The Freedom Fight Saga Episode 13: The Big Guns

One night in Soumerca, Silver the Hedgehog, Shard the Metal Sonic, and Larry the Lynx are off on an important mission. Shard and Silver use their abilities to fly while Larry is attached to cable wires, almost like he's riding a power jet hang glider.

Shard looks down towards Larry, "How's it hanging, buddy?"

"F-f-fine!" Larry nervously answers, "Are w-w-we there y-y-yet?"

"It's beginning to feel like I spend more time here than in my own timeline…" Silver says to himself in thought. "But if it means saving everyone, I'll do whatever it takes! Even join these Secret Freedom Fighters.

Flashback:

Hours ago, at Secret HQ, the Secret Freedom Fighters are having a meeting.

Harvey Who explains the situation, "And according to our informant, there's been strange going on in Soumera. According to Nicole, there's also been strange figures roaming around the area."

"And that's not the only thing," Elias says, "For the past few nights, there's been something or rather someone roaming around the New Mobotropolis at night. Which is strange because Nicole's Nanites should be able to keep them out. I was able to see the figure, but not enough to see who it was," Elias says.

"Indeed," Harvey says.

Then instruct the team, "Agent Ace will lead the team tracking down the mysterious figures and discover the strange occurrences. Make sure to secure a tracking device so we know their movements in the future. Agent King will lead the team to investigate the strange going on around New Mobotropolis. Remember: Anonymity is your first line of defense, so use your call sign at all times. Any questions?"

Silver raises his hand, "Er… more like a reminder…"

"I remember our deal. While you're away, I will be going over your notes and will identify the 'traitor' you're hunting for. You scratch my back, I scratch yours," Directo Who says.

Silver gives him a sheepish thumbs up, "R-right. Just making sure."

Flashback Ends:

Silver Shard, and Larry soon find themselves in Windy Valley of Soumerca. And soon, find a mysterious tunnel. Upon arriving, there's something strange about it.

"Wh-wh-what is it?" Larry asks.

"Hmm," Silver replies and picks it up to see the green object.

"Hmm, it almost looks like a green shard. A crystal shard?" Silver questions.

Then turns to Shard, "Shard, think you can analyze this?"

"Let me see," Shard says.

He then places his hand over the shard in Silver's hand and scans it, "Hmm, this thing is a crystal, but I'm picking up some strange energy from it."

"Strange energy?" Larry asks.

"Pretty much," Shard says.

He then turns to the hole they're close to and says, "I'm not picking up any traps…"

Silver then activates his powers, "I'll lower us to the bottom, then."

"How about 'no'?" Shard says, "Your powers short-out electronics, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm a robot."

"It's how I use them!And my powers are silent. Your rockets would give us away. And we're trying to be subtle!" Silver says.

Suddenly, the ledge breaks under Larry's feet and he falls through the tunnel with a scream. Silver and Shard use their abilities to fly down after him. As Larry falls, he sees spiky rocks, and spells his doom. Silver acts fast and uses his powers to stop Larry from falling.

Then Shard swoops in and catches Larry, "And-whoosh-! I move even faster than you can think!" shouts with pride.

"Congratulations. And now, between his screaming and your engine, whoever or whatever is down here will know that we're here!" Silver says, annoyed.

"You're a 'glass half-empty' type of guy, aren't you?" Shard questions.

"Why would you build a death trap that leads into a death trap?" Larry questions.

"To keep this place a secret from everyone…" Silver points out.

Then Shard turns to Larry, "Stand back, bud. You've tripped enough today."

"I'm sorry!" Larry apologizes, "I don't really have full control over my jinxes."

"About that… I don't understand. Do you have powers like me?" Silver asks.

"Not exactly," Larry answers, "Bad stuff just… happens around me. Sometimes I can make it happen to the enemy, other times…" And remembers the day when he was attacked and badly hurt, caused by his jinx.

Larry continues, "Things just seemed to keep falling apart. My team has disbanded… I tried to run for public office, but my ballot box spontaneously combusted. I didn't know what to do with myself, until… A bit of bad luck… Turned into good luck!"

And remembers that when his bad luck causes him to join the Secret Freedom Fighters.

Flashback:

Larry rubs his head and says, "Just my luck.. Sit on one rotten stump… and fall down… Here?" He soon notices he's in another location, "What in the world…?"

"Larry, is that you?" Hershey asks.

Larry turns to see Geoffrey, Hershey and the others.

