Chapter 6: The Invasion, Part 1: Speed Won't Save You
06231991
"Tails, you home?" The blue blur called out, knocking a gloved hand against the door. The fastest thing alive had been doing some traveling and just so happened to be in the neighborhood of his closest friend, and wanted to see if he was home for a visit. "C'mon Little Bro, you in or what?"
"Sonic?" A familiar voice called out from close behind him. Realizing he'd been looking in the wrong direction for his friend, the hedgehog opted to about face and see him. Miles Prower, or Tails, the two tailed fox and genius inventor.
"There you are! Long time no see huh?" Sonic said, internally kicking himself for having to remind the both of them of that phrase. "I was just in the area and thought you might be home so I was hoping to catch you, and turns out, I did!" He said with a smile, happy to see the fox.
"Heh, it's good to see you too Sonic, though one of these days we really should get you a phone or something" Tails replied, smiling back. "That way you'd be able to ask me about meeting up instead of just running into each other, even if that is your specialty." Tails was carrying a small toolbox in one of his gloved hands, the fox having been out grabbing supplies.
"Well you know me, running, running, and more running. Don't exactly got the pocket space…Or pockets." The blue blur trailed off at that sentence, an awkward silence filling the air for just a moment before both of them starting laughing at the thought.
"You know, you got me there Sonic. Maybe a belt at most, but you with pockets just doesn't sound right." Tails commented, a hand over his mouth from laughing at the idea. "C'mon in, I got something I've been meaning to show you." He added, walking past Sonic and unlocking the door to his home. Stepping in, one of his tails motioned for the hedgehog to follow, who gladly joined his friend inside.
"So, what have you been up to since the whole Starfall fiasco, Little Bro?" Sonic asked, looking around his friend's small but quaint home. Ever since their run-in with the nefarious Dr. Eggman out on the Starfall Islands, the duo as well as their friends Knuckles and Amy had opted to go their separate ways, wanting to spend some time apart for personal growth.
"Well, you know that old design I was working on with the Tornado? I decided to go back and revisit it using what I'd learned from observing the Ancients tech to see if I could get something truly new up and running, and I think I finally got it." Tails explained, having done a veritable mountain of research on the mysterious Ancients, lifeforms that came from the outer reaches of space to their planet ages ago with highly advanced tech.
"Whoa, you actually got that stuff working for yourself? That's crazy bro!" Sonic replied, thrilled to hear Tails had figured out at least a little bit of the Ancients' work. He watched as Tails nodded his head and turned around, leading him out to the back of his home and into the garage, where a red tarp appeared to cover some large object.
"Heh, yep! I haven't yet given it a test run just yet, but if my calculations are correct, this baby will be able to fly faster and farther than any aircraft of its kind!" Tails proclaimed, proud of his work as he turned to face his dear friend. "Presenting, proudly constructed by yours truly, I give you, the one, the only…" Falters for a second as he sees Sonic is rolling his wrist, implying the fox is overdoing it. "Sorry, heh. Behold, The Tornado 3!"
"Whoa…" Sonic's normally confident voice trailing off as Tails unveiled his newest creation. The classic biplane design he was used to seeing but with a more sleek, updated form. The old black propeller and wheels were still present in the front but the main body was a sleek white, the normally rounded wings of the plane a touch more angled for enhanced aerodynamics, with the front edges of the plane painted blue like Sonic. The signature Tails symbol of both of his tails was still present on top of the wings and the side of the stabilizer, with a dash of Knuckles red along the back of the stabilizer. The cockpit was about the same, easily seating someone of Tails size, but with an additional seat behind him for a passenger, and a subtle use of Amy pink as the outlining for both seats, with a streak of Tails orange running along the main body of the plane on both sides.
"Bro…This looks awesome!" Sonic decreed, walking around the reborn Tornado to examine all the new bits "You totally overhauled it, but it still feels like the old model! Can't wait to see how this baby flies." He said, rounding his inspection of the aircraft to see his friend.
"I know right? It took a lot of time but I finally settled on a design I was happy with. And thanks to Knuckles managing to keep a hold of one of the Chaos Emeralds for me…" The inventor fox paused for a moment to jump up, pressing a button in the cockpit as a small compartment opened atop the plane, revealing the glowing blue Chaos Emerald inside. "...I have the fuel source I need to get off the ground!"
"Nice! Sounds like you and I have a date with a test flight! Can't wait to s-"
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"..."
"..."
The Blue Blur turned his head back towards the entrance to his bro's home, the direction that noise came from. The sound was indescribable, as though reality itself couldn't settle on what would have been produced by…whatever just happened. Cautious, Sonic turned his head back towards Tails, who seemed just as shocked as he was, before seeing the fox nod. Knowing he was alert, the hedgehog slowly approached the door and opened it, peering outside.
There were so many of them. Creatures that, at first seemed plausible to Sonic, but the longer he stared out into the sea of them, the less reasonable they seemed to be in his mind. Turtles roughly his size of varying shell colors, some with wings, some with helmets and different weapons, some larger, some much smaller and on all fours. Strange creatures with fangs, two feet, large eyes and no main body or arms, just a brown mass with an angry face, and there were TONS of them, some of which also had wings. Black turrets loaded with what appeared to be massive bullets, that somehow were packing a set of eyes and arms. All of these creatures, and more coming from behind them, as a gigantic…rift, in reality had been torn out of the side of the mountainous region, a wildly different environment than anything in the area visible across the rift, with the very fabric of reality cracked and jagged along the area the rift had emerged from.
"Tails. How fast can you get the Tornado 3 in the air?"
"Umm…If my calculations were right, I'll need less than a minute."
