21 - Day Of The Festival

Oh, that's where they were?

How adorable, they were holding hands like a dull-witted couple that drowned in puppy love. Tch. The very thought of them gettin' all chummy like this made him sick to his stomach. Well they put themselves right in his hands, because he was only right behind them. Literally. As they walked down the streets of the festival, he had his hat lowered so that his eyes weren't that visible. He was walking right behind the two hedgehogs. When he took over this form, he made himself a little taller. He was towering over the both of them by an inch, glaring down at Shadow, while eyeing Sonic dubiously.

He didn't even want to know what they've done since he last spied on them. They probably fucked by now. Damn it, that was supposed to be him! He was supposed to take his chastity! Ugh...No, wait a second. His chaos energy felt normal. One can tell if someone lost their virginity if their chaos wavelength was wide, bulky and straight. A virgin's chaos energy was tight, thin, jumbled up and tangled like wires. Of course, most males were considered 'virgins' in certain ways, but it all depended on how the chaos host's body felt. If they felt as if they were a virgin, their wavelength would accommodate through their mental comprehension. Basically, the brain. This went for both genders as well. The theory is, if one lost their virginity, their body itself isn't so uptight or strict anymore. The lost of innocence weakens the tight hold on their wavelength, and relaxes.

Scourge could tell that Sonic's wavelength was still very dense, disarrayed and narrow. Looks like Stripes ain't hit that yet. Good news for him, he guessed. That didn't change the fact that they fooled around a lot, though. He could just tell by the way they talked, the way they interacted. They must have did something earlier today, lustful imbeciles. Well, he wasn't one to talk but, still. He made sure as he walked, the space between them wasn't too close, but not too far so that he'd lose them. As he watched them move, he felt something else.

What in the-?

"The gold ones are no longer with us, for now. I have rendered them powerless, temporarily."

Ah, was that Boss?

"I will keep them sedated until the result of your war."

Okay, so you're saying you put down their Super forms for a while. Meaning, they won't be a problem when I make my attack. Pretty useful, but how long do we have?

"The one you mortals refer to as the light one, is losing it's strength as well. You have four and a half days. See to it that you will not waste this time."

You got it.

Once he ended the conversation with Fleetway, he realized that Stripes and Blue were gone. How the hell did he lose them so quickly!? He growled under his breath and looked around, his eyes darting from place to place.

"The show funded by No Zone Corp and Warden Zobotnik is about to start. All attendants please report to Zenon Park. And don't forget to show identification before entering the area and sit in your designated seat. Remember that if you show any signs of suspicion, you will be escorted by No Zone Police and taken in for questioning. Thank you." A female announcer said. He noticed there were speakers around in traffic lights, and he saw zone cops reminding people about the show that was about to start up. Thanks to the roads being shut off, too many people were flooding his vision. Where the hell was Sonic?!

His ears then perked up to the sound of a helicopter. He looked up, craning his neck to the sky. Wind pushed against the grounds of the street, and the heads of anyone who walked by. Dust, small amounts of trash and patches of dirt flew above from the force. A chopper was in the air, but this one was different from the others. And...! Sonic was inside! And so was Stripes. Shit, one of Zonic's goons was piloting it. That chameleon asshole.

He needed to follow that chopper.

The orange fox could see GUN HQ in the distance. It wouldn't be long before he landed. His older brother appeared in the back of his mind. He and Shadow were gone for at least a week now, in their own time. It's still only been a day or two in regular Mobian time. He sighed to himself, he hoped they were okay. Who knew what Scourge was up to? Then, he heard static in his wrist watch. He held it up to his mouth, letting it automatically pick up.

"Tails!"

"What's going on, Knuckles?"

"I found Rouge and Amy in Twinkle Park, but-Shit..!"

"What's wrong?" Tails frowned. That meant something bad just happened. He pressed his fingers tighter into the controls, pushing them forward even more to go faster.

"Forget HQ for now, head to Twinkle Park! We need to-Damn it! Argh..!"

The transmitter was getting more static than his voice. It was breaking up, and their connection was failing unintentionally. Tails' blue eyes widened significantly when he heard the sound of explosions in the background. Was that the helicopter? It may have gotten damaged, but Knuckles was in danger. And Rouge and Amy might be too. So with a huff, the kitsune pulled his controls to the left, turning the aircraft around one hundred and eighty degrees, using as much fuel as he needed to bolt himself over to Twinkle Park.

