a/n: It's open season. Thanks for tuning in again. #herewego

Revolutionary Operation, Type Zero

Kinetic Sky

03. Revolver Action, Act 3

"Where'd you park it?"

"Up ahead. Right there."

"I see it. Alright, let's get a move on."

Sonic and Amy reached the Tornado and hopped inside. He did the usual pre-flight check as the robots advanced, flipping the requisite switches while muttering procedure. They ran quickly on two legs, cables bundled together and exposed on their limbs. Their bodies were all strange and variable in shape. It was the same with their heads. And the spaces where their eyes would be were replaced with wide horizontal bands of black glass.

"Sonic?" Amy asked with worry.

"Almost done. Alright, here we go. Buckle up-"

"Just go! Go go go!"

"Alright, sheesh. Just being a responsible pilot." He started up the engine smoothly and the propeller spun. The plane lurched forward before cutting a path through the swarm of robots, some of the propeller's paint traded off to the shredded remains of machinery. Sonic soon brought the plane into the sky, safely away.

Amy hit him in the back of the head as soon as they started to cruise.

"Ow."

"Idiot. You did that on purpose," she whined.

"Just trying to lighten the mood, yeah?"

"Reckless idiot." She hit him again softly before rubbing his head in apology. Her eyes drifted down to the burning remnants of her home. Only a year, but so many memories. So many possibilities. She didn't even get a chance to set up the nursery like she wanted to...

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

Her eyes drifted to the darkening skies. "Do you think everyone else is really okay?"

He was silent in thought. "Yeah. After all...I'm the real prize he's after."

"I don't want you to go. There's a negative vibration."

He looked back at her and their eyes met. He nodded.

"Okay. What're you thinking?"

"We'll need everyone to help us on the way at the least. Some events feel like they'll need a strong flow."

"The two of us should be enough for most of it. We just need to put in a bit more effort."

"You're probably right."

"Where's the next stop?" he asked her. She closed her eyes for a moment before snapping them open.

"It's faint...but West Side Island. That's the first place."

"Hell of a nostalgia trip," Sonic said with a smirk. "Well, if you're saying that's the one, then it's the one. Let's go." He banked the plane left and away from the metallic shell of Station Square. The skies became clear and blue again, allowing them both to see into the distance.

All along the horizon, the same thing that was happening to Station Square was occurring in a tremendous amount of other places. Their localized sections of airspace were expanding, the dark clouds of one area merging with another to create ever-growing storm cells.

"He was waiting for this day," Amy said with realization. "No wonder everything up 'till now looked like it was lacking effort."

"Nobody could figure out where he was," Sonic said. "Even if we wanted to stop him for good, we couldn't. Still, this is one heck of a plan."

"Yeah..."

"Hey, it'll be okay."

"I...yeah. Tails said in that message...he said that if anyone could do it, it was us," she said solemnly.

"Then let's prove him right."

"Yeah. We will," she said with determination. She gripped the edge of her seat in frustration, the plane starting to climb above the clouds.

"To overcome yourself is to overcome reality. And to overcome reality is to overcome the world. You wanna run with me, right? Then you gotta take on the world and win. And you keep doing that for the rest of your life. That's how you become brave. That's how you become truly strong."

Amy lifted her hand from the silvery grass.

"I...can't feel anything."

"..."

"It's worse than I thought." She looked out into the distance, across the once lovely Emerald Hill.

Everything was made of black metal.

The trees were twisted sculptures. The water still flowed freely, but was void of all colour. There were no signs of life.

"You said it was this way, right?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and nodded. "Y-yeah. This way, further down. Seems like it's near the end of the zone." They started to run across the hills and bridges that made up the area. Lightning flashed through the pitch black sky.

"Nothing like old times," Sonic said. "Whatever the hell Eggman did to the place, it's all sorts of creepy...even for him."

"Yeah. How could he even think of something like this?"

"Maybe we've been underestimating him all these years, somehow. Whatever the case, he's got the edge right now."

The two slowed down and came to a stop near the edge of Emerald Hill. The grassy hills started to bleed into the ruins of an abandoned plant. Metallic flora twisted around the bridge leading on ahead.

Directly in front of them was a small metal silo, reaching about seven feet into the air. A low hum came from it as a red light periodically flashed on and off. Amy placed her hand against the cold steel and closed her eyes.

"This...this is it. This is what I felt earlier. Sonic, there's...life in here. I mean, the life that should be here."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's like...whatever this thing is, it sucked away the essence of life that was here, and replaced it with...all of this. This might be what those bomb shells were carrying inside."

"Okay. So we just-"

"No. We can't. We don't know what will happen if we just release the energy like that. It might not even return to where it came. This...cyberforming? What Tails called it. It seems like there's more to it," Amy said. "I just don't know what those things could be yet."

"So what do we do now?" Sonic asked.

"Leave it to me, darling," she said with a smile. Amy stood silently and clasped her hands together. A soft glow came from her body as she focused, reaching out with her energies to feel the world around her. Inside of the silo was a collection of glowing spheres, tightly packed together and barely moving. The inside of the silo was coated with an inky black barrier that prevented the spheres from escaping. She could also see Sonic, his form enveloped by light blue flames as he folded his arms and waited. The chemical plant had no life in it, so she started to search further out. The same silos were out over the island, with the same inky black barriers inside. She pushed herself further and tried to extend her reach to the entire island.

There's something...all the way out. Ocean...? A vast amount of...is it oil...? I...

"Amy."

"Ah?!"

"It's okay. That's enough." Sonic pried her hands apart and she nodded, breathing deeply.

"Sorry. I tried to..."

"A whole island is way too much. Be careful, yeah? Reckless idiot," he said with a cheeky smile.

"Jerk." He gave her a kiss and she smiled. "I found something."

"Yeah?"

"It looked like a black ocean made of oil. Or some large body of water."

"Oil Ocean," Sonic said with realization. He adjusted his scarf. "How'd it look?"

"Like...it hadn't changed at all."

"I bet he's using it for operations. So Tails is there?"

"I could feel him, but it was faint. Either he's in a weird place, or..." She shook her head. "I don't want to think about it."

Sonic put a hand gently on her shoulder. "We'll get him back," he said confidently. "That's our lil' bro, after all."

"Yeah. That's right," she said with a nod.

"No killer robots in sight, then."

"I can't say. Even back at the house, I couldn't really feel them like everything else."

Sonic frowned. "Alright. Gotta keep our guards up, then. Let's motor, Ames."

"Got it."

They took off together across the metallic bridge, into what were now parts unknown.