A/N Ok so let's get back on track and take the fight to Eggman. I hope everyone wasn't too bored with the last two chapters but there were a few things I needed to get out there for later. So remember some of that stuff.
Also I'm gonna do some shameless advertisement, check out my Tails and Nicole oneshot for valentines day, probably gonna have this done after that so check it out if you want. Definetly got longer than I expected.
Also to anyone who guessed GTA(any of the numbers or subnames) for my game reference, here's an imaginary cookie.
I apologize for how long this took, a lot of things started coming up(like things that took up my time and attention) I got mortal kombat x recently since it was basically 50% off on the xbox store, then got rocket league and I just remembered soon Division will be out… like two weeks I think… now three at the time I wrote this down. And like always I got work which because I'm part time at the moment my schedule is random and I could suddenly be given morning shifts when I normally do night(This kills me by the way) I also found this chapter just hard to write for some reason, the action was easy but the small talking I do in between was super weirdly hard. And lastly I'm half focusing my attention on the second one shot of the TailsxNicole thing I mentioned. So I got a lot of things taking my attention so I apologize. I know this sounds like just excuses but that what I got to say.
Anyway let's go on a mission.
It took another few days for Rosemary to get all the signals and finally with a beep she sighed.
"Miles, I have done it"
Tails just smirked and had her call everyone.
When everyone was assembled for briefing Tails explained.
"Ok guys so I let you all know a few days ago that I had mom tracking some signals. Well she finally found them" he revealed a map that showed the area around their base. Five dots were moving around.
"Ok so you found dots?" Scourge asked.
"They are eggbots that carry the rest of the data from an incomplete file mom found in one of the USB's one of you brought back. If we download their memories we'll be able to complete whatever file it is and maybe learn something nice" The male fox explained.
"So there's five, we'll split up and make this fast, we can handle them" Shadow suggested.
"That's what I was thinking, we'll split into four groups and if things go wrong we can work together" Tails explained.
"Ok so who do we get paired with?" Silver asked.
Tails thought and said "I'll go with Fiona, make sure her foot is ok" she'd been cleared by his mother for duty two days ago.
He continued "Shadow can handle himself so he can go alone, Silver and Blaze you work together and Scourge…"
"I will assist him" they looked to Nicole who smiled kindly.
"I was gonna say he can handle himself as well" Tails said confused.
"I know, but I feel someone should watch his back anyway"
"I don't need her slowing me down" Scourge huffed.
Nicole shook her head "Someone needs to watch him right?"
Scourge rolled his eyes, her trust conversation apparently meaning nothing.
"Ok? So everyone else good with their setup?" Tails asked around recovering from the interruption.
Shadow was ok with being alone, he always felt in small fights like this it made him more effective, nobody to have to worry about so he could go full force.
Silver was happy to be paired with Blaze because he wanted to see her in action and get a feel for how she acted in a fight to help predict her actions in the future. Among other things.
Scourge would have rather been alone but since Nicole insisted on watching him he walked to go grab her PDA.
Lastly Fiona was fine with pairing with Tails, he was clearly getting better around her. She was pretty sure he was completely ok with her now since he asked her to stay with him when it was all over. She knew he needed help and she'd give it.
Back to business and the team got ready. Fiona strapped up her boots and flexed her foot to make sure it was ok and nodded happy to find it in good shape.
Shadow was first done and studied the map before anyone else and went on his way. On the map a dot became shadows face signifying he was taking that one.
The others followed suit and soon everyone was in the move.
Moving out to the south the two foxes made their way to their target.
While walking they avoided a patrol or two, no worries. With Fiona's quiet footsteps and Tails' stealth they were near unnoticeable, as long as neither messed up.
Nearing their location they both got low and crawled up a small hill to see what was on the other side. Peaking over they spotted the target. Tails quickly identified the frequency thanks to a scanner in his helmet.
The bot had escort, nothing too crazy. Light and medium eggbots of varying types. The most dangerous being one that had a lot bombs ready to blow away any threat.
