AN: Here is another long chapter! It's coming to its closing, so expect less often updates, but more epic fight scenes!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is rightfully Sega's or Archie's. I do, however, own all of my OC's. Alexa and Melodi are the OC's of Alexa the Hedgehog.
Confinement Building 3-F
February-24-3457
12:31 Mobius Time
A jaguar walked down one of the dank hallways of Confinement Building 3-F, or as he liked to call it, 'The Slammer'. In one hand was a mop, and in the other was a pail. He sighed as he reported for the janitorial duty he had been assigned by the 'Master Sergeant', as his penguin boss liked to call himself.
Okay Jim, you're cleaning the last hallway in the back today, 'Master Sergeant' Frank had told him. He knew which one the back hallway was. He was always assigned the dirtiest hallway, or that's how he felt about it. This particular hallway was always full of rowdy inmates, just to make matters worse.
Accompanying him was Private First Class Anderson Smith, merely for protection purposes of course, in the case of a riot. He turned toward his feline partner and chuckled. "So, how've you been, Andersmith?" He mocked him while continuing to mop down the hallway.
'Andersmith' growled at him and shook his head. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Well, the names 'Anderson' and 'Smith' are boring and average. 'Andersmith' just seems cooler and unique."
Anderson rolled his eyes. They were coming upon the area where the inmates were, so he pulled out his Walther PPK pistol. Granted, it shot rubber bullets, but it was still intimidating. "Alright lobs*, don't make any bad moves on us or I'll… shoot?"
All of the inmates were completely silent, cowering in the back of their cell. They appeared to be mortified or traumatized by something they had seen. "Wow, would you look at that?" Jim mussed while mopping down the floors.
"What do you think they're so afraid of?"
A jaguar in typical orange prisoner clothing ran up to the bars, got on his knees, and… begged? "Please!" he pleaded while crying hysterically. "Let me out! He came and killed them and soon he'll be after us!"
Anderson looked at the bawling soldier and rolled his eyes. "Who's he?"
The inmate shook his head. "I don't remember. All I know is that he came a couple days ago when they were moving in the Parliament members. God, their screams were bone chilling!"
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Wait, the parliament was arrested?"
Anderson stared at him with a blank face. "Wait, you mean you didn't know? They were marked guilty of treason and conspiracy four days ago. Supposedly, three of them were released the day they were captured."
"But, if that's so, then what about the other two?"
There was a moment silence as they slowly came to terms with what had happened. "Oh God." Anderson muttered as he ran down to the end of the hall.
Jim hobbled along with his pail and mop handy. "Wait up!" He called out to him while coming along. What he saw almost made him drop his bucket.
The white walls of the containment area were stained with blood. In the center of the room were the two members of parliament that hadn't been released. Their corpses were heavily mutilated, hardly resembling the species of bird and rodent they once were.
On the walls, written in their blood was the phrase, 'Sic Semper Tyrannis'**.
Jim sighed and made the sign of the cross over his body, giving a short prayer for them. He then groaned and began sweeping his mop across the floor. "Ugh, bloodstains are the hardest to get rid of, too."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"When faced with extinction, every option is preferable" – Dr. Leonard Church.
…Syaoron the Fox Presents…
…The Third in the Series…
The Mobius Code
Tribulations
Chapter 11
The Siege
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Okala Canyon
February-24-3457
13:08 Mobius Time
An entire battalion's worth of V-22 Osprey's flew into the canyon below. Each was filled to the brim with AFOM soldiers, loaded for bear and ready to raise hell. The standard load out was an Armalite AR-18 assault rifle and two Ingram MAC10 machine pistols. They were not going to let Eggman escape this fight alive.
In the Osprey that was code named 'The Lightning', Tails and the rest of Epsilon squad were loading up, each with their own personalized weapons.
"Tails, are you sure this is the base Eggman's at?" Alexa asked in the direction of the cockpit.
Tails shook his head. "Karen, explain." He ordered the black vixen as he focused on his flying. Karen shrugged and looked toward Alexa.
"Don't worry. With Melodi's strategic genius, Tails' logic, and my inner knowledge, combined with satellite imager-"
"Okay, okay!" Sonic stressed. "All we wanted to know was if he was sure. I didn't need an entire science class."
