a/n: Keep trying, things will look up. Eventually.
Revolutionary Operation, Type Zero
Kinetic Sky
22. The Suns of Liberty, Act 5
"Omega, you'll have to stay outside. This is gonna require more than a little bit of stealth on my part."
Rouge pulled the thin USB key from the computer and slipped it into a compartment on Omega's front. She tapped it gently and nodded towards her companion.
"Understood."
"Do I look okay, hon?"
"This is hardly the time to worry about appearances. However, your emotional state has returned to near normal."
"So literal," she said with a smile. "I'll be back soon. If anything happens, I'll hit you up on the distress frequency."
"Affirmative. Be cautious, comrade."
"I will be...thanks, Omega. See you in a wink."
The two left the small room, Omega firing a laser burst into the computer drive to shut it off for good. Rouge jogged down the hall in the opposite direction.
From what she had picked up with Tails' help, she knew there were people inside of Westopolis. That was the reason the city hadn't been touched.
Rouge knew she had to get to the lower levels. She reached behind her back and drew her service pistol, a Springfield Custom M1911. Shadow had bought it for her a few years ago, and knowing she didn't like having blood on her hands often, he had it modified to shoot tranquilizer rounds. He was thoughtful when he chose to be.
She loaded the gun with ammo and looked down the sight once. Nice and reliable.
"Alright, it's time."
She slowly pushed open the door leading to the staircase. Using a light jump, she remained vertical while floating down the stairs with a single flap of her wings.
Sonic slowed his jog through Station Square to a stop, turning around to see the Egg Dragoons racing towards him.
He smirked and jumped into the air, easily avoiding the hail of bullets and cocking his left fist back. With a single motion, he swung forward, landing a slicing left hook on the nearest machine and sending it through several buildings on his right. The remaining machines tracked him and started to attack as he fell.
"The hell is this, amateur hour?! Keep up, you junk heaps!"
His feet didn't touch the ground as they anticipated.
A sonic boom ripped through the air as Sonic suddenly shot upward, slamming into a Dragoon with his elbow. He gripped the machine and boosted off it with a loud crunch, sending it crashing into the ground as he went into a spin. The blue ball suddenly glowed with light and disappeared for a split second. In the next moment, the Egg Dragoons all had car-sized holes in their midsections.
Sonic gracefully landed and adjusted his scarf as the machines exploded in the air.
"'Worthless consumer models' is right...tch." He turned to see the machine that he punched earlier, sparking and sputtering with an unsightly dent in its side. "I know you're watching, bolt-brain."
"Sonic," a flat voice said through the Egg Dragoon.
"That's my name, champ. Don't wear it out. What's your deal this time...a lust for revenge, I guess?"
"So you know," Metal Sonic said, landing the damaged machine on the ground. Sonic casually walked forward until he was a few feet in front of it, well within range of its weapons.
"Ya made it pretty obvious, coming back from the dead and all."
"My apologies for not being more forward with you, blue one."
"Spare me," Sonic spat. "You're after Amy, is that right? You wanna take her for yourself...eh." He shrugged. "Didn't think 'bots got jealous or so obsessive, but stranger things have happened."
"Once I have her, my plans will be completed in mere moments."
"Once you have her? Well, damn. You're confident today."
"This world is nearly mine, hedgehog."
"All thirty five percent of it and counting, yeah." Sonic shook his head. "Metal Overlord all over again...well, I gotta admit. You played G.U.N for suckers, and it must have been some sort of fate that allowed you to survive the thrashing Ames and I gave you all that time ago. 'Specially since it wasn't the main microchip that you respawned from, after all..."
"I have not forgotten that fateful day. But...neither has she."
Sonic grunted and cocked a brow upwards. "Really got nothing else, huh? Preying on her fears like that...why don't you fight me man to man, huh?"
"We saw how that went, Sonic."
"Hahaha! You have a point! So you really are learning, eh? You might have a robot body, but you ain't a robot. No...you haven't been one for a long time." Sonic clenched his fist, a malicious grin appearing on his face. "You're just a demon. Just a monster that I gotta wipe out. Another phantom in my path...in our path. Not because I'm a hero, no...nothing to do with that. I want you dead, Metal. And I know that she does too. She's craving it, man...the moment where she gets to wipe you from the face of the planet. From all existence, soul and everything else."
"You've become savages."
"Gahahaha! Savages! Oh, man...! That's hella rich coming from you, ya know?" Sonic said, roaring with laughter.
"What would your friends think of this?"
"Think? Pfft...they know about us already. They know how far we'd go for each other...and how much we hate you, you sorry bastard."
"I see."
