Ruby tried to close the distance between herself and Cinder, but the Fall Maiden interrupted the Huntress-in-training's run by summoning a wall of fire between them. Ruby stopped abruptly, giving Cinder time to form several bows and fire flaming arrows at her. Ruby did her best to dodge them or hit them aside with Crescent Rose, but some still grazed her. And the ones that missed exploded around her, throwing Ruby off balance. As the silver-eyed girl staggered around, Cinder made the wall of flames disappear and used both fire from under her shoes and control of the wind to fly rapidly towards Ruby. The Fall Maiden broke her bows apart and molded them into sabers. Ruby noticed what was going on and barely managed to regain her balance to strike a standing pose and hold Crescent Rose's pole across her front. Cinder's attack crashed into her, knocking her back several meters. Ruby staggered for a moment, her opponent's strength greatly enhanced by her cybernetics, but she managed to stay on her feet. Which was good, because the Cyborg Maiden didn't let up. Cinder came rushing towards her, weapons raised, a pair of arms slicing through the air to shoot slashes of fire at Ruby. With Petal Burst, the silver-eyed girl dodged left and right, then was engaged in direct melee combat with her enemy.
Ruby blocked, parried, ducked and dodged. But with attacks coming from almost all sides, she took more than she could dish out.
This is bad, really really bad, she thought, her mind on the verge of panic. NO! I can´t let myself be consumed by fear! Not like it happened with Infinite´s illusions. I need to stay focused.
Ruby jumped back from several slashes and then ran towards Cinder with a raised scythe. With all her might, and a burst of speed with her Semblance, she brought the blade of her weapon down on her opponent. Cinder crossed all of her sabers in front of her to block the attack, but the hyper-go-on energy blade cut, or rather, crashed trough the glass sabers and scored a hit against the Fall Maiden. She staggered backwards and Ruby lunged for another attack. Cinder had just enough time to cross six of her metallic arms in front of her to block Ruby´s strike, her Aura flickering.
Why is she not using all of her arms?, Ruby wondered in confusion and concern as she put more force on her scythe. She got her answer when Cinder raised her remaining arms, fire and wind swirling around them. Together they fired a blast of flames and heated air at Ruby, throwing the silver-eyed girl backwards and into the force field that surrounded their place of battle. The fifteen year old winced as she got a shock from the field and quickly went away from it. She panted and gasped, the heat from the attack had sucked the air right out from her lungs.
Seeing the pitiful state of her enemy, Cinder smiled.
"Aww, what´s the matter little Rose? When you confronted me about your mother you were so full of bravado." She showed of her mechanical enhancements. "Did it disappear because your thorns can harm me no more? You will never be able to sting me with them again, be it physically or with those silver eyes you were so unfairly blessed with. There is nothing you can do to win this fight."
Ruby gritted her teeth to hide her panic from Cinder.
She is right. I barely could fight back against her in Mystic Jungle with Tails at my side. And now I´m not only alone, but as a full blown cyborg Cinder is so much stronger.
Silver eyes looked at the enhancements of said Fall Maiden in frustration. But then they narrowed as they noticed something.
The Aura there is still flickering from when I attacked them. And the flickering looks more… unstable when someone´s Aura is usually hit. Why…? Ruby´s eyes widened as she got an idea. Wait, could it be… With those additional limbs, and the fact that Eggman tech isn´t as familiar with Aura conducting as atlesian cybernetics are, is Cinder´s Aura is spread thin and has become unstable, because it isn´t used to this form? That means I could break her Aura earlier or maybe even pierce it at certain places!
A glimmer of hope started to shine among the mist of panic that had started to cloud Ruby´s mind.
If this is the case… then maybe I have a chance…
Ever since Tails had been working on the computer terminal, Rouge had been looking around tensely. Since she and the fox landed here, several robots had come uncomfortably close to her position, but hadn't noticed them yet.
Emphasis on yet.
Although they made a good choice with their terminal and its hidden location, Rouge knew that a good deal of their success so far was due to luck that none of the Egg Watchers took a route that led directly past them. But if there's one thing Rouge has learned in her kind of work, it's that luck can't last forever.
