Chapter 62: Dark Forest
Anti-Cream is looking over the battlefield where Fiona was fighting before to see a lot of explosions and blast marks all over the place. "My lord seems the red fox is not here," she said on the radio.
"Seems like the good doctor has picked her up. Kill her on sight," Miles said.
"Yes sir, seems like the doctor is planning something," Cream said.
"As long as Sonic and the others are killed, the doctor will not be a threat to me," Miles said.
"Of course, sir," Creams said as Miles wondered what Dr. Kintobor was planning to do.
"What is that old fart planning, he has gotten well-capable agents yet he is targeting my bases and factories but not a full-on assault on my capital. Something isn't adding up here, I need to find his HQ and destroy it," Miles said as his vast Swat Bot army spread out across the planet trying to find the base of his enemies.
Mina and Buns are helping Fiona try out a new outfit since her old outfit was damaged in her last fight. "Gee, you wished yourself younger?" Mina asked to be dumbfounded by this.
"I didn't know the Power Rings work like that. I was wishing for a fresh start and it turned out how it did but it cost my organic arms," Fiona said as she stripped out of her clothing to toss them into the bin.
"I can't blame you for that," Mina said as she had gained a much longer lifespan and youth due to her mutation from the Mother Wisp.
"They look cool," Buns points out the robotic arms.
"Yep, I have been doing some extra mods like an energy teether and grappling hook built into my arms," Fiona said as she looked into the mirror to see her sleek metal arms.
"Why would you go for Scourge as a boyfriend? He sounds terrible?" Mina questioned.
"I thought he was someone I could lean on and let me go on exciting adventures making money and breaking heads. All he did, in the end, was break my heart and take everything I did," Fiona said as Mina and Buns noticed how well-shaped she was in her underwear.
"Yeah, I can see why he liked you," Buns said noting how ample her curves were fitting against her white bra and panties working well against her red fur along with the cute yellow bow onto her head.
"Yeah, he said I have a nice rack and cute bottom shaped like a big peach but that's all he cared about. I was blinded by his good looks and sexy voice. Also, he had a big dick," Fiona said.
"Yeah we know," Buns and Mina said at once.
"Now I was given a second chance and I am going to take it. Let's try this one," Fiona takes an outfit and puts it on. "What do you think?" Fiona said to wear a yellow leotard with white stripes and yellow and white boots.
"Pretty cute there Fiona," Mina said.
"Looking good," Buns said.
"Thanks, reminds me of my old outfit before going bad," she said as she put a holster harness onto her leotard and a small fanny pack with which she can put her equipment for ease of access.
"Well, seems you are squared up," Mina said as Fiona looks on in the mirror to see her curves looking lovely in her new outfit showing off her D Cup tits and shapely legs.
"Yep, I look pretty good," Fiona said.
'Well, we will be off. Get comfortable, we will be going after those gems," Buns said.
"I used to be a jewel thief so I can handle this," Fiona said as Mina and Buns left the former villain behind.
"Gee, this girl got it pretty rough huh?" Mina asked.
"Well yeah, but I can't complain knowing what kind of person used to be. I can relate with her to trying to build yourself back up from a toxic relationship, especially from the same guy," Buns said.
"Well, the more hands we have. The better we can track down the Beryl gems," Mina said as they met up with Silver who was training in the storage room. He is using his mind to gather all the crates and boxes above his head.
"Hey there Silver," Buns said as Silver stopped to gently place them down onto the floor.
"Hey there, how is our recruit doing?" Silver asked.
"She seems fine and she is willing to work with us," Mina said.
"I hope she doesn't weave or something stupid like that," Buns said.
"Well, the more the merrier," Silver said as Mina was curious about something.
"Hey Silver, it's pretty clear you are not a native here. Where did you come from?" Mina asked.
"I am from your world but 200 years in the future," Silver said as Mina was deeply curious about this.
"Seriously, you are from the future. What is it like?" Mina asked as Silver looked saddened by this.
"Not good at all, it's a hellscape with unknown figures tearing up the universe. I have no clue who they are but they are beings that are pure darkness and evil. Their only purpose is to consume everything in their path," Silver said with a pained look on his face.
