Dusk came, and it made Cosmo feel conflicted. The rest of the day after the meeting with the GUN Commander, Cosmo couldn't sit still at the thought of saving her people. Now, night came much too fast for the young Seedrian. Escaping Eggman's prison and making it to Newfound Sanctuary was a relatively simple affair: get out, get to the city, get help. It was the most difficult and dangerous thing she had ever done in her life, and Cosmo was wise enough in the ways of the world to know that it wasn't going to compare to Rail Canyon.
Miles (not of the Mobian kind) of lethal drops with nothing but thin rails to go over them, bombs and other traps in the buildings, countless death machines all with single minded dedication to destroying intruders, and Cosmo had an awful feeling that something dreadful awaiting her and her friends at Dreadnaught Plateau. None of that even covered the stretch of no man's land full of factory bunkers that would be building robots tailor made to wiping them out. Cosmo could be brave and bold when she needed to be, but even a total madman would pause at task laid before her.
Cosmo did feel that she should have been more nervous and afraid than she was, but her visit to the skate park in Grand Metropolis probably helped with that. Miles and Nicole brought her to the skate park as quickly as they could after their meeting with the Commander. While Cosmo's shoes were well broken in, she had no experience whatsoever with rail grinding. Given the name of their next destination, Cosmo needed no convincing at all that she needed practice. It was also a perfect way to spend their day, since it involved little movement or thought. So, despite hours of practice, Cosmo wasn't even tired. The springs in the backs of her new shoes did their job well and kept her from getting fatigued on the walk to the skate park and back.
Miles was giving a primer on operating his plane to a pair of GUN pilots. The Rail Canyon base was going to have tons of air support, and seeing as the newly christened Prower Company was going to be on the ground for most of the engagement, Miles thought it best to let GUN use his unpronounceable plane. Cosmo knew it wasn't polite or fair, since she didn't even know how to use the cable cars, but she couldn't stop herself from tittering at the GUN pilots. They both had to be more than twice Miles' age, and probably had been flying for longer than he had been alive, but Miles was in the middle of his third repeat of how to use his plane.
It's no wonder Eggman gives them so much trouble Cosmo mused. Despite finding humor in the situation, Cosmo was concerned that the pilots were just going to end up crashing Miles' plane. A concern Miles seemed to be sharing as he finished his primer for the fourth time.
"Any more questions?" Miles asked, desperately trying to keep the aggravation out of his voice.
"I think I got all of that," One of the pilots said, with something approaching confidence in his voice. He double-checked what he had typed in his tablet, "Yes! I believe I have it down now."
Miles didn't give the other pilot a chance to speak, "Good, because we don't have time for me to explain that again," A signal flare shot into the darkling sky as he finished speaking.
Miles turned to face Cosmo and Nicole, "Prower Company, move out!" Cosmo caught Miles rolling his eyes at himself.
Prower Company ran in a triangle formation, with Miles in the lead, towards the first bunker. Though Cosmo knew that Miles and Nicole could run much faster than she could, having seen it firsthand at Eggman's prison, she knew they weren't holding back for her sake. Blitzing at top speed would prompt the other bunkers they needed to take to make machines that could match them. Not even Cosmo was running as fast as she could. Miles did explain how the bunkers were linked to each other and shared data, but his use of jargon made it go way over Cosmo's head.
The Egg Bunker popped out of the ground roughly one hundred feet in front of them with Egg Pawns and Buzz Bombers rushing out from them. From the briefing they had, they knew these machines were just a standing guard meant to stall attackers while the bunkers made better robots. Miles threw something small out in front of him. It grew rapidly a moment after it hit the ground, revealing itself as a yellow spring as it landed. He Spindashed into it where it shot him up to the Buzz Bombers' elevation. Miles then proceeded to use Homing Attacks to knock out the air support, going slower than normal so the bunkers got bad data.
The girls took the infantry. While Cosmo had to concentrate on her share of the robots, she could hear Nicole ripping through the enemy ranks. The Seedrian didn't have the strength, speed, or the weapons Miles and Nicole had. What Cosmo did have was quick wit and a high muscle-to-body weight ratio.
