It didn't take long to reach Eggman's fortress. Once the fortress was within sight, Sky and Tails took cover behind a boulder and began to compose their plan. "I could fly us in through an air vent" Tails thought out loud. Sky considered, and then replied, "Sooner or later Eggman is going to realize that the squad of robots he sent to capture you isn't coming back. Once he does, he'll be on full alert for you to try and get Sonic back." Tails's face fell when he heard that, especially since he knew it was true. Sky continued, "We need a diversion, and I've got an explosive idea". Tails listened intently as Sky explained his plan.
Eggman was having a good week. It all started a few days ago when he lured Shadow into fighting a heavily armored robot in one of his old bases. As predicted Shadow destroyed the robot with a chaos blast, but he had to remove his inhibitor rings to do so. Thus Eggman stole the rings and triggered base's self destruct system. Shadow escaped with chaos control, but without his inhibitor rings he quickly ran out of strength during the following battles. Shadow was believed to have been rescued by Sonic but it didn't matter at the moment, he was out of the picture either way. Eggman hadn't destroyed the inhibitor rings, they were a treasure of his grandfather's genius after all and he thought he might want them around for something later. As predicted Sonic came charging in to take back the rings a day later. However Eggman was expecting this. He readied the same trap that he used the day he awakened dark gaia, but with some slight modifications, and sooner or later he had Sonic in stasis. The only downside was that the Chaos emeralds had scattered and Tails had escaped. "What's taking that robot patrol so long?" Eggman asked aloud as he paced around in his control room. His two robotic assistants, Decoe and Bocoe just shrugged [Author's note: This story doesn't relate to Sonic X at all. I just chose Decoe and Bocoe since I can write them better than I can Orbot and Cuebot]. Eggman didn't seem too bothered, and continued, "Oh well, I can catch that annoying fox later, or I can have Sonic do it!" He said the last part with a distinctly evil look in his eyes "Now that would be -" he was cut off by the sound of a large explosion. "What was that!?" he exclaimed. Decoe typed away furiously on a computer console and then replied, "The north end of the base is under attack. An entire section missile launchers just exploded." Eggman was surprised, "Who could be attacking us now?" he questioned rhetorically, then he continued, "Whoever they are I won't let them ruin my plans! Send all robots to secure the north end of the base, and put out that fire!" Decoe and Bocoe nodded and relayed the orders via computer consoles.
Tails had assumed Fire Tails form and had thrown a fireball into the base, luckily it had struck a section of missile launchers. The attack had taken some effort so afterwards Sky said to Tails "Let me carry you so you can save your strength for later." Tails nodded and Sky carried Tails around to the other side of the base. Then Tails flew himself and Sky into an air vent. Once inside, they discovered a problem. "This grate is welded shut" Tails said anxiously. Sky knew that was a problem: there was no space for fireworks, and even if there was the noise would probably get them discovered anyway. Then his wrist comp beeped. Sky opened it and saw on the display a button labeled "Laser Blade" He pressed it and a light saber blade like beam extended from the front of the wrist comp. "Cool!" Tails said quietly. Sky cut through the grate and the duo ran around the base looking for Sonic. Because of the diversion, there were very few security bots and thus the duo could hear them coming and avoid them. Sooner or later they found the room where Sonic was held captive. He was in a glass tube with a strange energy field around it. His eyes were closed but he seemed to be ok. Tails typed a command into a nearby computer terminal and lowered the stasis field. "Now all we have to do is get him out of that tube" Tails said and then his expression faltered, "What if we're too late" he asked aloud. "If Eggman had already brainwashed Sonic do you really think he'd still have him in here?" Sky answered. Tails replied, "Good point". Sky used his laser blade to cut a hole in the tube, then stepped back to allow Tails to grab Sonic.
Sonic opened his eyes wearily and saw that he was in Tails's arms. "Tails?" he said slowly, "What happened? The last thing I remember was being caught in Eggman's trap." "Sonic your safe" Tails said and hugged him, despite the spines Sonic had. After Tails let go, Sonic turned and saw Sky. Tails made introductions: "Sonic this is Sky, he helped me rescue you and Sky this is Sonic, the fastest thing alive." Sonic and Sky shook hands. Then Sonic remembered what he'd come for. "Hey Tails, what'dya say we grab shadow's rings and blow this joint." Sky continued the line of thought, "You mean have Tails hack into the computer system and activate the self destruct sequence these bases always seem to have?" Sonic turned to him and said "Not what I meant but hey, that's a great idea." Tails went back to the terminal and started typing. Sonic ran off, and came back a minute later with Shadow's inhibitor rings. Then the base's loudspeakers recited a message, "This fortress will self destruct in 5 minutes."
Meanwhile in the control room, Eggman paced around and waited for news on the assault on his base. Bocoe finally spoke up, "Fire suppression complete Dr." Eggman responded, "Good, but did my robot army find who was responsible?" Decoe shook his head. Eggman looked annoyed and was about to give an order when the base's loud speakers recited a message: "This fortress will self destruct in 5 minutes." Eggman exclaimed, "What? I didn't order that! Shut off the self destruct sequence you brainless bolt buckets!" Decoe and Bocoe typed furiously but the system replied, "Access denied" each time they tried. Eggman looked angry and ranted, "No one denies Dr. Eggman!" However after a few minutes of trying to access the computer himself, Eggman had to give up and escape in his egg mobile.