"Got a plan?" Fiona whispered.
"I'm thinking…" he rubbed his chin in thought, no way they could take down the group head on. Without powers they were be torn to shreds. A problem both foxes had figured out early, but that didn't mean they couldn't win with ease if they played it right.
The female patiently waited laying on her stomach and holding her head up with her hands and sighed bored. Eventually she just decided to blow up her bangs.
Tails finally smirked "Got it, how good of a shot are you?"
"You know I'm pretty good?" she waited for him to continue.
He slipped off his multi rifle and handed it over, find a good spot and wait for my command. I'm gonna make some trouble with my stealth, you shoot them down from afar. Just make sure not to hit the target"
She took his special weapon and froze "You sure you want me touching your stuff?"
"I told you, I trust you, and besides why are you complaining? I remember you wanted to try my stealth suit, maybe I'll let ya" he smirked liking the face she was giving.
"Well, ok… how do I make this thing not your normal explosive globs?" She fiddled around and suddenly Tails grabbed her hand and said "Stop, you're gonna shoot it and I don't need a super heated bomb in my face today…. Here, done" he flip a switch and the gun morphed from a more grenade launcher look to a long barrel sniper rifle. It morphed up a powerful scope and stand came out for hyper long range accuracy.
"Careful of the kick" Tails warned, his helmet dropped and stealthed.
Fiona took that as her cue to run for a better position as well and kept low, quiet and avoided kicking up too much dust. She quickly found a nice spot where she could see them all, had cover of a rolling hill and was a decent range from the area and turned on her radio.
"Ok Tails, got a spot, do your thing" looking through the eye piece she already saw a marker signifying the one bot was to be left functional. Besides that she could hear small metallic stepping sounds as they walked around. Apparently Tails had built in an audio receiver in it too. Taking a deep breath she got ready.
Like the wind she saw something kick up dust. Like a ghost he moved around the group choosing his moment carefully. One noticed him as he approached and quickly received a electro shock gauntlet that instantly deactivated. Every single bot turned to this but Tails kept his stealth up and darted away. The robots in complete confusion.
But a bad step gave him away as he kicked up dust and guns trained in his general direction. Fiona aimed and with a muffled shot another bots head exploded into pieces.
It's death diverted attention again, all turned to her direction, none immediately saw her but in a short time their sensors would see her. This fact was not lost on Tails.
He u-turned and tossed two emp grenades at the furthest bots from his target to keep it alive. Waiting for them to fire he used the second charge of his gloves to knock out another bot before retreating again.
Fiona covered him and the pattern continued until only the one bot was left.
Fiona aimed and shot it's firing arm off and got up to make her approach knowing Tails could handle it now.
The fox took over finally revealing himself and hopped on the robots back, his speed and force making it fall over. He quickly ripped the panel covering it's memory core off and inserted a cable inside.
The mini Nicole program began running and quickly syphoned all the information. With a ping and an image of her smiling with a thumbs up he pulled the cord out and punched inside destroying the eggbot.
"Not too hard" he smirked.
Right then Fiona made it too him and sighed glad to see he was ok and handed his weapon back to him which he gladly accepted.
"So we get it?"
"Of course" he smirked.
He put it back into his pocket and asked "So what'd ya think of the rifle?"
She shrugged "It's light, but powerful I guess"
"Could use that to describe me" he gloated lightening up on a rare occasion.
"Ya whatever lightweight, we better get moving and get to the final target to scout it out" she walked ahead trying to not laugh at his terrible flexing.
"And I thought I was the downer" he jogged to catch up and they went on their way.
With Blaze and Silver…
"Ok, so how do you wanna do this?" Silver asked.
"There's not that many, we could easily rush them or use our powers to pick them off quickly" Blaze suggested she was confident in both their abilities.
"You sure?"
She nodded and her hands lit up with fire as she prepared to attack. Silver got ready his hands glowing green.
