A/N: I told you I was back! Happy Halloween!
G.U.N. Base— Decontamination Room— 13:23
Swift looked at Frances, then back to Karin, who was focusing on extracting as much energy as she could. "…Is there any way I can speed this process up?" Swift asked. "I don't think we can stay here any longer." 'Especially considering the fact that I've been thinking about this for what feels like a year,' he added to himself.
"Swift," Karin answered, "keeping the process like it is now will guarantee the Chaos Energy is properly drained while keeping Frances stable," Karin commented. "If we use your power to boost the process, who knows what could happen… and that energy would have to go somewhere."
"Like me?" Swift asked. "Hey, you guys all said that I'm a Chaos Energy mutant Chao… so why the heck not? Not like it's gonna kill me."
"As true as that is," Karin replied, "that also means we have no guarantee Frances will not wake up and attack again."
"But Eggman's bots are outside and if he gets in here, he'll probably get the Chaos Emerald," Swift answered. "I'd rather have Frances on a rampage than risk Eggman evening the score two-to-two."
"…Damn it," Karin gritted her teeth. "Okay… fine. But be careful, Swift."
"Okay," Swift stated, "here goes." He then concentrated his energy into the Emerald, charging it. Frances' Morpher began to glow as well while Swift's body shook with the energy being drained from Frances' body and coming into his. His quills briefly started standing with golden energy for a few seconds before returning to normal, Swift breathing in relief.
"…Well, that appeared to have worked."
"What the hell did you guys do?" the guard behind them asked.
"I think Swift just performed some type of new Chaos move," Karin breathed. "Chaos Purify?"
"Well, draining that energy boost me up and Frances seems back to normal," Swift spoke up with a heart over his head. He then leaned down and looked at Frances. Closing his eyes while he gave the Emerald to Karin, he sensed her. He did not see any signs of the radiation from before. "…Yeah, she's good… except for one thing."
"Oh crap," Karin asked. "What is it?"
"…Her Morpher is fully charged," Swift said, looking at it. "And I'm talking 'ready-to-use'. So, yeah, if she wakes up, we're going to have problems."
"Morpher?" the guard asked. "Okay, what is going on, here?"
"No time to explain," Karin told him. "Go, and we'll catch up."
"But ma'am—"
"Trust me, I'm a doctor," Karin answered.
As the guard ran away confused, Swift asked, "Okay, we need to vent the Morpher before she wakes up, right?"
"No kidding, Swift," Karin answered. "Shoot, what do you guys normally do that vents a fully charged Chaos Morpher?"
"Well, you know those complicated moves we do?" Swift confessed. "Chris and I figured out very early on that using our Sonic Boost drains the Morpher much faster."
"So, in short, she has to use the thing in order for her to drain the Morpher's power?" Karin asked. "Why didn't you guys build it with a way to vent the energy?"
"Miles and I never saw the need to dissipate Chaos energy collected into the Morpher to overheat it," Swift replied. "Though in hindsight, building a way to vent excess energy without using it would have been smart. So, yeah, we're gonna have no choice but to wake her up and hope she doesn't try to cause a rampage."
"And if she does?" Karin asked.
"Then direct her towards Eggman's troops," Swift answered. "She hates them, too."
"Did you guys say 'Eggman'?" Frances' voice spoke up. Swift, with an exclamation point over his head, turned his head to see Frances opening her eyes. "…Swift…"
"Frances," Swift smiled. "…How are you feeling…?"
"Pretty pissed, actually," Frances confessed. "…Like… a burning rage." Her eyes turned yellow again, her pupils turning into catlike slits. Her fingernails turned into claws and her left hand set ablaze. Frances broke free of her restraints, and grabbed Swift with her right hand. The Chao remained perfectly calm while Frances held her flaming hand towards him. "Swift… why the hell did you not tell me about this scenario!? I could have helped! Heck, I probably wouldn't be in this mess if I knew what was happening from the beginning!"
"Swift!" Karin said, fear evident on her face. "Frances, let him go—"
"No, not yet!" Swift said, staying firm. Turning back to the woman who was holding him in anger. "Look, Frances… I know you're scared, I know you're angry, and I know you have a lot of questions. But right now, we can't answer them. Eggman's attacking, and I need to go out there and help save Chris and the rest of the gang. I need you to calm down."
