CHAPTER V – FLIGHT OF FANCY
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH, 2016
Stretched out muscles? Check. Tails and the robotic rabbit in the fox's supercomputer? Check. Ear buds? Check. Magnetic gloves and shoes? Check. Specially made lenses? Double check. Wrist-mounted grapples? Discount double check.
"Can we get a comms check before we go?" Sonic asked.
"You're coming through perfectly on my end, S," Rouge said from her remote location.
"Never mind then. You and CREAM ready to go, T?"
"Just about." Tails then looked at the screen that CREAM was feeding through from airport security. They could see a limo pass through a security checkpoint, peel off one of the runways, and drive into a hangar near the entrance. "Assuming Lyric's intel is right, that should be her. Okay, people are leaving the hangar… a couple at the doors… and a few at the entrance. Probably Fiona's entourage."
"The airport map confirms that the building is hangar A113," CREAM added. "The meeting is scheduled to start in 40 minutes, and there's a private flight coming into from Soleanna in 30. Flight number 1995."
"Are your teams in position, R?" Sonic asked.
"Yes. They're stationed at each exit around the airport. Nothing obvious, of course. My comms are gonna go dark for a few minutes. Have to keep a low profile. Be back in a few."
"Understood. Okay, people, I'm headed over now. I'll start with that hangar."
"Sonic, do you mind taking something with you?" Tails asked.
Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "What is it?" Tails got up and walked to the desk. The speedster's eyes followed the fox to the—. Oh, for the love of Chaos, you have got to joking! He'd been training with those things all day, and now he wanted to field-test it tonight?! "Tails, no!"
"Sonic, this needs a proper test run."
"We can do this any other time. Literally any other time, Tails! You are not forcing this on me at the last second!"
"But—."
"No, 'buts.' This is our chance to finally nail Fiona, and I am not jeopardizing it so you can see your tech in action."
"But I need to see how it fully performs for future reference!"
"Miles," CREAM began, "this is not the time. Sonic is right. This can happen at a later date."
"But Sonic might need an edge! Who knows what Fiona might have up her sleeve! I bet you that she'll be ready if Sonic shows up, so he could very well need that something extra to keep him alive!"
"Miles Prower, do not try and sell this! Sonic only has a few hours put into it. He hasn't mastered it yet, and throwing him into the field with so much on the line with the Flight Suit can ruin this operation! Do you want Rouge to come down on you for this?!" The speedster was getting annoyed with this back-and-forth bickering very quickly.
"It'll help him! I swear!"
"You're starting to sound like a child. Drop it!" Still annoyed and ready to blow like Vesuvius.
"I am not! I can guarantee it'll give him the edge he needs!"
"Tails, this is not—!"
A man can only take so much.
"SHUUUUT UUUUP!" Sonic barked, silencing Tails and CREAM. "Will both of you shut your pie-holes for one goddamn second?!" Sonic groaned, and his comrades sat in stunned silence. With a deep groan, Sonic said, "Fine. If it'll shut him up, I'll take it."
CREAM stammered, scarcely believing what she was hearing.
The fox sighed and smiled. "Thank you, Soni—."
"But let's get one thing straight, Miles," Sonic said cutting the fox off. "You've forced me play along with this 'Flight Suit' business for long enough. I've humored you, even if it was against my best interests. But if this suit costs me Fiona Fox, you will destroy this thing. No ifs, ands, or buts. You will dismantle this thing piece-by-piece. I am willing to keep you in here for as long as I need to so you can scrap it out. If you don't, I'll make you destroy it. Are we clear?" The fear of Chaos had been put into the fox's eyes. His friend didn't break eye-contact once, not even to blink. He had never seen Sonic this upset with him.
Tails nervously nodded. "Okay, you have a deal."
"Good. I don't like being this harsh with you, buddy, but the vibe you're giving off is that you're obsessed with the suit." In no time, Sonic had put the kit on and was ready for action. "Stay in contact," he said before leaving the lab.
He was out of the secret passage and onto the street in no time. Walking onto the empty sidewalk, Sonic powered up the suit and began to hover. With his wings in position, he gripped down and flew into the night sky like a rocket before zooming east toward Amusement Mile and Mitchell International Airport.
What he didn't realize was that someone from the rooftops had seen him. He jumped from building-to-building, destined to keep up with Sonic. Chaos knew he'd been doing that for years.
Four months ago, the General Mitchell International Airport had been abruptly closed during the busiest part of the day. All flights coming in and out its terminals were delayed or outright subverted to neighboring big cities like Station Square and Central City. Go figure since G.U.N. had shut it down for being one of Robotnik's clone distribution hubs. Hundreds of supersonic clones were discovered and were promptly confiscated as evidence.
Tonight, it was still a den of thieves on the airport's south side. A hidden SWAT team was staked out in the local neighborhood as a crew of professional Christmas light installers. Hey, it wasn't the most perfect cover, but they actually were doing solid work for somebody who loved her holidays a bit too much. That said, the constant blaring of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town was getting on the team's last nerve. Rouge's especially.
"We're not even at Thanksgiving yet," she complained as she fed a cord of palm-sized, strung-together, and colored lights to a partner of hers on the ladder. "S, what's your status?" she asked, wondering his location.
"Approaching from the southeast. I just left a moment ago with the flight suit."
"We're—. Did you say 'flight suit'?"
"T forced me to take it. Gave him an ultimatum if this thing costs us the op."
Rouge groaned. "T, I know you're listening. It won't be S that gets to you if your ego blows this."
"He already gave me a stern warning," T said in an unamused tone.
"Everyone," CREAM began, "Flight number 1995 will be touching down within minutes. You should be able to see it by now."
The batty commissioner turned to the north to see if what CREAM's intel was right. Sure enough. There was a private jet prepping its landing gear for its final descent. The runways were clear, and here it came.
VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER KA-THUNK!