The two revealed themselves and Blaze quickly fired off a few fireballs. Silver using his powers to hold her intended targets in place. Once the flames impacted the robots the ball exploded outwards. The fire was hot enough to warp the metal or burn the inside. The white hedgehog then threw the robotic corpses at others making sure to leave their target alone.
The robots finally returned fire and Silver lifted a psi shield and looked to Blaze to see what she'd do.
She waited for them to stop before charging up a large fireball and preparing to fire. As she threw it with both hands Silver pushed forward with his shield sending all the bullets back followed by the large ball of flame.
The bullets in the psi shield shredded his targets and fireball finished what was left leaving the sole survivor left with some minor burns.
Silver lifted his hand and forced it in place while walking towards it and said "Ok do the hacking"
Blaze calmly approached going behind it and opened a hatch and plugged in. Within a few moment the data was mined and she pulled out the cord and walked back around and gave a nod.
Silver took his cue and crushed the robot into a ball before dropping it.
"Hope the others have as easy a time as us" Blaze said walking towards the fifth target.
Silver agreed walking by her side.
Shadow…
Shadow sped to his target and didn't worry about scouting it out, now that he was by himself he could work at full speed. Speeding into a large group of eggbots he felt chaos energy emit from his hand and smashed the ground causing a blast wave in all directions. Robots close to him were disintegrated while ones further away fell over from the force, some more damaged than others depending on distance. He knew exactly which one he wanted so made sure to keep that one on the outside.
He jumped and homing attacked his way to the nearest robot bouncing off and starting a chain. His speed making it hard for the eggbots to keep track of him.
In no time flat he destroyed all but one, he charged a blast of chaos energy in his hands. Before it could react he fired and the ball of energy slammed into its foot and exploded causing it to fly backwards, the explosion destroying its legs.
He approached finding it heavily damaged and forced it onto its stomach and began the hack keeping it down when it tried to move.
When it finished he stomped on the head and made his way for the meet point.
Scourge and Nicole…
The green hedgehog casually walked towards his targets location, he'd been silent the entire time while Nicole walked next to him holding her PDA.
With some time to talk Nicole said "I hope I didn't offend you when I said I'd watch you for everyone"
He rolled his eyes, he liked the silence "Ya, what happened to that trust talk?"
"I apologize but I just needed an excuse to help you. Do not take it personally" she smiled innocently.
"Didn't know computers could lie" he huffed.
"I did not lie, I am watching you, but I trust you won't do anything rash. But yes I could lie if need be"
Scourge looked away and asked "So what exactly can you do besides talk?"
She wasn't concerned with how he asked that and explained "Well this form is solid, I could hold objects if need be, meaning weapons. I also have the advantage of being able to be shot and have nothing bad happen to me unless my PDA is physically damaged. I'm not sure if it works but my PDA also has a laser cutter that I can also be used as a mini laser on it too" it had been awhile since she was even in this PDA so it may have broke through the years.
"A little more useful than I thought" he smiled a toothy grin.
"Yes I am more than just a pretty face" She grinned using humour to hopefully get him to loosen up.
"Oh and now jokes, you continue to surprise" he said.
Before it could continue Nicole said "Oh, the target is just ahead"
"Better get down then" Scourge said in a deeper voice creeping his way forward and unhooking the shotgun he'd used on Robo-Nack from his back.
"Just watch my back, I'll get this done" Scourge said.
She nodded letting him lead.
In a few moments they gained sight of the robots. This group had some heavier eggbots protecting the target. They were the fat kind, which meant slow, but had powerful cannons and a small shoulder rocket launcher. One easily noticed weakness was their back armor was weaker, but they were designed to face you in combat so that might be hard.
"Course it can't be easy" Scourge groaned.
Nicole tried to think of a plan and smiled "Well if you can bait them into using their rockets I could shoot them out of the air with my laser" she lifted her PDA and a small arm extended from the side with a small pen like attachment. The tip glowing with a red energy. She sighed glad to see it seemed to work.
