Here is the next chapter. Hope I didn't keep you waiting for to long!
Chapter 22: The Extinguished Flame
"ATTACK!" Sonic shouted as him and the others ran like wild cavemen toward the palace. The huge lasers all popped up but, due to the defense grid being reconfigured, they didn't fire. Instead Sonic and the others all destroyed them.
The kids were all making Indian battle cries as they lashed out at the guards next. The scared, less strong guards tuned to flee. With their lasers un-useable and their supply of black magic destroyed, they were basically wimps.
Each one was easily taken down. Sonic knocked a few heads together and even stomped on their feet just for the satisfaction of seeing them all whine like little babies. Unlike Karst, Combustion had many flaws. Many of his men weren't robots; they were humans, wimpy humans to be exact. Combustion never really fought that much, however he is very strong with or without black magic. Plus, Combustion relied mostly on tricks then pure power. He's very strong, just way too lazy.
Meanwhile Scorch, Citrus (being carried by Scorch) and Tails were headed far from the palace. They made there way toward the hill in front of the area but before they could reach it they stopped. Scorch stopped first and Tails followed his movements.
"What's wrong?" Tails asked.
"…Go. Go toward the palace." Scorch urged.
"W-what?"
"Your friend Sonic needs you. I'll get Citrus to a safe place. Trust me, I'll be alright."
"But…"
"Leave now, before the guards find us. Then all three of us will be in danger."
"…" Tails hesitated then smiled. "Okay. I guess you know what's best." Tails turned toward the palace. It looked as if everything was under control to him. "Are you sure he's in danger?" Tails asked.
"Combustion's men may be weak but Combustion himself is no push over. I doubt Sonic and the others would be able to beat him so easily. The more the merrier after all." Scorch explained.
"I guess you're right. I'm coming Sonic!" Tails said as they parted ways.
"…He's very brave…maybe I should learn to listen to Citrus more often." Scorch mumbled to himself before headed off.
Unknown to them, a familiar figure had listened in on their conversation.
"So the fox boy wants to help his friend eh? I highly doubt a rotting corpse could help anyone in anyway though." SmokeStack said heading after Tails.
Back at the palace
The blue blur was having the time of his life…again. Things couldn't get any better for an eleven-year-old searching for adventure. He had taken out an estimate of 400 guards by now.
"Keep fighting! We shall take back this island together!" Sonic shouted to the kids that were with him. The others were off kicking some serious ass. They had all made it inside the perimeter of the huge palace. There was a HUGE amount of guards in there. Everyone of the kids immediately began to tackle them all. Hair was pulled, stomachs were punched, and people were pantsed. Sonic ran around the perimeter taking out as many guards as he could.
"Whoo Hoo!" the blue hedgehog yelled in excitement. None of them noticed the G.U.N ships flying overhead.
"... Target locked… Fire!" stated a G.U.N solder. All activity stopped when a huge missile was shot down into the perimeter and exploded.
Tails heard the explosion far off and immediately sped up. He had to get there quick. The fox immediately twirled his tails to gain sonic speed and blast toward the now smoking palace. Smoke was trailing behind.
"This is bad. THESE guys may be easy to fight but not the G.U.N army." Sonic said worriedly. Suddenly more air ships flew out of the clouds and shot at the G.U.N ships. They were each taken by surprise as a few were taken down. Sonic recognized the ships as their own. He cheered in excitement, as well did the other un-airborne kids, and continued fighting while their ships took care of G.U.N.
Before Sonic could get back to his amazingly fun workout, his shoulder was tapped. Sonic spun around in shock to face the pursuer.
"Oh, hi Tails." Sonic said relaxed again.
"Sonic, look behind you." Tails pointed forward. Sonic turned around and saw Combustion's palace glowing red.
"…You think that might be from a chaos emerald?" Sonic wondered.
"Lets check it out." Tails suggested. As soon as he said that another explosion was heard.
"Okay lets go, quickly!" Sonic grabbed Tails' arm and they both sped through the battleground and toward the enormous palace. Smoke was trailing behind.
It was easy for them to get through but getting inside the palace was a bit of a challenge. It was made of extremely tough reinforced steel. Sonic tried busting through but it was no use.
