Rise of the Grandmasters Saga Episode 3: The Battle Bird Armada

What started out as a honeymoon for Antoine and Bunnie has turned to Chaos when they along with Tails and Cosmo are attacked by Bird Mobians called the Battle Bird Armada. With Bunnie and Antoine captured by the forces, Tails and Cosmo are alone to face Speedy, who is part of the Armada, and has a strong resentment towards Tails.

Still bitter towards Tails, Speedy says, "That's right, freak! Crawl! Crawl on the ground where you belong!"

"First a whole army, now you guys…" Tails angrily says.

And adds, "You guys better not hurt our friends!"

"Your friends should be captured by now. You and your girlfriend are on your own, freak!" Speedy angrily says.

"Why are you doing this? My friends and I came here to relax. And two of our friends were just having their honeymoon," Cosmo says.

But Speedy isn't buying it, "Sure you did. I wasn't hatched yesterday. You invaded our private training grounds, and your friends will tell us why."

Then narrows his eyes towards Tails, "And you made it personal with your unnatural flying! Freak!"

"My… flying?" Tails asks, deeply confused.

Speedy lands on the ground as he says, "The skies belong to the birds, and all birds belong to the Armada."

Then Speedy begins to walk towards them as Tails takes Cosmo's hand and they both begin to step back.

Tails then asks, "What about everything else that flies? The bats, bees… Flying Squirrels?"

"They at least have something like flying!" Speedy clarifies.

Soon, Tails and Cosmo find themselves close to the edge of the cliff.

Tails turns to Speed with a smile, "Yeah. Well, y'know what else flies?"

"I don't care," Speedy angrily says.

Tails then calls out, "T-Pup! Now!"

The little robotic pup flies to Speedy and bites him on the tail, making him scream of pain.

"Good boy! Now let's get out of here!" Tails says, and picks up Cosmo.

He then takes to the sky as T-Pup follows with a, "Yip! Yip!"

Speedy angrily glares at them, "You'll pay for that! You, your little friend, and your little dog-robot-thing too!"

And flies after them. Tails carries Cosmo with T-Pup close behind and heads towards a cavern on the side of the island. Then they fly through the tunnel, Speedy flies in as well.

Tails laughs, "Ha ha ha! Sure we will! But only if you can catch…"

Seeing from behind, Cosmo panics, "Tails, he's coming this way…"

Tails turns his head around as T-Pup whimpers in fear. They see Speedy flying past the rock formations above the ceiling and water, and speeds through one of them.

"Hang on, Cosmo!" Tails says.

Cosmo hugs Tails tight as he flies through the cavern. Soon he and T-Pup are flying upward, and feel a draft flying up.

Tails calls out, "Whoa! Careful, Guys! The updraft is crazy!"

T-Pup does his best to be careful. Tails especially because he has Cosmo in his arms.

Tails turns his head to see Speedy coming after them, "You just don't give up, do you?"

"Nobody out-flies me, Freak!" Speedy calls out.

However, Tails continues to fly as fast as he can, and faster than Speedy.

Speedy questions in thought, "How can he fly like that?! I can barely keep up! I've got to use that clear space up ahead to…"

Speedy then accelerates to see the clear opening.

"Ha-ha! Finally got you!" Speedy says.

Then attacks Tails and makes him let go of Cosmo.

He then turns around as he says, "Sorry, Freak, but our little game of tag is…"

"Over?" Speedy says, but notices the three have disappeared.

Speedy cries out in rage, "Where are you?!"

Suddenly, he hears one of the soldiers from his communication device, "Sir, what is your status? Over."

"Busy. Over," Speedy answers.

"You're to report back to base, sir," The soldier says.

"I said…!" Speedy angrily says.

But the soldier says, "Battle Lord's orders!"

Speedy grits his teeth and growls in anger about Tails and the others getting away. However, he decides to head back to base due to the Battle Lord's orders.

Unknown to Speedy, Tails, Cosmo, and T-up are hiding in a secret small cavern that's between the two rocks. They all look out to see Speedy is gone.

Tails sighs in relief," That was close!"

"Yip!" T-Pup barks.

"It was too close. I thought he was going to get us," Cosmo says.

Then asks in concern, "Are you okay, Tails?"

"I'm fine. A little sore from the punch he gave me," Tails says.

