Ch.3-Operation: Sonic
Sonic lay in a cell with his mind on commitment and his heart on uncovering this evil genius's plan to destroy home. Knothole was his home and his friends for a long time had defended it together from being plowed down by Dr. Eggman's worst. Yet here in this cell the good Dr. had his own problems with a vixen mastermind. "I was not gone that long, but when I come back who do I find in my chair, but a vixen!"
"So hard to think of isn't it Eggman?" Sonic sat up and regretted it as soon as he heard his back pop. "One of us has you thinking once about your future, and the other here is trying to help you." Sonic then stared through the bars at the busy vixen whose 3 tails were in the air, it seemed so familiar too-"Tails! All this time there was no one like him, but now presto here she is! Hey Vix, how long you been here?" Her head turned and Sonic felt small under her purple eye gaze.
"About a year, it happened so fast and the isolation had me down in the mud, then I found this place, just by accident. It was like calling me and when I put on the helmet all the whirly gadgets sprung to life. The only person in the area was…you!" Her red hands were in fists and her purple eyes flared. "I told you, Dr. Eggman about the fortress and you pushed me to the ground. Well now look who's in power fatty!"
"So you're the one who told me..." Slowly it dawned on him he had made a mistake, maybe I need to lessen my hostility, Eggman thought carefully, on dealers of information. "My machines weren't to be built until tested, and those blueprints are mine!" She took a step forward and held in her hands a pair of…blueprints! Slowly and carefully she tore the blueprints in half then tore it sideways. Eggman was chewing his nails and Sonic began to admire his new enemy before him. Once her task was done she left. "Wait, just wait till I get my hands on her throat and then…I'll cut her tails!" Sonic felt the impact of Tails, his best friend and his green eyes narrowed at Eggman. If the good Dr. attempted to cut Vix, then what wouldn't stop him from doing that to Tails? That vixen will pay for that, Eggman thought malevolently.
"Ah cheer up Eggman, it's not like the end of the world is going to happen," Sonic said, still trying to play his part. Maybe we can never our real character, he thought, only in how we deal with stuff in nature can that happen. Crossing his legs he meditated and focused his energy for the upcoming battle.
Up in his home on the Floating island Knuckles the echidna was relaxing by chewing on some grass, when all of the sudden he head a loud roar. As he looked up he saw a huge long ship soaring to a pair of clouds past his island. "Must be the hedgehog's friends," he muttered, "well, if they have the rudeness to wake me up something must be going down." Running off the island he grabbed hold of a loose pole and held on as they reached a fortress covered in swats. Pulling himself on top of the vehicle he readied himself for one heck of a battle. The hatch opened and a beautiful bunny came out, the machinery was surprising, but her southern smile was melting away his hostile ways. "Hi my name is-"
"Enough talk sugar, we got ourselves a sticky situation here and right now I don't need no Romeo echidna putting the moves on me. Got it?" The first wave of bots came and Bunnie smashed it to bits with her mechaninized hand. Knuckles dodged an incoming blast and sent his gloved hands into its circuits. Bunnie leaped into the air and smashed a swat bot down with her foot. Knuckles drove a swat into the ship and snapped one in half. Ignoring all the big ones he concentrated on the little ones that shot stun bolts instead of deadly fire. Bunnie pulled him back just as a very large bolt hit in front of his feet sending the two rolling. As they stopped, Knuckles stared into her pretty eyes and her white furred cheeks reddened. An incoming bolt hit the fuel line and their ship was meeting the landing…too fast.
"Hang on!" The nose hit first sending glass and cardboard scattering, followed by the wing which started to burn. Knuckles put his arms around Bunnie's waist and leaped off the ship just as explosions occurred. As he held onto the rail of an observation deck he first watched the ember explosion, and then stared at Bunnie's watering eyes. Pulling them up he had no real comforting words to say, so he said, "Let's go find Sonic."
Tails felt alive in the pilot's seat once again and with his friends here he knew they would be successful. Rotar was in the back feeding energy into the ship, while Bunnie watched the canons. Amy sat up front with him checking the course they held and the monitor of blips. Tails had a feeling the fortress they were trying to break in to was not as defenseless as Eggman's castles of doom, rather it was like an airship with 20 round canons and heat seeking bots.
"Tails how long have you known Sonic?" Shaken from his scary thoughts he focused on the pink haired hedgehog. The question brought Tails to his young days where he was always left out of the big kid activities. Soon enough his curiosity nearly got him killed, if not for Sonic's intervention that is. From that point Tails followed Sonic on all his missions, sometimes he bailed Sonic out, other times Sonic rescued him. Tails then gripped the controls to shake his reminiscing day dreams.
"Since we were young," Tails said. "Even when Sonic was among the big kids he always invited me. He told me I was already a hero and that I had a big caring heart. Then we became best of friends and soon we were a duo." The blip on the screen was red and Tails knew their cloud cover had vanished. "Bunnie get up there and smash those…things."