After a minute or two of flying with the plane on it's highest speed, he arrived. He looked around with his goggles to see if he could spot his friends. He gulped to himself. There were so many dead bodies on the ground. This...This was really bad. He adjusted his goggles' view, making the scopes installed in the lenses zoom in closer. He saw a flash of red and pink. That was Amy! He peered a bit closer, noticing there were hundreds of angry mind-controlled Mobians chasing after her. He looked to his right of the window, and saw a lone, empty chopper on the roof of an abandoned building. Knuckles must have just got here. And he could see the propellers were destroyed.

He needed to get down there, now!

He grit his teeth, planning a risky move in his head. He dove the plane down further into the streets below, and pressed a button on his control sticks. A shift in mechanisms happened inside of the plane. From the bottom of the aircraft, weapons similar to machine guns slowly protruded from out of the plane's body and wings. Tails activated them to fire directly at the ground. As the bullets of the plane tailed the Mobians, they scattered in fear of getting shot. Tails purposely missed shooting at them, as he didn't want to kill anyone. That's not what these kinds of bullets were for, anyway.

He caught in the corner of his eye that Amy was running away even faster, while holding something large in her arms. Something white. Was-Was that Rouge? He needed to pick them up. And where was Knuckles?

"Tails!" He heard his voice yell. Speak of the Devil. The fox halted the movements of his plane and pressed a button to lift up the roof and the window so he could hear him better.

"Knuckles?!" He called. In the crowd of the now antsy and irritated Mobians, he saw a red echidna punching and throwing people off of him. They were jumping him. He needed to get them off! "Hold on.." Tails mumbled to himself as he aimed and fired at them, careful of the redhead. Bullets danced at their feet, and even grazed some of them. This caused them to get less rowdy, and just fled from the area. They ran in the opposite direction, either fighting each other or escaping to another place in the city. He carefully and steadily lowered his plane into the street, noting that the aircraft could barely fit between such a tiny block. Once he landed, he hopped out of the seat and ran to the guardian.

He was dusting himself off, cracking a few bones to ensure himself that he was alright to move. "Nice shooting, kid."

"Thanks but, are you okay?" He asked with understandable concern. Before Knuckles could even respond, Tails frantically rushed ahead of him. "Where's Amy?!"

"I saw her limp over there, come on!" The red one said while grasping and pulling Tails' arm with a little force. They moved and stepped over corpses, nearly tripping over debris and broken bits of cars. As they tried to run to their friend's destination, they noticed how similar Mobius and Anti-Mobius were. Dead bodies, destroyed and empty buildings, turned over or salvaged cars, and any means of authority was no longer effective here. All they could do was scowl, look away, and try not to look back at their bloody footprints staining the concrete. With a minute of sprinting, they finally arrived at a location that looked similar to an alleyway. And...Tails' nose wrinkled up. It smelled like seriously strong, rank cologne here. That only meant one thing: Scourge. That bastard was here not too long ago, but why?

They saw Amy huddled against the decaying brick wall, with a bleeding Rouge in her arms. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part, was that there were others here. Others, who were very wounded. Cream, Cheese and Vanilla, were all slumped against the wall beside her. Vanilla and Cheese were out cold, but Cream's eyes were barely open. However, she was also unconscious. She had an open wound on her leg, too. Vanilla's forehead had a nasty gash in it, and the blood that seemed to have previously fell down her face dried to a more browner color. She needed medical attention immediately. As for the little chao, he was barely breathing. Probably low on energy. Cream just looked like she saw her worst nightmare, and didn't wake back up.

Rouge was in a similar position as Vanilla, with a mean gash on her temple. But hers looked more like an intentional bludgeoning wound, while Vanilla's looked like she accidentally smashed her face into something, or someone. She probably got hurt while escaping the crowd, but Rouge looked like she was attacked directly. Knuckles instantly went to Rouge's side, roughly asking Amy what happened to her. Tails went to Cream's side, and tried shaking her to wake her up. Knuckles joined him not a second later, trying to wake up the child as well. No luck.

Knuckles put his glove on the Vanilla's chest, and felt her heartbeat. It was still pretty normal, despite her injury. She was okay. He then pressed his hand underneath Cream's chin to try and feel a pulse. Thankfully, he felt a strong one. Yes, she was alive and very well. Finally, he gently picked up the tiny little chao from the ground into his hand. Carefully, he pressed one gloved finger on his squishy tummy, feeling his torso move up and down slowly. The poor thing was breathing. Thank goodness, they were all okay. They were all very strong to survive this hell.

"We gotta get them to HQ."

