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Sonic and Sash: Tides of Chaos 3
Phantom Forces
Act 3
Chapter 15: Reunion at Last
The rustling of the leaves would occur throughout the underbrush of the lush jungle as the small blue hedgehog and small lilac dragon burst from the foliage. Skidding across the stone structure, the two would find themselves in a wondrous forest of neon lights and gambling glory. Classic would be seeming to get a joy high from the neon-laced sights around him; the entire jungle ruins seemed to be like a complete casino-filled paradise to him!
"Focus guys!" Tails had said over their comm units. "Omega said the distortion energy is coming from just up ahead! Don't let your guards down!"
"Roger that Miles." Cyclone had said over her comm unit before Classic took off onto the ancient yet modern pinball tables as he soon launched himself through the air and ricocheted off the berry-like bumpers across the board. The fruit would make bouncing sounds as Classic would keep rolling across the board, Cyclone sighing and leaping after him as she skidded down the board and launched herself off a mushroom up to a bar-like structure, swinging off it and landing straight into a slot machine-like device. The dials of the slots would fire up as the torches on the side of the device lit up, illuminating the slots themselves as they soon landed on a spikeball for each slot. A hatch on the bottom of the machine would open up as a large spikeball would be dispensed from the machine, soon crashing through the bottom of the pinball board, allowing Classic and Cyclone to continue onwards.
"Way's open lil' blue!" Cyclone yelled to her hedgehog comrade, who was already speeding through the opening below. "Well, he's already ahead of the curve..." She said to herself as she soon dropped through the opening, sliding down along the viny route and soon ejecting out onto the lower jungle ruins, still illuminated by the neon lights... as well as seeing the Crawl badniks were out and about patrolling the area.
"Company." Cyclone stated, her tendrils twitching. "Well, looks like we gotta-"
She'd be interrupted as Classic would then be bouncing off them inbetween their bumper shields.
"Or, y'know... do that I guess..." Cyclone sighed, soon tendril slashing one of the Crawls and causing the other one to try and flee.
It didn't get more than two feet before Cyclone slammed Classic's spinning ball right into the exposed back, scrapping it as well.
"Right then, let's get moving." She said, before the two would keep moving off into the deeper parts of the jungle. More Crawl badniks would be squirming around the area as the duo worked their way across the lush neon-rampant ruin landscape. Soon launching off a flipper, Cyclone would swing around another pole before landing near the other side of the board. "You keeping up Classic?"
The hedgehog would faceplant straight onto the ground next to her.
"Well that's one way to answer..." Cyclone said, sweatdropping. "Just keep up, I get the feeling we're getting close." She said as she soon took off ahead into the jungle more as Classic followed after her. With the bouncing mushrooms sending them all across the place, Classic soon landed on the far side of the pinball boards, Cyclone right behind him as the two went deeper...
"How deep is the signal coming from?" Milla spoke as both she and Sven would be near the crest point of the Mystic Jungle.
"Well... looks like it's a bit distant from here..." Sven said, checking his own handheld scanner. "It's coming from... some sort of clearing point though... this place look any familiar to you?" He asked, showing Milla the map.
The basset hound would look at the layout of the map where the signal was coming from on Sven's tablet. "Yeah... I think I recognize where that is. That's where I intercepted Infinite fighting Silver..."
"Maybe he left something behind?" Sven asked.
"It's definitely a possibility." Milla answered, handing the tablet back to Sven. "However... I'm not sure if we can secure a route there; most of the ruined walkways I rushed through the first time here have collapsed."
"Hmmm..." Sven thought to himself. "Well... there might be another option..."
"What's that?" Milla asked.
"My map seems to pick up several aqueducts in the nearby area..." Sven said, looking over the map. "Looks like they convene right down at the area where that signal was..."
"So we take the aqueducts?" Milla asked.
Sven nodded, pocketing his tablet. "Seems like it. You up for it?"
Milla would nod. "Though... I don't suppose you have a safe way of navigating those aqueducts, do you?" She asked.
Sven smirked as a newly green Motobug had rolled up next to the two. "I guess you could say I have a way..." He said as the green Motobug was jumping in place.
