Chapter 14: Rescuing Sonic
In the Sunrise City, Tails has been hiding in one of his labs for the past six months ever since he exiled himself. He hid his lab and garage with stealth tech so that the Eggman Empire wouldn't find him. Same goes for the Resistance despitee him helping create more Wispons.
Although they don't blame him, Tails still blames himself for what happened to Sonic. His own best friend and older-brother figure.
One day, Tails manages to grab his tools and deactivates his cloaking device. He opens the garage door and prepares on a still deactivated Omega. The last time he was seen, he was defeated by Infinite and presumed destroyed.
"Okay, pal. Managed to find the best replacement parts to put you back together and fix you up good as new. I hope." Tails said.
Tails gets to work on Omega and tries his best to reactivate him….. While forgetting to activate his stealth tech. Water slowly raises from the sewers and forms into Chaos.
Tails is struggling to reactivate him. He doesn't know why.
"Oh man. That should've done it. I don't get it. I was able to fix Cubot's voice chip, reprogrammed that machine that turned me into a robot and allowed me to retain my free will. Why can't I figure this out? Something is blocking me."
Tails bends down to his knees and sits down and sighs. But then he hears footsteps. They sound like water. He looks up and sees Chaos approaching him.
"Chaos?! Wait! It's me! I'm a friend of Knuckles! Don't you remember him at least?"
Chaos says nothing and continues walking closer to Tails. Tails had to think fast. He looks around for any source of weapons. He turns to Omega, opens up his arm and missiles are pulled out. Tails holds the arm, ready to fire.
"Stay back. I know how to use this. Don't make me do it."
Tails shakes as Chaos draws even closer, not even intimidated by his threats. Chaos pulls his right arm back and was ready to attack. Before Chaos could even touch Tails, the young fox pushes the button and shoots a missile, sending Chaos back into a wall and knocking him down. Tails deactivates the arm and slowly walks over to Chaos. He notices a gem similiar to the one that Shadow brought back to the base six months ago.
"That power Eggman has been using. I think it may have something to do with this gem. I think this could help us gain an advantage."
But when Tails was about to grab the gem from Chaos' torso, his eyes light up and punches Tails away from him before he retreats into the open sewer.
"Ouch!" Tails gestures to his chin. "I gotta find it. Maybe get a clue on its power. And heck, maybe find out where Eggman is. I need to reach my Tornado 2 that's on the other side of the city."
Tails starts running through the city by spinning his two tails and barely hovers off the ground. The young fox jumps up on a platform before attacking a buzzbomber and instantly destroys it before landing on top of a building with a slope. He spin dashes off the slope and gets to higher ground and runs on top of a loop plus three platforms before bouncing off a spring. As he lands on another building, he turns to see giant Death Egg Robots.
"Holy moly! Death Egg Robots! Eggman is mass producing those things now! This is terrible. They're making a total mess of this place. We gotta find Eggman and end this war."
Tails wasn't gonna let that distract him, so he ncontinues on. He jumps to another building….. Only for a meteor to destroy it and Tails began to fly before he goes down safely. He spin dashes through a loop and hits a dash panel, running through a corkscrew while avoiding a Death Egg Robot's optic laser, which nearly blasted him. He rolls into a ball and Egg Pawn was about to shoot him until Tails uses his spin attack and destroys it and they carry on. Tails spin dashes, goes around a loop, another corkscrew and another loop before rolling down a slope on the building before flying forward via a spring and they land on the ground and continue to run and get to one of Tails' spare workshops.
"My Tornado 2 should be up ahead." Tails screeches to a halt and sees Chaos coming to attack them again after jumping out of a fountain. "Chaos. We don't have time for this. Get out of the way."
Chaos throws a stretch punch at him, but he swiftly dodges. Tails realizes that he has no choice but to fight now.