"Oh, I am sorry if I bring up bad memories," Mina said showing sympathy for the young hedgehog.
"It's okay, my home is destroyed anyway. Nothing to go back, I got sent back with a one-way ticket. All I need to do is find out about this dark presence and destroy it freeing the universe of their influence," Silver said as Mina was quite curious and worried about this threat to Silver's future.
"What are they called?" Mina asked.
"I don't know, they were never given a name but they have a distinct look about this and it fills up my nightmares," Silver has shivers from this.
"Gee, I hope we don't see these guys if they are that bad," Buns said.
"I am trying to figure out what happened to lead to my future but I have no leads. I was in your world in the present but I got through a Warp Ring to be trapped here," Silver said.
"Scourge got you too," Mina said as she wondered how big of a threat this guy even was.
"Well, I guess but now we need to focus on getting out of this dump," Silver said as Buns looked at her robotic arm to get an update from Belle.
"Oh, I need to carry some things for Belle, I will be going now," Buns said as she went off to do her maintenance duties.
Elsewhere Sonic and Bernadette are with Dr. Kintobor to look over a signal on a Beryl gem. "Seems like we got a signal from a gem nearby in a vast forested area," Bernie said as she was already in her combat suit to take gem radar which allowed them to search for the gemstone.
"Alright, time for Operation Gemstone is underway. Sonic, Bernie, and Buns will go in to secure the gem while Mina, Silver, and Fiona will hold the fort here," Anti Eggman said.
"Alright Mom, let's do this," Sonic said as Bernadette was excited to see what her son could do.
"Cool Sonic, I am looking forward to seeing what you can do out there," Bernie calls Buns on her comlink. "Hey Buns, we are going on a mission together. We are seeking out the Anarchy Beryl in the forest nearby," Bernie said.
"Oh okay, I will meet you outside," Buns said as the trio met outside the hideout for the two hedgehogs and rabbit to prepare to head off. Buns activate her rocket feet to hover in the air.
"Let's go," Bernadette tests out her holo rings for Sonic and Bernie goes off creating two sonic booms behind them as Buns is right behind him using her rocket feet to keep up.
Elsewhere Fiona is in the training room to be surrounded by drones hitting her with taser bolts. She uses her new arms to block the shots to add energy to her arms. She unleashes an energy wave to knock the drones into walls with Belle coming in to check up on her arms.
"How are the arms doing?" Bell asked as the red fox looked over at the cute wooden robot.
"It's fine, they are working how they are intended," Fiona said as she fired a bolt of energy to destroy a drone. "They absorb energy quite well and I can either use shockwaves or energy bolts," Fiona said.
"Cool, you seem to be getting the handle on this. We are doing our Operation Gemstone to collect up to 21 Anarchy Beryl gems. These will come in handy," Bella said.
"Yeah, I remember Scourge was collecting those things. Gave him a huge boost in power but it was also his downfall. My version of Sonic baited him to depower down from his super form and when this happened, he was drained and got beat up pretty easily," Fiona said as he looked pretty pathetic then and she should have dumped him.
"Yes the Anarchy Beryl gives more power than Chaos Emeralds but there is a draining effect after using making the user very vulnerable," Belle said
"Seems about right. It's like a caffeine shot. You get a big high and then afterward you get a crash to go with it," Fiona said.
"Yes, good analogy," Belle said as she used her scanners to see her arms were doing quite fine. "Good, just here for a checkout," she said.
"Hey Belle, thanks for talking with me. It's been a while since I talked with someone just for the fun of it," Fiona said.
"It's okay, you can be my friend," Belle said as Fiona was stunned by this.
"You want to be my friend?" Fiona asked.
"Yes despite your past, you are helping us and we are in this together. I want to make you as comfortable as possible," Belle's good nature is overwhelming Fiona's cynical nature.
"Gee, this robot is too nice to me, and yet I feel funny about it," Fiona thought. "Cool Belle, I would like to be your friend too," Fiona said as Belle hops for joy to give her a big hug.
"Thank goodness, this is so cool. We hope we can be friends for a long time," Belle said. Fiona feels uncomfortable about this as this amount of kindness sent her way is rare.
