So… here we are again for another chapter and ohohoho have I been waiting for this set of chapters for quite a while. This is honestly, the thing that pushed me to make this an actual fanfic in the first place. So you better believe that I am hype to get into this. Oh and if I'm late, don't think it's because I thought "Oh, I'm late I gotta split this chapter." Nah, this one was always meant to be split in two.
Additionally, I just actually counted out how long this story is going to be. Like, I've had it planned out whats gonna happen when for some time but I didn't think of how many chapters this would be. It's around 40 so this'll definitely be a wild ride.
But now for Review replies:

SpiderDom321:
Haha. I'm glad you liked it. And it's true. Good thing I can have him and still give the others a bit of the spotlight.

Alexandria Prime:
Idk… are they real? Y'never know… haha!

bajy:
Thank you!

SaltwaterJanuary:
Thank you! I'm glad you like it!

Infinite's Ruby:
Thanks so much, I'm glad you like it!

Tekina Fiction:
We did talk, but I'll just bring up the most important part of our discussion and your review.
You're not supposed to understand what's going on with Chaos/Angel Island/etc. Things will become more real as the story goes on.

Sonic Forces:

Chapter 7-

Reviving Hope Part 1- Setting the Stage

A tan screen was shown before the logo of the Eggman Empire appeared on the screen with cheerful, old timey infomercial music playing in the background.

THE EGGMAN EMPIRE! It's not what you think! Faded to life on the screen.

The scene then changed to a cheerful little city with the sun shining all around them.

"Why live here?" Eggman asked.

Suddenly, little popping noises sounded and grey buildings with smoke billowing out the top appeared all around along with all kinds of mechanical monstrosities. The sky darkened and a mechanical groan of agony was let out in the background.

"When you could live, HERE?"

A dark cloud then transitioned on the screen to reveal a blue background where a red wolf in green boots and green gloves was standing there shrugging.

"You're probably asking yourself 'don't I need clean air to live?'"

A question mark appeared over the wolf's head before the scene transitioned again.

This time it went to a cute little caterpillar against a greenish background. It let out a light cough to which puffs of smoke came out.

"Why of course you don't. Not with Doctor Eggman's all inclusive robotomy treatment that is!"

The words came up on the screen as he spoke them.

ZAP!

An electric sound was heard and ripples came across the screen. Now, in the caterpillar's place was the mighty sandworm, which let out a mean growl.

"Perks include,"

The scene then transitioned to a clipboard that read along the top, NOT TO DO LIST.

"Never having to eat…"

EAT was added to the list and ticked off.

"Sleep…"

SLEEP was added to the list and ticked off.

"Or think ever again!"

THINK was added to the list and ticked off.

One of the Eggpongs was now staring out at the screen.

"That's what we call living the good life!"

The robot then had a smile on its face at that.

The scene then transitioned again, this time with a whole crowd of Eggpongs happily waving towards the screen, the Eggman Empire logo was in the background as it slowly zoomed out to show more of them.

"Come live in Doctor Eggman's Empire and begin your new life; where the possibilities are… INFINITE"

The scene darkened a bit as the masked one, who they now knew as Infinite appeared behind them, looking menacing as he glared out at the screen.

"You'll love it!"

He paused for a moment and then added, "Love mandatory." to which the words appeared along the bottom of the screen.

The scene then transitioned back to the Eggman Empire logo where it read, JOIN THE EGGMAN EMPIRE TODAY! As the catchy, old timey infomercial music started up again. [1]

The resistance stood in their base of operations looking up at their massive screen where the music continued to play out to them.

Sonic crinckled his nose in disgust. "Ugh… what is that trash?"

"Eggman's been broadcasting this garbage propaganda ever since he took control." Knuckles explained. "Everything that airs these days is Eggman produced."

"TV run by Eggman? What kind of shows can there be from a guy who has no tastes."

Everyone in the room laughed at that.

Knuckles continued. "While some of these shows can be rather… questionable. A lot of them meet their goal of lowering morale for people all over the world and that's not good."

Celeste was confused by that. "But why would TV do that?"

"It's a power play, dear." Rouge answered. "People spend far too much time sitting around, staring at the TV that it can have an effect on them."

"Okay, so does that mean we go in and smash some TVs?" Corvin grinned as he punched his first into his open palm.

Amy shook her head. "As much as I would love to see you all destroy people's personal possessions, that's not what this is about."

"Television can affect a lot of people." Silver said. "You think it's bad now? In the future, it's even worse."

Knuckles shook his head. "The fact that you people have such a universal way to waste your time works to our advantage in this case."