"Hm?" Milla asked, now noticing the Motobug. "Isn't this..."
"The Motobug I was working on?" Sven asked. "Yep, meet Ian."
"Ooohh..." Milla said, kneeling down and petting the Motobug. "Hey there little guy..." The Motobug's antennae would be twitching happily as it wheeled in circles.
"Yep, he's gonna be helping us out on this mission." Sven said. "Isn't that right little buddy?"
Ian would happily bounce on his wheel as small sparks would zap between his antennae.
Sven smiled. "Alright, go ahead and do your thing."
The Motobug whirred as it soon bounced up and was enveloped in a bright light before it landed back down, transformed into a Bike-class Extreme Gear with Motobug features. Sven smiled as he got onto the now-bike Ian. "Ready to go Milla?"
The basset nodded, hopping onto the bike with Sven as soon the Motobug soon revved up before taking off down the watery passage below, kicking up streams beside him as soon more Motobugs started spiraling down the water tubes. Keeping his head, Sven would steer Ian to sidewind the out of control Motobugs into crashing and exploding into eachother. Milla would keep her murder cubes on hand as she soon slammed them into more of the Motobugs tailing them before Amy's voice rang over the comm units.
"Keep sharp you two!" Amy said. "I'm picking up several life readings headed for the same area you two are!"
"If they're not robots, what are they?" Knuckles had asked over the comm unit before it cut out. The strength of the current along the aqueduct tunnels were becoming much harsher, soon sending the the duo and Motobug into a spiral themselves before they were soon sent sprawling into the next aqueduct, feeling the water washing them further down the aqua road. Milla, trying to rerighten herself, would soon manage to slip to her feet, skidding across the stone halfpipe with the current, gaining on Ian as she soon rerightened the Motobug, who went after the sprawling Sven and sprung him back onto its back. The husky, gripping tightly to the handlebars, soon rocketed down the watery slide before launching off it onto the ground far ahead as Milla soon followed thanks to a Super Shield Burst, landing directly onto the back of the Motobug Bike. Continuing along the grounded forest floor, Sven would drift Ian around the corner as the three ramped off a fallen pillar, soon flying over a gap and landing into the next watery slide... which was several times wider than the last ones they were on.
"Hang on!" Sven yelled as the trio took off down the massive waterslide, soon skidding across the slide before they would be sent hurdling down the smaller path, the severe rocking would threaten to throw them out of the aqueduct altogether. As Milla would tighten her grip around Sven, the husky would soon rocket straight downwards from the aqueducts before launching off over a massive river with sinking ruins themselves.
"You're coming in hot on the signal!" Amy said over the comm unit. "Keep your eyes peeled!"
"Right!" Sven said, soon having Ian initiate a grapple that flung the trio over to the stable ground on the other side. Skidding to a halt, Sven and Milla would hop off Ian as he turned back into his normal Motobug form. With the dense foliage in the area obscuring views, it was hard to find anything related to the signal...
...that was, until Sven had come across what appeared to be an entryway into some sort of mechanical base. A large steel door with a vault-like handle dial directly in the front would be embedded into the rock wall near some ruins, hindering more exploration progress.
"Woah..." Sven said, reaching for his comm unit. "Hey, Amy?"
"You find that signal source Sven?" The pink hedgehog asked from the comm unit.
"No, I need to ask something." The husky spoke, looking over the door. "Is there any sort of vault door or anything on your maps of Mystic Jungle at all?"
"Vault door...?" Amy asked, confused. "I don't think so... give me a second." She said, cutting the comm unit as Sven would continue looking at the massive door...
Ian meanwhile would be monitoring around the area, his lower frame allowing him to search through the bushes easier. Keeping his small antennae twitching, he'd be snooping around in the bushes, keeping search for any sort of signal...
That was until the Motobug had bumped into something metallic a bit aways from the clearing. The robot froze up as it soon slowly looked up, seeing eyes with a hulking crimson robot... who would turn around and see the Motobug.
"KILL!" The crimson robot yelled as its arms morphed into miniguns and opened fire on Ian. The Motobug screeched as it toon off back towards the clearing, squeaking in fear as it soon broke from the foliage, the leaves flying as it rushed towards Sven.
