Update time. Here's the new chapter, everybody. Things get a little heated in this chap, and there are some special guests from here on out. Enjoy.
Chapter 6: Miracle
Tails looked at the still functioning satellites heading for the atmosphere helplessly. There was nothing more he could do. Even with all of his genius, he couldn't destroy the remaining weapons in time. (Number of remaining satellites: 13)
"It's all my fault…" Tails looked down as more fresh tears escaped his sapphire eyes.
All of the sudden, an explosion was heard above the Tornado, which shook the fox out of his trance and made him lift his head up. The explosion the fox had heard was the sound of a satellite being destroyed by an unknown force (Satellite remaining: 12). Tails looked around and noticed that a lot of Egg Pawns had been destroyed while he was moping.
To his disbelief, Tails saw the sight of one thing he never thought he would see in these darkest hours.
Before his very eyes was a giant crimson airship that looked a lot like a blimp. Tails was no stranger to the newly-arrived aircraft. In fact, he knew it rather well, since he had had a few run-ins with its owners in the past.
"What the…" exclaimed Tails, clearly not believing his eyes, "The Babylon Rogues? What are they doing here?"
Even though Tails, along with Sonic and Knuckles, didn't really like dealing with the high-tech thieves, they still considered them to be worthy and respectable rivals and, occasionally, allies.
Inside the blimp-like airship, a green hawk stood at the window, watching the satellites. Behind him stood a huge albatross and a purple female swallow.
"So, all we have to do is take down those flying eggs and then we'll collect the money, right?" asked Jet, the current leader of the rogues.
"Yeah, I believe that was the deal." said Wave the Swallow, the mechanic of the group.
"Alright, I'm itching to smash something, let me at 'em, boss." shouted Storm the Albatross, the powerhouse member of the trio, excitedly.
Suddenly, a beeping noise came from the airship's computer screen. Wave quickly picked up and an image of Tails took over the screen, staring at the three birds in disbelief.
"What are you three doing here?"
"Not even a 'hello', shorty?" said Wave sarcastically, "We're here to blow these flying pieces of junk up before the reach the atmosphere."
"Why? I don't remember you guys being the hero type."
"Somebody hired us to help destroy those things a while ago. The pay is good, and since we're in the area anyway, we accepted" Jet cut in, "Hah, getting paid for blowing things up, now that's a sweet deal if you ask me."
After that, the green hawk grabbed his Extreme Gear and jumped out of the airship, heading straight toward an ascending satellite. Storm quickly followed shortly after.
Once he was near, Jet took out his giant feather fans and sliced his targeted satellite to shreds at an incredible speed. Storm, following his boss, approached another satellite and punched a huge hole on its surface, destroying it instantly. The explosion didn't even char the sturdy albatross. Once he was done, Storm quickly made his way to his boss' side and headed for another target.
Back on the Rogues' blimp-like airship…
"Who hired you guys anyway?" asked Tails, still not believing his eyes.
"Ask tall, dark and moody over there for more details, shrimp." Wave said with an annoyed tone, clearly tired of the fox's stream of endless and practically useless questions, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have my share of the reward to collect."
With that, the swallow grabbed her own Extreme Gear and headed for the closest satellite to her location. Having studied the weapon's design beforehand thanks to her hacking skills, the swallow swiftly hit the weak points of the flying menace with a variety of tools and dismantled the thing in less than a minute.
The number of the satellites was reduced significantly. (the Babylon Rogues: 3 - Satellites remaining: 9)
Back on the airship…
A figure slowly walked to the open door with two rocket launchers in both hands. That person aimed at two satellites and pulled the triggers at the same time, launching two missiles at two different ascending weapons. The missiles hit their targets directly, reducing them to scraps a second later.
At that moment, Tails was able to clearly see the shooter's face, which surprised him even more than the sudden appearance of the rogues.
"Shadow?" Tails yelled in disbelief for the umpteenth time in one day, "What are you doing on board the Rogues' airship?"
"G.U.N hired the Rogues to destroy those satellites, so it's understandable that I'm here to keep them in line." Shadow said calmly as he picked up another loaded rocket launcher nearby and fired it at another satellite. Needless to say, the targeted satellite exploded after being hit by a direct shot. (Shadow: 3 - Satellites remaining: 6)
The number of the menacing satellites quickly diminished to six after the combined efforts of Tails, Shadow and the Rogues. The last remaining ones were soon either dismantled or manhandled by the high-tech birds without too much difficulty. A moment later, the last satellite exploded, signaling the end of a global cataclysm, which became instant news on every media and every channel around the globe.
From the news broadcast, people and governments around the world began to cheer and cry with utter joy when they learned that the world was safe from the doctor's madness.
Tails too cried tears of joy and happiness when the last of the satellite was blown to bits by the high-tech band of thieves. A miracle had happened, which had saved the entire planet from certain doom.
The fox didn't celebrate long, however. He had a lot of unanswered questions to ask, and he began firing them at the dark hedgehog on the airship.
"So, Shadow," said Tails sheepishly, knowing full well how difficult it was to deal with the ebony agent, "How exactly did you manage to locate the Babylon Rogues so quickly?"
"HQ keeps a close eye on those that they consider 'potential threats to international security' around the world, and the Rogues are just one of them after a certain incident involving a giant floating castle." Shadow replied unenthusiastically to the fox's question as he began typing on some sort of device he was holding.
"How did you get on board the airship anyway?"
"How do you think?"
"Chaos Control?"
Shadow replied with a simple "Hmph!" and continued typing. At this point, the Babylon Rogues returned to the airship and got off their Gears.
"There," yelled Jet, "We've done our part of the deal, now pay up."
"We've already prepared the money at another location. Follow these coordinates and you'll find it. Rest assured that there is nobody there. Once you've collected your money, you can disappear to wherever you like."
"Alright, now that's done," said Wave as she entered the coordinates Shadow had given her into the airship's main computer, "Get off our ship. We're done with this stupid war."
Shadow didn't say anything. Instead, he took out the green Chaos Emerald and used Chaos Control to teleport himself out of the rogues' blimp.
Wave turned her attention to Tails once again.
"Why are you still here, shrimp?"
"I just want to know why you decided to help us."
"Didn't Mr. Moody explain to you already? We had a deal. G.U.N paid us to destroy those things, and we simply followed our contract. That's it." said the swallow with an annoyed tone, "Besides, there are hidden treasures around the world that we're searching for. I'm not about to let some lunatic ruin everything."
Tails looked at the three rogues for a little while longer until a smile crossed his face.
"Thank you for your help."
Wave simply huffed and turned away from the screen. Jet sat down at his desk and looked at the chaos still happening on the ground.
"You'd better get down there, fox boy," said the green hawk, "I want this world to stay intact until I have my rematch with Sonic."
With that, Tails was cut off abruptly. The crimson airship changed its course and quickly disappeared behind the clouds.
Tails watched the airship for a while before shaking his head to regain his composure. He then began to descend, heading for the city down below. Even though the threats of the lethal satellites had been dealt with, the world was still under attack by Eggman's armada and an endless army of Egg Pawns. The fox quickly found a good spot to land the Tornado and made a mad dash toward the closest city, ready to help in any way he could.
G.U.N hired the Babylon Rogues to destroy the satellites because they're busy dealing with a worldwide war on the ground. Besides, the Rogues were specialists when it came to aerial maneuvers (they're birds after all). Shadow was there to make sure the Rogues stayed in line and to report back to base when the mission was completed (he's the only one that can appear on a moving aircraft out of nowhere after all).
Alright, that's it for this chapter. Read and review if you have time. Thank you, everyone. Have a nice day.