"Sonic, look!" Tails shouted and pointed above them. There was a window, a regular glass window planted on the wall.
"Wow, Combustion must be really lazy." Sonic stated not impressed with the fire-themed robots' lack of thought. Tails grabbed Sonic this time and flew him up to the window. The fox spun him around a few times then launched him toward it. Sonic burst through the glass and made a beautiful landing. Tails flew in behind him.
They both took a look around and saw that they were on a walkway above a workroom below them. The walkway was sealed up with bars and had no doors to escape (Think a prison cell, a slightly longer prison cell.) The bars kept them from the room below them but they could be easily broken. Sonic chose not to break them, however, for Combustion was at a safe below them.
"Sonic! That's…!" Tails began before Sonic gently shushed him. They watched as Combustion fiddled with the safe's lock, unaware of the smoke literally pouring into the room.
Soon Combustion was finally able to get the safe open. He immediately pulled out a red chaos emerald. Sonic and Tails gasped.
"They may be invading my palace but I'd rather clip Eggman's toe nails then be beaten by a bunch stupid kids!" Combustion shouted.
Sonic and Tails both winced at the thought of them clipping Eggman's toenails. Then they came to a realization.
"Tails, if we get that chaos emerald it will mean one less tool for him to use against us." Sonic said.
"That shinny rock looks a lot like my lucky charm back on Westside Island…only a different color." Tails pointed out.
"Okay, on the count of three we burst through these bars and land in the room below us. Then we snatch the emerald and run off. Got it?"
Tails nodded and prepared to make the jump. Sonic did the same.
"Okay. Ready. One…two…" Sonic began.
"THREE!" Came a voice from behind. Sonic and Tails didn't have time to react before to blast of smoke and a man shot at them and caused them to break through the bars. The three of them landed on the floor below with a loud thud. Combustion was immediately taken a back.
Before Combustion could yell at them for breaking in, Smoke, who had his feet planted on both Sonic and Tails' heads, shot a smoke blast at Combustion. It hit the confused robot against the wall with a loud slam, causing him to drop the emerald.
"You must be Combustion! Damn! You're the reason I'm here. My mission said I had to find and destroy you... and... my mission always comes before personal affairs... so…" Smoke looked down at the dizzy fox his foot was on. "…I guess you got lucky…again." This was even more proof that Smoke was a loyal, honorable man. He wanted to kill Tails more than anything but his missions always come first.
"Really? You were sent to defeat me! Ha! No outsider has even tangled with me and lived to tell the tale!" Combustion shouted then took Smoke by surprise when he lashed out a huge fire blast from his mouth at Smoke. This time Smoke was the one in danger.
Smoke ducked, which caused his hold on Combustion to be undone, and the blast shot at the wall behind him. Combustion directed the fire blast upward and it hit and completely blew off the roof. Black smog immediately filled surrounded the roof. It seemed Combustion had forgotten about the emerald for he left in an instant. Smoke went after him shooting numerous blasts of smoke after him.
Sonic and Tails picked their heads up as soon as they were gone. They immediately began rubbing the back of their heads in pain. Tails shed a few tears but the pain eventually went away.
"Tails, did you see where the emerald landed?" Sonic asked. By this time the smog had made it's way down to them. They could barely see what was in front of them and what was in back.
"No," Tails answered. "But I think it was somewhere close to the door." Tails guessed.
"Where's the door?" Sonic asked waving his hands through the smoke.
"I don't know." Tails did the same thing Sonic was doing.
"Looking for this boys?" A feminine voice from in front of them spoke.
Sonic and Tails both turned to see a red light in front of them. It was in the hands of a familiar white-gloved bat. Soon enough of the smoke withered away to catch a full view of her.
"Rouge!" Sonic yelled.
"Who?" asked Tails.
"This pretty gem will make me happy while I'm trying to bare Smoke's constant whining." The young jewel thief stated as she ran out the door. Sonic tossed Tails a communicator to match the one he had on his wrist then chased after her.
"Sonic, wait!" Tails yelled out.
"Tails! Head for the escape blimp outside. I'm betting its Combustion's. I saw it a while ago. Use it to get to safety. Hurry!" Sonic shouted through Tails' buzzing communicator.
