The rays of the morning sun awoke from behind the misty mountain range. Feint light enveloped the forest along the Rockies of the north, eventually shimmering over the clearing in which the Sonic Heroes camped the night previously.
Sunlight tickled Sonic's shut eyelid, making the hedgehog grunt and snort in his half-sleep, mumbling as he rolled over on his hammock, his lazy eye ever so slightly split open to see a huge pair of eyes bearing down on him, causing Sonic to scream in terror, his scream echoing throughout the woods and making birds scatter out the trees; Sonic wobbled his arms before he fell backward out of his hammock onto the ground. Sonic yanked his head up from the dirt, shaking his head to full consciousness, and looked up to see the owner of the looming eyes: none other than Amy Rose, staring at him with the brightest expression as she held an elaborate breakfast platter in her hands.
"Morning, Sonic!" Amy beamed."I made this for you!" she said, holding a plate full of scrambled eggs, a fresh salad, hashbrowns, a glass of milk, and a steaming chilidog in the center." I had to steal some things from a passing caravan and make the bun by hand, but I hope I did a good job!" she beamed.
Sonic leaped to his feet as he stared at the pink hedgehogette and the marvelous dish in confusion."Uh...wow, Amy, this is really nice..." he admitted, taking the chilidog and biting out of it on instinct. It tasted like it was channeled into existence by Amy's unfiltered love, which was made it all the more awkward as he slowly chewed on it, Amy's wide eyes never blinking once."...thanks...?" said Sonic.
Amy then nuzzled her cheek into the paralyzed blue hedgehog's."Anything for you, my darling boyfriend! Of which there is now no longer any ambiguity!" she squealed with her mouth closed as her rate of nuzzling increased. Amy pranced away and hummed musically, dancing on the tip of her toes around the campfire as the rest of the team was seen getting ready for the new day.
Silver stood atop a boulder performing his morning stretch when he saw Sonic."Morning, Sonic, you slept in for a spell," he said, perfectly sober.
Sonic shrugged."Yeah, well, it was a real long night..." he half muttered, taking another bite out of his love-spawned chilidog; a second later, Amy rushed Sonic from behind, rapidly brushing Sonic's fur and quills with dry-cleaning products, sprayed him with deodorant, and fitting a resplendent bathrobe around Sonic before he realized he was wearing it.
Out of a large purple tent emerged Rouge in a purple bathrobe and slippers; tilting up her sleeping mask, she grunted in disgust."Ugh, nature, makes everything so hard to stay clean and presentable; how do you live like this?"
In the next beat, Knuckles popped out of Rouge's tent, stretching his arms as he yawned."Come one, nature's more beautiful than you give it credit for," he assured, then he saw the hedgehog." Morning Sonic...hey, nice clothes, man," he noticed.
Sonic could say very little whilst processing where Knuckles had slept, so he just blinked and changed the subject."Is it just me, or does Amy seem ten times happier to see me than usual?" he said as Amy delightfully scattered flower petals along the path Sonic walked.
"Well, what did you expect?" Silver said, folding his left leg over his shoulder."You're the one who hugged her after the battle last night, not the other way around. I've never even heard of you doing that before..."
"I did?" Sonic muttered, to which his memory reactivated: oh yeah, he did, and it was clear that the hedgehogette had not forgotten, as she ever so delicately trimmed the excess fuzz off of his squills with tiny scissors.
It was then that Tails landed on the rock next to Silver, scanning the team."Okay, is everyone up? I found a map of the northern portion of the Earth Kingdom," he said as he held up the chart.
"I don't think Rouge is ready," pointed out Knuckles," we could prolly' watch a whole movie trilogy while we wait for her..." he joked, to which Rouge humf'd and turned back into her tent while making a face.
Tails hovered over the level dirt as he spread the map along the ground, "Okay, guys, round up!" Everyone that wasn't Rouge or Big (wherever Big was) huddled over Tails's map. Tails placed his Miles Electric (patent pending) onto the map."This is where we are right now," he tapped a certain spot on the map,"so cross-referencing this with the coordinates on the pad, our ship ought to be near or at the Northern Air Temple."
"Air temple?" Sonic repeated.
"Yeah, see, there are four Air Temples, each along the border of all cardinal directions of the Earth Kingdom; they were built by the airbenders, but they were wiped out during the war..."
"There's that 'war' talk again," lamented Silver, "I wish we had come here earlier, if only so we could have stopped the war."
"Well, at least it's over," Amy noted,"the Avatar ended the war and saved this world, just like Sonic-Kun would have!" she beamed.
The blue hedgehog's quills drooped."You're not makin' a habit out of calling me that, are you?"
"I sure am!" said the pink hedgehog.
"Well, we better get a move on then," Knuckles said, turning his head around,"'ey, babe, you ready yet!?"
"Ten minutes, please!" responded Rouge's voice.
This exchange caused Sonic to freeze like a block of ice."...'babe'...?"
"I just don't know what came over me," Katara exhaled.
"Story of my life," Azula said.
"Bloodbending Sokka? How could I? what was..."
"Stay still, please,"Azula interrupted, still fixing up Katara's hair.
The waterbender sighed as she did her best to not move her head."I mean, I know you said what you said about Sokka and how you were trying to mess with my head, but really, I bloodbended him? And just because of what you said?"
"I tend to be very persuasive..." Azula dismissed.
"But there was more," Katara said,"All these feelings in my gut I'd never felt before; this fear, this rage; in that moment, all I thought of was crushing his bones."
"So you wanted to brutally murder your older brother; sounds perfectly natural to me," Azula noted.
"But it wasn't natural at all!" Katara insisted."I've never felt so much hatred for a living thing in my life; I looked my mother's killer in the eye and still couldn't bring myself to take a life! But Sokka? All I could think about was destroying him..."
"You felt betrayed by someone you love, and your mind could not handle the outrage; seriously, the exact same thing happened to me with Mai and Ty Lee."
Katara schrunched her brow."But you're evil."
"Good point."
"And now I don't think I can look Sokka in the eye comfortably; sure, he seems over it, but..." Katara huffed."Look, are you done, Azula? How long does it take to make hair-loopies?"
"See for yourself..." the voice of Azula said, holding a mirror in front of Katara's face, causing her jaw to hang: Azula had weaved the entirety of Katara's long hair into a ring of hair-loopies that surrounded her neck."I know, you're speechless: any peasant can make two hair-loopies, but I went beyond your expectations and created the world's first hair-loopy-loop! Only the absolute pinnacle of fashion for my new best friend!" Azula beamed.
The waterbender twitched."Yup...best friend..."
Barely twelve hours following the escape from outer space and the defeat of Dr. Robotnik, Katara was quick to discover the surreal experience of being friends with Princess Azula: it was nothing like her relationships with Mai and Ty Lee, no, those were her former henchmen, Katara was Azula's first real friend, who's friendship was not defined by some manner of intimidation or need to please the princess and her royal family. This was a friendship offered to the princess unconditionally by the waterbender, which Azula seemed to have processed faster than anyone else.
Sokka and Zuko were quick to accuse Azula of using her friendship with Katara as some elaborate means for her to cease power of the Fire Nation by slowly winning over the favor of the Gaang one by one, then staging Zuko's death so that she could rule the nation with none the wiser - okay, Katara was aware most of that was of Sokka's conception, but either way, Katara didn't think it was fair for Azula to be so hastily judged, and fortunately, Aang and Toph agreed, as did, shockingly, Mai, leaving the teen boys out-voted (quite fortunate that Suki and Ty Lee were absent for the voting process so as not to make it more complicated). Mai insisted she was the one who pushed her over the edge of sanity by betraying her at the boiling rock; but Ty Lee wanted nothing to do with Azula, seeing her as never being her real friend. Could it be that Mai was Azula's original true best friend? Of course, Mai's reasoning was that having Azula pledge allegiance to Fire Lord Zuko would have the Fire Nation less divided over their new monarch, but Katara was hoping that was an excuse to patch things up with Azula. Only time would tell whether that was true...
Speaking of being absent, It was not lost on the waterbender that the halls of the palace that she and Azula freely walked through were rather absent of staff during her stay; and by "absent", she meant "nearly devoid of life". She found herself taken back by the vases and tapestries as they had developed cobwebs during her stay.
"Hey Azula? Can I ask you something?" Katara broached.
"But of course," Azula answered,"Ask me anything about the Fire Nation and its rich history..."
"Okay, so quick history lesson," Katara nodded,"Has the palace always been this empty?"
"Oh no, not at all," said Azula, her hands folded behind her,"That would likely be a side effect of my having banished every last servent and soldier in the palace from the Fire Nation."
"You what?" Katara widened her eyes.
"Oh yes, even the Dai Li," Azula nodded.
"Why!?" Katara exclaimed.
