Sonic Haven Season 2 – Episode 9
Scourge slid underneath of the legs of a Guardian while continuing to dash through the city at far more than the speed of sound. He was going so fast that when he looked to his left or right all he could see was colored streaks.
He juked back and forth, weaving between as many acidic rain drops as he could. Granted, some of them did brush against him, causing a burning sensation wherever they did so, but he simply shrugged it off and kept running. He couldn't let up now!
Fleetway was right behind him, picking up speed and plowing through every drop of rain in his way. It didn't damage his skin or hurt him one bit. He kept his eye on Scourge, waiting for an opportunity to attack.
Scourge jumped up and sailed over the top of an old rusty fountain, landed on the other side of it, and dashed up the side of a gray building, stepping to the side as he reached the top to avoid the road that was connected there, and then stopped on the roof. Well, he didn't really stop, he was moving back and forth in roughly the same area to keep the rain from hitting him.
He took a quick moment to examine his surroundings. It was a concrete roof, a road both in front of and behind him, some exposed ductwork off to the right, and a vent spewing water vapor in front of him. He took a breath, and tried to ready himself. In that moment, the water vapor stopped spewing out of the vent, and its roof-level grate was exposed.
Fleetway came to a stop on the roof right on the vent, his glowing red eyes seemingly drilling into Scourge. He waited for a moment, then walked forward slowly as he spoke in a rough and menacing voice. "What now? Run out of energy?"
"You wish you overgrown glowstick!" Scourge replied sarcastically. "Actually, I wanted you to know where you're standing." He gestured toward the vent that Fleetway was standing over. "You see, I've been waiting for the perfect moment, running around the city for several minutes until..." He paused.
A spray of water vapor spouted up from the vent that Fleetway was standing on, knocking him up into the air and making him vulnerable! And that one moment was all that Scourge needed!
He jumped up into the air, spinning around to plant his feet firmly on Fleetway's chest. Then he started moving his feet quickly, as if he were running, the bottoms of his boots only barely scraping Fleetway's gut, but doing so at an incredibly fast rate, the friction creating serious heat! Then Scourge flipped mid-air and kicked Fleetway square in the jaw, sending him reeling into the clouds overhead. That wasn't all that Scourge had though, as he drew the Anarchy Beryl's energy inside of him into one concentrated mass and clapped his hands together to send a green bolt of lightning shooting into the sky after Fleetway, no doubt frying every last hair on his body. Scourge couldn't be sure though, as he couldn't see Fleetway through the clouds.
He slammed down on the roof of the factory they'd been standing on and collapsed into a tealish lump of flesh and bone, nearly all of his energy exhausted in his last attack. After a moment, he picked his head up and looked up to the sky to stare at the clouds pouring searing drops of acid rain onto his weakened skin.
He stared for a few moments, biting his bottom lip to fight the pain he felt everywhere else. Then, just as he was about to pick himself up off of the roof, he saw a small golden object float down gently through the cloud layer. No, it couldn't be! It was! Fleetway was gently floating down from the sky, descending towards the roof!
"Dangit!" Scourge exclaimed as he scampered to his feet and over to a roof access door not far from him to get out of the rain. Better to take the fight inside and see what could be done in there than staying up here and letting the rain eat him away.
Scourge ran inside, though not quite at his normal speed, and down the stairway that was just on the other side of the door. He stopped when he reached the main area as his head was nearly taken off by a detatched head of a Guardian. "Hey!" He exclaimed reflexively. He looked down to the factory floor to see who the perpetrator was, and then froze.
There, standing on the floor in the middle of a group of Guardians, was a blue hedgehog not too dissimilar in appearance from himself. It looked like he was trying to get to the weather machine that was in the middle of the factory floor.
"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed when he spotted Scourge up on the balcony. "You gonna stand there, or you gonna give me a hand?" He asked.
Scourge was still quite exhausted from his last efforts to get rid of Fleetway, but he jumped down towards Sonic anyway. A few Guardians shouldn't be too hard to handle, especially with help.
He landed on the other side of the factory from where Sonic was and all of the Guardians turned to face him instead of focusing on Sonic like they had been. It was the last mistake they'd make!
Sonic jumped into action immediately upon spotting his opportunity. He lunged forward and jumped into the air, sticking out one leg and spinning around to kick the heads of two more Guardians. The other Guardians turned back to Sonic, obviously confused as to how they were supposed to handle both of them.