He sighs and says, "What a night. Antoine and Bunnie get kidnapped on their honeymoon and we got roughed up by a jerk with a stupid name!"

Cosmo sternly crosses her arms, "I don't like that Speedy. He wasn't very nice to you about the fact you can fly."

"Why was he so resentful towards you just because you can fly?" Cosmo asks.

"Well, he said that the skies belong to the birds, and they belong to this Armada. I think he doesn't like the fact that I have a different way of flying," Tails says.

"But your two tails and flight is what makes you, you. I like it when you fly," Cosmo says.

"I know," Tails says.

He then says, "If Sonic and Eve were here. They'd rush in, kick some butt, and save the day without a thought!"

"I can imagine," Cosmo says and giggles.

She then lets out a yawn.

Tails yawn as well, "But that's Sonic. I hate to do it, but we've got to rest. We can't think with our heads ringin like this!"

"You're right. I'm a little tired!" Cosmo says, and lays down.

Tails lays down next to her, "When we get up, I'll put together a plan and save us all. Goodnight Cosmo."

"Goodnight, Tails," Comso says, and falls asleep.

Then Tails softly says, "T-Pup, keep watch!"

T-Pup answers, "Yip!"

And puts up a signal antenna to sense any intruders that might find them. With that, Tails and Cosmo sleep in the secret small cavern for the night and by tomorrow, they're going to rescue Bunnie and Antoine, and get out of this mess.

The next day, Bunnie and Antoine, who have been captured by the Battle Bird Armada, awake in their separate cells. Soon, two of the soldiers come into the room with their blaster, in case the couples resist.

One shouts, "Rise and shine maggots!"

Seeing them walking to their cell, they decide to put their little plan in motion.

Bunnie whispers, "Ready, sugar-twan?"

"Oui. Just as we planned," Antoine whispers.

They soon see the soldier grabbing the key card and using it to open Bunnie's cell. They soon drag her out, and one of them begins to look at her bionic arm.

Bunnie angrily shouts, "Hey! Let me go!"

But the guard doesn't listen.

At the same time, Antoine grabs the other soldier with rage, "Fiends! Zat is my wife you are mishandling!"

Just then, the guard is able to get free and points his blaster at Antoine, "Are you crazy?! Sit down and shut up!"

"Oh mah stars! Just do as he says, sugar, and wait for me?" Bunnie replies.

Then the two guards begin to escort away, and Antoine walks away to sit down.

However, Antoine secretly takes out the key card the guard had and says, "Oui, ma cherie. I will see you soon."

Meanwhile, Bunnie is being escorted by the guards to who knows where. Soon, they see two other guards in front of a door that has a skull on it.

One of them presses the button and says to the speaker, "The prisoner you wanted is here, Battle Lord!"

"Battle Lord?!" Bunnie thinks, confused.

Just then, the doors' been open and the guards in front of the door escort Bunnie inside. There, Bunnie sees a few monitors with maps of the island and other locations, along with a large perch, like a perch from a bird cage. At the metal front desk, there is the Battle Lord of the Mobian Birds in the base.

The Battle Lord is a grown Mobian bird that has light orange and brown color feathers, and a large yellow beak. He is wearing a red coat with a white collar around the neck, dark green pants with dark green high-heeled shoes, white gloves, goggles, and a black pirate hat that has the same emblem on the door.

The Battle Lord notices Bunnie and his guards, "Ah, excellent! Welcome, welcome!"

Then turns to the guards, "Guards, you're dismissed. We're all friends here."

"We are…?" Bunnie says, confused.

The guards salute to the Battle Lord and walk away to guard the door. The Battle Lord walks to Bunnie and takes his head in respect.

Then say, "But of course! You must forgive my men. Between the Dark and their overzealousness, they didn't realize we had a representative of the Dark Legion with us!"

Hearing this, Bunnie is a little surprised to hear that they are in league with Dr. Eggman. But what really catches her attention is the fact that he thinks she is a representative. At first, she wonders why, until she remembers her own robotic limbs.

Bunnie then thinks, "Oh, ho, ha ha ha! They think that me havin' bionic limbs means I've been 'legionized.' That I'm one of Dr. Eggman's flunkies. I can use this!"

With an idea in mind, Bunnie decides to play a long.

Bunnie bows in respect and says, "What's to forgive? The Doctor doesn't network us very well at all, does he?"