"Well, obviously, none of them could be trusted; the world is full of assassins in wait for blooming monarchs, you know. As a matter of fact, while I was being groomed in preparation for my coronation, one of the servants attempted to choke me to death while I was calmly feasting on cherries."
"That's horrible!" Katara noted.
"Oh yes," Azula said,"why, before you and Zuko had arrived to challenge me, the entire palace was plotting against me: when I called the Dai Li into the throne room, they intentionally waited for five minutes so that they wouldn't be present to stop the assassin they knew was coming for me."
"You're kidding," Katara breathed.
"I wish I was," Azula lamented,"My father secretly sent for my teachers Lo and Li to talk me out of being coronated, simply because my father didn't believe I could handle the responsibility, and out of nowhere they began to fight each other for dominance."
"Well, that just sounds weird..." Katara noted.
"And if THAT wasn't enough, while I was doing my hair, the ghost of my mother appeared in the reflection to remind me of what a monster I am and how all I do is use fear to control others and absolutely devoid of love, and I immediately took a comb and shattered the mirror before she could turn me into a five hundred foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings!"
Katara was dead silent at this."...um, are you sure you didn't just imagine that last part-"
"What are you saying?" Azula quickly snapped her whole body towards Katara."Are you calling me crazy? Have you lost all faith in me just like everyone else and now secretly plotting against me, leading me down this very hall to my death!?" she insinuated as she ominous approached Katara, causing the waterbender to back away early into the wall as Azula peered into her soul with bulging eyes, while the braziers around them began to glow with blue fire.
The tightlipped Katara, bathed in the light of the blue flames, found herself unable to blink as Azula's eyes stayed upon hers."...nnnnnoooooo?" she calmly shook her head, her uncertain voice cracking like Sokka's.
Azula's eye twitched...then she instantly became calm, her content face returning."Well, that's a relief. I must tell you, Katara, it's so nice to have a real friend to consol me for once..." She breathed as she happily continued down the hall, Katara's frightful eyes cautiously tracking her.
But then Azula stopped in place, her brow raised."Do you hear that?"
Katara dreaded the idea that Azula was once again hearing the voices in her head, until she too heard something."Actually, yeah, it sounds like...people?"
"A lot of people..." Azula noted like a detective, then her face was gripped with concern "...they're storming the front gate!" she announced before running off, with Katara following.
The fire and water benders ran into the lobby of the palace, in which numerous Fire Nation soldiers struggled to keep the main doors (admittedly not as big or as fancy as that of the Earth King's throne room) shut as a mass of people from the other side gradually forced them open.
"What's going on here!?" Azula exclaimed.
"That's what I wanna know!" Fire Lord Zuko said as he ran into view."Lieutenant, What's going on here!?"
"It's the people!" the officer said, "All of the citizens living below the volcano have gathered into a riot, your Highness!"
"What are they rioting over?" Azula asked.
"I have no idea, your Highness," the lieutenant bowed in respect.
"HEY!" Fire Lord Zuko threw his angry finger at the soldier,"There's only ONE 'your Highness' in here! Don't you or anyone else ever refer to HER as 'your Highness' ever again!" he demanded, to which Azula pouted.
"Sorry, your Highness..." the soldier bowed in apology.
"THERE SHE IS!" exclaimed a random voice outside the buckling doors.
They noticed a man had climbed on top of the crowd outside and had caught sight of Azula through the widening doors.
"I think I just figured out what they're rioting over..." Katara grimaced.
"GET HEEEEER!"
Upon the cry, the rioting civilians found the strength to push the doors wide open, wide enough for the furious mob to steamroll over the soldiers and stampede straight for Azula, torches, and pitchforks in hand. As Azula readied herself for what could be her last hurrah, a glowing Aang sailed over her from behind with his staff raised upward; the Avatar landed in with a slam of his staff, creating a powerful gail that forcefully halted the frightened crowd in their tracks.
As Aang's eyes turned to normal, he breathed loudly."What's going on here!?" Now was Zuko's turn to pout, as he recalled nobody was near as fazed when he himself asked the exact same question not even one minute before.
"Avatar Aang!" one citizen cried."Why are you stopping us!? Your enemy is standing right behind you!"
"Look out before she strikes you with lightning!" cried another citizen.
Pure reflex whipped Aang's torso around to Azula, just to make sure she was not in fact charging a lightning bolt; his nerves satisfied, he turned back to the hackling crowd."Listen, everyone! You don't have to worry about Azula trying to oppress you or anything like that!"
Azula raised a brow."Why would I oppress my own people? it's not like they're peasants from the colonies..."
At the sound of this, the crowd roared in outrage, throwing a hail of flames, cabbages, even flaming cabbages, which Aang had to go into the Avatar State again to block.
"What did I do?" Azula raised her hands in confusion.
"Dangit, Azula!" Zuko barked with clawed hands."You can't say words like 'peasant' or 'dishonor' or 'banishment' anymore; it's politically incorrect!"
Azula squinted at this new term."...politically...?" she recited slowly."What does that even mean?"
Zuko expression became as dead as his girlfriend's." It's best you never know..."
"Please, calm down, citizens of the Fire Nation!" Katara flung her hands up."Princess Azula has changed her evil ways! She's good now! Right Azula?" She asked.
"But of course," Azula responded in the most-matter-of-fact tone.
"LIES!" called out another member of the mob."We will no longer be deceived by the half-truths and sedition of the Sozin Regime!"
"But I'm not lying," Azula objected,"In fact, I was fixing up my new best friend's hair! Isn't it beautiful?" She happily gestured to the blushing Katara and her hair-loopy loop.
The crowd actually paused to blink at this, maximizing the awkwardness of the moment.
"That hairstyle's not beautiful at all!" cried a citizen.
"SEDITION!" Roared the last citizen gutturally.
The mob resumed their onslaught of flaming cabbages; everyone else who was not in the Avatar State cowered behind the Avatar and his wind barrier.
"WHERE'RE THEY GETTING ALL THESE CABBAGES!?" Zuko yelled over the yelling crowd.
Just outside of the palace, Chit Sang happily handed out cabbages for the citizens to set on fire and throw at Azula at one silver coin per cabbage." Step right up! Step right up and get your bonafide Anti-Azula cabbages! No riot is complete without one!" he sighed contently," damn, I love riots..."
As the full-powered Avatar was visibly struggling against deflecting the volley of overpriced and burning produce while not hurting anyone, it was clear that the rest of the group should then flee the room.
"Let's get out of here!" Katara shouted as she yanked Azula by her arm, as they and Zuko fled deeper into the palace.
Normally, Sonic's arms would be whipped back behind his head as he speedily ran across a wide expanse of land; but currently, one arm was hanging downwards, almost dragging along the ground, while the other was tightly held by Amy as she ran alongside him. His free hand lagged due to the residual shock of that certain word he couldn't get out of his head, as well as he who spoke it in the first place: babe...babe? Did Knuckles The Echidna, the fierce guardian of the Master Emerald, truly use that word to refer to the very airborne bloodsucker that aspired to steal it? It wasn't long ago that the only words used by Knuckles to mention Rouge were thief or bat girl, and sometimes even things that could never be repeated to Tails; but now the B-word used for Rouge was Babe?
Perhaps the weirdest part of it was the fact that it was only Sonic himself who was noticeably off-put by Knuckles' casual use of the word; all the other Sonic Heroes just moved on, packed their stuff, and left the camp without a word. Now Sonic, of all ironies, was the one not smiling as they ran through the canyon at racecar velocity (Big the Cat and Froggy quietly sat in a wooden cart towed by Knuckles).
He would have continued further down into this mental rabbit hole were it not for his blue body suddenly breaking to a screeching halt, courtesy of Amy. The again confused Sonic turned to Amy, who pointed down over the edge of the cliff Sonic had almost run off of by accident (far from the first time...)
He and the team had stopped along a mountainside, looking up even higher upwards to see their goal in the distance.
"So that's what an Air Temple looks like?" Knuckles rested his fist on his hips.
Tails raised his pad in front of his face and directed it toward the temple mountain."Yep, that's definitely where our ship is," he noted the red pulsing dot which appeared right over the temple on his screen.
"No wonder they call this an Air Temple," Silver blinked,"It's so high up that you'd need to fly just to get in there!"
"It's a good thing that roughly three of us can fly then," Tails smiled.
"Three?" Knuckles repeated."I count me, Silver, you, and Rouge; that's four of us who can fly."
"Pretty sure the 'roughly' was reserved for you, glider," Sonic smirked.
Knuckles pouted."Glide!? I don't glide, I can totally fly!"
"Can you lift yourself off of the ground and propel your body through the air, or do you just climb up to a high elevation and then jump off while allowing air currents to keep you afloat?" Tails inquired.
