"No way…" Amy whispered.
Standing in the doorway was a young teenage white hedgehog, almost the same color as Silver. His blue eyes blazed, the red stripes outside of his eyes outlining his determined gaze. If you really paid attention, you could see a pair of purple-and-black bat wings held unfurled behind him. One of the world's only hybrids. Behind him stood a red echidna, who was grinning madly.
Silver stood in shock for a minute before racing towards the hedgehog-bat hybrid, colliding with him. "Chaos! You're alive!"
Chaos jumped in surprise at Silver's fierce attack but wasted no second before embracing him back. "Uncle Silver! I never thought I would see you again!" He peered behind Silver's quills and brightened. "Aunt Amy!"
"Chaos…" Amy murmured happily before rushing to also give Chaos a hug.
Chaos grinned at each familiar face he saw (Knuckles grinned back, Charmy did a loop-de-loop, Vector winked, and Espio nodded), but his face fell after a second. "Wait…where are my parents? I thought they would be here with you…"
Silver and Amy slowly backed away from Chaos, wringing their hands. They clearly did not want to be the ones to explain everything. After a moment's silence, Espio spoke. "Kid…I'm not sure how to say this. First off, Rouge is fine. She's out gathering intel and should be back any second. She'll be happy to see you. But…um…Shadow turned traitor and is now working with Dr. Eggman. I'm sorry, Chaos."
Chaos took a step backwards. "...what? No, that can't be true! He would never do that!"
Silver laid a hand on his nephew's shoulder while Amy gently squeezed the other shoulder. "It's unfortunately true, Chaos. Trust me, I didn't believe it either when I heard it the first time…but now, six months have passed since Sonic was defeated and he still hasn't shown up or given us any indication that he's on our side. All we get are reports of him tearing down one city or another."
Chaos bowed his head for a second. After a few moments, he raised it, eyes glittering. "Well, I'll just have to work twice as hard to make up for the savings he could've done!"
Knuckles clapped Chaos on the back, nearly making him stumble. "That's the kid I know! I didn't want to ruin the surprise. When I heard Chaos was looking for the resistance, I knew I had to recruit him! With Rouge and Shadow's blood in his veins, he ought to be a very valuable asset to us!" He led the hedgebat to the corner of the room, where a couple of weapons lay. One was red, the other was yellow and shaped like a lightning bolt, and another was blue and shaped like a planet. "I thought that you might want to have a useful wispon of your own! Should make your missions a lot easier." He also handed Chaos a communicator. "Wear this at all times, in case we need to contact you. Rouge has been experimenting with it as well, so it has a homing grappling feature that should come in handy. Now, choose your wispon."
Chaos carefully looked over each one before selecting the lightning one. It glowed at his touch and a powerful energy whip materialized in his other hand. He grinned.
Vector nodded. "Good choice."
Chaos turned to Knuckles. "I'm ready to fight. What do you want me to do?"
At that moment, Knuckles's communicator went off. "One second," he said before answering it. "Hello?"
"Knuckles? Can you hear me?" a female voice asked through the communicator.
"Rouge!" everyone exclaimed at the same time Chaos yelled, "Mom!"
"Huh? Did I just hear Chaos?"
"You sure did!" Silver said, sounding very happy. "He's joined the resistance!"
Rouge laughed joyfully. "Oh, thank goodness! I haven't seen him for five months! It's good to know my son is all right!"
"I'll see you soon, Mom!" Chaos called.
Knuckles playfully pushed Chaos away from the communicator. "Stop hogging your mom, kid." He turned to the communicator again. "Rouge, did you get any intel?"
"I did, and you'll be glad to hear it! Sonic's alive!"
"WHAT?!" the whole room exclaimed. Silver clapped his hand on his mouth, Amy started sobbing happily, and Chaos grinned.
"That's…that's amazing!" Knuckles said. He clearly wasn't expecting this. "Where is he?"
"He's being held on the Death Egg, way above Mobius. From what I've gathered, they've been torturing him the entire time he was there, so he's not in great shape right now."
"Oh, no…" Silver murmured.
"We've got to go get him!" Amy declared, wiping away her tears.
Knuckles turned to Chaos. "Here's your first mission. Get to the Chemical Plant, steal a space shuttle, and go rescue Sonic at the Death Egg. Think you can handle that?"
Chaos crouched down and completely unfurled his wings, showing off their length and beauty. He grinned. "For my uncle? I can do anything."
"Alright, Chaos, you know the plan," Knuckles's voice came through on Chaos's earpiece. "Sorry your first mission is a solo mission; we have been showing our faces too much, so Eggman's bound to be on high alert. But you've been in hiding, so it should be easier for you to sneak past the robots and steal a shuttle. Got it?"
"Got it," Chaos confirmed. He had just arrived at the Chemical Plant, and robots were swarming the place. He charged straight forward, using his unnatural speed to easily appear out of nowhere in front of them and kick their screws loose. He didn't want to fully use the wispon until he was sure he could control it, so he started unfurling the whip bit by bit, letting it first attack one enemy, and then another, until he was comfortable with relying mainly on it. He tore through hordes of robots without blinking. However, in a bit, he skidded to a halt. It was a dead end. The only things he could see were a deep, dark pit and a train running along its track ahead.
Since HQ could see his eye transponder camera, Amy immediately gave him the answer for the question he was about to ask. "It looks like a freight train. No danger, it's just carrying supplies. I would recommend riding along it as much as possible so enemies can't see you flying."
