Eggman ran a hand down his face. He had just received Brother Bronze's report on its capture mission in Newfound Sanctuary. Failure was bad enough on its own. However, Brother Bronze decided that it was better to purposefully fail this mission in the hope of getting the target to join the recently christened Prower Company. Tails now had his incalculable intellect, an android servitor that appeared to be sapient, the most resourceful member of the Oak Clan, and a mutant that could grow bones over its body dense enough to stop bullets with no known limit. The Doctor was deeply regretting not diverting some of Sage's processing power to let her direct this mission.
"Bronze, I will only ask this once," Eggman said in a very calm voice, "WHY DID YOU THINK DEFYING ME AND LETTING OUR ENEMIES JOIN FORCES WAS A GOOD IDEA!"
The dark-green Neo-Metal clone flinched at its master's voice. It knew Father would not initially like its report, but was certain it had made optimal decisions, "Resource conservation."
It continued at Eggman's silence and deadpanned look, "By goading the Mole into joining Prower Company, it allows us to complete multiple objectives at once when we do crush Prower. The people of Angletic Island now believe that we no longer have interest in them specifically, allowing us to continue with clandestine operations in the area."
Eggman nodded as Bronze explained itself, "While I am displeased at this turn of events, your choices were based on solid logic and preexisting orders."
"However," Eggman said harshly, "In the future, you will request permission before modifying mission parameters so drastically."
"Yes Father," Bronze replied, "Thank you for your understanding and mercy."
Eggman ended the call. Hardwiring the Metallurgic Legion to sanctify him was the best way to maintain their loyalty without losing the benefits of sapience. The only notable drawback thus far was how creepy it was. Eggman knew he was the greatest mind Mobius had ever seen and he wanted to be celebrated and envied by everyone else on the planet, but the reverent way they spoke to him, kneeling without being ordered or threatened to do so, and refusing to stand without permission sent chills down his spine. Thankfully for the mad scientist, the only part of the Metallurgic Legion he needed to meet with in person were his Platinum Praetorians.
Eggman scrolled through his contact list to find one of his favorite creations, "Orbot, do we know where Tails and his lackies went or are going?"
"Not quite, Boss," Orbot answered, "They were heading North-Northwest, which rules out Station Square, Grand Metropolis, Central City, Mystic Ruins and Angel Island."
Orbot and Cubot got much needed upgrades after Eggman saw what the Ancients' Cyberspace did to Sage. Cubot now controlled all the Eggman Empire's maintenance and construction drones as well as preliminary defenses, the latter existing largely to give time for dedicated military AI to optimize their responses. Orbot now served as Eggman's Spymaster, a role that encompassed all of Eggman's scouting and espionage needs.
"Prison Island and Presidential Peninsula are still in ruins, and we've already confirmed that Sonic is not on South Island," Orbot continued, "Unless they have a hidden base or lab in the region, that leaves Ice Paradise, Empire City, and Radical City."
"Excellent work, Orbot," Eggman beamed. Neither of his Three-D minions have let him down since the upgrades, "Prioritize scouting the areas between those locations. The Restoration has been concentrating their efforts on the Metropolitan Continent and is the only corner of Mobius that has widespread telecommunication. We're not in a position to re-subjugate them and attack them without reason will make them start dumping their rebuilding budget into GUN's pockets."
"Right away Boss," Orbot said before hanging up.
Eggman quickly opened his digital command center. It let him direct the activities of his bases all over the world from anywhere within orbit. With Egglantis's landlines, he didn't even need to breach the ocean's surface to command Mobius as he pleased. Metropolita had the highest concentration of metropolises on Mobius, it being where the word 'metropolis' comes from, which in turn meant it once had the highest concentration of Eggman bases on Mobius. Eggman smiled widely as he reviewed the production data of one particular base. Many of his bases had been seized shortly after Mobius had been freed of his rule, but one of the more specialized bases the Restoration missed housed a pet project of Eggman's. Since Tails was going to be in the area and Sonic wasn't going to be there to save him, now was the perfect time to do field testing.
"Okay team, we'll be at Radical City in just a couple of minutes," Tails announced into the Pteropodidae's intercom.
"Are we still goin' at lightspeed?" Marrow asked rhetorically.
Tails had used the plane's supersonic speed to shorten the flight time. Cosmo and Marrow were still unaccustomed to the insane speeds that the Pteropodidae were capable of. Nicole was mostly machine and was unbothered by it and Tails had spent most of his life following Sonic as he raced across Mobius. Tails knew he would need to train the two most recent additions to his team to be faster in both body and mind if they were to have a chance against Eggman, but that could wait. For now, they had a well-deserved break to see to. It wouldn't be long enough to be a proper vacation, but you had to take rests wherever you could find them.
