Chapter 9: Rescue

With a yell, Sonic tapped into the energy he felt flowing into him, and broke through the mental barrier in his mind. He forced the energy deep within him to join with that of the Chaos Emerald, and enhanced by the Chaos Energy, and with that energy he instinctually did something that he had only done once before, in the fight against Knuckles...

"CHAOS... CONTROL!" He shouted.

A burst of white light exploded from the Chaos Emerald, and in it, he re-wove the world: Warping the very fabric of space and time in order to transport his friends to safety. He spun his friends into their own bubble of space-time, and sent it towards a nearby place where he knew they would be safe: a hidden bunker not two miles from Facility Bravo, built specifically for Mobians to take shelter in should an event like what had just happened to take place. He was the last one alive who knew about it.

Now, He thought, Lets see if I can save those recruits before it is too late...

And with that thought, he warped reality once again...

As the soldiers burst into the room, Sally "Acorn" the Squirrel closed her eyes. Dammit! We're cornered!

Right when she thought that they were about to be captured or killed, she thought heard someone yell, "CHAOS...CONTROL!"

Was that Sonic? She asked herself.

There was a brief flash of white light that burned through her eyelids, and for a split second afterwards, it felt as if her entire body was stretched into a thin line; then there was silence. Surprised, she opened her eyes... and found herself floating alone in a void filled with swirling colors and sparks of what looked like electricity.

What the hell? She thought, looking around.

"Hello?" she asked,"Sonic? Knuckles?"

Her questions faded into soft echoes. She cocked her ears, expectantly , but there was no response. There was nothing except for the soft murmuring echoes of the void of her questions.

Sally floated in the void for what seemed like an eternity, the swirling colors not giving any sense of time or distance. As time ticked by unmeasured, she directed her thoughts towards various problems, giving her time to come to grips with what had just occurred, and allowing herself to gain control of her emotions.

If I am going to survive long enough to see Fidel pay for what he did to my friends and family, She thought, I have to keep my emotions under control. I am a tactician, not a crybaby, so it is time I start acting like one.

After what felt like ages, a sense of traveling surfaced in her mind, although she was certain that she was still stationary. Was her mind playing tricks on her? It was an odd feeling.

Then, there was another flash of light and suddenly she found herself lying on the ground of a room.

Sally pushed herself to her feet, and glanced around. It appeared like she was in the room some kind of Bunker, and an odd one at that. The ceiling seemed only to be 5 feet high, a bit cramped for most humans, but perfectly comfortable for Mobians.

Scattered around the room randomly, a few other Mobians sat up and shook their heads as if they had just woken up from a deep sleep. She could see Knuckles and Rouge standing up and looking around the room in wonder. Something was off with this scenario, and it took her a moment to figure out exactly what it was.

"Where's Sonic?" She asked.

Tails was marched outside at gunpoint by the soldier, and when he stepped outside, he gasped. Several of the buildings had broken windows, and even small chunks of wall had broken from the walls. Dead human soldiers lay everywhere in pools of blood and guts, and the remains of Orbital Drop Pods lay in small smoke filled even thought saw a couple mobians strewn among the dead. Tails shuddered and looked away trying to suppress the urge to throw up.

All the mobians were being held at the Parade Ground, kept in groups of no more than fifteen or twenty, each group under the watchful gaze of five or six Tails arrived, the GUN Soldiers wordlessly shoved him toward a random group. Tails sat down, not wishing to start anything under the watchful gaze of their captors. He knew that it would be impossible to escape.

"I thought that you had managed to get away," A female voice whispered quietly from beside him. It was the voice of Amy Rose, a tan hedgehog with pink hair from his platoon.

"Apparently, I'm not as lucky as you would make me out to be," He replied quietly, turning his head slightly so he could see her better.

She had a worried expression in her green eyes, but Tails could tell that she was fighting to keep calm. From what he had saw of her during the week spent here, he figured that she had a strong spirit and no lack of courage.

"Amy, what do they plan to do with us?"the cream-colored rabbit next to Amy asked worriedly.

"I am not sure, Cream," Amy replied, doing her best to sooth the rabbit, "But whatever happens, I believe that we will be able to get through it."

"NO TALKING," a soldier nearby thundered.

Both Amy and Cream promptly shut their mouths, but Tails' ears flattened slightly at the remark, and he had to suppress the irritating backlash that was right on the verge of coming out of his mouth.

