High Flyin' Trio
The half an hour hike from the train station to the beach where they had landed the Tornado turned out to be a remarkably enjoyable affair and nobody mentioned anything about fake Master Emeralds or evil robots for now.
Knuckles alternated between listening to the familiar, distant hum of the real, one and only Master Emerald, quiet and peaceful in the back of his mind, and listening to Sonic and Tails chatting about all sorts of seemingly random things.
The little fox seemed in a good mood now, double tails twirling in happy agitation, and the blue hedgehog didn't once complain about the slow pace. He seemed an almost unfamiliar sort of relaxed right now, happy but not bouncing, and although he looked a lot more wrecked than he acted, with this assortment of old and new bruises, cuts and burns, right now he appeared neither really hurt, nor actually tired. It was a Sonic thing. Not stubbornness, not per se. Something closer to how Knuckles would lean on the Master Emerald's energy, but there didn't seem an outside source. Maybe it was one of the most puzzling things about the hedgehog, that he seemed his own energy source at times, hardly in need for a driving purpose of any kind, or if he did, it was nothing Knuckles could understand.
A step or two ahead of the echidna, Sonic said something that sent Tails into pearls of laughter again and Knuckles found himself grinning as well, without even having understood the joke. The mood was catching either way, and he still felt a bizarre mixture of tired and buzzed.
The mood only shifted when the path started angling down the rocks surrounding the sandy beach in narrow turns and they could catch the first glimpse of the biplane. A slight air of worry surrounded the hedgehog then, and Knuckles apprehensively looked between Sonic and Tails. The echidna had been worried about them having broken Tails' beloved biplane before, but now, relieved and giddy for reasons he didn't even fully understand, he found he couldn't replicate the feeling.
Instead, he watched Sonic and Tails as the latter swept up into the cockpit with spinning tails. Sonic stayed on the ground next to the plane, instead of immediately bounding up onto his favourite spot atop the biplane's upper wing, green eyes fixed on Tails.
There was a brief moment of quiet after the fox had settled into his seat, then an incredulous "What did you do?" sounded from the Tornado's cockpit.
Sonic winced. "Um, well, you see –"
"Did you… did you hot-wire her?" Tails was crawling deeper into the cockpit as he spoke, presumably to get a proper look at whatever damage Sonic had inflicted.
Taking up the position next to the fidgeting hedgehog, Knuckles was starting to get a little concerned now, too, gazing up towards Tails who was hunched over in the cockpit, shoulders shaking. He wasn't crying, was he?
Sonic threw Knuckles a brief look, ears flat and spines raised slightly in his neck, then focused back on Tails and the biplane. "Look, Tails, there weren't any keys and – I'm sorry, bro, really, I'll –"
Tails pulled a few quick, short breaths, then finally turned back to the side to look down on them, hand over his mouth, but when he withdrew it a second later, it revealed a grin. "Please, please tell me someone filmed this!" He bit his lip, snorted, then started giggling uncontrollably.
"You're laughing?" Sonic blinked. "He's laughing." The latter was said half towards Knuckles, and the echidna watched the blue pointy ears tip back up and the hedgehog's spines fall back into relaxed curves.
Up in the Tornado, Tails was struggling to speak through his laughter. "I'm trying to imagine – How did you even – Oh my! – to think I missed this!"
Sonic had arched a brow now. "You're not mad? Nothing irreparably broken then?"
Tails shook his head, still near breathless with laughter. "No, 's fine," he managed, visible struggling to stop laughing.
Sonic let out his breath in a sigh, finally taking the leap up onto the wings. "I'd help you repair it, too."
The offer sent Tails right back into giggles after he'd just started getting a grip on himself.
Knuckles grinned, climbing up into the rear seat. "I think your handiwork didn't convince him to hire you as an assistant yet, Sonic."
Sonic frowned for just a second, then he shrugged lightly. "Well, let me rephrase that: I'll make you chili dogs while you work?"
