#herewego
Revolutionary Operation, Type Zero
Kinetic Sky
07. The Man Who Sold The World
I spoke into his eyes
"I thought you died alone
A long long time ago..."
"Let's focus…"
Amy kept her hand on Tails' shoulder as red smoke started to rise from his body. He forced his eyes shut as she worked.
"Three," Sonic said.
"Releasing the first stage seal."
"Ugh…" The red smoke started to change into flame.
"Four," Sonic said.
"Releasing the second stage seal."
The metal on Tails' arm began to vibrate. Amy could see that the black substance on the inside of the metal was slowly being repelled by the red flames.
"Five," Sonic said, giving Amy a glance. Tails grit his sharpened teeth, his eyes glowing red.
"It's…s-starting to slip…"
"Amy…"
"I know…it's almost there," she said, breathing heavily.
"Six. How much to go?" Sonic asked.
The flames started to grow in size, streaming from the fox's body. He pounded his free hand on the ground.
"Seven. Alright, that's far enough. Amy, how's it looking?"
"It's starting to separate," she said. Cracks were appearing in the metal, spreading out like a web. "It's working…"
"Tails. Sorry, man," Sonic said as he placed his hand on his brother's back.
"It's okay. Just…do it!"
"Grit those teeth. Here we go." Sonic placed his other hand on Amy's shoulder. He focused and sent a pulse of energy into Tails, making him yell out in pain. The flames stopped growing but still burned brightly.
"Amy?"
"I…okay, it's…done…" She fell backwards and Sonic caught her with one arm, moving the other away from Tails as the red flames died down. One by one, the extra tails that had formed at his back disappeared in wisps of red fire until he was left with two again.
"You okay, bro?"
"I'm fine…" He flexed his arm and the metal fell away from it in pieces. "It actually worked."
"Mm…"
Amy opened her eyes slowly. They had changed back to their usual green colour.
"You okay?" Sonic asked. She nodded and let him help her to her feet.
"I'm okay. Thanks…" She looked over to Tails as he shook out his wrist. "I'm sorry, I know that you wanted to be done with something like that…"
"You saved my life, Amy. It's fine…we might need the extra help, anyways."
"You might be right," Sonic said as he cautiously let Amy stand on her own. "Anyways, do we need to grab anything before we jet?"
"Nope. I've got everything I need for now. Did you guys bring the Tornado?"
"Yeah. But we can't land it as is on the platform. No room."
"That's fine. We can park it."
"Park it?"
"Yup. Just a sec…" He tapped the metal bracelet around his wrist and a holographic screen appeared. After typing in a few commands, it disappeared with a swipe. "Got it. It'll be a few minutes…so let's compare notes while we're here."
"Alright. Amy?"
"Yeah." She breathed out to compose herself. "Sorry, I'm a bit out of it."
"Take your time," he said.
"Yeah…alright, here's what I've observed so far. Life essences and souls are being stored in the silos that have appeared all over the zones. Normally they would be able to escape those kinds of confines, but there's a strange dark substance on the inside that acts as a barrier. It's the same thing that was on top of your arm, Tails."
"I see…"
"I know that they've drained the lands, but I don't understand the conversion process…"
"Do you think it's simultaneous?"
"I hadn't considered it until now. Possibly."
"I haven't been able to observe any of the processes myself," Tails said. He leaned against the wall. "Your observations might be the best thing we have. So the silos are holding life energy…and you can't observe anything in the cyborg civilians, can you?"
"No. Honestly…we only figured out what they were once we got here. By that time, we had smashed up a few."
"Can't really blame you for reacting like that," he said. "Still…we want to find a way to reverse the process."
"We can tap Eggman for answers. He brought you here, right?" Sonic asked.
"Actually…no. I haven't seen him at all, for whatever reason. I just assumed he had to be involved because of Metal Sonic. He really took it to me earlier. But I thought about it for a while after, and…"
"You realized that it didn't add up," Amy finished.
"Because Metal Sonic was rogue the last time we fought him," Sonic said.
"Why would Eggman dredge up old technology like that? That was one of my first thoughts," Tails said.
"We didn't get a good glimpse of him," Amy added, looking to Sonic. "When we saw him, it was back in Casino Night."
"He has a new paint job. A stealthy black one."
"Makes sense. He snuck up on us earlier," Sonic said. Tails gave him a puzzled look.
"Snuck up?"
"Yeah. Amy was the one who sensed him from far enough out." Sonic blinked and looked at Tails. "Oh."
"What?" Amy asked.
"The last time…Metal Sonic was about the same place as me when it came to energy control. I should have been able to feel him from way out, or at least further out than I did."
"Couldn't Eggman have-" She stopped and looked at Sonic. "Uh…wait, wait."