"I-Ian?" Sven said, holding the Motobug nearby, trying to calm it down. "I-It's okay Ian... everything will be okay..."
"WHERE DID YOU GO, LITTLE TARGET?" The other voice said as the large crimson robot lumbered out of the foliage, miniguns at the ready. "ALL EGGMAN'S ROBOTS ARE TO BE ELIMINATED!"
"Wh-what the?!" Sven yelled as the robot would open fire on him. The husky screamed and held up his arms in futile self defense before a blue shield had materialized in front of him from his wrists, the bullets plinked off of it like nothing.
"Omega, stand down!" Another voice said as Tails had rushed onto the scene. "That's not an enemy Badnik! Stop!"
Omega would stop firing momentarily as he looked to Tails. "GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON AS TO WHY." He droned.
"You nearly turned a survivor into swiss cheese!" Tails yelled, pointing straight at Sven.
Omega would look back at the husky holding tight to the Motobug. "...SHITBASKETS." He droned, retracting his miniguns.
"You just can't act on your murderous drive of destroying Eggman robots Omega!" Tails said. "What if you end up gunning down a survivor?"
"JUST BECAUSE I MADE ONE MISTAKE DOES NOT MEAN THAT MY RAGE AGAINST THE FAT BASTARD AREN'T JUSTIFIED." Omega droned. Sven would look up from his afraid pose to See Tails arguing with the massive robot.
And almost instantly he'd recognize him.
"W-wait..." Sven said, getting up. "A-aren't you Tails? A-as in, AvaMerc Tails?"
Tails froze up. "Y-yeah?" He answered.
"Oh my god... the entire Resistance has been worried about your safety!" Sven said, getting up. "Wh-where were you for the past several months?!"
"W-well..." Tails said, rubbing the back of his head. "It's a long story..."
"Tailsy! You alright?!" Carol's voice said as she and Coral came onto the scene. "We heard Omega firing and came running!"
"I-I'm alright..." Tails said. "Where's Classic and Cyclone?"
"They're still getting here..." Coral said, putting a hand on her hip. "I just don't understand why they thought it was a good idea to go through the casino part of this messed-up place."
"Well, if I know Sonic as good as I know him, his younger self couldn't resist the pinball tables..." Tails said, sweatdropping.
"Sven?" Milla's voice called, causing both Tails and Carol to freeze up. Their throats tightened as they both realized who the voice belonged to...
"M..." Carol choked out, tears staring to form into her eyes as the basset emerged from the foliage, freezing upon seeing the duo of Tails and Carol...
"T-TAILS! CAROL!" Milla screamed, tackling the two in a bear hug as she sobbed. "Oh my god... O-oh my god... I'm s-so happy you guys are... are..."
"S-same here girl..." Carol sobbed, hugging tightly to the basset. "Same here..."
"Wh-where have you guys been?" Milla asked.
"Well..."
"...so that's everything that happened huh?" Milla asked, putting a hand on her hip. "Well, I at least relieved to know you guys are safe..."
"Yeah, and with two Chaos Emeralds to boot!" Carol said, holding the blue and lavender corrupted Emeralds. "Still don't know how to get 'em restored though..."
"Well... we might have a way once Sven and I are done investigating around here." Milla spoke. "Knuckles has the Master Emerald back at Resistance HQ; we could use those to purify the Emeralds!"
"Definitely sounds plausible enough to work, given this is Chaos Energy we're dealing with..." Tails said. "But what about that other gemstone?"
"Good point..." Sven said, before realizing something. "Hey... Ian? Where'd you go?" His answer would soon come as the Motobug would come back from the bushes, balancing a small magenta gemstone on his head.
"Ah... there he is..." Milla spoke, picking up the gemstone. "This must have been what was causing those signals..."
"CAN CONFIRM." Omega droned. "MY SENSORS INDICATE THIS SMALL STONE IS THE SOURCE OF THE ENERGY READINGS."
"You sure Omega?" Carol said, looking at the stone.
"DOES THIS FACE LOOK LIKE UNSURE TO YOU?" Omega sassed, looking at the wildcat. "I AM INCAPABLE OF LYING. ONLY VERY SEVERE SARCASM."
