1.
The somber mood endured for the next few hours as the Blue Cyclone carried out its thankless job of flying them out of the Twilight Cage.
Amy perched herself at the foot of Tails' cot. She peered into his slumbering face, exhaustion thorough on hers. At the head of his mattress sat an oxygen concentrator; the mask attached to his muzzle rose and fell with the steady rhythm of his chest.
She placed a hand on his head, gingerly brushing his fur between her fingers.
Get some rest, little brother. You need it.
She wanted to talk, to make sure things would be okay. Words failed her every time Sonic turned, though, so she sat until he would be ready. Every once in a while something broke her reverie, some glimpse of activity she hoped might provide her an opportunity to speak. Usually it was just Cream, who wandered in and out of the room to update this bit of info on the computer or fix that corner of the pillow that refused to stay pert.
Sonic paced aimless lines in front of them, waiting for a break in Tails' condition. The grit from the cathedral clung to the bottom of his soles and scraped the floor each time he turned.
Amy waited, wondering if she should say anything. After a while, she decided she couldn't take it anymore; she said his name, making him stop. "Sonic?"
Unfortunately, this small bit of courage was rendered moot when the door slid open.
"I'm tellin' ya, I don't need stitches!"
"Keep walking, soldier."
Grumbling abounded as Rouge prodded Knuckles in the back with two fingers, boredly, to multiply the echidna's frustration. Cream followed them, swinging a small metal box like a lunch pail at her side. Cheese floated in last, carrying a pile of rumpled linens.
"Let me help you with that, Cheese. Those are finicky." Amy took the Chao and settled him in her lap, gathering the cloth to be folded.
Cream wheeled out a portable ladder from a fold-in closet and climbed up to open a cabinet, trailing her finger along a rack stocked with bottles. She selected one, dropped down and placed it on a desk beside the metal kit.
Knuckles plopped onto a stool in the corner while she put her things away, muttering irate comments to himself.
Ever helpful, Rouge squeezed his shoulder. "Comfy?"
"Hmph." He sniffed. "I don't get this. I get roughed up all the time and no one ever needs to poke anything through my— What are you doing with that?" he asked, eyes going wide upon catching a flash of steel while the rabbit dug through provisions. "Cream, that's a heck of a lot bigger than a mosquito bite!" Sonic coughed into his fist. "Yeah, and what're you laughing at?"
It soon became clear that Cream had asked Rouge to keep Knuckles company for good reason: someone had to anchor a nonchalant hand to his shoulder and keep him from bailing out at the sight of her preparing an alcohol swab.
Cream hesitated. "This will sting a tiny bit. Maybe if you looked the other way and sang your favorite song? That's what Mama always tells me to do when I have to get shots."
"Right, let me just belt one ou—ow!" Cream yelped apologies as he clamped a hand over his arm, nearly spilling the alcohol. "Be careful with that!"
Rouge shrugged at the others during his rant-filled procedure. "Scared of needles. Figures." Her gaze settled upon Tails. "Kid got hit pretty hard, didn't he?" Silence. "He'll be okay."
Sonic smoothed down his top quill. "Thanks, Rouge."
The closing of the cut on his arm passed more quickly than they anticipated, for by the time they looked back Cream was already bundling up the kit and heading for the other room.
Rouge smirked. "You're free to go, you big baby."
Knuckles wound up his good bicep, his temper renewed as he glared at her. "Who you callin' a baby?"
"You." She gave him a light bump with her hip. "G'wan and play. Let these kids have some peace and quiet for once."
"Alright, fine. Just quit shoving me around!"
"Hon, no one likes it when I start shoving. Now make like a good boy and maybe she'll make me burp you later."
"Rouge!"
The door closed once more, their endless banter fading behind its heavy material. Sonic turned back toward Amy. "Did you, uh… say something?"
"Ah—" She folded the last linen for Cheese while he patted down a crease on a pile beside them, concentrating on the task at hand. "Yeah. I heard someone coming and wanted to know who." Heat surged through her cheeks, and she berated herself for bucking her fleeting nerve. If this were any other time, you'd be talking his ear off.
"Oh," Sonic said. "In case we had to practice our emergency parachute drills?"
"Oh, ha, ha. You'd probably jump out the window if you saw Shadow walk in here instead of Knuckles, wouldn't you?"
