a/n: Die on your feet. #herewego

Revolutionary Operation, Type Zero

Kinetic Sky

23. The Suns of Liberty, Act 6

"We're not going to be able to contact Kiriko for a while. Possibly the entire week."

Tails cursed silently. "What's going on?"

"She's broken ties with us. That's all."

"You sound way too calm about this," Tails said. "Your subordinate has gone-" He stopped mid-sentence.

"You realize it too."

"Yeah." The fox sighed. "They forced her hand. This is a really bad time, though."

"I'm giving her three days to establish contact with one of you. That woman, General Sirius...she's got a vendetta against G.U.N, and it's sure to impede our investigation. Not that I can blame her," Shadow said smugly from the other end. "But she's fascinated with the old Commander."

"Is she?"

"Very much so. But enough gossip...that was the situation I wanted to discuss with you. What about yours?"

"We got another Emerald piece and ran into the Chaotix. There's also a Chaos Emerald on this cruise liner...and Cream's holding it."

"The rabbit girl. And let me guess...the Chao and her mother are with her."

"Yep."

Shadow grumbled. "You need to start moving. Take the Emerald and go."

"No."

"No?"

Tails looked at Espio and Vector. "No. We're taking the extra bodies. The Metal Overlord incident...Cream, Cheese, and Chocola were all there. No doubt Metal is aware that Vanilla's her mom...Espio and Vector are targets, too. They're safer with us, and we can make use of them."

"You said Espio?"

"The same."

"Hm...fine, take them all on board. But keep the rabbits and Chao on your flying ship, understand? We cannot afford any liabilities."

"Right. By the way...have you talked to Rouge lately?"

"Yes, I did a while ago."

"What'd she say?"

"Nothing important. She was checking in again...I gave her an update on the current situation. She should still be in Westopolis with Omega."

Tails' eyes flickered over to Knuckles for a moment. "Just checking."

"Nothing from Sonic and Rose yet," Shadow said.

"Copy that. If anything new comes up, I'll let you know."

"Understood. I'm going radio silent in two hours. You won't be able to reach me until 1215 Zulu tomorrow. On the usual channels, anyways."

"Alright. Stay safe, Shadow."

"Right."

"Metal Sonic?" Vector asked as Tails cut the connection. "Didn't Sonic and Amy shred him a couple years back? It never stops with that guy!"

"G.U.N played with fire and paid the price," Tails said. "He jacked a bunch of Eggman's tech that he made while working for the military and modified it to do all this to the planet. As for how he came back? There was an intact microchip from the last battle."

"His thirst for vengeance brought him back to the mortal plane. No mere machine can do that," Espio concluded. "He really has developed a soul...and has possibly become a demon."

"For the love of...a demon?!" Vector yelled, startling the other passengers. "This just keeps gettin' worse by the second!"

"Contamination's at thirty-seven percent and rising. The spread has slowed down," Tails told them.

"The water slows the movement of the dark chi," Espio noted. Gears started to turn in Tails' head.

"Yin?"

"The same." Espio raised a brow. "I didn't think you dabbled in those kinds of arts often."

"Things changed since I got...that," he said, pointing to his still present third tail. He had it disappear in a wisp of flame soon after.

"Yes, I remember now."

"But it was actually Amy talking about that sort of stuff. Said that Metal was using it to facilitate some twisted kind of Chaos Control."

"I see. This is rather intriguing..."

"If you, Amy, and Kiriko can put your heads together, we might stand more of a chance against whatever Metal's planning."

"Speaking of the lovebirds, ain't they with you?" Vector asked.

"They're in Station Square..."

"Stallin'. I get it," Vector said gravely. "They better hope they're not in over their heads."

"Me too..."

"You said...Kiriko, Tails?" Espio asked.

"Kiriko?" Vector asked. "Who's that?"

"She was a contact for me with G.U.N a few months back," Espio told Vector. "We formed a stellar working relationship, and a strong personal bond. Her talent with the blade is inspiring. We also exchanged technique studies...from her, I learned the basics of Water Style ninjutsu."

"Sounds like you're fallin' hard, Esp."

"It's nothing like that. And either way, she has closed herself off to outside romance...she only has one person in her mind at all times."

"Really? Who?"

"It's Sonic," Knuckles interrupted. "Her face gets all red when she's near him."

"Not hard to miss," Tails quipped. "She loves him to death and back..."

"A master-servant relationship. That is all she desires from him."

"I'm sure that weird girl's love life is interesting, but can we get going and find the rest of the Master Emerald?" Knuckles said.

"Tch. Look who's grumpy all of a sudden," Vector said. He grinned at Knuckles. "Guess you're still not over her, eh?"

"Shut up."

