A/N: I must be losing it. Not only are things finally connecting back to earlier events, there's going to be actual Eggman-fighting action now! What is this madness? Somebody stop me before this story becomes coherent or something!
Heh, seriously. Sorry about the long chapter here, it got away from me. ^_^''
Within twenty minutes, they were up on Angel Island. As they headed for Knuckles' shrine, they nearly ran into Amy going the other way. She stepped back in surprise, then fixed Sonic with a glare that came extremely close to reducing him to ashes. Sonic rubbed the back of his head uneasily and looked the other way as Amy pointedly turned and made a broad circle around him and Tails, marching on her way.
"Think I felt a chill breeze," he remarked, glancing over his shoulder once she was gone. Tails gave him a sympathetic look.
They reached the shrine and found Knuckles slouched back against the Master Emerald, his expression sour. He noticed them and started.
"Hey," he said cautiously.
"Hiya," nodded Sonic. "Say Knux, we've got word that Eggman's up to something, so we're heading over there. Wanna come with?"
"Sure," said Knuckles, getting to his feet. There was a spell of awkward silence, during which everyone kept looking in different directions, wishing someone else would hurry up and say something.
"Hey look, an elephant," said Sonic at last, and laughed when Knuckles looked around blankly. "Metaphorical elephant, Knucklehead."
Knuckles drew in his breath resignedly.
"Listen, Sonic. If there's going to be problems, what say we get them out of the way right now? I don't like beating around bushes."
"Nahh," Sonic waved dismissively. "You didn't ask for this mess. If you and Amy think you're gonna work out, then cool for you." He chuckled drily. "Though I'd hate to be around when you two start having those married-couple fights."
"Oh sweet Mobius," groaned Knuckles, covering his face. "Look, my head hurts enough already."
"She brought out the hammer already?" grinned Sonic.
"Worse," said Knuckles. "I don't even know what it was. She came over here just now all polite and apologized for making a scene last night, then she said a bunch of stuff about how she didn't want to push anything, but she hoped it would work out somehow."
"What'd you say?" asked Sonic, rocking back on his heels. Knuckles shrugged eloquently.
"Look, Sonic, she's really sweet and all, but this came out of nowhere! I don't even know what to tell her. I said we'd have to wait and see—and she said she totally understood." Knuckles paused, frowning at some inner doubts he seemed to be entertaining. "I don't know what aliens took over her brain, but they were good."
"Huh," said Sonic thoughtfully. There was more silence for a moment.
"So . . . we're good?" said Knuckles at last.
"Sure." Sonic extended one hand, only to draw it back teasingly when Knuckles tried to shake it. Knuckles gave him a disgruntled look for a second, then rolled his eyes and aimed a light blow at his head.
"All right, all right, let's get going," laughed Sonic, ducking. "Bokkun said Eggman'd be launching the Egg Carrier today, so we've gotta get there before it launches!"
"Bokkun?"
"We'll explain on the way!" called Tails, already breaking into a run after Sonic.
Team Sonic kept up an exhilaratingly brisk clip all the way to Eggman's main base—they figured that one was the most likely for the launch, since it was the only known one big enough to accommodate the massive Egg Carrier.
Soon the low-slung bulk of Eggman's main base loomed in the distance. Sonic gave a soft noise of disconcertion; a pair of enormous doors were sliding open on one side of the building. The Egg Carrier was already preparing for launch! They had to hurry!
Strong-arming their way into the compound, Team Sonic dashed across the grounds, plowing straight through any robot that happened to bumble into their path.
"Whoo!" cheered Sonic under his breath, as they ducked through the open hangar doors and plunged alongside the looming figure of the Egg Carrier. It crouched heavily on its landing gear, rumbling somewhere deep within its frame, intimidating with its sheer metal-plated size. It was hard to believe such a massive construct would be heaving itself into the air within a few minutes.
Few minutes, gah. Sonic and the others scrambled to the back of the huge aircraft, where the armor was the weakest and the air shimmered with heat from the thrusters. Knuckles and Sonic began to hurl themselves against one of the armor plates, ripping and gauging at the seams, trying to pry or just plain concuss it off. Meanwhile Tails kept a sharp eye out for robots.
A security bot materialized out of who-knows-where. Its red eyes flared as its guns immediately clicked into place.