"…Chris?" Frances asked, the flame surrounding her hand fizzling out. "He's here?"
"So are Danny, Miles, the whole gang," Swift confessed. "You have every right to be angry at us… we have been living a double life behind your back, Amy's, and Helen's. The life of a superhero is a lonely and dangerous one, and you just got thrown into it. Yeah, Chris and I? We're Sonic the Hedgehog. But right now, this is YOUR origin story. This power you now have? It's yours to use. The question, Frances Burns, is how you plan to use this new power, or are you going to let it use you."
Frances looked at Swift, who did not lose any composure. The redhead looked at her nails, which seemed to retract. Her eyes returned to their normal green, which made the Chao smile with a heart over his head.
"…You really are adorable, you crazy, reckless Chao," Frances said. With that, her eyes turned back to yellow and her left hand once again caught ablaze before she threw it.
G.U.N. Base Exterior— 13:33
"Oh crap!" Nelson yelled before ducking out of the way of the Beetles shooting towards him. He managed to get towards the front gate, where Topaz and Tanaka were taking cover. "Why is it that it's always been ROBOTS lately!?" Nelson asked while Chris, Danny, and Ahaw Kin joined them. Miles and Spike slid behind the car.
"So YOU guys were involved in the incident in Guatemala," Topaz realized. "So, you saw Sonic in person?"
"Miss Stone," Tanaka spoke up, "I am afraid now is not a good time for talking about Sonic."
"Oh, right," Topaz said before popping her head from cover and firing a few shots, taking down some of the Beetles. "You know, you're awfully calm about this."
"Tanaka's been my bodyguard for years," Nelson answered. "He's used to stuff like this." As if to emphasize his point, Tanaka grabbed a nearby gun from a fallen agent, and shot a few times as well.
"What's taking you so long, Swift?" Chris whispered.
"We are running out of time," Ahaw Kin told Chris. "We need to change, now."
"We can't," Danny reminded him. "We're supposed to be keeping secret identities, remember?"
"But if we don't turn into Tails and Knuckles," Ahaw Kin replied, "we will die."
"Damn it, you have too much of a point," Danny admitted. "We have to figure out a way to transform without being spotted." All of the sudden, the ground shook. The group turned to see two of the hammer wielding Egg Pawn Giants.
"YOUR ORDERS, DECOE AND BOCOE?" one of the Giants asked, shots bouncing harmlessly off its metallic body.
"Oh, good, back-up," Decoe realized. "Anyways, could you smash a way inside?"
"AFFIRMATIVE," the other giant answered. The two giants began their slow walks towards the base, swinging their hammers to knock several of the GUN soldiers out of their way.
Topaz yelled to Passer, "We're losing men fast, Colonel! We have to fall back into the base!"
"Belay that!" Passer yelled. "Anyone caught fleeing the battle will be charged with desertion and face court martial!"
"Your commanding officer is going to be the death of you all," Tanaka spoke up. "Why put up with that?"
"Besides the complicated chain of command I'd have to go through to even attempt to get either moved on my own or Passer reported and he'll know every complaint and personally punish anyone who does file one?" Topaz asked. "The Colonel here is in charge of my case file. I already messed up my last mission when I was ordered to exterminate Sonic, and I'm on a huge chopping block. If anything happens to the new toy your boss is demonstrating, I'll be lucky to see the end of the day. What's worse is that everyone on this base fears him so much that he can get away with almost anything. Anyways, I better go cover those guys." With that, Topaz ran, shooting at the Egg Pawns she could kill.
Chris flinched at that piece of news that he put this woman's career and perhaps her life in jeopardy just by being Sonic. 'Wow… I feel like a jerk,' he thought to himself. Meanwhile, the two Egg Pawn Giants reached the front of the base.
"Let's see what's behind door number one," Bocoe ordered. The hammers swung down—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A huge stream of fire burst out, slamming into the metallic armor of the Giants, knocking them over. Everyone looked at the entrance to see a young Caucasian woman (judging by the figure) wearing full G.U.N. combat armor (save for a purple Chaos Morpher) and a helmet, not just concealing her identity but providing her body protection. The weird thing about her was the fact that her hands and feet were lit aflame, yet she did not seem to notice it— or at the very least not flinch. Tanaka took this moment to grab Nelson and drag him away from the fight, pulling him inside the security booth.