A smooth landing by a smooth-looking jet. Sonic stopped his flight momentarily as he landed on a nearby roof to catch the private airliner glide its way past the United Federation Air Force's 128th Refueling Wing station and toward the hangar that housed Miss Fox. The insignia on the jet's tail all but confirmed Lyric's claim. Flight from Soleanna with a jet with Soleannan flags on it. Almost a little too on-the-nose given what was going down. Rouge had obviously worked her magic getting Lyric to spill the rest of the beans.
VRRR! VRRR! VRRR!
The commissioner was about to kill whoever was on the other end. Rouge pulled out the phone and ended the call before she talked. She told her associates at the precinct that she did not want to be disturbed given the night's festivities.
Rouge then slipped her phone back into her pocket only for it to go off again just as quickly. Same guy and everything. With an angry groan, she repeated the process only for it to happen again. She couldn't afford to have her cover blown because of some idiot cop, so she swiped the phone and finally answered.
"Vector!" she silently shouted. "You'd better have a fucking good reason to be calling me now!"
"I'm sorry, boss! This just came in a few minutes ago!"
"Make it snappy, I'll wear you like boots!" she hissed.
"We had a robbery at a clothing store a few days ago."
"You're calling me about a shoplifting now?!"
"Commissioner, you have to see this! Sonic too! Sending you the video now. Look for the guy in the black leather jacket!"
The call ended, but Vector quickly texted her the link to the video. Pulling it up, Rouge saw the guy the croc was referring to. Huh… green hedgehog, kind of familiar, black leather jacket like Vector said. He was looking at a pair of red sunglasses only to shake his head in disgust and put them back. Suddenly, a younger girl—. Hold on, why did she feel like she knew this guy? The bat couldn't quite put her finger on it. But that was when things got weird when he seemingly disappeared, not quite without a trace as he moved so fast the wind blew everyone away.
Wait… hedgehog… move fast… familiar….
That was when Rouge's eyes bugged out. She finally connected the dots. He was… he's… but they were… HOLY SHIT, SONIC HAD TO KNOW ABOUT THIS. But she had to convince herself to let this slide until after their Fox Operation.
"S!" Rouge screamed, instantly cursing herself for nearly blowing her cover. "Sonic!" she whispered.
"R, I'm almost there!" Sonic said. "Jeez, what's got your panties in a bunch?" Oh… dude. You don't tell a girl that when she's that high-strung. Yep, Rouge was going to kill him for saying that later.
"I just had a video sent to me. You have to see it!"
"Can it wait until after this op?"
Rouge cursed herself. "Yeah, it can. It's just that it's big, and you have debriefed ASAP."
"Will do. I'm landing on the roof of the airport now."
"If you're coming from the southeast, you're going to want to come in on Concourse E. AKA, the one on the right."
"Got it."
Sonic had slipped in unnoticed and turned off the suit. As it retracted back into his backpack, he landed on the roof and skidded to a stop on the rocks on top. Rolling his shoulders one last time, and Sonic was ready to start.
"Beginning my infiltration," he said quietly. "D.V. on." His vision quickly turned to a darker shade of blue with thousands of cyan and orange skeletons. Cyan meant an unarmed person, orange meant they were packing heat of some variety. He knew that where Fiona was located was going to have plenty of orange-marked cronies in close proximity. The problem was the thousands of bustling bodies underneath him headed to their flights gave him a visual headache. There was too much cyan in his line-of-sight to get a proper read on things. "T, filter out unarmed civilians on the detection vision. I'm getting a headache."
"I see what you mean, S," Tails replied as he clicked away. Suddenly, no more cyan skeletons. Just a few bodies inside the airport with weaponry, airport security and police officers no doubt, but there were a few snipers on Concourse E. Actually, there were some on the left and center concourses, C and D respectively, as well. The way their guns moved slowly indicated that they were watching the landed jet as it was rolling towards the hangar. There were also plenty of armed goons in and around Fiona's building. Quelle surprise.
"Thanks, bud," Sonic replied. "Need to take out the snipers first."
"Hurry," CREAM said with urgency. "Judging by the speed of the aircraft, you have about two minutes until it gets to Fox."
"Gotcha."
With that, Sonic silently ran across the rooftops toward the left-most concourse. There were two gunners on concourse C and three each on D and E. The poor snipers couldn't hear Sonic coming down on them with all the outdoor traffic. Several big, ol' jet airliners dotted the runway and were docked at the terminals. Hopefully no one would see him and blow his cover.
Alright, he had made it to the end of Concourse C. Two riflemen were perched on the edge looking over the entire airport campus. Sonic slowed down and walked quickly in a crouched position. Just a few feet until he got to his first target. Poor bastard. The running jet engines made for great sound cover as the sonic speedster snuck up unnoticed and unheard.
With one fell swoop, Sonic gripped his right arm around the gunner's throat and covered his mouth with his left hand. Sonic's hold muffled the screams enough where the sniper's partner couldn't hear him struggle. Good thing his partner was too concentrated on his crosshairs to see him flailing for help.
"Shhhhhhh," Sonic said. "Hush little sniper, don't say a word. Sonic's gonna shut-ya-up 'cause you're fuck'n turd." With that, Sonic laid the unconscious, but alive, gunner down as he quickly and silently zipped to the second gunman and put him through the same treatment. "If that hero doesn't shut you up, Sonic's gonna stuff barbed wire up your butt." And with that, two snipers bit the dust.
"Chaos, I hope we don't get a copyright claim on this," Tails said.
"Just be cool, T," Sonic replied.
Two down, six to go.
She kept a close eye on the jet as it continued it run to her. Looking briefly out at the airport, she couldn't help but nervously and more harshly grip her heavy briefcase.
The fox shook her head, catching the eye of one of her cronies. "Miss Fox?" the masculine, white wolf asked. "Something the matter?"