Karen blushed as she diverted her eyes. Melodi looked at Karen and cocked her head. "Where are your weapons, Karen?" She asked, drawing Karen out of her momentary trance.
"Don't you remember? I can use chaos control to teleport weapons from anywhere."
Melodi nodded. "Oh yeah... Show off."
Karen only chuckled. "What about you Knuckles? Can you really carry that thing?"
Knuckles only smirked as he hefted up his M134 'Death Machine'. It had six rotating barrels, feeding off of a box of bullets strapped to his waist. "What, this light weight? It's like a feather."
The black vixen shook her head and brought her hand to her temple, massaging it. "Show off." She muttered under her breath.
"Alright guys, no more showing off." Shane interrupted them. "Tails, are we landing soon?"
Tails' voice came on over the intercom. "Yes, we are. The fortress is at the mouth of the canyon. Shadow, Sam, start spinning up the Vulcan mini-guns."
Shadow and Sam huffed to affirm, opening the side doors and sitting down at the gunner position. They pressed and held one of the buttons, allowing the barrels to rotate, becoming a blur in a matter of seconds.
As they came upon the fortress, Tails stared in awe. It was a heavily fortified dome shaped compound. Robots aligned the windows of the compound, operating mounted Browning M1919A1 Anti-Air LMGs. As they came within firing range, Tails bellowed orders over his radio, sending the accompanying Ospreys into frenzy.
"The time is now, guys!" Tails shouted over the intercom as her evaded machine gun fire. "Spin 'em up!"
Shadow and Sam took pleasure and pressed the second button on the Vulcan mini-guns, sending a flurry of explosive rounds into the walls of the compound. While it did little against the walls, it decimated the robots in the windows.
There was an explosion heard from outside of their Osprey and a call came in on the speaker. "We're hit!" the distress signal shouted. "I repeat, 'Thunder' is hit! I'm making an emergency landing!"
Tails noticed one of the Ospreys with a flaming tail rudder. It rose to the top of the canyon and let the soldiers out on the cliff edges. Tails nodded in their general direction. "Roger Thunder. Provide over watch with your snipers while you wait for extraction."
"Sure thing, 'Lightning'; over and out."
Tails returned his attention to the battlefield and smirked. Their blitzkrieg had taken them completely by surprise, leaving the remainder of the robots to fall back. Tails noticed that these were different robots. They seemed to be slim and Mobian sized; very much unlike many of Eggman's previous models.
Tails shrugged, thinking that he could come up with a name later as the Ospreys began landing at the front door. While the other pilots took off, Tails abandoned his Osprey while his friends followed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Mobians stormed the base, ready to finish off this war, once and for all.
Many of them wouldn't get that luxury.
As soon as they rushed in through the sliding door, automated turrets activated themselves. The turrets aimed in their direction and took fire.
Many of the soldiers were caught in the fire before Violet came in. She transformed her body into metal and took mere jabs at the turrets, rendering them dented and useless.
Durin walked in, holding his TAR-21 in arresting position. He shook his head at Violet and said, "Look at you and your metallic self."
The purple rabbit rolled her eyes in response. "Let's just check on the wounded." The wounded were in none too good a position.
Those who survived the barrage of bullets were being treated by medics so the assault. Blood began to pool in small areas around the wounded. Cosmo and Cream certainly had their work cut out for them. The dead had a quick prayer said for them before the wounded were attended.
Amy walked up to Sonic with a look of dread about her face. "The casualties are pretty bad, Sonic." She told him as he looked at the room they were all in.
He nodded his head in understanding as he walked down the hall. He noticed that it forked into three separate paths and walked back to Tails. "Yo Tails, I'm going to scout down the hallway, okay?"
Tails nodded and handed him two small suppressors which Sonic attached to his MAC 10s. "Remember Sonic, this is going to have to be a team effort. Try not to engage in combat."
"Yeah, yeah; stop worrying. Don't you know who you're talking to?"
"Yes, that's why I'm worrying."
Sonic face palmed and turned towards the hall. "Whatever." He muttered before running off.
Rouge rolled her eyes as she watched him run off at supersonic speeds. "He's going to get himself killed, one of these days."