No one but Nicole had any specific desires or requests about where they went or did, so Casino Paradise was their chosen destination. While Radical City was full of shopping malls, arcade centers, racetracks, and nearly any other kind of entertainment you could think of, Casino Paradise was what brought in money and tourists for the city. The glorified theme park made up half of Radical City and offered overpriced fun to people of all kinds. Thankfully, Tails had designed the city's defensive artillery towers and used Kyubi Enterprises to build and maintain them. The municipal government of Radical City gave all employees of Kyubi Enterprises a massive discount on all services within the city, but Tails and 'his entourage' got anything they wanted from Casino Paradise on the house. Normally, his entourage would be Sonic and whoever else happened to be with them at the time. But Sonic wasn't here and Prower Company was going to take full advantage of the deal between Tails and Radical City. They even sold Tails a bankrupt mall that he used as his main laboratory for the Northern half of the Metropolitan Continent.
An alarm on the dashboard started blaring. The Pteropodidae's Heads-Up Display warned that something was tracking the plane for a lock-on. However, Tails was confused as the HUD indicated that the tracker was coming from Radical City itself. His eyes widened as he could see the barrels of the city's artillery towers rotating to face them.
Tails had the foresight to put Radical City's air traffic control at the top of his contacts list before leaving, "Come in, Radical Flight Control. This is Tails the Fox and I'm piloting the aircraft approaching from the South-East, over."
Tails tried two more times to make contact, and nothing but dead air came back, "Miles, our radar isn't picking up anything else in the air around us and our ECM Integrity is assured. They're targeting us."
Tails let out a tired sigh I should have known something would go wrong before we got the city, "Nicole, I'm giving you the overrides for the towers' shield array. We'll have to disable the towers the old-fashioned way."
Tails turned the intercom back on as Nicole got to work on the towers' shields, "Buckle in if you're not already; we're engaging in aerial combat."
Radical City had one main defensive tower for each cardinal direction and one supporting tower for each intercardinal direction, for a total of eight. Tails maneuvered the Pteropodidae to dodge fire as he circled around to be due West from Radical City. Radical City was built on the Eastern Coast of the Metropolitan Continent and given that Eggman had attack craft coming from the ocean on Angletic Island, Tails deduced that an attack from Eggman would be most focused from the East. While Eggman could attack from any direction, other cities could warn Radical City of airships sailing from the West and they could be taken down or weakened by the GUN Airforce. Disabling the Western towers would have the lowest effect on Radical City's ability to defend itself. The next closest cities were all to the South and Tails didn't want to risk the towers inadvertently shelling other cities. While that was unlikely in the extreme, there was no chance the towers could hit civilization West of their position.
Attacking one of the cardinal towers directly kept the other cardinal towers from being able to fire on the Pteropodidae. The intercardinal towers were in the way of the main towers; an intentional weakness in the design in case the towers were taken over by a hostile force. The shield array overrides were another precaution in the same vein. Even Sonic had told Tails it was paranoid to put in such drastic countermeasures, but these countermeasures were going to allow Prower Company access to Radical City and the ability to liberate it.
The Pteropodidae could easily level the towers with minimal damage to the rest of the city, but that would leave Radical City largely defenseless from an invading army. Tails' goal was to cripple the cannon barrels of the Western artillery towers. The towers couldn't fire into the city itself without damaging the much taller buildings. Many would see that in of itself as a design flaw, but Tails reasoned it would let evacuation craft escape the city much sooner while removing the risk of getting caught in the crossfire between the towers and whatever they were shooting at.
As Tails needed to hit very specific areas of the towers, he gave the plane's targeting computers total control over the weapon systems so he could focus on piloting. It also gave him time to analyze the situation Radical City is exactly as I remember it from this distance, that and the lack of Eggman statues or logos tells me it isn't Eggman. The Egg Maidens from Dreadnaught Plateau were easily large enough to hold Zomom, so perhaps the Deadly Six are back? But how would they leave Lost Hex? Why would Radical City still be standing if was the Deadly Six? They wanted to destroy Mobius, and those guns would help with that, but there shouldn't be anything else in the city that could advance their goals. So we can rule out both Eggman and the Deadly Six.