Sonic was preparing for yet another attack when a golden flash filled the room and the Guardians fell into several tiny pieces. He raised his head up to the glowing yellow hedgehog standing on top of the light ballast that, height wise, was about three stories up.
In yet another flash, Fleetway appeared between Sonic and Scourge, a wicked smile on his face.
"And what about you?" Mighty asked as he stood in front of the portal, his head turned back toward Blaze.
Blaze, her arms crossed, had a very determined look on her face. "I'm staying here to help Sonic, Scourge, and Tiara. Once I get them, we'll be coming through ourselves."
Mighty nodded slowly. "Ok." He jumped through the portal without giving it any more thought, leaving Blaze alone to do what she needed to do.
As she watched him walk out of view of the portal, Blaze suddenly realized how imposing the world around her was. Virtually everything around her, even the rain, wanted her dead! Not only that, the only people who could help her were elsewhere in the city, leaving her alone to deal with Guardians, Fleetway, and whatever else came her way!
She took a deep breath as she stepped away from the portal, then turned her head to look out over the rainy cityscape before her. As she took it all in, she narrowed her thoughts down to one question. How could she get to the other side of the city as fast as possible with acid rain overhead?
She closed her eyes in thought and weighed her options, not wanting to rush into a bad decision. What could she do that wouldn't put her in extreme danger? She could use the metal shelving like Tiara did. That would be cumbersome. The fastest way would be to use the streets overhead. But that would expose her to the rain. Wait, she was a pyrokinetic. That meant that she could create a barrier of fire over her head and use it to evaporate the rain before it hit her. Yes, that's what she would do.
Quickly, she moved up to the roof, dashing up the steps at an impressive speed, though not as fast as Sonic or Scourge. She came to a stop at the top of the staircase and stood before the roof access door, waiting to go outside until she'd created a sufficient flame barrier over her head. She focused her attention on making a horizontal wall of flame to hang over her and keep her dry. Once she'd made a cover of sufficient size, she nodded in satisfaction and opened the door to the roof.
She stepped outside and waited for a moment, hoping that there would be no telltale stinging of the acid rain getting through her barrier. Thankfully, there were no such sensations on her skin. Looking up at the flames whipping around above her head, she made one final examination, then took off toward the factory in the distance, moving in excess of two hundred miles per hour. No, she wasn't as fast as Sonic, or Scourge for that fact of the matter, but she was considerably faster than most. And, if she kept up this pace, she would make it to the factory in only a few minutes.
Mighty looked over at Rotor as he stepped out of the portal and into this strange and foreign world. "What do I do? How can I help?" He asked enthusiastically. He was excited to be somewhere where his actions could possibly make a difference!
Rotor was taken aback by his excitement, but only for a moment. Once he recovered, he pointed up. "The others are trying to disable a generator on the roof that is keeping us trapped inside the city. We need to take it down ASAP!" He said quickly, gesturing with his other hand to indicate Mighty should hurry. "The faster you get up there the better, they're gonna need your help for sure."
"And you?" Mighty asked.
"I'm gonna stay here and watch the portal to make sure it doesn't close on the others." Rotor explained.
"Right, of course." Mighty said. He felt bad leaving first Blaze, then Rotor alone. But, what had to be done had to be done. He nodded to Rotor, wishing him a silent "good luck," then went on his way.
He ran out into the hall and down to the end where an elevator shaft waited for him. He pried the door open and jumped out into the shaft, grabbing hold of the cable in the middle. He then started quickly making his way up the shaft, hand over hand, floor after floor, moving towards the top. As he neared the top, he heard a crackling noise, and then a voice.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" The voice called.
Mighty looked around, not knowing where it'd come form.
"Yes," the voice called out again, "you in the elevator shaft."
Mighty identified the voice coming from a small device on the wall. It must've been a speaker of some kind. "What?" He asked in a shout that echoed up and down the elevator shaft.
"You are so ignorant. Don't you know that the elevators in this building still work?" The voice asked.
Mighty's eyes went wide! He didn't even stop to think about it because all of the elevators in his dimension had stopped working long ago. He was about to jump to the nearby elevator door when he heard a thunk that was quickly followed by a loud scraping and grinding noise. He raised his head up to see the bottom of the elevator plummeting toward him!