"What's on your mind?" Vector asked.

"Since Sonic was defeated, the world has been losing more and more hope." Knuckles stated. "But now we have him here and the world needs to know that Sonic is alive. And what better way than to broadcast it on live TV for the entire world to see?"

"Well, it's better than that crap that Eggman shows, that's for sure." Vector said.

Gadget looked confused. "But how are we gonna get Sonic on TV?"

"I'm glad you asked. Rouge?" Knuckles grinned and then gestured to Rouge.

Rouge looked at Amy and nodded. A world map appeared on the screen in place of what appeared to be Eggman eating cereal while Chaos, Zavok, Metal and Shadow were break dancing in the background and Infinite was spitting rhymes about the Eggman Empire It was odd.

"Knuckles already told you that Eggman has control over all the airwaves and uses that to broadcast his agenda all over the world. But what he hasn't told you is and how and where he does it from."

The map shifted and zoomed to show an area represented by a few futuristic looking buildings as well as the logo of the Eggman Empire sitting over it. Underneath, it read "Metropolis."

Vector's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Oh no! That's suicide! No way are we goin' to Metropolis!"

Rhythm nodded. "I agree. We can't just storm into Eggman's stronghold just for this."

"Afraid of a few blasters pointed in your direction, Vector darling?" Rouge mused.

"I ain't afraid of nothin'" The crocodile huffed as he crossed his arms and looked away from them.

"And you shouldn't be. The airwaves aren't monitored out of Metropolis, but an external facility on the outskirts of Metropolis. It's where all the magic happens for him."

"If we're able to get in there, then we should be able to hack the airwaves and broadcast our message to the entire world." Amy smiled.

"That's why we're sending in a team to this facility in order to take care of it." Knuckles smiled. "Rouge has a chip that will hand over control of the airwaves to us and she's gonna need a team to escort her inside."

Rouge nodded. "I'll take Beta Squad with me to take care of it and how about the little cutie that saved Sonic yesterday."

Celeste flushed at that. "Uh… who me?"

"Sure. You look like you can fight. Why not help us out on this mission?" She smiled.

"Uh- well, yeah. Sure. Okay." Celeste agreed, albeit a little shakily.

"Then it's settled, the six of you will head out to the facility and take care of it." Knuckles confirmed.

"Sounds like a plan." Sonic beamed. "But y'know Knux, I don't do interviews."

"And that's why you'll be doing what you do best, saving the world." Knuckles confirmed.

"Oh?"

"I thought to myself, what better way than showing you off to the world than by showing you in your element?"

"I like the sound of that!"

"So after looking at how things are going all over the world, we found that with all the work we've been putting into Sunset Heights, we might actually be able to retake it."

"We're retaking Sunset Heights?!" Celeste gasped.

"Yes. Phase two of the plan will be retaking Sunset Heights. Espio, Silver, I'm not sure why but the world has taken a particular liking to you two and has looked to you guys to take Sonic's place. Can you guys start a fight and take on some of the Death Egg Robots with Vector?" [2]

Espio and Silver nodded while Espio patted him on the back. "You can count on us, boss."

"Charmy, you'll work the camera, recording everything in Sunset Heights."

"Okay, so if Espio and Silver are busy being bigshots then what about, me?"

"You're gonna lay low for a bit." Knuckles states. "But when the time comes, I want you to go out and do your thing, be as big and showy as you usually are and make sure the world knows that Sonic is alive."

Sonic smirked. "I like the sound of that."

"Alright then, any questions?"

Celeste spoke up. "I want to be on the team to save Sunset Heights!"

Knuckles frowned at her. "No, rookie. You have your mission, you're going to the facility near Metropolis."

Celeste frowned. She was ready to agree, but she found herself shaking her head. "No!"

"What?!"

"No!" Celeste repeated, catching herself off guard. But she continued. "Sunset Heights is my home! My entire life is there, if someone should save it then I should be on the team that does it!"

Knuckles just shook his head. "Listen rookie, you're new around here and that's fine. But when I tell you that you're on this mission then you're on this mission."

"But-"

"That's an order! Got it?"

Celeste glared at him, to which he returned with his own scowl. The others looked concerned at her. She was pushing her luck and she knew it. To stand up against Knuckles the Echidna like this was suicide; but she did it anyway.

It was just that Sunset Heights was her home, she was born and raised there and to see it fall was unbearable. She had been so scared before but she wasn't now. She wanted to save it and take her home back.

Knuckles still stared her down, waiting for her to falter.

She was acting like a child and everyone could see it. With a sigh, she buckled under. "Okay. I'll go to the facility."