"You haven't changed a bit, Metal. It's always a trip talking with you, corny philosophical garbage and all." Sonic gave the Dragoon a smile. "Keep in touch, champ. And don't you worry, when I find Amy, I'm gonna tell her all about this conversation. She's gonna be deeee-lighted to know that you've missed her so much!"
"You-"
"Just remember, friend. I'm gonna put your head on a silver platter and deliver it right to her. Did you know? It was our anniversary today." Sonic tugged once at his scarf and bared his sharp teeth with a smile. "You'll make a great present...Metal Sonic."
"Farewell for now...Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Yeah."
Sonic appeared on the other side of the machine, tossing a bundle of wires and chips to the ground as he walked away.
"You take it easy, buddy. We'll be seeing ya."
The machine caught fire, fell over, and exploded.
"There's something off."
Tails looked at Knuckles as he stood beside the pilot's chair.
"What is it?"
"There's a Chaos Emerald nearby. But it's...moving."
"Might be on top of the water somewhere."
"No, no...someone has possession of it."
Tails looked at the radar. The blip was moving, as Knuckles said...but he wondered who it was holding onto the Emerald.
"Think it's one of those shady military characters?"
"It's a possibility. We'll auto scan the profile of the vessel, if there is one," the fox responded.
Wanderer brought itself below the clouds and picked up the signature of whatever was on the water. The Chaos Emerald, and...a whole lot of people. Humans, most of them.
"It's a cruise liner," Tails concluded. "I'm guessing that it's floating around, looking for an uncompromised port to stop in." He tapped a few buttons on the console and another holographic screen appeared in front of him. He reached up to tap it gently, making the image zoom in. "Let's see...good for supplies and utilities for the next few days, at least. Fuel is decent...not too big a cruise, it seems. Only five hundred people, so that helps with rationing.
"Only five hundred?" Knuckles repeated sarcastically.
"Well, yeah. Most modern cruise ships can hold about five thousand people on average these days."
"Five thousand?"
"Yep. Hm...Knuckles, do you sense anything familiar down there?"
"Familiar?"
"People we know."
"Oh. Uh...I'm not really great with that. I can tell where spikes of energy are...does that help?" he asked.
"Yeah. Go ahead and do it."
"Okay." Knuckles closed his eyes and focused. "There's the Emerald...and a Master Emerald shard, too. Three distinct powers...no, four. Five...six. The last two are pretty faint."
"Not much to go on, but it'll do. If they've got Chaos Energy running through them, we can hope that they're friendly," Tails said as he unbuckled his seat belt.
"Where are you going?"
"You're terrible at public relations. I'll go after the Emerald and do the talking. You look for the shard."
"They're in the same place."
"Then you don't have to do anything. Just follow me."
"Who put you in charge?" Knuckles demanded.
"Shadow. Weren't you listening?"
"..." Knuckles sighed and followed Tails out of the plane. They jumped from the side door as Wanderer hovered high above the cruise ship, slowly following it on autopilot.
Tails started to spin his two tails and called on the energy inside of him to sprout an extra one in a wisp of flame. Knuckles easily glided with his dreadlocks.
"Useful trick."
Tails nodded. "It helps."
"We landing on the deck?"
"Yeah. Let's cut right to it."
"Sounds good."
The two floated down before landing gracefully on the wooden deck.
"It seems we were right to wait."
Espio walked up to them, a crown of flowers adorning his head. He had a sword strapped to his back and the same heavy gauntlets as always.
"Talk about good timing, eh?" Vector appeared next, a simple yet flashy gold chain around his neck, dotted with diamonds. He had flowers on his head as well, going around his sunglasses.
"Charmy not here?" Knuckles asked.
"Nah. He was out with Mighty an' Ray. They just called to say they were doing alright...but the planet's in real bad shape, fellas."
"We know. We're on it right now."
"You'll need this, then." Espio tossed Knuckles the shard. Knuckles nodded in thanks and put it behind his back.
"There's a Chaos Emerald here, too," Tails said.
"Yes, that would be...over there."
The four walked past the awed groups of humans towards the open deck. The Emerald was clearly visible, glowing bright blue in a gentle pair of hands.
Tails and Knuckles looked at each other, then Espio. The chameleon shrugged.
"We didn't know they would be here."
"Of all the times," Knuckles grumbled.
Tails frowned, not out of annoyance, but out of worry.
The woman in the blue sundress, and the girl in a pink shirt and shorts, a Chao on her head. All three were sleeping peacefully on their long chairs.
"Cream...Cheese...Vanilla."
He sighed and reached for his communicator.
"Shadow, come in."
"Prower...what is it?"
"We've got a situation."
"Hm. You as well, then."
Tails did not like the sound of that.