"Sadly, he does not. I am Battle Kukku the Fifteenth, Battle Lord of the BattleBird Armada," the Battle Lord says.

"Kommissar Bunnie D'Coolette, deep cover agent," Bunnie answers.

"I knew it!" The Battle Lord says.

Then asks, "How deep?"

"Ah married the man you have as your prisoner just to get deeper into their organization!" Bunnie answers, of course that's a lie.

The Battle Lord laughs, "Hahaha! Brilliant!"

"Ah, know, right? Bunnie adds with laughter.

"Poor Networking aside," The Battle Lord says.

Then snaps his fingers as two chairs along with a table with a bottle drink and two glasses rise from the ground.

The Battle Lord continues, "We are only affiliated with the Eggman Empire. Not being part of his Legion means news of official operations comes… slowly."

"It goes both ways, sugar. He never told me you guys have control of his region," Bunnie says, and takes a seat.

"Tsk tsk! Mineral water?" The Battle Lord comments.

"Please!" Bunnie replies.

Then the Battle Lord uncorks the bottle and pours Bunnie a glass.

Bunnie says, "Truth be told, ah cain't say I know much at all about your organization. Ah'm sure the Doc would be pleased to know y'all gave li'l ol' me support."

"But of course!" The Battle Lord says, giving Bunnie the glass.

Then pours himself a glass, "We're a rather simple affair, really. We're an Ancient order of Avians aspiring to command the skies… find our fabled homeland, and unlock the mysteries of our forebears. We would have succeeded by now if not for those disloyal Rogues."

Hearing the name makes Bunnie gulp as she takes a sip from her glass.

She clears her throat and asks, "You dun mean the Babylon Rogues?"

"The very same. Vagrants who ignore the Proud BattleKuku lineage and the proper life the Armada provides," The Battle Lord answers.

Then asks, "How do you know of them?

"Er… two of the rebels, Sonic and Eve ah'm investigating, had a runin with 'em some time ago and competed against them in a race in the Grand Prix Eggman created. It was a rather long time ago, but they ended up findin' the place called Babylon Garden. We don't know where it is now," Bunnie explains.

"Really now," The Battle Lord says, becoming interested.

Then asks, "Any relation to the Two-tailed freak and the young green girl that eluded my men last night?"

"They got away? Good!" Bunnie answers.

Then Bunnie continues, "For your men, ah mean. Ferocious lil' fellah. Children soldier. Weapons expert and an alien from another planet It's lucky nobody got hurt… or worse."

"Really now…? They don't seem the type," The Battle Lord says.

"They hide it well," Bunnie answers.

Then says, "Now, let's get back to you, Battle Lord… and yo' fascinating Armada!"

Meanwhile, Tails, Cosmo, and little T-Pup are still sleeping in their hiding place. Just then, T-Pup begins beeping. Cosmo soon begins to open her eyes and wake up from her sleep. She sits up and yawns as she stretches her arms. She then turns to see Tails is still asleep.

She places her hand on his shoulder and begins to gently shake him, "Tails, wake up."

"Mmmmrff… five more minutes, mom?" Tails says in his sleep and clutches one of his tails.

Cosmo softly giggles in reply.

She then tries again, "Tails, it's time to wake up. We need to rescue Bunnie and Antoine.

Hearing this, Tails wakes up in a panic, "Oh no! How late did I sleep?"

And knocks T-Pup as he wakes up. T-Pup falls off the edge, but quickly activates his flight move.

Tails touches the back of his head, feeling the pain, "Ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow…"

"Are you okay, Tails?" Cosmo asks.

"I'm okay. That guy really packs a punch, but I feel recharged at least," Tails says.

"I'm glad that you're okay," Cosmo says.

"Yeah," Tails says.

He then stands up and says, "C'mon, Cosmo! T-Pup! We need to come up with a plan to save Antoine and Bunnie."

"But how are we going to find them? We don't even know where those strange birds of last night are or where they've taken Bunnie and Antoine," Cosmo says.

"I have a pretty good idea where they were taken. But first, we need to go to the workshop and get a few things, then we need to get the Sea Fox," Tail says.

Cosmo nods her head as Tails picks her up and flies off with T-Pup close behind. They head to the Workshop and are able to easily get their supplies and Tails' inventions. Surprisingly, there aren't any of the Bird guards around. Then, they are able to find the Sea Fox, but it's guarded by soldiers.

