Sonic and the Freedom Fighters: Parallel Dimensions

Chapter 11: Guinea Pigs

-Venom's Workshop-

Powerful lasers flew across the room as they tried to strike their targets, launched by the many heads of the massive Crimson Hydra in the centre of the room, and the three targets in question jumped and dashed around the room to avoid them. Sonic raced around to draw the lasers away from his teammates and forced Venom to damage parts of the workshop, Amy jumped around and used her hammer to launch some of the resulting debris at the robot to damage it, and Blaze darted around to look for potential weak points before launching off one of the walls and firing a powerful burst of flames into the maw of one of the heads as it attacked, resulting in a chain reaction that caused that head to explode.

"Hah! One down!" Sonic cheered before the Hydra fired another blast, causing him to dodge.

"Hmm. As expected, you're putting up an admirable fight. Good... I had a feeling you would make the perfect opponents to test out my Hydra." Venom responded, barely reacting to the damage done to her mech as the mechanical arms of the workshop came back down and repaired the area where the destroyed head used to be, before attaching another head to the body of the mech. "Now then, how about we increase the intensity a little bit?" She continued as the mech once again fired on the team, this time with more intensity behind the attacks as they were once again forced to evade.

"Alright, so that didn't work... What now?" The hedgehog asked.

"Just keep at it and try to destroy the repair arms when they're vulnerable. Our best bet is to cut off her resources as much as possible." Blaze replied, leaping back into the fray as Sonic followed close behind...

Meanwhile, outside the workshop, the rest of the group was finishing off the rest of the empowered Egg Pawns, as Sally pierced through the armor of the last of the robots with her Ring-Blades while Silver picked up the destroyed ones and tossed them into the nearby sea. As he did, some debris came out from them, including a strangely-shaped component that looked familiar to Tails. He rushed over to pick it up and closely examined it, recognizing it almost immediately.

"Huh... these almost look like Chaos Cores... I wonder if Eggman modified them to be compatible with Sol Energy." Tails wondered as Nicole quickly appeared to take a look for herself.

"It would explain why those Pawns were more powerful than the standard model." She responded, turning to notice Sally looking up at the workshop apparently deep in thought. "Sally? What's wrong?"

"I'm just wondering... we might be able to get a look into what they're planning if we can find an access point in there." Sally replied. "If we did that, we'd have a much better chance of being able to counteract it."

"And leave 'em with a bunch of smashed-up bots in the process. Sounds like a plan to me!" Bunnie cheered enthusiastically.

"It would also be beneficial to minimise any production of these empowered robots." Nicole added.

"Agreed. Me and Nicole can handle the data once we get to a suitable access point, while the rest of you find out where they're being built and destroying it." Sally replied, the rest of the group nodding in agreement before they raced inside, traversing the empty steel corridors of the workshop as they kept a sharp eye out for anything they could use to access Eggman's database... but during their search, they were stopped by a sudden blast erupting from in front of them, narrowly missing the group.

"W-What was zat?!" Antoine screamed in alarm, before Sonic suddenly hopped out from the resulting hole in the wall and turned to notice the rest of his friends.

"Don't worry, we got this under control-" He said, interrupted by one of the Hydra's heads lunging at him, prompting him to swiftly dodge and counter the attack to draw the head's attention. Once the head turned to pursue Sonic again, the group quickly raced past it, continuing to search the different rooms for anything that could be used to gain access to Eggman's database. After a bit of searching, Silver came across a terminal that seemed to be part of a server room.

"Your Highness! I think I've found something!" Silver called out as he beckoned the princess over. Sally ran over and took a look inside.

"Hmm... looks like a server room. Thanks, Silver. I can take it from here, you go and help the others." She replied as she headed towards the terminal. Silver nodded and went with the others as they hunted for where Venom was housing the empowered robots. She hooked up Nicole's computer to the terminal and let the digital lynx get to work. "How's it looking, Nicole?" She asked.

"Well, the good news is that I may have found the file we're looking for." Nicole replied, displaying the file in question on her display screen.

"And the bad news?" Sally continued, knowing from Nicole's response that there would be a catch to it.

"The file is heavily encrypted and won't open without the correct access key. I can attempt to decrypt it by force, but that may take hours." The lynx answered.

"Dang it... okay, try copying the data so we can look into it later." Sally suggested, looking for a faster alternative.

"Understood." Nicole replied as she began to copy the file. Sally breathed a sigh of relief and watched the entrance behind her, defending Nicole as she worked on her task. Silver, meanwhile, caught up with the others as they searched more of the rooms. After a while, they came across a huge, darkened room with sounds of machinery emanating from it, and the group cautiously entered to investigate it.

"So ze Cores are being developed in here?" Antoine asked as he stepped inside.

"I think so... It sounds like something's being made in here, at least." Cream replied, holding her ears a little from the loud noises.