Chaos' Phantom Ruby prototype glows and suddenly, a bunch of big water drops start falling from the sky. Tails, despite not being as good of a fight as Sonic, Knuckles or Amy, was not gonna run away from a fight. He runs around in circles, avoiding the water drops that try to hit him. Then Chaos summons spiked balls wrapped by water that are thrown at him. Tails sees a chance and does a super peel out and runs towards Chaos, attacking him in the brain and sending him into the air. Chaos then summons waterfalls coming from the sky thanks to the Phantom Ruby prototype. Chaos tries to hide in the waterfalls, but Tails has his arm cannon put on and blasts Chaos out of one of them, allowing Tails to do another spin attack. Then Chaos literally traps Tails within water. Unlike his best friend, Tails is a really a good swimmer to begin with. Tails sees Chaos trying to escape. He uses his tails to spin and swim better underwater. He spins his tails and zooms out of the water like a torpedo and gives Chaos' open brain a strong kick, paralyzing and defeating him.
After Chaos is down for the count for the second time in a row, all the water vanishes. Not a single puddle left. Like it wasn't even there at all. But the ground remains wet.
"Whew! That was a close one!" Tails wiped sweat off of his head. "That's weird. Chaos couldn't do that before. Not without becoming Perfect Chaos. Must be that new power Eggman is using. Only one way to find out."
Tails approaches Chaos, who accidentally dropped his prototype The genius fox picks up the prototype, and gets out a scanner and takes a picture. But then moments later, the prototype shatters alongside another device.
"Well, whatever that jewel was, it's gone. It's no Chaos Emerald that's for sure. And this thing. Pretty advanced tech. A mini neuro bypass switch. A mind control device! Eggman was using this and that jewel to control Chaos!"
Then he heard static and voices.
"Chaos…. Read….. Eggman here… what…." Eggman said.
"That voice. It's Eggman." Tails recognized.
"Emerald Hill…. Rendezvous….. Pronto… discussion."
"Emerald Hill? I remember that place. That's where I went on my first adventure with Sonic when I met him. Eggman is there. Let's get on the Tornado 2 and head there right away."
Tails opens up his hidden workshop and there is a runway. The plane goes down the runway and takes off. Tails can't help but sigh. The good times he had with Sonic, as he always stood on top of the plane while Tails pilots. He makes their way to Emerald Hill, wondering what the Resistance is up to right now.
The stolen shuttle that is being 'borrowed' by the Resistance is on its way to outer space. The Eggman Empire has no idea that the shuttle has been taken….. Until now.
"Rouge. How's everything up there?" Knuckles commed Rouge.
"Not so good, Red. I overheard Eggman. He's planning to banish Sonic into something called 'null space'." Rouge answered.
"What?! You can't be serious!" Silver yelled with surprise, particularly with the word banish.
"Eggman has been keeping him alive this entire time. He wanted Sonic to see the entire world conquered so Eggman can show him his completed empire." Rouge said.
"Egghead is always looking for ways to fill his own ego. And tormenting Sonic with views of the state the world is in. That's low for him." Knuckles said, showing how angered he is already.
"Y'all better hurry. He's forced to change his plans ahead of time and now he's getting ready to banish him." Rouge tells them.
"Do we even know where Sonic is?" Sam asked.
"Aboard the Death Egg." Rouge answered the rookie. "Thankfully, Eggman doesn't know y'all are here until now. And he won't use the Space Colony ARK to blow it up."
"Well that's a sign of relief. But we gotta hurry!" Vector said.
"I got one! Me, Silver and Espio will free the prisoners held on the Death Egg." Knuckles said. "Amy, Charmy and Vector will make sure that no enemies will try to stop us."
"What about me, commander Knuckles?" Sam asked.
"I need you to save Sonic. He's being held in his own prison cell, which is running by power. Rogue can guide you to the control panels to his cell. Find it, scrap it and the cells and binds will deactivate and he'll be free." Knuckles ordered.
"Y-you got it, s-sir."