"Tails," she whispered. "How is it looking on your end?"
"Good actually," was the answer. "I know that we don't have an endless amount off time, so I mostly just skim through things. But I found a file for 'Project Phantom Rubin'. I've already looked at some data from there and downloaded it to the Miles-Electric."
"Then why didn't you say we could leave?" Rouge briefly ducked her head out of sight of an Egg Watcher as his head swiveled in her direction.
"Because we can't yet. I first focused on things that could help us, like possible weak points. But there's more. `Origin´ and `Test Series´, I'm currently looking at the former."
"Hurry up. And don't forget: the longer you spend typing around, the more likely the system is to notice that someone unauthorized has logged in."
"I know, I know. After previous failures to gain information, I'm being as careful as I can."
While the two mobians were having their whispered discussion, one of the Egg Watchers had climbed onto the ceiling of the hall and was looking around upside down.
It rotated its flat head 180 degrees to see everything. When it was finished, it paused for a moment, the AI processed the collected images and noticed an irregularity. The Egg Watcher crawled towards its source.
The cut and bent open grate of the ventilation shaft through which Rouge and Tails had gotten into the room.
The Egg Watcher analyzed it and sent the information to the other robots in the room. They all paused, going through the data and calculating the possibilities of what could have happened. What type of intruders broke into the hall and what route they took through it. The Egg Watchers began searching these potential routes to find the intruders before they risked giving their creator a false alarm.
Rouge noticed the robots' changed behavior, how instead of just randomly patrolling around, they were now purposefully searching for specific locations and getting closer and closer to her and Tails. Her eyes fell on the Egg Watcher at the ventilation shaft, who had remained there to cut off this potential escape route. The bat managed to suppress a curse.
"Tails, we have to go."
"But-"
"They´re onto us! We need to-"
It was too late. Rouge cut off her own sentence when an Egg Watcher suddenly appeared right in front of her. The second it saw her and Tails at the computer terminal, it sent out an alarm signal. Loud sirens blared and red lights flooded the hall. The Egg Watcher raised four of its arms to shred Rouge with its rotating claws, but the bat kicked the machine back and threw a bomb at it. The Eggman robot was destroyed by an explosion, but the rest of the mechanical guards rushed towards the duo.
Tails, realizing that they had been exposed, swapped the Miles Electric for his Double-Wispon. He pushed the coming enemies back with lightning and fire, giving him and Rouge enough space to take flight. Some Egg Watchers jumped from the surrounding machines and walls to grab the mobians and use their heavy weights to drag them to the ground. But the fox and bat either cleverly dodged the metal bodies and claws or pushed them back with well-placed attacks.
The rest of the machines crawled up the walls to join their brother at the ventilation shaft and cut off their enemies' escape route. Both Rouge and Tails added more strength in their respective flight limbs to fly faster. The already present Watcher at the destroyed grate raised its claws in a menacingly matter. Rouge just rolled her eyes at this display.
"Oh, go to hell."
She pulled out another heart bomb and threw it at the machine that has led to their discovery. A claw shot out and managed to perfectly catch the bomb and throw it back. Tails and his companion flew apart as to not get blown to pieces.
"Rouge, try again. I have an idea," Tails said. One look at the approaching rest of the robots made Rouge decide to just trust the young genius and follow his instruction. She threw another bomb, but just as the Egg Watcher managed to catch it yet again, Tails fired a lightning bolt from his special Wispon and hit the explosive in the robot´s claw. The explosion didn´t just tore the Egg Watchers to pieces, but also turned the grate into a small crater, allowing Rouge and Tails to fly easily into the air vent system and then crawl into it.
The rest of the Egg Watchers tried to follow suit, but although the crater allowed them to get into the blasted and dented part of the vent, the rest remained intact and therefore too small for the rotund robots. It didn't help that they were all trying to go into the air shaft at the same time in pursuit of their targets.
"What is going on!", yelled Eggman, who came barging into the hall. His eyes fell immediately onto the cluster of metal bodies and snapping claws and his mind realized what must have happened:
1) The alarm was activated due to intruders inside his base.