Tails bit his lip. There was no room in his plane for all of these people. Maybe if two people squeezed into the passenger seat, and the others rode on the wings of the plane. But they had more unconscious people than they had able-body. "There's no room on the plane. Unless," He saw Amy trembling on her knees while looking at the ground. He saw the three unconscious ladies on the alley floor. He then glanced at Knuckles. "Knuckles, can you ride on one of the wings of the plane while carrying Cream?" He saw the echidna nod his head confidently. He then knelt down to Amy's side and tried to help her up, her stance being wobbly. "Amy, I know you're shaken up, but I need you to get it together." The fox said softly. That green prick must have made her seen something terrible. She looked like she was crying not too long ago. "Can you ride on the other wing?"

The pink haired girl nodded her head slowly while whimpering. Tails sighed and looked at the two women who were currently unaccounted for. "I'm gonna try to put them both in the passenger seat, and I'll take Cheese with me."

With their transportation plan in mind, the three conscious Mobians grabbed the bodies they were assigned to, and rushed back to the plane. Knuckles carried Cream on his back, hopping on the right wing of the plane. Amy climbed onto the left plane, holding down her dress daintily. Tails struggled while carrying Rouge's body to the passenger seat. He did the same with miss Vanilla's, gently placing her next to Rouge. It was a tight fit, but it was the only way. He would have asked Amy to carry one of them, but she was still too shaky. She wasn't in any condition to take care of anyone as of this moment. He had the little chao in his hand, diving into the pilot seat and putting him in his lap. He shut the roof and windows down of the aircraft, and started up the plane.

The propellors began turning, and the machine rumbled. Knuckles and Amy held on tightly, keeping their balance in place.

"This is freakin' awesome!" The hero cried with his hands up in the air. The show wrapped up, and it was just as grand as Zonic said it would be. The gun show was outstanding. The soldiers selected to perform had some heavy looking machine guns in their hands. First they did some kind of step routine, then they shot bullet in the air. They weren't ordinary bullets though. Small colored patches of smoke popped out of them, almost like smoke bomb versions of fireworks. They had formed an Eggman Nega icon with the bullets. Then they shot bullets that formed the word 'VICTORY'. Finally, they shot bullets in a formation that created a Sonic icon. The crowd really cheered for that.

Next came the ship show, their navy. The crowd was escorted to the coast. It was a bit chilly there, so Sonic was glad he bought himself and Shadow something to wear. It was a water show right onboard the ships. Because the sea was such a large and spacious area, they had plenty of room to make tricks. The audience had a great view from the coast to watch, and they were also given binoculars. Shadow and Sonic got the best seats, watching the ships from above in the helicopter. They had lights, pretty imagery and some nice music that matched the performance. It wasn't just on one ship either, it was like all of the ships were using some kind of cannon to shoot out that pretty water simultaneously.

Finally, the airshow. At first, Sonic thought they were just going to watch from the air like everyone else. How wrong he was. Instead, Zespio smirked and simply said this. "You're both part of the airshow." Both Sonic and Shadow blinked in shock once he said that, and before they knew it, they dashed into the air along with the fighter jets and biplanes. The helicopter wasn't any normal chopper, there were certain mechanics and systems on that thing that could make it move just as fast as a jet.

The attack chopper followed along with the other planes. Sonic was having the time of his life, while Shadow curiously looked out the window to see everyone down below, cheering and hopping. Doing barrel rolls, and other loops in the skies made another message in the clouds. 'FIRST EVER ANNIVERSARY'. And, 'THANK YOU NO ZONE SOLDIERS', then, 'THANK YOU SONIC PRIME'. Along the ride, all Sonic could do was laugh and smile with flattery and gratitude.

When the show was over, and when Zepsio landed the chopper right in front of the crowd, Sonic heard them cheer for him. They cheered his name, along with soldiers of No Zone, and Zonic himself. He had no idea when or how he got there with everyone else, but he showed up too. Confetti shot down on top of the aircraft, and soon on his body as he exited the helicopter. Shadow joined him, but mostly stood by against the chopper's side. This was his celebration, so he should enjoy the most of it for himself.

Sonic was no stranger to crowds of adoring fans cheering for him. With a genuine smile on his face, he held up his hand and waved. Other soldiers nearby stood up and saluted to him, before bowing. Zepsio did the same, a small grin on his face. Soon, everyone else halted their clapping, saluted, and bowed to the hero.

