Chapter 7: Rescue

Tangle was enjoying a nice, if not cold, nap in her cage. She didn't really have anything to worry about, what she said to Eggman the other day got him worried, so he has been too busy preparing for an incoming attack to really do anything to her.

'All according to plan…' Tangle thought.

"So what's the guy's name anyways?" Eggman asked.

"Sorry, not telling." Tangle responded. "It's someone you know though."

"Hmph, fine, be that way."

And with that, Eggman continued his preparations.

A couple of hours later though, he began to see a crowd form on a nearby hill.

"Ah, so he found his way to them I suppose." Eggman said. "This oughta be fun!"

"If you consider getting your butt kicked fun, then sure." Tangle remarked.

Eggman just grumbled at this as he pushed a button.

"So, this is the place?" Miles asked. "Bit bigger than I thought."

"Yeah, this has always been his main fortress. He has a lot of smaller ones, but this is the big one." Sonic said.

"Well then, guess I gotta go slightly bigger then…" Miles said.

"And that means…?" Sonic asked.

"You'll see in a bit." Miles said.

"Hello Freedom Fighters!" They suddenly heard Eggman's voice say.

A large hologram then suddenly appeared, revealing the doctor himself.

"I see you are here to pick up my guest. I am sorry to say that our time together isn't over yet, so I am going to have to ask you to leave." Eggman said. "That being said though, she mentioned that her husband would be among you. May I have a word with him?"

Miles then stepped forward.

"Sup Baldy Mc. Nose-hair." He said, earning a laugh from Sonic.

"I gotta write that one down." Sonic said.

"Hello fox boy, get out of the way, the big boys are talking." Eggman said.

"… You haven't noticed, have you?" Miles asked.

"Haven't noticed wha-… wait a minute…" Eggman said as he began to realize that Miles was not the fox he knew.

"Oh ho… oh ho ho! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Eggman started to laugh hysterically. "You're kidding right?! YOU are the one that this girl told me about? The one that would 'Completely destroy my army?'"

"Yeah, pretty much." Miles heard Tangle say. "Hey honey."

"Hey Tangle, don't worry, Skye's ok!" Miles said. "The younger me is taking care of him."

"That's good! Now get me out of here so we can go home!" Tangle said.

"Sure, just give me a minute." Miles said.

"Seriously, what can YOU do?!" Eggman said with a laugh.

"Well, normally, I wouldn't be able to do this, it would tire me out way too much…" Miles said.

Then, an unfamiliar sound to the Freedom Fighters rang out.

"But… I don't normally have a Chaos Emerald to help me." He finished.

Everyone could only look in awe at what he had seemingly created, and they immediately knew that, without any shadow of a doubt, he didn't need them, at all.

Earlier that day

An explosion rang out as Miles was barely able to dodge a sphere of chaos energy.

"Geez, you really are a tough one, aren't you?!" Miles asked.

"I have complete control over this Zone young fox. While I am grateful for you granting me this power, I am not going to hold back." Feist said as he sent energy towards Miles. "Just be thankful that I am allowing you to use that Chaos Emerald you brought."

"Yeah, I wasn't really planning on using this, but I guess I might need it here." Miles said.

"Oh? So you have a plan?" Feist asked. "I am curious, show me just what you have in store for me."

"You sure? This is going to hurt." Miles said.

"Try me."

"Alright, you asked for it." Miles said as he went to work.

The sound of his Phantom Ruby powers rang out throughout the zone as he began to materialize his ultimate weapon.

"WH-WHAT IS THAT?!" Feist asked in surprise.

"Feist, say hello to…"

"THE ECLIPSE CANNON?!" Sonic practically screamed.

"Not as powerful as the real one, but it should get the job done." Miles explained.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?! THAT'S AMAZING!" Sonic asked.

"You guys ever deal with a Phantom Ruby?" Miles asked.

"Nope."

"Well then… I'll explain later in that case." Miles said. "Now, what should I blow up?"

"That tower over there is generating a shield over the entire base, that should be a suitable target." Shadow pointed out.

"Alright, everyone stand back." Miles said as the cannon began to charge up power.

Eggman then looked back at Tangle.

"Hey, I warned you!"

Eggman could only look in horror as the cannon fired, completely decimating one of his towers.

As for the Freedom Fighters, they watched in amazement at the damage the cannon was able to do.

"So uh… will our Tails be able to do that?" Sonic asked.

"Probably not."

"Oh well, he's already plenty cool anyways." Sonic said.

"Glad you think that way. Now, let's get to work." Miles said as he began to charge.

"You heard the man! Charge!" Sally called out as everyone began to follow the fox.

"Grrr, ALL ROBOTS! DESTROY THEM!" Eggman shouted as thousands of robots charged towards the Freedom Fighters

"Wow, for someone who wasn't worried, you sure are sending a lot of robots after him." Tangle said with a laugh.

"After seeing that, I can't afford to spare a single robot in destroying him." Eggman said.

"So they are ALL going out there?" Tangle asked.

"Yes, every single one of them." Eggman responded.

"Well then, I guess it's time for me to go!" Tangle said.