"Good." Knuckles smirked, satisfied that he had won the battle.

"Amy and I will be back here to be inspirational. You won't have as much support on our end, but I think you should be okay. Rouge knows where you're going and the battle for Sunset should be a sinch."

They all nodded and gave their affirmatives.

"Now, let's save the world people!"

They all ran off.

At the docking station, Celeste grabbed onto Sonic's arm before he could get into the ship.

With wide, childlike eyes, she looked at him and told him, "Please save my home, Sonic."

Sonic was a little taken aback by this. He didn't expect it from Celeste, but there she was. He gave her that winning smile that the world knew him for. "I promise."

~Sonic Forces~

Celeste watched out the window as they flew towards the facility. The land stretched out beneath them in a blur as they continued to fly. Over cities and forests, deserts and oceans, it was a long way to go to Metropolis but she supposed that with how long they'd been flying they would arrive shortly.

Rouge took to herself, occasionally conversing with Fierro about what the facility was like and what they should look out for, Corvin and Rhythm were as chatty with each other as ever still talking about the Death Egg and all, Gadget sat next to Celeste not saying much except for occasional mumbling over what was in the first aid kit.

But after the umpteenth check of the kit, the wolf looked to the younger dog and decided to break the silence. "Celeste, are you okay?"

Celeste looked away from the window at her new friend and sighed. "I'm fine. I just… I really wanted to help out the others in Sunset."

"I know what you mean. Sunset's my home too. Or well, it's become a home to me. I grew up in Megalo Station where everything is always so chaotic and crazy everybody's always running around and things are so busy. But when I went to SHU everything was so calm and the view was incredible. Sunset is my home and I hate to see what's happened to it."

"Then how are you okay with this?"

"I've been in the resistance for months now." Gadget admitted. "Sometimes we're not where we want to be with everything that's going on. Sometimes that's because of orders and sometimes it's just because just can't be where we need to be."

She sadly nodded.

"I know it hurts not to be saving Sunset but we've got a job to do at this facility. And we've got nothing to worry about, Sonic and the others are like superheroes, they'll be able to save Sunset no problem."

Celeste smiled. "You're right. Thank you, Gadget."

The wolf smiled back to her. "Of course."

With that, the two fell into light conversation; Corvin and Rhythm eventually joined in as well. It was a pretty lighthearted flight after that.

~Sonic Forces~

When they opened the hatch, day had turned to night, it was as if they were in a gigantic city with buildings higher than the eyes could see. Bright spotlights waved all around and there were all kinds of advertisements for places like "CLUB SPIN," "AGES" and all kinds of things. They all couldn't help but look in awe at the great sights despite the dancing caricatures of Doctor Eggman all over the place.

"I could jam to this." Rhythm commented at the bopping music sounding all around them.

Suddenly a pole came out of the ground with a metal sculpture of Eggman's head on top of it, a little intercom was in the mouth that had a little intercom in the mouth.

Eggman's voice boomed from the PA. "Come one, come all to the grandest place in The Eggman Empire! Here is where the magic happens as we broadcast everything live for everything you can see and what more can you expect from one of the best ideas your righteous ruler could come up with, STUDIOPOLIS ZONE!"

"Studiopolis, huh?" Corvin smirked putting a hand on his hip.

"So cool!" Celeste gaped.

Rouge just shook her head. "Yes… it's very pretty. But we have a job to do, children."

"I'm older than you." Fierro deadpanned.

Rouge looked at her and smirked. "And I outrank you."

Fierro scowled at that, but followed after the bat as well, they were off through the massive city that was Studiopolis Zone.

"Our best course of action would be to go along the rooftops." Rouge continued. "I don't like the idea of dealing with whatever traps Eggman has on the ground."

Fierro nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Gadget just shuddered. "Heights… great."

Celeste gave him a light smile before they made their way up onto the rooftops.

As soon as they made their way on top of a building, a bright spotlight shone down on them to which they had to cover their eyes for a moment to adjust to the brightness.

When they were finally able to adjust they could see a horde of enemies making the drop on them, a whole carton of Eggpawns and a colony of these bat like robots and these strange floating ball enemies with a few balls spinning around them.

"Looks like we've got trouble." Rouge mused. "Guess we should've known for Eggman to be up to his tricks."

"And looks like he brought some of your family along, Rouge." Corvin joked.

Rouge flew up to one and sent a harsh kick into it, breaking it apart. "That is not one of mine."

And like that, the battle began.

Rouge took to chasing after the odd camera bat Badniks, breaking them to pieces.

Gadget was on some of the Eggpawns, firing his small plumes of flame into them, roasting and toasting them into submission.