Careful, Miles, It would be unwise to say anything to any of the GUN soldiers, Tails thought to himself. You are not a fighter... not yet, anyway. Speaking out now will only get yourself and others injured or killed.

The question that Cream had raised was an interesting one. Why would GUN, the international military, be interested in killing the humans on base while trying to capture the mobians alive? It didn't make any sense.

His thoughts were interrupted as the sound of a large airship droned from overhead, keeping him from thinking. He looked up and saw the sun getting drowned out by one of Fidel's orbital transport ships.

Damn, He thought, I knew they were big, but that... that is impossible! How can something that huge stay aloft?Just the amount of fuel required to keep that thing in the air more than a minute would be ridiculous!

There was a crashing sound, and the next thing moment, he saw some kind of huge pod on the ground not too far away from the parade ground. It was attached to the airship by a long beam of energy to the Airship.

It took him a moment to add the airship to the puzzle, but when he did, it all clicked.

Fidel must want to study us, He thought, and who knows what that would entail.

When the soldiers saw the pod, they formed up around their respective group, and ordered the mobians to stand up. The soldiers forced them all into lines and then began herding them all like cattle towards the pod. One at a time, each mobian that reached the pod was shoved into it roughly.

After about ten minutes,roughly forty Mobians were loaded into the pod, and the soldiers shut the door signaling that it was full. Soon, the pod was tugged back into the airship, even as another pod hit the ground in the same place with a thud. The soldiers opened the door and began the loading process once more.

Tails did the math in his head, and came to the conclusion that at this rate, it would take the GUN soldiers an hour for all the mobians to be loaded into the airship. Since he was at the back of the lines, That meant he had one hour of freedom left to enjoy; Or... one more hour to devise an escape plan.

Amy shuddered as she looked up at the airship, which was hovering above like a dark rain cloud. She didn't know what it meant, but her gut told her that whatever awaited them on the airship, it wouldn't be pretty. These GUN soldiers had a fearsome reputation, and she feared that her friends and family would soon know exactly why that reputation existed.

Beside her, Cream the Rabbit started to cry as the second drop pod was opened.

Tails was in the middle of developing a plan to escape when he heard the rabbit start to how He was in already in a bad enough mood from being captured, this would only aggravate him.

Dammit, He thought. Just what I need. That rabbit is going to draw the soldiers attention like a beacon.

He endured the sounds of the sniveling rabbit for about ten minutes, his temper steadily rising even as he hoped that Cream would calm down. Amy did her best to try to calm her friend down, but to no avail.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of nervously waiting, Tails had enough of it. If that rabbit didn't quiet down, sooner or later a guard will hear the noise, and then Cream would be in the toaster, and possibly Amy and Tails as well.

"Tell Cream to shut it," Tails whispered to Amy.

"What?" Amy asked quietly.

"Tell... Cream...To shut... her trap," Tails whispered a little more loudly. "If the guards hear her, we're gonna be in bigger trouble than we are now."

"But she's scared," Amy protested quietly, "I am doing the best that I can to comfort her, but she just won't stop. Besides I was trained as a medic back at the bunk, not as a babysitter."

Hmmm, Tails thought, So Amy was trained as a medic, eh? That could be useful. Maybe I should take her along with me when I make my escape.

"If she won't listen to you, then slap her," He said, almost flippantly, "You'd be surprised at how well a good slap across the face can help a hysterical person calm down. Heck, back at my bunk, whenever I started crying, someone would slap me across the face really hard. It was quite effective, and shut me up pretty quick."

"I would never do that," She said, her voice betraying a fair amount of shock and horror at what he just said.

"Dammit, Amy! If you don't want to slap her, then tell her that if she doesn't shut up now, those guards are gonna do it for her," Tails snapped exasperatedly, his temper starting to boil. He was trying to save their bacon by trying to focus on forming an escape plan, which he couldn't concentrate on anyway with Cream bawling like an infant.

"And if that happens," Tails continued without thinking, "I will probably get screwed over big time as well, and I have enough problems as it is."

"Screwed over?" Amy practically thundered, "Screwed...over?! We are already screwed are about to be transported to who-knows-where, by GUN forces probably planning to torture and interrogate us, and all you care about is the fact that Cream is bawling like the little girl she is?! For what, you selfish bastard, just to momentarily save your hide?"