She scoffed. "You don't think he's watching us, do you, Drago?"
"Who? Sonic?"
She growled. "No, Chris Thorndyke. Of course, Sonic!" She mentally cursed herself and huffed. "We can't afford any more fuck-ups. Lyric's arrest nearly cost us this meeting. I had to guarantee that he wouldn't show up." She paused. "Our trade partner called yesterday and expressed his concerns about Sonic. I had to spring for heavier security tonight in case he showed up. Tonight's deal might be our last chance to prove this town is still open for business. Otherwise, we're done."
"Don't worry, Miss Fox. The snipers'll keep us covered. There won't be anything they'll miss."
One last gunner. His seven associates couldn't get a word in edgewise. This joker would be no different. In fact, Sonic decided to have a little fun with this last guy. He saw his walkie-talkie on his left hip. Sonic quickly ducked behind an air conditioner as the sniper reached for it.
"All clear up here," the gunner said before putting it back on his belt.
Sonic smiled and quickly crept up behind and to the left of his prey. With the flick of his wrist, out shot a line that grabbed the walkie and brought it right to his hand. The gunner was smart enough to figure out what was gonna happen next.
"Oh, damn," he nervously said as his .243 bolt-action began to jiggle in his hands.
Sonic quickly zipped to him and grabbed the gun's muzzle slammed its butt viciously into the gunner's face. With him dazed, Big Blue jumped on top of him and slammed both of his fists into the sides of his head, instantly knocking him out.
"We're clear on the roof," Sonic confirmed.
"Good to hear, S," CREAM said.
He then looked toward the hangar. "C, zoom me in." She obliged and soon his vision focused on the few armed bodyguards of Fiona's. Then came the vixen herself. He immediately noticed how understandably tense she was. He figured it was because she knew she was next on his hit list, and that made Sonic chuckle.
"Alright, S," Rouge began, "you need to sneak down to the hangar. Don't run in guns a-blazing. Last thing we need is them to panic. And don't fly either."
"But isn't that what airports are for?" He began to look around for some means of stealthily getting to his target. Looking down at the ground, he saw many planes fueling up and boarding. One off the concourse's right side had just finished putting in that flight's luggage. The small terminal train that hauled them over had just turned over its engine. And where was it headed? To its garage located to the right of Fox and her gang.
He chuckled and quietly grappled off the roof. Avoiding the brightly vested ground control, Sonic made his way to the hauler and hopped on one of the trailers. He couldn't afford someone to see him, so he laid flat on the trailer bed as he kept his eyes on the jet and hangar. It was just starting to turn into the building as Sonic crossed the wide runway. When he was close enough and clear from the enemy's line-of-sight, Sonic grappled up to the roof on the hangar, making sure he stayed quiet upon ascending to the roof. Looking at his surroundings, he wondered if he would need to zip in through the front door like he did against Lyric's crew or if there was some way to get in via the roof. Thankfully, there was a hatch near the rear, and it made Sonic smile.
He silently ran to and lifted it open and shot a quick grapple line, rappelling down slowly. The ceiling's shadows made for a decent enough cover, and no one seemed to notice that the high door had been opened. Good.
While he descended, he flipped on his detection vision to survey the area. Like his scouting earlier, the big boys in the hangar were packing more heat than Miami. Pistols and semi-automatics were on virtually everyone. However, they were all at the front of the building. Sonic was on the other side, away from immediate danger.
The nearest floor to Sonic was the second one. That floor was erected in the back half of the complex with various crates—no doubt filled with criminal goodies. As Sonic landed and retracted his cable, Sonic sneaked his way past the illegal goods and took in the sight of the plane coming in. Looking around, he saw a decently sized office to his right, complete with wire-infused windows for added protection. To his left there was no platform. It was the edge of the floor, but against the railing was a large canister filled with jet fuel. Obviously, it was a refueling station for smaller planes.
Now that he had a layout of the bottom floor, he got up closer to try and witness the deal… and nearly walking into a gunman's view. He rapidly ducked behind a wooden box and cursed himself. "Don't stroll into this, hedgehog," he mentally told himself.
Let's see… there were 14 hostiles in the hanger, including Fiona Fox but not the jet of international criminals rolling in. All of them armed sans Fox. Three with heat on the second floor, eight on the ground near Fiona, and two manning the entrance. Then there was the high-end plane. Seven passengers and all armed. Doing the math… 21 armed with weapons and one unarmed, gun-running crime lord. Sonic couldn't help but think of the irony.
As the plane entered and came to a stop, two members of brightly vested airport security accompanied the jet. Sonic recognized them in an instant. They were part of Rouge's new-and-improved SWAT outfit. They were members of the Angel Island team, the commissioner's top squad, and were working a little undercover work.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
The brakes let out a loud sigh as the door opened on the jet.
"Do not engage yet, S," Tails said. "Wait for R's team to get into position."
"Copy," Sonic whispered.
The undercover officers walked in as the Soleannan criminal strolled down the jet's stairs casually. He was dressed very well with jet-black dress pants, shined and polished shoes, and a dapper winter coat with chinchilla fur. But that was where the compliments ended. This guy looked beyond creepy. To be honest, he looked like Sonic's Shadow disguise, right down to the quill pattern and striping (the latter to a certain degree). However, this male hedgehog looked like Shadow on demonic steroids. The streaks on his navy body were a mix between Columbia blue and ghostly white. That came as a stark contrast to his eyes. Normally, the whites of one's eyes were, well, white. Not this guy. They were a deep scarlet, giving the illusion that he was either high off his ass or ready to have his green eyes burst like a balloon.
Sonic actually shuddered. This guy was creeping him out. The way he walked so lifelessly… it was like he was watching a zombie stalking clueless teenage girls in a terrible horror movie. There was no kind of emotion coming out him. Not from his face and certainly not from his body language. If there was ever the physical manifestation of a demon, he'd be it. Intel said he was from Spagonia but worked out of Soleanna. Legal name was Lucifer Mephistopheles, but he was known as "Mephiles" these days as his alias was from the eponymous Soleannan god.