Carol would merely roll her eyes as soon Classic and Cyclone would run in on the scene. "About time you two got here!" She said.
"Not my fault someone wanted to get hung up on the slot machines..." Cyclone growled, Classic sticking his tongue out at her.
"Either way..." Sven said, looking behind at the giant metal door. "We were out here looking for those readings and I stumbled across... that thing..."
"Hmmm..." Coral said, looking and investigating the door itself. "Looks to be about ten inches thick of solding titanium-steel alloy, reinforced with rebarb and concrete and locked with a one-time dial combination..." She said, stepping back. "Alright, I'm gonna need some extra thinking space to come up with a proper way to hack into this door, and even then, we might not be guaranteed to-"
Coral was interrupted as Omega ripped the steel door off its hinges and threw it into the forest.
"...or we could just do it like that I guess." Coral said, sweatdropping.
"SOMETIMES THE BEST METHOD IS JUST THE DIRECT ONE." Omega said as the group would then enter into the abandoned base...
"Well... this is certainly an Eggman base..." Tails said as he soon approached an Eggman console. "But thankfully it looks like we might be able to get some information out of this..."
"So let's see what sort of info we can get out of it..." Tails said, typing into the keyboard...
It had gone a lot quiet ever since Amy's last update to Sven and Milla, starting to grow some concern in the Resistance leader's mind; why hadn't the two responded in with any more updates yet? OR were they on their way back and they just wanted to keep their findings of what they had found from their readings a surprise?
She leaned back against the back wall, slowly sliding down it as she sighed; at the very least a text or something would have given her a bit of relief as to their whereabouts. This? This was agonizing not knowing what their safety was.
She jumped when she heard a knock at the base doors.
"Password?" Amy asked.
"Snooping as usual I see!"
The voice nearly made her choke. No. It couldn't have been... could it? Amy hit the lever to throw open the doors faster than she could ever expect to.
She was not dissappointed to see who was on the other side.
"TAILS! CAROL!" She cried, nearly catching attention of everyone else in the base as the group with Sven and Milla came into the base's quarters. "Oh my god, you guys are alive!"
"The kitsune's alive?!" Tangle said as she leaped up from her seat of talking with Whisper. "And so's the wildcat?!"
"WELL WHAT AM I, CHOPPED LIVER?" Omega stormed in behind after the other two. "NOT EVEN ONE CONGRATULATORY HELLO EVER SINCE I WAS REACTIVATED AND INITIATED EGGMAN ROBOT GENOCIDE. HONESTLY IT FEELS LIKE I'M THE ONLY ONE PULLING ANY WEIGHT AROUND HERE."
"Omega!" Rouge said, flying up to the large robot. "I'm relieved you're still okay!"
"WELL, AT LEAST THAT'S ONE CONCERNED ABOUT MY CONDITION." Omega said. "THAT'S WHAT THIS TEAM WAS FOR. ON THAT TOPIC, WHAT IS THE STATUS OF SHADOW? HE HAS GONE M.I.A. EVER SINCE I WAS REACTIVATED AFTER THAT HOUND TRIED TO GIVE ME A BATH IN MURDER CUBES."
"We've still got not actual readings on Shadow himself..." Knuckles said from the Master Emerald. "Ever since the rookies got the info and recon pictures that he was working with Eggman's forces, the guy just seems to have disappeared entirely.
"..." Omega remained silent until he spoke again. "YOU DO REALIZE IT COULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF EGGMAN'S SHADOW ANDROIDS, DO YOU NOT?"
Amy shook her head. "The Shadow Androids would look much more mechanical at their joints. This one was definitely not an android..."
"...WELP, TIS A SHAME. GUESS THIS MEANS MORE BULLETS FOR HIM THEN." Omega said.
"SPEAKING of Eggman..." Tails said, soon twirling a flash drive in his hands. "Turns out that metal door Sven found led straight into an old Eggman lab. And we've got some rather... let's just say 'precious' information he doesn't want getting into our hands."
Coral nodded as well. "Turns out that his little assisted helper isn't the only one causing the distortions across both these planets; he's been making more and more prototypes of these things in order to basically confirm his victory across the worlds."