"Security Breach Detec—" the robot flew backwards in a shower of sparks as a wrench clocked it in the chest. Tails drew back his wrench-on-a-string, looking highly satisfied.
"Cool," remarked Sonic over his shoulder, pausing to wipe his forehead. Sweat was fairly splattering off all of them, as the heat from the heavy fusion burners only a few feet away grew more intense.
Knuckles gave a warped growl of triumph.
"I've gotta—loose edge!" he gritted, straining to drag the slowly bending metal away from the ship's body. "Lemme—try—HA!"
The plate suddenly groaned mightily and snapped free of its bolts, sending Knuckles skidding back across the floor. Almost as if on cue, the volume on the burners suddenly rose to a deep, deafening howl, and avalanches of fire spurted from the pipes. The heat rose to unbearable levels, and with a shudder the Egg Carrier began to lurch forward.
Forgetting even that breathing was an option, Team Sonic hurled themselves through the gaping hole in the craft's armor, scrabbling among girders and gears, scraping at the under-armor to pierce to the actual interior of the ship. Tails clung to an H-beam, eyes wide, as everything jolted and rumbled around them. Through the jagged hole torn in the outer armor, the ground could be seen sliding by, faster and faster, shaking and rocking. The Egg Carrier was (unsurprisingly) a heavy starter.
At last a wall crumbled away, leaving an opening large enough to slip through. Team Sonic scrambled in, just as the entire craft shuddered mightily—and began to rise.
"We have liftoff!" crowed Sonic. "And we have break-in!"
As they thudded to the tiled floor inside, Sonic checked the surroundings for robots reflexively. Finding none, he stretched the tension from his muscles with a groan.
"Breathing," he remarked cheerfully. "Ain't it great?"
Tails took a deep breath, nodding appreciatively.
"Hmm, so the front's that way," murmured Sonic, pointing. "Okay, let's crash this tea party!"
They took off down the corridor, their shoes clattering over the vinyl. Apparently their presence had not yet been detected, because they only ran into the occasional rambling Egg Pawn or other robot, easily destroyed before any warning to the system could be sent.
"Oh, this is just ridiculously easy," remarked Sonic disappointedly, scampering up a staircase to a higher floor. "I'm insulted. Really."
"Don't tempt fate," grumbled Knuckles, trying to keep up with Sonic's scalding pace.
With only a few wrong turns, the three arrived at a door labeled "BRIDGE."
"Well, two options," said Sonic brightly. "Either Egghead's taken up model-building and has a teeny little Golden Gate Bridge in that room, or . . . "
When the door exploded open and three Mobians came bursting in, Eggman whirled in his swivel chair, startled. His face darkened with rage.
"You!" he snarled. "How did you get in here, you pestilential rodent?!"
"Spare key," deadpanned Sonic, and grinned as a platoon of attack 'bots suddenly dropped from the ceiling. "Now that's more like it!"
"Foolish, Sonic, foolish," smirked Eggman. "It really is rather convenient of you to just walk into an enclosed space where I can finish you. Obviously you and your friends must have a death wish. Robots, attack!"
Three minutes later, the floor was littered with scraps of metal, and Team Sonic was standing right where they had started, looking smug.
"Well, thanks for the welcome-back present," said Sonic, dusting off his arms casually. "Hope you liked yours. Now that all the formal gift swap is over though, how 'bout we chat?"
Eggman glowered at him with one eye, already typing something furiously on a control panel.
"No chat?" Sonic faked a wounded expression. "Awwww, but I thought—"
At this point the ceiling outright shattered, and a giant metallic form thudded down into the room. Four-legged and heavy-headed, it vaguely resembled a Triceratops. A very stunted one. With blunt horns.
"Okay, okay, no chat, we get it," sighed Sonic dramatically. "Guess you don't want to talk about these, then." He waved the ream of log papers in the air.
Eggman, suspicious, paused with his finger over the robot's launch button.
"And what are those? Some random pages torn from a coloring book, I suppose?"
"Don't sound so eager. Even if they were, we wouldn't give 'em to ya," scolded Sonic, shaking a reprimanding finger. "But they just happen to be some of your logs from Merkel Peak. Care to do the honors, Tails?"
Tails nodded solemnly, took one of the papers, and began to read.
"'I have set out terms of partnership, and they have been ignored . . . capture is impossible . . . It is now loose in the wild, and is presumably as much of a danger to myself and Maria as to anyone else . . . '"
Sonic folded his arms.