Tails sighed and nodded. "He's not fooling anyone with that."
Knuckles slung his M134 on his back and called over to Cosmo to check out another inured person. "There are just too many people dying nowadays." Knuckles stated while wandering off.
"Ain't that the truth." Cosmo responded while healing the soldier.
Tails made his way over to Ana and Andy, requesting that they take point guard at the hallway. They only nodded before going off to their post. Ana sighed and said, "Don't you think he's being a little, umm…"
"Paranoid?"
"Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind."
"What did you have in mind?"
"That's not the point."
Andy huffed childishly and drew his USP pistol. "Fine, be that way." He told her while checking down the hallways.
Ana in turn drew her Colt Python revolver. "I've got to admit, I like this gun."
"Yeah, only because it's named after a snake."
Ana rolled her eyes once more and continued to look down the halls. "You'd think Eggman would've sent an immediate response. Where're the robots?"
Andy just shrugged. "That's anyone's guess."
Suddenly, they heard a faint scream in the distance. The shouts of fright grew louder as a blue hedgehog turned the corner and into a hallway, followed by a platoon of robots and insurrectionists.
Tails shook his head. "I thought I told you not to cause trouble!" He scolded the hedgehog while holding his palm out forward.
A quick burst of lightning had momentarily paralyzed the Mobian sized robots, but the other insurrectionists kept coming. "Well, what do we have here?" Knuckles mused while unslinging his M134.
The insurrectionists paused in their path, awed at weapon. "That's a big gun!" the hound up front had commented as Knuckles began spinning up the barrel.
"Yes, it is." Knuckles affirmed. "Now, say hello to my little friend!" He sprayed bullets into the mob, immediately killing or mortally injuring the soldiers.
Knuckles walked toward one of the bleeding survivors and knelt next to him. "Now, would you mind telling us where Eggman is, or do I have to beat the information out of you?"
Fearing the punishment, the panther soldier shuddered and said, "Top floor, last door at the end of the hallway."
Knuckles sighed. "Of course."
Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'of course'?"
"This is a stereotypical evil lair. The final boss is always either at the very top, or the very bottom."
Coral just shook her head and turned to Tails. "This could get rough, Tails. I would take off your weights if I were you."
Tails nodded and began unstrapping the weights from his limbs. Now free of 1040 kilograms of weight, he stood up and felt as light as a feather.
He took a couple steps, getting used to the feel of walking without weights on. "Well, I'll say that wearing a thousand kilograms gets tiring after a while." He commented while shaking himself out.
Cosmo nodded and took over with commands. "Alright, those who are in a condition to fight, we are moving up!" She barked her orders, getting the soldiers up and running.
They traversed the hallways, looking for an elevator of some sort. Much to everyone's surprise, there was a lack of opposition as they walked through the halls.
Only about two hundred AFOM soldiers remained strong enough to carry on, and they carried on conversation thusly.
Tails frowned at this lack in enemies and he turned to face an orange fox. "Renna, I need you to sense for any kind of enemy on this floor." He requested of her.
"Sure thing, Tails." She answered. "Just take care of my body, would you?" Her eyes glazed over and she began to fall, but was caught by Gary.
Tails noticed and nodded at him. "I see that you care about her." He told Gary, to which the purple hedgehog nodded.
"Yes, we've been going steady for a while now." He answered. Tails just smirked and continued to wait for her to wake up.
A few minutes later, she woke up, blinking her eyes to adjust them. "There's a small force of opposition, just around the corner, guarding an elevator."
Tails raised his eyebrow. "Only a small force?"
Renna nodded. "Well, they were wearing some kind of weird armor."
Tails cursed inwardly. They already started that phase. "Karen!" He called to the black vixen, who reported in front of him. "Apparently, they already started the final phase in the Norse project."
She nodded and appeared to go into deep thought for a moment. After thinking for a moment, she came upon an idea. "How many were there?"
Renna brought her hand to her head and scratched it. She then answered, "I think there were only ten, including the one whose mind I read."
"Okay!" Tails exclaimed quietly, "What's the plan of attack going to be?"
"We could chaos control into the crowd." Shadow said.