"Hehehe..."

"Mister Vector, it's not nice to tease others!"

"Aw, sheesh. Can't a croc have his fun?"

Cream shook her head as she approached, the Chaos Emerald in her hands. She presented it to Knuckles before bounding over and smothering Tails in a hug. "Tails! Oh, it's been way way too long! Are you well?" No longer the smallest member of the group, she had matched Tails in his small bit of growth and stood level with the others. Cheese looked the same as ever.

"I'm okay, Cream. Thanks for asking...what about you?"

"I'm great, Cheese is great, and Mama is great, too! We just wanted to enjoy this cruise, but it looks like some bad things are happening..."

"No doubt. We're gonna keep you close by for protection."

"That sounds wonderful! Oh...you're sure we're not going to-"

"It's no trouble at all. I promise, Cream. You won't be in the way, far from it."

"In that case, I'm glad," she said with a sunny smile.

"I agree," Vanilla said as she patted Tails on the head. "Thank you, Tails. Still as dashing as ever, hm?"

"Vanilla, stop. I'm just doing the right thing."

She smiled and kissed him on the top of his head, making him blush. "You're doing more than you think."

"Can we go now?"

"Boy, Mister Knuckles sure is grumpy today." Cream thought for a moment and nodded. "Hm...right, that look."

"What look?" he asked.

"That's the look you have when you're angry about when Miss Ro-"

"Let's get ourselves onto the plane, shall we?" Tails said quickly as he brought up his holographic keypad.

"No, what was that? What was she saying?"

"It's not important. She was just talking about...Amy! You know, Miss Rose?" Vanilla said quickly. "She likes to hit you, right? Doesn't that make you upset?"

"Oh...yeah, it does. Sonic's wife or not, one day I'll give her what for!"

Vanilla sighed and gave Cream a look. She made a zipping motion over her mouth and Cream nodded before doing the same.

Tails looked at Knuckles blankly.

I guess being so gullible is a permanent character trait, then...

"Let's...get going," he said with a sigh. "You wanna do the honours, Knuckles?"

"What honours?"

"Haven't you been...ugh, forget it. Give Espio the Emerald."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Knuckles shrugged and handed the Chaos Emerald to Espio. The chameleon blinked as he felt a familiar pulse.

"Ah, I see."

"Thought you would. Everyone, take hold of Espio." They all did so and Tails nodded the okay.

"Very well...Chaos Control!"

Omega stood outside of Westopolis HQ patiently.

He suddenly noted something in the atmosphere around him...like it was trying to get through, but couldn't. What was it...?

"..."

Then he noticed it again. Stronger this time.

That wavelength...it was specific.

Too specific.

His systems moved into action, rifling through information in mere hundredths of a second in order to make the proper connections.

Nothing.

He couldn't contact Rouge.

He knew she was in trouble.

Omega activated his boosters without a second thought and rushed towards the front of the headquarters. He slammed through the glass doors and tore through the walls of the building directly in front of him. His sensors detected several gunshots, non-lethal ammunition fired. He stopped above his destination and aimed his guns downwards, spinning in a circle to tear the floor apart. His weight dropped him downwards and into the room where Rouge was supposed to be.

"Rouge. Rouge, respond."

He could immediately see that there were dead bodies on the floor, decomposing in the room's abnormal heat. Blood was splattered everywhere and-

There. Movement.

He shot forward with wild abandon, tearing through tables, chairs, computers, and servers that were in his path.

A pained scream.

He knew that voice pattern instantly.

"Rouge."

He tore through the rest of the room and saw her against the back wall, crying and trembling. A black mass faded away into the floor.

"Shit shit shit shit! God fucking dammit! It was a trap! A trap...! I...oh, God! It's in me! I'm gonna...gonna!"

"Rouge."

She cried out and held her arm close to her body.

The fingers were coated in black metal.

Her eyes fearfully met his.

"Omega?"

The pained expression on her face was clear.

But he would not resort to those means. There was still...hope.

There was still a chance to defy all odds.

"Omega?" she whimpered. "Sweetie? There's..."

"Negative."

The darkness was crawling up her arm. She felt sick, but stone cold at the same time.

"I don't want to go...like this..."

"You will not expire. I will not allow it."

His database quickly searched for the next number to call.

And in a second, another appeared.

"This is worse than I thought..."

Rouge felt her tears slow as she looked into his red eyes. Calm as always...but tinged with something else.

This was...anger. Pure...anger.

"We'll take you to the kid," he said. He scooped Rouge up into his arms, feeling her tremble.

"I...I have...s-something...to tell..."

He could see that it had already taken her arm.

"Omega."

The robot placed a hand on his shoulder.

In a flash of light, the three had disappeared.