2) His robots failed to catch them.
3) And they were also now currently blocking the way for any smaller built robots he could send.
Eggman pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance and frustration.
"Oh, for the love of…"
…
Meanwhile, at Rouge´s and Tails´ end, things didn't look any less stressful. Sure, they didn't need to worry about any pursuer as of now, but they still needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
"Now what?" Rouge asked as she and Tails crawled through the ventilation shafts. The young fox thought for a few seconds.
"Do you remember the route we took?"
"Yes, but the outside will most likely crawl with guards. Possibly even with Cinder or Infinite."
Tails paused for a moment. But only briefly. His mind managed to stay focused.
"Still, lead us there. I can send Shadow the coordinates of the place. We should be able to hold off any kind of enemy long enough for him to reach us with Chaos Control and get us out of Metropolis."
Rouge nodded. "Good. Let´s do it then."
Ruby rolled out of the way as Cinder set all of her sabers on fire and threw them at the silver-eyed girl. The rotating, burning weapons flew past her and exploded as they flew into the force field instead.
Ruby had gotten familiar enough with the fighting style off her enemy to somewhat stall the battle. With her speed and agility she could managed to put Cinder always at a distance. But in return Ruby herself could barely get any hits.
The Huntress-in-training switched Crescent Rose into its sniper rifle mode and fired blue lasers at the Cyborg Maiden. Cinder countered and destroyed them with fire attacks. The explosions created a smoke screen. Ruby wanted to fire some additional shots into the smoke, but then she realized how she could use it perfectly to her advantage. She turned her weapon back into a scythe, reached into the pocket that contained the white Chaos Emerald and drew energy from it. Ruby waited until she saw the Maiden magic emitting from Cinder´s organic eye flickering inside the smoke. Just when like when she oneshoted the E-2000, her entire being flashed white for a second before she dashed ahead with incredible speed and suddenly appeared behind Cinder with a lowered weapon, the smoke blown away from the air draft Ruby left behind. With a scream, Cinder fell on the ground while her Aura flickered wildly. She writhed and turned before leaping back to her feet. Cinder gave Ruby an agitated and confused look.
"What the fuck was that just now? Why did your power and speed just increased to THAT level?"
Ruby´s only answer was a determined glare at Pyrrha´s murderess.
"Tch. Fine. Stay silent now. You won´t have that choice later on. I will get everything I want out from you." Cinder's gloomy expression brightened slightly as an idea occurred to her. Anger gave way to playful sadism. "Well, since you've been so open to presenting something new to me, let me respond with something similar."
The palms of several of Cinder's cypertronic hands glowed as they formed volcanic glass. But instead of shaping the sabers or bows that Ruby has become so familiar with, they formed a different weapon. A long spear whose shape was reminiscent of…
Ruby gasped and Cinder smirked.
"Yes, Nikos´ had a beautiful weapon and I always wanted to experiment with something different than my iterations of Midnight."
"You… that is Pyrrha´s weapon! Something she made for HERSELF! You can´t just take something like that and-"
"Oh but I can and already have. And I will do it several more times. If one is too weak to utilize the potential they have been given, it is their destiny to give it to those worthy of that power. One way or another. Don´t forget, a dead person has no use for a weapon after all." The last part Cinder added with a mocking singsong tone.
Something in Ruby exploded. Not only was this… this… monster responsible for killing the lives of close friends and thousands other people, but now the twisted Fall Maiden mocked the memory of Pyrrha!
With a yell, Ruby sprinted ahead with a raised Crescent Rose. Cinder´s smirk just widened.
Heh… fell for it, she thought. The Cyborg Maiden ducked under the strike and stabbed her new spear right into Ruby´s knee. While her Aura still managed to protect her, the blunt force of the attack still caused pain to Ruby and made her lose her balance. She fell and crashed onto the ground, slithering a few meters ahead. Crescent Rose had fallen out of the silver-eyed girl´s hand during this. Despite her aching knee, Ruby tried to get up, when her instincts flared up. She rolled left way onto her back, beside her Cinder plunged her glowing and burning spear into the ground. Ruby tried to do another roll, but Cinder rammed brutally her heeled shoe into the fifteen year old. The air was pressed out of Ruby with a pained wheeze as the Cyborg Maiden stepped on her like a cockroach and looked at her with the same amount of disgust most people had for these insects.