"Well, what're we waitin' for? Let's get to smashin'!" Bunnie announced, stepping forward in preparation before Antoine held his arm out in front of her to stop her.

"Maybe ze industrial sabotage can wait until we can see what it is we are 'smashing', Bunnie. Now, zere should be..." Antoine replied, searching for something to illuminate the room before finding a lever near the entrance. He pulled it down, and the lights in the room turned on one by one, revealing the machinery inside. Their suspicions were proven true - the machine was busy assembling new Chaos Cores from the ground up, designing them to be compatible with Sol Energy. And lined along the walls of the room were inactive Egg Pawns, some of which already had these Sol Cores installed, and many others that had yet to be given one.

Unbeknownst to them, an alert had triggered on Venom's display within the Hydra, the serpentine Mobian quickly diverted her attention from the battle at hand to see what the problem was, and saw the camera feed of Sally waiting in the server room and the others in the Sol Core production chamber.

"What the... What are they up to?" She wondered aloud before quickly pressing a few buttons. Within seconds, an alarm blared throughout the workshop, and the inactive Egg Pawns within the production chamber came to life and leapt to the floor of the chamber, ready to attack the intruders. In the server room, Sally looked around as the alarm blared, then looked back to Nicole.

"I'm guessing Venom is trying to stop us. Nicole, are you able to help repel any reinforcements?" She asked as the lynx continued her task.

"Unfortunately, I will not be able to assist directly without either delaying the copying process or expending too much energy and shutting down before it is complete. That said, I do have an idea that may help..." Nicole replied, a strand of purple energy forming in the air above the computer before taking the form of a familiar two-pronged spear.

"Your energy spear? Is it safe?" Sally asked, tilting her head as she looked at the energy spear.

"It should be. I reduced the energy output so that it's only concentrated at the spearhead. That said, the energy used for it will dissipate after a little while, so let me know if you need me to generate it again." The lynx responded, with the princess taking occasional glances at the doorway to watch for any approaching robots...

Back in the production chamber, the awakened robots surrounded the group as they launched into action, fearlessly taking on the waves of machines. Tails and Bunnie flew around the chamber and used their blasters to destroy the robots from afar, Silver used his psychokinesis to ensnare a group of pawns to use as a makeshift bludgeon to mow down the rest, Rotor smashed and charged his way through the robots that got too close, Antoine cut them down with his sword, and Cream and Cheese coordinated their attacks to protect their friends from the approaching machines. Each one of them worked in tandem with each other, protecting them from getting attacked from behind as they cleared the crowd.

A large group of Pawns opted to instead escape the chamber and head straight for the server room, quickly intercepted by Bunnie as she flew out and destroyed as many as she could with her blaster and her raw strength. Unfortunately, a few managed to get away, and she couldn't risk chasing after them without potentially leaving the rest of the group in danger. Instead, she quickly fired up her communicator to alert Sally.

"Heads up, Sal. We've thinned the herd, but you still got a bunch of robots headin' right toward ya." Bunnie warned, alerting Sally to the sound of approaching robots...

"Don't worry. I'll manage." She replied before grabbing the energy spear and running towards the incoming horde. She swung the spear around and slashed through the robots as they approached, the weapon leaving a sparking gash in their armor.

Two Pawns bearing lances and shields charged forward and attacked, with Sally using her weapon to deflect their attacks, managing to block strikes from both sides until the Pawns' lances clashed with the middle of the weapon, with Sally pushing back against both of them. After a few seconds, Sally managed to swing her weapon up and send the lances flying into the air, leaving the Pawns open as she sliced through the robots with the spear. Even when the rest of the horde charged at her, Sally countered by kicking the lances as they came back down, sending them flying towards the robots and pinning them to the opening, and thrusting the weapon through the nearest robot and swinging it towards the pile.

With the entrance blocked, some of the Pawns attempted to crawl over their downed allies in order to continue pressuring Sally. Noticing that parts of the weapon had become transparent and taking that as a sign that the spear was close to dissipating, Sally spun it around in her hand and threw it like a javelin, landing it right into the pile of downed robots and electrifying it, shocking the active robots attempting to climb over and shorting them out before the weapon finally faded in a small burst of sparks. With the robots now cleared out, Sally sighed in relief and stepped back, still alert in case another wave of robots appeared...

Back in the central chamber, Sonic, Amy and Blaze were concentrating on destroying the equipment by redirecting the Hydra's attacks, either by leaping and racing across the room to bait her attacks or by directly striking the heads as they fired, causing them to hit the machinery. Venom continued to monitor the progress of the Egg Pawns while piloting the mech, watching as they fell to the Freedom Fighters' efforts.

"Ugh... why do I have to do everything?" She griped, breaking away from the combat to aim one of the heads towards one of the walls as it built up energy.

"Wait... what's she aiming at?" Amy wondered aloud.

"I dunno, but I'm not waiting around to find out." Sonic replied, charging up a Spin Dash and launching right at the Hydra's head, knocking it off target just before it fired a powerful beam that effortlessly cut through the wall, causing the whole workshop to tremble.