"What about the heavy armor and cannons" he asked adjusting his jacket.
"Unfortunately I don't have much to help with that" she shrugged worried about that.
Scourge hummed and thought "Maybe if you can get close and use the fusion cutter attachment, cut open the armor and make a weak spot for me…. That'd put you really close to them though"
"If you can distract them and keep them looking in one direction I could do it easily" Nicole wasn't gonna just sit back and do nothing.
Scourge nodded and right before he was about to take off he stopped and sighed "Here take this" he handed over his shotgun "If they notice you, you can defend yourself" he sped away before she could say anything in return.
She looked at the weapon awkwardly remembering a rule Rotor once said. The freedom fighters never used guns in the past, but that was then and this was now. Eggman crossed the line, and unlike a lot of times, they might have to cross their own lines to win" so reluctantly she held it properly and sighed hoping her old friends wouldn't look poorly on her for this if they were watching her right now.
Back to the action she looked out and heard booms coming ahead and moved closer to get a good look. Scourge was already dodging laser cannons from the heavy eggbots. He avoided the latest blast with a slide as it flew where his head would have been had he kept running.
He got to his feet and hopped as the next shot fired at the ground just below him. He smirked as he continued to run and saw them prepare their rockets locking onto him.
As they fired he made a quick turn to where he left Nicole and hoped she was ready.
She saw him approaching and lifted her PDA out and aimed the small laser.
Scourge saw and turned so he'd go past her and saw the first beam pass by him. The beam connected with the first missile and caused it to explode, four more coming through the explosion.
Scourge passed by the lynx and the missiles followed dust getting in her digital eyes.
The duo repeated this process until all the missiles were gone and Scourge slid to a stop next to the lynx.
"Alright, step two, take em out" he grabbed her PDA "Stop projecting, I'll drop you and get them to face away"
"Please be gentle with me" she pled, although she knew he wouldn't damage her.
"Don't worry about a thing, I won't mess up your shiny buttons" he chuckled using that joke again.
She sighed not wanting to think about that right now and handed her computer form, and his shotgun, to him and disintegrated away as the projection turned off.
Scourge speed off towards the enemy again and started performing large circle around them waiting for an opportunity to drop Nicole discreetly. After a few rotations a shot fired in front of his path kicking up dirt so he decided now was the time. He feigned being caught off guard and performed a jump that looked like he just barely reacted to it and rolled as he hit the ground. He dropped Nicole and his shotgun in his fall making it look like he simply lost his grip and continued running as he came out of the sloppy roll.
Performing a half circle to make them all face away from his teammate he then started simply annoying them. Taunting them, dodging and speeding around in front of them with ease.
Nicole materialized and picked her computer form up and the weapon making a holster on her back to hold the shotgun and ran up behind the closest eggbot silently. It wasn't hard, with all the noise of their shooting her footsteps however loud were over taken by their cannons and Scourges yelling and taunting.
Lifting her PDA up she readied her laser cutter and quickly sweeped left. The laser was strong, a custom made plasma cutter added on by Rotor back in the day. It was strong enough to clean cut most metal as long as it was thin enough without needing to take so long. Against stronger metal or thicker metal it could still do the job faster then average cutters.
Seeing the cut was strong enough to cut through it's vulnerable back armor she continued making a square in the back. Once done she saw the panels edges glowing red and hesitantly pulled the shotgun from her back and shivered.
"It's not a real person, just an eggbot, you'll be ok" she tried to reassure herself still frozen.
Hearing a yelp and "Wow too close!" from Scourge snapped her out of it and made her look to see he had nearly been hit by some coordinated shots. Seeing him nearly hurt or killed gave her enough motivation to take a theoretical deep breath and push in the panel.
Now the bot would have to know she was there so quickly fired a shot in the now open back as quick as she could. Even though it worked and eviscerated the inside of the robot the recoil caught her off guard and knocked backward and fell over.
She shook her head looking up to see one of the heavy eggbots notice it's destroyed companion, then at her and aim at her and fire.