"You're thinking it too," he said.
"I think we're all thinking it," Tails concluded, folding his arms.
"This can't be Eggman. Or…it could, but…"
"What's going on?" Amy asked. "This…none of it is making sense."
"Metal did say something cryptic. I think it's time we asked the good doc what the deal is."
"I know where he's posted. It's a flying fortress, pretty modest for him and all."
"Yeah? Well, we can take the Tornado and give it a good blitz."
"Won't have to."
Sonic and Amy followed the movement of Tails' arm. They looked up to see a massive plane descending onto the building.
"Oi, I thought she wasn't done."
"Ninety percent is good enough for now," Tails replied. "Hey, go ahead and try something."
"Try something?"
"Yeah."
Sonic shrugged and raised a hand towards the aircraft. He smiled and laughed. "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"That's hella cool! Man! Alright, everyone grab on." As soon as felt hands on his shoulders, Sonic warped ahead with Chaos Control. The three landed in a spacious area within the vessel.
"I can't believe you actually got it working," Sonic said. "This is some next-gen stuff. Who needs Scotty, eh?"
"So there's an energy point in here that reacts to Chaos Control?" Amy asked.
"One primary and one secondary," Tails said. He walked towards the large windows at the front of the plane and sat in one of the large seats. A digital control panel lit up beneath his fingertips, and on a smaller console next to it was a set of manual controls.
"What is this place?"
"I just decided to make a flying house, I guess. Sonic helped."
"Yeah, it's been a big project of ours." He looked at an electrical panel before closing the door shut. "Tails has it running on nukes, but we can basically run on water if we want."
"Anything that can be used for fuel works. Water, diesel, petroleum, heavy oil, magnetism…it's just that the range falls for each type of fuel. The paint absorbs solar energy, so we use it for some electrical functions. Everyone likes to spout off on how we can just break free of oil with alternative technologies, but translating those to scale isn't the easiest job," Tails said. "For a big bird like this, nuclear power is the best option. We don't ever have to land for refueling."
The interior was wide open and bright, lights illuminating everything inside. For the most part, the floor was flat and there wasn't much in the way of clutter. It felt very livable.
"We've got a kitchen. And a chili dog machine."
"Chili dog machine?"
"Technology is great!" Sonic said from the kitchen. "Although, nothing beats a good home cooked meal," he added with a straight face.
"A chili dog machine," Amy said, incredulous. A loud ding sounded and Sonic removed his meal from the white box on the kitchen counter.
"What a time to be alive," he said with a smile.
Amy shook her head.
"Okay…countermeasures engaged. Autopilot on. Systems okay. Rerouting power to scanners, checking airspeed. Got it…alright, let's head out."
Tails hopped up from his seat and led Sonic and Amy to the hangar, where the Tornado awaited. Tails jumped into the pilot seat while Amy took the back. Sonic grabbed hold of one of the struts and balanced himself on the wing.
The hangar door slid down quickly, giving a view of the blackened skies.
Tails performed the pre-flight checks and then had the Tornado take off, the hangar door sliding upwards as soon as the plane cleared. They circled around the long fuselage of the giant flying aircraft, Wanderer.
Directly ahead was a much smaller, sleeker plane, painted black and almost invisible in the sky.
"That's Eggman's ride, huh," Sonic called out.
"Yeah. Like I said, not exactly his style. There's enough room to land on top, though."
"Amy? You see anything?"
"It's…strange. It's only him."
"Then I guess we don't need to go in guns blazing," Sonic said. "Let's land and try to get this sorted out."
Tails landed the Tornado on top of the other plane, activating electromagnets to secure it.
"Here we go," Sonic said. He took Tails' hand, and he took Amy's. Sonic jumped from the wings and sped forward along the length of the larger aircraft.
"The door's open!" Amy called out.
He accelerated through the opening and pulled his companions safely inside.
"He must have figured we were coming," Tails said.
"Putting that three hundred IQ to use for once. C'mon," Sonic said warily.
Quickly and cautiously they advanced through the darkened interior to the pilot's room, only twice as big as a normal plane cabin. The ends of a large mustache poked out from behind the pilot's chair.
"Eggman," Sonic said sternly.
"Yes."
He turned in his chair. Streaks of grey on his bushy mustache shone in the dim light. His once rotund form was slimmed. He dressed in black, with loose and finely pressed clothing. He slowly rose from his chair, casting a long shadow on the floor in front of the three heroes.
"It was me. It was me all along, Sonic."
Amy started to open her mouth.
"No."
Sonic shook his head.
"No, I know there's more to this story."
Eggman placed his hands behind his back. The light glanced off of his dark glasses.
"Then...I'll start from the beginning."
"Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world."