Sam is shaking. He is very nervous. He tries to hide as he is afraid that he'll fail to save Sonic and gain more respect from Knuckles and the Resistance. This does not go unnoticed by Knuckles and Vector.
"Don't fail us now, rookie. Okay, everyone. You got your objectives! Let's go get Sonic back!"
The heroes charge forward, ready to rescue their friend Sonic. Knuckles, Silver and Espio separate from Sam as they go their own paths. Knuckles sees a hovering robot called a Spike Bonker, shaped like a drill with eyeballs and spike circling around it. It fires its spikeball forward, which Silver grabs and throws it back at it with his powers, blowing it up. A huge cliff is in front of them as Knuckles glides over with Silver flying and helping Espio get over there. Knuckles sees another path nearly above them.
"Split up. I'll go up, you two go forward." Knuckles tells Espio and Silver.
"You got it."
Silver throws Knuckles up on the path and Knuckles clings onto a wall and starts climbing upward. He sees a dead end above him and he looks behind him and sees a path. Knuckles jumps off the wall and avoids short lightning as part of the floor is electrified. He lands safely and climbs upward and a missile nearly misses him once it starts flying out of the wall. He climbs up and jumps over ledges and avoids more missiles. More Spike Bonkers and Egg Pawns start coming toward Knuckles as he punches his way through some of them. A spike ball is fired at him, but Knuckles punches it back right towards the robot and destroying it. An Egg Pawn tries to swing its arms, but Knuckles grabs an arm, rips it off and swings it like a club and knocking the robot into four others, blowing them up. Knuckles then jumps and does a spin attack on the last one as he makes his way to a security door.
"Oh, crud. A security system. Probably to keep people in or out."
The system itself looks like a sentry attached to a thick, metal pillar with a red crimson eye in the middle. It opens its eye and stares at Knuckles. Eight metal spheres come down and surround it. Knuckles does an uppercut on one of the spheres, sending it into the eye, damaging it. The other seven spheres all hover in the air and they all charge at Knuckles. Knuckle easily knocks them all back at the eye, destroying all of them and the eye is severely damaged. But the security system wasn't done yet. It detaches from the ruined pillar as it hovers in the air and two platforms are on both sides. Both of them have spikes at the bottom.
The security system hovers closer to Knuckles and starts firing a laser from its bottom as the two spiked pillars spin around it as the spikes try to hit Knuckles. Knuckles runs into a corner and with the right timing, trie to punch the eye, but is knocked back by what appears to be a shield. Its laser continues to fire and was about to hit him, but the system turns bright orange, meaning that it is overheating. Knuckles sees the shield deactivating and gives it three strong punches as the system is finally destroyed. With it down, all the cell doors open with the prisoners inside.
"It's okay, everyone! We're here to save you! C'mon! We got shuttles to take you all home! What do you say?"
The freed soldiers and civilians cheer as Knuckles leads them away back to the shuttles while Silver and Espio carry forward.
Silver and Espio reach the docks outside the Death Egg. Thankfully the mobians can breathe in space. Silver and Espio reach through spinning elevators as they make it on a descending treadmill with spikes on both sides. Egg Pawns fall down to attack them. Silver sends a psychic wave, slicing them all in half horizontally while Espio throws a ninja star at one, homing attacks the second and karate chops the third on in the head. Buzzbombers and Bomb Robots try to kill them, but Silver uses his psychokinesis to throw the missiles at the robots and destroys them. As they go through the next door, Espio is suddenly flipped upside down and is on the ceiling.
"Espio?! What are you doing?!" Silver asked.
"That is not me. Look!" Espio points forward and Silver sees a Death Ball robot with two bumper shields and an opening that drops small robot tanks with spiked armor covering them.
"That thing must be guarding the other prisoners." Silver realized.
"So many of them are being held here for months. Suffering in this cold station."
"That's one more thing Eggman will answer for. But first we gotta get this thing out of the way."