"Watch him get jabbed with a needle and laugh? You bet I'm splittin'. Gee-ronimo!"
She was too tired to laugh, but they did at least share muted smiles before returning to the pretense.
Beyond the door, Amy heard Cream, her high voice reminding Shadow to keep drinking liquids and Knuckles not to pick at the stitches, taking inventory of scrapes that would need to be cleaned and bandaged.
How long had she been at this, tirelessly taking care of everyone else? A medic's work was never done, Cream once declared, and she was glad she took this duty seriously enough. For as much as they got knocked down and dragged out, they needed that exact sort of dedication.
But between Cream's selfless dedication and Sonic's uncharacteristic quiet, she was starting to worry about the fervor with which the girl tried to keep busy and sew up the crew's constantly unraveling seams. Sonic agreed, too, in so many words. She posed the question the minute Cream showed behind the door once more.
"Cream, you've been running yourself ragged. Why don't you take a break?"
"Oh, no! We're fine. Aren't we, Cheese?" Nodding vigorously, her Chao companion fluttered to her side. "Pardon me for interrupting, but it's time to move Mr. Tails so the computer can record his vitals again. Would you like to get something to eat in the meantime?"
Sonic looked over his shoulder before turning again, his voice soft. "You go on ahead. I gotta watch my girlish figure."
"You sure?" Amy asked. "You really should try to keep up your strength… " She didn't dare say, After you were almost beaten to a pulp.
"It's okay, Ames. Think I'll stay here for a while. I'm not real hungry, anyway."
Yikes. She nibbled a corner of her thumb. Usually he couldn't wait for dinner.
She stood, bundling the linens around her arms. Well, no matter if these two ran themselves into the ground; they needed nourishment and that they'd get, even if it meant she'd have to spoon-feed it to them. She tried a more pleasant tone than the one in her head, however. "How about a treat? You guys want some hot cocoa?"
Cream and Cheese brightened at the mention of cocoa. "Yes, please! With extra marshmallows, if you would!"
"Coming right up!" Before leaving, she silently caught Cream's attention and mouthed the words Watch him please, pointing at his back. The rabbit seemed confused at first, but nodded soon enough.
"Er… how about we brighten this room up a bit? It's grown awfully dim in here." When she clapped her hands, a soft glow from overhead sconces filled the room. Past the Blue Cyclone's cockpit and before you hit the bunk beds was a small space where a first-aid station resided, and the mild light made things easier to see. "Ah, there we are! Much better."
Shoved against the wall were two cabinets which were piled with medicine. A desk sat between them, with a diagnostic computer currently slumbering in hibernation mode.
Some of the handier features that Tails had the foresight to install were collapsible cots. Because they would see various stains over the course of their travels, they could also be cleansed via hydraulic sterilization if hooked back into the wall. Sonic didn't completely understand how the process worked—when did he ever?—but he could hear the air-spray tubes hum as Cream input the wall-mounted code to bring one down.
The tubes withdrew and a fresh cot emerged from the wall about a foot off the floor, fitting into place with a small click. To him the mattress smelled just like newly laundered clothes. He was sorely tempted to fling himself onto it, especially after weeks of rolling around in dust and sweat. Just curl up next to his buddy and snooze like a rock, sleep off this whole thing, wake up with fur stuck to his cheek, and Tails would be laughing at him like always…
Her work done, Cream began smoothing out the bed.
"I got 'im," Sonic said, scooping up Tails and tucking him inside the new bed, taking care not to pull on any wires. "In ya go, bud. Nice and snug."
His smile faded a bit as he pulled the blanket around his shoulders.
Wish you could hear us, buddy…
Cream unraveled a coil of plastic tubing and attached one end to Tails' concentrator. An empty tuber embedded within its center bore a bead. She slowly turned the knob until the bead jumped up toward an appropriate marking. Then Cheese carried over the laptop, which she connected to the concentrator with another cable.
"The computer says this'll help him breathe until I find the right medicine," she explained, eyes widening as she remembered something. "Oh! But I forgot, the oxygen treatments are in the refrigerator. Would you please go get a fresh one?"
"No problem." One small issue nagged him.
The door was stuck.