"Yes I hope so too," Fiona said as she is growing fond of this cute robot girl.
Elsewhere Buns, Sonic, and Bernadette are going through the thick forest to see Swat Bots patrolling the area along with Hover units and Assault Walkers as backup units. "Looks like Miles' forces are here to collect the gem. Let's take them out and grab the item," Bernie said as everyone picked their targets.
Sonic uses Homing Attack to destroy a bunch of robot troopers with the machines taking notice. "Hedgehog detected, engaging target," the Swat Bots aiming their arm lasers to release tons of energy bolts.
"Come on bucketheads, you got to do better than that," Sonic is swiftly drawing their fire with Buns flying into a bot and kicking it into a tree seeing it break apart on impact.
"Eat this rust heads," she fires her arm cannon to blow up several Swat Bots to piles of scrap. The Assault Walker fires salvos of missiles as Buns is summoning her energy barrier to protect herself from the barrage.
She flies into a walker to tear right through it as she kicks it into another walker both blowing up from the impact. "Spin Slash," Bernie leaps into the air to use her holo rings to enhance her quills to become sharp and pointy to slice through several groups of enemies turning them into scrap metal.
Bernadette uncurls to bring out her energy wrist blades from her holo rings to go in and slice up Swat Bots and Assault Walkers in a fearsome yet graceful display of deadly blade work reducing enemy forces to nothing. Sonic is quite amazed to see his mother being a deadly soldier like she was in the security footage he saw in the old Scrap Brain base back on South Island.
She rolls out of the barrage of laser fire from a walker to leap off a tree and slice the robot in pieces with her energy blades. Bunnie takes a broken robot with her robotic arm showing off her super strength and tosses it into a crowd of machines to crush them.
"Buns hit me up," Bernadette said as she curled into a ball. Buns grabs Bernie in her robotic arm to fly towards the groups of machines and kicks Bernie to Spin Dash into a walker with Bunnie tackling an Assault Walker into a tree.
Sonic noticed something odd about the tree grabbed onto the machine and crushed it in half. "Oh boy, trees are not supposed to do that," Sonic said as he activated his Mystic Form to burn the tree with a branch slamming into Buns to knock her back onto the grass.
"Oh, my stars. What is going on here?" Buns questioned as all the machines were getting destroyed by twisted living trees pulsing Chaos energy.
"Interesting, seems like the energy from the gemstone is turning these trees into monsters," Bernie said as the trio was now surrounded by tons of monster trees within them using their roots and branches to attack them.
"We need to attack the source of this and end this quickly," Sonic said as he casts a spell by lobbing fireballs to light the monster trees on fire.
"Yes sugar hog, I don't want to be plant food," Bunnie transforms her arm cannon into a flamethrower for them to fight off the hordes of monsters empowered by Chaos energy.
Back at Anti-Eggman's underground base, Mina is in the training room to practice her Color Powers still thinking about Minerva aka Clone Mina's powerful Nega Form which is comparable to a Hyper Form in terms of raw power. "How can I gain power like that to bridge the gap between us?" Mina wondered about her next fight with her immensely powerful dark clone and her unknown ambitions.
She takes in a deep breath to see Belle coming into the training room. "Quite impressed, very similar to the Miles' Hands," Belle said as she scanned Mina's body which is showing off unique Hyper-On-Go energies. Very interesting, the energies of a Mother Wisp," she said.
"I think they are using normal wisps but much darker and stronger," Mina said.
"Indeed, I detected reports of sorts like that. Miles is making cloned Wisps and making them much stronger to enhance his hands to help keep the planet under control. We fought them before and they are quite powerful," Belle said as she remembered Silver and Bunnie getting beaten up by Anti-Cream and Anti-Zooey in a fight due to their powerful moves.
"Do they have powerful forms?" she asked.
"Yes, it pushes their elemental powers to their max. Their Elemental states are strong enough to kill someone going Super," Belle said as Mina felt confident enough for her Rainbow State can take out these fieldish women.
"I can take this ladies," Mina said as she transformed into her Rainbow State for Belle is awestruck by her strength and beauty.
"So pretty," Belle scans her body to see how powerful her energy is surging from it. "You are more powerful but it will not be easy to beat even with your power," Belle said.
