Chapter 23: Deadly Isle
Naugus and his mysterious Jackal ally, Infinite, are waiting for GUN to attack this fortress in the mountain to lure the Gun Task Force X and Team Dark into a trap. Naugus and Infinite noted a large airship hovering in the distance with Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Ace, Tangle, Whisper, and Shade inside the fortress trying to get to the command center to track down and take out Naugus.
Shadow is easily destroying groups of Egg Pawns because this all feels weird. Rouge is kicking down Egg Pawns with Omega firing his laser cannons to turn robots into heaps of scrap.
Whisper is shooting away robots with her CAP weapon putting holes in them. Tangle uses her tail to bash and smash away while Shard uses his chain gun arm to pepper machines into piles of metal and wires.
Ace looks to see the command center is up ahead to breaks inside to see no one is inside. "What in the world?" he wondered as they heard a thunderous crack outside to saw the GUN airship get struck down by a huge thunderbolt seeing it falling onto the ground.
"Our ride is destroyed," Rouge said thousands of soldiers were murdered in an instant by Naugus's powerful lightning spell.
"I see you have come to me. Now time for you all to face me," Naugus's voice echoed within the command center for a magic circle to appear underneath them to teleport them away to a valley nearby in the mountains.
Shadow looks over at the fortress to see it explode in a plume of smoke. "What is he doing?" Shadow wondered as the seven fighters looked over to see a tall muscular bat Mobian donning a purple bodysuit and black cape. Naugus's long white beard flows against the dusty winds along with a magical staff holding a gem on top.
"So that's Naugus huh, a dark wizard," Tangle said as Naugus slowly walked towards them with no care in the world. Suddenly another figure appears beside him a black-furred Jackal Mobian wearing a grey metal mask covering his whole face wielding a red sword in hand and a red gem in his chest.
"Back up," Rouge said as Shadow had a bad feeling to go in first.
"I will make the first move," Shadow goes in at full speed.
"Shadow wait," Rouge ordered but Shadow was feeling very anxious to wanted to end this as quickly as possible.
Naugus has a nasty grin as he flips his wrist to summon a huge stone slab to rocket out of the ground to catch Shadow hitting him with full force. Shadow is now standing on top of a mountain as big as a skyscraper which Naugus just created out of thin air. Shadow looks up to see Naugus make an even bigger mountain to raise ever higher than the last one.
Naugus looms over them all with a devilish smirk as Infinite leaps off a mountain to call down lightning bolts to strike Shadow stunning him in place. Infinite goes away with Omega and Shard following after him with Shadow shaking off his burns to go after the mysterious Jackal.
Naugus focuses his telekinesis to make all the debris from the fortress and GUN airship create a twisting mass of metal and scrap to twist around the battlefield. Ace managed to get on top of the second mountain to lunge at Naugus.
Rouge, Tangle, and Whisper were behind him as Naugus didn't even bother moving and tapping his staff to entomb Ace in crystal. "Ace," Whisper said as Naugus tapped his staff again to make it explode. Ace gets flung across the ground and blacks out suffering broken limbs. "You are going to pay for that," Whisper trying to hold her calm despite seeing Ace badly injured.
Whisper fires rockets at the wizard but his magical barrier easily holds them off without harming him. Tangle is trying to land hits but nothing is working.
"A magical barrier," Rouge thought as Naugus looked on with gleeful delight. She tosses bombs with her supporting Tangle with strong kicks of her own.
Naugus is amused by this as Whisper is firing laser bolts from her CAP weapon but his magical shield holds up.
He unleashes a power surge of dark magic to blow the ladies away but Whisper braces the pain to rush into him with a knife. Naugus fires a blast of frost to hit Whisper's knife arm which is cold enough to give it instant frostbite making it useless.
Elsewhere Shard, Shadow, and Omega are fighting off Infinite for he is riding on top of the twisting mass of metal and scrap to let out blasts of frost with Shard getting hit with Shadow and Omega letting out projectiles. Infinite deflects the incoming attacks with him smiling under his mask.
"Chronos Control: Slow," Infinite cast his time spell to make Shadow and Omega very sluggish and slow down their reaction times.
"What in the world is this?" Shadow asked as Infinite laughed at this. Infinite uses his sword to slash and cut Shadow several times and then kicks him into a stone wall. Shadow falls onto his knees to be covered with bloody wounds and bruises.
"Kill, kill," Omega unleashes a barrage of missiles and lasers but Infinite easily blocks his shots and rushes for Omega. Infinite shoves his fist into his metal chest to unleash a torrent of lighting to begin shocking Omega.
"Can it, rush bucket," Infinite sets off a huge burst of electricity to cook Omega and knock him out of commission.