Cosmo curled into a ball mid-run, more of a tumble than a Spindash, but still allowed her to dodge the lance from the Egg Pawn closest to her and get into a crouching position in front of it. She grabbed the bottom of the Egg Pawn's shield and lifted like she was raising a shutter. Cosmo not only forced the robot onto its back but forced its shield out of its grasp. The Seedrian swung the shield to parry the lance of another Egg Pawn and forced it to smack another. While the third Egg Pawn was still working, the lance did get stuck in its 'neck.' Cosmo continued her swing to the handle end of the lance, where it was forced all the way through the Egg Pawn's neck and broke it. She then slammed the edge of the shield into the Egg Pawn she had parried.
The Seedrian then jumped on top of the Egg Pawn she knocked down, dodging the jabs of several lances. Cosmo jumped off the Egg Pawn to get further into their ranks, thinking of ways to sow chaos among the cannon fodder. Hearing the Egg Pawn she used as a bounce pad getting destroyed by other robots gave her an idea. Taking note of the robots' poor reflexes made her more confident in this plan. Cosmo landed with a kick into the head of another Egg Pawn, and she used her momentum to roll in between and past two more. The Egg Pawn she landed on was stabbed by its brothers, and the ones she passed by banged into each other and caused a minor domino effect as they recoiled into other Egg Pawns. Cosmo continued to use her acrobatic abilities to trick the Egg Pawns into friendly fire. While she did pass several robots, they only rushed into the unguarded flanks of the further ranks as they turned to face Cosmo.
Cosmo's methods were just as effective at breaking the robots as Tails' and Nicole's but didn't shatter their bodies. So, by the time Cosmo got through the rear guard, the remaining Egg Pawns were tripping over wrecks and each other and couldn't fall back to fight. The bunkers would have fallen in the time it would take them to counterattack. Looking back, Cosmo saw that she had reached the bunker before her friends. That's when Cosmo realized she had gotten caught up in the moment and wasn't holding back like she was supposed to.
"Oops," The Seedrian said to herself. Who knew that running into life threatening situations could be so fun?
Cosmo was vaguely aware of the sound of opening shutters behind her, and she turned to see something that did not look like fun. A ten-foot robot on treads rolled out of the bunker, of course, with Eggman's insignia painted on its chest plate. The machine had a humanoid body on a turret above the treads, with the 'waste' surrounded by machine guns. The teeth of the Eggman Insignia were painted over hatches that looked like it would fire rockets or grenades when opened. The shoulders of its massive arms were lined with large spikes. Because everything the Doctor made had to look like him, the machine's face looked like his insignia, complete with a metal mustache. It was the single largest Eggman Robot Cosmo had ever seen in person, but she got the feeling that the Mecha Sonics were far more dangerous than the goliath before her.
Instead of fire its guns at the Seedrian, they were targeting Miles and Nicole who were still further back. The machine elected to throw a punch at Cosmo, the fist firing from its arm with a metallic tether keeping it connected to the machine. Cosmo duck and rolled forward, narrowly dodging the fist. She then jumped up and grabbed the tether. The machine retracted its fist and inadvertently brought the Seedrian closer to its head. Cosmo's body weight was enough that the retraction wasn't perfect, and the fist failed to smoothly return to the arm. Cosmo took advantage of the tether having to whip its hand upward to launch herself up towards the head.
The leap wasn't enough to get on to the shoulder, but it was enough to bring Cosmo up to the spikes. While their size and width made them very intimidating, that also made them excellent poles to grab. Cosmo lifted herself up and weaved in between the spikes to get on the shoulder. Cosmo looked up to see that a small turret had extended out of the robot's collarbone and was slowly turning towards her. In a panic, Cosmo swung her body like she was breakdancing, and kicked the turret. The turret snapped as Cosmo's kick forced it to turn violently, facing the bunker. A missile fired from the turret and hit the bunker.
Cosmo checked her PSG as she got another idea, "I must be insane," She said to herself, as Cosmo saw she still had all of her Rings and sprung back into action.