"…Okay Sonic…" Tails was disappointed. He really wanted to help Sonic but so far all he did was toss him through a window and get stepped on. Tails strapped the communicator on his wrist then flew through the open roof. Once outside he saw the blimp Sonic spoke of but it was at a distance. Tails spun his tails and headed straight for it.
Meanwhile
Combustion had gotten away from Smoke and stood behind a building sitting in the large perimeter.
"All these intrusions will be the death of me!" Combustion shouted angrily. He had no intention of staying here any longer. He had to get to his escape blimp, which wasn't far off from where he was.
Combustion turned the corner and headed in a forward direction. He turned another corner and spotted his blimp as well as a small yellow-orange figure making it's way inside it.
"So that little poser thinks he can steal my blimp and get away with it huh? We'll just see about that." Combustion pulled out his arm that had a communication device attached to it. "All flight units! Target the blimp, now! Make sure it burns to ashes along with everything inside it!" Combustion shouted. The men on the other side didn't even care why all of a sudden their boss wanted to blow apart their escape blimp in the middle of a losing invasion. They did as they were told and headed out.
Somewhere else along the perimeter
"Catch me if you can hedgehog!" Rouge taunted from above as she flew closer to her ship.
"Rouge! Give me back that emerald! I need it!" Sonic sounded irritated.
"Too bad! This baby's coming with little old…" Wham! Rouge wasn't paying attention where she was flying and crashed into Combustion's ship hanger door. Above her the roof opened up and many of Combustion's ships took off toward the blimp in the distance.
Sonic stopped in front of her and gasped. "Oh no! Tails!" Sonic started up his communicator and shouted into it. "Tails! You're about to come under fire! Get to the ship's turret and stay alert." The blue hedgehog stated then ran up to Rouge.
"Shows over! Give me the emerald!" Sonic shouted.
Rouge pouted but didn't give him the emerald. Before Sonic could take it they were both struck by a huge fireball. They both fell back and that's when Rouge dropped the emerald. The smirking Combustion picked up the emerald and tossed it up and down in front of their faces.
"Damn!" Sonic mumbled.
Back on the blimp
Tails' communicator went off again. He heard Sonic's voice.
"Tails! You're about to come under fire! Get to the ship's turret and stay alert."
The fox's ears shot up and he immediately headed for the turret Sonic spoke of.
"This gun thing is the turret, right?" Tails asked himself. He didn't have time to figure it out for the blimp he was in immediately rocked wildly. He had just been fired at. Tails looked forward and saw many of Combustion's ships heading toward him. "Uh oh." Tails said as he began searching for a way to work the turret.
More shots were fired as Tails continued searching. He then found a two red buttons on the tip of the gun turret's handles. Tails pressed them both at the same time, which caused red blasts to fire out of the turret and destroy two ships.
"…COOL!" Tails said happily. He had the feeling he was going to like this battle a lot! The excited 4-year-old fox grabbed the controls and started firing wildly at the ships. Many were destroyed one by one and eventually the solders thought that it might be a good idea to retreat. Only a few made it out of there without at least getting their ship's tail pipe blown off.
"Don't mess with Sonic's really smart brother!" Tails spat his tongue out at the cowardly guards.
Meanwhile below the blimp
Smokestack ran toward the area where he last saw Combustion. No dice. He wasn't anywhere in sight.
"Damn you!" Smoke said before he heard a voice from above.
"Don't mess with Sonic's really smart brother!" Came a familiar squealing voice. Smoke looked up and saw Combustion's blimp.
"There! So, Combustion is trying to escape eh?" Said Smoke completely ignoring how high pitched and childish the voice he heard was. The angry G.U.N general pointed his hand up at the blimp and shot a huge smoke projectile at it. Tails didn't notice he had been fired at until the smoke wad shot through the balloon part of the blimp.
"Oh no!" Tails yelled as he struggled to turn on his communicator. He was going down; headed straight for Combustion's ship hanger. "Sonic!" Tails shouted in the communicator not knowing it had been damaged when the fireball struck Sonic earlier.
"Sonic! Come quick! I'm going down! I've been hit by something! Sonic! Sonic…!"
At Combustion's ship hanger
"You and your 'Care bear' looking friends just don't know when to put a lid on it. They think they can take back their island, sheesh! Talk about false hope!" Combustion laughed.