The echidna took his time to process the proper answer,"...da longer thing you said."
"That would be gliding." Tails clarified, making the echidna grumble.
But Silver tilted his head as he looked up in that general direction."Yeah...speaking of flying and/or gliding, I think I see somebody doing either one away from the temple." he said as he pointed up.
In the distance, higher than even the Air Temple itself, was some small object soaring away from the temple, as Silver had said; Tails put up his pad and zoomed the image, which made his head tilt in curiosity."Look at this, guys; it's some teenager in some kind of steam-powered aircraft...he looks kinda scared," Tails remarked.
Then, Sonic saw something that made his eyes widen in worry, "Yeah, I just saw why..." he said, pointing to an eve, higher spot, straight into the cloudy sky.
The team watched, in all its irony, the clouds lighting up as some blue streak in the sky circled over the area above them at speeds only they were familiar with, in a rather predatory manner; and it was clear that the teen in the flying machine was the prey.
"I gotta bad feeling about this..." Amy stared with sad eyes.
"Tails, Knuckles! Sonic Over-Drive!' Sonic called.
"Leave it to me!" Tails concurred.
"Got it-wait a minute," Knuckles interrupted, "Are you seriously gonna make me throw you miles into the sky after I just did it last night!?" he complained."That takes a lot of mental prep, you know that? And not to mention how long it take for my muscles to recover from the fatigue; are you trying to get me to injure myself!?"
The echidna's banter was cut off by a powerful sonic boom; instantly propelling the blue object straight down at the teen.
"I'LL DO IT!" Silver shouted, charging his psychic energy and blasting off for the teen.
Teo knew that monster from the sky was coming down for him, but his determined face was maintained as he pressed on through the sky in his much slower aircraft. It all seemed too late as the blue comet got closer, but he was snatched right out of his seat by Silver, the aircraft obliterated a fraction of a second later. Teo was now all kinds of confused, which climaxed into a scream when he saw the furry face of his furry savior.
"Relax, I'm not the thing that tried to kill you!" Silver assured over the turbulence. Silver could see the people of the Air Temple screaming for many reasons, for the incoming blue comet, for the cyan entity that caught the teen, but they were clearly all for Teo. Silver landed in an open court, surrounded by the shocked faces of the residents."Don't worry, everyone! He's fine!" Silver said,"Although, I think the whiplash might have broken his legs..."
"Oh no, those were already like that, Mr. Spirit," Teo explained with remarkable positivity.
"TEO!" called an elderly male voice. Silver watched a quirky man with a large beard force his way through the crowd."My boy! Are you safe!?"
"Is this your son?" Silver asked.
"Yeah, I am," Teo said,"I'm Teo by the way."
"Silver," the hedgehog replied.
Silver had to let go as Teo father grabbed his son and hugged him as tightly as he could, feeling tears coming on."Oh, Teo! What were you thinking!? That was certain death!"
"Sorry, dad," Teo admitted glumly, "...but I just couldn't stand being stranded here by that flying monster!"
"Flying monster, huh?" Silver said as he looked up; he caught a glimpse of a blue streak extremely high in the air, by miles even."That blue thing was fast..."
"Why thank you..." Sonic, right behind Silver, misinterpreted, frightening Silver.
This, in turn, caused the citizens of the temple to be frightened as well.
"IT CAME BACK!" shrieked a freaked-out old man.
"Came back?" Sonic raised a brow."I just got here for the first time."
At this, the obvious hit Silver."Sonic! They think you're the flying monster!"
Sonic just crossed his arms in annoyance."Great, once again, I get confused for someone else; I can't wait to meet this new 'The Hedeghog' character..." he tapped his foot.
"That was no hedgehog," Silver said thoughtfully," it was huge, almost as big as our ship."
"Speakin' of..." Sonic scratched behind his ear, "We got reason to believe that our rocket ship is in this temple; anyone seen it?" His eyes scanned the crowd.
"Rocketship!?" the mechanist's eye widened. He quickly felt his beard before glancing behind himself." I do believe I've found it; follow me, kind rodentian folk!" he gestured for them to follow as he carried his son off.
Sonic raised his brow for a sec, but shrugged with his hands up."...at least he didn't call me a rat..." he lamented before following.
After the near full might of the Avatar quelled the fury of the mob, the Gaang gathered together in Fire Lord Zuko's private chamber. Sokka, still donned in the outfit he pilfered from Space Colony ARK, and being the leader he loved to believe he was, sat pensively at a table before the rest of the team."Alright, Team Avatar, we've got a new problem on our hands..."
"We know, Sokka..." the tired Aang reminded.
"As you all know..." continued Sokka apathetically,"The citizens of the Fire Nation are none too pleased about Azula being back at the palace."
"Of course we know," Zuko added.
"Earlier today," said Sokka," the palace gates were stormed upon by an entire mob of anti-Sozin protesters."
"Sokka, we know, we were there," Katara again pointed out.
"To add on to the rising political tension, Azula herself was present, causing the protestors to become exponentially more protest-y than before."
"We. Know, Sokka," leered Toph," were you not there?"
"The mob rose to such a frenzy that Aang was forced to use his Avatar State to hold them off-"
"SOKKA!" exploded Zuko,"Will you just get to the point!?"
Sokka was a bit put off by the interruption but smiled nonetheless."Thought you'd never ask..." he smirked before he yanked a large furled-up scroll and slapped it onto the table, letting it roll all the way off the edge of the other end. As the Gaang expected, the paper was full of Sokka's crummy doodles, some of which vaguely looked like Azula with a smiley face next to other poorly drawn people with smiley faces."Team Avatar, may I present to you Operation: Make Azula Great Again!"
The appropriate awkward pause from the rest of the team proceeded as usual...
Aang felt his sinus, breathing audibly."...OK, first of all, what do you mean by 'great again'?
"Exactly what I mean!" Sokka reasoned.
Zuko crossed his arms."So, you mean to say that you what to have Azula be evil again, stage an elaborate coup to conquer Ba Sing Se again, and murder Aang again?"
"What? No!" Sokka yelled,"I mean, make her great! You know, like us!"
"So what's with the 'again' part?" Toph said."If by 'great' you mean 'good', then that doesn't add up either because Azula's never been good before until last night!"
"I can totally vouch for this..." Zuko confirmed.
"Alright, alright, so you have a communication issue with the name of the plan; can you please let me tell you the actual plan?" the frustrated Sokka raised his clawed fingers.
"Whatever you say, Sokka," Katara deadpanned.
"Okay, listen," Sokka gathered himself."The plan is to change Azula's public image by having her do good things for the people."
Just outside, Azula herself had her ear against a glass cup which in turn was quietly placed against the locked door, as she listened in on the conversation anxiously.
"Like what?" Katara asked.
"You know!" Sokka tried again."Like community service, like joining us on our peace talks; let Azula herself talk to the people about how wrong her evil ways were and how she's gonna help everybody."
"Are you serious?" Toph questioned."You wanna let Azula speak freely in public about how she thinks what would make the world a better place? I hate to tell you, Snoozles, but everyone already knows what Azula thinks will make the world a better place: it starts with 'wipe out the airbenders' and ends with 'wipe out the Earth Kingdom' ".
"Guys, come on!" Sokka begged."We already know she's changed, we just need to convince the people of what we already know!"
"You mean that she's a delusional cold-blooded psychopath prone to hallucinations, who only 'turned good' because one waterbender asked her to be friends?" Zuko summarized."Wow, Sokka, I feel so much more for her already..."
Azula frowned at the sound of this.
"Well, look, we have to do something," Sokka said,"unless you just wanna throw her in jail again!"
"To be honest, Sokka," Aang said," I think she would be safer in jail, considering what those citizens want to do with her."
Katara grunted."No...we can't do that to her..." she closed her eyes ,"I told her to her face that I forgive her. I'm her first real friend, which means she can be friends with the rest of us; she doesn't have to be caged like a beast anymore..."
"Yeah?" Zuko said."Well, say she gets over Dr. Eggman and your space battle or her little pity speech. What then? Don't you think she'll just get over her bond with you?"
"She'd never do that!" Katara said.
"Believe me, Katara," Zuko looked away,"I wish my sister could change; there were times I thought she did, but she didn't: they were lies. That's what Azula does - Azula always lies."
There was an oppressing silence following his words...
"...Either way," Sokka went on,"We have got to do this, not for Azula, but for the Fire Nation. Having her on your side will unify the nation and make sure there won't be a civil war. Are you guys with me or not?"
Just then, the door was bashed open, revealing to the frightened Team Avatar Azula, her leg outstretched from having kicked the door, and a fiery determination in her eyes that they were all too familiar with."...I'm in."
"My child!" Tails cried as he ran up to and hugged his spaceship lovingly.
