I thank KatherineOzawa of Wattpad for helping me.
Sonic laid out on the roof of the warehouse, a travel book in hand as the sun shone brightly over him, giving him light to read and warmth to bask in. A bandaid was pasted onto his cheek after cleaning the cut. Several Days had passed ever since the group had battled Rouge giving everyone enough time to heal their injuries, however minor or major they were, and recuperate with leisurely activities. Or scavenging for signs of an Emerald. No one had known where the bat vanished after she was beaten and frankly, they didn't want to care at the moment. All they needed to focus on was getting the third Emerald. "I guess I must've seen every place there is to see in this dimension, except for the places I'd have to swim to." Sonic mused, looking over a picture of the Bahamas with widened eyes.
Inside the Warehouse, Cream and Cheese were watching TV. The Chao snuggled up to her owner who was sporting a few bruises under her fur and a little support splint on her semi-fractured wrist. Cream pats Cheese with a tender smile. Her little companion had gotten a lot more overbearing ever since she and Amy fought Rouge together. The minor injuries she got only made the Chao want to protect her 'round the clock. Yet as sweet as it is, it was a little too much even with the smallest of daily things but Cream didn't want to make Cheese sad.
Amy comes into the tv room, wearing just as many bruises as her friend and some gauze bandages taped onto her cheek and around her chest. In hand, a warm mixed berry pie was aromatically surveying the room.
"Hey guys! Baked up a snack if you want any!" Amy smiled, placing the pie on the table with a pie knife, three plates and forks.
"Thank you, Amy." Cream nods with a small smile, letting Amy cut three pieces and serve them up as the TV blared on. Suddenly the program switched on screen as the words 'Breaking News' flashed in bold lettering.
"We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this news update! The President's top aide is going to make a statement before taking questions from the press corps." The anchorman spoke as the screen flashed to a man in a near tux and slicked hair was at a podium before a crowd of reporters and paparazzi.
"The President has decided to take action to stop Dr. Eggman!" The man known as Jerome Wise spoke with confidence to the crowd. Cream, Cheese and Amy look up in wonder and surprise at the name and putting aside their snack, they watch with anticipation.
Inside Eggman's fortress, the mad doctor was also watching the same conference on his monitor from his work space.
"Has the administration developed a concrete plan to stop Dr. Eggman?" The anchorman asked dramatically.
"Oh yeah?! Well, I hope they've come up with a disaster management plan, because they're going to need it!" Eggman growled, slamming a fist onto the work table, tools and papers flying every which way.
In the forests, Knuckles was climbing up a cliff, fists grabbing any rough rocks or terrain he could grip. He looked out over the treetops, suturing the area or beyond. "Alright, where's that emerald?"
"Just remember we're looking in the sky, too." Sparkle called from below the cliff, pointing to the Tornado flying high in the sky. Having gotten the worst of beatings from Rouge, she had bruises around her face, which was swelling but thanks to some ice packs it managed to calm down, as well as bandages wrapped snugly at her hips. Even if she was battered and bruised, Knuckles still couldn't help but admire her beauty and warrior-like prowess.
Tails, piloting the Tornado, gripped the control wheel with both while balancing the walkie-talkie firmly coiled in his tail. Like Sonic, he scraped by but with some minor bruises. "We have to track down the next Chaos Emerald or Eggman will get it before we do!" He spoke, holding down the button to talk, reaching the others.
"Yeah. We've got some news coverage saying the President's taking action against him!" Amy spoke into the device. "We'll keep watching just in case!"
Meanwhile, in the Map Room of the White House…other business was happening…
"The power generators for Eggman's base are located under the tower, Mr. President." The FIB's Commander announced.
"Oh…" the president leaned forward on his elbows, propped up on this desk, seeing the base outline of Eggman's fortress on blueprints.