Milla nodded, handing the small gemstone they found to Amy. "It's what's known as the Phantom Ruby, according to what the data said, and it's playing into the bigger part of his plans... including his assistant Infinite."
"He's got the original." Tails spoke. "It's inseparable from him since its physically embedded into his body, but Eggman's making these copies of them in order to expand his power over manipulating dimensions and basically 'secure' his win."
"That's not all though..." Sven said, taking the flash drive from Tails. "He's also got something called 'Project ICARUS' he's got as a backup contingency, in case we're still struggling." He added, plugging the flash drive into the computer console and started uploading the data to the Resistance files. "It's said its going to be launched as a last-ditch effort if either we're still fighting back at the end of the week or we start storming his actual base."
"What about the project itself?" Amy asked.
"THAT WAS PROTECTED BY A LEVEL FOUR CLEARANCE PASSWORD, ONE WE DID NOT HAVE." Omega said. "AND DESPITE OUR BEST THOUGHTS, HIS PASSWORD WAS NOT 'PINGAS' AS I REMEMBERED IT TO BE IN THE PAST BEFORE MY DEACTIVATION."
"So we've got nothing on the actual project itself, but on just what it's being used for..." Amy spoke, everyone else being distracted as Knuckles would soon seem to recieve a message on his phone. Pulling it out, he'd keep quiet as he read it to himself before he'd quietly sneak out of the base with the Master Emerald... and yet no one would seem to notice...
"We can only assume it's something involving a hail-mary strategy involving the Phantom Ruby..." Tails said. "But we've also got other good news!"
"And that is?" Amy asked.
Carol would flash a toothy grin, holding up the blue and lavender Chaos Emeralds. "We've done a little jewel hunting during our time away from the rest of the group!"
"The Chaos Emeralds?!" Tangle said. "Sweet! That means we might have a chance against Eggs-for-brains!"
"Not without a proper user." Whisper spoke for the first time since the return of the group. "In case you all haven't noticed, Sonic and Sash are gone. And those two were the only ones able to utilize the powers of the Chaos Emeralds properly."
"We have that silver hedg-" Finn started to speak before Whisper interrupted.
"He didn't kill a god before." The wolf said. "Like it or not, Sonic and Sash were our only shots at using the Emeralds against the Ruby. With them gone, they might as well be worthless with how they hate interacting with the Ruby."
"Well... about that..." Coral said, rubbing the back of her head. "We might just have a backup."
Tails nodded, stepping aside... as Classic and Cyclone would walk out, catching everyone in a state of shock.
"S-SONIC?! SASH?!" Amy said.
"When'd they get turned into a pair of munchkins?!" Tangle explained.
Tails held up his hands. "Now, I know this might come as a shock to you guys..." He said. "But these are actually Sonic and Sash from another timeline. They ended up getting roped into this mess with Infinite's use of the Phantom Ruby."
"So younger versions of the two heroes..." Whisper spoke. "Your resourcefulness is admirable."
"We still gotta find a way to decorrupt these things though." Carol said, holding the Chaos Emeralds up. "Otherwise we can't even have the two use things."
"Well..." Tangle said. "Hey! Why don't we use the Master Emerald? Can't that thing, like, flush out the bad energy or something?"
"Well, it's certainly worthy of a try." Whisper spoke. "Echidna, give us-" She'd turn, only to find Knuckles and the Master Emerald gone. "...he left."
"What?!" Nearly everyone turned and looked to where Knuckles and the giant green gemstone originally were.
"Where'd he go?!" Tangle said. "He was just in here a minute ago!" That question wouldn't be answered as a loud siren would start blaring like mad, the entire base shaking from what felt like an earth-shattering quake.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Tails said.
Amy would rush over and check the computer panel. "Th-there's been a massive spike of the Phantom Ruby's distortional energy!" She said. "R-r-right over Station Square!"
"WHAT?!"
With a final reunion with the group, the Resistance is almost finally back together again. But with Knuckles' leaving and a new portal ripping itself open upon Station Square, the war has only just reared its ugly head once again. Where has Knuckles gone? Find out next time in Chapter 16: "Ode to Nocturne"...