The Blue Cyclone might have originally belonged to Eggman, but it was Tails who had made the vessel more habitable. Among the myriad things he and the doc had accomplished in their engineering spree, he'd updated its automated systems, ensuring the ship would be able to take care of itself based on the code he wrote—and for the most part it had been, a fact of which the young kit had been appropriately proud.
Not that he doubted his little bro's capabilities: heaven knew they'd pushed him through more than one close scrape. But Tails sometimes overlooked small details that would have been obvious to lesser minds; something as mundane as a jammed door would have likely slipped his mind during his rush to get this thing spaceborne.
Sonic decided a cruder approach would better suit the task, and punted his shoulder against the door, to little avail.
"Mr. Sonic!" Cream tapped frantically on the keyboard. "Something's wrong with the—oh!"
A massive groan rent the air; the ship tilted at a sharp angle and she tumbled over, prompting him to catch her before she could hit the wall along with the computer.
"You okay?"
His ears pricked, seeking the source of the quakes that trembled through the floor. Seconds later, sirens ripped through the air, bathing the room in red light. Just beyond the door they heard a high-pitched cry and a shattering of porcelain as another rumble convulsed through the ship.
Sonic beat his palms against the door. "Amy, everybody all right? What's going on out there?"
"I don't know—something must have pushed us through! It's—"
The ship turned on itself. Shutters meant to protect port windows from outside damage turned their own deadbolts, while the emergency exits at both sides of the cockpit locked of their own accord. Through the chaos in the other room he heard Knuckles yell Jeez! and Shade, her voice faint but startled from her meditation at the other end of the hull: What's happening?
Sonic's ears picked up a shuddering hiss. He whirled around.
Tails!
He yanked him away from the cot and cradled him close as it folded back inside the wall, wincing at a few cables that snapped off just before the hatch sealed completely.
Cream stared in bewilderment, clutching a severed tube that hissed out air. Even the damaged laptop flickered once before burning out its pixels to a blank screen.
Silence reigned, followed by a resonant voice that cut through it like a knife.
"Why, helloooo there, my fine technicolor friends!"
Eggman.
"What a pleasant surprise! Did you all enjoy your space vacation?" Here he chuckled: "I must say you're looking positively swell with those nasty scrapes and bruises, aren't you? Did those mean old Marauders kick sand in your faces?"
Cream whispered, "Why is he so loud?"
"Didn't come with a mute button."
Yeah, he thought. If only it were that simple.
Knuckles demanded: "What did you do?"
"Ah-ah! A genius never conquers and tells." Apparently someone had rushed for the controls and jostled them, deepening his laugh. "Nor does he disable the onboard defense systems he built with the intent to trap his dearest teammates inside! Perish the thought."
Multiple voices roared over this, ranging from Knuckles' indignation to Omega's threats of destruction and Shadow's bitter condemnation.
Among them, Shade decided to speak. "Let it be known," she said, a hint of ice chilling her voice, "that only a coward rescinds his word."
"Ouch! Be still, my wounded heart," Eggman said. "First of all, 'princess of traitors,' I made no such promise you all keep flapping your gums about. Second, a word to the wise? Don't butt into my business before you start lecturing me on what's cowardly."
Sonic froze. The words Eggman used—there was no possible way he could have known about the rumor that had spread throughout the Twilight Cage, that Shade hadn't just deserted Ix but absconded her clan gladly. Despite the black-hole sized gaps in logic that would have entailed, the denizens were all too happy to believe she'd served as an informant against him, having defected to their side.
He recalled the mocking way the cathedral's prefect, Scylla, had laughed when he'd called her the name she hated most, "princess of traitors." The name set a muscle in her jaw rock-hard each time she heard it repeated. He'd heard it again over the comm link before Shade called the shrieking Gizoid a madman.
Scylla laughed harder.
There was a crash, a shattering of the signal. Bits and pieces of chaos screamed through the microphone. A fight so heinous even Tails couldn't discern its outcome ensued until a grainy silence sounded: Knuckles wearily telling Shade, "Don't do that again."
He looked down at Tails in his lap. Pale and still.
(forget your ego Sonic)
(I betrayed Lord Ix)
(he'll drag you under if you aren't careful)
"You've got one heck of a nerve!" Now it was Amy's turn to lead the diatribe. "When we find you—"
Once again, he waved them off with the same flippant disregard. "Now, now, what we've got here is nothing more than a simple failure to communicate. All that time locked in the Cage must have made your blood boil. You're so doped up on fighting juice you couldn't think straight if you tried, poor lambs!"
