I own nothing related to Sonic the Hedgehog which is owned by SEGA.

Chapter 18

Eliminating enemy." The robot pressed a button.

Alpha One looked shocked "No! STOP! THE MASTER WANTS HER ALIVE!" But it was too late.

A ball of energy charged up and Blaze looked up at it all beaten and bruised. She tried to push herself up only to fall back down. She was too fatigued.

The ball of energy began to vibrate and in a loud bang it fired off into a laser striking the ground where Blaze was. Shadow and Sonic soared right at the blast Sonic shouting out Blaze's name. The energy blast struck the ground and the entire ground shattered. The force threw both speedster hedgehogs back and smashed into trees and rock.

Alpha One roared "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

The robot however was freaking out "Does not compute! How is this possible?"

Alpha One slammed on his console "WHAT!? WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Alpha One looked at the screen just in time. The smoke cleared and there stood Anonymous holding the cat princess in his arms. He looked up at the ship, laid the princess down, swiped at his arm, picked Blaze back up, and ran off into the forest. The ship suddenly began spinning. Alpha One looked back and shouted "HOW IS THAT TERROIST HERE! THE MASTER SAID HE HAD HIM!"

A few minutes ago

The doors to the castle opened up and a figure began walking down the hallways. His armor gleamed in the flames lit along the walls and the tall terrorist leader only known as Anonymous looked around him. The toppled ceiling rubble, torn curtains and rugs, and the beaten walls and doors. He could tell this place use to a well respectable place. What a shame it is for what it has become. He, however, did not dwell on this. He had a plan and needs to carry out the specific tasks required for its success.

He walked along the rough floors of the castle and toward a certain door. He pushed it open to reveal the computer room that Sonic's group got trapped in and where the fox 'revealed' his true self once more. Anonymous had his reasons to doubt the fox's return to evil. Reasons he has not shared to anyone. These reasons have placed him in the position to plan out what he did and was about to do. He was already more than halfway and is in it too deep to the point there cannot be a mistake or his plan will ultimately fail.

He walked in the room and came up to a computer. He pushed a button and a bunch of coding came up each symbol changing after a few seconds. It was a touch screen so no keyboard would help him. Anonymous did not seemed fazed as he crossed his arms and watched it for a while. He then spoke aloud "You could as well have sent me an invitation." He turned around and there stood Miles 'Tails' Prower. "It would have been just as obvious."

Tails smiled as he walked around "Yes, but I knew you would come in anyway. I only pulled away the security so I could see you face to face. You knew I would do that however."

"A good commander reports to their general. Alpha One is such a commander. I knew after he saw me and killed Ralph he would show you footage. When you would see that you would undoubtedly take a closer look at me and then recognize me from Ralph's files."

"Well, how Ralph would know about that base under that construction does not make as much sense as the great 'Anonymous' knowing. The Anonymous that seemingly knows everything."

"Those use of words indicates you wish for a battle of the minds."

"Yes. Yes it would wouldn't it."

"Quite an unfair advantage for your part. You are much more intellectual than I."

Tails pulled at his collar "Yeck… I see what Ralph meant by 'unusually robot like.' Do you show any form of emotion or did you just turn off your frontal lobe." Tails smiled evilly "You know… where the emotions come from."

"A mere mention that you are clever than I is not an indication that I will back down. I was only stating my odds. Though impractical, I would have accepted."

Tails cocked a brow "'Would have?'"

"Yes. I would have accepted if it were not for the fact we were already in such a battle. I would not come here with such knowledge of your presence being at this juncture without some form of contingency plan."

Tails' smile broadened as he nodded "I would hope you brought some plan otherwise this meeting would become boring. I knew you would be interested in my plans that I have on my computers, this is obvious via me being here, but also from the fact I have my complex code on all of my computers. Eggman has not even cracked it."

Anonymous turned back to the computer "I am very aware of your code. I have studied it ever since you created it. I have, multiple times, attempted to hack into it and today I know how."

Anonymous pulled out a flash drive and inserted it into the computer "You made a minor detail that is hard to find but once exploited can allow me access." The screen faded away and words came out 'WELCOME'. Anonymous turned back around to face an angered fox "I believe I am the first to successfully hack your system."

The fox clenched his jaw as he mumbled "You'd be the first to hack that code." The fox smiled and began laughing as he fell forward. Anonymous spun around to see a second code there. The terrorist stepped back in surprise. Tails stood straighter "I found that error a few days ago when I had the time to look. I figured you'd know about it considering your hacking skills." The fox pointed at him with a mocking face "Well-I-I believe that means I have tucked you around a corner there." The fox grinned "I win."

Anonymous rested his hands on his hips "I was not expecting a second code. That was very clever fox." Tails took a bow. "How unfortunate you connected your computers to normal ones."

Tails froze "What?"

Anonymous pulled out his flash drive and walked over to one of the castles normal computers. He plugged it in and the computer started up. Anonymous did not even look at the fox as he continued working "I believe you know what I'm doing."

