Prower Company was quickly split up on the rails, but their radios made this more of an inconvenience than a problem. Between her superior reflexes and body's not-so-natural resistance to fatigue, Nicole outpaced the rest of the team and progressed further than Miles and Cosmo had. Having the satellite images of the railways and exterior of Eggman's Rail Canyon base in her brain also helped. It was no surprise that the cyborg Lynx arrived at Dreadnaught Plateau before anyone else.
Resistance was heavier than expected, but you could only fit so much of anything into an enclosed space. Nicole's main objective right now was to clear out all of the lesser robots so the purely organic operatives would be in the best possible condition to fight the larger threats. Opting to rush to the spartan rail stations instead of pushing further into the Plateau played out exactly as she had hoped. Only Egg Pawn and simple Badniks garrisoned the stations and the paths between them. Thankfully, Eggman had long since started using Hyper Go-On batteries and mass-produced replicas of the Ancients' CPU's instead of live animals, so there were no concerns about harming any lesser creatures.
Nicole had a few new upgrades she wanted to use but held herself back. The longer she could keep Eggman from getting data on her new capabilities, the greater chances of success this operation had. She could wait, it was only a matter of time before she could try out her new toys. Nicole sped into the next rail station with her shoulder jets and found the area already cleared. The smashed and shattered remains of Eggman's machines littered the floor, the damage even extending to the consoles and flooring.
The Strike Teams are supposed to report arrival to the main facility, but I've heard nothing from the other teams. Tails and Cosmo both answered me when reported in. Did another one of Eggman's creations go rouge on him?
Nicole was brought out her thoughts as something collided into the side of her head. Her shield absorbed the attack, but a system alert warned that it cost forty-five Rings. Attacks from Egg Pawns only ate five.
"I told you I heard something behind us!" A scratchy feminine voice yelled out, "And it's another one of Eggman's sex bots!"
Nicole's head snapped towards the voice. The first thing she noticed was the boomerang returning to its owner: an orange Mobian Badger. Her thick hair was divided into halves by a pair of hair ties that hung from the back of her head. She had dark brown stripes going from her eyes to the ends of her hair; only the top halves being brown. She wore a soft grey tube top with a matching skirt that just covered her knees, the auburn belt around her waist declaring they were two separate articles of clothing. Her most notable features were the robot fingers stringed together around her neck and burning hatred in her ocean blue eyes.
Behind her and to the sides was a pink Mobian Hedgehog and a soft white Mobian Rabbit: Amy Rose and Cream Fields. Amy had her usual red hairband holding back her topmost quills and her Piko-Piko Hammer resting on one shoulder. Her sleeveless midnight blue dress had silver trimming and stopped just above her knees. She seemed annoyed. Cream was wearing a simple sky-blue t-shirt. Her powdery pink mini skirt stopped halfway down her thighs but wore a pair of sweatpants the same color as her fur with them. Both her and her Chao looked distressed and angry. All three Mobians were wearing jet-black combat boots.
"Ugh, we just cleared that room," Amy said as she pinched the space in between her eyes, "Alright, lets break it and continue further into the base."
"Team Jubilee: stand down arms! I am not your enemy!" Nicole announced.
Team Jubilee said nothing as they rushed at Nicole, with Cream leading the charge. That's strange, this goes against the psyche profile Miles made for her Nicole thought as she side stepped another one of the Badger's boomerangs. Fortunately for Nicole, Miles had uploaded personal profiles and combat data for most of the Mobian heroes he knew. It was with the intent of allowing her to better support them in combat, but Nicole could use the same data to defend herself against them. The only unknown in this equation was the Badger.
"Prower-Two to Company," Nicole said into her com-link as she batted away Cheese as gently as she could, "I'm with Team Jubilee by the North-West rail station. They believe that I'm a Replica Unit and have engaged me."
Nicole didn't catch what exactly her teammates said, as she had to focus on dodging Amy's hammer swings and Cream's Spindashes, but definitely heard both of them. She ducked and made the boomerang fly overhead as it returned to its mistress. The Badger caught her boomerang with her free hand and used the boomer in the other as a hatchet in an overhead swing. Nicole leaned to the side to dodge it and then went prone to avoid the horizontal swipe with the other boomerang. The cyborg managed to get her feet under her thighs and kicked herself into a backflip, completely avoiding the full-force swing from Amy.
Nicole briefly considered breaking their weapons, but quickly decided against it. While it was well within her means, doing so would make Team Jubilee less able and might even force them to retreat. As she caught Cream's fist and Judo Threw her into the Badger, a thought occurred to Nicole. Why hasn't Miles tried radioing them?
Hearing a cry of 'Chao Chao' from behind, Nicole grabbed Cheese and used the momentum of his charge to help throw him into Amy mid-jump. She barely noticed Cream's shadow in time to dive out of the way a Stomp Attack from her. She grabbed Cream by one of her thighs and the opposite arm and used her as a shield against another jump attack from Amy. Amy was able to redirect her aim enough to completely miss Cream and Nicole. Nicole then kicked Amy away from her hammer and used Cream as a projectile against the Badger, subtlety cutting one of her the bootlaces at the same time.