"Hey—" Amy began hotly, but stopped as he likely raised a hand.
"Did I do a bad thing while you were away? Well, that depends on who you talk to." His grin widened; or at least, Sonic imagined so. "Hard as this may be to believe, I do have a life, you know. No thanks to someone oh-so-conveniently losing the Master Emerald and pile-driving an island straight into my city… Not naming names, Knucklehead—" eliciting a growl from Knuckles' end, "—I had to rebuild. But I would very much appreciate it if you got your facts straight before you started browbeating me for imaginary crimes. Because the fact is… "
Sonic inwardly suppressed a groan. Anything was better than listening to him go on and on. "Cream, do you have Tails?" he asked, and turned. About time he and Egghead had a little chat. "Stay here, okay?"
Leaving Tails to her care, he returned to the jammed door, a tiny sliver of light now flickering underneath. A few kicks leveled at its bottom rail uncurled a corner just enough to form a gap for him to squeeze his body through. Amy ran over to him and grasped his arm, helping him across the broken shards on the floor a bit needlessly.
Upon seeing him, the man in the monitor grinned. It was as if he was waiting for him to arrive; behind him, potbellied marble statues of himself stood at attention in an opulent office setting. Complete with a lush carpet and stained glass windows lit by a roaring fire, the flagrant display gave Sonic just the slightest pause.
Was it him, or did Eggman appear as changed as his environment? Not just the attire, thicker goggles and a jumpsuit hemmed with gold trim; he didn't recall those faint patches of silver woven into his mustache, either, nor the wispy crow's feet etched at the edges of his eyes. He also had what appeared to be a mechanical brace fitted over the sleeve of his left wrist, the aperture in its center glowing a faint green. Arthritis, or a roboticist's tacky fashion choice? All of these pointed to a larger question in his mind.
Just how long were we gone?
Either way, the same kind of ugly showed when the doc flashed his teeth. "Oh, ho, so he did make it after all! How are you, old chum? I was beginning to wonder when you'd show."
"And miss this?" Sonic shook his head. "Not a chance."
Amy's fingers dug into his forearm.
"Famous last words," replied the doctor. "Frankly, I don't even know why your little ragtag crew is getting mad at me, because as far as I'm concerned my clocks run on schedule. You, however… "
Eggman lifted his wrist and pressed his fingers inside a groove embedded inside his brace. The pressure activated the ominous light, which blinked once and turned scarlet.
"Well, let's just say you're late for a very important date."
An explosion hammered the starboard and threw everyone against the port. Emergency warnings from the cabin's interior systems added to the klaxon outside, making the sheer noise unbearable. The ship bowed sharply to the right and knocked over provisions with a resounding crash, scattering glass and metal and conjuring even more chaos as shouts bubbled up and hands were yanked to keep people from falling debris.
The copilot's chair careened towards the locked emergency exit and busted a dent in the heavy metal. One rotor sputtered out, and the screen delivered an engine failure message. Why wasn't the backup coming on? Did he control that, too?
"Oops," Eggman cried. "Have fun tumbling down the rabbit hole, kiddies!"
A final ta-ta ground the last of the salt in their wounds before erasing the screen to a gaudy test pattern. What's more, they all heard turrets being swung their way upon the scientist's command.
"Ready!"
"Get us out of here!" Knuckles demanded as Sonic leapt over them, making a beeline once more for the med bay. "C'mon, Sonic, he's aiming the cannons! We've gotta bail!"
Sonic hooked his fingers under the door's sliver and yanked it open, his heart thudding louder with each passing second.
"Cream?" he called amidst the screaming of the sirens. "Tails? Where—"
Fallen supplies, gutted machinery and shattered vials abounded in the room. The ladder had broken in half, one of its wheels spinning frantic orbits from a fractured leg; a downed cabinet barred his path. He breathed a tiny sigh of relief when he glimpsed Cream sitting in the corner with Tails and Cheese gathered in her lap.
"We know," she said quietly. Cheese shook his head, and she placed a reassuring hand over him. "Will we have to leave?"