The next first thing the woman did was throw out a pillar of flame, engulfing a series of Egg Pawns before she rushed at them, taking down a few with martial arts. The fighting resumed, with the G.U.N. agents launching a counter-attack.
While everyone was distracted with the woman, a small blue blur ran out, stopping next to Chris to reveal Swift.
"What did I miss?" the Chao asked, a question mark over his head.
"…Swift," Danny asked, "who the hell is that?"
"Right," Swift said, looking at the fire-throwing woman performing martial arts. "We would have been up here sooner, but she and I were bouncing off names with each other. We went through a lot of them: 'Wildfire', 'Pyra', and 'Iblis'… Eventually, we just settled on 'Sol'."
"…Frances, of course," Chris said, recognizing the martial arts and the powers.
"Yeah," Karin said as she came over after avoiding the gunfire. "Unfortunately, Frances has to use up that Chaos energy to drain it. But she'll run out of power, soon, and when that happens… well, she's mortal."
"In that case, we really need Team Sonic," Chris said. He then looked around… nobody was paying attention to them, too busy with the battle at hand. "…Hey, I just realized that we're not being watched."
"So, can we finally transform?" Ahaw Kin asked.
"Yes," Chris and Danny grinned, signaling the two Chao to come over. Three transformations later, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were on the scene.
'Man, that feels good,'Swift spoke in Sonic's head. 'So, we have a few minutes before Frances runs out of gas.'
'Where's the Emerald?' Chris asked.
'Dr. Naka has it,' Swift answered. 'Let's focus on cleaning up this battle, then get out of here with Frances… I mean, "Sol".'
Sonic stood up, grinning before disappearing in a blur. Several Egg Pawns were taken care of before Sonic landed back-to-back with Sol.
"…Sonic," Passer breathed, surprised that the hedgehog showed up at this moment.
"Seems like you guys could use a bit of a hand," Sonic commented to Passer. "Look, I'm not here to get in G.U.N.'s way. I just want to help."
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Sol spoke behind him. "We really have a lot to discuss…"
"Perhaps later when we're not surrounded," Sonic suggested.
"Oh great," Decoe said, realizing who was here. "Well, I know when we're beat. Shall we retreat?"
"May as well," Bocoe said. "Egg Pawns! Cover us!" The Egg Mobile began to fly away. Sonic turned to pursue, but an Egg Pawn armed with a bazooka turned its cannon on him, and fired. Sol shot out a flame at the projectile, causing it to explode before she jumped through the smoke and blasted the robot. Tails and Knuckles decided to take this time to strike, taking down the two Egg Pawn Giants— Knuckles ripped one's head off while Tails managed to an Egg Pawn with a bazooka to take out the other.
When the field was cleared of Egg Pawns, Sonic and Sol sighed in relief, both glad that fight was over with. "Not bad, hedgehog," Sol smirked. "You really are fast."
"You aren't so bad yourself, Sol," Sonic complimented. "Could use a little control over that flame of yours, though." As if to emphasize his point, the two looked at the battlefield of scorched earth. Sol nervously chuckled.
"I'll work on it," she said.
CLICK-CLICK.
Sonic and Sol quickly found almost every single gun on the base turned towards them. "Well, well," Passer grinned. "Sonic the Hedgehog showing up right at my doorstep… how convenient."
"Hey!" Tails scowled. "We just helped you guys!"
"I know," Passer said. "But you all are still vigilantes and walking, talking, mutant animals."
"I'm human," Sol corrected.
"And you can breathe fire," Passer added. "My point is I don't give a damn whether you all saved my men or not! I'm taking you monsters in and putting you all down! The Mobians are extinct, hedgehog… its high-time you joined them."
"…So," Sol asked, "is this the part where you disappear like Batman or…?"
"I still haven't mastered that part," Sonic confessed as Topaz approached them, a pair of handcuffs. "And even then, I'm more of the Flash." He extended his hands, allowing her to place the cuffs on him.
"…You know I want to say this isn't personal," Topaz said to Sonic. "But it kind of is. You DID destroy my plane."