No matter how many times he was honored, respected or cheered for, he'd never get used to it. He'd never get used to the overwhelming love and compassion he felt for every single person out there who rooted for him. He could feel their appreciation, and kindness resonating from their hearts. They respected him just as much as Zonic. That, was something truly special, and it touched him.

He didn't even deserve all this praise. It was a little too much. For once, being cheered for was actually too much for him. As Shadow watched from afar, he smiled to himself. Looks like that arrogant hedgehog was too emotional for words this time. Served him right. But...

He was happy for him. He'd cheer for him too.

The show was over, and citizens were instructed to give Sonic some space and to continue having fun at the festival. Sonic dusted off the confetti that fell on him, having a permanent grin on his face. That made him so happy, he couldn't even contain it. While no one was looking, Shadow moved a little closer as they walked, and pecked the hedgehog on the cheek. Sonic felt himself blush a bit, playfully pushing the dark one away while giggling. Then, Shadow caught Sonic's hand and held it.

Oh God, he was still doing that. It's not like Sonic minded, it's just...It's a bit embarrassing in public.

What in the world?

Why was everything turning white all of a sudden?

Damn it, he couldn't see...!

"Ngh!" He tried covering his eyes, and heard Shadow call his name.

"Hey." Scourge greeted with a smile.

How the hell-? Where were they?

Everything was white. No floor, no walls, nothing. And why was this asshole here? Why couldn't he move?!

"Y-You..! Let me go!"

"I just wanna ask something, okay?" He was talking a little too calmly. Too nicely. Something was wrong. He held out his hand to Sonic, with a smile. It wasn't fake, either. Or evil looking. What was his game here? "I know you like Stripes an' all, 'cause he's a goody-goody like you. Well, what if I said I could change?" He suggested, shocking the blue hedgehog. "Would you love me then?"

"There's, no way you'd do that. Don't lie to me to try and trick me!" Sonic growled.

"I'm not lying. I'm asking you sincerely, would you love me if I was a good guy?"

Would he love him? Hell no, for way too many reasons he didn't feel like getting into. Sonic just made a sound of disgust and retorted curtly. "As if I'd ever love someone as screwed up as you. Maybe we could have been friends, but definitely not a relationship." His eyes then shifted left and right. "I don't know where we are, but just put us back in reality. I don't want you, and you'll never have me. Get that through your damn head."

The green one tilted his head. "Ah, I see." He chuckled lightly. "Hahaha."

At first, it was a harmless laugh, until his blue eyes began shrinking and widening.

"Ahahahahaha." His eyes were twitching.

Sonic wanted to leave. He didn't like this.

"AHAHAhahahAHAHahaa-"

"..?!"

"-Aah...Guess it really doesn't matter, huh? Even if I was a good guy, you'd still hate me." Scourge whispered. He then smirked with a wide grin. "Why would I think any differently? You'd love to see me dead, wouldn't you?"

"I didn't say that-"

"HAHAHAHA!" His voice wasn't even his own anymore.

Sonic watched helplessly as Scourge raised his own hand, the one that was previously held out to him, and shoved his palm into his own stomach. There was blood already falling out of his torso. Why in...W-Why- "H-Hey! Stop it!" He couldn't move, he couldn't stop him. The red blood, was turning black. That, shouldn't have been possible. Then, he ripped his hand out and dove it back inside of his chest this time. Right where his heart was. He was still smiling at him, and he was still laughing at him. He was still asking that question.

"Aaww," He whimpered in pain. "Y-You, really hate me that much? You wanna see me dead? 'Cause if you don't kill me this time, everyone's gonna die, ya know?" He snickered. "So, come on Blue, love me. Please? I'll turn over a new leaf and everything. All you have to do is love me! I'll even let Stripes join us if you want. We can share you, work out some kind of agreement. I just wanna see you smile because of me. Laugh because of me. Hate because of me. Kill because of me. Love for me! Do everything for me!"

"Just stop it, you're killing yourself!" Sonic cried.

"I want to love you, I wanna rape you. I wanna fuck you until your nose bleeds. I wanna hold you, squeeze you, strangle the fuckin' shit outta you! I want you to love, hate, kill and destroy everything all for me. I want you to learn. I want you to understand!"

Scourge's arm shifted in his chest, as he was ready to pull out that vital organ.

Sonic screamed to make him stop. "STOP IT!"

He ripped it out, and the beeping organ dissolved into black nothingness. Scourge, who was still grinning both painfully and manically, rolled his eyes backwards, fainting in front of Sonic in his own mess.

Too distraught to say anything else, Sonic watched as his body rotted right in front of him with lifeless eyes.