"It looks like they've set a watch in case we come back for the Sea Fox," Cosmo says.

"Pretty smart," Tails comments.

Then brings out strange black balls, "But they didn't set one for my workshop, which means they're either stupid or lazy."

Cosmo giggles softly and covers her mouth.

"Either way…. We win," Tails says, and throws the black balls.

The ball lands on the ground close to the guards and releases a gas that knocks them out. Turns out, the black balls are smoke bombs with sleeping gas in them. Seeing the coast is clear and the smoke is gone, the three hurry to the Sea Fox. They both sit down and Tails begins to drive it.

"Tails, you said that you have an idea where Bunnie and Antoine are," Cosmo replies.

"That's right, we need to investigate the island I didn't recognize yesterday. I should have known something was up from the beginning," Tails says.

"So the Island is fake?" Cosmo asks.

"It explains why I don't recognize it," Tails answers.

Tails drives the Sea Fox with Cosmo and T-Pup inside. Tails continues to drive to see something fishy about it.

"Huh… no obvious posts. I know this is;and has to be fake, but it's a very convincing fake," Tails says.

"Yes. It looks like a real island," Cosmo says.

"So let's see just how thorough they were! Down we go!" Tails says.

As he closes the hatch on the Sea Fox. Then dives into the water. They look around at the fake island, and surprisingly. They made the fake island so it will completely blend to the island to confuse anyone and to keep their hideout hidden.

"Oh my," Cosmo says, surprised.

"They were really thorough. I can't find a single way in!" Tails says.

"What do we do?" Cosmo asks.

Tails looks at the sonar on the sub, "Sonar shows that might be an underground leading to Coco Island… which I know has a pretty robust cave network. It's not the direct answer we were hoping for… but I might be onto something here!"

Unknown to Tails, Cosmo, and T-Pup, multiple submarines are heading towards them from behind.

Meanwhile, Antoine is still trapped in the dungeon and is having a conversation with one of the guards.

"And then, I dunno, I guess I'd use a bit of margarine!" The guard says.

"Ah well, you see, zat is ze problem right there! Eet must be butter," Antoine says.

"Really? That makes a difference?" The guard says, confused.

"A difference? Ha!" Zat is like asking if there is a difference between ze water in your glass and zat which is in ze commade," Antoine says.

"Really?" The guard says, amazed.

Then says, "Listen, I've got a friend who's really into cooking! He'd love some pointers. I'll be right back!" And leaves the dungeon.

"No hurry. Take your time," Antoine says, seeing the guard leaves.

Once the guard is gone, Antoine brings out the key card. He then puts it in the slot and the dungeon opens.

Then the door opens, "Now… to find Bunnie, see if she has gathered ze intelligence as she planned, and zen to get out of here and find Tails and Cosmo."

He then begins to sneak away as he says to himself, "Which is not be so hard, seeing how stupid zey are. Peh! Cannot even tell the difference between margarine…" but is not aware Speedy is close by.

And the young Bird answers, "Hello…"

"… Butter?" Antoine says, a little surprised.

He then turns his head to see Speedy.

Caught and a little surprised, Antoine asks, "You are not ze cooking type, non?"

Back in the personal office of the Battle Bird Armada where Bunnie is.

The Battle Lord continues, "And our entire base runs off of…"

Suddenly the alarm goes off.

"What the devil?!" The Battle Lord questions.

"Oh no…" Bunnie says, concerned.

The Battle Lord turns his head to the screen, "Speedy! Explain yourself!"

On the screen, Speedy answers, "One of the prisoners from last night's operation has escaped! I am in pursuit!"

"What a resourceful prisoner! I can see why the deep cover is needed!" The Battle Lord says.

"And it needs mah personal touch. If you'll excuse me, ah need to perform damage control," Bunnie says, and leaves the office of the Battle Lord.

She fears for her husband who could be in big trouble if Speedy catches him.

Meanwhile, under the water, Tails and Cosmo have problems of their own. They are being attacked by torpedoes from the Avian Mobian soldiers. Tails drives the Sea Fox and eludes the attacks.

"The sensors on the Sea Fox are top-of-the-line! A whole group of enemy subs shouldn't have been able to sneak up on me like this," Tails says, driving the Sea Fox away from the attacks.

"They must have something that made them unable to be seen by your sensor," Cosmo says.

"I was thinking the same, hang on," Tails says, and puts on his head set.