Corvin took to his gear and brought Rhythm along with him, riding along the fray as she swung her massive hammer into whatever might come their way.

Fierro took to pouncing on her enemies rather than busting out her void wispon just yet. She made her way around the building punching and kicking her way through it all.

As for Celeste, she had her short electric wispon at her side and snapped her whip into the robots around her.

Having improved, it was almost a dance for her as she spun and twirled a path of destruction in front of her.

Sparks flew and parts scattered about as the resistance fighters continued to demolish the robots around them, but as they continued to fight, more appeared to take their place.

They were everywhere.

"We need to get out of here!" Fierro called out as one of them fell apart under her fist. "There are too many robots, we'll be overwhelmed."

Rouge sent another kick into one of the bat badniks and agrreed. "Fi's right. I hate to fight and run but this is getting us nowhere."

She flew off to which the bats followed her.

"Welp, thanks for coming out everyone. But Air Corvin is making its departure." Corvin added as he veered his board in the direction that Rouge went.

Fierro was already off and running herself.

Gadget and Celeste looked at one another and shrugged before running off.

They skipped over the tops of buildings as they chased after them.

They went over a few buildings but the robots were still on their tail. Fierro had decided to skid to a halt and turned back to the horde of robots. With that, she drew her wispon and with a single click, a massive ball of energy came out of her wispon. They were gathered together and destroyed.
She smiled at that only for more of the swarm to come at them, making her turn tail and run again.

"That didn't work!" Celeste called out as Fierro caught up with the group.

"No kidding!" Corvin yelled.

Fierro took charge though. "Rouge, how far are we from our destination?"

"Not too long now." She pointed off in the distance. "There's a pathway leading down to the central control room. That'll be where we make the insertion."

Fierro nodded and stopped again. "Betas together!"

All of them, Celeste and Rouge included looked to her, confusedly.

"We're standing our ground here, clear up all the enemies and then proceed to the control room."

"But there are so many of them!" Gadget shouted.

"Then we watch each other's backs." She insisted. "Just go wild on them and make sure that we're all standing together. If we can keep this up long enough, my Wispon can recharge and we should be in the clear."

"Our little ace in the hole." Rhythm mused. "Where would we be without the void?"

"Dead." Gadget answered. He put a hand to his chin in thought before adding, "Or worse."

"That's how the world is these days." Corvin patted him on the back.

"Alright, Fierro. We'll follow your plan." Rouge nodded. "Just make sure that Wispon of yours is ready." She then put gestured to herself and added, "We're dealing with precious cargo here after all."

Fierro rolled her eyes while Celeste couldn't help but chuckle at the bat's antics.

But they turned regardless and faced the horde of enemies.

Lights!

Camera!

Action!

They were on the scene and the leader of the group was first, diving into the first of the Eggpongs and ripped it to pieces

One of the bat Badniks tried to go for her but Rouge was quick to fly into it and destroy it, Rouge went after more of the flying robots to which a couple of Eggpongs were getting ready to fire at them, but Gadget was quick to scorch them.

While Gadget was focused on roasting some Eggparwns, some of the spinning Badniks had approached him from behind. But that was until Corvin and Rhythm came by. She jumped off of his board and swung her hammer down, turning the robots to cubes before Corvin revved up his drill and destroyed them.

Smirking, he flew by, ready to get into another fight. But of course, that cockiness is what made one of the bat Badniks be able to advance upon him. But of course, blind spots don't matter too much when you've got friends to watch your back. Electricity flared in the bat's direction and broke it into pieces.

He looked to Celeste who was whipping at all kinds of Badniks like a maniac and gave her a thumbs up before quickly covering her six by ramming into some advancing Eggpongs.

Rhythm swung away at the one of the orb bots advancing on Corvin, like a baseball bat.

Fierro pounced on another Eggpong again as Gadget burned away at an oncoming bat bot.

Rouge was able to take out another Eggpong about to fire on Gadget.

And it went on like this for some time. They continued to fight on in the spotlight, taking on more of Eggman's forces.

And then, there was the sound of a freshly charged void wispon coming into play.

Fierro grinned at that and called out to the others. "Everybody stand back!"

The others scattered at that, ducking for cover as she fired on them, the massive blast of energy washing over the bots, bringing them together and crushing them in the black hole.

They were destroyed and with that, the others gave out sighs of relief.

"Glad that's over." Celeste breathed. "They just kept coming and coming."

"This place is too much excitement…" Gadget added. "I should've just stayed at the base."

Celeste lightly patted him on the back.