"Damn it, wake up!"

Sonic gasped with a start, his frightened eyes seeing Shadow in front of him. He tried catching his breath, feeling that his lungs were out of oxygen. The ebony hedgehog was gripping his shoulders, as it seemed as if he was previously shaking him to wake him up. The hero's eyes shook, like he saw a nightmare in real time. Shadow caught his sense of fear through his energy, and eased up his grip on his hoodie. He let him go, but held onto his hand.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked softly. Sonic gnawed at his lip and moved his eyes from his gaze.

"I.." He grimaced.

"Did you hear those voices again?"

"No, no I...I saw Scourge, Shadow."

"What? It must have been an illusion. What did he say?" His hold on his hand tightened painfully. "What did he do to you?"

"O-Ow! Ease off..!"

Realizing he was causing Sonic pain in his wrist, he took his hand off. "I'm sorry."

Sonic rubbed his wrist, sighing heavily before putting his hands back in his pockets. "He," He shifted his position around. How was he supposed to explain what he just saw? "We were both in some white space. He started asking me if I would give him a chance if he stopped being evil and turned good." He looked down at the ground as he talked. "Of course, I said hell no. Then he just went crazy and started hurting himself. He was killing himself. He kept saying these weird things about stuff he wanted to do to me. Then, he said he wanted me to 'understand.'"

"Understand what?"

"Heck if I know. It was all screwed up and, ugh.." Sonic looked away. "He's seriously messed up. I knew he was nuts, but not this bad. He was actually trying to kill himself in that illusion. He tore his heart out, literally. Right in front of me."

"That maniac's more obsessed with you than Rose, to a much more unhealthy extent." After he said that, he noticed Sonic's lack of response. He still looked down. "Just, try and ignore it. There's no way he's here. The commander wouldn't let that happen. You're probably still infected by his energy when he captured you." What he saw was probably a bit traumatizing. He knew he didn't have an easy life, and he knew he saw some really disturbing things in his life before. Perhaps not as much as Shadow, but he didn't know that for sure. There was still so much he didn't know about the hedgehog, and he hid things just as well as he did. Still, whatever he saw just now must have put him in a state of distress. Watching someone rip their heart out? That's fucked up in itself. "Hey." He nudged his arm.

"Huh?" The blue one looked up quickly.

"Why don't you take me to one of those 'arcade' abominations you people rave about?"

"...Heheheh," Sonic instantly cracked a smile. "You really are an old man." He took one of his hands out of his pockets and held out his palm for Shadow to take. "Come on, I wanna show you the claw machine." He said cheerfully. That was good, he was smiling again. He was still happy. He wanted to keep it that way.

Zonic leaned over the wide boardroom desk, settling his hands on the surface. Right below him was one of his female hackers. This particular boardroom was home to No Zone HQ's team of hackers who handled crimes occurring on the web. Some of them were monitoring the traffic lights of the festival on the closed off streets. Others were watching from the skies of drones or helicopters. Some were even watching from the helmets of local soldiers. Fortunately, no one saw anything out of the ordinary. However, selected few of the team were assigned to look over the encryptions on the Mobius Prime monitors. The warden had recently sent them all a file with the encryptions to try and figure out a way to unlock it.

In fact, that's what the female raccoon below him was trying to figure out. The commander leaned just a tad bit closer to see her laptop screen. He knew her well enough to be this close, so he figured she wouldn't mind if he took a little peek at what she was doing. "Any luck?" He asked. The young woman flinched at his voice being so close to her ear. She cleared her throat and adjusted her headphones while pushing her glasses up.

"A-Actually yes, sir. We managed to figure out most of this code. There's just one piece we're missing, one piece we don't understand."

"Elaborate." He ordered.

"We found the key to unlocking approximately ninety percent of the encryption, but there's one last line of code that's locked with something else." She glanced away from the computer screen to face her boss. "It's something I've never seen before. It's almost alien-like, something out of this world."

"Would you require the assistance of those from other realities?"

"I don't think even they can help, sir. I've already done some research and contacted other leaders from other realities under the warden's permission, and I still didn't find anything."

Someone poked their head up from a computer screen, a male grey cat. He was holding his hand up respectfully to gain Zonic's attention. "Permission to speak, commander."

"Permission granted."

"This has to be a new form of code, sir. Like she said, this looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. No one knows what in the world this is." He scowled. "We're this close to unlocking it, but we can't figure this last piece out." His frustration caused Zonic to squint his eyes. An alien-like code that no one could understand? He had something in mind, but he had to see it for himself to be sure. He looked down at the raccoon below him, and slowly placed his hands on the keyboard while eyeing her.