"Quite the looker," Sonic joked.
"That's not funny, S," said a startled CREAM. "Word is that he's to Soleanna what the Iron King was to the Dragon Kingdom."
"The main man of mafia. Understood."
As the demonic hedgehog strolled to Fiona, the disguised cops got his attention. "Sir!" one of them said. "Do you have the necessary paperwork?"
Mephiles stopped and looked at them. He then snapped his fingers, prompting one of his men to give each of the officers a healthy stack of $10,000 in cold hard cash. Quite the bribe.
"Will this suffice?" Goddamn, what a haunting voice.
The officers nodded and exited the building, prompting Fiona's men start closing the door. Sonic then flipped on his D.V. on one last time to make sure everyone was accounted for, but he kept an eye on the eerie Mephiles. He looked like the kind of guy that would order a hit on you for no reason.
"It's such a shame that Lyric could not make it, my sweet," Mephiles greeted with an obvious accent.
Fiona scoffed. "That scaly prick would've held us back anyway," she responded. "And I'm not your 'sweet.'"
SLAM!
The large doors to the facility had closed, prompting Fox to look behind her and signal one of her men. A lynx with golden lightning bolt on his chain nodded and went up the flight of stairs. Sonic, meanwhile, stayed out of the lynx's sight as he entered the office to the hero's right. He kept an eye on the wildcat as he went to what looked like the fuse box to the joint.
FLICK!
Sonic jumped as his Detection Vision suddenly became blurry. It was all garbled and out-of-form. He couldn't see anything and wondered what the hell the lynx had done. But that was just the start of his problems as his earbuds went kaput soon after as well. "What's going on?" he thought. "D.V. off." With that whisper, he was able to see straight again, and then he took out his earbuds and hid them in his shoe. With his sight and hearing freed, he kept an eye on the lynx and as he locked the door behind him and headed back down to the meeting.
"And what did your man do?"
"This building has a military-grade signal jammer that cuts off all sorts of communication. Everything from phones to bugs are worthless. Call it a security measure." Sonic sighed, knowing full well that Tails and CREAM had lost signal with him. And he couldn't just turn it off. The locked door and reinforced windows would make sure of that.
"Okay, Sonic," he thought, "three are armed up here with 18 below with Fox and Mephiles." What did he have to worry about? He was trained to deal with much more than this. He was trained to use his surroundings to his advantage. So… time to reassess the situation.
He already knew how many of each crony there was on each floor. He still had access to his wrist grapples, magnetic gloves and shoes, and his flight suit. Oh, and he was still freaking fast. Of all the lights that were on, they were all showing the mass of people at the front of the hangar. There were little to none on in the back where he was eavesdropping. He couldn't knock out the lights for various reasons, so he needed to keep those on to see. The only part of the building layout he didn't know was the floor directly below him. All he knew was that it was crawling with pistols and happy trigger fingers. That said, his super speed could help him circumvent that problem.
He peeked his head out and saw the three gunmen up top. He couldn't take them out without notifying everyone else. So the question was would he rather to try a stealthier tactic or go in and run all over hell? Looking up to the lights, he saw that they were on steel beams that could easily support his weight and provide a good vantage. Aiming up, he shot out a line in the darker half of the complex and whizzed right up. Walking slowly toward the front, Sonic now had a better view of where everyone was. Fiona and her trade partner seemed to be discussing payment options for a load of "procured" U.F. Marine Corps AR-15s, high-maintenance hand-cannons, and scoped rifles. Him… what to do….
THUMP!
Sonic felt a nasty vibration on the beam, sending a chill up his spine. But guess who also heard that?
Twenty-one guns all aimed at the upper half of the building, promptly ending their negotiations. Sonic laid flat on the beam he was on, just narrowly out of sight.
"I think we have a hero here," Mephiles stated.
Fiona growled and balled up her fists. "Oh…! Sonic! Show yourself, coward!"
"Fat chance of that," he whispered. He then turned his attention to the darker half. What on Chaos's Mobius was that?! Looking down that way, he didn't see anything. He had no choice but to leave the hatch open, so did that mean something came in? Or someone? Did Rouge get impatient and send in her troops? No, that wasn't part of the plan since they were directed to hang outside the airport entrance. However, Sonic finally saw some movement among the darkness. This guy was quick and hard to keep track of. But Sonic had to ignore him/her/whatever for the time being.
"And on that, I think we'll be going," Mephiles said.
Fiona immediately grabbed the international boss. "Oh, no you don't! We have business!"
SLAP!
Sonic winced as he could feel the harsh sting from up there. The Fox let go and doubled over. That was a mistake as Fiona's men aimed at Mephiles and his squad, prompting them to do the same. This wasn't good for anyone. This had "bloodbath" written all over it.
"Fiona my dear, it seems your friends can't be trusted if Sonic found us," Mephiles said condescendingly. "Open the doors so I may go."
BANG!
A warning shot at the demonic hedgehog's feet said otherwise.
"NO, YOU IDIOTS!" Fiona screamed. That line was just enough to stop a shootout from breaking out. "THE NEXT ONE TO POP ONE WILL GET POPPED!" She then turned to Mephiles. "That door will not opened unless I say s—. WHOA!"
From behind, a member of Mephiles's gang grabbed the vixen by the neck and put his gun to her skull. The demonic crime lord chuckled and walked up to her, lifting her head up with one finger so that met eye-to-eye.
"You aren't calling the shots here, Fiona."
SLAP!
Fiona spat out some blood at Mephiles.
"Say it."
"Fuck off."
SLAP!
CLICK!
That was the sound of a cocking pistol pointed right at Fiona's bleeding head. It paired well the gash on her cheek from those strikes.