Corvin laughed and leaned on his friend's shoulder. "And miss out on all the fun? You can do that on your own, buddy."

Corvin grinned at him to which the wolf smiled back. Rhythm couldn't help but laugh at Corvin's words as well.

Rouge approached Fierro. "Nice plan there, I see why Knuckles made you the big boss of your little crew. You did a good job out there."

"Thank you. But we've still got a job to do."

"Right. We have to keep going, let's go everyone."

With that, they continued onward and very quickly they got on the final path to the end.

Running down the path side by side, Rouge, Celeste and the Betas were feeling pretty good and that was great.

"Just down this path and we'll be there." Rouge said.

"Almost there everyone. Good work!" Fierro exclaimed.

And then a familiar figure flew through the air as they were running towards their destination.

And all of them had their blood run cold at the sight. The black fur, black clothes, silver mask and the pulsing ruby gem tipped them off exactly who it was as he took off in front of them.

"Infinite!" Celeste cried.

But he did not respond to her cry with words, but instead with the blinding glow of the gem on his chest and the sound of distortion ringing out all around them.

When the light cleared floating before them were a whole pack of these strange multicolored robots, each one was different. All of them were spherical in shape with simple metal arms and legs but then they all had their own function.

The first of which was a blue one decked out in a police outfit with a star badge, alarm atop its head and everything. It hovered in front of them on a jetpack while toting a heavy looking bazooka on its shoulder armed to the teeth with multiple rockets for it to use.

The next one was the simplest of the bunch and green in color. It wore scarf around its neck that flowed in the wind. It was meditating in the air in front of them and had a dangerous blade sheathed on a compartment on its side.

Another was yellow in color and decked out in magician with a tophat of the same color and a flowing magical cape. It didn't have a weapon like the others but waved its hands around to give an air of mystery like an actual magician would.

Then there was a purple one which was decked out like a knight complete with the helmet that even had a feather on the top of its head. It rode atop one of the classic motobugs with the ladybug print unlike the sleek and silver ones that Eggman had been mass producing for his Empire.

And wrapping up the group was the largest one. It wasn't massive or anything but definitely dwarfed the pack. This one was red in color and decked out like a king with gold trimming and the design of a crown on its stomach. It brandished a scepter and looked down at them with a certain air of authority showing that he truly was a titanic monarch.

Infinite put a hand to his chin in thought as the robots surrounded him. "Interesting… the doctor never informed me these… Hard Boiled Heavies? Yet I seem to remember them. No matter, they will do for your destruction. I am needed elsewhere."

He made an Infinity logo with his hands before there was a ripple of the red energy from his chest that went into the robots and with that he flew off.

~Sonic Forces~

Celeste was shocked and scared at the sight of Infinite right here in Studiopolis. But it looked to her that he disappeared as soon as he appeared and left them with these strange robots.

Hard Boiled Heavies he called them?

She gave that the name definitely sounded like Eggman.

But now she had to face the one with the police themed heavy since the others of the bunch seemingly disappeared from view. Now that was bizarre.

She looked to the others to comment only to find that they too were gone.

Great.

Infinite and his strange powers probably split them up somehow.

She could worry about these things later though, right now the Heavy Gunner glared her down and was prepared for battle.

The machine looked down at her with its piercing red eyes and gave her a salute.

"Officer." She returned the gesture.

It didn't reply and instead flew up on its jetpack. She followed its flight path until it was behind her and with that, it hefted its gigantic rocket launcher on its shoulder.

Oh crap! Celeste thought as she broke into a run and the explosions started behind her.

~Sonic Forces~

Gadget was still trying to get over his mortal terror over the fact that Infinite himself had appeared before them. That was twice in less than twenty four hours and he was just about ready to die at that.

But he had to put on a brave face since it looked like he was all alone with the green robot now.

It stared him down before whipped out his blade and aced him.

"Great…" Gadget deadpanned. "The most dangerous guy on the planet shows up and now I'm facing off against a robot Ninja. Could it get any worse?"

With a mighty swing of the blade, the Heavy Shinobi sent a wave at white energy that Gadget jumped out of the way of.

Gadget gaped at the Heavy looking between it and where the energy blast had struck that was now frozen solid in ice.

"I spoke too soon."

~Sonic Forces~

Rhythm didn't like this change of tune this mission was taking. But she didn't mind the funky music that seemed to come with the Hard Boiled Heavy. Part of her wanted to break out and dance, but she had the Heavy Magician to deal with here.

The thing had given her a final tip of the hat before it took out a deck of cards. With that, it shuffled it between its hands doing all kinds of crazy card tricks before it finally held out a hand to her.