Sonic and company had followed the inventor and his son into his expanded workshop, in which their ship, the Cyclone, had been carted into and observed this entire time.
"I had figured this rocket-powered craft belonged to someone," the mechanist noted,"I did not expect her owners to, however, be so..."
"Furry?" Sonic guessed.
"...adorable!" the man beamed, to Sonic & Knuckles' irritation.
Tails flew over to the side door and tried to open it but failed. Then he tried to use his pad to interact with the ship."No good, it's out of power, the ship, I mean."
"peh," rolled Knuckles eyes,"stand back..." he dismissed Tails as he spit in the palms of his gloves and rubbed them together before gripping the edge of the door.
Tails looked on in worry."Okay, Knuckles, but be extra careful not to strain the-!"
The chamber rattled with the sound of snapping internal metal parts as Knuckles nearly ripped the door open.
The fox's ears drooped."...hydraulics..."
"Aw, you can fix anything, Little Buddy!" Sonic beamed, patting Tails's shoulder fatherly.
The team entered their until-now-lost ship. Since it had remained unopened, the interior appeared no different from just before they vanished.
"Anybody see my hat?" Knuckles scanned the floor.
"Omega!" Rouge exclaimed.
The team watched her run over to the motionless robot, his optics gone dark, his body lying against the wall.
"Is he dead!?" Silver worried.
"...' is he dead'..." Rouge rolled her eyes,"No, he's deactivated." she said, tilting her head as she looked him over.
"Maybe the teleportation through space caused an electromagnetic pulse?" Tails postulated.
"So he's out of power?" Sonic asked.
"Well obviously!" touted Knuckles, "Of course the electromagnetic pulse made him run out of power, that's what electromagnetic pulses do!" Knuckles crossed his arms condescendingly.
Sonic sighed."...Knuckles, stop pretending to understand what Tails is saying; even I gave up on that."
"WHAT A MARVELOUS INVENTION!"
The team was stunned by the sudden intrusion of the mechanic, as he eagerly and abruptly pushed Sonic & Knuckles aside and rushed to Rouge's side, overlooking Omega with his multi-lensed monocle."A humanoid automation independent of an external power source! How does it move? Does it require a crank of sorts?"
Sonic held up his gloved hand."Hey, dude, you might wanna stay away from that thing before he confuses you for Eggman and tries to destroy you."
"What the deuce is an Eggman?" The inventor turned around in confusion.
"Imagine you," said Sonic,"but fat, evil, fat, wears glasses, fat, has a red suit on, fat, a wider mustache, and...what am I forgetting?" the blue hedgehog sarcastically felt his chin.
"Fat?" asked Big.
Sonic, Silver, & Knuckles yelped in surprise.
"When did you get up here!?" demanded Knuckles.
"Right now," answered Big.
"Listen, Mr. Mechanist, sir," Tails began,"I know you must be very enthusiastic about Omega and his inner workings, but unless you can understand how to use electricity to power machines, then I'm afraid this technology is too far ahead of your time."
"Oh, please!" beamed the steam-punk inventor." One is never too old to learn! I'm certain we can have your electric metal man up and running in no time if we work together!" he stated confidently with a raised finger."...assuming that it has the ability to run!" he added with no less cheer.
"It couldn't hurt to try..." Silver shrugged.
"Speaking of getting hurt," Sonic crossed his arms,"What're we gonna do about that thing in the sky that almost toasted your kid?"
At this, the Mechanist scoffed and blew the question way,"Oh, there's nothing that can be done about that creature. It's just been hanging up there in the lower atmosphere, just circling our temple like vulturecrows over a dying sabertoothed mooselion. It only moves when one of us attempts to fly off of the mountain."
"The only other way to leave would be climbing down," said Teo,"but that's way too risky; it's the reason my dad invented flying crafts in the first place! We have to find a way off this mountain before we all starve to death!"
"How long has it been up there?" asked Silver.
"Nearly a week today," answered Teo.
This gave the team pause.
"Isn't that around the same time we got here?" Tails wondered.
"Not to mention Eggman," added Sonic,"probably one of his gunships scopin' out the area."
"I don't think so," Silver said,"I think it really was a living creature."
"A rocket-powered living creature?" leered Sonic."Last time I checked, Shadow doesn't leave a blue streak when he dashes, or, ya know, fly? So, unless this guy built it," he gestured to the Mechanist,"it's just a big bad Badnik ready to for the scrap pile."
"Wouldn't a Badnik have immediately attacked you on-site, Sonic?" asked Rouge."Or Silver? Or anything having to do with Sonic? It went right back into the sky after Silver touched down. And as far as 'starving to death' is concerned, let's face it, Eggman doesn't have the patience to try a war of attrition."
"So what I'm hearing is that it could be a cyborg and that it could have been made by someone who is not Eggman," summarized Sonic, tapping his foot.
The Mechanist felt his beard."hmmm...Teo, you don't suppose this could be the Fire Nation's doing after all?"
"The Fire Nation?" Silver asked.
"That's what a lot of us living on the mountain think it is," explained Teo." They are the most advanced nation on the planet, and I think Northern Air Temple just has a pretty good strategic position."
"Okay, for people without super speed, you guys need to slow down,"Sonic put his hands up."I thought this war thing was in the past?"
"The very recent past," noted the Mechanist," and people are quite fast to throw blame when they are paranoid." he lamented.
"Sounds like we got here just in time!" Sonic gave thumbs up."Whatever that thing is, me and the Sonic Heroes are gonna take it down, before anyone starts to think stuff about others that they shouldn't."
Rouge made a very nettled ahem at this."I'd just like to remind you that I am an official member of Team Dark, not Team Sonic."
"...Either of which is a subsidiary to the Sonic Heroes!" announced Sonic no-less heroically.
"Okay, Sonic, but we can't approach this thing half-baked," said Silver cautiously,"We still don't know anything about it other than it possibly being a creature, and the only way for us to get a closer look is to lure it back down, which is pretty a dangerous move so far."
"Which..." Sonic raised his finger," is why we're gonna need to get that up and running again." he smirked, lowering his finger to something in the back of the ship, which everyone else turned to look at.
Tails gasped with delight, being reunited with the Tornado 2. He jumped forth and held the nose of the plane dearly."My favorite child!"
Azula stared forward with no emotion, taking a deep breath as she tightened her fists in preparation.
Katara put her hand on Azula's shoulder."Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Azula did not turn her head or eyes, as they were solely focused on her mission at hand."If not now, I'll never be ready..." she answered with iron resolve.
"If you say so...don't get yourself killed, alright?" Katara sighed, walking away.
With that, Azula raised her weapon and took a fierce battle stance before her new opponent.
...her weapon being a mop, and her opponent being a dirty carriage, the latest in the line for the carwash.
"Alright, grime, prepare to meet your doom!" Azula announced.
Azula began to rapidly clean the carriage from multiple directions at superhuman speed, leaving minimal delay for the next dirty carriage in line to be pulled in, rapidly cleaning that carriage as well.
Donning an officer's outfit, Azula stood at the cross of two busy streets. She blew her whistle and made all kinds of complex finger movements to coordinate the traffic of all passing coaches and carts, directing the vehicles like cogs in a grand machine.
Her hands were like a blur as Azula cut, seasoned, and prepared meal after meal like the greatest hibachi chief that had ever lived, serving food for the progressing line of homeless citizens in the shelter.
Brick after brick she laid, each glued together perfectly even, as she repaired the damaged houses of the lower-class civilians.
Azula wielded her pick like a praying mantis as she picked trash off the side of the road as rapidly as a sowing machine while racing alongside the road pushing the wheel barrel full of litter and garbage.
A plume of blue fire shot up from the chimney; afterward, Azula jetted out of the chimney herself, her face stained with charcoal and holding a broom."Well, that's the last one!" she smiled.
The Gaang looked up at the sight in utter shock.
"Has it even been an hour...?" "Sokka gaped.
"How is she not tired?" Toph demanded.
"I don't think I or any Avatar has done so much good in one day as this," Aang marveled.
Indeed, the princess had just finished cleaning the chimney of every last house in the block of the residential district. They had witnessed the girl perform each and every act of community service with neither hesitation nor exhaustion since she began. Katara felt a sense of motherly pride as she watched. Zuko, on the other hand, resembled a disappointed father; but in reality, Katara knew he was just being a jealous sibling: even he had to admit, as he watched her thoroughly clean each and every tile of the roof with a toothbrush as she had with the previous houses, that Azula was going far out of her comfort zone to restore her honor. She could have easily been holding her own rallies and charming the citizens with false promises of change if she simply wanted to mend her public image. Instead, his vain ostentatious sister was lowering herself to the level of servitude, performing labor beneath that of the women that fed him cherries during his morning grooming, and of course, the local civilians were giving her and them apt stares, hardly believing that this was in fact Princess Azula carrying out the work of the minimum wage, without pay at that.