Silver flies in to attack it, but one of the shields gets in the way and Silver bumps off of it like a pinball. The shield doesn't even have a dent in it. Espio runs around the area and throw the ninja stars while dealing with the mini tanks, but the shields are too quick and reflect all of the projectiles Espio throws at it. Silver tries to throw the mini tanks at the Death Ball, but the bumpers block them too.
"Silver, wait. I got an idea. Focus your psychokinesis on the shields and hold them still."
"Got it. And you can throw those things at it and it should be destroyed!"
Silver focuses and uses his powers to hold shields into place, causing the Death Ball to start smoking. Espio on the other hand is throwing two big ninja stars at it, causing big damage and Espio kicks the robots into the robot's opening, shoving in several at once. The Death Ball is thrown away from the station by Silver and it explodes.
With that out of the way, there is nothing stopping the two from rescuing the prisoners. But something seems to bothering Silver.
"I hope the rookie knows what to do. He's been trained for stuff like this. He'll find Sonic in time! Gotta have faith in him!"
Sam is left on his own to rescue Sonic. As he does so, he gets a call from Knuckles.
"Okay, rookie. Our other forces are dealing with enemies. You took the best route. Only you can save Sonic now! Find him!" Knuckles instructed.
"Yes sir!" Sam acknowledged. "Oh man. The suspense is killing me. Please let me rescue him. Please let me rescue him. Please let me rescue him."
Sam runs down a slope and around a tight corner, he fires his grapple wire to slide and drift to the corner and does it again a second time. Sam runs into a red lit hallway with several Egg Pawns. He uses his Red Burst Wispon to destroy them as he ascends upwards and destroys three Egg Pawns in front of him by wire attacking them, followed by two buzzbombers. Sam grapples a round target to reach another end and jumps off a booster ramp and goes through two dash rings and a rainbow ring before running down a spiral path and into a new session.
"Keep pressing forward, rookie. Security is tight here." Rouge tells him.
Sam nods and jumps over a ledge, but screeches to a halt as a pentagon-shaped machine is shooting green energy blasts in five directions. Sam had to think fast. He sees platforms above him and uses his grapple wire and he grapples to the ceiling and lands on the platform. He jumps from platform to platform as he uses his flamethrower weapon on more robots. Sam then sees a spring going up and left, so Sam jumps and bounces off the spring and uses his wire attack on the target sphere and swings and spins and with the right timing, lets go and hits another rainbow ring that is bringing him closer to his destination. He runs forward and reaches a dead end, and now he uses his burst wispon power to fly over the walls before he stomps onto a robot, destroying it. But the alarms go off.
"Uh oh. They're on high alert now. The control panel must be close. Hurry and disable them to free Sonic."
Sam continues to run forward and sidesteps through every path before he could even fall off. Good thing his speed and reaction times have been tested and trained enough. Three Aero-Chasers are flying in front of Sam, all trying to stop him in his tracks with lasers, but Sam is able to quick step out of the way and dodge them all and they crash as the rookie makes his way to the control panels.
"I-I made it. W-what do I do now?"
"Wreck it. Do that and Sonic will be free."
Sam uses his Burst Wispon and burns the controls and sets them on fire.
"Good job. Now let's meet him at the shuttles, shall we?"
Sam starts making his way back to the shuttles. He can't help but feel his heart beating. He hopes that he was to help Sonic on time.
The Death Egg starts shaking as a battle goes on somewhere aboard the big station. Sonic is in his own private cell with energy binders attached to his wrists and feet so he wouldn't use his powers. He doesn't seem to be all banged up or anything.
"Your time has come, Sonic the Hedgehog."
Zavok opens the cell door and starts approaching Sonic. But he isn't even fazed one bit. Sonic isn't afraid of him, but he does look annoyed and angry.
"Oh hey! Sounds like the party has started. Can I join in? Will there be chili dogs? No. Of course not. Jerks like you hate to have fun."
The Death Egg shakes again. Because of the control panels being destroyed, Sonic's binders have vanished.