"May I?"

She nodded quickly while getting up out of her chair and wobbling over to the side. Zonic slipped into her seat and took the wireless mouse in his palm. He highlighted that single line of mysterious code, eyeing it's strange digits and letters carefully. Then, he held up his wrist. The very wrist with the control gauntlet strapped to it. It flickered and blinked a few times. Zonic raised a brow, it wasn't supposed to do that. He then held up his wrist to the computer screen, right in front of the codes. The flickering became more erratic, gaining everyone in the boardroom's attention. The raccoon blinked, pulling her glasses off from her face. The grey cat walked from around the long table along with a few others, now watching behind the commander's back what was happening.

The flickering gauntlet was turning red, and it was burning his hand. Zonic quickly unstrapped the device off of his arm and continued to hold it up to the screen with his fingers. Suddenly, the code began turning red. Soon, the control gauntlet made a few beeps. Zonic's eyes widened, he knew that was a bad sign. He dropped the device and jumped from out of his chair. He held his arm out and yelled for others to get back and move away from the computer. The hackers and scientists did as they were told by his orders. Then, they watched as the control gauntlet exploded right in front of the computer. They gasped in shock, while Zonic scoffed. Smoke drifted into the room, and the computer monitor sparked with a strange red electricity.

"Just as I thought, chaos energy." He stated. "No wonder none of you could understand them. None one possesses the ability to read chaotic code. It is a new form of hacking, developed by our favorite outlaw." He held his hand on his chin, and then bit the inside of his cheek. Shit, how were they supposed to fix this now? Not even Sonic nor Shadow could understand chaotic code either. No, this was his own fault. He should know what that means!

That was the language of them, of the divine ones.

He was supposed to study that by order of the past Overseers. It was his duty to know the divine tongue, but he let himself get procrastinated with work and other matters. Damn it...

Someone burst through the doors, lightly panting while holding their knees. Zonic recognized who that was immediately. "Colonel Zespio?"

The second he addressed him, the chameleon began to shout uncontrollably. It was quite unlike him, and very disruptive. "Commander! This is important! They finally found them all, but something's wrong with them! You have to come with me to the-"

"Silence!" Zonic barked, startling everyone in the room. "You are rambling and shouting nonsense. About face!"

Zespio sucked in a deep breath and obediently turned around without a word.

"Attention!" He glared at the others, letting them know he meant them as well. They all scurried to Zespio's position, doing as he did. They held up their hands up to their temples, saluting with their backs turned. "About face." He ordered again. They all swiftly turned around in sync, with straightened postures. Zespio looked as if he was waiting to be given permission to speak. Zonic noticed this and crossed his arms. "At ease colonel." He saw Zespio relax his arms at his sides. "Normally I'd never chastise you like that, but you must have forgotten the rules around here. This boardroom is restricted to everyone, even to people of your rank. Unless given permission by myself, or the warden personally, you are not to just barge into a top secret area. Especially not while yelling random nonsense. These people need to concentrate, and I can't have you jeopardizing that." After he let a few minutes of silence pass, Zonic closed his eyes with a silent sigh. Zespio was practically begging him for permission to speak with his yellow eyes. What needed to say was crucial, he could tell. "Permission to speak freely, granted."

"Thank you, sir." Zespio bowed with a much more calmer voice. "My apologies for entering like that, but you are urgently needed down in the interrogation hall. Though I wasn't given permission, I needed to get you immediately."

"You could have easily contacted me via transmitter."

"That's the thing, lieutenant general, none of them are working down in the prison."

Zonic unfolded his arms and opened his eyes. "What?"

"Colonel Zector is working with some engineers to figure out the problem. Please, come with me to the interrogation hall. There's, something we need you to see."

The hedgehog didn't understand what that meant. He wanted to bash his head through the wall.

What was wrong this time?

As the Tornado flew across the skies, Tails solemnly looked below at the streets. He couldn't bare to watch anyone else stab or shoot someone, so he adverted his eyes the second he even considered looking down. He shook his head to void his mind of any negative thoughts, and tried to keep himself headstrong. He glanced over his shoulder to see Knuckles securely holding Cream, and Amy holding onto the wing while covering her face with her arm. She was probably crying. He then glanced at the passengers seats, seeing the two older women passed out. He clenched his eyes shut and turned back around. This was getting harder and harder. How did Sonic do this all the time? How did he stand holding in so much pressure?