"I don't blame you," Sonic shrugged. Loudly, looking at Passer, the hedgehog declared, "Too bad that your commanding officer is a total backstabbing asshole that doesn't care for any of you!" This caused everyone on the base to gasp in shock that the hedgehog was directly insulting Passer, Topaz included.
"…What did you say?" Passer asked, walking towards Sonic.
"You heard me," the hedgehog replied. "Or is your skull too thick around the ears to listen? You'd send each and every single one of these good men and women to their deaths and lose no sleep over it. As long as you got what you wanted, you have no qualms. The only reason these people obey every single order you give to them is because there's nobody else to turn to unless they get a promotion. And how many people have you recommended a promotion for?"
"Why you little…!" Passer growled. He lunged for the hedgehog, who disappeared in a blur, only to reappear a few feet behind him.
"I'm not finished," Sonic continued. "Let me guess: almost none. You like control. These people are damned if they disobey or question your orders because you'll punish them or worse, and damned if they don't because they'll likely be killed by their enemy. Now, I may not be military, but I can tell you're unfit to command these people."
"And what gives YOU, a Mobian monster, the right to question whether or not I'm fit for command?!" Passer asked. "You said it yourself that you're not military."
"True, I'm not," Sonic confessed. "But even I can tell that the Guardian Units of Nations is meant to protect the world from terrorism and anarchy. However, you're terrorizing your own soldiers into obeying your orders, even if they are suicidal. Hardly the ideals G.U.N. is meant to represent. You treat them like cannon fodder or you can easily replace them. I wouldn't tolerate it if you were my commander… so why should these people? Honestly, you make ME look more heroic in comparison to you."
Passer stared into the hedgehog's eyes, keeping his fists clenched. Sonic knew he hit a nerve. The human side of him had to admit the Chao side's cockiness sure helped get under someone's skin. The best-case scenario was if Passer made a mistake now that Sonic got him real mad. The worse-case scenario, of course, was Passer ordered him shot now.
Turns out, Sonic didn't have to wait for Passer to say anything.
"Am I interrupting something?" Robotnik's voice spoke up. The two looked away from each other and saw a large, three-headed dog mech approaching, with Robotnik in his Egg Mobile. "Wow… didn't even get through the front door even with back-up. Really, Decoe and Bocoe… really?"
"…I'll deal with you, later," Passer said, pointing to Sonic. "So, Robotnik… come to surrender or bail out your little minions, here?"
"Come to take that Chaos Emerald you picked up, actually," the scientist answered. "And as far as I know, I only used Knuckles ONCE, and it was to fight Sonic because I tricked them into fighting. There's no love between me and the hedgehog, let's make that clear."
"…So you two really ARE on different sides," Topaz breathed.
"Anyways," Robotnik continued, "if it's not too much trouble, Colonel, I'd like to leave with the Chaos Emerald."
"I don't even know what a Chaos Emerald is, but I know for a fact that if someone like you wants it, it's better off not in your hands!" Passer replied. "Troops! Focus fire on Robotnik!"
The remaining G.U.N. troops held up their weapons, pointing at the mad scientist, who looked at them with a dull expression. "Sure, try to shoot at me when there's a giant Egg Cerberus right next to you all. Cerberus?" The large, robotic three-headed dog looked at Robotnik. "Go play."
The large dog turned back to the G.U.N. troops before jumping at them. The bullets bounced off of its armor, only annoying it before it struck, knocking one to the ground with one of its massive three heads. Robotnik thought to himself as he watched it bounce around the base, pretty much wrecking everything in its way.
"You know, in hindsight, I perhaps programmed it with too much 'Puppy'. Well, it IS a newborn hellhound…"
"Hey! Baldy McNosehair!" Sol spoke up. "Speaking of 'Hell', how about I turn up the heat so it FEELS like 'Hell'?"
"Wait, what?"
WHOOSH!
The Egg Mobile was hit by a stream of flame. Robotnik quickly moved his Egg Mobile away from the flames, looking at the girl that just attacked him, her gear's hands once again aflame.
"That is the power of Sol!" the fire-using human declared. "And I'm going to hard-boil you, Eggman!"
