Chapter 40: Royal Flush Pt 4
Sally spots Mina and Sonic coming towards the Scrap Brain base at high speeds. All her rebel fighters were purged by Naugus as well as flying the Egg Carrier MK2 away from South Island. Sally is deeply worried about talking to Naugus. "What is going on, why are you leaving?" Sally asked via telepathy.
"Oh, princess. I found myself caught in a bad spot and my magic wasn't working properly. I need to leave to recover my energies," Naugus said as Sally felt even more hopeless about her situation.
"You are abandoning me," Sally said.
"I was only there to destroy the Sword of Light but that mongoose has some hidden power I don't understand yet. You are on your own," Naugus said coldly to cut off the psychic link to leave her behind to her fate.
"Damn it, what now. Everything is falling apart," Sally said as he put on the com channel to warn Geoffrey about the incoming threat. "We are on our own. I hope you know how to pilot a mech?" Sally asked on the radio.
"I do, that wizard was not trustworthy Sally. You should have known that," Geoffrey said.
"I know but we needed his aid to get rid of brother but since he is gone. This is coming to be very difficult," Sally said.
'We still got your niece. We will use her as a bargaining chip," Geoffrey said as Sally shook her head.
"This is my final stand. I will fight to the end because I will not be caught by those fools," Sally thought as she looked down at her pistol to steel herself for her final act. "Bunnie, I think I am going to see you sooner than later," Sally braces for this possibility as she goes into the mech to see it surge with dark power.
Elsewhere Sonic waits for his wounds to heal from the healing gel Mina gave him. "Man, this works wonders," he said as he saw Mina speeding toward him with the outfit getting pretty roughed up. "Mina, you are okay. Whatever?" Sonic asked as her outfit was torn up with bits of her fur being exposed through her tights and top.
"Oh, that wizard was no joke. He is very powerful and barely managed to ward him off. I think I discovered a new power within me," Mina said as Sonic was curious about this.
"Really like a transformation?" Sonic asked.
"Yes, my fur goes all white, my eyes go silver and her hair goes all bright rainbow colors. I call it Rainbow Mina, I have a super form just like you," Mina said.
"That could come in handy. Can you control it?" he asked as they ran off to the Scrap Brain base.
"Not really, it just popped out and then I felt exhausted. After this mission, I want to control it. Can you help me?" she asked as Sonic grabbed onto her hand.
"Of course. Together we will be unstoppable, that wizard will not know what hit him," Sonic said.
"We would be one kickass couple who would be unbeatable," Mina said as she dreamed of fighting beside Super Sonic in a transformation of her own. Now, this can be a reality," she thought being very happy about this as they approached the Scrap Brain base to see the wear and tear of time had taken on it.
"Gee, this place has seen better days," Sonic said as they approached the gate to see the remaining Badniks left defending the place.
"Time to deal with them," Mina uses the Color Combo Ghost + Laser for her to swiftly tag the enemies with energy marks. Sonic didn't see her do this as she reappeared behind them as the energy tags exploded turning groups of Egg Pawns into piles of scrap.
"New trick?" Sonic asked as he never used this power before.
"It's one of the new tricks I developed recently," Mina said for them to be in front of a huge door. Mina uses her Ghost power to phase through the door to appear on the other side to activate the gate letting them slip through.
The duo speeds through the base to see the rustic environment around them. More Egg Pawns show up but all the rebels are lying on the ground unmoving. "What happened to them?" Sonic asked as he used Homing Attacks on several machine troops to break them on impact.
Mina lobs fireballs to blast the robots into flaming heaps as she is confused by this. "I guess Naugus stopped supporting Sally and now her troops are dead without his influence," Mina said as she kicked an Egg Pawn into a wall.
"You will not go any further in this base," Geoffrey said as he leaped into the scrapyard in a mech suit. "I will not let you ruin this," Geoffrey said as he fired his chain guns with the two breaking off to avoid his rapid-fire assault.
"You must be Geoffrey, where do all these problems come from," Sonic said as Mina launched explosive clones to distract and damage his suit.