"Omega, Shadow," Shard rushes in with his jet feet going at full power.
"Chronos Control: Pause," Infinite uses one of his time powers to freeze Shard in place in midair.
The mass of debris slams into Shard getting caught in the twisting wires and metals tearing him apart to fall several hundred feet down below. He crashes to make a huge crater as he is unable to fight due to being too broken.
Shadow tries to use Chaos Control with a spare Emerald Tails let him borrow but Infinite's Chronos Control is superior to freeze Shadow in place. "Just who are you?" Shadow questioned as he was confused by Infinite's level of power.
"You can call me Infinite and my master wants to send a message to you all. Stand in our way and suffer the pain of loss," Infinite takes the Chaos Emerald and kicks Shadow into a wall to knock him out.
Naugus is still standing there with his magical barrier blocking all their attacks and showing no sign of stress with the dark wizard. "All your efforts for nothing," Naugus said as Whisper was determined to kill him after he badly hurt Ace.
Rouge and Whisper were distracting him with Tangle trying to sneak attack him from behind. Tangle pounces on the old wizard but he easily teleports out of the way. He then reappears behind her to grab her head to lift her high.
"Guys help me," Tangle said as she felt the wizard's raw strength begin to crush her head.
Rouge and Whisper look on helplessly for Naugus is torturing her by putting more pressure. Blood is oozing from her wounds and leaking down Naugus's gloved hand.
Whisper tries so hard to help her best friend but she is powerless with everything she is doing is in vain because Naugus's powerful magic barrier is still in place. Naugus with a twisted smile hits Tangle with a blast of frost to freeze her body.
Naugus tosses the frozen Tangle across the battlefield for she is in severe condition as Whisper has lost her cool seeing how brutal Naugus truly is.
"Tangle, no!" Whisper shouted as Rouge is bothered by how ruthless Naugus is who makes Eggman look like a boy scout.
"You monster," Rouge said as Naugus smiled at this.
"Wizard would be a better title," Naugus said as Whisper rushes at Naugus again in vain. "Fool," Naugus said as he fired another blast of ice to turn Whisper's arms frozen solid.
Naugus snaps his fingers for Whisper's arms explode leaving nothing left. Whisper falls onto the ground face first with no arms at all with blood pouring out of her exposed arm stumps. "Master, I got a Chaos Emerald from Shadow," Infinite said as Naugus was pleased by Infinite's performance.
"Excellent my dark friend," Naugus made the huge mass of debris fly towards Rouge and Whisper to get swept up and crash down below. "They got the message and show how to outclass they are against us," Naugus said as Naugus and his new second-in-command Infinite teleported out of there with their prize now holding three out of seven Chaos Emeralds.
Rouge's signal has GUN send in a recovery team to get the wounded members off the battlefield after a devasting loss. Whisper is badly injured, Omega and Shard are severely damaged, and Tangle and Ace are both knocked out completely. Rouge and Shadow are the only ones able to move.
Meanwhile Sonic and Mina are exploring the island to begin climbing to go through the mountainous terrain as they overlook the forest down below and can even see the coastline of the island. "Wow, what a view," Sonic said.
"Yes, it is," Mina said as Sonic looked upon Mina with her long purple hair dancing against the wind for Sonic she looked too perfect like a painting coming to life right in front of him.
"Not as good of a view I have in front of me," he said grabbing her hand as her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her bosom from how nice he had been to her ever since they first met.
"You are such a sweetheart," she said to kiss him on the cheek.
"Anything for you my fair lady," he said to playfully take a bow making her laugh.
They traverse further up the mountain for they notice a ship coming onto the beach. "Look a ship," Mina said as they quickly realized it was shipwrecked and looked very old sitting on the beach for who knows how long.
"I wonder who drives that ship," Sonic said with his curiosity peaked.
"It could be pirates, it's not uncommon for them to appear in places like these," Mina said being cautious as they continued forward to jump down from the cliffs to head up further. "Hey, look at that," Mina said as they were Hover units flying low against the trees below.
"Those look like units Breezie would use. Her private security forces are here," Sonic said.
"Yes seems like it, I wonder if she has some secret operations here," Mina said.
"Some secret she doesn't want to show to the world," Sonic said as Mina checked to see if her phone still worked somehow.
"Gee, how is this thing even still working? Whatever, we can take photos and send it to GUN," Mina said as they saw even more Hover units head for their position on the side of a mountain. "Oh shoot, they are coming for us," Mina said as they prepared for the fight. "Void," Mina lobs a black hole above the forest to suck all the Hover Units into it to clear the way. They run down the mountain to go towards the location where the Hover Units were coming from.