Radical City's artillery towers were state-of-the-are technology, but they were designed and built years before the Starfall Islands incident. The Pteropodidae was built by the same genius as the towers but with all of the advancements locked away in the Ancients' Cyberspace. Tails didn't even have to resort to maneuvers that conventional aircraft were incapable of. The leading-edge plane effortlessly danced around the super-heavy Whispon cannon fire. The Pteropodidae's targeting computer likewise crippled the towers by the time Prower Company were forty seconds out from the city limits. The barrels of the intercardinal towers were shattered by the energy blasts while the areas around the main guns of the due Western tower were structurally compromised, forcing the barrels to dip uselessly downward with no hope of raising without significant repairs.
Tails turned on outbound communications as the Pteropodidae flew past the broken and useless towers, "Kyubi Metropolitan Main Lab, this is Miles Prower. My plane will be landing within five minutes, over."
The communicator buzzed to life, "Copy that, Mr. Prower. We will require documentation and DNA scanning to confirm your identity, over."
At least we got an answer this time Tails thought to himself, "Is DNA scanning regular procedure?" Nicole asked.
"No, but I'm going use my authority to make it mandatory in all Kyubi facilities," Tails replied, "I couldn't do it sooner because we were either busy or didn't have access to global communication. I'm not sure why they're enforcing it now."
The Pteropodidae had to fly at a much lower speed to safely navigate around the skyscrapers of Radical City. As they flew, Nicole reported that several law enforcement vehicles were following them in both the air and on the ground. Prower Company was on edge and ready to fight. If whoever was in control of the city was willing to kill them on sight, it was a safe assumption that the Radical City Police Department was an enemy faction. They could see several SWAT units around the landing pad of the Kyubi Lab, complete with mobile barricades. Marrow informed everyone over the intercom that there were at least three whole units waiting for them.
The Pteropodidae gently landed on the pad, but everyone was nervous and confused. Prower Company could hear all of the Whispons priming as the canopies opened. The team slowly lowered themselves from the plane. Tails only became more baffled as he stepped away from the Pteropodidae and his team and held out an arm I can't see their faces through the tinted face shields, but the rest of their anatomy looks right. Eggman robots would be shooting at us by now. They don't look like they have Vanguard Implants, in spite of the Species Variation even!
A person approached Tails, their sex and species indeterminable through the bomb suit, but paused for a moment upon getting within arm's reach of Tails, "Er, are you going to take a sample?"
Are they waiting to see if I attack? Tails thought as the individual slowly filled a small vial with Tails' blood, "Return to your group," The individual ordered with a muffled feminine voice.
Tails did as commanded and waited patiently, "Do you think they've already had problems with Replicas?" Cosmo whispered.
"That would explain a few things," Tails admitted, "But keep that to yourself for now, I don't want them trying to use that to fabricate a defense."
A voice yelled out from some of the equipment the SWAT team had set up, "DNA verification confirmed; this was a false alarm people!"
The SWAT team holstered their weapons and started breaking down their mobile barricades for transport. Prower Company relaxed, everyone but Nicole letting out sighs of relief, as an un-helmeted Woodpecker in riot gear and a sharply dressed Groundhog fast walked their way up to the team.
"Excuse me, Tails?" The Groundhog asked nervously.
"Mr. Prower," Tails corrected, "I take it you two are going to explain to me why the defense system I built for your city just tried to kill me and my friends?"
"That is correct," The Woodpecker answered in a surprisingly deep voice, "My name is Irwin Shipwright, and I'm the Commander of the Radical City Crisis Response Team. The man next to me, Mr. Falls, is the Deputy Mayor."
Tails nodded politely, "Commander Shipwright, Mr. Falls. I understand Mayor Abrahms is a busy woman, but if she isn't here in person within a half-hour to explain why my own guns just tried to kill me; I will deconstruct the towers, move Kyubi Enterprise's regional headquarters to Empire City, and then sue the city government into bankruptcy."
Tails gave both men a stern look, "I promise you; you will not win a Civil Suit against Sonic's adoptive brother when I have recordings of Radical Flight Control ignoring my hails and the towers shooting at me."
To his credit, Cmdr. Shipwright appeared unmoved by the threat. Unfortunate that his eyes betrayed him. Mr. Falls went pale and then bolted for the stairway down like the city was being bombed. The team left the Commander to finish organizing post-operation work. Everyone was dead silent as Tails led them to his private breakroom. The room was assuredly less glitzy than most people would think a multimillionaire's private breakroom was but was still very cozy.
"Er, Miles?" Cosmo said slowly, "Do you actually intend to do all of those things you threatened to do?"
"I wouldn't actually deconstruct the artillery towers," Tails replied calmly, "This city has as many people as Empire City on any given day."
Tails started chuckling, "As for suing them; I would offer to drop the case in return for everyone who I believed was responsible leaving their jobs."
Marrow whistled, "Wow, that's cold 'nd calculatin.'"