"Not bad." She clapped.

And then, it happened.

The thing took the hand and threw them at her at incredible speeds.

With a shriek, she jumped out of the way of the attack as they pierced the ground where she stood and stuck there.

"Now that's a magic trick I don't like!"

The magician took out another deck off cards and tried to go for her again.

She jumped up and over them again and landed in a crouch.

"Alright, that's it! Your act is cancelled!"

With that, she took out her hammer and ran towards the Heavy magician.

~Sonic Forces~

Corvin and the Heavy Rider were staring each other down. Corvin had his board at his side and the rider Sat pretty proudly atop its motobug.

The two riders stared each other down and then it was time to race.

They both took of down the path at incredibly high speeds.

~Sonic Forces~

Rouge and Fierro were actually the only two that were together in this case. But they couldn't see any of the others.

Fierro sighed. She really didn't want to be stuck with Rouge.

But with the king twirling its scepter around at them like it was a baton they knew there was only one way out of there.

"Well Fierro, looks like the two of us are going to have to work together to take on this bad boy."

The cat sighed and nodded knowing the truth. "Right."

"Who knows? You might learn something from one of the pros today."

Fierro raised an eyeridge at her in annoyance but said nothing.

The Heavy King finished his opening stance by pointing his scepter out at them to which they both got in battle ready stances.

And with that, the electricity surged out towards them.

~Sonic Forces~

Celeste was on the run from the studio police. [3]

She screamed as she had to run as fast as humanly possible from the Heavy Gunner firing an entire battery of explosives at her. As soon as she lifted a foot off of the ground one of the many rockets would find themselves there.

She was gonna tire herself out eventually, she had to think of a plan quick, but with so much going on that was going to be impossible.

Her eyes darted around the path looking for just about anything and that's when she took notice of the buildings all around her. The place had all kinds of neon signs and the like that were jutting out of the buildings around her.

If she could get off the ground with her grappling hook, then maybe she could try and surprise the thing by getting the jump on it from above.

Risky. But worth a shot. She didn't really have any other options at this point.

She thrust her hand out towards one of the CLUB AGES signs to which the metal wire came loose and struck on the sign. She shrieked as the wire carried her to the sign before she used it to come onto another even higher above.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by the Heavy Gunner who tried its best to follow her movements and hit her, but her grappling was too fast.

When she landed on the second sign that's when she hung off of it, not daring to look down but could spot her opponent rocketing towards her.

Quickly, she thrust her hand towards it and out came the grapple propelling her into the Hard Boiled Heavy that she kicked in the face, knocking it into another one of the building.

Using the grappling hook she staggered to the ground and smirked. The Hard Boiled Heavy had gone sunny side up.

And that's when a rocket came out of the hole it had made in the building.

Celeste had some choice words for the robot at that, but did the first thing that came to mind and grappled out of the way.

This ended with her clinging to the side of the building as it used the jetpack to race towards where she had been.

Using that she tried the same trick again and grappled onto it, only this time taking out her wispon and giving it a swipe of the electric whip.

The robot sputtered and clanked for a moment and she thought surely that was the end.

But it stopped and glared her down again.

It fired again and she yelped. This time, she blindly lashed her whip out at the oncoming missiles.

It managed to hit each of them and while most exploded just there, one actually deflected off off it and went straight back to the recipient to which the robot looked wide eyed.

It was destroyed in an instant.

~Sonic Forces~

Gadget was all over the place trying to dodge the icy slices from the Heavy Shinobi.

He ran around like a maniac running and jumping and dodging over the relentless swipes from the green heavy.

It was a good thing that no one was really around because the amount of screaming the wolf had done would've knocked out most people's lungs at this point. But Gadget still carried on and yelled to his very heart's content.

And the robot made chase too, jumping wherever Gadget once was, so that didn't make it better.

With everything going on, the poor wolf didn't even have time to pull out his wispon, so it was only evasive maneuvers for him.

But that's when things got interesting for him. The Heavy Shinobi had been right on his tail, jumping so fast as if it were appearing and disappearing from sight.

But something interesting happened when Gadget approached a wall and had to turn in the opposite direction.

The Heavy Shinobi had arrived as usual but swung only to find its sword lodged into the wall and freeze on contact. Gadget looked at it and saw it struggling to pry itself free, but to no avail.

Gadget grinned and used that time to take out his wispon. He fired the usual burst of flame at it and it began to sputter and spark for a moment, but the blade was set free at the same time. It was back to the jumping around again.

Gadget knew that he could try the same trick again though and that was exactly what he did.