Tails stiffened "You're using the computer to bypass my codes since those are not as protected yet I made them part of my system… I should have seen that coming." Anonymous logged in to the fox's network causing the terrorist to stop. The entire network was empty and the fox began laughing again "Oh wait, I did!" The fox yelled at him smugly "I didn't see how, but I knew you might be able to waltz around my second code. So I gave you false hope by making it more secure. I deleted all my files on these engines and stored it somewhere else."

Anonymous turned around "If you recently moved them I could find where by a sudden transfer of large amount of data." Anonymous raised his arm and pressed a button. A screen shot out of it and he began typing away. It registered a signal and traced it to an area. Anonymous typed a few more buttons and then tapped on the area. "I see you transferred this information only a few hours ago. Not enough time to set up a coded system correct."

Tails' smile was no longer there, he was scowling with tightened fists "All I have to do is hack its system." His screen then revealed files that Anonymous began searching through, but immediately he stopped and quickly exited "This is a fake desktop." Tails bursted out laughing again. Anonymous looked at the fox "What you're doing is one of my reasons I turn my emotions off. Such a distraction."

Tails began walking at him "Oh, I'm not worried. You cannot harm me even if you wanted to. See what I'm wearing? Not regular clothes. They're my technology."

"Ralph mentioned it."

Tails closed his eyes in annoyance "I never thought that name would still push me- AND DON'T METION ABOUT THAT BEING ONE OF THE REASONS YOU'RE HEARTLESS MONSTER!"

"I would not describe my actions as being monster like."

The fox pointed at him "Are you implying something."

"I am contributing nothing you should already know."

The fox growled "Well, I'm happy to inform you that I may have not had time to implement a strong security feature to my base I have created programming that accepts any outside signal and takes them to a fake desktop… oh and before I forget it also tells the base to send robots to attack at that location."

Anonymous quickly looked up and then ran off and smashed through the door as the fox laughed "Run, run Anonymous! But let's see how long you last."

Anonymous ran out of the castle just as four robots landed right in front of him. They were speed robots, the assassin ones, the weakest kind. Anonymous looked at them as if they were just a boring sign "Instead of gawking at me I would appreciate more of a onslaught."

The robots created a noise like a snarl as they dashed at him. Anonymous crossed his arms as they came… crashing into a force field. Dazed the robots stepped back allowing the terrorist to charge. He kicked one, grabbed another so he could smash it into its neighbor, he twisted in the air and crashed down on the last one.

Anonymous leapt off his foe to raise a fist and blasted a grapple to a rooftop. He propelled himself up and over the building so as he fell back down he could roll and start running. He might be able to take on those robots but he started running because he knew special robots were coming, ones he is unable to fight. He only took out the first responders. He was suddenly slammed to the ground and as he pushed himself up felt a foot smash him back down. "Stay down or get a beat down." Tails voice could be heard.

Anonymous still showed no sign of vocal change "I thought we were in a battle of wits rather than that of a physical manner."

The foot on him was raised and a hand grabbed his neck and spun him back round on his back. Anonymous let his arms stay at his sides as looked up at the fox who was holding him "I like both. Makes it more… interesting. Besides, it's clear that I won the wit battle. If you were so smart I would have had a much more difficult time." Tails' replied. The fox soon spoke up "Alpha One! I got him!"

"That thought could get you into trouble."

"Huh?" Tails looked confused.

"You expected something difficult so what if I gave something quite the opposite to make you underestimate me."

Tails now looked worried "What do you mean?"

"I see the ships I 'called' are coming. Two, as I can see."

Tails looked back and saw his two ships flying towards them. He spun back to the terrorist angrily "Yah! So!"

"You would hardly expect someone to hack them with your codes. Why bother?"

Tails realized what he was talking about "You could hack them! But I put nothing delicate in their systems."

"I'm not talking about information and since you say that, that implies you did not put protective systems on them."

Tails blinked "You could do nothing to its programming! It itself is coded! No using self destruct, no using engine control, and no using altitude control! You could do nothing! You think I didn't think about that!"

"What about steering." Tails' face fell to shock. He looked down and watched as Anonymous swiped at his screen.

The fox spun around and watched as one ship flew off course and smashed into the other ship. The fox watched in disbelief as they came crashing down. Anonymous spoke up "I would not expect a young fox to think about steering being hackable. Especially considering that you usually drive it right? But you fail to consider autopilot."

After a few seconds the fox began to shake, his eyes closed, his face contorted in anger. He spun back around and threw his other hand against the terrorist's throat and began throwing his head about "What was the POINT OF THAT! TO PROVE A POINT! THAT DOES NOT HELP YOU IN THE LEAST YOU IMBECILE! I HAVE HUNDREDS OF THOSE!"

"You do not. You posses less than thirty."

Tails growled and he raised a fist and pounded the terrorist in the face each time he said a word "STOP…USING…A…STUPID… MONOTONE!" He punched his hardest on the last word causing the entire building to collapse under them.

