looked up at the smoky, reddening sky, and the rows of robots lining the horizon as his legs began to give, his eyes now beginning to blur once more. An explosive kaleidoscope of colour flushed through his eyes, as he slapped himself again. A sea of flickies had erupted from the back few rows of robots, all in one fell swoop. Tails thought he was hallucinating, but Sonic was staring at it too.
"What's going on?" Tails asked groggily.
"I'm not even sure myself, but whatever it is, it's good news for us!" Sonic chimed, dashing into another bunch of robots with renewed enthusiasm.
Sonic was right. The mixing and subsequent self-destruction of the Egg Fighters had been so effective that it had rendered the three rows in front of them functionally useless. Eggman turned around to see ¼ of his entire army obliterated in a second, as Van Gale and co came flying through the smoke, with Tangle jeering at him as they went past.
"Oh, you insolent wretch! You'll pay for this!" Eggman shouted angrily. "Robots, attack that Eggmobile!" He ordered, as a small section (about 50) of his army broke formation and chased after Van Gale and co.
"We've got company!" Tangle sounded the alert.
"You know what to do!" Amy instructed taking her hammer out and whacking any Egg Robos that came near. After their small skirmish, Van Gale was able to make some ground on the chasing pack, and Amy was able to focus on more important business.
"Right. Where's Sonic?" Amy asked, eager to get down and help. Van Gale scanned the battlefield for any sign of the blue speedster.
"There!" Van Gale pointed him out, flying over towards them, and Sonic waved at Amy as they came over.
"Yo, Amy! Glad you could make it!" Sonic chirped.
"About time I got some action!" Amy replied, jumping down from the Eggmobile, before noticing Tails' exhaustion. "Hey, Victoria, mind getting Tails somewhere safe?" Amy suggested, as Tails staggered rightwards.
"Sure." Van Gale agreed, as Amy and Tangle bundled him onto Van Gale's Eggmobile.
"Okay, Whisper, you stick with Victoria and act as rear gunner. Tangle and Belle, get down here and help wherever you're needed. This battle isn't done yet." Amy ordered. Whisper gave a thumbs up as Tangle and Belle jumped down and took off for the left and right flanks respectively, as Van Gale flew away.
Finally able to sit down without getting blasted, Tails promptly feel asleep in the back of Van Gale's Eggmobile, while Van Gale took a brief glance at him, smiling softly to herself. As she began to fly over the soldiers, however, she was faced with the sights of over a hundred guns pointing simultaneously at her, causing her to immediately stop and raise up her hands.
"Stand down. Let her through." Jewel ordered, having observed the commotion of the last 2 minutes from a pair of binoculars. Van Gale then flew over to Jewel and parked the Eggmobile next to her.
"Tails is completely wiped." Van Gale explained, as she gestured at Tails, who was dozing silently, head resting against the side of the vehicle.
"I noticed." Jewel replied. "You must be Victoria Van Gale. I take it you finally saw the light?" she asked cynically.
"In a number of ways." Van Gale admitted.
"Alright. I'll take care of Tails, you go out there and do what you can to fix this mess. We'll talk later." Jewel instructed.
"Yes, Ma'am." Van Gale nodded, handing Tails off to her and heading back out into the battlefield.
Further ahead, Sonic and Amy were busy routing the next wave of Egg Pawns.
"So what's Van Gale doing here?" Sonic asked. "Last I saw her, she and Eggman were happily making havoc in a big robot they built."
"She found out Eggman was lying about his past." Amy summarised, whacking another Egg Pawn with her hammer.
"Wow, what a surprise." Sonic replied sarcastically, as he spin-dashed another robot himself.
Above them, Van Gale was flying towards the robots on the left flank, with a clear plan in mind.
"Come and get me!" She jeered at the robots below her. The Egg Pawns took aim at her as Van Gale put her plan into action turning round and flying low just above the middle and right flanks, before ducking down once she was past them. Half of the left flank, as she expected, turned and opened fire, but Van Gale's ducking and weaving meant that the robots were now opening fire on their own middle flank, to which that flank turned round and defended themselves against their robot allies.
"No, no, no!" Eggman shouted angrily as he witnessed what was happening. "Focus on the enemy!"
"VAN GALE IS THE ENEMY, AS SIGNIFIED BY YOUR ORDER TO ATTACK." One of his Robots pointed out, as it was shot by the robot opposite.
"STOP! You are only destroying yourselves!" Eggman implored, as an artillery shell fell a few metres from him.
Jewel had seen the chaos Van Gale was causing and took advantage of the robots' state of disarray, ordering her troops to fire a barrage of artillery and rocket fire onto them. The result was devastating; the barrage of explosions took out about 450 robots each from the left and central flanks.
With only 600 of his robots remaining out of his original army of 8000, Eggman realised that it was better to cut his losses and retreat, while he still could.
"This isn't over yet, Sonic!" Eggman yelled.
"It pretty much is, what are you talking about?" Sonic laughed.
"I will be back stronger, just you wait! I will have a whole planet at my disposal next time we meet! Mark my words, Sonic, this will be your final victory over me!" Eggman threatened, as he skedaddled back the way he came from.
"Hey! Get back here!" Sonic exclaimed as he began to chase after him. Eggman began to make his escape, going off the beaten path and slaloming his way through the trees. Sonic tried his best to keep sight of him, but the deep cover of the trees meant that no matter how hard he tried, Eggman was able to avoid his every move. Once he'd gained enough distance, he flew his Eggmobile up out of the trees and high in the air, and out of Sonic's reach.
"Aw, Damn it." Sonic uttered, annoyed that Eggman had somehow managed to evade justice yet again. Out of reach and out of sight, Sonic pondered his next move. Deciding it would be better to regroup rather than go on a wild goose chase looking for him, Sonic turned back and headed back to the Emeraldville fields to help deal with the last of the robots.