"Get it warmed up. If you hear me calling for you, open the runway." Sonic replied, as he walked outside calmly and shut the door. Taking a deep breath, the hedgehog readied himself before staring out into the sea of creatures standing just below him, the area's terrain giving Sonic a slight elevation advantage over the coming army.
"This is not at all how I was hoping meeting up with my best bud would go. Good to know some things never change, including things deciding to go horribly wrong at the worst opportunity." Sonic said snarkily to himself, rolling his head on his shoulders and cracking his knuckles. The fastest thing alive readied himself, leaned back, and ran full sprint directly into the oncoming forces.
The first few waves were manageable, as the blue blur easily plowed his way past turtles, more turtles, those weird brown things, and easily jumped over incoming bullets, noting they were significantly slower than he was expecting. Then came the more fortified turtles, and the ones carrying weapons. Those were a bigger issue, as Sonic found himself ducking and weaving his way around incoming hammers, boomerangs, balls of fire, and having to keep away from the spiked turtle shell that were all the while charging his position.
"Jeez, I don't remember turtles being this angry, or this fast!" He quipped as he leapt over one of the hammer lobbing turtles, delivering a swift kick to its back to knock him over, running as soon as his feet touched the ground. Almost immediately though, Sonic found himself having to make a sudden turn, sidestepping to avoid incoming fireballs and what looked to be ice balls. "You guys are armed to the teeth! What, did the rabbits finally cross a line or something?"
Though his taunts reinforced his confidence that he could deal with these forces well, Sonic could also tell this was a lot, even for him. The more of these he knocked off their feet or sent flying into one another, the more seemed to appear from that tear in reality, and there was no shortage of them. Man, at this rate they're gonna overrun Mystic Ruins in no time! It might be time for me and Tails t-WHOA
Before he could finish that train of thought Sonic found himself bending over backwards, nearly slamming his back to the ground as a huge fireball soared directly over him, his eyes gazing upon nothing but scorching flames for a split second. Once it was clear of his body, he looked up to try and find the source of such an attack, only to get more than he bargained for.
Coming out of the gateway was a turtle that simply dwarfed all the other ones he had seen before. This one was huge, a yellow to its main body, standing upright with claws adorning its hands and feet. Its large shell was green and had a layer of spikes across it, something none of the other two legged turtles possessed. Atop its green head was some fiery red hair and eyebrows and a set of horns, while its mouth was smoking from the fireball it had launched, fangs visible.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW" It roared out, shaking the lands around them, tail swatting at the ground. The turtle seemed to zero in on Sonic, eyes narrowing as it shut its mouth, smoke coming out from its nose before blasting another fireball at him, making the blue blur sidestep it, more prepared this time. "Well, one thing is for sure…You've got some seriously bad breath." Sonic retorted, waving a hand over his nose.
That actually seemed to throw off the turtle momentarily, as he suddenly stopped his advance, looking around for a moment before tapping one of the nearby smaller turtles on the shoulder and motioning him over, growling slightly as the two seemed to get into a conversation, leaving Sonic baffled. Wait, he actually took offense to that? The hedgehog thought to himself, stunned that such an off kilter quip could have actually thrown off this apparent invader that much.
While the two turtles seemed to be arguing about the dental hygiene of their leader, Sonic decided that now was probably going to be his best opportunity. Getting a chance to look around he noted that even the other parts of the invading force were staring at their leader in confusion, wondering what was so important to prompt a delay, as Sonic decided to make a break for it, turning and sprinting.
"TAILS!" He yelled out as he came rushing towards the fox's home, leaping clean over some of the invaders' heads, and using others as footstools to keep his pace moving. Looking ahead, he was relieved to see his friend had heard him, as the rocky pathway stretching from out of his house and down to the edge of the cliff side over the ocean began to open up, revealing the hidden runway he used for flights. He could already hear the sound of the Tornado 3's engine roaring to life as the plane started to appear in the hedgehog's vision from the garage, propeller picking up speed.
That was when he heard the blast behind him, prompting Sonic to immediately roll to the side as yet another fireball came sailing past him, blasting into the cliffside just below Tails' house. Turning his head for a second, Sonic could see the leader of the turtles had gotten over his comment, smoke billowing out his mouth like a combustion engine as he seemed to be preparing to fire once again.
Wasting no time, Sonic ran full sprint up the terrain towards Tails and the Tornado 3, as it was finalizing for takeoff. "Get in!" Tails shouted as he approached, the fox's hands on the controls, ready to launch. Sonic quickly leapt up and into the seat behind him, as Tails pushed forward hard, as the Tornado 3 took off, getting off the ground after only a moment, wheels receding upward into the main body as the plane soared over the seas.
"Phew, talk about a close call. What were those things?" Tails asked, looking over his shoulder as the runway folding on itself, the army of turtles advancing upon his home. Mentally he was grateful that he'd stored most of his research notes in his tablet, the device safely stowed away in the Tornado 3.
"Turtles, and loads of em. Never seen so many of them before, let alone so ready for war." Sonic said, hands folding up behind his head. "It's like they were braced for this for a long time, and that leader turtle or whatever, he looked like he was specifically aiming for me over anything else…"
"That can't be good. Whoever those guys are, we need to find the others and warn them about these invaders as soon as possible." Tails commented, turning his head back to see Sonic. The two locked eyes for a moment as Sonic could tell Tails was worried about their friends, and nodded.
"You got that right. Last thing we want is them getting in trouble when we know what is coming their way. Guess that means Angel Island i-"
"INCOMING!" Tails suddenly shouted, turning his head back to focus, prompting Sonic to look behind them. Just in time to see the large fireball soaring towards them.
BOOM!