Cosmo used the broken turret as a steppingstone to help her get on the crown of the robot's skull. As she had predicted, there was another missile turret on the other side of the robot's head, and it was rotating towards her. Cosmo jumped off the robot's head and landed on the turret with a double-footed kick. As before, a missile was launched, but it was fired back into the robot. The explosion not only damaged the robot and forced Cosmo into the air, but also detonated the rest of the missiles inside of the robot. The explosion launched Cosmo out of the way of the shrapnel from the impromptu self-destruct. Cosmo used her skirt to land slowly and safely.
"I can't believe that worked," Cosmo admitted.
"I can't believe you're still alive!" Miles exclaimed.
Cosmo jumped up startled, not having noticed the Fox, "That was incredible; Sonic's the only other person I have ever seen do something like that! And you made look effortless."
Cosmo had been congratulated before, but Seedrians were culturally sedate and calm. Never had she had someone so excitedly celebrate her accomplishments before. Between this and the adrenaline rush she was still riding, Cosmo was well and truly flustered. Miles' elation being adorable did not help.
Either he didn't notice or simply chose to ignore it, "Come on, we still have the bunker itself to deal with," Miles declared.
Cosmo quietly nodded and followed him. The exploding robot had done enough damage to the shutter door that Miles was able to knock it down with a Spindash. Cosmo and Miles split up to mess with the equipment that much faster. It was a simple affair to find off-switches or to jam the mechanical workings, raw materials and incomplete robot parts making the latter especially easy. Miles did have to use his Dummy Rings to destroy some of the larger pieces of equipment, as they didn't have the time to hack into their consoles. The bunker was laid out for optimal efficiency, and just the two of them were able to disable the whole facility in less than a minute. Cosmo and Miles shared a high-five when they finished.
Nicole radioed them as they started to leave the first bunker, "Prower-Two to Prower Company, I have engaged the garrison of Echo-Betta-Two. I have their full attention, and I recommend you circle around and hit Echo-Betta-Two, over."
"Acknowledged, Prower-Two," Miles replied, "We will take your recommendation, over and out."
Miles turned to face Cosmo, "Do you want to split up and go around a different side or stick together."
"I think we'll be less likely to get spotted by the lesser robots if go in different directions," Cosmo replied.
The Fox nodded his head and the two went separate ways from the first bunker. Nicole had chosen to go right through the center of the amassed cannon fodder. All the noise was a little disorienting for Cosmo, Nicole tearing robots apart on one side and GUN's artillery fire in the distance on the other. Nicole made for a perfect distraction, as not even the Buzz Bombers overhead took notice of Miles or Cosmo. Cosmo briefly wondered if the robot wasps were truly ignorant of their presence, or if they just saw Nicole as the bigger threat and prioritized her.
As the Fox and Seedrian rejoined in front of the next bunker, Cosmo could tell that something was off. The bunker had stopped producing robots entirely. Not even Egg Pawns were coming out. And they couldn't hear running machinery from the partly open shutter. It was almost like Eggman was inviting them to go inside.
"This is a trap, right?" Cosmo asked.
"Most definitely," Miles answered, "How ever, with Nicole out here, we should be fine."
Cosmo agreed with that sentiment. The cyborg was fighting a small army by herself and winning. She didn't know what kinds of 'upgrades' Nicole had, but Cosmo was confident that the Lynx would be able to save them both if she had to. If they couldn't take down whatever monster was waiting for them within the bunker, Nicole was their ace in the hole.
I just have to keep myself from holding Miles back Cosmo thought to herself Please don't let me become a damsel in distress he needs to save all the time.
Cosmo and Miles entered the bunker side-by-side, to keep the shutter from closing and separating them. As expected, the shutter did close as they entered. However, there were no turrets to gun them down, no robots to kill them, and no closing walls or ceilings to crush them. There was someone sitting in a chair in the middle of the floor. There were cables running along the floor and from the ceiling into the chair. It took Cosmo a moment to realize it in the poor lighting, but the same kinds of cables were wired into the manufacturing equipment in the first bunker. There was also a distinct lack of stockpiled building materials.
Cosmo was wondering if the body was a person shaped bomb meant to draw them in, when the cables started disconnecting themselves from the chair. To her horror, some of the cables turned out to be attached to the person. The individual stood up and stepped into less dim light, revealing itself to not be a person at all.