"That was way too close!" Amy gasped as she tried to keep her balance. Once the blue hedgehog landed, he immediately activated his communicator.

"Sal, we got an issue! Venom's punching through her own lab to try and take us out!" He warned.

"That's what that was?!" Sally replied, audibly shaken by both the tremors and the news. "Okay... Once Nicole finishes copying the files, we'll have to destroy the whole lab and get out as fast as possible."

"So we either take this thing down first or stall for time? I can work with that." Sonic responded. Blaze, on the other hand, remembered how the Sol Core from the Egg Pawn reacted upon being overloaded, and came up with a plan.

"I have an idea, but I'll need Silver to fill in for me here." The feline said.

"You got it. I can keep her busy for a little while." Silver's voice replied from the communicator. Nodding in confirmation, Sonic and Amy rushed forward to keep the mech occupied while Blaze raced towards the Sol Core production chamber. The two of them were able to keep the Hydra from charging up again by interrupting its attempts and diverting its attention. With the mech now needing to recharge its cannons, Venom switched tactics and lashed at the pair with the mech's tail, narrowly missing Sonic and knocking Amy to the floor. In the same motion, the Hydra lunged at the vulnerable pink hedgehog with one of its heads, attempting to crush her in its jaws... but the head suddenly froze in place before it could reach its target, surrounded by a cyan aura. Sonic and Amy looked up to see Silver hovering overhead, holding the mech's head in place with his powers.

"Phew... just in the nick of time." Silver sighed in relief, joining the duo in holding off the mech to buy time for the others. Blaze, meanwhile, made it to the production chamber to see that most of the defences had already been taken care of, with only a few stragglers left. She leapt forward and launched a cluster of fireballs that struck the robots and destroyed them effortlessly, freeing up the rest of the group.

"Okay, I'll need you guys to gather as many Sol Cores as you can and tie them together. Once Sally gives the signal, throw them into the air and I'll overload them." She explained to the rest of the group as they nodded and got to work, grabbing any nearby Cores and throwing them into a pile in the middle of the room. Tails grabbed some spare wires and wrapped them around the cores, keeping them in a vaguely spherical cluster, which Bunnie then picked up, ready to throw it on Sally's command...

"Okay, Nicole's done! Do it!" Sally shouted through the communicator, and Bunnie hurled the cluster of Sol Cores into the air, towards the machinery at the back of the room. Blaze followed up with a powerful blast of flames that directly struck the Cores, letting them absorb more and more Sol Energy until they were unable to withstand any more and exploded, resulting in a chain reaction that started to engulf the room in flames. With their mission complete, the group quickly evacuated the chamber and ran as fast as they could towards the workshop's exit.

The explosion also knocked some overhead machinery loose within the main chamber, which Silver was able to take advantage of by pulling them down using his powers, causing it to damage the Hydra and pin most of its heads. With the Hydra now immobilized, the hedgehogs made a quick escape while Venom hissed in annoyance, setting the mech into autopilot mode while she escaped. If she wasn't able to stop the workshop from being destroyed, she could at least let her Hydra take some of the interlopers down with it...

The rest of the group continued racing through the hallways of the workshop as it exploded around them, taking care to avoid any debris from the destruction... and just as the exit was in sight, a blast of energy erupted from the wall in front of them, completely halting their progress as the last remaining head of the Hydra emerged to stare them down, charging up another blast to fire at the group. Before it could, however, it was suddenly struck from behind by a purple energy spear, and the resulting burst of electricity caused the head to short-circuit and collapse lifelessly, revealing that Sally had managed to catch up to them before it could strike.

"Hurry! This place is about to collapse!" She called, leading the group towards the exit of the workshop, with Sonic, Amy and Silver arriving just in time to help the team escape to a safe distance before the workshop was finally destroyed in a massive explosion, dislodging it from the rest of the island and letting it sink into the waters below, taking both the leftover Sol Cores and the Crimson Hydra with it...

"Phew... Good work, everyone. Let's get out of here." Sally said, finally breaking the silence and leading the Freedom Fighters back as they began to celebrate their success.

-Freedom Fighter Barracks-

Breathing a sigh of exhaustion and relief as she entered the lab of the Barracks, Sally approached the main console and attached Nicole to it, allowing the lynx to enter the console and transfer the file into the main computer to begin accessing the information within.

"Beginning file decryption now." Nicole stated as the process started, the computer analyzing the file itself.

"How long will it take?" Sally asked as she looked up at the main monitor of the computer.

"It will take some time to analyze the data before I can decrypt it. It shouldn't be too complicated of a task, just an incredibly long one." Nicole replied.

"Okay then. I'll leave you to it. Notify me when it's finished." Sally said before turning to leave the lab, leaving Nicole in peace to do her task while she and the others got some much-needed rest.

If this file was as important as she thought it was, they would need it...