As he crawled under, he noticed she'd strapped a first-aid kit to her back. No trace of fear lingered in her wide brown eyes, just simple expectation… and he couldn't help but be a little perturbed. The Twilight Cage had taught her to be ready for any outcome.
"Yeah," he said, grabbing her hand to help her up, "but Eggface is always blowin' smoke." Or so he hoped. "Help me find some stuff to get ready, okay? I don't know what medicine Tails needs."
"Okay."
Kicking it once to loose its locked doors, he ransacked the overturned cabinet. What else did you use to treat smoke inhalation?
His foot nudged a duffel knapsack they'd used to gather artifacts. Five of the seven Emeralds gleamed inside: one Shade had relented to Shadow, and one he'd given to Cream for safekeeping after they'd washed up Charyb. He began stuffing provisions indiscriminately inside, covering up their ethereal glow with a speed and recklessness one could only attribute to a supersonic hedgehog, while the rest of the team formed contingency plans in the next room.
"Shadow, no," Rouge was saying. "You've already spent enough of your energy. Don't—"
"Cream?" Amy called. A flurry of voices rushed in at once, all clamoring to be heard.
"—locked up in here, and Tails had to reinforce the—"
"—can't you do something?"
"—verexert yourse—"
"—risk I'll have—"
"—what's happening to—"
"—is he—"
"—rybody off now, Sonic—"
"Aim!"
More turrets heaved toward the ship, making Shadow growl. Rouge reprimanded him, yanking his other wrist down as one inhibitor ring clinked to the floor.
"Chaos—"
"Shadow, don't you dare!"
"Con—"
"—warp this ship and we'll beat you silly!"
Taking Tails over his shoulder, he coaxed Cream and Cheese through the gap in the door and crawled back out behind them.
"All right, listen up," he said, peering between confused faces as he jogged toward an emergency exit, "Eggman wants us to scatter, so we need to stick together. Pair up with someone who can get you to safety and stay low." Before anyone could reply he tightened his hold on Tails, kicked the door hatch and sent it careening hundreds of feet below, where it hit the street with an ungodly shriek. "Everybody move!"
Gales screamed into the sagging cabin and while the others filed out, Amy whirled around. Was he really going to jump with Tails still unconscious? "What about—"
He shifted the kit's weight to his left shoulder, shimmying the knapsack down his other arm and offering the strap to Cream. "I need to ask a big favor: take the Emeralds to a safe place, and I'll meet up with you later. Can you do that?"
"We won't let you down, Mr. Sonic. Come on, Amy, Cheese. It's time to leave." She grabbed Amy's hand, fluttering out.
Amy blinked back the smoky wind that ruffled her. Doubt lingered in her heart where she touched it.
"Sonic… "
He didn't hear her whisper, though he did reach behind himself and curl his index finger around a sliding metal pin.
"We'll be all right," he told the angry sky as he tugged at the ripcord. "We always are."
Blacking out sucked.
Falling from a height, striking dirt or metal or the curb—it all yielded the same result. When consciousness swam back to him it always made him nauseous, that swarm of color and sound loud enough to overwhelm his senses.
Sonic didn't consider himself a stranger to unconsciousness, however brief his skirmishes with it may have been, but his familiarity still didn't make the experience any more pleasant, especially considering how often Eggman called upon it as a quieting tactic. Only time he was still. Exactly why he hated it.
The singe of laser-ignited fuel pricked his nostrils when a small, frantic hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake.
"Mr. Sonic!"
Blurred shapes came into view, peering down at him through a red haze. It took him a minute to register the face behind the voice.
" …Cream?" He shot up. "Where's—"
"I don't know," she said, twisting her ribbon. "After that blast, everyone got separated by these awful robots, and… " She bit her lip and studied her smoke-scuffed shoes, unable to say more. And for good reason. This place was Metropolis with a vengeance.
Time followed a weird rhythm here. Without any discernible sun or moon to make the distinction, they could have been here hours or mere minutes. Spotlights waved beams through the crimson sky, piercing holes in black clouds as they drifted past. They wouldn't find what they sought aiming at the clouds, Sonic knew, but it was all being done for the sole purpose to impress and intimidate. Coincidentally Eggman's two favorite hobbies.