He wanted his big brother to come back, to make everything right again. He wanted him to make all of this go away already. If this went on any further, he was going to break. But, he couldn't do that. Sonic would be disappointed. All he had to do was get everybody back to GUN HQ and try to get the network back online. As he flew passed buildings, he realized there were broken pieces of radios on the roofs. Rouge and Amy did good work. And hey, Scourge may have been a hacker, but he couldn't have been better than him.

They still had a chance, he just needed to look on the bright side. Everything would work out like always-

"What the..!?" Something just violently shook the plane.

He heard the echidna make some disgruntled noises and shouted to him. "Tails, what the hell!?"

The fox whipped his head from behind, and saw smoke shooting from the wing Amy was riding on. She was so frightened, she couldn't even scream, but her expression was horrified. The entire aircraft was shaking, and Tails was starting to lose control. He desperately grabbed the control sticks and tried to lift them up, but they were falling down. He scowled. He just fixed this damn thing, why did it have to malfunction now!? Someone had to have shot them, but who? With what weapon to do that much damage? He looked at his dashboard, pushing some commands to open a screen beside his controls. It was a scanner, with a map of the entire city. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary. His plane could detect weapons or upcoming enemies, but the scanner wasn't showing anything. Sirens began blaring inside of the plane. Tails' ears flattened, it was loud but that meant this thing was going to crash for sure!

"Tails!" He heard Knuckles holler his name again.

"Ahh!" Amy screamed, holding onto the wing by her fingers. She was slipping off, and Knuckles couldn't get to her without falling off himself, or dropping Cream. "Help!" She cried. "Tails, please!"

Damn it! There was no way he could land this thing safely! There was nothing but buildings, towers and apartments around! If he even attempted at landing on a street, he'd destroy dozens of blocks and end up killing everyone on board, including himself. His eyes darted around on his dashboard, desperate to find a way to get himself out of this mess. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Knuckles grit his teeth and climb forward on the Tornado. Trying to keep his balance from the shoving winds, he managed to jump and land on top of Tails' pilot window. While still holding onto Cream with one arm, he slammed his fists into the glass. "Tails, what the hell happened!?"

"I-I don't know! Something rammed into the right wing, I can't get control!"

"If you don't do something quick, we're all going to die!"

"I know that!"

With a grunt, the echidna demanded the kitsune to open the window. "Open up!"

Tails did as he was told with a skeptical expression, feeling the harsh air blow onto his face with the smell of smoke filling his nose. Knuckles suddenly tossed the bunny inside along with him, landing on top of him. With a yelp, Tails fell back in his seat with Cream sprawled in his lap. Knuckles forcefully grabbed the window and slammed it back down. He climbed over it and made his way back to the end of the plane, holding on for dear life. He climbed his way back to the now amber looking wing, seeing Amy cry out for help as she was about to slip off. He got on the wing, coughing as smoke pushed itself into his lungs. His eyes began to water, and he hacked even more. He reached his hand down to her, the heat of the growing fire of the damaged Tornado making him sweat.

"Grab my hand!"

The pink hedgehog whimpered, desperately holding her hand up to reach him. Her fingers were hurting and they were starting to bruise, she couldn't hang on. She was falling off, and she could feel her own weight pull her down. Her tears were blowing away from the winds, her face sniffling while pleading for Knuckles to get closer. "K-Knuckles..!"

Tails' blue eyes widened in fear. They were getting closer to the ground.

In just a few seconds they would die.

Just as he prepared himself for a fiery and painful impact, he felt something pushing them all back. Like an elevator stop, or those stomach dropping amusement park rides. He felt his own breath stop for a mere second, as something stopped the entire plane. It was like, time stopped them all in midair. Perplexed and very scared, Tails reached his hand up to his face to hold up his goggles. Then, he saw nothing but...Blue. A light, cyan blue. That looked like chaos energy almost. Tails' mouth dropped. He was here! He came back! He gently took Cream off of his body, and moved to pull himself out of the pilot seat. As his heart jumped for joy, he looked out across the aircraft-

-Only to see no one was there. No one, except a confused Knuckles, and a trembling Amy who was holding onto him. They both were looking around, wondering why they stopped. They weren't even on the ground, they literally stopped right before they landed. In fact, the smoke that was coming out of the plane stopped moving. It stopped flowing in the air. The fire that was growing even stopped flickering. The hell was going on? Tails frowned and looked below them. It was like they were trapped in one big bubble. Well, they were at a safe distance from the ground to jump down and get out of here. "Knuckles?" He called.