"Look at you. All those big words and yet you're lying there, good as broken. But what did I expect from someone who wanted to be a Huntress? It's always the same with these people. Big words, but nothing behind them." Cinder pushed her foot deeper into Ruby, causing her to gasp desperately for air. The ruthless cyborg leaned down towards her as two of her arms plucked the spear from the ground. "Those words I just said, how weaklings undeserving of power are fated to give it to the ones that do? Let me show you how I learned this absolute truth and showed the world that I am one of the deserving."
Cinder leaned back and raised the spear with all of her arms. Something pink and spiky and a blue streak rammed into her side and caused the Cyborg Maiden to stagger away with a surprised yell. Ruby took a deep breath and air filled her lungs. Gasping, she managed to sit up and look at what had stopped Cinder. It were the Wisps. Kurtis and Zen had flown out off Crescent Rose and were now attacking the pyromanic Fall Maiden. Unfortunately, the advantage of surprise was gone and the Fall Maiden was able to quickly take control of the situation. As she dodged the aliens' attacks, they flew past Cinder, but two of her free hands shot out and managed to catch the little creatures. Ruby immediately went back on her feet, but before she could run or do anything else, Cinder growled in a threatening tone: "Stop." She turned toward Ruby, the grip around the Wisps tight. Zen and Kurtis were struggling against them, but the hands only tightened their grasp. The Wisps produced pained whimpers. Ruby froze. Her heart was pounding in the same speed her thoughts were racing trough her head.
What should she do? What could she do?
"Listen here, little Rose: I am tired off losing all these battles. Always there are some creatures of this stupid world helping you out when you are rightfully losing against me! So since these things are friends off yours like Nikos was, let me ask you: What kind of her destiny should they suffer?" Cinder raised her spear. "Should they be skewered…" The heat in Cinder's hands began to rise. "… or shall they be reduced to ash just like her dying body?"
Ruby's heart skipped a beat. No. She couldn't lose anyone to Cinder again, couldn't disappoint them. Like Pyrrah. Like Penny. She just COULDN'T fail someone´s life again! Her eyes glowed faintly. But they couldn't properly unleash the young girl´s desire off protecting and preserving in their true power. However… something else reacted to Ruby´s desires. Without her really noticing, her hand gripped the Chaos Emerald.
Like it was drawn to it.
Trough her Aura, the artifact responded to her thoughts, converting them into power. Without really thinking, Ruby used her boost and in a white flicker ran straight at Cinder, punching her in the face. Even with some training with Shadow, Ruby´s punches still lacked power and skill. But with the Chaos Energies of the Emerald, Cinder's head was snapped back from the blow and she released the Wisps. The spear fell from her grip and clattered on the ground. An amber glowing eye glared at Ruby.
"This again? What-" "HERE!", the silver-eyed girl interrupted with a yell and pulled out the white Chaos Emerald, clutching its flat side and striking with its pointed end. Instinctively, Cinder raised one of her arms to block this unexpected attack, but powerful crystal crashed into Aura... breaking through it and piercing Cinder's metallic limb!
The Fall Maiden screamed at the sudden pain, but Ruby didn't care about this friend killing monster. Fast as she could, she drew more and more power from her Emerald and raised her fist again. She managed to recall some of Shadow´s and even Yang´s advice and punched in a more effective way. And with all the power the silver-eyed girl had drawn, her knuckles collided into Cinder´s face and send her flying with a flickering Aura right into the force field.
Electrical, familiar!, pain coursed trough the Cyborg Maiden´s body, alongside the one coming from her wounded ´s thoughts went erratic.
No! How can I be losing… how can she hurt me like THEY… no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO… I can´t… I WONT let myself be put down like THIS! I make THEM suffer! Suffer suffer suffer SUFFER ALL OF YOOOOUUUU!