Tails shook his head, however. "It's too risky. We don't know the limits of these guys, or their armor abilities, or their combat skill, or-"
"Okay Tails!" Shadow interrupted him. "You already denied my idea. Stop bashing it over the head." Tails just blushed in embarrassment.
"We could use the old 'pizza man' routine." Sonic suggested, to which Tails groaned and shook his head.
"C'mon Sonic, I think Eggman's fallen for that enough times to see it coming."
"Yeah, but he knows that we know that he's seen it to many times, so doing something uncharacteristic would alert him." Sonic reasoned. "However, by using normal routine, he'll have expected us to do something out of character, and we'll catch him off guard."
Tails pondered this and said, "Yeah, but maybe he knows that we're going to try something characteristic because he knew we were going to go through this thought process."
"Well, Tails, I believe we've reached an impasse."
"I couldn't agree more, Sonic."
Sen looked back and forth between the two and raised her hand. Sonic and Tails looked at her and she said, "Okay, I can safely say that I'm lost."
Tails shook his head and held out his hand in front of Gary. "Hey, could I borrow your jacket?"
Gary nodded and took off his white jacket, handing it to the kitsune. "When caught between characteristic and uncharacteristic, Sonic, you always choose the safest option." Tails explained.
He held the jacket out from behind the corner and many bullets immediately filled the trench coat. The bullets stopped after a while, signifying that they had to reload.
"CHARGE!" Tails yelled, and their platoon came out from behind the corridor, shooting at the armored Mobians.
Sadly, the bullets did little to kill these new threats. A feline at the front of Tails' platoon gawked as one of the soldiers rushed him with insane speed and punched him in the gut. Needless to say, the armored hand went right through the cat, and then some.
"Take evasive actions!" Tails shouted while rolling off to the side of the wide hallway. They advance, killing some of the other AFOM soldiers with simple but effective close-combat. It was a massacre, and Tails' army was on the receiving end.
He let out a burst of wind, but it only managed to push the armored soldiers back. They all wore helmets with wide visors; the trademark of Mark-VI armor. Tails knew this armor, inside and out, and figured that the armor ability was overshields.
He inwardly cursed. An overshield was formed with a vast array of energy ports in the armor, each exerting a small amount of energy to divert bullets and other projectiles. He fired a precise needle of energy and the red one's armor gleamed, confirming the presence of his overshield.
However, the overshield could only sustain so many blows before it had overheated and needed to cool down. "Alright, concentrate fire on the yellow one!" Tails bellowed the order and the remaining one hundred soldiers fired at the yellow armored foe.
The energy shield fizzled out and crackled with electricity. The bullets then shredded through the armor, letting the yellow enemy fall as blood leaked from the holes in his armor.
The strategy worked well for six of the others, but when they turned to target the final three, they were gone. Tails gasped and told them, "Stay on your guard! Their using Active Camouflage!"
Active camouflage… the ability to take what's behind you and put it in front of you and vice versa was a great form of stealth, indeed.
"Men, it has been an honor to serve with you." A lizard cried out. "Using the loosest possible definition of honor and serve."
"Hey man," The cougar whispered back, "If I'm going to die, I may as well be honest. I never respected you, I thought I was better than you this entire time, I think my skills are underappreciated, and I wasted my life knowing you. In a way, I'm sad that I may die, but I'm glad knowing that you probably won't live either."
The lizard looked at the cougar and glared. "Why, you dirty little-"
He never managed to finish his sentence as he was kicked in the head by an invisible force. His head bent in an unnatural way and he died instantly.
They were being torn apart by an enemy they couldn't see and Tails was starting to become paranoid. His nose twitched as he caught the smell of blood. More specifically the blood of one of the dead cougar. It seemed to move, so Tails lunged in the scent's direction and through a punch, connecting it with one of the invisible soldiers.
The blue armored enemy reeled back and grabbed his stomach. Tails took the opportunity to energize his hands and slice through armor like a scalpel through warm butter.
The blue armored soldier couldn't even respond when he was cut up by the wind. Before Tails could recoup, he was hit by an invisible punch. He flew back into a wall and was suddenly pinned by an invisible object.
The invisible object then slumped to the ground as Cosmo stood behind it, holding a Taser out in front of her. The active camo on the soldier fizzed out, showing a black armored soldier.