"Yes but I fought some powerful people before, I can handle this," Mina said.
"I believe in you Mina, keep going for your training," Belle leaves the room with Mina resuming her training on her Color powers.
"What can I do to reach a level similar to a Hyper form?" Mina pondered as she trained to try to find out how.
Back with Sonic, Bernadette, and Buns are fighting off hordes of evil living trees as Sonic burns the incoming monsters with fireballs. He uses Light Speed Attack to tear through groups of monster trees turning them into twigs.
Bernie is slashing evil trees to chop them down with her energy wrist blades. She performs a Shield Dash to bash into several living trees and smash into the last one nearby reducing it to sawdust.
Buns are spreading flames with her robotic arm to launch a dropkick to knock a living tree into another one. She burns them while landing a supercharged robot punch to knock the tree into a large rock breaking it to pieces.
Buns get hit in the arm by a sharp root to shed blood from the attack. "Oh, that smarts," Buns said as Bernadette got hit by a big branch that knocked her into the dirt. She curls into a ball to cover herself in a holo shield to protect against incoming attacks. She uses Spin Slash as she turns onto her side to act as a top and slide into enemies while cutting them to pieces.
Sonic lobs fireballs to blast apart living trees for roots erupt from the ground to slam into him and try to entrap him in a tomb of wood. Sonic unleashes a blast of flames to burn it all away.
"Get near me," Sonic begins charging up a fire spell with the women getting behind him. "Firestorm," he is mixing both fire and wind energies to create a huge storm of flames to burn away tons of living trees reducing them to ash.
"Seems like we found the big cheese," Bernadette said as they saw a huge living tree with an Anarchy Beryl gem embedded in its trunk making it grow to a huge size.
The Chaos Tree roars at them to unleash waves of vines and roots tearing into the earth behind them. Sonic gets hit by an energy blast from the Chaos Tree's twisted mouth. Its eyes glow with Chaos energy to unleash a massive roar that echoes throughout the dark forest.
"This is nuts," Buns said as she fired balls of flames from her flamethrower but the beast was emitting a dome of energy to block her flames to protect itself. Vines grabs onto Buns and slams her onto the ground.
The Chaos Tree is summoning more living trees to attack the trio with Bernie cutting up evil trees with Buns smashing and burning away the enemies.
"Flare Lance," Sonic cast down several burning lances from the air and stabbed into the ground emitting waves of fire to burn the evil trees to ash. Buns fly in and deliver a powerful kick to a living tree to knock it into the Chaos Tree to stun it. "Grave," Sonic summons rock spikes to tear into the giant tree causing some damage.
Bunnie switches from her flamethrower to her arm cannon to unleash a big beam of energy to try and break the shield but just weakens a certain section of it. Sonic uses a Light Speed Attack to strike at the weak point of the shield with Bernie catching on to use her Shield Dash to slam into the weak point of the shield.
"Buns, target the weak point," Bernie said on the radio as Buns charged up her arm cannon.
"You got it," Buns fires a large beam of energy to break through the barrier and slam into the beast to knock it into a large boulder. "Time to kick this tree's ass," Bunnie said as she flies towards the Chaos Tree with Sonic and Bernie coming in to use a Double Boost to slam into the face of the tree beast to stun it.
Buns' arm cannon transforms into a heated metal blade to slice into the big tree several times to greatly damage the Chaos Tree. She makes a hole and puts her flamethrower into it to unleash torrents of flames to burn the beast alive.
"Suck it, stupid tree," Buns said as she fires onto the gem to shoot it off the trunk for the flames are turning the weakened monster into a pile of ash. Buns grabs the fallen gem onto her robotic arm.
"Oh boy, we got our first Anarchy Beryl," Sonic said to look at the green gem for it should look like a Chaos Emerald.
'Yep, one down and 20 more to go. You were pretty good out there son, you make me proud," Bernie said as Sonic hugged her mom, happy to hear this.
"Thanks, mom. Good to hear that from you. Come on, let's head back," Sonic said as the trio left the burned-out forest to begin their operation to gather 21 Anarchy Beryl gems with one in their hold.