"Say it."
She growled and spat again. "Fine." She motioned to the door, and her men had to oblige to his demands. But just as they were opening up, she said, "I'll cut your throat out for this."
SLAP!
"No, I think I'll just take you with me," Mephiles said as his finger trailed down her shirt.
"Get in line, creep!"
And who do you suppose came swinging down on a grapple line?
Mephiles growled. "Urghhhh! Shoot h—!"
WHAM!
Holy schnikes! Mephiles went a-flying with that swing kick of Sonic's! With a graceful landing, he turned around and smiled.
"She's coming with me," Sonic said sternly.
FWOOSH!
In the blink of an eye, Sonic disarmed them and hid the guns in the dark half of the building. As the jet began to start up, Sonic zipped to the plane the threw the pilot out, landing face-first on the concrete. But that was just the start. Sonic zoomed out and blasted into several guards, hurdling them into the steel walls around the joint. Feeling sorry for a quick moment, Sonic stopped and surveyed his situation. Fifteen men surrounded him, all he had were some gadgets and a vast array of fighting moves. He then looked and caught Fiona's eyes. "Good evening, Fiona," he said arrogantly.
She shook her head. "I knew you were gonna be here."
"Aww, did you really? I knew we had a deep connection!"
Shaking her head, she commanded, "Bring him to me!"
"Good luck with that!"
Sonic then shot out a grapple at one of the goons and zipped feet-first into the frog's face, sending him flying too. Two more than rushed him from behind, but Sonic leaped backwards over them activated his flight suit's battle mode. With metal-covered fists and a little more weight behind his punches, he ran after those two, grabbed them, and spun them around like a tilt-a-whirl from hell. Like the others, they went flying to parts unknown. A dozen left. One of them whipped out a knife and lunged at Sonic. Too bad for them Sonic's metallic fists came together with force and crunch the attacker's hand, sending him into a screaming fit.
WHAM!
One roundhouse kick later put him out. He then ran and leaped onto another, using him to springboard into a different goon, knocking him out with a violent strike to the ribs. Ten remained.
They then had the bright idea to bulrush him, prompting Sonic quickly deactivate his suit's combat mode and swap it for flight. The sight of a levitating Sonic shut them all up, including Fiona, as Sonic smiled. He then shut off his engines and got in behind one of the smaller goons. He picked him up, threw him up, and punched him back into another henchman. One grabbed Sonic by the feet, but Sonic took him for a ride and launched him into the side of the jet.
Unbeknownst to Sonic, the same lynx from before got back up to the control room and began to open the shutter doors. Just then, Fiona thought it to be a good idea and try to run. Guess who saw that?
"I'm not done with you!" Sonic yelled as he flew toward the vixen. She tried to defend herself by pulling out a serrated knife strapped to her right thigh.
"Ooh! What else you got in there?"
The fox roared and hurled it at him.
FLING!
It was too easy for Sonic as he caught it and threw right in front of Fiona, making her shriek and change direction toward the runway. He then began to run at the vixen. To no one's surprise, he was more than able to keep pace. Believe it or not, he was actually catching her. He liked doing this. He enjoyed taking a little time out to play with his prey.
"Get away from me!" she pleaded as she turned her head to—. "Oh, shit." There was no heroic hedgehog to be found. "Where is he?"
WHISTLE!
She shouldn't have turned around. The moment she did, he grabbed her by the sleeve and spun her down to the concrete runway. With his knee in her back, she screamed loudly in defeat.
"You son-of-a-bitch! You goddamn, piece of shit!"
"Hey, sister, flattery won't get you anywhere." She struggled to get free, but that was when Sonic grabbed on her arms and forcefully pinned it against her back.
"Let me goooooo!" The crunching she was feeling was… let's just say it wasn't pleasant.
"No, I don't think I'll do that, Fifi."
She gave him the evil eye. "Don't call me that, you lousy—!"
"Hey, at least I got you away from some would-be rapist. Or was he just gonna straight-up kill you? Either way, I think that garners a 'thank you' at the very least."
"Drop dead."
"I don't do requests, Fox." Having had enough of the one-sided back and forth, he dug out his earbuds, now with 100% less static. "C? T? R? Can you hear me?"
"Thank Chaos!" C and T said.
"I'll take that as a yes."
"'T?'" Fiona asked herself mentally. "Tails?"
"S, what happened in there?!" Tails screamed. "We lost communication with you!"
"Yeah… I'll explain everything later."
"Are you okay?" CREAM asked worriedly.
"C, look for yourself." He then looked down so they could see what he saw: a pinned Fiona Fox.
"Oh, so you got her!"
"You know it."
He then heard the sound of squealing tires. Sonic whipped his head around to see a large Ford van barreling down on them with that looked like guns hanging out the windows. They started shooting back at the airport entrance where Rouge and her team were returning fire. Sonic cursed at himself for not putting down the rest of Fiona's goon squad.
"S!" R said urgently amid the gunshots. "Those are Fiona's guys! Looks like they're coming at you!"
"For their boss I'd imagine." Sonic then let go of her arm but kept a strong foot on her back. Here they came, and with an entourage behind them of flashing red and blue lights. It didn't take Rouge and her cop cohorts to load into their squad cars, blow right through the airport fencing, and begin chasing down the van of criminals. Getting himself in a readied stance, he began to run at them—.
BOOM!
What the heck was that? That was no explosion. That sounded like… something breaking the sound barrier? Suddenly, the hero focused behind the truck to see something ridiculously fast peel out of the hangar and send the cops and Rouge flying from the boom's winds. It made the turn and barreled past the truck, nearly sending it flying too, and—.
BAM!
