Finally, I'm finished with this chapter.
A few words before the story begins. This chapter takes place at the same time at chapters 5, 6 and 7 in Sonic and Knuckles' side of the story (The maze chapters in short). Those three chaps may look very long, but the events actually happen at a rather quick pace, paralleling with this one.
Anyway, enjoy and thank you for your support and lovely comments.
Chapter 4: Agenda
After successfully hacking into the Egg Citadel's mainframe, Tails looked through the files and eventually stumbled upon a list of protocols. Having had experience with the evil scientist and his streak of madness, Tails knew full well that Sonic and Knuckles were not in the clear just yet.
After studying the protocols for a while, Tails found almost nothing that could actually be considered a threat to the combined might of Sonic and Knuckles. Almost. There was one in particular that caught the genius' attention. The file was named "Protocol NWO-7". Curious, Tails opened it and began studying the content.
The content of the file was written in codes, which might look like meaningless scribbles to a normal person. Tails, however, was not just your average fox. The genius looked at the codes and tried his best to decipher them. His eyes squinted as he tried to make head or tail of the content. Tails had everything figured out a few minutes later, and frowned in confusion.
"What is this?" Tails said as he looked at the screen, "A maze with no escape? The walls will move if one motion sensor is triggered to form dead-ends? Why would Eggman build a maze inside his own fortress?"
Tails went back to the schematics of the Egg Citadel and tried to locate the maze in question. His eyes widened when his device pinpointed his target.
"The maze is in the same level as the containment cell." Tails said to himself, "So that's what it's for. This maze is designed as a backup plan to make sure nothing can escape the, including Sonic and Knuckles…and they're inside it right now." Tails nearly yelled as he watched the two dots representing his friends running around aimlessly in search of a non-existent exit, "I need to deactivate this protocol immediately."
With his objective locked, Tails began to disable the one true threat to the freedom of his trapped comrades. Much to the fox's dismay, he soon found out that the protocol, once activated, could not be disabled, not even by Dr Eggman himself. The only way to make it stop was to shut everything down and reboot the entire system, but that was not the best course of action to take. Attempting to shut down an entire fortress would, without a doubt, alert Eggman to his presence, and the doctor was a force to be reckoned with in cyberspace as he was in real life.
Another way to warn his friends was to use his writwatch to communicate directly with them, but that was no different from yelling out loud, "I'm here Eggman, come and get me", an idea that Tails quickly dismissed.
Knowing Eggman and his abilities, Tails knew that he could very well kick the fox out of his systems and ruined everything he had accomplished so far. The twin-tailed genius tried to come up with another way out for his friends as he glued his eyes to the schematics yet again.
"The maze has nothing except Eggman's robots, walls that can't be destroyed and the…motion sensors." Tails took another look at the motion sensors and found that they were actually fitted into electronic boards, which were probably designed by Eggman to taunt his trapped victims whenever he felt like it.
"You never change Eggman, still playing around with your victims." Tails said angrily, but soon the scowl was replaced by a smirk, "But that's also your greatest mistake."
Tails pressed the buttons on his device again, and quickly gained control of those electronic boards, without the doctor knowing of course.
"All right, now I have a way to send some sort of message to Sonic and Knuckles." Tails said cheerfully as he congratulated himself briefly for another successful infiltration.
Once in, Tails got down to typing a crystal clear message to explain his findings to his trapped friends.
At this moment, however, the fox's childish side decided to kick in. Memories of the earlier fallout resurfaced in the his head, which made him frown in irritation, not anger. Although Tails had (probably) forgiven Sonic already for the accidental slip of the tongue, which he knew Sonic hadn't really meant it, the fox wanted to get even with his blue buddy and he knew exactly how to do just that.
"Sonic, time for you to use your brain to think carefully before you act for a change." Tails smirked mischievously as he began to type his message (you already know what it is. For people who are reading this story for the first time, check chapter 6 for the content and chapter 7 for the answer) and sent it to Sonic. He made sure his message was easy enough to figure out (but a little difficult for Sonic, as seen in his side of the story) and straight to the point. However, Tails' definition of 'simple' was very different from ordinary people's view.