"Oh Hello Geoffrey, Hershey, Sir Charles, and Nicole. What's going on? How did I get down here?" Larry questions.

"You alright there?" Geoffrey asks.

"I'm okay, just sit at the wrong spot, at the wrong time, again," Larry says.

"Allow me," Director Who says, and walks to Larry.

He walks towards Larry and asks, "Larry Lynx, correct? Former Field leader of the substitute legion?"

"Uh… y-yes, sir? Nobody seems to remember that, who are…?" Larry replies, confused.

"Mm… Tell me, son, how would you like to make this city safe again? Director Who says, "I believe I could use some of your 'unique' talents."

"R-really?! Y-you mean it?" Larry asks, surprised, "I'd love to! But most folks wouldn't trust me to help."

"Then, Larry, M'boy, it'll be our little secret," Director Who says.

Flashback Ends:

"So the Director decided to send you - someone who causes random things to go wrong - on a sensitive spy mission?" Silver questions.

Larry sadly sighs in reply.

Shard fake coughs, despite being a robot, "I know who the traitor is! 'Scuse me while I leap to conclusions in a single bound" Ahem!"

Silver glares at Shard, "The Director is helping me with that." And he knows that it's true.

"I know he is hot-shot," Shard says, "He's also giving me and Larry a second shot with his little spy team," He then smirks, "Might want to keep that in mind since this is your - what? - fourth?"

"Hey! I'm trying to save your time-period!" Silver says.

"And Larry's been fighting for it since before you were born!" Shard says.

"That's because I'm from the future!" Silver points out.

Just then, Larry looks ahead and around the corner.

He then calls out, "Hey guys? Ace? Jack? We've got something up ahead."

Silver and Shard look to find a hallway that seems to have slots all over.

"Nope. Nothing suspicious at all," Shard says, sarcastically.

Shard then begins to scan the area.

"Anything?" Silver asks.

"Nada. But if it's old or rudimentary enough, my scans might not pick it up," Shard says.

Just then, Larry steps forward, "Then it looks like it's up to me!" And walks into the hall.

"La-Joker wait! "Silver calls out, "I can just-!"

And then, Larry trips and falls over. Axes, arrows, and other deadly weapons fly out from the slots.

"TRAPS!" Shard cries out and pulls Larry out of the way.

Soon, all the traps end up being activated and end up getting hit at the wall or destroyed in the process.

Meanwhile, up ahead there is a mysterious chamber. Along with statues of Mobians in robes. And one of them looks a lot like Mammoth Mogul. However, the one who is in the chamber is actually having his eyes on a different statue. Whatever it is, it doesn't look human, almost like it's made of pure crystal.

And they hear the noises, "Something set off the first round of tracks. Hmm, some have entered the Ixis chamber. The mysterious figure then grabs something and then places it within a bag for safe keeping.

"I must move before I'm discovered," The mysterious being says.

Meanwhile, The Secret Freedom Fighters have come across another set of traps.

"Whatever happened to the good old ol' fashioned pit of spikes," Silver questions.

"The balls have spikes," Shard points out.

"Yeah…" Larry says, "But the ones in the pit didn't move."

And they see swinging spike balls, axes, and other deadly swinging objects.

"How are we supposed to get past that?!" Larry asks.

"They're not, unless they have skills like our mystery intruder," Silver says, "But my powers can hold them all at once, so we can."

But Shard activates his blaster, "Hold that thought. Superior Technology 'Comin through." And fire his blaster at the traps, destroying them all.

Shard then carries Larry as Silver flies beside him.

"Just making your job easier, Ace," Shard says.

"Blowing things up and alerting our target doesn't help, Jack," Silver says.

"Meh. We blew that angle of the mission a hallway ago," Shard says.

As the three Freedom Fighters fly over. They haven't noticed the mysterious smoke sneaking past them. The smoke soon changes its form back to some kind of crystallized being, and yet, it seems to be in the shape of some kind of hedgehog.

Sometime later, Silver and Shard are checking if the coast is clear.

"Clear on the left," Silver says.

"Clear right," Shard replies.

They soon walk inside to find the strange mysterious chamber the mysterious crystal being is there earlier.

Larry notices the pillars have something on it, "That looks like writing. Can you make it out what it is?"

Shard reads the writing and says, "Seems like a dead language. Running a cross-reference."

As Silver looks around, he notices a statue that looks very familiar to him, despite having the hood covering most of his face.

Then Shard says, "Okay, I think it says: 'This is the crypt of Ixis Vale, one of Ixis Mogul's Four Elites.'"