"If you do not stand down arms, I will have to start using lethal force," Nicole declared. She didn't want to hurt any of Miles' friends or mission assets, but she wasn't going to let herself get killed to do so.
Team Jubilee was completely undeterred as Amy and the Badger both charged at Nicole. However, the Lynx did smirk when she saw that Cream's loose bootlace had gotten caught on the rails. Her expression dropped like a ton of bricks as she heard the roar of an oncoming train.
"Amy! Sticks! Help!" The Rabbit cried.
Nicole had only cut the bottom most parts of the lace, so the boot was still fastened around her ankle. Amy and 'Sticks' stopped themselves and turned to help their teammate. Nicole went prone with one leg bent under her. The main upgrade Miles had given her was better energy efficiency, which allowed her to have extra jets installed into her body. Hover jets protruded out Nicole's shoulder blades and the backs of her calves, before she rocketed towards the trapped girl.
Using her machine-reflexes, Nicole managed to completely sever the rest of Cream's bootlace before grabbing her with the same arm. Cream's foot effortlessly slid out of the boot and Nicole got her far away from the train. However, Nicole had no prior experience in using her newfound speed. She kicked off the floor and twisted her body so that Cream wasn't directly slammed into the wall with her. Nicole was able to break her crash with one arm and one leg but, powering all four of her jets at once and hitting the wall ate up the rest of her Rings. The maneuver also depleted Nicole's auxiliary power reserves.
Nicole fell to the ground with Cream, just barely being able to get the Rabbit out from under her. Nicole had emergency power reserves, but they were only meant to keep her alive while her auxiliary power reserves recharged themselves. This design would cause most of Eggman's robots to read Nicole as deceased while she was at her most vulnerable but rendered her completely helpless for anywhere between one to five minutes against anything else.
"You saved me?" Cream whispered to herself, still in shock.
Amy and Sticks might have been able to reach Cream in time, if they weren't rushing away from her when she called for help. Now, the train was separating the young Rabbit from the rest of Team Jubilee. Nicole didn't know how the Badger, Sticks, would react, but was afraid that Amy would be beyond reason.
Nicole's fears were affirmed the second the second the train had fully left, "Get away from her!" Amy screeched in blind protective rage.
The Lynx didn't have the power to move, and Cream was still too in shock to speak loudly. Nicole couldn't raise her head to watch Amy but could see the Hedgehog's shadow on the floor as she leapt towards her with hammer in hand. Nicole's body could withstand much more abuse than a purely organic body, she knew anything less than tank plate would shatter underneath Amy's Piko-Piko Hammer when she had a running start. Nicole would need at least twenty Rings and full auxiliary power to survive this attack, she had neither now.
As Cream tried to find her voice again to call out for Amy to stop, she saw a familiar yellow sphere crash into her older friend.
It wasn't hard for Tails to find Nicole and Team Jubilee. The Lynx had destroyed robots all around the outer layers of Dreadnaught Plateau, making for a convenient trail for him to follow when he finally arrived. Tails sped to his top speed when he received an alert that Nicole was critically low on power. Rounding a corner, Tails saw that Nicole was crouched over Cream with Amy going in for the kill. Tails charged a Spindash and launched into the room, kicking himself off of the ground to transition into a Homing Attack.
Tails landed, doing his best to put himself between the scattered women, "Everyone, stop! Nicole isn't an enemy!"
Amy had recovered admirably, and tumbled into a crouch, "Tails? You know this robot?"
"She isn't a robot, but yes," Tails replied.
"Hold up!" The new member of Team Jubilee called out, "How do we know this isn't another one of Eggman's fakes?"
Tails looked around on the floor for a moment before walking over to a large shard of glass. He picked up the shard of glass and used it to cut his own cheek, going slow so his shield wouldn't trigger. It was a small cut, but even a single drop of blood stood out on Tails' white muzzle.
"We dealt with a few of Eggman's Replica Units when we saved the Seedrians from his other prison," Tails said, "Their mimicking abilities are skin deep and are clearly mechanical on in-depth analysis. They also don't bleed."
The Badger holstered her boomerangs behind her back, "I'm Sticks. Amy and Cream have told me a lot about you, 'Fox Boy.'"
Tails nodded and directed his attention to Nicole. With a few taps on his PSG, he created a pair of Fifty-Rings; thick enough to be innertubes, but with a gage too narrow to be used by anyone other than children. Tails walked over to Nicole and gently pressed the Rings into her body.
Nicole's head immediately snapped up, "Thank you, Miles."
"You're welcome, Nicole," Tails said before seeing to Cream, "Can you stand?"
"Y-yes," Cream answered as she got herself out of Nicole's lap, "Just a little shaken is all. Why did she use your real name?"
"Long story, now isn't the time," Tails said plainly.