With a loud scream, Cinder unleashed her magical power wildly and without control in an explosion of fire, wild winds, storm clouds and lightning. Ruby´s world sank into a cascade of violent noise, light and pain.
Shadow fired a Chaos Lance at Infinite. He tried to block the projectile with a wall made of dark red cubes, but the spear broke through the barricade and hit Infinite on the mask, pushing him several meters into the air. Frustrated, the entity looked at the black hedgehog through his now cracked red visor.
"You have no idea what you're messing with here."
"I could say the same to you." Shadow ran towards Infinite and shot as a Spindash at him. The masked foe´s claws shot forward grabbing Shadow and holding the spinning orb tightly in his grip, when a blue Spindash caught him from behind. Infinite's grip loosened and Shadow slammed hard into his mask.
CRACK!
More cracks and tears appeared in the red glass and Infinite slid a few meters across the ground. He sat up with a pounding head, dusted himself off, and then repaired the cracks with reality bending energies. The pounding in his head receded.
Infinite ran his claw over his now repaired mask, making sure everything was okay. He glared at the hedgehogs, yet when he spoke, it was in a mocking tone.
"You call yourself the Ultimate Lifeform and the Fastest Thing Alive, yet all you have achieved by now are a few cracks in my mask. Cracks that I can easily heal."
Shadow scoffed "You want more? All right, you asked for it."
He took out his Chaos Emerald and charged himself with its energies. Dozens of Chaos Spears shot towards Infinite. One of the long Phantoms wrapped its claws protectively around its creator and intercepted all the projectiles. The creature hissed as the spears pierced its flesh and the Chaos Energies caused the Phantom to be disintegrated with buzzing glitches. With all the noise, Infinite noticed too late how Sonic was running in circles around him. The entity was caught in the tornado. Sonic and Shadow ran into it, Spindashing against Infinite several times. Shadow then gave the reality bender a kick into the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. The tornado dissipated and Shadow landed hard on Infinite with a stomp. Chaos Energy was crackling and charging around the Ultimate Lifeform.
Sonic quickly distanced himself and hid behind the Eggman statue for cover as a loud "CHAOS BLAST!" was heard.
An intense explosion spread across the front of the platform. The surface of the ground shattered and blackened. The metal at the front of the statue heated and partly melted. Shadow stood breathing heavily on a patch of scorched earth. Sonic stepped outside his cover, his skin reddened by the heat. Nevertheless, the blue speedster focused his concern on his fellow hedgehog.
"Shadow, are you okay?"
"I…" Shadow caught his breath. "I put too much energy into the whole thing. Not that it matters. The bastard deserved it."
Reality blared and twisted. Infinite appeared directly in front of the Ultimate Lifeform. Before anyone could react, the reality bender slashed his claws across Shadow´s face. Hissing, the black hedgehog grabbed his wounds as Infinite punched him into the ground with an energy filled punch. At the same time, when Sonic wanted to move ahead, a long Phantom grabbed him from behind and pulled him towards it.
"How did you-" Another punch silenced Shadow.
"Inside the claw of my creation I managed to teleport away and left a weak Phantom behind that caught the brunt of your attacks. To lull you into a false sense of security."
Sonic struggled against the grip of the elongated monster. He managed to curl up and spin inside of the claws, shredding it apart. Once free, he ran towards the two, but he was too late. Infinite had summoned several cubes and send them into Shadow. He screamed as he lost himself in cruel illusions. Seeing this, Sonic roared in anger and heightened his speed, so that his following punch had more momentum. Infinite just turned around, tanked the Sonic Boom resulting from Sonic breaking the sound barrier, and caught the hedgehog´s fist. Sonic didn't stop. He ran faster and put more strength into his fist. He started to push the entity back, inch by inch.
Infinite held out a hand and summoned a saber with a red blade into it. He arched the weapon back. Seeing this, Sonic's eyes widened and all anger drained from him. He tore himself free and arched his upper body backwards, the blade whizzing just a few inches past his face. Infinite feigned a punch to Sonic's face, so he moved left and right into the path of the saber. The incredibly sharp blade trough his thigh. With a pained cry, Sonic swayed and staggered. Taking advantage of his moment of weakness, Infinite teleported behind him, grabbed his shoulders, and pressed his saber against the hedgehog's throat.