"Oh please, like you could get out of the-GRRK." Eggman said before getting interrupted by Tangle's tail, knocking him out cold.

"I'm letting you off REALLY easy… but that was for the other you trying to take Skye!" Tangle said with a laugh, before grabbing Eggman's keys. "I'll be taking these!"

After unlocking her cage, she then made her way to the computer.

"Let's see here now… oooh, a prison block? I guess I can set all of his prisoners free before I leave." Tangle said with a smirk. "Later Eggy! Thanks for the hotel room! But the bed and breakfast was terrible!"

And with that, she began to leave.

"So, we just gotta keep fighting until Espio tells us that he got the data, right?" Miles asked.

"Yeah, but shouldn't you go and rescue Tangle in the meantime?" Sally asked.

"Nah, she's probably out by now and making her way over here… either that or she got sidetracked and is probably doing something else." Miles explained.

"If you say so." Sally said.

Miles then proceeded to effortlessly destroy a whole crowd or robots with a wave of cannon fire.

"All of this from one Chaos Emerald… I wonder what you would be able to do with all seven." Sonic said.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't had access to the Emeralds in over fifteen years." Miles said.

"Right, gotcha." Sonic said.

"Anyways, stay focused." Miles said. "Here comes another wave."

"Right!" Sonic said as the two of them charged into battle.

"Get moving! All the robots are to the north side, so go this way to avoid them." Tangle said as she released the last of the prisoners.

"Thank you so much miss!" Said a young dog as the group began to leave.

"Phew, alright, that's a job well done… now, time to meet up with Tails and get out of here!" Tangle said as she began to leave.

"And what do you think you're doing?" Asked a new voice.

Tangle looked in their direction to see something unexpected.

Metal Sonic.

"Oh, hey Metal! Guess Eggman gave you a voice here huh?" Tangle greeted.

"A recent addition, yes. Now, answer my question." Metal Sonic threatened.

"Oh, just making my way out of here." Tangle said. "My husband just came to pick me up in case you didn't notice."

"As if I would allow that." Metal Sonic said as it began to charge.

"Shoulda figured it wouldn't be this easy." Tangle said as she got ready to fight.

"Alright, Espio just gave me word that he finished his job!" Sally called over to Miles. "Let's find Tangle and get out!"

"Gotcha!" Miles said as he destroyed another group of robots.

Then, a nearby door suddenly flew off it's hinges and crashed into a nearby robot.

"Found her!" Miles said enthusiastically.

"Hey Tails! Miss me?" Tangle said as she chucked a damaged Metal Sonic to the side.

"You have no idea." Miles said as he pulled her into a hug.

After a moment hugging… and a quick kiss which earned a "BLECH" from Sonic, the two turned towards the group.

"Tangle, meet the Freedom Fighters." Miles introduced. "Freedom Fighters, Tangle."

"Hello, so nice to finally meet you. My name is Sally." Sally said as she extended her hand.

"Tangle Prower, also known as Tangle the Lemur." Tangle said as she took Sally's hand with her tail.

"I guess Skye really did get that from you." Sally said. "He's quite strong for someone his size."

"Yeah, but he could still use some work on his aim." Tangle said. "We've been working on it though."

"I'm sure." Sally said. "Well, we did all we had to, so let's move out."

"Right." Miles said. "Oh right, we gotta figure out a way for the younger me to not see you…"

"And that is a problem because?" Tangle asked.

"Don't want to possibly change history in this timeline." Miles said. "You did figure out that it was a different timeline, right?"

"Yeah, the different robots, the bigger base, and the fact that Eggman didn't know me gave it all away." Tangle said.

"Alright good, less explaining to do then." Miles said. "We can come up with a plan on the way, let's get going."

"Right."

"So, how did you let them catch you?" Miles asked. "You are way too tough for that."

"Dude, there were hundreds of them, and they are a lot tougher than the bots we are used to in case you haven't noticed." Tangle said.

"Alright, fair enough." Miles said.

But then, Tangle heard something. The sound of an engine.

She then looked back and saw the source.

"TAILS LOOK OUT!"

Miles could only turn around as he saw Tangle jump in front of him. She was then suddenly forced into him, with her tail pushing him back a little bit.

When he gathered his bearings, he saw just what had her so worried.

A bloody claw, piercing right through her side.

Metal Sonic's claw.

"TANGLE!"

End of Chapter 7

Don't worry, I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow, can't be leaving you with a cliffhanger like that for a week or two.

Something I wish to amend real quick. At the end of the last chapter, I mentioned that Skye's whole wrapping his tails around his body thing would probably be a thing he picked up from Tangle doing it… turns out that Foxes actually do that themselves! So uh… yeah. Oops. Thanks to Capnbooth4 for informing me of this mistake.

At first, the Eclipse Cannon was gonna just be a plain old giant cannon, but I thought "Hey! Go big or go home!" Truth be told though, when I came up with the idea of the giant cannon, I realized something… I made Tails stupid OP in this. So, instead of super nerfing him, I decided to just give it a limitation, and he gets tired if he overdoes it. And so, here we are. I mean, hey, Archie Sonic is even more OP with the emeralds, isn't he?

See you all next time for the finale: Chapter 8: Return.