The atmosphere contained a murky underwater quality, swaying to and fro in thick crests. Amidst a trenchline of factories and energy outposts stood the fat man's base, a bald thousand-ton head sitting atop an equally impossible support structure. Burning yellow eyes and a three-pronged mustache emitted a wild grin anyone could see for miles around. It bore the smoke and the smudge with glee, viewing its domain from its implacable perch.
In the sky just beyond the fortress lingered a scar of the exhaust where the ship had taken a nosedive. He tried to follow its possible trajectory, guess at a crash site, when a sharp pang in his head drew his attention away.
He furrowed his brow, touching a cut that had formed somewhere over his eye. His fingers brushed a scaly patch above the wound. He panicked slightly, thinking it a tough layer of scar tissue that had built there, before he tapped on it and realized that it was actually a stiff bandage Cream must have salvaged from the wreckage.
She glanced worriedly at him. Poor girl was never satisfied with her handiwork.
Sonic asked: "How long've you two been here?"
Cream took a moment to confer with Cheese behind her hand. A question mark briefly formed over Cheese's head before rabbit and Chao turned toward him, bowing in unison. "We're sorry. Neither of us can remember. But we do know you've been asleep for a long time."
A long time… Again, in a place like this that could have meant anything. As he scratched his ear, he surveyed his own memory and came up short.
"Did—"
"Yes." She dug into her dress pocket, and soon enough the sharp facets of a green Emerald gleamed at him within the confines of her palm. "Well… Just this one." She withdrew it, exclaiming: "Do you think the others have found good places to hide? It'll be dark out soon, and—"
(Tails. Tails is still sick where is he Tails)
He offered a wan smile and ruffled her hair. "Hey, no worries. We'll find them together, you and me, eh? It'll be our own adventure."
"Mhm."
Lukewarm; he tried a more humorous tone. "Eggman can't scare us, right? You could poke a hole in 'im and let him zip around the room."
She nodded, and he finally stood up.
That fortress… the ugly one. Once on his feet he scrutinized it a little closer. One of its yellow lights winked, blinking one of its pupils. It ejected a spot of black that took off into the sky.
He grabbed Cream's hand and turned before she could see, their steps pattering the concrete.
"Yeah," he said. "No worries."
A streak zigzagged the decrepit skyline, slashing bright blue into red.
Shingles broke under his heels and skidded off the eaves of factories as he pounced between rooftops, his trek accompanied by the steady flapping of a rabbit's ears.
"I'm not seeing anyone yet, Mr. Sonic." Cream shielded her eyes, scanning the cityscape for any possible sign of their friends, while he vaulted over a chimney flue that billowed smoke. She pulled out the Emerald, disappointed to find it still as dim as when she'd rescued it from the gutter. "Do you think they got lost?"
Sonic mistimed his second jump a little too late to properly answer her. Another flue gusted up smoke and coated him in a heady mixture of ash and chemicals, making him cough and shake his head to ward off the taste. This stuff was vile. Hopefully he wouldn't have to maintain a steady diet of it.
"Just keep your eyes peeled," he encouraged, "they couldn't have gone far!"
Cream seemed a bit unsure of this, but then nodded. "Right!"
"Surprise, sunshine! Did you miss me?"
Above them, light glittered through the murky veil. A wide beam pierced the dust and spread over the concrete, throwing up hunks of stone. Sonic leapt between the fallout and snatched Cream away before they could smash her down. His speed helped them evade the flames that erupted in its wake.
A humanoid mech the size of a small house marched its way through the haze. Black armored plates reinforced its fuselage, while thrusters in its soles puffed green exhaust with each step it took. Burly arms with spike-knuckled fists bore semi-circular rotors with propeller blades laid inside the wrists. Light flowed in rivets toward its glowing center and out its dragon-like eyes, pupilless and unforgiving as it swept the terrain.
EGG PHANTOM
MK II.
Propping his rabbit companion upright, Sonic shielded his eyes and pursed a flippant whistle through his lips. "I knew you were a big boy and all before, doc, but did ya finally hatch?"
"Laugh all you want, Sonic! Did you really think I was going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs while you ran around my city willy-nilly?" Eggman asked, his voice reverberating through a microphone. "I wasn't just blowing hot air back there, you know!"
Without any more warning than that, another wave slammed out and bisected the landing they were standing on. Steel girders burst and popped like bone, screeching out a horrible grinding noise before collapsing into the street as more heaps of discarded rust.