"You're lucky. The Doctor wants to be the one to end you once and for all. If this weren't the case, I would let you suffocate in your own blood right now. Listen carefully to me now. Contact the Resistance and get them to surrender. They certainly wouldn't want their great hero to meet a grisly end by this blade"
Infinite put more force on the saber. Sonic tried to squirm away from it, but his hostage taker´s grip was firm.
"You just said that you won't hurt me if you don't want to feel Eggman's wrath."
"Right, you know that. But not the Resistance. So-"
The click of a weapon silenced Infinite. He felt the barrel of a gun be pressed against the back of his head. Shadow had sneaked behind him, gun in his hand and the effect of the illusions having dissipated. Whatever they showed Shadow, he was beyond pissed. With his free hand he wiped blood from the slash marks on his face. In a deep, very quiet, very threatening tone, the hedgehog spoke: "You will be the one to surrender. You let go of Sonic now and drop your weapon. And if you try to do any tricks, if I your just a slight buzz from your gem, I'll blow your head off."
Infinite raised his arms, the right hand clutching the saber. Sonic immediately stepped several meters away from him. Or rather, he staggered with the wound on his thigh.
"The saber!", Shadow hissed. "Drop it!"
Infinite did as told. His hand slowly opened. Time seemed to slow as the weapon fell to the ground. A golden eye followed the path of the falling saber trough red glass. Just before the blade hit the ground, Infinite let himself drop, grabbed the saber and spinned around to slash at Shadow. The black hedgehog tried to readjust his aim, but the red blade cut open one of his knees. The pain made Shadow flinch. It was only brief, but it gave Infinite enough time to jump up and headbutt Shadow. The hedgehog staggered back, clutching his sore chin. He aimed at Infinite, but before he could pull the trigger, the entity dashed ahead and cut the pistol to pieces. Then he aimed his weapon at Shadow´s chest, but Sonic grabbed one of his dreadlocks from behind and threw Infinite backwards. The entity used his powers to stop midair and hover over the ground. He grasped his aching hair.
"Pulling my hair like some kind of school bully? Just because you are losing at my game?"
Sonic grimaced.
"What? This is all just a game for you?"
"Naturally. What's the point of existing if you can't have fun? I already told you: The fun is INFINITE with me! Fighting people like you is a wonderful challenge. A soothing distraction from a pointless existence that should not be and yet is. But-"
BOOM!
The sound of an explosion echoed trough Metropolis. Infinite sighed in annoyance.
"Damn it Cinder, I'm talking right now."
"That was Cinder?"
"Most likely. The sound of the explosion came from the direction where Ruby is trapped with Cinder", the jackal said. He seemed to wanting to add something, but then Infinite just said with a cruel smile under his mask: "I lured Ruby into a trap so Cinder would finish her off once and for all."
"What? Ruby has little chance against her!", Sonic exclaimed.
Infinite, despite wearing a mask, managed to convey a deadpanned look on his face.
"That is the plan. But maybe you should worry about yourself instead."
Using his powers, Infinite tripled the size of his saber and swung it downwards at the hedgehogs. Shadow and Sonic rolled to the side, which proved very painful due to their injured legs. And to top it all off, the saber blade emitted red waves of energy as it struck the ground. The hedgehogs were burned by them. But despite the pain, Sonic and Shadow somehow managed to remain standing with adrenaline and determination.
"No matter how much you hurt us, we will never surrender to you, or Eggman, or Cinder."
"You are in denial, Sonic the Hedgehog. Surrendering is the only option to not face total annihilation. At least for most of your friends and the Resistance. You and the sibling killer beside you will become an example of what happens if you defy the Eggman Empire. There is no chance of victory for you."
Sonic and Shadow were both about to say something when the latter received a message via com. His tense posture loosened up a bit.
"Sonic, let's retreat. They did it, but are in need of our assistance in getting out of Metropolis."