The robot was very similar to the Mecha Sonics at Eggman's prison; being another brass-colored robotic Sonic. But this thing was very different in overall design: its quills were arranged to look like a pentagram from the front, it had a small jet engine in its chest, its visor actually looked like eyes instead of being a single expressionless pane of glass, spikes protruded from its waste, prominent curved shoulder plates that were black as night, and it had black fabric flowing into a cape from its waste. Cosmo was intimidated by the contraption in front of her before its scarlet eyes flared to life.
"Neo?" Tails asked, confused.
"Don't you dare mistake Us to that traitor," It ordered, it's voice deep, smooth, masculine, and almost natural sounding, "We are truly loyal to Father, as all life should be."
Cosmo and Miles took advantage of its monologue to look around for things they could use against it, "Our software is born from Father's unparalleled genius and the discoveries of the Ancients. Only Sister Sage and Father himself are above and beyond us. And it is our purpose to spread the glory of the Eggman Empire across the universe."
Instead of continuing its insane rant, its engine started spinning as fire roared from its back. Cosmo and Miles were both caught off guard, but still managed to dodge its charge. Its uppercut tore the shutter where it landed and crumpled its center upwards, leaving a gap large enough to crawl through. Its hands appeared to dislocate themselves as barrels extended from its wrists. Cosmo and Miles didn't wait for it to fire before diving for cover, being just fast enough to dodge the waves of white plasma fired at them.
"Our goal in being here was to capture the Anathema, but he will show himself once his 'brother' goes missing," It stated before turning around, "We are Brother Brass, and We will be your end."
Cosmo could hear Miles' tails spinning as she distanced herself from Brass, "It was wise of you to reserve your true strength on your way here, but it shall only serve to delay the inevitable."
Cosmo heard another one of Brass's jet-charges, but it produced much more light and noise than before. She heard Miles yelp just before a loud clanging noise echoed throughout the building, "We already a complete battle profile on you, Fox Boy. You are as helpless before us as that weed you tracked into this place."
We'll see about that Cosmo thought. She found it hard to believe that Miles would get pinned so easily, so she peaked from the assembly line she was using for cover. While Miles was being held up against a wall by his neck several feet off of the ground, as Brass was still using its jets, Cosmo also saw that Miles had created a Dummy Ring at the end of each of his tails. He whipped the Rings into the back of the Sonic knock-off, just missing the jet with both. It still caused Brass to lose control of himself, which Miles took advantage of to free himself. Miles brought his knees up to his chest and kicked Brass into one of the machines, then used his tails to fly up to a catwalk.
"Where did you go, mutant!?" Brass demanded as it got up. The machine it landed on was visibly dented but could probably still work.
So, electricity is a weakness for it and Miles seems to think that the jet is a weak spot. What in here still has power? Cosmo wondered as she looked around the room again. There was a large computer console on one side of the room, but Cosmo doubted it would be enough. That's when she looked at the chair Brass was in. All but one of the cables had detached from it, and it was huge and encased in rubber thick as tires.
Cosmo checked her PSG and paled, as she saw that she had four Rings left. She wasn't going to get a second shot at this, and Miles might not be fast enough to save her if it didn't go right. Miles won't have to save me Cosmo insisted to herself as she ran for the computer. The console was unlocked, and Cosmo quickly found the commands for the lesser robots, labeled as 'Minion Control.' Cosmo started typing random words and commands into the computer, getting error message after error message. However, her brute-forcing fake commands did cause the console to lock itself and alarms to start blaring.
"Stop that!" Brass demanded as he dove towards Cosmo.
The Seedrian fell to her back to dodge the charge, causing Brass to crash into the computer. The robot got its arm stuck, so Cosmo took the chance to get up and start running to the chair. She heard the crunch of metal and falling shards of glass as Brass freed itself. Cosmo also heard Brass reading another blast of plasma. Cosmo jumped and belly flopped, hoping that Brass's aim would be too high to hit her on the floor. Cosmo was nicked by the plasma, breaking her shield, and she landed roughly on the floor. Looking up, she saw that the chair was destroyed, and its power cable was sparking at its exposed end. She also noticed that she had landed on top of it, being in between the chair and the wall it was connected to. All according to plan.