She gasped and the beam vaporized her. Too bad for the robot she was just a hologram.
Scourge saw the whole thing and for half a second legitimately thought she was gone but then realized what she said earlier and dashed forward at the group. Before they could react he jumped past them all and using his speed and airtime to smash into the back of the robot who attacked Nicole with a spin attack. The weak back shattered from the force as he bounced off next to Nicoles PDA and scooped up both her and the shotgun.
On the screen it said "Thank you"
"Ok, two down, only three more to go" he smirked.
Doing it all again was easy. The bots didn't expect it to happen again thinking Nicole had been killed. When it did happen again another turned to get her, but Scourge was ahead of the play this time and took it out before it could shoot at Nicole.
With one left and the actual target bot they repeated it all a third time. The bots learned though and expected Nicole to appear again. Scourge just countered this by smashing the back of the robot looking behind the other leaving the last one functioning.
Scourge distracted the final robot and Nicole snuck up behind and quickly plugged into the back of the targets head with her PDA, before it could get her away she hacked its motor systems and forced it to stand still while she mined for the info.
In a moment she had what they needed and activated the self destruct of the lone robot and took a few steps back.
It exploded sending parts in every direction, including a panel that fazed through Nicoles head as she smiled proudly.
Scourge panted a little and wiped the dirt off his jacket and said "For a hologram you sure are more useful then I expected"
She nodded but looked to her PDA and said "Oh and sorry to say, my buttons got dirty"
Scourge paused then burst out laughing, not exactly what he meant but she tried.
"Whatever holo-chick, let's get going" he said holding his stomach for a moment due to be sore from his laughing.
She followed glad to see a smile on his face and they duo headed to the meet point.
At the meet point…
Since Shadow had left first, didn't stop to plan or really slow down at all he waited at the meeting point for nearly an hour. Next to show was Silver and Blaze, their target had been nearby but both were fast anyway. Second was Scourge and Nicole. The green hedgehog had taken her PDA and ran most of the way. Once there he let her materialize again and take it.
Last was Tails and Fiona, since she was slowest of the group Tails had to slow down for her.
"Everyone got their jobs done I assume?" Tails asked looking around getting nods. He was also glad to see Scourge was still with them and Nicole unharmed.
"Did anyone see the last group on the way here?" he asked next.
Shadow said "I saw them when I initially arrived here, they moved out north. I believe they know we're coming, they must have noticed our specific attacks and went to hide or get in a defendable position"
"Then I guess we got no choice but to follow" he motioned for the ebony hedgehog to take the lead.
Shadow led them in the direction he last saw them heading in and everyone got ready for an ambush of some kind.
On the walk Scourge just had to ask Nicole something. He discreetly walked to her and quietly asked.
"Got to ask, why of all the people you partner up with me?"
She looked over and debated whether telling him would be better than not and eventually said "Because I was working on a trust exercise" a smart grin on her face.
Scourges unamused face rolled his eyes and asked "And what would that be?"
"Why to carry me of course" she knew it wasn't obvious but she acted like it was.
"How does that prove anything?" he groaned hating being led on like this.
Nicole smiled and explained "You see I put a lot of trust in the people who carry me, they literally hold my life in their hands when they do so. Not many people have been allowed that responsibility and I thought you should"
The Moebian stared at her for some time before finally saying "Ya well Shadow is pretty much me plus his powers, trust him to protect you"
Nicole shrugged "Fine, but no more touching my pretty buttons then"
She continued to walk while Scourge just stopped and stared at her as she continued on. Then he huffed a little amused and smiled "Well, she likes when I touch her buttons" he shook his head still trying to get over her actually nice comeback and kept walking trailing behind the group.
Tails kept pace next to Fiona and looked around for any sign of trouble.
"You think we're walking into a trap?" the female fox asked. She could see he was tense and looking around a lot, besides that his ears were always flicking at any foreign sound.
"I'm not keeping any possibility out of question" he replied back.