Knuckles shook his head with a snort of laughter of his own – to think anyone but Sonic would actually want that stuff for food – and settled comfortably into the seat. The plush seats on the train had been softer and more spacious, but by now the Tornado's back seat was welcomingly familiar.
In front of him, Tails was finally succeeding in calming down enough to speak properly again. "It's a deal. And you'll have to tell me exactly what you did… I can't believe it even worked!"
"Well, you see, at first it didn't," Knuckles noticed, "I had to spin the propeller for Sonic."
Tails span around on him, eyes wide. "You… Did you hand-swing it?!"
"Uh, if that's what it's called?" Knuckles frowned.
The little fox shook his head, brushing a hand through his bangs. "We're probably lucky you didn't cut off any arms or something…"
Knuckles exchanged a look with Sonic. It had not seemed that bad a danger at the time… A little risky perhaps, but it wasn't that he could've realistically evaluated the situation...
"What do we do now to start her?" Sonic gestured down towards the dashboard. "Still no keys, and I… kinda ripped the cables?" He grinned weakly.
"No problem, just give me a minute!" Tails disappeared into the space in front of his seat, and somehow he fit much better there than Sonic had.
After really just barely more than a minute, he had somehow rigged the torn cables up to something that looked like a switch, pressing it got the engine running without any need for pulling at the propeller, and Sonic looked a combination of amazed about the quick fix and disappointed he'd had so much more trouble.
The latter didn't last long however, and soon the biplane was climbing up towards the lowering sun over the sea. Sonic was sitting down on the wing behind the propeller, legs dangling casually, Tails was piloting the biplane with just one hand on the controls, the other pointing here and there to whatever sights he'd spotted, and Knuckles kipped back further into the seat and listened to their conversation and the steady engine sounds.
The green fog had cleared, the chaos energy distributed widely to the point of dissipating into the natural environments and the ocean twinkled in the reddish light of the setting sun.
Not much remained of Aquatic Base. The center area that had witnessed the whole power of the chaos explosion was gone without a trace left and a deep, round crater sat in the ground in its place. Slowly the debris was settling under the waves though and the first shy fish were beginning to explore the area.
The outer parts of the base remained in fragments of tunnels and chambers. Most air had bled out of them by now and cool salty ocean water went through the tunnels, pushed in gently by the rising tide. In a few days, most animals would be back and in a few months, the first plants and corals would grow on the pale blue metal. Soon sealife would claim the former base as ground to grow a new reef.
At the outer edge of the round crater, a broken form of blue lay kipped against the rock the pressure of the explosion shockwave had thrown it at. The royal blue outer armor bore deep scratches and dents and the right leg was twisted a ninety degrees in the wrong direction at the knee.
A small, yellow coral fish curiously approached the robot's body, its fins flicking wildly as it first circled it and then probed its nose into the opening of the jet in the belly. The engine core still radiated a portion of heat though and after a short while the little fish deemed it suspicious and turned away to search another hiding place. With a few quick beats of its fins, it was just a dot of yellow in the distance anymore, quickly swallowed up by the deep blue of the sea that darkened quickly now with approaching nightfall.
Left alone, Metal Sonic's damaged shell appeared dead and empty. But the outside look was misleading. Protected deep inside the robot's armor, a small emergency battery still held energy. The red optics glowed dimly for a few seconds before blinking back out as a subroutine of Metal's AI directed the fragile remains of power to the emergency location transmitter.
A low frequency radio signal passed through the dark salty water and a portion of the waves managed to worm through the surface of the sea. It carried on through the atmosphere, reflecting here and there and finally hit on an antenna. Hundreds of kilometers from the signal's source, a priority window popped up on a computer screen.
"What is that?", the voice of the only person in the large room rang out when the notification triggered by the emergency signal blocked his view on the blue prints for new robot models he had been working on.