"Right," she said. As he watched her disappear he steered away from a mine and soon they were within sight of the air fortress. Rotar kept is eyes on the fuel and Amy clasped her hands together. Pulling up he barely grazed a mine and was soon very alert. Suddenly the fuel ignited and sent Rotar to the deck. Tails attempted to pull them up, but the controls were out. The landing pad was staring right up at him and Tails tried to unbuckle, but he was stuck.
"Tails pull up!" His blue eyes were watery from smoke and his face couldn't look anywhere but the closing distance. The nose hit and glass was sent everywhere and right into Tails. Amy hit her head and blacked out, while Rotar lay still…unmoving. Flames were swallowing up the plane and the fuselage crackled. The glove compartment popped open and a single gold ring lay there. It was Sonic's, but he was trapped and dieing and the plane was highly flammable. His gloved hands reached for it and then all the pain vanished and he turned gold. Bursting free from his seat belt he picked up Amy in one hand and other Rotar and twirled out just as the plane exploded.
"I'm going to get us to safety…then I will have to find Bunnie, and then rescue Sonic." Speeding into the dark threshold he was blind, but his super speed would enable him to pass those sensors. Finding a dark corner he dropped the two off and twirled up into the farther reaches of the fortress. Somewhere up there was Sonic and he intended to rescue him.
Knuckles and Bunnie were in a conference room from the looks of it and it seemed a meeting had been adjourned. Bunnie checked the only other available door and saw it stretch for miles. Knuckles sniffed the air and could detect a faint scent of cinnamon, and the lighting in the room had dimmed. A green caped creature appeared from behind a machine smiling benevolently. Bunnie struck out with her mechanical arm and was thrown into some chairs. The mastermind was a vixen and Knuckles didn't hide his surprise at not finding Eggman in command. "Were you expecting the old fart? Well I have him detained downstairs…along with another friend of yours." Grinding his teeth he found out it was Sonic.
"So what's your plan Vix? Destroy all those insufficient and enslave the others who are compatible your work?" He began to circle the table and Vix moved the opposite way, as if inviting him to try and do something arrogant and fool hardy. "Are you trying to fill in what flaws Eggman left, or do you plan on continuing his work?" Vix smiled at him pityingly.
"Some of both, but what my master plan really involves is to replace all of you…and turn you into machines. That way I continue his work; the other part, that is mine, is to create an army of air swats and conquer all the other worlds. You see, what Eggman did wrong was he was always busy with you Freedom Fighters, he never saw what was behind your race. Behind it is an expansion hidden on other worlds," she said with a gesture of her hands. Picking up a chair Knuckles hurtled it at Vix, but stared open eyed as her fist, crackling with energy sent pieces of wood everywhere. "You see…I have you beaten."
"You got that right Vix," a voice said from behind. The chair came down and Vix crumpled to the floor. Bunnie had blood on her cheek and her forehead was cut. Knuckles was fine, except for a sliver in his arm. "How did she get like this?"
"Maybe the owner of this fortress flew the coop and Vix here stumbled in innocently." There were many reasonable variables, but their main mission was Sonic. Before they left the door he was pushed to the wall and received a warm kiss. "Why did you do that?"
"Because of your gentleman ways…and for just being here," she said with some flirtation. The corridor outside was empty and the two ran the distance until they made it to a crossroad. Both decided on the right and faced a wall of air swats. Bunnie did a karate chop to break through and Knuckles did wall kicks to sever the ones above in half. They made it to the cells and found a bored Sonic and sleeping…Eggman? "She was right Knuckles!"
"Yeah, and what scares me more is both are sharing a cell. C'mon let's help them out," Knuckles said. Sonic opened one eye lazily and grinned as he saw Knuckles and Bunnie opening his cell.
"Hey Knuckles, come to join me and the good Dr.?" Knuckles opened the door just as a metal hand reached for his arm and tossed him into the wall. Bunnie ducked under the punch and found herself face to face with a female echidna. Sonic came out of the cell and sped to the left as a metal wing came swooping at him. The falcon swung again and Sonic jumped over it and kicked it, and got hurt. Bunnie used her mechanical arm and pushed against the other mechanical arm of the echidna, both had equal force. "Dr. Eggman we can sure use…an extra hand," Sonic said urgently.
"She tore my designs up…" Sonic felt a right hook and went tumbling to the deck. Bunnie was lifted off her feet and slammed to the deck. Dr. Eggman got up and tore from his cell, and ran the opposite way. "Now, it's time to finish off the vixen, so that what was once hers shall be mine!" Knuckles got up on his knees and faced the female echidna. He then ran right into it and dug his knuckles into its processor. An electrical whine was heard and it collapsed. Sonic, with a weak effort dismantled the falcon and limped to Bunnie. Sonic now had a clear idea:
"Eggman always was a poor tradesman," Sonic said with a grin, "we both agreed to help one another, I don't see me…getting any points…" Knuckles put the two on his shoulder and headed in Eggman's wake. In another part of the fortress two unconscious forms lay, both oblivious to the events currently taken place. Amy Rose's mind was swimming with dreams and jealousy.