"I help paid for Mayor Abrahms' election campaign, and we could have all died on her watch," Tails argued, "If her reasons for this mishap aren't good enough for me, I'm going to leak knowledge of this incident to ruin her chances at reelection."
"Does this 'Mayor' really have so much authority that we can solidly place the blame on her?" Cosmo asked, "You make it sound like she can command the whole city, but the Mayor of Newfound Sanctuary is much more limited in power."
"This whole continent was the main battlefield for the War to Take Back the Planet," Tails explained, "GUN's headquarters, the Presidential Palace of the Federation, the Seat of the Federation Supreme Court, and several other key institutions were all based here."
Tails leaned back into the recliner he was sitting in with hand behind his head, "Don't let Radical City's condition mislead you: it's only so pristine now because the Restoration focused their efforts in the region as soon as the war ended. Several government positions that were crucial for running everything are still unoccupied. Anywhere not under GUN martial law has either fallen into anarchy or looks to the municipal government out of necessity."
"And given Radical City is still standing, we can assume the latter," Cosmo concluded.
Cosmo was clearly thinking hard about this unique set of circumstances, her head resting on a hand as she leaned into the arm of the couch she was sharing with Marrow. The Seedrian's eyes looked down at the table, but she was clearly looking into space.
Tails appreciated this with a small smile, She can see both sides of the argument and can't decide who's more right, despite being directly involved. She could have died and isn't letting that sway her. So much sympathy with no bias, how often do you see that?
What Tails didn't notice, was Marrow watching him and how he was looking at Cosmo. Instead of teasing Tails, Marrow asked a question that had been on his mind for a while, "Say, Miles, I thought you liked bein' called Tails."
"I do," Tails said, "I prefer to 'Miles' at any rate, it makes me sound like a man in his sixties."
"At least since I've met you, you've been tellin' everyone to call ya Miles," Marrow pointed out, "So, why?"
"When you hear 'Tails the Fox,' what do you think of?" Tails asked.
"I've always been told about how you are Sonic's most faithful companion and right-hand man," Cosmo answered, "I doubt there's anyone who has heard of Sonic that doesn't also know of you."
"I appreciate you censoring yourself, but I believe what you have actually heard everyone say is that I'm Sonic's sidekick," Tails replied with a smirk.
"That seems very reductive, but it isn't wrong," Cosmo admitted.
"Which is precisely why I'm doing this," Tails stated.
"Meeting Sonic and becoming his partner is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I doubt anything could ever come close to it," Tails stated, "But I let it define me."
"Sonic has always told me how great I am, how he couldn't wait to see the kind of person I would become, but the thought of leaving his side didn't occur to me until recently," Tails continued as he stared at the ceiling.
"I stuck to him like glue after the war, and he never complained," Tails said, "There is nothing Sonic loves more than freedom, and I turned myself into a ball-and-chain around his ankles."
Tails sat up in his recliner, but kept the leg-rest up, "He always did his best to push me forward in life, and I repaid him by becoming childishly emotionally dependent on him. Things happened on Chaos Island that I'm not comfortable talking about yet, but it made me realize how horribly I had been betraying Sonic; spitting in the face of everything he did for me."
Tails didn't notice Cosmo trying to say something as he continued, "I won't deserve to be in his life until I become a real hero; someone who can independently inspire hope in people and lead them to the lives they want. And that can't happen while everyone sees me as Tails: Sonic's Sidekick."
"I look forward to the day that I can call myself Tails again," He assured, "But I have to redefine and reintroduce myself to the world as Miles Prower first. By the time that happens, I can be Tails again without everyone else seeing nothing more than a stary-eyed follower."
"That… was way deeper than I thought," Marrow admitted with a shocked expression.
"Well, should we call you 'Tails' in private then?" Cosmo asked, "You have more experience in fighting Eggman than the rest of us put together and you build and repair all of our equipment, you have to be the leader no matter what."
"I would like that," Tails said, "Thank you."
Tails' PSG started beeping moments later. He checked his notifications and saw that Mayor Abrahams had arrived, "That was fast," Tails said to himself.
Tails typed a message back telling security to guide her up to the private breakroom, "All right everyone, the mayor will be here shortly. Act professional, at least until we hear her out."
A few minutes later, a finely dressed Human woman walked through the door. She wore a grey fur coat that accented her black hair and heels nicely. She wore no gloves but had on a few nice-looking rings. To her credit, Tails could tell the gems set in the rings were all glass. So she doesn't waste a lot of money just to look nice: noted. The only other accessory she had was a sleek cane with a silver grip fashioned after an eagle.