From behind dark, mirroring goggles, Ivo Robotnik's eyes scanned the text and a wicked half smile spread on the robotist's face. "Why no… Metal Sonic." The human grinned, his right reaching to brush through his moustache. "I was wondering what you were up to."
He chuckled, his eyes crossing over the text again. It was nothing much but coordinates and a note of total system failure. Whatever had happened, Metal Sonic had sustained very heavy damage.
Robotnik frowned and drilled the right half of his moustache between his fingers. While it was true that Metal Sonic had run off on him, and that he had betrayed him once before that, locked him up and tried to take over the world himself… Robotnik failed to be mad at him. After the Metal Madness incident he had spend months searching for Metal Sonic, he'd taken him to his base, repaired all his systems, given him upgrades to improve his function. He had failed to understand why he even bothered. Metal Sonic was just a robot, a machine, and apparently one with flaws and quirks.
But there was more to it. Metal Sonic was also Robotnik's most outstanding creation. His brainchild. In a way, this robot was the greatest thing he had ever created and probably he was the greatest thing he would ever create. Metal Sonic's AI was more than a program. It learned, it improved on its own, it developed a personality without any of his doing. Metal Sonic was, as far as any robot could be, alive.
Several of his robots had developed signs of life and personality before. Gamma, one of the first E-series robots… although in his case it was most likely to be blamed on malfunction caused by the Flicky inside the robot. E-123 Omega was another example and to be fair Robotnik had no idea what had caused the sudden development of 'life' in this robot, one he had pretty much discarded because he didn't require its service anymore. Smaller models like Orbot and Cubot had been given an AI that came close to being truly independent and flexible in its decision-making, intended entirely to serve for his personal amusement. 'Mad scientist planning to take over the world' was a lonesome job on the long run.
But Metal Sonic was different than all other robots to Robotnik. Not only in his design, purpose and unique programming. In a way that felt irrational to Robotnik, he valued Metal Sonic. He didn't mind that he tried to turn against him (even carried through with it) several times. Metal Sonic was just… a misled child. His complex AI knew things as free opinion and apparently dealing with these wasn't easy in a robot.
However, he would learn. Robotnik was sure. With Metal Sonic, he was raising not a robot. He was raising a partner in crime, a future supporter, second-in-command maybe. One whose intelligence and cunning fit his own. An equal, out of himself.
Robotnik shook his head to himself slowly. Maybe he had taken the wrong approach all the time. Whenever Metal Sonic had gone ways he didn't want him to, he'd tried to reprogram him, remove the memory files concerning actions Robotnik didn't approve of. It had never kept Metal from coming up with new things he wasn't supposed to do, though. Maybe… maybe he'd have to try reasoning sensibly with him. Explain his plans to him.
The scientist copied the coordinates from the emergency message and checked the position. He frowned. He was damned if he had any idea how Metal Sonic had gotten himself out into the depths of Wave Ocean. Or how he had damaged himself heavily enough to trigger the ELT. Hopefully a few things would remain in the databanks to fill him in on what had happened.
Robotnik stood from his seat and went to prepare an underwater recovery. The blue prints could wait. Metal Sonic couldn't wait much longer.
It would probably be a long day. And a long night.
The slowly setting sun was washing soft orange hues over the world beneath the Tornado's wings. Sonic watched hills, loops and the occasional building throw longer and longer shadows. It was pretty, and peaceful.
When Sonic's staying gaze returned to look over his friends, he found Knuckles slouched deeply into his seat, blinking slowly and looking a little sweaty and somewhat too pale again. He was staring somewhat worriedly at one of his large hands, it was shaking a little, and he looked like he was trying very hard to figure out why.
The hedgehog bit his lip. "Damn..." He'd not thought that through well enough... "Hey, Tails?"
The little fox looked up from his instruments and navigation. "What's it?"
Sonic grimaced, and it tugged uncomfortably on the laser fence burn on his forehead. "Please tell me we carry some emergency candy."