"My time has come, huh? I'm free now, so what are you gonna do, Zavok? Fight me?"
"Foolish hedgehog. Getting out of your chains does not make you free. Now come and face the inevitable."
Sonic smirks and speeds out of the cell and stares at Zavok to mock him.
"The only inevitable is my foot kicking your butt around this place as payback. And it's only a start after you."
Zavok gets angry and attempts to shoulder bash the blue blur, but Sonic swiftly avoids the attack and they both jump onto a battlefield.
Sonic lands on a pentagon-shaped field with hexagon tiles. Zavok is on a giant bee robot called the Death Queen and is floating high above Sonic.
"I can't wait to see how long you last against this."
Yeah? Why don't you come down here and let me mop the floor with you?
"You are an impudent nuisance! I'm gonna make you suffer a whole lot more when I'm through with you!"
A few buzzbombers come out of nowhere thanks to Zavok's prototype he wears around his chest. Sonic easily homing attacks and destroys them all. It seems that he hasn't lost his touch one bit despite being locked up. He jumps up to boost into Zavok, only for the Death Queen to dodge out of the way, causing Sonic to land on a ledge. The Death Queen fires a laser from its tail and at Sonic. Sonic runs and dodges by running on the wall and gets as close to Zavok as possible.
Sonic jumps off the wall and homing attacks onto Zavok. Zavok backhands the hedgehog away, but Sonic instantly recovers and homing attacks him again, but Zavok counters again, but Sonic does it again and this time, strikes the landing and stunning Zavok. Sonic does a one-two punch to the face followed by a kick to the stomach and does two roundhouse kicks to the head. Sonic jumps off the giant bee robot and jumps back down to the field.
"You should make this easy on yourself, Sonic. And surrender. Most of the world is under Eggman's control now." Zavok said.
"Come down here and make me, you big, red jerk." Sonic challenged him.
"That I can arrange for you! I'll crush you!"
The Death Queen descends down and tries to ram into Sonic with its sharp tail. But Sonic easily sidesteps it as more buzzbombers come out of nowhere and surround him. Sonic jumps at the right moment the bees come to attack, but Sonic uses his spin attack and destroys all of them. Sonic is left unfazed. He then spin dashes in place and charges up energy. He glows light blue as he turns around to face Zavok.
Zavok once more tries to ram into him with the Death Queen Bee, but Sonic sidesteps out of the way and boosts through the giant bee robot, setting it in flames and Zavok loses his footing and falls off. The Death Queen slowly stops and nearly turns around to face the hedgehog face to face. Zavok cracks his fists and was ready. Sonic slides under Zavok, scooping him off his feet and jumps and does a back kick to the zeti's back. Zavok lands on his chest, but wasn't gonna go down easily. Zavok tries to throw a punch and sweep him with his tail, but Sonic jumps, does a dive kick to the head, stumbling him. Sonic dashes behind his back and does a spin attack on his back and sending Zavok to the air. Sonic finally jumps and does a spinning stomp move and slams Zavok into the ground, cracking his prototype.
"N-no… How could I lose to the likes of you a-again?!" Zavok said with a frustrated tone.
"Well that was fun. That's one jerk down, and five more to go." Sonic said. "But seriously though. Next time, bring some chili dogs next time. Eggman's cooking is just plain trash."
Zavok grunts as he tries to move as he lays on his back. He loses his strength as he passes out. Sonic sees something on his chest.
"Hey, I've seen that thing. On that masked guy. And even Shadow as well. Wonder what it is." Sonic walks closer to grab the cracked prototype, but it shattered into pieces before he could even touch it. "Well that was different. And that noise. Heard that six months ago. What the heck is going on here?"
The Death Egg starts rumbling again.
"Might as well think later. Might as well run right now."
Sonic dashes his way from the battlefield, leaving the unconscious Zavok behind. As he runs like he normally does, the alarms go off.
"Guess they found out I escaped. Oh well. The six month stay with a yawn fest. Time to get out and wake up and stretch."