"Problems, I am the one who gave Bunnie and Sally direction in their lives. To get rid of Elias and his nonsense," Geoffrey said.
"You were pushing your bigotry of humans onto them, you poison them," Mina said as Sonic slammed into the mech suit to knock it into a pile of rubble.
"You mean the truth about humans, they are greedy and selfless," Geoffrey said as he launched missiles with Mina knocking them away with a precise Hover making them float. Mina lets out an electric shockwave to knock back all the missiles to blast apart Geoffrey's mech weakening it further.
"Wrong, everything needs to work together for a better future, people like you don't have a place in that world," Sonic said as Sonic and Mina used a Double Boost to slam through the mech to break it to pieces.
Mina entombs Geoffrey in a dome of stone to keep him there so the royal army can take him in later. "Sally, surrender now. You have nothing left," Mina said as she felt something dark nearby. "I will go find Alexis," Mina said as she sped inside the base trying to find the little girl.
"I have this," Sally said as a large Death Egg Robot appeared powered by a dark crystal.
"Gee, that thing has seen better days," Sonic said as this Death Egg Robot is a stock model without Eggman's silly face on it.
"Guys, we are almost there. Most of the island has been captured but for some reason, those mutant soldiers are all dead now mysteriously," Rotor said on the radio.
"Right, we are cleaning up on our end," Sonic said pressing his earpiece to get ready to fight Sally for the final time. "Time to answer for your crimes Sally," Sonic said.
"I would rather die than be captured. Try me," Sally piloting the large mech to begin her assault.
Elsewhere Mina manages to find a storage room where the little girl is screaming for help. "Someone help me, my auntie has gone crazy," Alexis screamed as Mina busted down the door to find the little girl.
"Alexis, I am here," Mina said as the little squirrel girl went up and hugged Mina.
"Mina, it's so scary. Auntie Sally trapped me and she is very scary," Alexis said as Mina took the girl in her arms to head outside the base to head for the royal forces.
"I will take you to the army and they will take care of you," Mina said as she brought them to a group of Royal soldiers taking position around the base awaiting orders.
"You got the princess?" the soldier is shocked and relished with Mina handing her over.
"Yep, here you go. Keep her safe, we need to take down the rebel leader and end this civil war," Mina said as she rushed back to the base with Sonic fighting Sally in the Dark Death Egg Robot.
"Stop this now, not all humans are evil," Sonic said as he avoided the missile strikes.
"They are all like that, just like Eggman and his nasty nephew," Sally said as she lobbed bombs onto the ground to create shockwaves with Sonic launching himself to slam into the huge mech to knock it into a wall.
"You got to be kidding, people as evil as those two are very rare. You can't compare people like them besides there are Mobians who are just as bad as Breezie. Someone you worked with in the past," Sonic said as he used a Spin Dash towards the mech.
"She was a tool for my end goal," Sally tried to justify it but Sonic did make a good point. She unleashes several barrages of lasers but Sonic dodges them all to slam into the mech again.
"I am not having it Sally; you are just as selfish as they are. You got played by Geoffrey to be roped into this garbage," Sonic said as the Dark Death Egg Robot leaps toward Sonic. The robot unleashes a big wave of energy to push Sonic back but he quickly regains his ground.
Sally is getting frustrated as Sonic's words are reaching her. "Damn it, hold still," Sally said as suddenly she gets hit with a lightning bolt. Mina slammed into the back of the mech with a fire strike.
"Sally, I managed to recover Alexis and now she is with the military. You have no aces left, surrender now," Mina summons several clones to pepper the mech with explosions.
"What?" Sally questioned for she was about to lose everything here. "No, I can't lose now," Sally is only delaying the inevitable as she tries hitting the two but the duo was too fast for her to catch.
"Sally, this war is pointless. You have been driven by a lie. Humans and Mobians share common DNA. We are related quit this bigot trash right now," Mina said as Sally laughed at this.
"You got to be kidding me right now," Sally said.
"No, we are dead serious. I have data from ADAM about this whole thing," Mina transfers that data into Sally's mech computer to look over the images of the data which Sally is in deep distress.