"Sonic you don't need Sally," she said. As she opened her eyes she was in a field of flowers and across from her was a bruised Sonic. On the far side of the field was Sally with her hand on her hip and a smile promising pure delight. Antoine then came in and Sonic rushed forward; the two were on the ground wrestling and Sally looked like either one of them would work for her. Amy felt anger creep into her calm features and then without knowing it she had her hammer in her hand and was yelling at Sally. Sally pulled out a staff and raised it high up to block the bulky form of the hammer. Amy swung it low and tripped Sally and raised her hammer for a final blow. "Let Sonic go for good."
"Well…I could get more acquainted with Antoine," Sally mused. Relaxing her grip on the hammer Amy sighed. Antoine pulled out a knife and held it over Sonic's neck and the anger he had held over the years had finally come out. Sonic kicked Antoine off and rushed over to Sally. "Sonic, it was fun, but see for yourself, I love Antoine now."
"You see you whimpering hedgehog, she doesn't like the fast types anymore. Now is the staying at home guy, not the, be along in a minute guy, like you Sonic. If you don't smell the flower of change, then maybe you should stop living in the past." Waking up the flowers vanished and darkness surrounded her. Hearing a pair of robotically heavy feet stomp by Amy closed her eyes and decided to dream of the future.
"Sonic?" Tails was speeding through the corridors and along the way trashing up the swats. One room in particular caught his eye where he found a vixen…with three tails! Yet just as he was about to enter, Dr. Eggman came in with a grin pure of wickedness. "What is that meanie doing here?"
"Hello princess, have a good sleep?" Picking up the life less body he heaved her across the room and into a machine. Tails's eyes were bunched together and his two tails were spinning out of control. Tearing the distance up he punched Eggman right in the nose sending him onto his big butt. "My nose; ah my little friend, how is your little Knothole?" Tails went at him again and felt wood hit him. "Now…let me finish."
"Hold it …egg head," Sonic yelled. Eggman pulled out a laser pistol 2000 and shot at the hedgehog. Sonic sped the opposite way and snatched the pistol away. "You can kiss our deal goodbye Eggman, because command was never really on your mind from the start. In fact I bet you never had it in you to give up the fortress, because maybe it was one of your cronies who messed up…again. It was left unattended and a lost vixen stumbles in and gets your fortress, without lifting a finger. She came to you, and you never realized until your cell who she really was." Tails was shocked to find out Sonic had made a deal with fatty here, even so when Sonic told them how he got here. Bunnie recovered and when the others saw ears perk up, they realized they were in trouble.
"I put the explosives in, and put it for 2 minutes…I guess there up." Eggman turned tail and leaped through the glass window and twirled about as he plummeted to who knows where. Tails took Sonic and Vix and Knuckles carried Bunnie as fiery lava spilled through cracks. The room they left blew up causing them to burn rubber. Rotar and Amy were awake and led them to the flight deck. "We have no transportation!"
"There's…a craft…" The vixen pointed to a boxy craft and the gang got in just as the base went nuclear. Passing the checklist Tails hit the accelerator and they flew off the platform and into a free fall. The backup engines were down and their hover landing looked useless. It was the end.
"We've got to abandon ship!" Sonic got Amy, Knuckles had Bunnie, and Rotar got Tails and Vix and together they leaped out the door and fell into a murky pond. They were home free, and somehow out there Eggman lurked free.
Dr. Eggman, the evil genius who had created the most deadly machines, lay in his own puddle surrounded by smiling gators. Sometimes he wished he'd die, so that he never saw the Freedom Fighters again. The odds were always on his side and again here he sat. Now that Knuckles was with them he had more trouble afoot. Getting up and standing to his full potential he raised his cut fist to the sky and yelled, "Blast that lucky hedgehog! Always foiling my plans, well we'll see whose sitting here the next time we meet!" A gator laughed at him and he kicked at it. Making his way to land he dried himself off on the grass and stared at the sky at the fortress that would've made him invincible. The Freedom Fighters were too strong now, but somewhere there their leadership wavered and sooner or later he'd be strong again. For now he had this swampland to nurse his wounds and heal what pride was left after the fall. Revenge could be his…
Authors note: Well that was quite a good tale of good v.s. evil. Reviews whenever you want to send them, I'm just as glad if people read my story. The conclusion is coming so buckle up...or sit and wait...it may take some time. Later. And thanks to you people who read, a hit is a hit, but when the numbers rise...it means something.