"Those are the rats, attack, attack," Scratch ordered as the Swat-bots, Hover units, and Assault Walkers opened fire on the duo. Sonic and Mina use Double Boost to become like moving bullets to smash through several groups of machines with ease. They stop at an open field to see a hover unit holding two familiar faces from Sonic's past.
"Well, well. Scratch and Grounder, look time no see," Sonic joked as the two Badniks still had Swat-Bots surrounding the duo.
"So, we meet again Sonic. I will be promoted when I hand both of your fur coats to our mistress Breezie," Scratch said as Grounder pressed a button to turn on a gravity trap forcing the duo down with sheer pressure making them unable to move.
"Got you rats," Grounder said as Scratch let out his infamous laugh.
"This is easier than I thought," Scratch said as Sonic and Mina had smirks on their faces.
"Void," Mina turns into a mini black hole to destroy the gravity trap with Sonic using the Blue Tornado technique to encircle the area to blow the machine army away.
"Oh crap, this isn't good. Kill them now," Scratch ordered as Mina slammed her palm onto the ground.
"Cube," Mina transforms all the remaining robots into cubes with Sonic taking out all out swiftly.
"More, more. We can't let them near Madam Breezie's Roboticizer factory," Scratch said as the duo caught that.
"Did you say a Roboticizer factory?" Sonic asked.
"Of course not, you must be hearing things," Scratch said as Grounder was confused by this.
"We had that shiny new factory on the other side of the island," Grounder said as Scratch slapped him on the head.
"You fricking idiot," Scratch said as Sonic laughs at them still seeing they are as goofy and incompetent as ever.
"Thanks for the tips guys," Sonic said as Scratch and Grounder retreated to let the private robotic forces deal with Sonic and Mina.
"This is something we can use to put down Breezie for good or at least destroy her media empire," Mina said as she was leashing out with lightning bolts and fireballs. Sonic slams through groups of enemies with Spin Dashes and Homing Attacks.
"Well, we better get through these mountains and head for the other side of the island," Sonic said as they saw an opening in the mountain for them to run inside to avoid the robotic troopers. Soon enough they go into a huge cavern with a middle area surrounded by water.
"This looks very nice," Mina said as the land bridge was destroyed by the giant eel which has an arrowlike head. "It's that monster again that destroyed the Cruise Ship Aquatos," Mina said as the eel encircled the area in the water.
"We will not be caught off guard like last time," Sonic said as they dodged incoming lightning beams with Mina creating a barrier of stone to block the energy attacks. She turns the dome into a ball to kick it towards the beast.
Mina makes the stone ball sporting spikes to impale onto the side of its head. She closes her fist to make it explode like a grenade to do some damage to its face. Sonic launches himself to slam into its gaping wound to make it recoil back with blood leaking from its head.
The duo split the monster's attention for it puts an electro barrier to prevent another attack like that again. Mina thinks on the spot about how to pierce the shield. "Ghost + Drill," Mina turns into a drill to fly towards the head as she manages to phase through the defenses to dig against the wound.
The monster roars in agony with blood pouring from Mina's attack. It deactivates its defenses with Sonic going for the kill using a Light Speed Attack to cut through the wound and destroy its brain killing it instantly. The beast's lifeless body falls onto the stone platform letting out a thud shaking the area.
"That was amazing Sonic," Mina said as she gave him a high five.
"Right back at you babe, let's keep moving," Sonic said as they exited outside to be on the other side of the island.
"Not so fast rats," Scratch sets up an ambush to fire an electro net to catch them both. Mina grabs Sonic to use her Jade Ghost Color power to phase through the net. "What the hell, why is it so hard to catch you two?" Scratch pounds his fists onto the dashboard of the Hover Unit.
"This, Rhythm," Mina empowers her voice to let out a powerful scream that acts like a sonic weapon to blast away all the Swat-bots and Hover Units in her sights.
"Gees, how many powers does this yellow rat keep pulling out her ass," Scratch said as Mina unleashes sound waves from her mouth to blow Scratch and Grounder away.
"That is crazy, I always find that power useless but you made it work," Sonic said impressed always by his girlfriend's creative use of her new Color powers.
"Yeah since I know how to use my voice, the Rhythm color power allows me to amp my voice and even give support like boosting the morale of my allies or demoralizing my enemies making them lose the will to fight. Pretty handy right?" Mina said.
"You are the best, you know that," Sonic said.
"Thanks, come on we are close to the factory," Mina said as they saw something popping out of the ground to be a robotic worm with a drill on its head.
"Well, well. As expected Hedgehog, always screwing with our plans," Coconuts said out the loudspeakers of the mech.