"Shut up! Leave now before I get all Super Sonic on your ass!" Said a clearly ticked off Sonic.
"Eww! You don't know how wrong that sounded! Look kid, you might want to save your 'gay sex quotes' for the New York Times my friend." He could hear Sonic growl under his teeth. Combustion continued. "You know why? Because, guess what! I ain't leaving! You can kill my guards. You can destroy my palace. You can get rid of my black magic but no matter what you do…"
Combustion made a chair made completely out of fire and sat down on it with his legs crossed. "…I am not moving from this spot!" He concluded while grinning.
"You may wanna re-think that!" Rouge shouted as she pointed up at a blimp headed straight for them!
"What the hell!" Shouted a surprised Combustion as the blimp crashed into the ship hanger. The explosion that followed was so massive that it created a huge hole in the concrete and everyone there fell through. They all landed hard and they stayed on the ground for a few minutes until someone took action.
"Ohhhh, my head!" Rouge moaned rubbing her scalp.
"S-Sonic! Are you down here! I though I saw you before I crashed!" Tails said getting out of the blimps destroyed cockpit.
"Tails! Is that you?" Sonic said getting out from under some rubble. He headed over to his fox friend and they both hugged on instinct. When they stopped they took a good look at their surroundings. Flames shot out of the walls and from the ground. The ground they were standing on was black and ashy, and the room was filled with busted up metal and boulders. Sonic turned to Tails and smiled.
"Nice crash." Sonic complemented. Tails replied with a cheek-to-cheek smile. Rouge rolled her eyes.
"Awe, isn't that cute." Mocked an unforgettable voice. All three of them faced their front and saw lava shoot up from the ground. The lava collected together and re-shaped itself into Combustion.
"I HATE CUTE! OH, YOU'RE DEFIDENTLY IN FOR IT NOW! HEDGEHOG!" Combustion raised his arms and a flaming barrier covered the hole at the top and their only exit. Sonic, Tails, and Rouge got into their battle stances. Tails' sweat did drop however, from nervousness and from this heat!
Combustion didn't hesitate to launch himself at the three. All three jumped when he came near. The fire themed half-robot made himself halt to fire a large blast at them. The three separated. Sonic ran across the wall and dodged the numerous blasts being fired his way. Combustion sure was fast! Eventually Sonic made a miscalculation and ended up getting nailed in the back. The hedgehog fell off the wall and rolled a bit until screeching to a stop.
"Now, FEEL THE HEAT!" Combustion was about ready to blast Sonic into oblivion when Rouge swooped down and stared to make numerous swipes at him with her feet. Combustion dodged each attack with ease then grabbed her leg, twirled her around, and tossed her at the wall. "Hmph! That's it!" Combustion turned to where he last saw Sonic but the hedgehog was no longer there.
"W-where'd that little brat go!"
"Up here!" Sonic shouted as his feet slammed on Combustion's head. Sonic then jumped off and did a homing attack at Combustion's chest. The robot flew back a bit but turned out to be all right.
That was when Combustion caught sight of the red chaos emerald. He immediately ran for it but missed it when the brave two-tailed fox swooped down and grabbed it.
"You!" Combustion shouted firing blasts at the fox. Tails, not-easily, dodged them all and gave the emerald to Sonic. He then landed beside him and they both got into fighting positions again. Sonic, Tails, and Combustion began fighting all across the area until they seperated from each other again. Combustion raised his hand in the air.
"Take this!" Four meteors formed in the area and began shooting out smaller meteors with flames on them at the two brothers. Sonic and Tails found it VERY difficult to get past them all, even with the chaos emerald in hand. A few meteors hit them but just barely enough for them to not get a serious injury. What made it more difficult was that Combustion snapped a few flames at them while they were dodging as well.
During the bombardment Sonic managed to make it to Combustion. However, Combustion immediately summoned a lava shield to protect him. He had it all figured out. Rouge, however, did too. While they fought, she grabbed one of the meteors and gave it a swift kick. The meteor shot like a projectile straight at Combustion. When it hit the lava shield the shield disappeared.