"Familiar, Egghead?"
Eggman had been turning all kinds of colors while listening to Tails read. Now one of his hands gripped the armrest of his chair tightly in fury, his breath coming deliberately.
"Where," he asked in a low voice, "did you get that?"
"Ehh, found it in a dump," said Sonic smoothly. "We got mixed up and thought it was your house, and then we found your papers just lying around. Kinda lousy filing cabinet, doc."
From his perch off to one side, Bokkun relaxed visibly.
Meanwhile Eggman's mustache twitched, but he made no reply. He seemed to be sizing Sonic up from behind his bespectacled eyes—probably weighing the pros and cons of immediately converting this rodent to a pulp.
"We'd like some answers." Knuckles interrupted the silence coldly. "What was in the mines, why did you unleash it, and where is it now?"
"It's of no concern to you," scoffed Eggman, turning away in his chair again. "The ancient writings didn't lie about its powers. You'd be no more able to contain it than I was."
Casually, he flicked the power button on the attack 'bot.
Two long metal spikes snapped out of the ends of the robot's "horns," making it look even more like a Triceratops. Without warning, it lunged at the three Mobians standing in the center of the room.
"Oh, cumon!" Sonic leaped aside as the sharp points brushed mere centimeters away from him. "Uncool! I thought those critters were supposed to stay extinct."
Eggman didn't even look up from his work, evidently confident in his robot's ability to finish the intruders off. It did seem to be doing a pretty good job; Tails suddenly found himself pinned back against the wall, trapped neatly between the two horns.
"Tails!" called Sonic, alarmed.
"I'm good," winced Tails, trying to push back the robot's chin with his feet.
Growling mechanically, the metal dinosaur tossed its head back, ripping out a chunk of the wall. Tails wiggled free and dropped to the floor quickly.
"Let's go, while it's still confused!" urged Sonic. "It'll have less maneuvering power in the hallways!"
They all plunged out the door, and the robot bellowed and thundered after them. There followed a lot of dashing and dodging through the hallways on the top deck of the Egg Carrier, until the dino-bot tried to follow Sonic down the stairs. It could not be said to have stair-descending abilities.
"Really, I'm disappointed," sighed Sonic, surveying the thoroughly wrecked 'bot, still spewing the occasional stream of sparks. "The Egghead's losing his touch."
"What now?" asked Knuckles. "Do we go back to ask him again?"
"I've got a better idea!" said Tails, grinning and pointing at a computer screen in a wall-sconce. "If he really was looking for something in the mines, he must have found some information about it first. And he mentioned "ancient writings." If the info is anywhere in his computer system, I can hack it from here!"
"Great!" said Sonic, then glanced around as a squadron of attack robots came plowing down the hall. "Huh. Guess it won't be as easy, now that he knows we're here."
Sure enough, fresh waves of robots kept pouring down the hall from either direction, all of them heading for the Mobians. Sonic and Knuckles did their best to protect Tails as the little fox typed frantically away at the computer's keyboard, trying various passwords and firewall maneuvers.
"How's the hacking going, Tails?" called Sonic over his shoulder, kicking a robot in the knee. "Any progress?"
"Getting there!" called Tails, his voice strained and beads of sweat building on his forehead. "I found the files, but I can't break the encryption! Let me try a backdoor procedure!"
"Well, make it quick!" panted Knuckles as the twelfety-two'th robot hurled itself at him, only to be swiftly decapitated. "We're going to run out of room to breathe if any more of these robots pile up!"
"Hold on!" cried Tails suddenly. "I brought a flash drive!" He produced a small plastic device with a USB plug. "Let me try to break the transfer lock, and I'll be able to copy the data and break the encryption later!"
Suddenly looking a lot more confident, he began to type at lightning speed. "Perfect! It's breaking! And I think I can run a secondary firewall breach and get at the—yes! Yes! I've got it!"
"Keep it up little bro, we've got things under control here!" encouraged Sonic, dodging a laser and smashing its owner.
"Almost, almoooost . . . " crooned Tails, grinning as the computer finally bent to his will. "Just a minute . . . "
Suddenly all the lights went out.
"Whup! Got it!" Tails' voice sang through the pitch-blackness—and sudden silence. The subliminized thrum of the engines had just cut out, and the floor abruptly lost interest in staying under their feet.