Sonic was sent skidding on the concrete, twirling violently like a tumbleweed with only the flight suit to protect him. He finally slowed down and stopped, but Sonic was not feeling well. His arms were screaming in pain from the concrete friction having not fully recovered from the other night. He got up slowly in a lot of pain. His suit was scuffed up, but it was still working just fine. Chalk one up for Tails's and CREAM's ingenious building skills.
"SONIC!" CREAM and Tails yelled.
"I… I think I'm okay," he forced out. "Fuck, that hurt. What hit me?!"
"Sonic, I'm not sure," CREAM began, "but whatever it was, it was small and blasted into you at around Mach 1!"
His eyes bugged out. "Did you say, 'Mach 1?' And where's Fiona?!" Then he saw the van full of her men stop near her.
"We got you, boss," one of her boys said as they helped her up. Sonic could've sworn he sent that frog flying a second ago. Same went for that sleuth-looking dawg.
"Hey!" Sonic barked as he began to run at them. He wasn't going to let Fiona get aw—!
POW!
It was painful sense of déjà vu as Sonic was sent tumbling on the runway again. In even more pain from before, he only barely got himself out of the way of a flight that was taking off. The wind the jetliner created sent him through the air, landing with a THUD!
More pissed off than before, he swallowed his pain and got up, looking around for what the hell hit him twice. Wait… could it have been that person he saw running around in the dark part of the hangar? And how could that guy or gal run that fast?! It wasn't possible! The only things that could've moved that fast were—!
His ears perked up the moment he heard that sound barrier break, but this time, Sonic dodged and began to pursue it. He didn't get up to full speed right away due to his injuries, but Sonic eventually began to keep pace and catch this thing.
"What is that?!" CREAM yelled.
"That's what I'm findin' out!" Sonic shot back. "Please, let me wrong about this!" The thing then doubled back and aimed right at Sonic. It broke the barrier one more time, but Sonic countered by sliding into it at the perfect time. Sonic gave it a taste of its own medicine, sending it errantly toward Concourse D. Giving chase, reached the place it stopped, only for it to have disappeared.
"Where the hell—?"
"Rahhh!"
Sonic dodged the attack from behind and charged into his attacker. Before it could react, Sonic rammed his fist into the side of its face, knocking him down. It kipped up and lunged at Sonic again, but he countered with an arm grab. Then it countered by slamming its fist into Sonic's head. With the rage of a volcano, Sonic sent a powerful blow into its abdomen, dazing it for the moment. He followed that up with a tackle, but it was for naught as it used its powerful legs to thrown Sonic off.
Moaning angrily, Sonic got up and readied himself, but his attacker was breathing hard from the blow to his core. Yeah, his, though "its" was more accurate since he knew what this abomination looked like all too well. A dead ringer in terms of physical appearance, this thing looked like Sonic with a color palette swap, even down to his downed-quill hairdo. But it looked more like a painful reminder of who he failed to save that night. Green fur and piercing blue eyes. The only difference was that this thing was sporting a black leather jacket and some stiff-looking footwear.
It wasn't only Sonic that couldn't believe what it was. CREAM and Tails saw exactly was Big Blue saw… and it would've moved CREAM to tears if she could cry. For Tails, he was in silence purely from the shock.
"H-How… How is this possible?" Tails asked in a defeated tone.
"We got them all, didn't we?" CREAM asked.
"I guess not," Sonic said as he shook his head. He didn't know how or why, but this… this… thing was a sick reminder of who he lost months ago. He wished that this was another one of his nightmares, but the blood coming out the side of his mouth told him otherwise. How on Chaos's Mobius was there one of the thousands of clones of his brother in front of him? How could a cheap duplicate of Green the Hedgehog be alive?! Rouge and G.U.N. verified and reported that all the remaining clones had been destroyed. So how was one in front of him?!
Groaning, he said, "I guess I'll just have to personally finish the job. Yaaahhhhh!" The hero charged at his opponent, only to sidestep, grab, and pin Sonic in one move, stupefying the cerulean speedster. "How the—?!" That's when he saw his eyes. His blue, haunting eyes. They weren't normal. In fact, they looked crazed like a psychotic killer. One pupil was bigger than the other, but they both looked like they were out for blood. The crazed eyes weren't the only off-putting attribute about his opponent. It looked there scars just above his eyes. They were hard to make out in the dark of night, but the various lights around the airport were able to inform the hero anyway. Something was wrong about this while situation, and Sonic didn't like this one bit.
The clone chuckled and rammed its elbow into Sonic's neck, gagging the hero and leaving him too dumbfounded to retaliate. With a swift motion, the green assailant picked Sonic up threw him down with a harsh stomp to the gut. Flight suit harness or not, that blow hurt. The sheer pain on Sonic's face was as evident at white on rice.
"It does me good to see you suffer a bit."
Sonic once again was too flabbergasted to react as he received a kick in the head. Did the clone just speak? Could they speak at all to begin with? The ones he fought on that freighter didn't!
It geared up for another kick, but Sonic rolled away and countered with a leg swipe. Grabbing his leg, he tossed the faker up and punched it in one of his shoulder sockets in midair. It got itself back up quickly to block a blow to the cheek, the other cheek, a kick to the midsection, and capping it off by catching Big Blue's punch that would've shattered its nose.
Now it was the clone's turn to go as it bent Sonic's wrist upwards and followed that up with a violent SLAP and swinging, conjoined fists that hit him twice upside the head. Sonic then countered the third strike, or at least he thought he did, but the strike was a deception as the clone rolled back as Sonic lunged. He was an easy target for a bitter crane kick to the jaw, something straight out of The Karate Kid. The clone wickedly laughed as Sonic got up and held his hurting jaw. However, he quickly went down to one knee.
"Sonic! Get out of there!" CREAM pleaded. Easier said than done.
Sonic was huffing, puffing, and writhing in agony. This clone was not only looked like Green, but he fought like dirty like him too. How could he know everything Sonic was going to do? Every move, he'd have the perfect counter. It was like… no, that wasn't possible.