Just one more, Tails thought as he scanned the area for the last person. He noticed a shimmer of disfiguration and he nodded to Sonic, who seemed to notice it as well. The blue speedster grinned and rushed forward, slamming the invisible soldier with his trademark spin-dash.
The soldier's active camo fizzed off, showing that his armor was gold colored.
With the soldiers down for the count, Shane took a quick look at their survivors and saw that it was only them left. "Are you sure it was a good thing to leave Cream with the wounded?"
Violet shrugged. "Somebody's got to heal them."
Tails tried to access the elevator, only to find that he needed an access code for it. He then walked toward keeling gold armored Mobian and held him scruff of his neck. Even though he couldn't see the soldier's eyes as he hoisted him up, he was sure he was petrified with fear.
"How are you able to lift this?" The soldier asked him. "This armor weighs a ton."
Tails shrugged. "Really? I thought it was lighter." Cosmo face palmed in the presence of his bragging. "That's beside the point. What is the access code for that elevator?" The hand he wasn't using to hold up the soldier suddenly crackled with electricity. "If you lie, there will be consequences."
The visor on the soldier's helmet suddenly opened up, revealing the golden retriever inside. "You're not getting anything out of me!" He yelled bravely.
"Cheeky." Tails commented before frowning. "Shadow, could you and the others take point at the corner?"
Shadow raised an eyebrow. "We already cleared that area."
Tails then glared at the black hedgehog. "Shadow, I need to have a private conversation with our friend here." He emphasized, causing Shadow to realize his intentions.
He nodded and gather up the others to 'take point' while Tails stared at the dog. "Now, are you going to tell me?"
The retriever spat in his face as a response. This earned him a glare from Tails. "That was unwise." Tails pointed out. He then charged his hand with electricity and electrocuted him. The constant stream of lightning made the retriever shriek, almost inhumanly. Every fiber of his body was being strained, and the armor was not helping. Tails tortured him like this for a minute before stopping.
The dog continued to cry as he slowly regained control over his muscles. "You… you monster!" The dog shouted at him with all the might he could muster. Tails only glared and electrocuted him again.
"Listen to me!" Tails shouted at him. "Do anything suspicious, and I'll zap you. Refuse to comply and I'll zap you. Say anything I don't like-"
"And you'll zap me." The dog cut him off. "I think I've identified a pattern." This only earned him another bolt of lightning.
"Enough backsassing!" Tails yelled at him, which caused the dog to quiver in fear. "Now, what was the access code again?"
The dog sighed. "The access code is… 'access code'."
Tails raised an eyebrow. "What kind of access code is that? No matter; Shane!" He called his son over and the arctic fox quickly appeared.
"Put 'access code' into the keypad." Tails ordered him. Shane raised an eyebrow before rushing off to input the code. To his surprise, the door actually opened up.
Tails smirked at the opened door. "Well, would you look at that?" He speculated. The armored dog sighed, thinking he would be off the hook.
At the sound of that sigh, Tails turned around and glared at him. "I know what you're thinking." Tails muttered to him. "And, yes, I will let you go."
The dog breathed another sigh until Tails chuckled evilly. "Yes, I'll let you walk freely into the arms of death."
The dog's eyes widened. "NO, WAIT! PLEASE!" He screamed as Tails cranked his electric powers up to max. The soldier's fur started melding onto his skin and his skin began melting off on the inside.
After a minute of the intense torture, the soldier breathed no more and Tails tossed his body to the side. They all stared at him in silence as he walked into the elevator. "A-are you okay, Tails?" Melodi asked him, shocked by the sudden display of cruelty.
"I'm just fine." He replied roughly. "I just need to vent every now and again."
They gather into the elevator and Tails pressed a button for the top floor. As they rose into the compound, Shadow turned to Tails and said, "If venting means killing someone, you must have something serious to vent about, Tails."
The kitsune only nodded. "We've lost so much, because of this megalomaniac." He said. "Today, I'm finally going to bring him to hell."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
*Lob is Police lingo for 'prisoner' or 'inmate'
**Sic Semper Tyrannis is Latin. It means "Thus always to tyrants". It is also the state motto of Virginia.