Sonic boosts onward as the ceiling slowly starts descending down on the hedgehog, intending to crush him. Sonic was fast enough to reach the escape route and slide under the gamp. He slides into the next room and looks at a map.
"I've been locked up on the Death Egg? Wow, Eggman. Can't you think of something more original for a change instead of recycling the same place over and over again?"
Sonic is rather annoyed by the times he has been on the Death Egg and trashed it. He's lost count so many times. But he shrugs it off and continues dashing forward. Sonic jumps out and grinds on a rail and sees three paths to take. He homing attacks a few buzzbombers and heads left and up while grinding on another spiral rail, lands on a long platform, boosts past two Egg Pawns and grinds and jumps onto a small egg jet. He dodges several aero-chasers firing missiles at him as he makes his way to another session of the Death Egg. He skips past a few ledges and stomps down a floor.
"Hmm. What's my move? If there is a way into space. I must got here on a shuttle. That's it! There should be a shuttle bay around here! I can use a little cruise on my way home from this big ball of scrap."
Sonic dodges some laser cannons on the walls and ceiling as he homing attacks some Buzzbombers as he dodges more cannons. He stomps to another floor and as he makes his way to another session, he homing attacks two more pawns before the ceiling could crush him. Sonic runs up and down a slope and hits a boost ramp as he homing attacks onto a egg jet before he rides on another one as laser cannons on the station start firing at him.
Sonic jumps from one jet to another before he could be shot down and latches onto another. He chuckles, knowing how much fun this is to him. His eyes widened as dozens of laser cannons all focused on all the jets. Sonic looks and sees an takes a couple steps forward and leaps forward into a gap before the cannons could even kill him. Sonic gains his momentum as he wall jumps down and enters the shuttle bay.
"Nailed it!" Sonic said before he hears a voice calling out for help and immediately boosts forward.
Three robots are in front of him as one of the Egg Fighters is holding Sam hostage, holding him by his chest and arms. The three turn to see Sonic and he homing attacks the two in front of him before doing the same to the third one, which released Sam. The rookie falls down on his behind as Sonic lands and strikes a pose.
"Everything's cool. You okay there, buddy?" Sonic extends his hand to Sam and smiles.
Sam couldn't believe it. He actually helped Sonic. And now he's talking to him.
"U-Uh. Y-yeah. I guess s-so. M-my name is Sam the Dog." Sam nervously introduced himself. The new recruit is very shy, finally meeting his big idol at long last after six months.
"Wow. Good name! Nice to meet you, Sam! Are you here to rescue me?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah. Commander Knuckles led this mission."
"Hey guys! C'mon! Let's get out of here before we're blown to pieces! Now!" Knuckles yelled.
"Sure. Don't even bother asking how I am! Your concern is touching, Knuckles." Sonic quipped.
Sonic smiles, having missed that voice so much. Sam leads Sonic to the exit and to one of the shuttles. The shuttles take off and are now heading back to earth.
"Hey, Sam. Thanks for the rescue. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. So glad to finally meet a friendly face around here."
"R-really? Friends?" Sam asked, having briefly mistaken.
"Sure! Why not? How else can I thank you, dude?" Sonic asked. "Good to be back with some people I know and care about, new faces included. I wonder how Knuckles and Amy are holding up."
"They're dying to see you again." Sam replied.
Sonic smiles, happy to hear that his friends are all alive and well. He can't wait to see them all again once they get back to earth. Their rescue mission was a success. Sonic is now safe and sound and now with the Resistance.
Note: I changed the most infamous moment from the original story where Tails cowered in fear upon seeing Chaos shouting "Sonic, help me!" The moment everyone hated. It's like they forgot Tails' bravery and independence he built up from Sonic Adventure, its sequel, and even Sonic Lost World. Not only that, he fights Chaos, which never happened in the original story. But hey, they redeemed him in Sonic Frontiers, which has one of the best stories in Sonic history. Until next time!