"Hehehe… you look a little beside yourself, Sonic."
KICK!
Sonic groaned in pain as he tried to get up. Again, he could only get it up to one knee. "What's the matter? Too hurt to move? Too tuckered out?"
"Who the fuck sent you?!" Sonic forced out.
"Who says I'm working for someone?"
WHAM!
He clicked his tongue as he grabbed Sonic and put him upright. "And why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" The haughtiness of his voice was grating on Sonic. "I thought you'd be ecstatic to see your brother!"
That was it.
It took everything he had, but Sonic sucker-punched the clone to the ground. It rubbed its lip and found some blood on it, and he chuckled because of it. "Now that's more like it!" Sonic went for the curb-stomp, but it rolled out of the way and kipped up again. Sonic swung again… and again… and again… but they were all misses.
"How dare you mock me!" Another swing and a miss. "You have the nerve to insult Green! My brother's dead because of clones like you!" He missed another punch, and the clone countered with an elbow to the back of the head.
"That's where you're wrong, Blue," he mocked. Sonic yelled and missed the sidestepping clone. "Oh, that's right! You don't call yourself that anymore! That's fine with me since I don't go by 'Green' anymore either! Haha!" Another miss. "Yeesh, typical Sonic. Never knowing when to give up or accept defeat." The clone then laid Sonic out with a devastating right hook that sent the bloodied hero to the ground.
"You don't know me!" Sonic barked. "Stop getting in my head!"
"I'm only in your head 'cause I know you dream about me! Kind of like that morning I was outside your window when you woke up from that nightmare of yours."
Sonic froze. That… That wasn't a figment of his imagination the other day. This thing knew his fighting style, his weaknesses, and now where he lived. This thing had to go, and it had to go soon.
"You… are not… Green!" Sonic said as he gritted his teeth.
That was when the clone grabbed his jacket zipper and chuckled. As he unzipped, Sonic starred with watchful eyes as—.
Oh.
Oh… no.
No… no… no!
Chaos, let this be a sick joke! This cannot be real!
His mind flashed back to that fateful night.
It flashed back to seeing those wounds on his chest.
Two slashes… right across the torso.
He… He couldn't be!
A tear rolled down his face.
He prayed this wasn't real.
But he remembered what happened as clear as day.
Those wounds… Those fucking wounds… were in the right spot.
And there he was. An opened, black jacket showing him a pair of permanent scars courtesy of a falling elevator's erratic cables, a grim reminder of his failure.
His lip quivered, unable to speak, much less moan. It made the clo—. No, it made Green, his brother, smile.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"
"G-G-Green?" Sonic just couldn't keep his emotions or thoughts in line.
He looked away with a grimace that killed his twin. "Not anymore."
"H-How?"
He shook his head. "Wouldn't you like to know?" KICK! He took too much pleasure in kicking the crap out of his twin. KICK! "What's the matter?! Fight back!" Sonic rolled out and shoved Green away when he went for lethal left hook. "Fight me!" Another blocked blow. "You spineless coward!"
"Green, stop it! How are you alive?!"
"That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?!" Green finally got a hit in with small jab followed by that left hook he didn't connect with a moment ago. The beaten and bloodied Sonic just took it, unable and unwilling to defend himself from the physical and emotional agony. He took it more as Green grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him up. Sonic's eyes told the story. "Aww, don't be so heartbroken."
WHAM!
POW!
For his next trick, he took his brother by the leg and muscled him into the concrete wall of the concourse, much to the shock of everyone watching from the inside. Green took notice of how half of the onlookers watched in horror as Sonic was getting obliterated for all to see. The other half couldn't bother to put their phones away or risk losing thousands if not millions of potential internet hits. He cruelly smiled at the audience and walked back to his battered brother.
Green then proceeded to drag Sonic out into the open for the cameras to see. Enjoying every second of the attention, Green continued to kick the tar out of Sonic. Every blow meant another thousand likes on social media. Each splatter of blood was a new subscriber. Green was going to love watching the highlights later. There was no doubt that they'd send their videos to the Acorn Media Group and the other news groups. This had "field day" written all over it.
Sonic was breathing heavy from all the abuse. The physical kind would heal. The psychological? His own brother, the one he saw fall to his death was not only taking him to school, but he gave him detention to boot. The fight was gone from Sonic. He wouldn't dare strike his supposedly dead brother. He just didn't have the willpower.
Shaking his head at his pathetic brother, Green grabbed Sonic's head and turned it to the phone cameras. "I want you to remember this, you traitor," Green hissed. "Everyone in this town's gonna know that you can bleed. Everyone'll know that you got your ass handed to you. They're all gonna think that I'm some freaky clone. But you will know the truth." All that was said with the most wicked of grins.
"Gr-Gr-COUGH-Green… please…," Sonic forced out.
His twin sharply sighed. He grabbed Sonic by the throat and held him up at eye level before getting right in his face. Those blue eyes… those uneven pupils of his…. If it wasn't his chest wounds, those lifeless eyes of his were now etched into the hero's soul. "Green didn't survive that fall, Sonic," he said before spitting in his brother's face. "You killed that fucker when you left him for dead."
"I… I didn't—!"
SLAP!
The strong hit sent Sonic down to the ground on his back where his brother's left leg was his face down, rubbing it on the runway like chalk. "You left him to die, you arrogant fuck. And now… I'm going to enjoy making you hurt. From here on out, you're my bitch. I will make sure this town knows what kind of shit-stain you really are!"
"Please… Green…." He was a few seconds of pain away from passing out.