Its skeleton dribbled molten liquid when Sonic reappeared at the opposite end of the street, Cream and Cheese in arms, his heels scuffing up dust.
"That how you wanna play?"
He pounced the moment the mech recoiled its fist, spinning so hard the blood in his head throbbed. His quills buzzed against tough metal, spitting sparks into the air. The friction between them shrieked like a buzzsaw forced through a cinderblock.
Eventually, it won out and repelled him. Sonic landed hard on his back, grunting on the concrete before Cream.
"Eager for a spanking, are we?" Eggman cried. "Now fork over that Emerald, or I will crush you where you stand!"
Two small pairs of hands helped him on his feet; unfortunately, things were beginning to slide in and out of focus for him, swimming in duplicates.
"How does he—" Cream began, but soon tucked the Emerald behind her back.
"Ha! Too little too late!" Laughter followed them through the streets as the scientist fired up the thrusters. "Pound the asphalt all you want, kiddies: there's nowhere I won't find you!"
The noise snapped Sonic out of his daze. He would have fought gladly if he didn't think there was also a chance he'd inadvertently hurt Cream in the process.
She yanked his glove cuff, calling his attention toward a narrow rut jailed between two buildings. "Look!"
Cream pointed, and Sonic dove inside. Call it a rabbit's natural burrowing instinct: she'd sensed that the Phantom would probably be hard-pressed to jam its nose through the constricted alleyways.
Problem was, most streets they encountered afterward were short and jagged, ending in potholes or roadblocks created by fallen rubble, no thanks to the doc's itchy trigger finger.
Sonic climbed up the scaffold of what appeared to be an abandoned office complex, and stowed inside a room where they could gain a measure of reprieve from the chaos.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
They jolted. Cream pulled Cheese under a desk as two V-shaped dents punched through the ceiling, pouring light into the dim. An enormous boom rattled them, followed by yet another.
The force of the second blow splintered the rafters and rained dust over them, snapping brittle pipes that were attached to the joists. By some small bit of luck, the load-bearing supports managed to remain upright, although these too were starting to groan in a way that made his skin crawl…
"Oh, ho! You're not gonna like this part, hedgehog!"
He ducked to the whistle of a shell cracking through the air, and grimaced at the blow's aftershock that trembled clean through to his kidneys. Rotary engines bore the hum of something coming alive.
Yeah, he knew this part way too well. "Cover your eyes!" he shouted. "You too, Cheese—"
Outside, a thin fissure cracked across the sky like lighting. Heartbeats passed before white brilliance spewed through the windows and engulfed the room.
Twisting away, he threw his arm over his eyes to shield them from the next sudden flare. Great, add a threat of blindness to the mix. If they stayed inside, Eggman would keep deploying flashbangs to smoke them out. Would they fare any better outside?
He squinted at his environment until he came across a flaking, rusted sign just at the end of the hall. Amid dangling wires stood a crash door marked: FIRE EXIT. He shimmied on his stomach toward that destination, fists clenched as he strained his ears. A groaning rafter spurred him to hurry Cream over with a wave.
She scooted across the room with Cheese clinging to her shoulder, hugging the wall underneath the windows, mimicking his belly crawl, until the madman shouted: "You want to do this the hard way? Fine! Don't say I didn't warn you!"
"Over here," Sonic whispered. They slipped through the exit onto a ladder hatch on the opposite side of the complex, sneaking under cover of impending footfalls. The Phantom stalked the edifices, sweeping its laser beam through the shadows between for vital signs.
He lowered his foot on a faulty rung, and froze as it cracked and clattered into the street.
One green eye flashed toward them, heralding an unnerving grin like the world's deadliest Cheshire cat. Oh, no. No, no, no—
"Gimme a break!" The rest of the ladder crashed down with a loud, rippling bang. Sonic grabbed Cream by the hand and shot down the rungs as they crumbled behind him, resulting in a disastrous cacophony of noise that advertised them better than neon signs strapped to their backs.
Sure enough, the Phantom rounded the corner but seconds later, breathing noxious fumes down their necks.
"That guy just doesn't know when to call it quits, does he?" Sonic turned while running and leapfrogged over a laser shot. "Cream! Can you set me up?"
"We'll try our best!"
"All right," he said, "let's show Eggman how to party."