Dammit! Tails thought, If we were screwed before, now we're FUBAR. Why do I even bother?

He opened his mouth to tell her to shut it, but it was too late; if Cream's crying hadn't alerted the soldiers, then Amy just certainly did. The two nearest GUN soldiers walked over and stood menacingly over the trio near the back of the line.

"Is there a problem, Runt?" one of the soldiers asked her in a dangerously quiet voice.

Amy, her own temper ignited by Tails' rash and un-thoughtful comments, didn't notice the warning embedded in the soldier's voice.

"Yes there is, actually," She began hotly.

Tails gave himself a facepalm, then silently began praying for Amy's soul, even as the second drop pod was hauled back into the airship.

Note to self, He thought, Never try talking to women when you are about to be transported to a POW camp.

Sonic had never traveled via Chaos Control before; in fact, he had only used it once before, and he wasn't sure exactly how it worked.

Either way, he was relieved when the second flash of white light transported him back to the real world. He didn't know how long he had spent in the void, and he didn't care, as long as he was able to save as many recruits as possible from whatever fate GUN had in store for them.

He blinked, and found himself standing on a hill above the Parade Ground, the grass blowing softly in the breeze of air washing down from above. Sonic glanced around, making sure to survey the situation accurately before taking he saw told him exactly what he feared was happening.

There was an airship with the GUN logo flying above Facility Bravo, and a drop pod was on the ground, the chain of light that was its tether to the airship glowing brightly in the the parade ground he saw a line of Mobian recruits extending from the Drop Pod out into the Parade Ground, guarded by GUN soldiers.

Even as Sonics mind began formulating a plan, the Drop Pod was tugged sharply back up into the air ship, and moments later, a replacement drop pod crashed down into about the same place as the previous one.

Sonic watched as the soldiers began to load the Mobians into the pod one at a time, sometimes even picking the poor things up by the scruff of the neck and just shoving them in.

I could destroy the pod, but that could put those Mobians in further danger, he thought, dashing quickly to another spot on the hill in order to get a better view of the line.

As he moved, Something caught his eye near the back of the line. He squinted, and thought he could make out a yellow and white twin-tailed fox standing at the back of the line next to a female hedgehog with bright pink hair and a small cream colored rabbit. Two of the soldiers nearby walked over, and started to arguing with the hedgehog, while the rest of the line continued on toward the drop pod.

Uh-oh,Sonic thought, moving forward so he could see a little better, That doesn't look too good.

Then, with just one hand, one of the soldiers picked up the pink-haired hedgehog by the throat...

"Leave her alone," Tails said, though he knew it wouldn't do any good.

In fact, he probably should've kept his mouth shut: The soldier holding Amy ignored him, but the other soldier unemotionally bashed Miles across the side of the head with the butt of his rifle, knocking the fox to the ground, and causing stars to swirl and flash in front of his eyes.

Tails shook his head, clearing it enough to where he could see what was going on from his vantage point on the ground.

"Listen, girl," the soldier who held Amy in his death grip said coldly, " I don't give a shit about the fact that your friend is bawling like the baby she is, or about the fact that your friend just pissed you off. Whatever the circumstances, I do not care. What I do care about is the fact that you yelled when you were not even supposed to whisper, runt. You, and your 'friends', will... keep... all... of... your... mouths... shut, just like the rest of these runts, or there will be consequences. If I, or one of my fellow soldiers hear another peep out of you or your friends, I will personally squash the life out of you like the vermin that you are. Understand?"

Amy gasped for air.

"Do you understand me?" The soldier asked again, tightening his grip slightly.

Amy gasped, and tried to nod her head, but couldn't.

"Frank," The other soldier said sharply, "Our orders are to take them alive, not to kill them."

But Frank seemed to ignore his fellow, and Amy's face was starting to turn blue.

"She understands," Cream said, in a frightened voice, "Please, don't hurt her."

The soldier named Frank met Cream's teary brown eyes for a moment, then glanced at his fellow soldier's gaze. Slowly, Frank nodded, and let go of Amy, who dropped to the ground with a soft thump, gasping for air.

"Get back in line," The second soldier said simply, then he and Frank turned around and started to walked off.

Amy spent a good ten seconds gasping for air, and then struggled to a standing position

"You monster," Amy spat at the soldier. "You think of us as nothing but playthings, don't you?"

Frank's back stiffened, and slowly he turned around, his face turning red with anger.