"Green's gone, brother," he spat. "He's been replaced by someone who'll be your personal plague." He held up his brother one final time by the throat. "Call me 'Scourge. (Scourge the Hedgehog: Jason Griffith)'"
A violent throw to the concrete and a blow to his head knocked Sonic out, his body unresponsive from all the trauma. Scourge shook his head in disgust. Some hero he was. He was going to take pleasure in destroying him. And what better way than to take a trophy? He wasn't blind; he saw how Sonic was using that suit of his. How it could fly, how it could help in combat, how smoothly it moved, and how fit his body. He may have been out of the picture for months, but Scourge and Sonic still had identically physical bodies.
He started by taking off the gauntlets that Sonic had on each hand. He recalled these things allowing its wearer to have move oomph behind their jabs and punches. He also remembered how they attached to the wings when the suit went into flight mode. Then there was the harness itself. He undid the buckles and freed the contraption from his downed brother, kicking him off the backpack section of it and quickly slapping it and the gauntlets on. It really was an incredible piece of craftmanship that would undoubtedly annoy Sonic that one of his gadgets was going to be used against him. It was only a matter of figuring out how it worked.
POP! BANG! BANG!
The sound of gunfire alerted the green hedgehog to what was happening behind him. By the looks of it, the van that Fiona Fox's men were driving had their boss riding shotgun while the rest of them were firing at the police from the opened doors in the back. He recalled again how Sonic seemed to seek her out and how she loathed the man. Knowing she was the biggest crime lord in the city [left], maybe he could help her out. He was feeling generous, and maybe, just maybe, he could do this fox a solid and help her with her "Sonic problem."
But first things first. Her boys were out-manned 5-to-1 on vehicles alone and 3-to-1 on active weapons. Smirking, he blasted to the chase and got in between the Fox and her pursuers.
"What that hell?!" Fiona screamed. "Where did he come from?! And what's he doing?!"
As soon as the police cars got close enough, Scourge encircled the cops in no time, enveloping them in a sonic boom tornado as he circled around them and sent their Ford Crown Victoria's all over the runway. Half were on their back and half were on their side. It still came down to Fiona's van as the only one still on all four wheels as it made its way for the exit. The wild-eyed vixen kept her eyes on the man responsible for her escape, and all he did as she left was give him an arrogant salute.
"Wasn't that one of those clones from the news a few months back?" one of her crew members asked.
"Mr. Simian, I don't give a damn at the moment," Fiona huffed as she took a load off. "Get us outta here." Shaking her head at the whole mess with Mephiles, she swore to herself that she'd finish him for trying what he did. But not before thanking her lucky stars that someone came to her aid, even if it was another goddamn speedster.
Thankfully, the airport had its own ambulances. The carnage around would be on display when the news broke. That included a battered Sonic. The commissioner had tended to her other officers. No deaths, but there were plenty injuries to go around. But none of them compared to Sonic. The sight of him going into another ambulance broke her heart. He had heard what Tails had told him.
First, that high-speed robbery at the clothing store with that green hedgehog. Now this. "No way they aren't connected," she thought. She shook her head as they slammed the doors and peeled off the runway into town. "His own brother," Rouge said to herself as she crossed her arms and sighed.
"R?" Tails asked through her earpiece.
"Go ahead," she said.
"We… analyzed that video you sent us."
"That wasn't a clone, was it?" She heard how sharply he sighed.
"Don't ask questions you know the answer to, R. When did you get this?"
"Just before Sonic came to the airport. When I'm back at the office, I'll launch a full-scale investigation into the theft."
"You'll need to do more than that."
"Are we sure it was his brother? Are we absolutely sure?"
"Rouge… it's him. I don't know how, but it's him."
"And Sonic said that he died that night the oil rig went up in smoke. Obviously not."
"Obviously."
"How's CREAM taking it?"
It was another case of Tails's sighing doing the talking. "You haven't heard her speak. I think that answers your question. Look, we'll look into this later. Get yourself patched up. T out."
On that, he muted his mic and rubbed his forehead while sulking into his chair. He felt horrible for her. Sonic could barely comprehend fighting him. But CREAM? She raised the guy. She knew him as well as Sonic did. And to see them like this? To see how her boys were senselessly attacking each other?
"CREAM, talk to me. Please," he said sympathetically. It wasn't enough that she was silent, but it broke his heart to hear a machine cry through the speakers.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I had a realization while working today. I stupidly put down that chapter 5 would be uploaded today. I meant for it to be next Tuesday (March 9th).
Fuck it.
It's getting uploaded early. I made a promise, and I'll keep it if only as an apology to you guys. So congrats, my failure is your reward!
Anyway, I know you've been waiting for Scourge to make his big entrance. And boy howdy, did he ever make one. And I know you've been receptive for the flight suit and are probably wondering why Sonic is losing it so early. It'll be important later, so hang on to any theories you might have. Or you can put them in with your reviews and I will neither confirm nor deny and insinuations. Your choice.
Alright, now I'm in the position of setting the record straight. Or resetting as is the case here. After this, we'll be going back to the usual upload schedule of every 1.5 weeks, so March 13 will see chapter 6, and the 23rd will be chapter 7. And on a personal note, this actually works better for me since the weekend of the 20th-which for the record was when chapter 6 should've been uploaded under the normal schedule-I'll be up with my buddies at a dart-ball tournament up at a local casino. Oh, and it's the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. In that old schedule, I'd probably be too drunk/hungover to remember to update the story. I am from Wisconsin after all. Up here, we come out of the womb wearing a cheesehead, a bratwurst in one hand, and a sippy cup of Miller Lite in the other. Before you ask, no, we're not alcoholics. WE ARE PROFESSIONALS.
Anyway, March 13 will be chapter 6. March 23 will be chapter 7. Got it? GOOD! Special thanks go out to Mute Spy, NeckBreak, FlameShadowFireDragon, jurrassicdinodrew, & 000Marie198 for dropping reviews. Thanks guys!
As always, the characters used in this story are the property of SEGA, Sonic Team, and Archie Comics. Everything in the story is being used strictly for entertainment purposes. And as always, I will talk to y'all later.