Sonic's Chaos
Chapter 7: Emerald in the Oil
The morning after the explosion, debris and dust filled the surrounding streets. Robotnik Tower, the largest structure in Robotropolis, was spread out across city blocks. Through the rubble, two Egg Fighters climbed around, occasionally stopping to push rocks aside before carrying on. They had been sent out that morning by their master to search through the rubble for an item of importance. After hours of searching, they had found nothing, yet they continued. After a few more minutes, one pushed aside a rock that revealed a dented metal foot. The Egg Fighter called over its comrade, who helped push aside some debris, revealing another foot. The two pulled it out, struggling as the weight of the rocks above weighed it down, but they managed to fully uncover the item. When it was revealed, the Egg Fighters directed a live feed to their master, showing their point of view. Their master spoke to them.
"Yes, that's him..." Robotnik spoke, sounding somewhat in awe. "Bring him to me."
The live feed disconnected. The Egg Fighters looked down at him; a hedgehog, half-roboticized, covered in battle scars both on its metal and skin. His left arm was destroyed completely while the skin on his torso around it was ripped. The Egg Fighters lifted him from both ends before carrying him out of the rubble.
Robotnik sat in his chair, drumming his fingers on its armrest. Metal Sonic had survived the explosion, almost in one piece; but would he be strong enough to survive? Perhaps, Robotnik considered, a change was in order. He looked out of the window of his airship, thinking to himself that maybe there was a way to fully roboticize Metal while retaining Sonic's abilities.
Hours later, the teleporter to Robotnik's lab became active. Robotnik turned to see the two Egg Fighters carrying Metal Sonic.
"Place him on the table," Robotnik ordered, pointing where he wanted Metal. The Egg Fighters marched over and dropped Metal onto the table. Metal was still somewhat active, but he seemed to display greater activation when he saw Robotnik. In Metal's head, he was realising where he was and what may happen to him. He did not want to go to battle again.
"It seems you are stronger than I initially anticipated, Metal," Robotnik remarked. "But I know how I can make you stronger. Your biological features are holding you back."
Metal felt fear and panic overwhelm him. He sat up, pushing away Robotnik and getting off the table, but the damage done to him was too strong; he could not escape fast enough. The Egg Fighters grabbed him by the arms. Robotnik scowled.
"And perhaps," he said menacingly, "I can make you truly loyal to me."
Tails tinkered with the Chaos Emerald Locator. It had now been a week since the explosion and after Sonic and Tails helped the rest of the Freedom Fighters set up a base in the city, Sally sent them back to Knothole to use it as a base of operations while they searched for the remaining three Chaos Emeralds. Since that time, Tails made a new Chaos Emerald storage unit as the other one was assumed to be with Robotnik, though it was unclear whether he had recovered them from it. Tails had made an improvement to the unit's design; hypothetically, it would be reinforced by the power of the Chaos Emeralds stored inside it, making it harder to just break the unit open and steal the Emeralds that way. Tails called Sonic before turning the machine back on.
"Hey, Sonic!" Tails shouted outside. "I'm gonna turn it back on!"
Suddenly, Sonic sped into the workhouse. "You think it's still gonna work?"
"The locator should still remember the trace of the Emeralds," Tails responded, "Because it's already received a sample in the past, we shouldn't need to have the Emeralds to power it." He turned back to the machine, pushing the on switch. The screen lit up, showing a map of the surrounding area. After a few seconds, a dot lit up on the north-west coast of West Side Island.
"There!" Sonic pointed at the screen. "Where is that?"
"If I remember correctly, those are the old oil refineries," Tails said, scratching his head. "They were used by the Kingdom before switching to clean energy; they've been inactive for years."
"Well, it's worth a look, right?" Sonic asked, smiling. "Come on, I'll call Sally over the radio."
Sonic picked up the radio on Tails' workbench, speaking into the microphone.
"Hey, Sally, you there?" Sonic asked. Over in Robotropolis, Sally heard Sonic's voice crackling through the speakers and picked up.
"Sonic, everything okay?" she responded.
"The Chaos Emerald Locator is picking something up in an old oil refinery," Sonic buzzed in. "Me and Tails are gonna go check it out. Everything okay there?"
Sally looked around their ramshackle base. "As good as it can be. Good luck, you two!"
The radio cut off as Sonic turned back to Tails. "You ready?"
Back in Robotropolis, Espio was spending some time outside the Freedom Fighters base, leaning against the outside wall. He thought about how just days ago Espio was a small-time investigator; now, he and his team were part of a war. These thoughts came to a stop when he saw Fang sneaking out of a side door, crossing the street completely oblivious to Espio's presence. Espio watched him for a few seconds before shouting out.