Tails raised a brow at him. "You don't look like you won't survive until we're home," he said. "It's called emergency equipment for a reason, Sonic."
"It's not for me." He pointed, Tails turned over his shoulder, and stiffened at the sight of Knuckles.
"Wow," he mumbled, turning back to his control panel and engaging the auto pilot. "Just gimme a second." Head first, he dived towards the space under his seat so that only two twirling tails could be seen.
Sonic waved at their friend in the backseat. "Knuckles."
The echidna blinked at him slowly. "Leave me alone, Sonic," he grumbled, but then he frowned at the hedgehog. "Something's weird," he trailed, apparently willing to talk to him anyway, and it sounded a bit like a question rather than a complaint.
"Yeah, you're crashing." Sonic flinched.
It would have probably been funny and sort of entertaining to watch Knuckles have a sugar crash after drinking much more Chaos Cola than he could possibly be used to if he had not looked quite so tired even before. Back on the train, it had seemed a good idea for a quick fix, but now that he thought about it, the unexpectedly positive effect of some trace chaos energy aside, he probably should have thought twice about letting someone who usually only drank water, and maybe the occasional tea or juice he could make on his island, down one and a half bottles of liquid sugar.
It seemed a little unfair, Sonic himself at least usually had a proper high before a crash, but while Knuckles had been a bit pumped and in a better mood than was usual, he'd been far from bouncing. It seemed a waste to Sonic.
Knuckles stared at him. "We're crashing?! Tails?!" Somehow he managed to sound equally tired, annoyed and in a bit of a panic.
Tails reappeared from his search for their emergency provisions just in time. "No, we're fine. You on the other hand had far too much coke."
"Did not." Knuckles frowned, suddenly sounding a very familiar sort of irritated.
"Oh yes, you did." Tails held out a handful of colourfully wrapped candy at Knuckles. "Here, try some of those."
Knuckles suspiciously studied the candy. "What's that?"
"Some more quick sugar to get a short boost again, until we can get some real food to make up for it." Sonic smiled strainedly. "Trust me, it works. I'm an expert."
Tails nodded. "He is. Super fast metabolism. We carry the candy for a reason, you know."
"It's medical candy," Sonic agreed.
"'m not sick." Knuckles still blinked drowsily, but he looked less grumpy again. "I'm just real tired suddenly, and kinda cold, but it's not cold and -"
"Come on, try some. They're good, too."
This time, the red echidna reached to take the sweets Tails was practically waving at him, and Sonic sat back more relaxed on his spot on the wing. Usually, he was fond of it, but the burns, cuts and bruises he'd gathered over the course of their most recent adventure made him altogether sore, and the couch at Tails' workshop sounded so much more promising than the hard metal of his biplane.
Just a few minutes later, Knuckles was looking less like a reason for genuine concern and much more like he would be fine after a decent meal and a night of sleep again.
Trailing violet eyes met Sonic and the hedgehog shot his friend a grin. "Better?"
Knuckles frowned in instinctive annoyance again, but then he shrugged and nodded hesitantly. "Hm. Chaos, this is a really weird day."
Sonic laughed. "You apparently don't tag along often enough then after all; you should have really gotten used to it. Did we tell you about the time where we ended up in a parallel universe during a storm? Or the time when I got transported into an ancient book by a genie?"
"... Which I still am pretty sure were fever hallucinations," Tails mumbled, shaking his head.
"Were not!"
"Uh-huh." Tails grinned at him. "You were sick with a cold bad enough to lie on the sofa all day on purpose and read. That's not far from delirious in terms of sickness."
"Sonic reads books when he's delirious?" Knuckles was grinning too now.
"No, I don't." Sonic folded his arms, a motion that also pulled a few things that didn't appreciate being pulled. "I sometimes read, yes. I was not delirious, though. I remember quite well what happened."