"Yeah?"

"Help me get everyone down. I don't think this force field is gonna stay up for long."

"That's what this is?"

"I dunno, that's what it looks like to me. Kinda looks like chaos energy."

"Yeah, something Sonic or Shadow would do." The red echidna huffed and lifted Amy up on his back, with her yelping. He jumped down, phasing right through the force field, and put her down. He jumped back up on the plane, phasing right back in to go and help Tails. Amy, though still shaken up, raised a brow. That didn't seem right. What was this? One by one, Knuckles carried the two women off of the Tornado, and running away from the area by a few yards. "Come on, Amy!" Hearing him yell her name made her blink and run after him to follow. She looked back while sprinting, watching Tails carry Cream out of the plane and jump down. He carried her in her arms, panting as he ran the same way they did.

Wait a minute, why were they running away? "Why are we running?" She shouted to Tails.

"I've seen Sonic use that kind of power before when he turns super. It stops time of any object the user chooses, but it doesn't work for that long! It's gonna crash and blow up, so just run!" He warned loudly.

"Oh crap." Amy muttered to herself.

The force field began to fade away, and the three conscious Mobians were only inches away from an upcoming disaster. Tails bit his lip and whirled his namesakes behind himself to push himself to go faster. The Tornado began falling, and the smoke began to flow into the air. Soon, it fell down onto the streets, knocking into nearby buildings with it's large size. The fire began to grow bigger, and caused the mechanical bird to spark. With the eerie cry of a dying machine, it exploded, with both the sound and radius of the explosion resonating far and wide. The impact blew Tails off of his feet, knocking into Amy and falling down while rolling on the concrete. He kept his arms around Cream as he rolled, making it so that he took the brunt of damage from landing. Amy cried out as she was knocked into, falling down on her side harshly. Knuckles lost his balance a bit, but wasn't nearly as hurt as the others.

With a curse, he put down Vanilla and Rouge and ran to the younger ones. He helped Amy up first, who quickly thanked him while dusting herself off. Knuckles then ran to Tails and Cream, trying to make the fox sit up. Thankfully, he didn't get knocked out, and sat up quickly. He looked down below him and checked on Cream. He made a gasp of relief when he saw her chest move up and down. The echidna just blew out a stressful sigh of air, putting a hand on the kid's shoulder. They were all okay. "If you died on my watch, that hedgehog would have given me hell."

With watering eyes, Tails only laughed. "Y-Yeah."

Suddenly, both Knuckles and Tails saw a flash of cyan blue light behind them. They looked over, around the same spot Knuckles ran to before the explosion. Amy was over there, and she looked really happy.

"O-Oh my," They heard a voice mumble. "What in the world?" It was soft and gentle. Tails stood up, holding Cream in his arms while smiling. He gestured for Knuckles to follow him, and moved his now sore legs to the pink hedgehog's side. Miss Vanilla was awake.

The middle aged bunny coughed while rubbing her eyes, and then her forehead. She saw old, browning blood on her fingers tips. She grimaced, and looked up to see Amy crying tears of joy. The woman began to smile, even as the girl's tears fell on her face. Amy grabbed her hand and slowly pulled her up on her feet. Vanilla gave her a hug, petting her head as she hugged the adult Mobian bunny tightly.

"Thank goodness you're okay, Amy. Cream and I were so-" She immediately let go of her. "Cream!" She cried, whipping her head back and forth.

"No worries miss Vanilla, she's right here." Tails reassured happily. He walked over to her, showing her that her daughter was safe and sound in his embrace. She held her hands to her chest and sucked in a breath of relief. Thank goodness, she was okay. Tails then made some sounds of discomfort, and squeaked as a little chao flew out from the depths of his namesakes. That little thing was hiding there the whole time? He made little cheers 'Chao! Chao!', and flew to his best friend's mother. He hugged Vanilla's cheek, and she giggled at his return.

"Rouge?" They heard Knuckles call. "Come on bat girl, wake up!" He said roughly as he shook her shoulders. The white bat in question made a few grumbles, before fluttering her eyes open and looking around her.

Everyone peered over her in worry, and she stared at them.

With now squinted eyes, she face palmed her self, and then hissed from a faint migraine.

"How the hell do I get myself in these situations..?" She murmured.

END - 21

Yes, the Tornado has been destroyed once again.

No bonuses today, but I hope you enjoyed regardless.

Please review, I always read every single one. They mean a lot.

Thank you. Happy Holidays, everyone.