"You are screwing with me; right," Sally said as her mental state is not holding up with everything collapsing around her. "My quest against the humans is for nothing," Sally feels defeated by this despite her mech still operating.
"Yes, now surrender and we can make this easy," Sonic said as Sally kept going not wanting to be captured but Sonic and Mina combined their attack with Mina using Laser and Sonic using Light Speed Attack. They slice through the middle of the mech to seek out the dark crystal to destroy it.
The mech is unable to move and Sally falls onto the floor with her breaking her leg on impact. Sally is saddened that her war was for nothing as Elias and Rotor appear inside the building.
"Good work, you two," Elias said as he looked at his beaten-up Sally and the broken mech. "Sorry Sally but this war is over. Time to take you in," Elias said as Sally drew a pistol and a flashbang.
"I will not be taken alive. I am going to a place where I can live in peace with Bunnie, the only one who truly cared about me in the end," Sally tosses the flashbang to blind everyone in the room. She grabs the pistol to place the barrel onto her forehead.
"Sally, don't do it," Elias begged her as Sally closed her eyes preparing to end her life to see her best friend Bunnie in the afterlife.
"I am going to hell brother but at least there. Bunnie will be there to comfort me to the end of time," Sally fires a single laser bolt through her skull to fall onto the floor. There is a burning hole in her head for the bolt killed her instantly.
Elias is upset by this as he looks at his dead sister's body to show regret for what happened. "It shouldn't have ended like this, stubborn fool. You needed help," Elias said as he carried his sister's corpse to take it to a transport hovercraft.
"You guys need anything here before we blow it up?" Rotor asked.
"Yeah, we need to look for something here. We will be back with you," Sonic said as both were disturbed by what just happened. "Gee, that is crazy," Sonic said.
"I know but she seems to be at peace with this. Both their lives were led by lies but in the end. They still had each other and in death, they would find peace together," Mina said.
"That sounds very poetic," Sonic said as they moved towards the central control room of Scrap Brain base.
"It does, is it? Well, Elias can deal with that. We need to find that data feed from 18 years ago to see if we can find your mother going to this base," Mina said as she searched through the records. Mina looks on with interest for she brings up a feed that matches what they wanted to find.
"You got it?" he asked.
"Yep, we can see what happened to her. Time to look this over," Mina said as they watched the video of the last day of Bernadette Hedgehog was last seen.
-Flashback Begins-
The young 21-year-old Bernadette or Bernie for short gets out of a vent to land in a storage room of the Scrap Brain base. Bernadette checks her holo rings on her wrist as she sneaks into the base. "Time to check this place out," Bernie said as she noticed several Badniks like Buzz Bombers and Crabmeats patrolling the area.
"Well, time to take them apart. Piece by piece," Bernie said as she swiftly went through the hallways to activate her holo rings to summon one blade per holo ring to dual-wield energy wrist blades. She goes behind a Crabmeat to slice up the robot with ease. She frees the little animals inside as she is disgusted by this.
"Who can use small critters as a power source? So sick," Bernadette thought as she focused on the task at hand.
She uses her speed and agility to avoid detection and destroy the robots without being noticed. She heads for the next room to see it's a large warehouse as a camera manages to pick up this small purple hedgehog.
"How interesting, uncle we are detecting an intruder here," Snively said as Doctor Robotnik was in his chair in the central command center.
"Impossible, we have not begun our attack on the kingdom yet," Robotnik said as Snively showed him on the screen with Bernie sneaking into the warehouse area. "So, one of the rats has come to check out my masterpieces. We don't need her to alert the kingdom before my conquest of this region," he commanded his forces to be on high alert.
Bernie sees the room has gone flashing red. "This isn't good," she said as Motobugs and Caterkillers appeared trying to surround her.
"So, you think you can come to my house and get away with it. I think not," Robotnik said on the intercoms with Bernadette going into combat stance to slash a charging Motobug.
"So, you are going to give me a welcome party. Mister…" Bernie eggs the mysterious doctor with his name.
"Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the greatest genius in the world," Robotnik said to enjoy the sound of his voice.
