Sonic Haven Season 2 – Episode 7
"Alright, just move slowly and they may not detect you." Blaze said from behind cover to Tiara, who'd just stood up and was attempting to move passed a Guardian Sentry not too far away.
They were trying to move by one at a time so as to avoid detection. Unlike the more traditional Guardians that were artificially intelligent, the sentries were fully automated and contained only basic programming. They were floating robots with small wings on the sides and one large red eye in the middle of the body. Even though they weren't sentient, Sonic thought that they looked downright disturbing!
Sonic, who was standing on the other side of the street, had simply used his speed to get around the Sentry. He was now looking at the others as they tried to cross the street themselves without getting detected, they would come across one at a time. He could speed this up, he knew, by taking them across himself. However, he was lucky enough to not tip off the Sentry once, better to not press his luck. So he just stayed there and watched as the others attempted to make it without him.
At least it wasn't his decision alone; when he looked across at Blaze, she shook her head back and forth, letting him know she too thought it was too dangerous for him to come back and try to take them with him. At least that eased his mind a little.
Tiara took careful, laborious steps toward the other end of the street. As long as she was slow, she should be okay. Unfortunately for her, not everything would be alright after all. As she was about halfway across the street, a Guardian approached her from her right, and with the Sentry to her left, she had no choice but to break out into a dead sprint and hope for the best.
"STOP." The Guardian's voice called out to her, a loud and booming voice that resonated off of the buildings all around them and carried throughout the city to other Guardians that would be close enough to come and assist in the capture of these trespassers. The Guardian held up his hand and his palm split open, revealing an energy based weapon of some kind inside his arm which he pointed at Tiara as Sonic scooped her up and ran over to the group that was still waiting on the far side of the street.
Mighty charged the Guardian and went for the legs, sweeping his leg out and somehow hitting the Guardian with enough force to topple it over in spite of the fact that he was considerably smaller than it.
"Go, I'll covah you mate!" Knack shouted as Sonic came to a sliding stop next to the others.
And then, just as quick as he'd blasted across the street, he was back on the other side with Tiara and on his way back to grab Blaze. She waved him off as he approached and pointed to Mighty, who was dodging lumbering steps by rolling from side to side. Sonic nodded and dashed to Mighty's aid.
Sonic jumped into the air and turned his momentum into a razor sharp spin attack, careening into its chest and knocking it over backward, then landing on its chest where he proceeded to taunt the robot by yawning.
As Sonic jumped off of the Guardian's chest, he spotted Mighty throw some kind of disc into the air, which Blaze hit with a fireball, causing it to explode and take out the Sentry which had positioned itself to intercept Sonic's jump without him noticing.
Mighty then threw another disc up to Sonic, which he caught and redirected into a group of five more Guardians coming to stop them. Blaze followed its trajectory and hit that one as well, blowing it up in the face of the Guardians, who all stumbled backward from the blast, but kept on coming regardless.
"What does it take to stop these guys?" Sonic asked as he landed next to Mighty.
"A nuclear warhead probably." Mighty said in a sarcastic tone. "We don't know, but it's more than we've got."
"Great..." Sonic sighed.
As they prepared themselves for another round with the Guardians, Sonic spotted a column of steam rising from a factory not too far away. He nudged Mighty's shoulder and pointed to the steam cloud, asking: "Hey, what's that?"
His question was answered with a crack of thunder emanating from a seemingly random bolt of lightning jumping from a newly formed cloud to a street lamp right next to the two of them.
"Did that answer your question?" Mighty asked as he switched his gaze from Sonic to the factory.
"Cloud seeding..." Sonic said as the wheels in his head started turning. "They're trying to make it rain on us! We need to get to the factory pronto!" He exclaimed before blazing a trail to the factory right through yet another group of Guardians.
"Sonic wait!" Mighty called after him, but it was too late! He was already gone.
Blaze shouted across the street to Mighty. "We need to find cover from the rain!"
"No kiddin' Sheila!" Knack exclaimed as he shot down a sentry with his rifle. "But how we get theh without the Guardians followin' us?"
"We need to lose them somehow. Hold on!" She replied.
Blaze held her hand up in the air, letting a small flame come from her palm. Then she adjusted the flame until it started simply smoking. She used the smoke pouring out of her hand to create a cloud of smoke that they could move through without the Guardians noticing where they'd gone.
Tiara reached her hand out through the smoke and grabbed hold of Blaze's arm, latching on for dear life as Blaze drug her through the cloud to a nearby building that had apparently been some kind of second-hand store at one point.
As the air started to clear, they all breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed that the Guardians had lost them in the cloud. It didn't last long though, as they all turned to the factory Sonic had just dashed towards, attempting to surround it and trap him inside!
Blaze thought about trying to run out and intercept them, maybe get them off of Sonic long enough that he could get out of there. She thought better of it though. She was fast, strong, and very skilled, but that wouldn't mean anything against that many Guardians. A quick count proved her thought; there were at least twenty-five Guardians moving in on the factory.
As she crouched down behind a shelf of assorted plates covered with years of dust, she couldn't help but feel guilty for deciding to leave Sonic to his own devices. There must be something she could do.
Unfortunately, her train of thought was cut short as a loud crack of thunder sounded outside and the Guardians suddenly disappeared in a bright flash.
Blaze came up from behind the shelf to look out the front window more easily. As she rose, her teammates also rose from their positions to check what was going on as well. When she looked outside, her eyes searching through the freshly falling acid-rain, she wished she hadn't looked!
There, standing in the middle of the rainstorm, soaking it all in and holding the head of a Guardian, was Fleetway.
Blaze couldn't believe her eyes! What was he doing here? Just as she remembered not to expose herself to his line of sight, she saw him turn his glowing red eyes toward her and look straight at her!
She ducked back behind the shelf she was hiding behind, but she knew it was no good! He'd already seen her and was no doubt going to do something. As to what, she wasn't sure. But she knew it wouldn't be good!
Sure enough, just as she'd anticipated, he blasted through the front of the building. Bits of concrete and glass were spraying everywhere, even bouncing off of Fleetway. He didn't even notice it. He just smirked as he looked down at her.
Blaze tried to the best of her ability to contain her fear and exude confidence, but it was futile. Her heart was racing and her pupils were dilated from anxiety. What should she do now? Try to fight Fleetway? Try to run from him?
The real question, Blaze knew, was which path forward would lead to her survival, if any. She found herself speaking even before she knew what she was going to say. "What do you want?" She asked with sarcasm.
Fleetway smiled his evil smile as he replied. "To destroy everything! You, your friends, those robot things that are everywhere I look, Until I am the only thing remaining, making me the most powerful person in the universe by default!"
His comment sent a chill up Blaze's spine. Could it get any worse?