"We're falling!" gasped Knuckles, as everything suddenly became weightless.
Just as suddenly, the engines kicked in again, and everything hit the floor with a crash. The darkness didn't change, though.
"Ow," grumbled Sonic. "What's going on?!"
"I fried the entire ship's power grid!" said Tails gleefully. "Right now, the only thing working is the backup power, and that's just enough to keep the thrusters going, nothing else. Eggman will have to turn back and repair the power grid before he can fly again."
"But didja get the files?" asked Knuckles.
"Yup!" A sound of fumbling in the darkness, and a click. "I've got the flash drive now! Let's go!"
It took a fair bit of stumbling and toe-stubbing before the crew could get past all the wrecked robots and proceed down the hall. The engine's groan lightened slightly, and the lights in the hallway began to glow ever so very dimly.
"Eggman must be lowering the speed so he can get a little of the auxiliary power to the lights," remarked Tails. "That probably won't be enough to send any commands to his robots, though. And it probably also won't be enough to power the electronic latches on the—"
Without warning, they stepped onto a section of floor that dropped out from beneath them.
"Payload doors!" finished Tails, as the three of them began to fall.
They had seemingly dropped straight into a cloud, because for a second everything was cold and clammy and wet and blurry with mist. Then dazzling hot-blue sunlight burst upon them—and revealed just how high up they were.
Suffice it to say, you could get quite a nice idea of the curvature of the earth.
"I've got you, don't worry!" gasped Tails, jamming the flash drive between his teeth and catching a hand from either of his teammates. Twirling his tails swiftly, he began to cautiously pull against gravity, easing the team's fall until it became a relatively controlled descent.
"Thanks, buddy!" called Sonic, glancing down at the patchwork of fields and forests far below. He gulped suddenly. "Is it just me, or are we over a lake?"
"Uhhuh," mumbled Tails around the flash drive he still clenched between his teeth. "Guysh, one of yu hash to le' go—can' carry bof of ya very lon'!"
"Oh man. Uh . . . better let go, Knux," said Sonic, grinning awkwardly. "You're the one with the dreadlocks, ya know!"
"They won't work now, they're wet from the cloud!" Knuckles glared. "Why don't you let go? You're the one who can fall on your head from outer space and live!"
"There's water down there!" protested Sonic. "You're the champion swimmer!"
"Guysh," mumbled Tails warningly from overhead.
"Well I'm not the one who dragged us out on this crazy trip!" Knuckles snapped back.
"Hey, you didn't have to come if you didn't wanna!"
"I did 'wanna,' but if I'd'a known this would happen, I wouldn't'a wanna'd!"
"Guuuuuuysh . . . " spluttered Tails desperately.
"What'd you think it'd be, a tea party?!"
"That's what you seemed to think! But of course—"
At this point Tails' poor exhausted tails could no longer take the strain, and simply stopped twirling. Promptly all three of them plummeted, tumbling through the air as the lake below hurtled ever closer.
"Growwwwf!" wailed Tails through his mouthful of plastic, finally getting his tails working again mere yards above the surface of the water. He managed to slow the three of them down enough that the fall would no longer be painful—then promptly let go of both his friends. With a yelp, Sonic and Knuckles splashed down into the lake.
Knuckles resurfaced promptly, spitting a stream of water. After a few seconds he seemed to become aware of a discrepancy, and plunged his head underwater again. When he resurfaced, he had a ragged blue head with him.
"Stop flailing!" he growled. "Or so help me I'll let go!"
Sonic was spluttering as if he had just inhaled a swimming pool, including several pool toys, but he managed to choke out a few words.
"Get! Me! Outtahere!"
"I'll consider it," muttered Knuckles, rolling his eyes. There was a bank quite nearby, so he resignedly struck out in that direction, towing a floundering Sonic with him. Tossing the waterlogged hedgehog up onto the shore like a sack of wet cement, the echidna rolled onto his back in the water, finding it more comfortable to float than to claw his way up the muddy bank.
"Sorry I had to let you go, guys," called Tails contritely from overhead. "I couldn't risk getting the flash drive wet!"
Sonic grimaced, shaking himself off violently and sending sprays of water every which way.
"But you can risk your big bro almost drownin', huh?" He scowled at Knuckles. "None of this would've happened if you'd just let go in the first place!"
Knuckles laughed wearily and flicked a sheet of water over the disgruntled hedgehog.