"Huh? Hey! Who threw that!" Combustion shouted as he turned around. Big mistake. Sonic took his opportunity and began to strike hard at Combustion. The robot had no time to react as the swift kicks were delivered monstrously. Tails saw it as his chance to help so he got up and helped Sonic take on Combustion, as did Rouge.
"…Get off…GET OFF!" Combustion shouted and an explosion of flames sent the three flying against the wall. "How dare you 'think' you can just take advantage over me like that!
"Yeah! Well we'll do it again, you big bully!" Tails shouted getting up. Rouge and Sonic, however, were still hurting.
"Excuse me? Are you saying that an injured hedgehog and bat are going to fight me?" Combustion chuckled. Tails looked at his pain stricken friends and then turned back to face Combustion.
"W-well then…'gulp' I'll fight you!' Tails really regretted saying that.
"YOU! HAHAHAHAHA…" Combustion started laughing to a seemingly no end. Tails immediately took the opportunity to charge at Combustion and gave him a fair kick in the head. Combustion's head cocked back for a second then leaned forward again.
'Ummm…okay that didn't work…MAN it's hot in this place!' Tails thought while wiping the beads of sweat from his head.
"What's the matter? Can't stand the heat? Ha! Ha! I'd say the next part but why waste my time. A stupid brat like you wouldn't get it. You're all stupid, idiotic, false hope teetering brats! You should've left while I was feeling lazy, but now, I'll make a flaming coat out of you!" Combustion fired another flame at Tails, which he dodged then flew behind one of the three remaining meteors.
"Heh, heh! Nice hiding spot." Combustion joked.
'I need to think of something. But what?' Tails peeked from behind the meteor and caught sight of an intact engine from one of the ships. Chemicals were pouring out of the two ships next to it. Tails thought for a moment. 'The flames Combustion's emitting aren't regular. They might even be encased with black magic even though the generator supply was destroyed. If that's true then I need to get him to touch those chemicals. Who knows what might happen if he tags it. But how do I do that though?' Tails was a surprisingly good thinker for a 4-year-old. He was feeling pretty proud of himself.
"Okay, enough games! I'll send you to HELL!" He shouted as he pointed his fist at the irregularly sized meteor. Tails quickly slammed his feet on the meteor's back and shot it at Combustion the same exact time he fired his fire blasts. The meteor collided with the blast and was sustained in mid-air.
"What the? What is this?" Combustion was having trouble pushing the meteor back. He didn't know that at that exact moment Tails had been given a little strength from the kitsune within.
Tails then ran behind a meteor positioned behind Combustion and shot that one at him too. The second meteor hit his feet and knocked him backward. The meteor Tails kicked before then jetted forward and struck Combustion's head before he hit the ground. The robot flew backward into the exact spot where Tails saw the chemicals. Tails landed on his feet then hid behind the last meteor while the other two crashed and broke apart. He then ran to Sonic.
"Sonic! Are you alright!?" The fox asked.
"Y-yeah. I'm okay…what's that behind you!?" Sonic shouted. Tails turned around and saw Combustion standing up…but his fire was gone. The chemicals were sparking and soon they let out a huge eruption of energy.
"You fool! Do you know what you've just done!?" Combustion shouted. Tails honestly didn't know.
"My flame power combined with those chemicals created…" Combustion didn't even get to finish before a huge red black hole opened up behind them. "…It created a fire vortex! My flames aren't regular flames you know! You idiot! You've doomed us all! I'm going to…!" Combustion didn't finish for his leg was immediately ripped apart from his body and sent into the vortex.
"Ah!" Combustion shouted as more of his parts were ripped off and sucked in the vortex by its fierce power. "No! I cannot lose! Not to the plan of a 4-year-old brat! You're all imbeciles! Idiots! Every last one of…" Combustion was immediately silenced when he head was ripped into pieces and sent into the vortex.
"Uh-oh." Tails said while grabbing Sonic(who still clutched the choas emerald) and Rouge(who was still staring at the emerald). "The vortex looks like it's going to suck up the whole island!" Tails grabbed the two and headed for the top opening, which was void of Combustion's flames now that he was dead. Tails flew out and headed for the perimeter to warn the others. He didn't even look back to see the entire remains of the blimp already sucked in.
Phew! That took me awhile! Hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter is coming up! Review please!