Chapter 43- The Future Looks Bleak pt. III

Tails walked alongside his older self, staring at the ground mumbling curses at Liz. "I should have kept a better eye on her. Of course she'd go running off like this!" he said angrily.

"Don't worry about it." his older self replied, "If anything she's probably already with her future self learning how to dominate the earth."

"Oh crap… so all of this is my fault?" Tails asked.

"Yeah pretty much."

"Damn…"

Then they came upon the fake pond in the woods. Tails looked ahead and saw Shadow talking to Amy and Rouge. "Shadow, look who I found!" the older Tails called.

Shadow looked over, "Where's Liz?" he asked.

"I lost her." Tails mumbled as they approached him.

Shadow nodded, "I guess that was inevitable." he said, "Anyway, Knuckles is mobilizing our troops. They should be here soon… They took the emergency exit on the other side of the city so they wouldn't have to come up this way. It's kind of hard getting five thousand soldiers up with that three person lift."

"The design of this entrance isn't all too great for escaping an emergency or evacuation." Rouge added.

Tails just shrugged, "I know. It's kind of a stupid design now that I think back on it."

The young Tails just stood off to the side watching this conversation but then Shadow pulled him off to the side, "Did he already explain to you what's going on?" he asked.

Tails nodded. "Good. Then you know this isn't going to be an easy battle, it's very important that you stay far away from the fighting. We can't risk losing you during this; we'll need you when you get older. Promise you won't interfere with the battle no matter what happens!"

"I promise." Tails said solemnly.

Shadow smiled and turned and walked back towards the others. Tails made to follow but he felt a hand on his shoulder and suddenly he was pulled back into the brush. He tried to scream but someone covered his mouth, "Shutup kid! I need your help!"

Tails' ears perked up as he recognized the voice speaking to him.

Once everyone in the room had gotten over the horrible Star Wars parody Sonic stood up, after lying on the ground and twitching for ten minutes, and glared at Liz, "I don't care if you own me- your evil empire will never last!"

Liz, who seemed to be staring intently at the clock and not listening to Sonic at all, was humming something under her breath.

Sonic continued to ramble although Liz was obviously not paying attention. Finally she looked down at Sonic, "You're still here?" she mumbled lazily.

Sonic glared up at her, "YES I'M STILL HERE!" he shouted, "I'M NOT GOING TO JUST DISAPPEAR!"

Liz looked back up at the clock, "Actually you will. You still have to go back to the past." she replied with a smile, "But until then I suppose you'll just have to wait here until Tails comes and I slaughter all your friends."

Sonic's eyes became wide, "Excuse me?" he demanded.

"Oh I forgot to tell you; your friends are coming in about half an hour to rescue you and destroy me." Liz said, "It'll be quite interesting to actually be able to fight this time."

Mini Liz stomped her foot, "I can't fight?" she pouted.

Liz smiled at her, "No, you'll get a chance when you're older anyway." she said. Then she looked over at Kaute, "Go assemble our elite troops." she ordered.

Kaute saluted her, "Yes ma'am!" he replied. Then he ran out of the room, obviously eager to escape the insanity.

Liz sat there for about five minutes watching the clock eagerly. Mini Liz was watching her in awe and Sonic was staring at the door wondering if he could find a way to escape and stop his friends from coming to their dooms.

Finally, he decided to make a break for it. He stood up and sprinted for the door but before he could reach it the door opened again and he was face to face with Kaute.

He looked back at Liz who was smiling at him, "That's even funnier the second time." she said with a laugh.

Kaute pushed Sonic back into the room and a few other people walked in after him and stood in a line very military style.

Sonic looked down the line and realized he recognized all the faces: Komodo, Dana, and Mel, Liz's old posse; Hannah and Akeii, her fan characters; and Science Teacher was last, he still didn't know what her name was.

Sonic blinked twice, "These are your elite troops?" he asked.

"You got a problem with that?" Komodo snapped.

Sonic opened his mouth to argue but decided it was better to just forget it. If he was going to argue over the stupidity of anything, it would be the mosquitoes.

"Soldiers, in about 20 minutes the rebels will be coming in a feeble attempt to storm our fortress and rescue their dear hedgy friend you see here." Liz said, "We aren't going to stand for that, now are we?"

All of them smiled mischievously, "Can I kill Shadow?" Science Teacher asked eagerly. Sonic noticed Hannah cast an angry glance at her.

Liz paused for a moment in thought, "Eh… sure why not?"

"I call Tails!" Kaute said raising his hand like an excited schoolboy.

Liz smiled, "You should all go prepare for battle. You have 17 minutes. Be outside by then. Teacher, make sure you get your robots armed too and have them out. I'd like to see somebody get impaled."

All of them left, except Kaute.

Liz looked down at Sonic, "Don't worry hedgy, you'll get to watch your friends die. In fact you have a front row seat." she said, then she looked up at Kaute, "Take him up to the tower so he can watch from up there then get your cashiers ready for battle."

Kaute grabbed Sonic's wrist and dragged him out of the room where two guards were standing watch, "Take the hedgehog up to the tower and lock him in. Make sure he can see out the window though." he said. Then he turned and strode off.

The guards shoved Sonic forward and he walked silently down the hall. He glanced back at them but a glare made him look forward again. Then suddenly one of them cried out and Sonic heard a thud as he collapsed. He looked back in time to see the other one collapse on top of the first one.

He looked from their bodies up at the orange kitsune smiling at him with a gun in his hand. "Tails!" he cried out happily.

"There's no time to waste- we have to find Akeii and Hannah! Come on!" Tails turned and ran off back the way they'd come. Sonic followed hoping he knew what he was doing.

Shadow stomped his foot angrily, "I can't believe that little rat took off!" he shouted angrily.

Tails cleared his throat angrily.

Shadow looked back at him, "Sorry." he mumbled.

All five of the crew were standing in the back of an aircraft as they flew towards Liz's city. Other planes behind them carried their troops.

"Why would he just leave like that?" Knuckles wondered aloud.

Shadow's face flushed, "I… kind of told him not to interfere with the battle and… he may have taken it a bit farther than I wanted him to."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's still here, isn't he?" Rouge said pointing to the Tails next to her.

"I just hope he isn't planning anything stupid." Shadow mumbled.

"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard!" Akeii shouted.

Akeii and Hannah stood in the hallway staring at Tails.

"Keep your voice down!" Tails mumbled, "Don't worry, I know it will work!"

"How do you know that?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah, how do you know that?" Sonic, who was behind Tails, asked.

"Just do it! Liz can't know what's going to happen!" Tails said, then he turned and ran back down the hall. Sonic ran after him.

"How do you know they're going to help us?" he asked.

"I just do, okay?" Tails reassured him, "We have to hurry. We have to shut down Liz's main computer system before the battle is over!"

"What will that do?" Sonic asked.

"That's where she stores all the information she stole from SEGA. If we destroy it she won't own us anymore!" he said, "And that means she won't turn you into a rat."

Liz stood outside with one of the vultures perched on her arm. She watched as a half dozen jets flew towards their city from the horizon. She smiled at Mini-Liz standing next to her, "There they are." she said.

Mini-Liz smiled too, "This should be interesting."