"Welcome Mayor Abrahams," Tails started politely, "And forgive me and the lack of seats, I don't usually have so many people up here at once."
"I didn't take offense, Mr. Prower," The mayor said, "Provided you aren't offended by brevity."
"I'll cut to the chase then: why did the lesser weapons of mass destruction I built for your city fire at our plane?" Tails asked.
"We were expecting some variant of the Tornado or another kind of biplane," Abrahams explained, "Given how different your new plane is compared to other things you have built, we had assumed it was Eggman Tech."
"I made sure to inform Radical Flight Control that our plane was made with Ancient Tech and from which way we would be arriving, they also ignored our hails. Can you explain that?" Tails asked more harshly than he intended.
The mayor knew she was on thin ice, "We thought the hails were faked or otherwise doctored."
The room fell into an uncomfortable silence. "I won't lie to you Madam Mayor, I am not pleased with that answer," Tails stated.
"I am terribly sorry that this incident happened," Mayor Abrahams stated, "Your plane was just so amazing that we thought only Eggman could build something like it."
"But not me; the boy genius who has constantly helped thwart Eggman?" Tails asked rhetorically.
"That came out wrong," Abrahams insisted, "It eclipsed anything you have ever made for Kyubi Enterprises and GUN, how we were to know you were the architect behind it?"
Tails silently glared at the mayor. How does someone who puts their foot into their mouth so often get anywhere in politics? "I take back what I said before," Cosmo said, "You should ruin this this woman."
Marrow had to put a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing while Tails blushed hard and snapped his head to face her, "I beg your pardon?" Abrahams asked in shock.
"She means your career," Tails clarified, "And on that note, you may want to figure out how Whisp politics work."
"May I ask why?" The mayor asked, not liking where this was going.
"Because you won't be able to get elected Prom Queen anywhere on Mobius by the time I'm done with you," Tails explained, "If there is anything else you wish to discuss with me personally, you will have to arrange an appointment with my secretary."
The mayor nodded her head and solemnly exited the breakroom, "I'm going to take up smoking again at this rate."
"Again?" Marrow asked, "Ya used to smoke lad?"
"The war was not a good time for me," Tails replied.
Desperate to change the subject, Cosmo asked a question, "Should I have said 'destroyed her' instead?"
Marrow leaned back as guffawed obnoxiously while Nicole put her face into her hands to muffle her laughter, "That's worse!" Tails exclaimed.
AUTHOR'S NOTES-
Full disclosure: I had intended to put in casino level minigames in this chapter. But putting everything else I wanted to while keeping this chapter reasonably sized meant saving that for next chapter. That's just how things work out sometimes. I would also like to apologize for having a chapter where nothing but set-up happens. I don't like it when that happens in works I'm reading, but it is unavoidable.
So we learn the party didn't save Marrow from anything. That's not something I pulled out of a hat, I planned that in advance to help show how smart the Brothers are. This is also the first time we hear about the Metallurgic Legion by name. Neo-Metal and Mecha Sonic pallet swaps color coated for different purposes. Originally, the Metallurgic Legion's urban stealth unit was going to be Steel Company, but Steel is more associated with durability and power than quiet and subtlety; steel even has a distinct noise associated with it hit hitting something solid. We also learn that Eggman has more bases around Mobius than most people realize. The Phantom Ruby creating illusionary soldiers and lieutenants meant he got beaten with more resources left over than usual. Of course, everyone knew that, but there was no chance GUN and the Restoration was going to find them all with everything else on their plate.
I want honest opinions and criticism about Tails' motivations and rant in this chapter. It's something I thought long and hard about, but I'm not confident I explained and executed it well. I like the Tails cutscenes on Chaos Island and what they do for his character. Loosing Sonic in Forces had a clear negative effect on him, not doing anything for the Resistance in his search for proof that Sonic was still alive and not being able to fix Omega. Given we see Omega functional later in that game, we can assume Tails recovered rapidly when he was reunited with Sonic and he fixed Omega. If Tails ever does go on his own, this is how I feel he would think. He realizes how dependent on Sonic he is in Frontiers, whether that's true or just something he believes is a totally different argument from this, and he knows he needs to leave his side to improve. We know Tails thinks more about his failings than his achievements, and knowing Sonic is unavailable but safe gives him the push he needs to come into his own without having another mental break.
Just for clarification: Mayor Abrahams isn't evil or incompetent, she made a bad call out of not having a lot of time to decide and Eggman's occupation of her city fresh in her mind. Tails would have normally been more understanding, god knows he and the rest of the main cast have forgiven worse things, but he isn't in a forgiving mood so soon after Dreadnaught Plateau.