He then calls them, "Do you mind telling me what kind of cloaking or dampening tech you guys use…? It's got to be brilliant!"

Luck is on their side as one of them answers, "Aw, really? We've got this great inventor guy, Doctor Fu… Foo.. Foo… er…"

"Fu.. Foo… Foo…?" Cosmo says, confused.

Suddenly, one of the soldiers angrily shouts, "Don't talk to them, you idiot! Sink them! SINK THEM!"

Soon, the soldiers begin to fire at Tails once more as the Twin Tail fox dodges the attack being striked at the Sea Fox.

Tails says, "Have it your way, then! If you won't talk, we'll fight!"

With that, Tails has a blaster come out of the Sea Fox and it fires at the Aramada's sub, destroying it. With that, Tails continues to fire at the enemy, destroying their subs.

Tails laughs, "Ha ha ha! Let's see Sonic and Eve do that."

"I think they can do this with their eyes closed," Cosmo says with a smile.

Tails chuckles, "Who am I kidding? Of course they can."

But their laugh is cut short when something blasts at then, and Tails quickly fires back.

Seeing the missile coming at them, the soldier panics, "Ah! No! I'm sorry! It was an accident!"

Yet the torpedo strikes and destroys the sub.

In the Sea Fox, the hatch glass window cracks and begins to take in water.

"I hope that was the last one. We need to surface… fast!" Tails says, and drives the Sea Fox back to the surface.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Armada secret base, Antoune is trying to get away from the soldiers.

"Mon dieu! How am I always getting into these messies?! I am needing ze place to hide and regroup and… ah!" Antoune says in a panic, but stops to see a door.

"Zat should do eet!" Antoine says, and quickly runs to the door.

Antoune quickly opens the door and is about to run out, but yelps to see that the door doesn't lead to the exit he's expecting. And it's in a very high spot on the fake island.

Antoune screams in a state of panic, "WHO PUTS A DOOR LIKE ZAT IN A PLACE LIKE ZIS?!"

Antoine doesn't knock which is worse, being surrounded by guards or having to jump from a high location.

Suddenly, Antoine notices something from below, "Wait… is zat?"

Antoine then turns to see Speedy and some of the Armada soldiers.

"Don't be stupid! Surrender and I'll go easy on you!" Speedy angrily says.

But Bunnie hurries over and pushes him out of the way, "You won't touch him! He's mind!"

"I don't care if you're Dark Egg Legion! I don't care if you answer to the fat man himself! While you're on this station, you answer to the Armada!" Speedy argues.

"The Battle Lord gave me full clearance to do so as ah see fit, so you can just button yer beak!" Bunnie argues.

Antoine is a little confused about saying Bunnie is a Dark Legion, but remembers about Bunnie's robotic limbs and realizes that Bunnie is pretending to be a spy for them to get information. He knows that he needs to keep Bunnie's true identity a secret so the Battle Bird Armada could continue trusting her.

He then decides to put on a performance of his own, so he pretends to act shocked at the statements, "Dark Egg Legion? Clearance from ze 'Battle Lord' You.. are you working with zem?

Unaware of her husband's true intentions, Bunnie tries to explain to Antoine, "Antoine, honey… ah don't have to explain. Just come with me and ah promise everything will be fine!"

Seeing that Bunnie is trying to reason with him, Antoine needs to come up with a different approach, he turns to the open hatch and comes up with an addition to his plan.

He then begins to perform a sense of betrayal and plans his escape, "Non. I am seeing things clearly, now."

Then says dramatically, "Silver warned us of a traitor in ze Freedom Fighters. You insisted we 'get away from it all.' I finally see eet all for what eet is."

"No! Antoine, ah promise ah'll explain," Bunnie begs.

Speedy crosses his arms and rolls his eyes in reply.

"I don't want to hear eet! Goodbye cruel world," Antoine says, pulling off a performing feat.

Then begins to fall back out of the open hatch.

"Antoine?! Antoine!" Bunnie rushes in fright.

But it's too late, Antoine falls out of the hatch and falls towards the sea.

Bunnie runs out and screams, "NO!"

Talk about a real fiasco, Antoine is falling to the watery grave as Bunnie helplessly watches, trying to continue her act as a Dark Egg Legion Spy. And not sure what is happening to Tails and Cosmo. Will the Freedom Fighters be able to get out of this mess?