"Well… that's new," Robotnik muttered to himself. "…Wait… a Chaos energy infused human? Well, that's something I've got to study." He then motioned to the Egg Cerberus. "Oh boys… you can stop playing with the nice soldiers, now. We have something else…" Egg Cerberus turned towards Sol, who shot fire at the large mech. Cerberus responded with jumping over the fire and pinned her to the ground with a large robotic paw. The fiery woman tried to push up, but the large dog kept her down, and her Morpher's glow was beginning to fade. Sonic realized what was happening.
"Sol!" he yelled. The hedgehog broke the handcuffs with pure strength. Topaz looked at the feat with shock. "Uh, yeah… with the amount of speed I have, I could have done that at any time." He then spun into a ball, and tried to ram into one the Egg Cerberus' paw pinning down Sol. However, the Egg Cerberus smacked Sonic away with one of its heads, causing him to crash land next to the now unmanned Big Foot.
The Hedgehog's vision went blurry as he watched Sol… no, Frances… struggling to use her firepower on the Egg Cerberus while Knuckles ran over to him, Tails running over to another place. Eventually, Sol's Morpher faded, leading her to pass out as the Egg Cerberus took its paw off her. It then picked her up by the back of her borrowed outfit, and began to retreat, Robotnik following afterwards.
"No you don't!" Karin said, dropping running after Robotnik, only to stop after a few feet when she realized how futile it would be to pursue on her own. "UGH! DAMN IT!"
"Sonic!" Knuckles yelled. "We've got to get out of here!"
'No!' Swift angrily thought. 'We're so close to getting Frances back…!'
'Swift… we'll get her back,' Chris told him as Sonic stood up. 'Right now, we're beaten… we need to get out of here and regroup.'
'Why?' Swift demanded.
'Because of the G.U.N. troops who after regrouping are going to come after us?' Chris reasoned.
Tails came back over to Sonic. "I let Tanaka know we're going to be taking the long way home," the fox whispered. "Wanna go after Robotnik?"
"Like we have a choice?" Sonic questioned. "But first… we should get out of here." Team Sonic turned towards the G.U.N. officers still able to stand, Passer included.
"So, we lose Robotnik," Passer scowled. "But not you. I'm still taking you in."
"I'm afraid not," Sonic said. Holding up the blue Chris had brought with him Chaos Emerald, he concentrated its energy to create a small tornado, which created a small dust storm that blinded the G.U.N. troops. When the dust settled, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Karin were all gone, but Sonic's calling card was there.
"How the hell does he do that?" Passer demanded. Topaz ignored her CO, and walked towards the calling card. She picked up the card, scowling at the memory of her defeat by the blue hedgehog.
"You're not getting away this time," she muttered to herself, looking at the still useable Big Foot. "Not without some answers."
Swift: So that's Eggman's floating mobile base…
Chris: And we're taking it down. Not only does he have the Morpher blueprints, but he has Frances.
Karin: Uh, guys, we have a problem.
Topaz: Sonic… I don't know what the hell is going on, anymore, but helping you get your friend back seems to be the only way I'll get the answers I seek. This battle between you and Robotnik… what side you're on… I need to look into this myself!
Swift: I like her. Are we still able to recruit?
Chris: Ignore him.
Spike: Looks like I'll have to do the outro. Next time on Sonic Chao Chronicles, after our Comment Special, we'll have "Assault on the Egg Balloon!"
Swift: Try to keep up with me!
Kingdom Rider92's Notes: And thus ends Episode 10 after two full years! Enjoy your candy while you trick-or-treat!
Alright, so here's how this Comment Special is going to go. You guys can ask Swift, Miles, Spike, Edge, or yours truly any question you want in the reviews. Please keep the questions potential spoiler-free (theories I'll allow), and do not ask "When's the next episode?", for that is rude. If it's a general question anyone can answer, we'll take turns answering those.
Edge: You and I are probably going to be answering those more often, buddy.
Kingdom Rider92: True, we probably are. We'll also be attempting to answer the comments from the last two years.
Edge: "Try" being the key word. No way in heck are we going to get them all.
Kingdom Rider92: If we don't, we apologize in advance. Anyways, send your questions to us, and we'll handle the rest! Kingdom Rider92 out!
Edge: And have a happy Halloween!