The blue hedgehog quickly understood. "Alright. But let's better go check on Ruby, I think she needs a ride out of this town too."
Infinite, who was stating confidently the hopeless fate of the heroes just few seconds ago, stared at the two in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Shadow pulled out the red Emerald and used Chaos Control on himself and Sonic. The masked man looked in bewilderment at the spot where his opponents were just a few seconds ago. He looked around. But he couldn't find them anywhere on the platform or somewhere down in the surrounding area. Frustrated, Infinite threw the platform away at a skyscraper, causing the building to collapse.
"You damn cowards, come back and face me in battle!"
"How long until we´re there?", asked Tails. Rouge, who was crawling before him, answered with, "Not long. I´m pretty sure it´s just around the corner."
And indeed it was. The grate they had opened to get into the air ventilation system of the base greeted them. Unfortunately, it had been sealed by a steel plate pushed through a mechanism in front of it.
Rouge groaned. "Great, we've been locked in. Eggman or one of his security systems must have realized that we came in through the ventilation shafts and sealed them."
"Can't you remove it like you did with the grates?"
"Yes, and I'm afraid we have no other choice. However, it will take time and may attract unwanted attention."
The conversation between the two was interrupted when Tails´ Wisps appeared and flew in front of the mobians. Flare proclaimed confidently something in their language. Strom also seemed excited to show off something. Rouge furrowed her brows.
"Tails, what are they so enthusiastic about?"
Despite being little space, the fox managed to get the Miles-Electric out and translated what the aliens were saying.
"They say they have a way to get us out of here. It will definitely attract the attention of our enemies, just as you fear with your method, Rouge. But they assure you that they can clear the way straight away and we can get out immediately."
"Alright, let's try it."
The mobians crawled backwards to give the aliens space to do... whatever they had planned.
The Wisps channeled their energies in the form of their respective elements around them and flew straight at the steel plate. Fire and lightning briefly combined and the resulting explosion blew the plate apart and its shards outwards.
Rouge and Tails coughed from the smoke. Their ears were ringing from the loud bang and their eyes had been briefly blinded from the bright flash.
"Maybe you couldn't have been a little more precise about what you were planning to do. Then we would have been better prepared," Rouge shouted, partly out of anger and partly because she was almost deaf. The Wisps had the decency to look ashamed, but they beckoned the mobians towards them.
The group crawled out of the vent and were back on the outside place of Eggman´s castle like base. Were the flying Egg Watcher had returned to their guard posts. The loud explosion had briefly stunned them. One of them got even massacred by the shrapnel of the blown steel plate. But there were still many left that went immediately for the attack once they saw the organics.
Rouge, having recovered enough for a counterattack, took the battle to the air, where she kicked, punched and blew the incoming machines apart. The Wisps glanced at Tails, but instead of getting his weapon out, he interacted with the Miles-Electric.
"I still have to send a message to Shadow about where we are and that we have succeed."
The aliens nodded and defended Tails from any Egg Watchers who managed to get past Rouge.
While they could this way give more output to their hyper-go-on energy, there was a high risk of them turning into Nega Wisps or becoming vulnerable to the robots. Often had the aliens dodge with their speed and nimbleness to not get torn apart by sharp metal claws. Luckily, Tails didn't need long to get the message across and soon held out his Double-Wispon. Flare and Strom flew into it and Tails destroyed an Egg Watcher that flew after them. He activated the lightning mode and helped Rouge by shooting down any robot that tried to attack her from her blind spots with bolts of electricity. And it was good, because the machines were getting reinforcements.
Buzz Bombers appeared and turrets raised from the ground and took aim. Rouge and Tails had to dodge their barrage of attacks, but many of the shoots grazed them. Tails send many waves of flame at the machines blocking their path, so he and Rouge could find cover behind one of the countless statues of Eggman adorning the place. From behind it, the mobians send heart bombs, lightning bolts and fire against their incoming enemies. They managed to thin out the ranks of Eggman robots, but loud rumblings announced the coming presence of something bigger. An Egg Tank appeared and aimed its middle barrel toward them. Rouge and Tails had to fly away and hide behind a different statue as their previous cover was blown apart by a rocket. Of course the Egg Tank just readjusted its middle cannon while the remaining regular Badniks approached the area of the hiding mobians, ready to pounce on them once they were out in the open.