"You remember quite well what you dreamed about," Tails contradicted, "and it was utterly unbelievable. Nobody gets sucked into a book."
"Well, apparently, I also get sucked into Knuckles' Emerald." Sonic tilted his head. "Would you believe that if someone told you?"
Tails tilted his head. "Probably not, but Knuckles says you were in it, too, and if two people have the same hallucination, then it's most likely not a hallucination after all."
"That... sounds reasonable, kinda," Knuckles trailed from behind Tails.
"Yes, but it means that you always need to have some company, otherwise nobody is willing to believe the things that happen to you." It was kind of funny, because their lives were so full of insane things that something like getting sucked into a magic gemstone shouldn't really come as much of a surprise, Sonic thought. And how was that different to ending up inside a magic book?
Knuckles was watching him with a thoughtful frown. "I don't think I would believe you if you told me about the last couple of days…"
"See, that's right what I mean!" Sonic nodded at him. "We should tell someone, just to see if they believe it! We could tell –"
"Rouge, we have to tell Rouge," Tails cut in suddenly.
Knuckles' answer was an immediate, instinctive "No!" that put an as immediate grin on Sonic's face.
"I'm serious," Tails noticed over the resulting glaring contest. "She was investigating Sonic's doppelganger, remember, and I promised her I'd tell her about it if we found out something new."
"If you promised," Knuckles muttered, sinking back into his seat, arms still crossed, but no longer arguing even with glares. Sonic grinned.
Tails turned over his shoulder to look at the echidna. "Explaining to her that Metal Sonic was behind everything will clear Sonic's name," he said.
"And get her and GUN out of our spines," Sonic added.
Knuckles nodded silently to that.
Tails reached to activate the telephone function of the Tornado's computer. Gazing down into the cockpit, Sonic watched him draw up a dialpad on the screen over the navigation map and dial up a number.
It rang a couple of times until the line opened with a cracking noise and they heard Rouge's short "Yes?" coming from the speaker.
"Rouge? It's Tails."
"Tails? What can I do for you, sweetie? But make it quick, I'm on a bit of a schedule. Apparently someone chaos blasted something sky high over at Wave Ocean and they called pretty much everyone in to investigate. It's a real riot here."
Tails grimaced. "Um, about that..."
"What? You know what blew there?" Something about her voice sounded amused now. "I should have known if something blows up, you and your pals can't be far."
Tails seemed to shrink further into the seat and Sonic leaned into the cockpit to be able to speak into the microphone even over the wind. "Rouge? Sonic here. And yeah, we were there. It was Metal Sonic. He had an underwater secret base at Wave Ocean. He sorta... tried to build a super weapon out of himself, and, let's say, kind of like last time, it didn't go as planned."
From the cockpit below, both Tails and Knuckles threw him grateful looks for so easily steering around mentioning their involvement in the whole mess. Sonic smiled at his friends while listening to Rouge's answer.
"Let me guess, he was using GUN's Chaos Drive material for this weapon?" She laughed. "Someone here will be very glad to hear who was behind this, and very ticked with R&D for never getting such a blast out of a drive if they tried."
Tails flinched again, and Knuckles looked like he should probably have some more sugar again. "Well," Sonic drawled, "if you find what's left of Metal, you can ask him."
"By the first satellite images we got a few minutes ago, I'd probably have to swim, and I only get myself wet for valuables, not for broken insane robots. They can find someone else for that." Sonic thought you could hear the grin in her voice as she said it, and it was easy to imagine, too.
"You could ask Shadow to do it," he suggested.
There was a moment of pause in which an incredulous grin spread over Tails' face, Knuckles turned to look down the side of the plane with a chuckle, then Rouge's voice returned through the phone. "I think I'd rather stay alive, thank you."
Sonic leaned back into the wind, imagined an enraged Shadow hunting Rouge through the flooded corridors of the destroyed Aquatic Base in scuba gear, and grinned.