"Hey!" Espio called. Fang jumped, looking around before his eyes found Espio. "Where are you going?"
Fang seemed caught off guard. "I'm, uh," Fang stuttered, "Looking for new recruits – Sally's orders! I'll be back soon..." The weasel quickly walked away, looking back at Espio periodically. To Espio, his suspicions may be coming true, that Fang would eventually leave the Freedom Fighters to return to his roots. However, he had no concrete evidence yet. All he could do was keep a close eye on Fang.
Fang walked up the stairs of an apartment building before stepping out onto the hallway of the fifth floor, banging on the second door on the right. The door opened partially before being stopped by a chain, but it was open enough for Fang to see a large figure peeking through the crack.
"Open up, ya big freak," Fang joked. "It's me – Fang."
The chain was undone and the door extended open. Fang saw his old friend standing there; Bark, a physically imposing polar bear with a somewhat soft personality. From inside the apartment, Fang heard another voice squawking.
"Hey, who is it, huh?" the voice yelled, getting louder as it made its way closer to the door. "Come on, ya big softie, who's there?"
The source of the voice soon became visible, though it was no doubt to Fang who it was; Bean the Dynamite, a hyperactive woodpecker who earned his name through the use of hand-made explosives in his exploits. Bean's eyes lit up at the sight of Fang.
"Fang, old buddy!" he exclaimed, before shoving Bark. "Hey, what you doing, huh? Fang's our friend, let him in!"
Bark stepped back, allowing Fang to enter their apartment. "So, how you fellas been?" he asked, looking around their apartment; it was in as good shape as it could be considering the current state of the city.
"Eh, you know how it is," Bean replied, shutting the door as Bark crashed onto the couch, seeming to irritate Bean a little before continuing his conversation. "A little hard to find work nowadays, I guess."
Fang chuckled, "Well, that's where I got good news for ya, boys."
Bark's ears perked up and Bean leaned in inquisitively. "What, you got a job for us?" Bean asked.
"Ya see, the last week or so I've been working with the Freedom Fighters," Fang explained, twirling his revolver. "Some rag-tag group of rebels fighting Robotnik. You heard of 'em?"
Bean looked shocked. "You serious? You're a rebel now?"
"When weren't we rebels, Bean?" Fang laughed. "Anyway, they've been doing a lot of talk about these things called Chaos Emeralds. Supposed to be pretty powerful. They're trying to find all of them, but they haven't found them yet."
"What are you saying?" Bean asked, wild thoughts of wealth flowing through his mind. "We steal 'em? Sell 'em off?"
"Bingo!" Fang exclaimed. "These things gotta be worth millions! We steal these, sell 'em off to the highest bidder, we'll never have to do another shitty job again!"
Bean started leaping up and down. "YES! You hearin' this, Bark?"
Bark was grinning slightly but still maintained his quiet demeanour before Fang prodded him with his foot.
"C'mon, big guy," Fang encouraged. "Whaddja say, huh? How 'bout we get the old Team Hooligan back together again?"
Bean leaped onto the couch beside Bark, grabbing his arm and shaking it like a child. "C'mon, Bark, think about it! Wealth beyond your wildest dreams!"
Bark was still for a second before smiling and nodding his head.
"YES!" Bean exclaimed, leaping into the air.
"Excellent!" Fang cheered, "Now, I'll call you boys up when they get all the Emeralds together, but you gotta be patient; Robotnik has four of them, and they've got these two guys out there looking for the other three."
"I don't care how long we have to wait!" Bean said giddily, "As long as we get some sweet, sweet money!"
Sonic and Tails arrived at the entrance to the plant, the Emerald Locator in Tails' hands.
"The Emerald seems to be located somewhere near the bottom of the refinery..." Tails said before trailing off. "Wait, do you see that?"
Sonic squinted and could clearly see some Badniks in the distance. "What's Robotnik doing here?"
"Maybe he wants to use the oil to fuel something..." Tails suggested.
"Whatever it is, we're gonna put a stop to it!" Sonic remarked, speeding off. Tails laughed and followed him into the plant. Their presence quickly drew the attention of Robotnik's forces, dodging gunfire raining down on them from below as buzz bombers desperately tried to catch up with them, only to be left in the dust of their footsteps. The duo made their way down the plant, leaving a trail of destroyed Badniks behind them.
On the bottom floor, the Badniks received information about an enemy presence in the vicinity, prompting them to signal a code red to Robotnik. The alert distracted Robotnik from his current task, growling as he diverted his attention to deal with it. "Burst the pipes," Robotnik ordered.
Sonic and Tails reached the bottom floor, but before they are able to do anything an Egg Pawn detonates an explosive placed on the pipes on the wall beside them. The small blast was enough to rupture the pipe without causing serious damage, sending oil spewing into the ocean below.