"Oh my, good Coconuts. Long time no see, how is going being Breezie's butt monkey," Sonic said as Coconut is getting angry but holding his tongue.
"Look Hedgehog, I need to prove myself to the boss lady here. I am going to skin both your furs and mount them on her wall," Coconuts said as Mina began to charge up to fire one of her attacks.
Coconuts goes into a weird rant as Sonic looks down onto his invisible watch to tap his foot while Mina doing her sneak attack.
"Void," Mina tosses a mini black hole to strike the mech for it begins to suck the lower half of the machine until the black hole implodes. Coconuts looks down to see the mech is too small to be a threat as his cockpit falls onto the ground looking quite dumb.
"Pay attention Coconuts, you talk too much," Sonic said as Coconut began to float away.
"You win this round but I will be victorious soon enough," Coconut flies off with his tail between his legs.
"That was too funny," Sonic said.
"Yes, he should be paying attention instead of ranting up a storm," Mina said as they began to approach the factory to see a group of Swat-bots guarding the area. "Let's do this swiftly and get the pics we need to bring Breezie down," Mina said.
"You are getting motivated by this huh?" he asked.
"Of course, I am. I hate what Breezie stands for. Big business just sucking the talents out of their singers. Ash sold himself to the devil when he became part of that plastic industry," Mina said sounding passionate about it. "Cube," she stomps onto the grass to turn all the robots into blue cubes.
Sonic uses a Light Speed Attack to string together a chain of strikes to easily take them down. They get onto the roof to slip inside to see a large factory filled with people in cages.
"Yep this is an old Roboticizer factory and turning even kids into robotic slaves for her media empire," Sonic said as they were both very angry at this to see a young human boy within a capsule screaming in pain as he slowly became an unthinking machine.
"This will ruin her for sure. We need to take this to GUN ASAP and put her down for good," Mina is taking pictures with her phone to get enough intel. "Okay time to find a boat out of here," Mina said as they searched throughout the factory with Scratch and Grounder floating in a Hover Unit to confront them both.
"So, you found the lady's little secret which means you can't get out of here alive," Scratch said.
'Why do this and even use kids as slaves? She got robots at her command?" Mina demanded.
"It's cheaper this way. Besides these are poor or homeless people here. Like anyone is going to care if they are turned into things which will be useful for the society," Scratch said as this pissed off the duo.
"There is no justifying slavery especially kids bolt brains. We are going to bring this to GUN and Shadow will come smashing through here and tear this place apart," Sonic said.
"Like do you have proof Hedgehog," Grounder said as Mina recorded their words with her smartphone for more proof.
"Thanks for those voice clips. They will be pretty useful in court," Mina said as Scratch punches Grounder in the head.
"You moron, what have you done," Scratch is getting upset with Grounder being confused by this.
"What are you talking about, you are the one who spills the beans," Grounder said as they began to argue with Sonic and Mina sneaking off to the docks to see a patrol boat that they use to get out of there.
"Time to get out of here," Sonic turns on the boat's engine for them to speed off.
"I will cover us," Mina powers up to get ready for the counterattack.
"Morons, they are getting away," Coconuts said on the radio.
"Alright, attack," Scratch ordered as the Hover Units and Patrol Boats were giving chase.
"Here they come Hover," Mina lets out a wave of energy to hit a group of enemies to make them float leaving them defenseless. She lets out fireballs to destroy them as she is tossing lightning bolts and fireballs take out more targets.
Sonic is driving through the chaos with several patrol boats on either side-firing laser bolts and grenades. Mina fires a mini black hole to suck up several enemies into it making them disappear.
Mina fires energy cluster missiles to take down groups of vehicles seeing them sink into the ocean. Another group of ships is coming from behind as Mina lobs another black hole to suck them inside to see the way is cleared.
"Yes, we are in the clear," Sonic said as Mina went up to him and hugged him from behind.
"Yep we did baby and we got proof of their factory. Breezie is toasted now," Mina said as they went back to the mainland to head for the nearby GUN base to send in their evidence.
Shadow and Rouge are within the GUN base in Station Square to see the soldiers bring in Ace, Whisper, and Tangle in medical pods while Shard and Omega are in boxes to be repaired. Shadow and Rouge recovered from the fight.
"Poor Whisper," Rouge felt sympathy for her.
"Her squad will not be operational for a while now. She will need rest and settle on her thoughts," Shadow said as he felt helplessly against the new foe named Infinite. "He managed to surpass my Chaos Control so easily and this wizard completely made us look like rookies," Shadow thought as Rouge got an email from Mina.
"Very interesting, Shadow. We are going to nail Breezie," Rouge said as Shadow nodded his head for the duo to head off with Breezie being put on the spot because her media empire was about to fall around her.