"Perfect!" Azula cried, finishing the last tile; then she gracefully backflipped off the roof and landed before the Gaang."Bring on the next chore; I can do this all day!"
Zuko crossed his robed arms."Good, because you're going to be doing these kinds of chores every day for the foreseeable future," he replied sternly.
Azula kneeled before her brother without hesitation."As you command, my lord."
This action gave Zuko pause - her sister was actually humbling herself to him, the Fire Lord? He shook his head quickly."Don't try to butter me up, Azula! One afternoon of manual labor is not going to undo everything you've done to us!"
"Of course not, my lord," her head remained facing the ground.
"Zuko, come on," Katara lamented,"She's doing everything she can to redeem herself; you don't have to rub it in."
"This is not 'everything'," Zuko argued,"Three years at sea and three months as a fugitive is much closer to 'everything' than this small stuff."
"Oh, I get it, Zuko," Toph's fists rested in her hips,"Nobody could possibly have suffered more than you have, is that it? You gonna make her do this for three years? You're not that petty, are you?"
"Why are you getting on me!?" Zuko felt his chest."She's been your and Aang's enemy as far back as you've known her!"
"From where I'm standing," Toph contended,"You've been our enemy for just as long, smarty pants," she leaned close and whispered,"Or have you forgot who hired Combustion Man to kill us?"
Zuko nervously shushed the girl in the open public street.
"OH MY GOODNESS!"
The Gaang was frightened by the over-dramatic inflection of a random bystander, throwing his finger down the street."That poor old man just got robbed!"
They turned to see a couple of local hooligans running off from the scene and said victim with something expensive.
"NEVER FEAR!"
The Gaang were again frightened, this time by the cry of the princess, as she lept on top of the coach they used to get here, her filthy cleaning rag flowing over her shoulder like a cape in the wind."Princess Azula is here!" she said, jumping back to the ground and dashing down the street after the vile criminals.
"Azula wait!" Katara ran after her.
"Stop being so good!" Aang followed.
"You're not a princess!" Zuko angrily called.
Restoring power to the Tornado 2 was an old fashion trick polished by Sonic and Tails. Sonic ran along a treadmill which was part of a makeshift motor used to recharge the plane's battery. The Mechanist had told them about the underground pockets of explosive gas that Tails could use as fuel for the jet. They figured the Tornado would be a useful asset against the mysterious monster.
The team was now gathered on an empty landing field. Sonic and Silver did some pre-monster-slaying workouts in preparation. Tails and the Mechanist carefully fed the volatile gas into the fuel tank of the jet/mech. After thoroughly cleaning the engine, Tails popped out of the engine cavity, his fur covered in machine grease, then hopped back into the cockpit, seeing from the dash that the tank was full."Alrighty, my favorite child is ready for take-off!"
Teo and a great number of citizens had gathered together before the landing platform, watching with great interest the spirit animal thingies that were apparently about to battle the sky monster.
"Tails! Plan me!" Sonic said.
"First, Silver will take off and lure the monster down from the sky; you and I will take off adjacent to Silver's ascent. By the time the monster begins the chase, I'll have repositioned the Tornado 2 and gun straight for Silver at the same time Silver descends and, in turn, the monster guns for us. The split second before we make our narrow parallel intersection, I'll bombard the target with simultaneous Vulkan cannon shots and homing lasers, which due to the monster's excessive momentum, will be unable to evade. The target will plummet at these exact coordinates," Tails tapped the screen of his pad,"Where Knuckles, Amy, and you will be able to engage and finish off on the ground."
Sonic chuckled,"Heh, I love the way you smart, Buddy," he said, crossing his arms.
"What's Rouge gonna do?" Knuckles asked.
"Fixing my best robot friend is what I'm gonna do," Rouge waved, then winked before walking off,"good luck down there, Knux."
"Sure thing, Babe," Knuckles smirked.
Another rattle down Sonic's spine - did no one else notice this? He shook his head, retaining his game face."Alright, that cyborg monster isn't gonna slay itself! Silver, get up there and tell that thing it's no use!" he pointed to the sky.
Silver's body was enveloped in his cyan psychic aura as he stared up in determination."I'm never gonna understand that reference, but I don't care! Let's do this!" he said, taking off into the sky.
Sonic backflipped on the right wing of the Tornado 2."What he said, Tails, hit it!"
Tails hit the ignition. The thrusters howled awake; the Tornado 2 slowly ascended off the ground from its bottom thruster, and converted into its Tornado X form (Sonic-suspending claw sequence not included), and blasted in a straight line away from the mountain. Knuckles and Amy dashed down the mountain to Tails' projected crash site.
The wind blew against Silver's quills and glaring eyes, as his vision of the encircling blue comet became clearer."Com'on, take the bait..."
High in the sky, the comet's movement seemingly stopped; then, as Silver steeled himself, it blasted downward with a shockwave. Silver then anxiously did the same, using his hands to propel himself downward. "It took the bait! I'm bringin' 'em down with me!" he set into his earpiece.
"There it goes!" the Mechanist said with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
Silver steadily adjusted his trajectory from vertically down to horizontally forward. He soared to the Tornado's coordinates.
"Copy! Intercepting!" Tails replied. As this happened, Tails did a backflip and corkscrew, setting the plane on a near-collision course with the distant Silver, and by extension, the thing that was chasing him.
"Don't fire till ya see the white of Silver's eye, Tails!" Sonic grinned.
"We're not trying to shoot at Silver, Sonic!" Tails deadpanned.
"Even though you technically will!" Sonic retorted.
"Get ready, everyone!" Tails announced.
Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Teo, his father, and the citizens of the temple watched the two airborne objects near each other head-on.
Tails gritted his teeth."Intercepting in 5...4...3...2-!"
However, it seemed the entity was not clued in on the plan, as with another blast of blue energy, it zoomed passed the shocked Silver at previously unanticipated speeds.
Sonic and Tails screamed. Before Tails could even think to bank to the side, the comet tore through the Tornado 2's left wing.
"What the!?" Knuckles gaped, and Amy gasped.
The jet dove from its altitude, giving Sonic and Tails an all too familiar fright as they spun in a free fall, Sonic hanging on the spiraling wing.
"SONIC!" Silver cried.
"I'M NEVER RIDING A PLANE WITH YOU AGAAAAIIIIN!" Sonic shouted.
"THAT'S PERFECTLY UNDERSTANADABLLLLLLE!" Tail replied.
Unfortunately, unlike last time, that lethal strike was not the end of it: the blue comet, with seemingly zero turbulence, blasted off in the opposite direction, now pursuing the plummeting Tornado. Sonic gritted his teeth, and let go of the wing, then he charged a homing attack and dashed into the comet. He was knocked away by the comet like a pinball( another unpleasant memory), and screamed as he tumbled alone into the woods below. He broke his fall with another homing attack that sent him through multiple branches, yelling face-first into the dirt, which he slid along due to his momentum, ending in the side of a pond.
Sonic pushed his face out of the dirt for the umpteenth time, just in time to see the airborne entity crash into the pond with a thunderous slam, Sonic shielding his face from the splash. After all this commotion, he finally laid eyes on the mysterious flying monster: as far as he could tell, it was not a robot at all. It was some large silver-scaled dragon with the beak of a falcon, with a crown of sleek spikes on its cranium, talon-like claws on all four legs, sharp aerodynamic plates running down its back and tail, and the real clinch; where its back wings would be were a pair of clearly organic rocket thrusters; Sonic thought it was impossible for a creature to have such appendages.
But then, all his attention was seized by the monster's piercing blue eyes, and those eyes locked onto Sonic. This gave Sonic a new feeling of fear, the kind of fear that prey would have when spotted by an apex predator. At that moment, such a primal sensation of inner terror transcended words, and gave way to a singular impulse that would decide the very survival of the paralyzed hedgehog...
...to run.
Sonic unconsciously dashed in the opposite direction; in the same instant, the silver falcon dragon used its thrusters to blast off after Sonic.
Silver caught Tails and The Tornado in midair with his mind. Before he asked if Tails was alright, he noticed something below: he saw two blue blurs tear through the forest, one obviously larger, but keeping perfect pace with the smaller one. They both traced in huge circles all over the landscape.
"That thing is as fast as Sonic!" Silver gawked.
"Sonic, come in!" Tails yelled into his radio. There was no reply.