"Copy," Chaos replied. The track was a bit far, so he unfurled his wings and launched off the ground, aiming for the train.
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain tore through his right wing. A bee robot had used its laser gun on its stinger to hit his wing and steer him off course.
Its plan worked.
Chaos fell out of flight, his injured wing held tight to his side. He landed on top of the train and nearly tumbled off, but he managed to grasp a corner and hang on. He dangled precariously over the chasm for a good few seconds before he found the strength to haul himself up. He inspected his wing and, with dismay, noted that a big burn mark now dominated a third of the wing. He tried flexing it, but it hurt too much. He tucked it closer to himself. Well, great, he grumbled. Now I can't fly until I get a moment to heal my wing with my powers! And I can't right now, I have to be on top of my game! Maybe in the shuttle…
The train bellowed its horn, as though warning him. Chaos snapped his head up and found it going into a very small tunnel. Too narrow with him sitting on top. He would get smacked clean off.
He looked around in a panic. The nearest landing spot was too far away, but there was a sort of pole on top of the building housing the tunnel.
Wait, he thought. Didn't Knuckles say my communicator has a grappling feature?
He quickly held his hand up and pressed a button. A long, thin wire shot out of the end and attached to the pole, launching Chaos up with it. It flew him clear over the building…right into the coming train.
Just before the train hit him midair, he used the wire again on another pole, successfully saving him from many broken bones. He landed, panting, his injured wing throbbing painfully. He straightened up and looked around.
He appeared to be on some sort of launching pad. Directly in front of him was a huge space shuttle. He grinned. The train had led him to the exact place he needed to be.
He put a finger to his ear. "HQ, come in. I found a shuttle!"
"Perfect!" Silver replied. "Set the destination for the Death Egg! The flight should be an hour or so."
"Aye aye!" Chaos said, charging towards the shuttle triumphantly.
Sunset City was clearly the one hit the hardest. Destruction was everyone, threatening to trip the passerby. Then again, no one was on the streets…except for one lone orange fox.
He wore a brown cloak over his head, masking his face. Of course, we know him as Tails. He wasn't the happy, carefree fox we saw last time. He wore a permanent mask of sorrow and coldness, warning off anyone who dared cross his path.
That's when he stumbled across someone familiar…
Tails lifted his head up and stared at the newcomer, surprise barely lighting his dead eyes. He carefully crept towards the damaged robot, darting his head left and right in case it was a trap.
He touched the robot gingerly. "Omega…" he murmured.
The massive arsenal robot had a huge hole torn through his chest, revealing the electrical circuitry inside him, which didn't show even a spark of power.
Tails shook his head. The damage was too extensive, and the risk was too great. He turned around and started to walk away, but after a few steps, he froze and slowly turned back to Omega.
"I can't just leave him here…" he muttered. Sonic wouldn't. He would do all he could to help their robot ally, and not just because it was his brother's friend.
He covered his face when he thought of his best friend, tears threatening to fall. Sonic was probably dead because of his cowardice. If only he could've helped him…
Determination lit his gaze. It was too late to think about the past. Right now, he has a friend to help.
While these thought processes were running, he failed to notice the rather large water creature sneaking up on him, eyeing Omega as though it planned to ruin him even more.
At the last possible moment, Tails spun around, and immediately recognized the creature as one of the people who had attacked Sonic.
"You!" he snarled, whipping out a laser gun. "Get away from him!"
He fired straight into the chest of the creature, but instead of colliding, the beam passed right through it. The creature flickered in and out of existence before vanishing in a blast of red cubes.
Tails leapt backward to avoid it, narrowing his eyes. The creature had disappeared, but it might be back. He needed to get Omega out of the city now.
With great effort, he lifted the large robot out of the mess of bricks and concrete, and flew off with him.
The shuttle landed rather abruptly, jolting Chaos out of his healing trance. He had been trying to heal his wing during the 30-minute flight, but it hadn't been enough time. The wound was too deep. It had even cut through on the other side, leaving a small hole in his wing. It's clear that he wouldn't be healing himself anytime soon.
He pressed a finger to his ear. "I'm in."
"Fantastic," Knuckles's voice crackled over the earpiece. "Listen up. Our other forces are busy disabling the Death Egg security system that's in the Chemical Plant while also causing a distraction. They are almost done, so you should be able to slip in undetected. It's up to you to save Sonic! Find him!"
"Copy," Chaos replied, grasping onto his lightning wispon tightly before stepping out.
It was eerily silent. The tact team had done a good job, apparently. No robots were confronting him, but he knew better than to let his guard down.
He ran past a few hallways, but nothing screamed "prison" to him.
At that moment, Rouge came through on Chaos's earpiece. "Honey, listen to me. The prisoners are being held in some kind of internment facility. Sonic's probably there too. It's clear on the other side of the Death Egg."
"Got it," Chaos replied, running even faster. He didn't really inherit his father's speed, but he was pretty dang close.
He pelted through the rooms, still not really encountering anyone except a robot here and there. The instant he stepped into a long, spiraling hallway, alarms started blaring.
"They're on high alert now!" Rouge cried. "Get out of there, your cover's blown!"
"No way!" Chaos yelled back. "This must mean I'm in the right place!"
He ran down the spiraling staircase and ran as fast as he could towards a dark room that looked like it was lined with prison cells…
To be continued…