She nodded "Good, I'm sure Shadow thinks the same"
"Probably"
Fiona thought for a moment then asked "So what do you make of Nicole so willingly wanting to partner up with Scourge?"
Tails shrugged "Not sure, but they are both back unharmed, that's all I care about"
"I guess you got a point there"
This time it was Tails who asked the next question "Think I made the right calls, like who to send with partners and who not to?"
"Sure, we're all still alive and not pissed off at eachother… why?" why'd he need reassurance?
Tails looked away and sighed "Well… it seems I'm the leader of this group and well… I was never the leader back with the Freedom fighters; my age pretty much made me a follower by default. Sally and Sonic were the ones in charge. I… I'm not sure I can do this"
Fiona frowned but also smiled a little "You really worried about making the wrong decision?"
"Ya I am, I mean…. Somebody said it before but we may be the last chance for Mobius. That's a lot of pressure when you are the one making the decisions" he couldn't even fathom how Sonic and Sally kept their composure all that time with such odds against them.
"I know it is, but as a team we all have a voice, we all have opinion, so you aren't the only one in the decision process"
"But I still have final say… sometimes I wish Shadow would take charge… I was fine taking orders as a kid. If something went wrong my mind could rationalize that it wasn't my decision, it's not entirely my fault… I don't have that smoke screen anymore" he sighed, literally feeling the weight of the world on him.
Fiona didn't know what else to say, she doubted Shadow was ok to lead. He clearly wanted this like the rest of them but his outburst from before showed just how far he might go. His decision had payed off so far and Scourge had been ok, but if he was making the decisions all the time he could do some risky plays and get people killed at the expense of furthering their cause. Atleast she hoped that wasn't the case.
It worried her that Tails felt so much pressure. He was healing from his old wounds she had caused, that much stress could hurt him more. She'd have to keep an eye out for him. She had one consolation prize for him though.
"Hey listen, don't fret too much, so far you've done fine, we've only grown since you took charge and we've made quite a few of steps towards taking on Eggman in a relatively short time. So take that as you will" she smiled encouragingly.
He returned with a thankful smile, but she could tell it was phoned in. He appreciated her effort but he still felt the fate of Mobius on his shoulders, one mess up, and it could all be over.
"Hey guys you see that smoke"
Everyone snapped from their personal bubbles and looked ahead and saw black smoke in the distance.
"Black smoke?" Tails mumbled "But that means burning or…"
"We won't get an answer standing here, let's go" Fiona said already jogging ahead.
The path of the robots they'd been following went all the way to their destination so whatever it was, they were there too.
The group agreed with that and ran forward. Fifteen minutes of running led them to a large structure, quite massive. It bellowed smoke jigh into the sky, small flames coming from the chimneys.
Tails quickly realized what it was from past experience and subtle signs that he recognized "I think it's a factory"
Shadow growled "probably where he builds his robots for this area"
Something moved near the top of the factory and revealed a slowly ascending airship, like the one that bombed Shadow and Silvers old home.
"And a refueling station it seems" Nicole observed.
Silver was in awe but said "If it's a factory, imagine how many robots could be inside"
The realization reached everyone, if they invaded this place they would surely be gunned down in minutes.
"But think about how much of a blow that would be to Eggman to lose it. A factory takes up resources, meaning there must be tons of it in there, if it fuels airships we could clear the skies somewhat. Plus like Shadow said we could cripple the forces around here" Fiona smirked.
"And the information that could be in there" Tails hummed in thought.
Everyone was silent watching the airship fly away into the distance and Tails felt he was being watched. He already knew why and looked to his left and found everyone staring at him, for a plan or an answer.
It was time to truly test his skills as a leader…
Ok so that's this chapter done, man I'm glad I'm done that. For some reason it just felt really hard to write. But I muscled through it and got the stuff I wanted done, done. Anyway like always send a review if you want and make sure to check out my TailsxNicole oneshot, you might just like it.
Live long and prosper
Admiralkirk