The blue hedgehog could not respond, and as he bolted passed every piece of green in his peripheral vision like a blur of colors, his eyes fixated on forward, as the rocket dragon tore through everything Sonic passed; thick tree trunks and large boulders exploded upon impact with the dragon's rocket wings. The two blurs trailed up the mountainside; Sonic ran horizontally along the stone surface. Even during this maneuver, the dragon could not be shaken off. It swiped and jabbed at Sonic with its narrowly missing blade-tipped wing thumbs, carving long gouges in the mountain range. Sonic's team and the civilians all saw the ruin of the blue comet along the mountains.
Amy shivered for her blue beloved."We have to chase it before it gets Sonic!"
Knuckles looked up at the trails of dust left by the monster on the mountains with a stupefied expression."There is no way we're catching up to either of them. Sonic's on his own."
The three petty thieves swerved into a dark alley, nervously huddling against a wall. They were sweating in fear.
The rest of their street gang saw them with concern.
"What's with the waterworks?" one confused member asked.
One of the thieves shushed him immediately."Shut up, man! she'll hear you!"
He raised a brow."She? Who is 'she'?"
"Who indeed...?"
The whole gang found their collective spines stiffening at the sound of the ominous voice. A dark figure landed behind them, their fiery fist slamming into the ground.
"I am the hero this nation needs..." Azula rose to her feet, dark makeup spread around her eyes, flicking her cape/towel off her shoulder "...the hero this nation deserves!"
One gang member's eyes bugged out in shock."Is that the princess!?"
"I thought she was in prison!" another said.
"I was," Azula scowled at the criminal scum,"And that precisely is where YOU are going, you unlawful, unrelenting usurpers!" she pointed at them heroically.
"Oh man!" one crook stood a gape,"This chick's whippin' out alliteration on us - she ain't messin' around!"
"Get her!"
The gang charged Azula, as she charged into them.
*POW!*
*WHAM!*
*THWACK!*
*BAMF!*
*KABLOOEY!*
The Gaang (not to be confused with the aforementioned gang) rushed in just in time to see that the alley was littered with bruised and beaten thugs, stars swirling around their dizzy heads, with Azula confidently standing atop the back one.
She laughed heartily."Never fear, Team Avatar, for I am here!" she pointed her thumb at herself, like posing for a photo.
Words could not describe the lunacy unfolding before them and their hanging jaws...
"...Ok, Zuko, I admit it," The blind Toph just hung her head downward,"your sister is crazy."
"At least... she's crazy in a good way?" Sokka's eyes twitched.
Azula took the stolen bag, and walked happily back to the team."That's one klump of degenerates given their due justice!"
A police coach rolled in from behind Team Avatar, with military police rushing to the scene."What happened here!?"
Before any of the Gaang could get a word out, another bystander answered for them:"Princess Azula just busted an entire street gang!" the woman yelled.
"Now we're saved from Eviiiil!" an old man whaled.
A whole crowd of citizens gathered and cheered for their friendly neighborhood heroine.
Zuko's upper body continued to sag."I can't believe this is happening..."
Katara smirked, hands on her hips."Now, what was that about Azula needing to prove herself?"
"Wasn't all these people ready to rip her head off this morning?" Aang's arms dangled.
Then the poor old man that was robbed slipped through the crowd."Oh, thank goodness! You've saved my precious belongings!" he came up to Azula with spread arms.
"No need to thank me, peas-" she coughed," citizen, your good fortune is the only reward I..." Azula was interrupted as the old man gave her a tight hug.
"Truly, you're too good for us, Princess Azula..." the old man said warmly.
Azula was not used to this much affection. It was beginning to sober her."Er...thank you very much; now, I, um, think I'll be returning to the palace-"
"If only your mother could have seen you now..." he said quietly,"...If only she hadn't assassinated the Fire Lord and fled the capitol, that is..."
These words froze Azula to her core."...w...what did you just say...?"
The old man leaned his mouth close to her ear."I hope you are still aware..." he hissed,"She didn't do it for you, you little monster."
Azula's pupils shrank; her mind was ignited in rage. She roared and tackled the old man to the ground, to the shock of everyone present. "YOU KNOW NOTHING OF ME, YOU FILTHY PEASANT!" she shrieked with her fingers wrapped around the helpless man's neck. The police seized her off the ground, struggling to hold her back as she lashed out like a rabid animal."I KILL HIM! I KILL HIM AND EVERYONE HE LOVES!"
Then Ty Lee came in from behind and struck the pressure points of the deranged princess's spine, leaving her limp in the polices' arm. More officers came to the aid of the old man, who was still on the pavement, clutching his chest, his breathing erratic. Azula breathed heavily, her wild eyes darting among the deathly silent crowd that was praising her seconds ago; she looked at her utterly speechless friends.
Zuko had enough."Throne room...NOW!"
Sonic ducked, sliding on his hand beneath the dragon, and dashed into its belly. The dragon backed off only to swerve wings around and fire a volley of blue fireballs from its trusters that blasted Sonic off the mountainside. The dragon dove down at the falling Sonic, mouth open. As its beak clamped around the small hedgehog, Sonic, kept its maw open with his buckling arms and legs. The dragon thrashed its head madly, revolving and flipping through the sky; it zoomed for the Air Temple, to the fleeing citizens' horror, plowing through multiple buildings.
Rouge was in the Mechanist's lab, using the treadmill motor herself to restore power to Omega, just when something crashed through, scaring the jewels out of her. For a fraction of a second, she could Sonic's terrified yell as the dragon plunged into the mountain itself like a spear through glass. The bat fell over on her hands and knees, breathing heavily, looking at the damage done. Whatever caused it left sooner than it came. However, she could hear something else: the sound of certain electronic automation humming back to life. Omega's optics flickered.
The dragon exploded through the other side of the mountain. Sonic grunted as he punched and kicked the roof and tongue of the beast's mouth. In response, the dragon blasted straight upward into the sky, and passed the clouds, higher and higher, the mountain range looking like a satellite image as he passed the upper layers of the atmosphere.
Silver and Tails flew back to the temple's landing zone. Teo and wheeled over to them.
"It's so fast!" Teo said,"I could barely see it pass by!"
"Tell me about it!" Silver nodded,"I don't even think I could fly that fast as Super Silver!"
Tails bopped his head and grunted."Maybe if we had the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, we could test that assumption, but no, we only have the one," he lamented.
"What is a Chaos Emerald?" The Mechanist asked.
"The abridged answer is that it's a power source that makes us Mobians super under the right conditions." Tails said.
"You know: positive feelings," Silver elaborated,"love, the power of friendship, and such."
"Well, I'm afraid neither your blue friend nor we are experiencing any of those emotions," the Mechanist slouched,"assuming he's still alive..."
Tails cried into his earpiece."Sonic! Can you hear me!? Do you still have the emerald on you!? Come in, Sonic!"
Sonic was tempted to cry into his earpiece for help, but the extreme turbulence would have drowned out his voice completely. The air around him thinned with each second; he could see the stars, and the world's horizon beside him. It was essentially like his last encounter with Metal Sonic in reverse; unfortunately, there was no Space Colony ARK to supply another atmosphere, and it would be long before they passed the vacuum of space. He was feeling drowsy; he could no longer hear his buddy on the radio. How was he supposed to...
You cannot win...
No, this couldn't be happening; he wasn't about to lose, was he? His heart spiked at the idea, which was quite detrimental as his ability to breath was slowly being robbed from him. He had to figure out how to escape before he...!
You cannot escape...
...he couldn't escape. He couldn't fight this monster; he couldn't even take a breather. How was he going to...
NO...ESCAPE...
...was this seriously it? Of all the times he risked his life for the earth and his friends, was it finally gonna cost him? What would Tails do without him? He's still just a kid. Amy'll be heartbroken, especially after he embraced her affection. Maybe...Knuckles could, he didn't know, carry on the fight against Eggman?
You should have run away...
Maybe he should have; maybe getting involved in this war was a mistake; maybe chasing Eggman into space was a mistake. Air was gone; it was getting very, very cold. He could feel the ice building up in his fur. Why did he have to play the hero every time? There's only one fate for a hero. Sonic could have only avoided it for so long...He didn't even get to tell them goodbye...He never got the chance to fix them...
...he loved them...
Sonic eyes shot open, his irises glowing blue.
The atmosphere lit up with a gigantic burst of electric blue energy, parting the clouds beneath. The people of the Northern Air Temple beheld the glorious light, and the colossal shockwave that came from it, flowing through the temple itself. Tails and Silver braced each other against it. It flowed through the lab, knocking Omega offline once again.
"Oh, come on!" Rogue complained, resuming her treadmill run.
The wave blew through the woods, startling Knuckles and Amy, and rattled against the mountains surrounding the temple. Tails and Silver were taken away by the silence that followed the mysterious blast. Tails tapped his tablet; it was off.
"Was that an EMP?" Silver asked.
The Mechanist laughed triumphantly."I knew they existed! 'Theoretical science' my wrinkled old-!"