"Monster?" He said, clenching his rifle tightly, "I just showed you mercy, and you have the guts to call me a... monster? How about I show you just how much of a monster I can be..."

"Frank..." The other soldier warned, also turning around.

"Don't worry, Josh," Frank replied, eyes flashing as he stalked back towards Amy,"I am just going to rough her and her friends up a bit."

"Didn't we just do that?" Josh asked, eying Tails and Cream. Both soldiers were now facing Amy.

"That was enforcing the rules. This is for my personal amusement," Frank said, smiling chillingly, "Want to help?"

"Why not?" Josh said, glancing briefly at the other guards. "Its not like our superiors would disapprove... so long as we keep them alive. We are still herding them towards the drop zone after all. "

The two soldiers walked forward, obviously prepared to beat the crap out of their victims.

Amy just stood still, meeting their eyes without flinching. Like all the recruits in her platoon, She had not received any combat training, and as such, was practically defenseless against a trained soldier. Despite this, she stood her ground as if she had been trained on how to fight.

Still, it seemed like she was ready for them this time.

Well, Tails thought to himself as he stood up, It looks like Amy might need some help. Two vs. one isn't really all that good odds, especially against trained soldiers. Heck, I'm no fighter, at least not yet, but I could give the three of us an opportunity to escape if I play my cards against two will even the odds a little bit.

When the guard let go of the pink haired hedgehog, Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. If he had sprung into action right then, on the spur of the moment, he may not have had enough time to take out all the soldiers.

Before doing anything else, he quickly noted the positions of all the guards, and ran a few rough calculations through his mind.

Okay, He thought, Time to see how I fare against these guys in a fight.

Sonic tapped into the internal energy, and pushing it out behind him, he tore down the hill at blinding speeds in the direction of the drop pod. The wind whirled around him, stinging his eyes, and making the rest of the world a blur, but he kept on jumped, twisting in mid air, even while diverting some of the energy to his extremities to protect them from the upcoming impact and add even more force to his blow. Sonic extended his leg in a side kick, aiming for the guard's head...

The force with which Sonic hit the unfortunate soldier was enormous. With a squelching crack, the guard's head was smashed off the body, spilling blood and brains over the ground as the body collapsed.

Sonic's momentum carried him forward however, and he dashed across the parade ground, unable to turn in time to attack another guard. He changed the direction the energy was pushing him, and was treated to as sharp a 180 degree turn as significantly reduced his speed, but that couldn't be helped. Running that fast blurred his vision, and in order for his attacks to be accurate, he needed to see where all the guards were located. Besides, he needed to slow down in order to turn around.

Frank raised the butt of his rifle and struck at Amy, but she was ready this time. With a calculated motion, and almost a taunting flip of her BDU, she ducked under the swing and out of harms way.

With Amy taking on the other Guard and keeping him busy, that left Tails to take the other one. He had to keep Josh off of Amy and Cream's back long enough for her to do something

Tails felt a soft growl come to his lips, and he crouched low, flattening his ears and peeling back his lips. He stepped in between the remaining soldier and Cream, in part a gesture of protection, and a desire to close with his Josh lunged at him, Tails did what any normal fox would do: With a squeaky growl, Tails pounced at the soldier, and sank his needle sharp teeth into the guard's leg, as if it was a huge piece of sausage or chicken. Tails loved sausage and chicken!

With a startled yell, Josh dropped his rifle and began shaking his leg, trying to get the fox off, but to no avail. Tails had a death grip of the soldier, and try as he might, the little yellowish-orange fox could not be shaken off.

Frank lunged at Amy again and again, trying to hit her in the face, or grab her. Despite the soldiers speed, Amy was one step ahead of him due to anticipation. Almost effortlessly, Amy slid out of reach each time, knowing that if he caught her she would be at his mercy. Each time Amy dodged, She moved further and further away from Cream, hoping to distract him long enough for her friend to get away.

Just remember, stay out of reach, and go with the flow, Amy thought to herself, You are a leaf in the wind, a ballerina.

She danced aside, dodging yet another blow, amazed at how much of the basic defensive training she remembered from her time at her Bunk.

If only I remembered how to take down a human, She thought.

She ducked and twirled, avoiding a backhanded swing the soldier threw at her. She twirled out of the way, and behind him, then made the foolish mistake of trying to punch the back of his knee at the same time.