The thing sputtered and sparked once more and just when Gadget thought it was over, it came back at him again, this time it took to a different method. Like a spinning top, it spun around and around the icy energy coming out and around it in a wave.

Of course, being the coward he thought he was, he reacted fast. Gadget jumped up into the air and grappled onto one of the buildings only to come down again, attacking with yet another shot from the Wispon.

The Hard Boiled Heavy sputtered and sparked and exploded into nothing.

Gadget let out a sigh of relief at that.

~Sonic Forces~

Rhythm went in swinging only to have to quickly duck away from a full deck of trouble when the Heavy Magician went on the attack again.

She dove to the side only to tuck and roll and break into a run as it continued to fire at her.

But soon it ran out of cards again and did the thing where it needed to shuffle again.

She advanced only to backpedal again when it started throwing agan.

Rhythm grit her teeth in frustration. No matter what, the Heavy Magician was always able to reshuffle its deck before she could club the thing with her hammer. She had to get close somehow while it was still firing away at her.

And that's when she remembered her grapple, use momentum to her advantage.

So when it fired at her again she was swinging from wire to wire like Tarzan. It was a blast. And then, she flung herself towards the Heavy Magician as it tried to reshuffle, swinging down on it hard.

Like the other heavies, it sputtered and clacked at that but managed to get back on track. Reshuffling its deck and fired on her again.

But using the same trick, she was able to get it a second time.

The Heavy Magician started shuffling again but looked at her and decided to toss the playing cards aside, not bothering to fight her that way.

Rhythm didn't waste time and charged it only for it to take off its hat and reach inside in that classic magician fashion.

At that very momemnt a flurry of mechanical doves came out of the hat and flew at her. Rather than be scared she just went in swinging.

The Heavy Magician just continued releasing the doves while she slowly made her way through.

But soon she closed the gap and with a final, heavy swing she punted the robot into the air where it exploded into a pile of scrap metal.

~Sonic Forces~

Corvin and the Heavy Rider were racing around like maniacs.

Corvin tried his best to try and get to the Heavy Rider and destroy it but it made sure to keep him away with that mace that it had on it. He had to jump and dive and veer his way away from each and every one of the shots from the spikey ball of doom.

And it just kept going and going too.

The bird scowled at the machine who simply continued their onslaught of attacks on him. Everytime the mace came at him, he had to dodge in some way, shape or form. And it was a pity because with all the tricks he did to evade it, it would've been cool if someone saw. The life of an underrated gear rider sucked.

When the Heavy Rider took another swing at him, he didn't have much to do and made a hard stop.

The Heavy Rider ended up racing far ahead of him at that. Corvin was about to punch it and catch up, but that's when he noticed he had an opening to the robot's exposed back. A chance he knew he couldn't miss.

So quickly taking out his drill wispon, he fired away at the robot.

He met it head on and the robot began to spark and sputter.

He grinned and reared around to attack it again before it had the chance to recuperate.

He hit again and was able to get it a second time.

He tried to get at it one more time, but seemed the robot was able to get back on its feet pretty quick.

This time it faced towards him and charged at him, swinging its mace up above its head and prepared to strike him. Of course, he was the same with his drill at his side.

They were like two jousters back in the middle ages prepared to duel one another for a kingdom and with this mission at stake, it meant all the world to Corvin.

So that's how he went charging towards the Heavy Rider.

They both swerved around each other in fear of hitting one another only to veer around and go for each other again only for the same thing to happen.

So what did Corvin do?

He decided to jump off his board, letting it zip past the Heavy Rider to which it looked confusedly at the board, giving him the perfect time to rev up his drill and charge into it on foot.

It exploded into a fiery ball of metal as the momentum from the wispon sent him right back onto his gear to which he breaked and looked triumphantly at the destruction with his hands on his hips.

~Sonic Forces~

Rouge and Fierro split up only to find that the thing was able to split its blasts of electricity into two deadly beams of death. They too ran around in an attempt to join their pursuer but he was relentless in trying to get them.

The electricity came down in powerful streams of energy that scorched left a long scorch mark in its place.

Rouge and Fierro knew they needed to take on the Heavy King somehow, but they couldn't get nearly close enough as it attacked the two of them at once. So what were they to do?

They weren't sure. But they had to work fast.

"We have to get to that thing!" Fierro shouted.

"No kidding! How do we expect to do that?!"

"No idea! You're the professional! I was hoping you had an idea!"

"Well... "

She was stumped at that one to which Fierro was slightly satisfied.

So they just continued running for a while longer as they both tried to analyze the situation. All that electricity was no good and keeping them away from the massive robot. There was no way they could get close with all of that. They couldn't do anything.