"They've activated the pipelines!" Tails exclaimed. "The ocean's getting polluted!"
Sonic was quick to come up with a plan. "Tails, find the plant's control room and turn off the pipes!" he shouted over the sound of oil splashing into the water. "Give me the locator, I'll find the Emerald!"
Tails' tails span as he propelled upwards, dodging gunfire from Badniks. He flew up as high as he could, spotting what he assumed could only be the control room. He flew past, dodging attacks from buzz bombers, hot on his tails. The one on his left dived into Tails' side, causing him to lose control of his flying momentarily, falling down a couple of feet before regaining his momentum. Tails sensed that a buzz bomber behind him was about to charge into him by the sounds of its robotic wings whirring. Tails quickly ducked down, narrowly avoiding its attack, before knocking it out of the sky with his tails and continuing his flight. While he managed to get one down, there were still two others pursuing him. Tails quickly turned 180 degrees, kicking one buzz bomber in the head, crushing it and sending another Badnik falling out of the sky. Distracted by the glee of his victory, the other buzz bomber charged into Tails, sending him falling down to the plant before. Tails quickly and desperately span his tails, slowing his descent just enough so that he could land safely on the walkway below before taking off again, narrowly avoiding gunfire from the remaining buzz bomber. Landing on the platform of the control room, the buzz bomber charged at him yet again. Tails swiped at the Badnik with his tails, the momentum sending him spinning off to the left. With all the buzz bombers out of order, Tails could focus on turning the pipes off. Looking at the control panel, he scanned the different switches and buttons, hoping to find something concerning the pipes. After a few seconds, he found one labelled "Pipe Flow", the lever of which he pulled down. Tails hoped that this worked.
As Tails was doing this, Sonic was running around the lower levels of the oil refinery. Drenched in oil, he had been fighting off Egg Pawns that seemed to be there for the same reason he was; to find the Chaos Emerald. What gave Sonic the upper hand was the little locator device he had in his hands, and according to its screen, the Emerald should be just around the corner. After shredding an Egg Pawn to pieces with his spin-dash, Sonic darted around the corner only to see some Egg Robos approaching the Emerald. The Robos immediately detected him, quickly arming their weapons and opening fire – not quick enough to hit the blue hedgehog, literally running circles around them as he dodged their attacks, quickly disarming all the Robos before destroying them all and securing the Emerald. Running back through the plant, he saw that oil was no longer spilling out of the hole in the pipe, meaning Tails must have been successful in his mission. As he ran towards the top of the plant, he bumped into the fox.
"You got it!" Tails exclaimed, his smile spreading across his face. "C'mon, let's go before any backup comes!"
Just after hearing this, a distant explosion sounded off, followed by the sound of fire crackling, growing increasingly and increasingly louder by the second. Sonic and Tails shared a look of dread as they ran out of the plant, pipes exploding into flames as they made their way out. The two just barely made it out of the refinery before every square inch was covered in debris or fire.
"That..." Tails said, gasping for air, "...was way too close!"
"Tell me about it!" Sonic exclaimed before juggling the red Emerald in his hands. "But hey, at least we're both out in one piece; and with the Emerald!"
"Alright!" Tails cheered. "That's one down, three more to find before we find some way to take the ones Robotnik has..."
The two made their way back to Knothole, placing the Emerald in the new storage unit. Tails quickly radioed through to Sally.
"Sally, we got one!" Tails said excitedly. "How's everything going there?"
Sally was glad to hear this news. "Great work, you two! We're doing okay, it seems that Robotnik's forces haven't been as active lately. You two stay there for now!"
As she signed off, Espio got her attention. "Hey, everything okay?" Sally asked as she walked over to him.
Espio sighed. "It's Fang," he said, but before he could say any more, Sally interjected.
"Hey, you don't need to worry about Fang!" she said reassuringly. "I'm sure Fang would have run off already if he really didn't plan on sticking with us..."
"I know Fang," Espio retorted, "and I know that even when it doesn't seem like it, he's scheming. That weasel's obsessed with money, and he'll get it by any means. Don't be surprised if that means sabotaging the Freedom Fighters."
Sally wasn't sure whether to feel worried or frustrated. While it was true that Espio did know Fang more than any of the other Freedom Fighters thanks to their past encounters, she was also desperate to take on anyone she could. She came to a compromise.
"Look, how about we keep an eye on Fang for the next few days?" she recommended. "You clearly know him best. If you're confident something is fishy, tell me."
Sally passed by the chameleon. Espio accepted this for now, but nothing could deter his gut feeling; Fang was up to something, and the longer they waited, the more chance that Fang's little scheme could become reality. "Damn right I'm keeping an eye on him," Espio muttered under his breath.