"Oh yeah, you're an egg guy on the news from the Unified Federation," Bernie teases him as Robotnik dislikes this woman calling him out for his appearance. "A disgraced researcher who did illegal experiments on Mobians and animals," Bernie said.
"I am a genius beyond compare, with an IQ of 300. I am above the common folks in the Unified Federation. They are below me now and I am going for bigger things like making a proper Empire in my image," Robotnik said as Bernie is holding off the groups of Badniks.
"You love hearing yourself talk do you?" Bernie joked as Robotnik is quickly finding this woman very annoying. Bernadette performs a Spin Dash to knock down several enemies with her kicking a Caterkiller into a wall and seeing it break apart on impact.
The Motobug fires their laser cannons with Bernie avoiding the energy blasts as she slashes the robot to free the small critter inside.
"Because I am brilliant. Of course, I love the sound of my voice," Robotnik said.
"It's so wonderful sir," Snively said dryly as Bernie is clearing out the forces inside. Bernadette lets out a sonic boom to go deeper within the Scrap Brain base.
Several Buzz Bombers are chasing after her and firing their stinger lasers at her. She is bouncing off the walls to avoid their attacks with her launching at them hard to bash them with a Homing Attack. She rolls into a ball with her two holo rings emitting energy to cloak herself into a shell of energy to bash through a group of Motobugs.
Bernie used her Shield Dash to protect herself while enhancing the striking power of her Spin Dash. Then a huge Crabmeat is blocking her path as she smashes into the robot to destroy it easily. She lands on top of another Crabmeat to use Shield Bounce to crush the metal monster.
Then a large Caterkiller appears to block her path as it screams at her. "This is where your journey ends. Rodent, goodbye," Robotnik ordered his Badnik to attack with it shooting its flamethrower as she curled into the ball to activate the Shield Dash to block the incoming attack.
She hits the metal beast but she gets knocked backward. "Well, this isn't going to be easy," Bernie dodges the incoming lunges from the giant Caterkiller. She slashes the head leaving some damage on it as it backs away to lob laser blasts from afar.
Bernadette is running and sliding away from the explosive bolts. She kicks off the wall to use a Homing Attack to strike its head to give it a dent. The Caterkiller slams its head onto the floor to emit shockwaves to knock Bernie onto the floor as if it's going to eat her.
"Oh no, you don't," Bernie curls up into a ball to activate her holo shield for the robot to grab her trying to bite her but her shield is holding up against its large jaws. "Repulse," Bernie made the shield break unleashing a burst of energy to destroy its jaws.
She launches off the head and uses her Bounce attack to begin pounding its head and with each blow force it closer to the floor. The Caterkiller tackles Bernadette to send her flying across the room as Robotnik is getting angry at this.
"Are you kidding me, try harder you stupid machine," Robotnik said as Snively laughed at this.
"What's wrong egghead, not happy with me breaking your toy," Bernie joked as this got under his skin.
"Kill her Caterkiller," Robotnik ordered as Bernadette was getting ready for her next move rushing at the damaged machine. The robot is lunging at Bernie with her curling up into a ball.
"Spin Slash," she uses the energy from her holo rings to empower her quills to be pointy and sharp like spikes. She hits her mark and slices through the huge machine in half as she lands behind it.
"I don't believe this," Robotnik is outraged by this as Snively is laughing at his uncle's failure in the background.
Bernadette brushes the dust off her combat suit to smile at the camera. So, did you like the show egghead?' she teases as Robotnik tries to regain his cool.
"I will soon," Robotnik said as suddenly tons of Caterkiller Jr models came out of the heap of the broken machine.
Bernie looks behind her to be overwhelmed by the machines as she is worn out from the last battle. The machine stuns her with electricity, her vision starts to blackout, and collapses onto the floor.
"Hmm, this woman is more trouble than she is worth," Robotnik said.
"What are you going to do sir?" Snively asked his Uncle for he had a nasty smile on his round face.
"Oh, I have a perfect test subject for my new machine," Robotnik said as his Badniks grabbed Bernie to take her to a certain room where there was a special machine Robotnik was working on.