But it was the electricity that gave Fierro a bit of a risky idea.

"Rouge!"

The bat eyed her, not daring to stop.

"Come to me! We're gonna cross paths but whatever you do, don't stop running."

"Alright!"

The two did exactly that and passed one another.

When they did, the two streams of electricity met each other head on and caused an explosion that left a bit fog in its wake.

The Heavy King was surprised at this and cautiously peered into the fog to find the two resistance fighters. He fired random shots of lightning into it hoping that he would hit them.

What he didn't expect were two fists to come out of the smoke and punch it square in what would've been its jaw.

He was blown back and landed on one foot, convulsing a bit like the other heavies before him.

Rouge and Omega tried to rush him again only for the king to regain his composure and fire two balls of electricity at them.

This time, it tapped its scepter on the floor and balls of electricity appeared swirling around him. He pointed his scepter at the two of them and the balls of energy rushed towards them both.

They both ran away only for the balls to follow after them.

Rouge however decided to take off into the sky and flew alongside Fierro. "Follow my lead!"

Fierro nodded as the bat sped up and she followed after her.

The two went round and around the room, the balls of death still keeping up with them at every single turn.

The Heavy King put a hand on its hip and watched them. His chest puffing as if he were laughing.

But then they started running in his direction to which he was surprised.

He tried to jump out of the way. But they met him instead, with Rouge swerving over him and Fierro sliding under, leaving the balls of electricity to slam into him and causing him to sputter and clank once more.

They tried to get him one more time, but he was able to jump back on both feet again.

The Heavy King tossed his staff aside and began to radiate pure electricity.

It floated in the air and fired off the balls of electricity at them. This time they didn't home in, but they still had a hard time avoiding it.

And with the electricity surrounding his body they couldn't attack. Unfortunately, they didn't have weapons like all the others. What were they going to do?

And that's when they heard a click and realized Fierro did in fact have a weapon. It was now fully charged and ready for destruction.

Taking careful aim, she fired at the Heavy King and it was enveloped in a black hole, turning to nothingness.

Rouge and Fierro cheered giving each other a high five.

~Sonic Forces~

They all destroyed their heavies at the same time, and when they did reality returned to normal. They could all see each other now and were in a large room with a simple, but large flat screen TV that read EGGTV along the bottom. It was split into multiple views of all kinds of different channels with Eggman propaganda, Sonic's defeat all those months ago and more weird programs and ad like the cereal thing from earlier. The screen had a console below with all kinds of big colorful buttons and the like.

All of them looked around and let out sighs of relief at the sight of their friends. Looks like it was all over.

Rouge smiled at Fierro. "I've gotta hand it to you, Fi. You weren't half bad out there. I can definitely see why Knuckie chose you."

Fierro smiled. "I can definitely see why they call you one of the world's greatest treasure hunters, you've got some nice moves."

The two smiled at one another to which the others looked confusedly.

It was kinda obvious that the two didn't get along too well so to see them compliment one another happily was shocking to them.

Rhythm was the one who spoke up. "You too are being friendly? Everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Rouge smiled.

"Never better." Fierro agreed. "Let's just say being faced with a homicidal robot can be a bonding experience."

Corvin laughed. "Ain't that the truth?"

Everyone laughed at that.

"At any rate, looks like we're here." Rouge announced. "This is where the magic happens."

"Glad to finally see the end of this place." Gadget sighed. "I am never coming back to this Studiopolis place ever again."

"We did it!" Celeste cheered.

Rouge then approached the console and pulled out a flashdrive that had the resistance logo on the side. She scanned all the colorful buttons before she found what she was looking for. She smirked and carefully placed it in the port

Turning back to the others, she smiled. "We're live."

[1] For those of you who don't know, this was a Sonic Forces commercial made on the social media. When getting ideas for this fanfic, I figured I could rewrite it and use it to introduce Eggman's broadcasts nicely.

[2] In one of these interviews for Forces, it was in fact confirmed that the world views Espio and Silver as heroes in Sonic's absence. Now that wasn't shown in the game so I've decided to use that fact to put them in the spotlight for this operation. The world loves Silver and Espio so open with them and then surprise them with Sonic's dazzling return.
[3] I have no regrets for any pun except this one. I am so sorry. Lol.

And we're done with part one.

7,000 words? That's longer than I thought. Didn't even think I'd hit 5K with this one. But hey, I did it!
How'd you like this one? This part and the next one was one of the things that actually inspired me to start this fanfic. And it was great. Next time, we'll be in Sunset with Sonic and co. So until then,
R&R