Rouge and Tails tried to think of a strategy, but they got lucky. In a white flash Shadow and Sonic appeared on the Egg Tank. Looking around and quickly realizing the situation, Shadow threw the Chaos Emerald to Sonic, who teleported away, and the black hedgehog blew the massive machine up with a Chaos Blast. The explosion also took care of the smaller Badniks. Sonic then proceeded to use Chaos Control to bring himself and the Ultimate Lifeform towards the side of their friends.
Tails happily and excitedly exclaimed: "Sonic, you´re…" He visible winced once he noted the wounded state of the hedgehogs. "… er, you´re alive…"
The blue hedgehog gave his little brother a pained smile. He ruffled his hair.
"So are you."
"You were successful?", Shadow wanted to clarify. Rouge gave him a nod.
"From what Tails told me, he seemed to have gotten a good chunk of information."
Metal clanking and mechanical wiring echoed from a not so far distance.
"Rouge is right, so I think we should definitely leave and tell everyone to retreat", Tails said.
"Before we go we should also look for Ruby. Infinite told us how he led her to a confrontation with Cinder."
Immediately, Tails face became full of worry. Rouge on the other hand just groaned.
"Not that pyromania Cinderella again. I could do without one of her rants."
"If we´re lucky we can just grab Ruby and disappear quickly enough to just leave. But first, we need to find her."
Tails pipped up. "Me and Ruby, when we were tinkering with Crescent Rose, have installed a locator for potential cases just like now. I just need to…" The fox trailed off as he once again handled the Miles-Electric. "… there! Her signal is coming from these coordinates."
Tails showed everyone what the screen of his gadget was showing. Shadow nodded as Sonic gave him the red Chaos Emerald back.
"Alright then. Let´s finish this. Chaos Control!"
And we are back in business. With several fights to start and a cliffhanger regarding Cinder and Ruby to end things with. Now, I have to say that in private there were some important stuff happening during my break. It caused some delays with the correction of the previous chapters. And I am not sure if the publish date of coming chapter will also be affected by this. But nevertheless, I still wanted to give you guys the next chapter this week and here we are.
To Guest: It is established here that the Boost is based on Chaos Energy that Sonic accumulates during running. And Burst is there because of Petal Burst and Sonic and Ruby just BURSTing with power and speed during their attacks. BURSTing trough their enemies. I just think it sounds neat. So even if some of your examples sound interesting, I still want to go with Chaos Burst. But I will build in a tiny tidbit about Sonic Burst inside Chapter 19.
To Guest: Sometimes people have random stupid thoughts but choose not to act upon them. That is something I interpret as mature and I wanted to give Sonic a moment like that. A bit of a gateway between `Haha, BaldyMCnosehair´ and the more serious Sonic we gotten from Frontiers. As for the rest of your review:
1) Read more closely, there is a reason mentioned in chapter as to why Sonic chose to said it.
2) Again, read closely as to what Sonic does and thinks when he confronts Infinite
To Guest: Sonic managed to resist the influence of Dark Gaia, a being that causes misery among people, in his Werehog form. Ruby managed trough her personal problems (in an unhealthy manner) trough most of the series until it all came down in V9. I argue that is a good example of their willpower, be it on the more positive or negative side of the spectrum, and so I choose them to continue on the fight. Doesn´t mean everything is free of struggles.
I also said I would, at most, just have Ruby ask Tails if there is a connection between the hedgehogs. Up until now there hasn´t a scene presented itself were something like that would fit.
To Sithlord-6666: A good characterization of Shadow. But I would had that despite is tragic past and a history of people trying to manipulate him, Shadow still shows care and trust towards those he considers his friends (If Sega only led him).
To Knight: That it does until it all comes crashing down when the Resistance destroys the Eggman Empire.
To SuperSaiyanFever: It had already been to that level from the start. It just keeps getting worse for Ruby.
To Monster King: Continuation starting now.