Because Amy was too busy focusing on the movement of her opponent, she forgot to watch her footing. Her clumsy counter attack caused her to misstep, and she lost her balance. Pain shot up her leg as her ankle twisted, and she toppled to the ground with a thud.

"Oh shit!" She cursed, a tear coming to her eye

"It doesn't become a lady to use such language," Frank said tauntingly.

The soldier turned around, and reached his hands out to grab her again...

The soldier managed to shake Tails off of his leg, but the fox knew that if he didn't stay latched on, he would be knocked senseless. He was fueled by primitive instinct, dimly overlayed by his personal intelligence.

With another squeaky growl, Tails leapt high into the air and came right down on the soldiers face, biting and scratching like a feral fox. With one swipe of his hand, Tails knocked the helmet off Josh's head and then sank his teeth into the soldier's neck. Josh stiffened, as Tails' teeth severed the side of his windpipe, and collapsed to the ground, dying.

Tails stood up, a bit bruised, but not really the worse for wear. His heart was racing from the thrill of the kill and he could still taste the metallic texture of blood in his mouth. He wiped what blood he could off of his face and stood in triumph, still stuck in the moment. Victory was so satisfying!

Slowly, his instincts began to settle down, and his rational mind began to take over. Only then, did he realize that he had just killed someone. At that realization, all thoughts of escape that had began to fill his mind again simply fled.

I...have never... killed anything...before, He thought, feeling sick.

The tears dripped from his eyes as the full realization of what he had just done hit him full force.

Cream had been standing in dumbfounded belief when the fight with the soldiers began, and she watched in shock as Tails stepped between her and the soldier.

He...really does... care! She thought.

Then she gaped in shock at the ferocity with which Miles attacked the guard. He latched onto Josh's leg as if it were a ham sandwich. Gentle, timid Tails, someone she had long had a crush on, had transformed from an enlightened Mobian into a primal fox.

Just the thought of the one she liked transforming into a monster, like that was something scary to consider, and she wasn't sure her mind could handle it.

Tails was flung off of the soldiers leg, but immediately leaped right back into the fray, pouncing into the air and attacking the soldiers face. The soldier raised his arms and tried futilely to pull the twin tailed fox off, but it was too late. With a swipe, Tails knocked the helmet off of the GUN soldier, and sank his teeth deep into the side of the soldiers neck.

The soldier collapsed to the ground, and Tails stood, his mouth dripping blood. Then, he wiped his mouth, and stared at the body for a long moment, a few tears flowed down his cheek, but Cream didn't seem to notice.

Cream wasn't really much older than a child, and as such, her emotions were not really fully developed. Her fear,for some reason, suddenly morphed into joy, and without thinking she found herself bounding forward and leaping into his arms.

"Tails!" She gasped.

And to the fox's surprise, she glomped him full on the lips.

Sonic dashed at the the next guard, this time kicking the guard in the chest at an angle, shattering the soldier's chest. Wish a heave, Sonic rebounded off the body and charged into another guard that was nearby, sending the body flying. In a flurry of wind and dust, Sonic delivered kick after charging kick,in what felt like slow motion. Each time he took out a guard, he rebounded off the body, changing his trajectory to target a new guard. When the dust settled, all the guards were dead, their blood, bodies and insides sprawled in the dirt and muddy grass like confetti.

He turned, and saw the mobian recruits huddled on the ground in fear.

"Its OK," the blue hedgehog said. "Its me, Sonic."

The mobian recruits looked up, but something in the distance caught his eye:

One last guard, and a pink haired blur...

Dammit! He thought, I forgot about her!

"Stay here," He said to the recruits, "I will be back."

Sonic charged.

Amy closed her eyes, sure that she was about to have the life squeezed out of her. But that moment didn't come.

There was the a huge gust of wind, and a thud. Timidly, Amy opened her eyes. The soldier that was about to kill her moments before was dead on the ground, his chest obviously shattered by the force of an enormous impact. Standing in front of her was a blue hedgehog with brilliant green eyes standing over her

"Are you hurt, recruit?" He asked.

"Yes," She said. "I think, my ankle is twisted."

"I can carry you, if you like," Sonic offered.

"Thank you," Amy said, somewhat astonished.

Sonic knelt down, and picked her up.

"Is Tails nearby?" He asked.

"He's over there." Amy replied, pointing in the direction of the fox.