"That's for being mean to me," Tails thought as finished typing his message. After all, Tails was just a kid at the moment, and kids don't just let things slide easily, and even more so if it involves getting even with your sibling.
"Though I do hope Sonic and Knuckles will be able to solve the code. I want them to be safe."
He had to wait until either Sonic or Knuckles was near an electrical board to send the messages, which proved rather difficult with the hedgehog running around the maze like there was no tomorrow and a grumpy echidna that never even bothered to direct his gaze at anything mechanical in the first place.
Tails was getting rather impatient. Fortunately for the fox, the blue dot representing Sonic started to slow down a little and actually stopped at one of the intersections, where the boards were located.
"It's now or never." Tails exclaimed happily as he seized the opportunity and sent his messages to Sonic. He also made sure that the board would make a beeping noise just loud enough for his hedgehog buddy to hear.
Once he had completed his objective, Tails leaned back and allowed himself a quick break.
"Hope you get the message, Sonic. It's the only thing I can do without Eggman knowing" Tails said as he directed his gaze at Eggman's menacing fortress.
After his really short break, Tails went back to the task at hand: figuring out what Eggman was planning.
"Knowing Eggman, he wouldn't build a grand battle station just for show. He must be planning an invasion, and I'll find out how, where and why."
All of the sudden, a huge screen appeared above the Egg Citadel and showed the image of Eggman's smirking face, a sight that could only spell trouble for everyone.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," Eggman said in an eerily polite tone, "I do believe all of you know about me, but just in case some of you don't, my name is Dr Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, and I'm addressing you because I have a very important announcement to make."
He paused for a second to be dramatic for his speech.
"I herby demand that all leaders of every nation around the world surrender to me unconditionally, and make me the one and only ruler of this planet," Eggman said proudly, having completely discarded his false polite tone for his real malicious one, "As you can see, I am a very busy man, so I'll generously give you all two hours to consider and answer to my simple demand. Oh, and if you choose not to follow my demand, well…"
Eggman motioned his hands and the camera shifted, showing a bunch of gigantic egg-shaped satellites ready to launch.
"I bet you're wondering what these are, correct? I'll tell you. These are the ultimate instruments of your demise. They are my specially made satellites equipped with super powerful laser cannons, each one capable of reducing cities to dust. There are sixteen of them in total, more than enough to turn this miserable world into a dead planet. In fact, they are capable of wiping out two third of the world's population. I'll simply build my Eggman Empire and rule the rest of the survivors."
Eggman then began to laugh like a madman until he was cut off by a coughing fit and turned away from the camera for a brief moment to catch his breath.
"You have seen the damage I've caused to Station Square. If you don't want the same thing to befall your nations, do as I demand. Resistance is futile. And to help you make your decision sooner, I have a little incentive scheme for all of you."
With that, the mad scientist pressed a button on the keyboard. Giant hatches on the sides of the Egg Citadel opened and countless Egg Pawns and an armada of battleships were deployed, much to everyone's horror. Eggman's forces scattered everywhere and began a full-scale assault on every nation on the planet.
"Remember, you have two hours to answer me. Until then, you can play with little my toys." Eggman said smugly and the screen turned black. It came back up a minute later with a countdown.
Tails looked at the countdown, fear clearly visible in the fox's eyes. Eggman had yet to come up with such a deadly and crazy idea such as this since the incident with the space colony ARK.
"He's finally lost it this time," Tails said to himself as his gaze fixed at the countdown, "I need to put a stop to this soon, starting with those satellites."
Tails then began hacking into the satellites' systems in an attempt to disable the lethal weapons. However, Tails soon realized too late that he had made a huge mistake in his moment of haste and panic, one that completely undermined everything he had accomplished thus far.
Okay, I think this one was reasonably long, don't you think? Well, as usual, comments and constructive crictism are always welcome and valued. As for flames, I think my hose is ready now. :)
Stay tuned everyone, we will have some action and a lot of chaos next time. Until then.