Snively tosses the hedgehog woman into the tube as she tries to move but she has a taser collar on her neck. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"You are going to be part of an experiment my dear, a one-way trip to another dimension. Once I conquer this world, I would like to go to other worlds and take those over as well to be part of my new empire," Robotnik said as Bernie was horrified by this.
"You are mad," Bernadette said as Robotnik laughed at her.
"Well, only I have the brains to control all things. It's how nature works, Snively prepared to send her to Universe 20198 aka Anti Mobius," Robotnik ordered.
"Of course, sir," Snively said as he began to charge up the machine for Bernie was unable to stop this.
"Any last words before I send you to another dimension?" Robotnik mocking her.
"Yes, you can go bite yourself. Eggman," Bernie mocks him with that name as Robotnik gets quite upset to trigger the machine to send the mother into another world never to be seen again.
-Flashback Ends-
Sonic and Mina were stunned when they finished watching a video feed from the past, that Sonic's mother is not dead but got sent into another dimension. "Gee, that Eggman was bad even back then," Sonic said as his mind was filled with relief. "My mom is not dead but sent to another world," Sonic said.
"Eggman managed to send her to a world called Anti-Mobius," Mina said.
"Another world, kind of like Blaze's world?" Sonic asked.
"Correct, it would be like that. Good to know, Eggman didn't kill her. Gee, she was the first one to fight against Eggman's forces," Mina said as she was deeply impressed by Bernadette's skills in combat.
"Yeah, my mom is pretty cool. I can get where my cool factor came from," Sonic said as he was impressed with his mother's speed and skills in battle.
"Yep, like mother like son," Mina said as they got what they came for and took the live feed putting it into a disk. "I can hold this, just in case we need it," she said as she put it into her bag.
"Are you done in there?" Elias asked on the radio.
"Yes, we are done. We will meet you outside," Mina said as they went into the airship for the old Scrap Brain base to be buried by missile barrages.
Within the day, they all returned to the city of Mobotropolis as Elias, Rotor, Alexis, Megan, Sonic, and Mina were at the graves of Sally and Bunnie which were located at a graveyard near Castle Acorn. Elias is standing before Sally's grave feeling very sorrowful that his younger sister is dead.
"I wasn't strong enough to protect you. As your elder brother, I failed you. Geoffrey poisoned your mind and now you are gone," Elias said to remember the sweet memories of more innocent times in the past when they were younger. He is holding back his tears with Alexis and Megan holding his hand.
"Sorry daddy," Alexis said.
"It's okay. You are safe now, that is what matters most here," Elias said.
"It's too bad, they have such potential but now they have made their choices," Rotor said as he was saddened to see his old friends are now dead because of Geoffrey's nonsense.
"Well, at least the civil war is over and we found out about Bernadette's fate," Mina said holding onto Sonic's hand.
"Well, you two have done a great service to us. You stopped the war, Geoffrey is behind bars and saving my daughter. You will become heroes and put statues of you within the Court of Heroes," Elias said.
"Well, we did what we can do. We both got what we wanted," Sonic said as he felt more connected with his mother than before.
"Yes, it's good news Bernadette isn't dead but sent away to another world. I hope she turns out well," Elias said.
"I will make sure of that, once we get rid of Greybeard. Hey your kingliness, I need some kind of counter to Naugus's dark magic. Do you have anything like your magic sword, I can use to counter magic?" Sonic asked.
"Well, I can look into that for me. I will tell you when I find something," Elias said.
"Cool," Sonic said.
"Without the rebels, our lands can finally go back to normal and I can prepare for courting the human president here and forming an alliance with the United Federation in peace," Elias said.
"We will aid you in the coming battles ahead against this wizard," Rotor said.
"Thanks, guys," Mina said.
"Yep, time to head back home and catch some R&R," Sonic said.
"Indeed, I need some rest from all this," Mina said as they greeted their new friends in the Acorn family and Rotor farewell. Sonic and Mina leave the Acorn Isles with Sonic making peace knowing about his mother and his past.