Another burst of lighting and energy erupted in front of them, in the center of the landing zone. The light dimmed to reveal that it was Sonic, his fur alive with arcs of electricity, his quills and irises glowing bright blue.
"Sonic!?" Tails exclaimed.
The hedgehog in question turned and grinned. "You were expecting Megaman?" Then he turned to the sky. Down from it came the rocket dragon like a meteor; it was no doubt very very angry. Sonic scoffed."This thing ain't even the first dragon I've slain! Time to show this supersonic poser what I got!" he announced, kneeling down to his knuckles.
The dragon shrieked, its thrusters surging with both blue and red energy.
"I am now theorizing that this is currently not the ideal position to stand in..." the Mechanist whimpered.
"THEORY CONFIRMED!" cried Tails as he and Silver hauled the butts of Teo and his father out of the splash zone.
Sonic took a deep breath, his eyes closed.
The dragon circled the sky yet again before blasting downward and curving up, now on a collision course with the Air Temple. It continued to ignite the hydrogen around it, turning itself into a giant living fireball.
Sonic opened his eyes. He blasted away like Super Sonic. He soared through the air as a spinning ball of blue light. The giant fireball and the little blue lightning ball crossed the sky as they charged for each other. Finally, they collided, producing another massive explosion, this one being of a fiery nature. Amy and Knuckles were blown away across the forest. Silver used a psychic barrier to shield the temple as best he could from the blast. When it finally died down, all Tails could see was a huge mushroom cloud in the sky. To think that Sonic was at the epicenter of that blast made the fox quite anxious about the fate of his bro...right before said bro landed right behind him, crashing back-first onto the concrete, leaving himself stuck in a crater.
The smoking blue hedgehog chuckled deliriously."...at least I didn't fall on my head this time..."
"Sonic!" Tails yelled.
"Yes?" Sonic asked dizzily.
Silver hung over the blue hedgehog, completely stunned."Sonic, did you just...nuke a dragon?"
"Sure looks like it..." Sonic muttered.
"How are you not dead!?" Teo demanded.
Then Sonic sprung back to his feet like nothing had happened."I have no idea!" he danced.
Tails turned back to the dissipating mushroom cloud; he blinked."Even so, it looks like the dragon's gone."
"Of course he's gone!" Sonic cheered."I'm Sonic The Hedgehog! I destroy flying monsters and take names! It's not like I was nanoseconds away from dying or anything!"
The fox still looks unsure, his ear dipping."Except it looked like you were-"
"Well, I didn't," Sonic slapped Tails on the arm brotherly,"So don't worry your big fox brain about it." he said, then walked away, stretching his arms."Now, where can I get a chili dog up here?"
The yellow fox and silver hedgehog gave each other looks mixed with amazement and worry.
"Just when you think Sonic hits his limit, he just keeps running..." Silver marveled.
"What really got me," said Tails," is that he just surpassed the limit that I calculated..."
Azula was down on her knees, her wrists and ankles bound in chains. She could not bare lift her gaze from the floor, whether she was allowed to or not. The most elite Fire Nation soldiers stood behind her, including Ty Lee; before her was the council, and the Fire Lord at the throne.
"That old man you attacked out of nowhere?" Zuko began bitterly, sitting behind his royal flames." He almost died of a heart attack in the hospital," he leaned forward,"It took the spirit water of the north pole for Katara to save his life - do you comprehend what I just said?"
Azula did. So did Katara, Toph, Sokka, Suki, Hakoda, Bato, and General Tsung of the Earth Kingdom, not to mention Avatar Aang, all looking at her with different faces, all of them not very optimistic.
"I trusted you with one thing, Azula, one thing," he emphasized,"That even you at the very least would never harm your own people. And I have to say: you had us all fooled. Once. Again..." his fists clenched, the flames before him growing.
Katara wanted to say something; so did Toph. But nothing could be said to mend this incident. Azula publicly assaulted an innocent man with zero provocation; they all saw it. Even when weighed against her past deeds, it was still extreme.
"I'm not my father," Zuko hissed,"I'm not going to banish you, just you can come back one day with an army of firebenders to overthrow me; I'm not stupid!"
"Zuko, you don't understand," Azula stated sadly,"The old man, he...he knew what happened to our mother; he knew how Father became the Fire Lord; he knew what Mom thought of me, and he taunted me with it-"
"ENOUGH OF YOUR DAMN LIES!" the flames erupted with Zuko's rage, as he stood upward."I bet you think I'm going send you back to the Boiling Rock along with all your supporters? Or maybe the royal dungeon where you can plot and scheme and lie right under my feet? I'm sorry to say you won't be so fortunate: I'm shipping you to the North Pole, and letting the Water Tribe seal you away in the deepest, darkest, coldest prison, where you will have absolutely no leverage to worm or LIE your way out of. The world will finally be safe from you, and then, finally-!"
"WE'RE DONE!"
The throne room was silenced, not by the Fire Lord, not by The Avatar, not by Katara. At the entrance stood a clearly livid Mai, standing before the guards with unbelievable boldness.
"What?" Zuko blinked.
"I was finishing your sentence," Mai snarked,"You seal Azula, my best friend, away forever, and then, you and I are done." she explained slowly.
Azula, Ty Lee, and Katara turned to her in shock at Mai, having called Azula her "best friend". Ty Lee glared at her like she was insane. And so did Zuko.
"Ya know, you and Katara have it all wrong," Mai casually walked around the guards, who did not know how to deal with the Fire Lord's beloved lady. She pointed her finger at Zuko and Katara."You two think that it was your fight with Azula that broke her - not even close," she scoffed, then looked at her other best friend,"We did, Ty, remember? When I told her she 'miscalculated', and you chi blocked her? Don't you remember the sound of her voice?"
Ty Lee wasn't fazed."I remember she told the guards to let us rot!"
"We just betrayed the ENTIRE Fire Nation! The both of us!" Mai pounded her chest." We were a team! We were supposed to have her back over everyone else! We were all she had when Zuko left! You think that was an easy choice!? YOU'RE the liar if you say it was!" she walked right up in Ty Lee's face."And then you move out of the country, put on that stupid makeup, and pretend to be someone else!? Like your 'captain' never had any suspicious thoughts about you, one of the three girls that took down her whole squad and locked them up for months?" she pointed to Suki,"Yeah, that was a thing, but we all just forgot what you did during the war, right?" she pointed her hand at Katara."I was inches away from killing her! We chased them down for days until they couldn't run any further! We held them off long enough for the drill to make it past the outer wall of Ba Sing Se! WE overthrew the Earth King! And you and I are absolved of all that because, what, it was all Azula's idea? We had no choice, but Azula did? How are our heads still attached to our bodies after what we've done against them right there!?" her finger swung between the member of Team Avatar."Hey Sokka, remember when you saw Ty Lee right after the war and thought she was disguised as a Kyoshi Warrior?"
Sokka looked the other way in embarrassment, as Katara and Aang glared at him.
Zuko shook his head."You're not seriously comparing one thing to the other, are you?"
"Nah, that's not enough," Mai raised her hands,"Who I should be comparing her to is you," she looked at the Fire Lord defiantly,"The one who hunted down his so-called 'best friend' like a catdog, who gave Aang, Katara, and Sokka a real reason to run for their lives long before we got involved; you chased the Avatar across the entire planet! You didn't care what happened to Aang after you captured him, as long as you restored your honor, in the eyes of the guy we're all agreeing is the evilest man on the planet.
One Fire Nation general was outraged. "How dare you-"
Mai shushed him with one hand without looking and continued in a beat. "Let me recount the chances Aang gave you before you became the 'good guy'" she made quotes with her fingers,"First was after you saved Aang from Commander/Admiral/Whatever Zhao, he saved you, asked if you could be friends, and answered by trying to melt his face off. Then, during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe, Aang saves you from a blizzard, and you return the favor by trying to melt Katara's face off.
"Actually, Zuko tried to kill Katara before Aang saved him-"
"SOKKA!" barked Katara and Aang.
"sorry"
"Which makes such a difference, really," Mai crossed her arms."Then you actually stand together with Aang against Azula, Iroh let's his guard down, Azula completely acts in self-defense, and Katara offers to heal Iroh, and again you make with the face-melting, even at your uncle's expense. Then comes the big one, the game changer, the part where everyone knows where Prince Zuko's heart truly lies," Mai walks right over the atlas, nearing Zuko
"Mai, please," Zuko tried.
Mai threw her finger at him."Ba Sing Se. Katara bore her soul to you; she offers to magically heal your scar, imagine where Aang would be if you took her up on that offer..."
"Mai!" Zuko cried.