"Ixis… Mogul?" Silver questions, "Are you sure?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Shard answers.

He turns to Silver and asks, "Why?"

"Uh… no reason," Silver answers, sounding reluctant.

"Sure 'no reason'" Shard replies, not buying Silver's statement.

"If this is a crypt, where's the remains? This is just a room," Larry asks.

Shard then points to a bird-like statue in the rope, "It says Vale's remains are supposed to be right here."

Silver soon realizes, "Which means, whoever it was has already been here, and took the remains. They must have been hidin! I knew they'd hear us coming!"

"They're not hiding…" Shard.

Shard then uses his scans to check to see sets of footprints.

"They're already gone! I got fresh tracks!" Shard says.

Then Shard flies off, "I've got him!"

"Jack! Wait!" Larry calls out.

But Shard has already gone ahead.

"He's fast, but not that fast," Larry replies.

"Then we need a short cut," Silver says, "Whoever was in here must have slipped past us, so if we came in here, and then the passage leads like so…" He then begins to channel his power, "Then puts them about there!" and begins to use it at a specific part of the wall

"What are you doing?" Larry asks.

Up ahead, Shard speeds ahead and catches up to the mysterious crystal hedgehog running into the hall. But before he can go any further, part of the hall has been surrounded by Silver's powers and it breaks through.

Shard looks through the hole to see Silver.

He gives him a thumbs up and says, "Show-off."

"You're just jealous," Silver says in remark, "Can you see whoever it is is caught in that mess."

"Not immediately, but I saw someone fall. They should be immobile, right?" Shard replies.

"Maybe not. Unless I'm concentrating on them, they may just float in there. It's not hard to…"

Just then, the crystal being jumps through the mess and to the hole.

"I see him, or it!" Shard says.

Shard flies after him, and uses both hands to turn into blasters.

"FREEZE!" Shard shouts, and fires the attack.

Luckily, one of the attacks happens to be a tracking device, and it attached itself to the crystal being's neck before it has a chance to turn a round. The crystal turns around and throws sharp crystal spikes, and they explode with contact. It then causes a cave in, and some of the debris falls on Shard.

"Are you okay?" Larry asks.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate being buried alive?" Shard questions, feeling dazed.

As the mysterious crystal flies back up, it then throws crystal-like bombs down as Silver holds the debris.

"I won't let you get aw-" But the explosion stops, "AHH!"

That ends up buying the crystal some time to climb out of the cave and reach the exit. It then transforms into a Mobian Bat crystal and takes off, without noticing the tracking device on its neck.

Back in the cavern, Silver is able to use his powers to hold off the rocks and boulders falling from above. Shard has been injured from the incident.

"Urgh… you got this, Ace?" Shard asks.

"Y-yeah… I've got it for now…" Silver says, struggling to hang on.

"Good. 'Cause I dunno if I mentioned it, but I really hate being buried alive. Once is enough," Shard says.

"What about you? You really got smashed up," Larry asks, concerned.

"Auto-repair is kicking in. Just can't push my power core right now," Shard answers.

Then turns to Larry, "And don't jinx anything right now, okay? Just… sit here quietly and think non-jinxy thoughts."

"Okay…" Larry replies, and decides to sit down.

Shard turns to Silver, "If I start digging a tunnel out, is that going to destabilize things too much for you to handle?"

"N-No… Go for it," Silver answers, struggling to concentrate his powers.

And with that, Shard begins to spin dash through the rocks with all his might.

Larry sits down, "At least we got the tracker on that thing. I hope the others are doing better…"

Meanwhile, far away from Silver and his team. Elias, Leeta, and Lyco are running through the tunnel. They soon come to a stop to see different tunnels.

"What the-? There wasn't a branching path here before!" Leeta says, confused.

"He must be reshaping the cave to trap us!" Elias says.

Then says to the girls, "Split up! Stick to one wall, and double-back if you hit a dead end!"

With that, the girls split off to different tunnels.

"Why did you have to say 'dead end'...?" Leeta asks, worried.

Meanwhile, Elias is running down the tunnel, and soon hides behind one of the spiky rocks ahead. As he pant from exhaustion, he slowly turns his head to see what is seeing. Whatever it is, it's chasing after him.

Then a monstrous voice says, "YOU CANNOT HIDE, INTRUDERS!"

What Elias is being chased is by a monstrous fiery face, and it's a very familiar face, "THERE IS NO ESCAPE!"

That monstrous fiery figure chasing him is Ixis Naugus.