"Did neither of you get my radio-hails?" Tails asked.
"Now that you mention it," Amy said, thinking more clearly now that she wasn't mid-combat, "Our radios have been silent for a while."
"I can talk to my team just fine, so Eggman must be using jammers based on Ancient Tech to mess with both transmitters and receivers," Tails quickly deduced.
"Why do your radios work?" Sticks asked with narrowed eyes.
"Because I've also made things based on Ancient Tech," Tails replied unoffended, "I wanted to distribute these models to GUN, but I have to synthesize materials for critical components to make them work and the quality of the materials isn't always good enough for practical use"
Tails turned to face his Lynx partner, "Nicole, we need you to fall back."
"What for?" Nicole asked, surprised at the order, "Surely we can find more Rings."
"Because Command is completely cut off from the Strike Teams," Tails explained, "You can get out of range of Eggman's jammers more quickly and easily than the rest of us can. That makes you the only way Command can contact any of us."
Nicole was silent for a moment, clearly trying to think of an excuse or reason to disobey orders, but gave in, "Understood."
Tails started to use his com-link as Nicole flew off, "Prower-One to Prower-Three, where are you?"
"I seem to have fallen for some kind of trap," Cosmo admitted, "There aren't machines around, but there are walls of light keeping me here."
Tails quickly used his goggles and AugRI to check map data Prower Company's equipment had collected to figure out Cosmo's location. It appeared that the Seedrian had tried going straight through the facility instead of following the ring of hangers. Fortunately, she had entered from the East most entry and hadn't gotten far before getting trapped.
"Nicole had to break-off from the mission, but I'm here with Team Jubilee," Tails explained, "We'll get to you as soon as we can and resume. Stay alert, Eggman wouldn't set traps like that unless he wanted to fight."
"Er, they're already here," Cosmo reported, "There are new machina here."
"Understood, we'll be there soon," Tails assured.
"My other teammate is in trouble, we need to hurry," Tails announced before he started running.
"Since when did you name things after yourself like that?" Amy teased as she followed, "You really are Sonic's brother."
Tails was glad he was in the lead for once, as it kept everyone else from seeing his blush. Amy had produced a spare boot for Cream while Tails was on the radio and was fighting fit. As the four heroes made their way through Dreadnaught Plateau, Tails couldn't help but worry and wonder. Eggman shouldn't have these kinds of resources so soon after the War. He also said he could mobilize the Egg Fleet back at the Starfall Islands, and now he has a bunch of secret bases and new designs to employ. Even if he found minerals and precious metals while digging out Rail Canyon, he shouldn't have been able to recover so quickly. Does he already have the Conversion Prism? If so, then what does he need the Seedrians for?
AUTHOR'S NOTES-
Hooray! A chapter that was almost all action. Bet that was a nice break for a lot of you. So we've meet Team Jubilee, now including Sticks the Badger. In the GBA Sonic games, the pairing of Amy and Cream is known as 'Team Jubilee' and since Team Rose is the two of them plus Big, I thought it best to just make Sticks the third member of Team Jubilee. The three of them won't feature prominently in this story, but I do intend on writing a side story where they're the main characters after this story is done. One more thing I'll add about them is their outfits. I can't see any way that Amy would let Sticks wear the rags she has in Boom and she would definitely have a wardrobe of different outfits. Now that Amy is focusing on things other than Sonic's heart, she wears more than the cute red dress she thinks Sonic likes. And Cream, she's thirteen or fourteen years old at this point, she's at the age where she's starting to figure out who she actually is and is expressing herself accordingly. Cream and Cheese's anger will be explained later.
Cosmo's in trouble again, and it's not because I'm setting her up to get saved by Tails all of the time. She's very new to the whole hero thing and made a bad call. She had no idea that Nicole and Team Jubilee had already cleared out the rail stations on the edges of Dreadnaught Plateau and assumed that the robots would massing in the stations to protect them. The stations are natural entry points after all. It was also less distance to go through the level she was on than to go through the stations. Tails has a lifetime of experience dealing with Eggman traps and can stuff Nicole's data banks with information and advice, all advantages Cosmo doesn't have. She is also more clumsy than the rest of Prower Company, this unfortunately means Plant Girl will get caught in traps more often than her teammates.
One of the reasons I wanted Tails to send Nicole away is because it's something he hates having happen to him. I think it shows maturity on Tails part that he better understands that not everyone should be in the frontlines. The difference here, is that Tails took the time to explain why he was ordering Nicole away to help spare her feelings. It didn't leave Nicole wonder how much Tails trusted her or make her question her value to the team, all things that Tails has gone through with Sonic. Even as late as Sonic Frontiers, Tails was asking Sonic how helpful he really was to the team. Sonic has a lot more natural self-confidence than Tails does and Sonic has never raised anyone before Tails, so Sonic couldn't have known the mistakes he occasionally made with Tails. Sonic and Tails have both learned from this, and Tails is implanting those lessons now that he's helping someone who is in a similar position he was in.