"You stabbed her in the freaking back," Mai's finger did not waver,"You join Azula, you fight, Aang dies! And you arrest your uncle, after all he's done for you. You hire an assassin to make sure Aang stays dead, and only after they suffer the most humiliating defeat of their lives do you finally decide you feel bad about it all! And you crawl back to Aang on your knees, begging for forgiveness, and what is Aang's initial reaction?" she eyes the Avatar."Well?"
Aang found his eyes helplessly locked with Mai's.
Mai shrugged."You don't have to answer; all I need to know is that it was something along the lines of..." she looked at Zuko again," 'we can never trust you after everything you've done' " Mai closed her eyes, and took a breather,"I mean, how more damning of a response could you get? And that wasn't even your last chance! You had SIX chances, Zuko, before they even considered forgiving you, but you want to pass your final judgment on Azula after messing up ONCE!? HOW DARE YOU!?"
"MAI!" Zuko yelled.
"Whacha' gonna do, Fire Lord? Challenge me to an Agni Kai for speaking out of turn? You gonna give me a scar and banish me for three years? You gonna send Azula to trick me into thinking I'm forgiven, only to imprison me for being such an embarrassment? I. Dare you. To banish me. For standing up for someone you're willing to sacrifice."
To say that one could hear a pin drop would not do justice to the suffocating silence Mai had created.
"...Your baby sister is broken; you can't punish her for that. You need to fix her. She needs your help now more than ever before - she needs our help," she continued, with a more sad connotation to her voice. Her own voice cracked,"So if you're not willing to show the same forgiveness as everyone in this room has shown you...we're done..." As Mai wiped the tears off her cheeks, she stormed out of the throne room.
Zuko was left so despondently, that his royal flames were extinguished. With his quivering lips, he walked off the throne along the atlas, his footsteps echoing, and stopped before Azula. For a moment, there was no more cynical nuance between them, just brother and sister sharing a glance.
"I..." Zuko nearly coughed,"I underestimated how off you've become...I thought you were faking it...I thought that you were just using my friends as pawns. But, maybe after everything that's happened, to our family, and our people, you really can't control yourself anymore..."
Azula's lip quivered; she closed her eyes and looked down.
Zuko kneeled in front of her."The reason I kept falling for your lies was because...I really wanted us all to be a family again. All these conflicting feelings I have about you makes it so hard to think clearly when you're around. I feel like the moment I turn my back on you, you're going to fire lightning at me...or maybe you'll just throw a pillow at me and call me 'dum dum'. I don't want it to be this way."
Azula found her voice."Those few hours before I was coronated were the most terrifying of my entire life. I couldn't see any allies; I thought every single person was plotting to kill me, even Father...even Mother," she began to cry,"Why did Father do that to me? He abandoned me on the most important day of our lives...I had no one," she whimpered.
Zuko couldn't help but glance at Toph...
The blind girl threw up her hands."Don't look at me man, not even I can tell if she's lying."
Zuko exhaled. Throwing caution to the wind, he gave his sister a hug."I don't care how many chances it takes, I'll help you find your way."
Azula kept crying, but smiled through it. She hugged Zuko back.
Everyone else, from Hakoda to General Tsung, felt some warmth in their hearts as they watched the siblings become reunited.
Just then, Toph gasped."Zuko, look out!"
Zuko screamed and jumped away from Azula, throwing an accusatory finger."I KNEW IT! I KNEW I COULDN'T TRUST YOU!"
Then Toph burst into a fit of laughter. Everyone turned back to see the girl fall over and kick the air with her bare feet, delighted in her cruel prank.
"You didn't!" Zuko shouted.
"HAHAHAHHAH! YOU ACTUALLY FELL FOR-HAHAHAHAH!," she had to catch her breath, holding her own neck"I-heheheh-I'm sorry, I had to do it, " she heaved breathes,"it was like a gigantic target hanging on the back of your head," she continued to contain her snickering with no success.
Without a thought, Aang, Sokka, Ty Lee, and Azula, now crying for a different reason, joined Toph in her hysterical guffawing. Zuko's priceless face whipped to each source of laughter. At least Katara managed to keep it hidden. His flushed cheeks were as red as the palace itself.
The Fire Lord slapped his forehead."Yep, everything's coming back to normal..."
The people of the Northern Air Temple celebrated that afternoon, with the vanquishing of the monster that had oppressed them at the hands, or quills, of Team Sonic. They had a huge feast. Sonic taught the natives how to make chilidogs. Tails exchanged notes with the Mechanist. Silver used his psychokinesis on Teo to show him what it felt like to fly without wings. Rouge would have joined them, but she had a more personal matter to attend to...
"POWER CELLS ARE FULLY CHARGED," Omega announced,"OPTIMISED FOR EGGMAN ROBOT EXTERMINATION."
Rouge wiped the sweat off her forehead."We gotta find a better way to recharge you..."
With their one and only Badnik friend operational, it was time to depart. Knuckles carried the wrecked Tornado 2 into the Cyclone. Sonic, Amy, and Tails used the Chaos Emerald to power the ship.
"WHY DIDN'T WE USE THAT TO RECHARGE HIM!?" The exhausted bat demanded
"We've seen plenty of explosions up on this mountain," the Mechanist shook Sonic's hand,"most of which were self-inflicted. But yours was undeniably the biggest!"
"And that's saying something," Teo added.
"That's what you're in for when you're with Sonic The Hedgehog," Tails shrugged. Then his ears trembled at the metallic creaking of Knuckles forcing the broken side door closed. He saw the echidna dusting his gloves proudly "...We're gonna have to use the back door for a while."
"Thank you for everything," the Mechanist gratified,"The Northern Air Temple is in your debt."
"No need for debt," Amy raised her finger,"It's us who do the saving."
"Speakin of saving," Called Sonic, who was waving for them to come on board,"Eggman's still loose on this world, and we gotta find'em!"
"Ten-four, Sonic!"
Amy and Tails dashed into the Cyclone. The people of the Northern Air Temple cheered and waved at the Cyclone as it hissed to life, lifting off of the landing zone.
Teo then had an epiphany,"Oh, I forgot something!" he said, rolling off to his father's confusion.
The Cyclone took off into the sky. As it flew, Silver saw out of the side window that Teo was flying parallel to the ship on his steam-powered glider chair; he waved as a final goodbye. Silver happily waved back.
Rouge dropped to her seat, drinking some water."So, what's next on our agenda?"
Tails piloted the ship as usual."I guess we go find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds; I wonder how they got here?"
Knuckles tossed a glare at Sonic."Didn't you mention something about losing them to Eggman?"
Sonic blew it away with his hand as he walked by. He hopped to the passenger seat next to Tails."Whatever. The good news is that Eggman lost'em too. Now it's back to the usual routine - find'em all before he does." He rested his head back on his hands. The let out a sigh of relief."That dragon was somethin' else; good thing I had that emerald on me, or I'd be a hedgehog-cicle in space right now..." he relaxed.
But Tails did not relax."Um...about that, Sonic..."
"Yeah?"
The fox squirmed in his seat."Sonic...you didn't have the Chaos Emerald when you beat the dragon."
Sonic's eyes widened; he whipped his head to Tails."Say what?"
"Big was keeping it hidden inside Froggy's mouth the whole time," Tails explained.
"Big!?" Sonic blinked."B-But how did I..."
"Whatever that surge of power was," Tail shrugged."You triggered it by yourself."
"Seriously?" Sonic was astounded.
"I wouldn't think too hard about it, Sonic," said Silver,"Sometimes, I dunno my own strength either."
"That whole light show was all me...?" Sonic said, staring blankly into the windshield.
"Do you have any clue as to what triggered it?" Tails inquired.
Sonic thought back to that fateful moment, when he was in the dragon's mouth, losing oxygen; how he felt there was no escape from the end, when suddenly, all he could think about were his-
Sonic shook his head."uh...Dah, you know me! The power of friendship is all I need!" he reasoned.
To Tails, that logic sounded more like Sonic wanted to end the subject...
"I just thought of something," Amy realized,"Where in the world is everyone else?"
"What, the Chaotix? We'll run into them eventually..." Knuckles eased into his seat.
Sonic chuckled."I just hope we run into You-Know-Who-Else, before he does something to these people that'll make me look bad."
Tails shared his chuckle."What's he gonna do? Pick a fight with the Avatar?"
A lone pelicangull glided over one of the statues indicating the site of the renowned Gates of Azulon.
Unknown to the bird, it casually breezed over another lone figure that was perched on the very tip of the stone Azulon's headpiece, only this was not a bird - it was a hedgehog.
Shadow stood on the crown of the giant statue, his arms crossed and his gaze focused on makings of land formations on the western horizon.
"There's a Chaos Emerald somewhere in that direction," Shadow began, tightening his fist, "I can feel it..."
The black hedgehog nimbly lept off the stone statue, and skated across the ocean for the Fire Nation.