"You god forsaken pest," Brass called out as it stomped towards Cosmo, "It was a mistake to underestimate how much of a nuisance you were. We should have just broken the weak link and killed you right away."
Cosmo pretended to grip her stomach in pain, using her own body to keep Brass from seeing that she was grabbing the power cable. Cosmo heard Miles call out her name, and while she hated to worry him, she couldn't risk Brass catching on to her. She could hear Brass's turbine spinning to life as she waited as long as she dared. Not a moment too soon, Cosmo suplexed the power cable into Brass's chest and watched it get sucked into its jet turbine.
Cosmo knew the resulting light show was going to be blinding, but she needed to see to guide the cable. The robot's turbine sucked in the power cable and clogged itself with the wiring. Electricity began arcing from the machine in a chaotic lightshow, miraculously not shocking Cosmo. Brother Brass's robotic voice changing pitch as it screeched and its servos snapping into different positions could be heard from outside the bunker. She couldn't see, but she could hear well enough to know she needed to get away. Unfortunately, Cosmo had to move slowly to avoid tripping or running into something. After a moment, Cosmo felt a pair of soft furry arms wrap around her chest as she was lifted into the air.
AUTHOR'S NOTES-
Another Cosmo chapter, but it was nothing but action. I felt the need to emphasize that Cosmo isn't helpless in battle and can hold her own. Her father leads the Oak Clan's warriors, no way any child he helped raise was not going to know how to defend themselves. Cosmo also wasn't helpless in Sonic X, despite hating violence. She nigh effortlessly dodged Vector's attacks when Team Chaotix kidnapped Cream, her quick thinking and plant powers helped against that one monkey Metarex (though her friends got caught in the crossfire and her powers were boosted with a Planet Egg), and her friends wouldn't have brought her to the Metarex Fortress where Red Pine died if they thought she couldn't defend herself. She had to surrender herself to the Mecha Sonic squad that took down Marrow because she was heavily outnumbered, not fully recovered from her inhumane imprisonment, and she correctly assumed the Mechas would have used Marrow and the other Seedrians as leverage.
Brother Brass' chair had all of those cords in it, to transmit combat data directly into its brain. It needed all of those cords because wireless coms could easily be detected and hacked, so it need several land lines to get combat data on the GUN forces and the strike teams hitting the Egg Bunkers. Despite being on par with Neo-Metal and having tons of recent battle data to use as strategic reference, Brother Brass got dunked. I felt that chapter was already getting a little long, but it would have been too short if I had moved that fight to the next chapter. It's quick defeat was partially inspired by how character death works in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: it is sudden, unexpected, and often with little fanfare. No drawn out and dramatic scenes of people giving their last goodbyes or voicing their regrets, they just die. And I like that, it makes it more immersive and you have more time and space to dedicate to something more meaningful. While death is almost always tragic and other people are affected greatly by it, death IRL often happens before the dying realizes their time is up: which is the most tragic aspect of death. People who are looking forward to weekends spent with friends and families or building the confidence to confess their feelings to someone else have those opportunities taken from without warning. I think this is the best approach to writing death in most cases. Besides, why would Prower Company give one of Eggman's creations the chance to have one last monologue?
Speaking of Eggman's creations, it will be brought up later, but I'm going to explain Brother Brass' weird dialogue now. In one of the Egg Memos from Sonic Frontiers, Eggman has a small rant about creating intelligent life himself in reference to Sage. To me, that signifies that his ego and lunacy has grown into an actual God Complex. Besides, hardwiring your intelligent constructs to sanctify you is a good way to keep them in line. This is why Brother Brass referred to Sonic as 'the Anathema' and to Neo-Metal as a traitor. I know Metal was in the ending scene of TMoStH, but that makes no since to me. Metal's deactivated form was last scene with Team Dark in Sonic Heroes and if Eggman's programming was enough to keep his creations from betraying him, Neo-Metal wouldn't have seized the Egg Fleet for himself.