They landed on the ground and the fox quickly got up to pounce on his enemy who was trying to get up. Roaring the fox started pounding on him and then held him in a choking grip with both hands. Anonymous grabbed both his hands "This farce is over, fox."

Tails raised a fist "I DON'T CARE IF I'M MAKING A FOOL OF MYSELF! YOU'RE GOING TO BE TOO DEAD TO TALK!"

"I have all that I need."

Tails froze. Logical thinking had returned "…What?"

Anonymous' face suddenly sparked and his voice turned robotic and a scratchy "Did you reall-y expect me t-t-to send myself somewhere I knew I would get hurt."

Tails grimaced in worry a fist still raised "…I'm attacking a robot."

Anonymous stood at the outskirts of the town in the forest facing the city. He held his arm up to show his screen that showed Tails' grimacing face "Yes, I am actually somewhere else at the moment." He heard a sudden noise and turned to look "Something seems to be happening. So I'll leave you to your work… oh and before you get the idea of hacking into the robot to find where my base of operations is I would listen well to the robot." Anonymous pressed something on the screen before turning and running off.

Tails waited with a fist still raised "What?"

"Self destruct initiated!"

Tails' eyes shot open "WHAT?!"

There was a gigantic explosion sending the fox flying away. He crashed into a building and after rolling on the ground and landed on his back in a grunt and looked up at the ceiling. He coughed as rolled onto his stomach and got up on his knees. He growled and smashed the floor with his fist with a scream of anger.

Anonymous ran off toward the strange noise. He landed on a tree branch and looked out onto the field to see a giant firey tornado heading right for the city. It suddenly stopped to reveal Blaze the cat totally fatigued. The ship stopped and a ball of energy built up. Anonymous knew immediately what was going to happen. He jumped down and raised his fist shooting his grapple at the princess. The energy fired and just in time the grapple grabbed the cat and yanked her toward him just as the blast formed.

He caught her in his arms and looked at her. His scanners activated and checked her vitals. She was still alive. He turned them off and looked up at the ship as the smoke cleared. He placed her on the ground, raised his arm, hacked into the ship, and swiped. Not bothering to look he picked her up as the ship started turning and ran into the forest. The ship was soon turning out of control to the point the machines on board could no longer track Anonymous or Blaze. Anonymous ran up the path searching for Sonic and Shadow. He heard them as he was saving Blaze. He came up to smashed rocks and trees to see the duo laying on the ground. Shadow pushed himself up in a grunt full of bruises. Anonymous then looked at Sonic and activated his scanners. He was alive, but unconscious. He looked back at Shadow "Sonic has taken more injury than you. You need to carry him."

Shadow looked up in shock "Blaze?... But… how… I thought."

"I got to her in time."

"How's the ship spinning?"

"It won't remain that way. It will stop in a minute. We need to go now. Where is your base?"

Shadow pointed up the mountain "Up their. We came here because Blaze was just distracting the ship. How did you do that to the ship?"

"No time. Grab Sonic and start moving." Anonymous blasted up the mountain.

Shadow looked at Sonic and puffed "Faker." He grabbed the hero and blasted after the terrorist.

Alpha Omega One stood at the entrance to the base waiting for Tails. It was an hour ago that he got word from his master how Anonymous made the ship go haywire. He corrected it but by the time they fixed it and stabilized the ship Anonymous, Blaze, Sonic, and Shadow were gone. They went back up the mountain, but there was no trace of them.

The doors quickly slid open and Tails marched in anger plastered on his face. He was at the robot site trying to hack it only to fail.

The fox went up to a monitor and kicked it shattering it to pieces. The fox went up to a chair and sat down. Alpha One walked up to him "I thought you had him."

Tails threw his arms out "I thought I did too! It was a blasted robot! He knew I would try to overpower him and knew I would try to hack it to its origins or his base. Knowing I was wearing armor he made it self-destruct! I was outsmarting him at every turn until the end!... I underestimated him and he knew it. Used it against me and made himself to look like an idiot to gain something."

"What?"

Tails stood and threw his chair to the side "I DON'T KNOW! Whatever it was he was satisfied with it. It couldn't have been the hacking the ships since I now have sent programming to turn that off so I don't know. He was unsuccessful at hacking into my systems… so what could he have found out… I didn't say anything did I?" Tails rubbed his head "I should have taken Ralph's word when he wrote 'A mastermind and brilliant strategist.' But this fight is FAR from over. I will show him I am no silly interloper that he can just outsmart. He was just lucky."

Phi came in "Everything is almost ready sir. All we need is your permission."

Tails smiled "I guess there is one thing I outsmarted Anonymous with. My plans. I stopped him from solving what it is."

Alpha One looked at the fox "Should we activate it?"

Tails looked at him and crossed his arms "No… You forget… I still need Blaze."

Phi looked at the fox "We are unable to capture her. We need to get Sonic and her group to come here first. Otherwise we have no other way of getting her."

Tails smiled as he laid back "I know. But what's wrong with that? Sonic will see my victory and my revenge will be complete."

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