"This information came to us from Rouge." The Commander motioned to The Bat with a hand, who sat in her seat, poised like a model. Despite her bruised ribs and arms, bandaged shoulder and temple and weathered (but healing) wings, she still held the grace of a swan. After the debacle against Team Sonic, she decided to join as a spy for the President after getting caught. She took up the offer, much to Dorian's dismay.
"Well, Rouge, I'm glad my confidence in you wasn't misplaced." The President spoke like a pro.
"This spy stuff is right up my alley!" She waved away with a hand and a flattered smile.
The President nods, "We're all very grateful. Now, let's review our attack plan."
"Right." The Chairman motions to the Commander who gives the floor to his Military advisor. The Commander stood next to the Blueprints that were propped up on a presentation stand while his Military advisor spoke. Taking a laser pointer, he motioned to the spaces just around Eggman's lair.
"It will be a two-pronged assault from both sea and air." The advisor devised.
"Yes, but what if Dr. Eggman's robots counterattack?" The president raised his hand to halt for a second.
"These forces are merely a diversion. Eggman will deploy his robots against this frontal assault." The advisor assured as another blueprint was shown with the picture of Eggman's bots facing the diversion. "Meanwhile, a special forces team will approach the island from the opposite side and sneak into the base from the rear." Another blueprint was shown depicting this. "Once they break into the generator room, they'll cut off Eggman's power supply."
The CI's Director added in, "They will be backed up by a team from the intelligence agency including Rouge and some other agents."
"Good." The President nodded, having taken in all the info. "We'll need Team Sonic on board with this as well. They know Eggman far better than we do. But the real thing is…we need to locate them so we can get them in on this plan." The others nod in agreement, not noticing Dorian turn away a bit.
"Not unless I capture them first…." He promised to himself in a low voice, seething from that night's missed encounter.
Search squads were traversing the city, looking through every warehouse in the area, but getting them open and scavenging the place led to dead ends. What they weren't aware of is that Tails had placed a hologram/cloaking device around the Team's warehouse, concealing HQ in the trees with more trees to avoid being detected.
"Yes, I see. Thank you. The warehouse couldn't be found." The president, on the phone with the search teams' captain, nodded and relayed the message back to the group in the room with him.
"Who knew hedgehogs were headstrong?" The chairman nodded, mildly impressed by the Hedgehogs' tenacity.
The CI Director shook his head, "It looks like we'll have to stop Eggman ourselves, Mr. President."
"I suppose we'll have to count Sonic out." The President nodded in agreement.
"You don't need him in the game!" Rouge stood up from her spot, casting all eyes onto her.
"Huh?" The president raised an eyebrow with confusion.
"Not when you've got me going to bat for you!" The bat persuaded with flair.
"Ah! You're right, Rouge!" The president nodded, deciding to let Rouge go into the operation over Sonic and his squad.
Rouge still smiled, but inside, she was thinking to herself rather bitterly, 'I'm not going to let anything stop me from getting my hands on a Chaos Emerald this time!'
Back at the Tornado, in his holding spot, The green Chaos Emerald flashed rapidly, making Tails' eyes widen.
"The Chaos Emerald's picking up something!" He shouted into the walkie-talks as he checked the small sonar screen. He sent live feed of it to smaller phones for the others to checkout.
"We got it!" Amy confirmed, she, Cheese and Cream are watching as the radar picks up a flashing dot in the distance on the map.
"See the locater screen?" Tails' voice sounded over the feedback of the walkie-talkie.
"South-southeast." Amy confirmed the direction, checking the coordinates and compass.
"Chaos Emerald, here we come!" Tails smiles.
Following the sonar map to where the blinking dot was, Amy hops on the Tornado and using Tails' radar try to pinpoint where the Emerald was. They were soon getting closer and flying over a corn field when the dot started getting closer to them.
"The Chaos Emerald is right under our feet!" Tails shouted, bringing the plane down closer to the ground slowly.
"But we didn't bring a shovel!" Amy yells back. Tails looks over the cornfield and spotting a farmhouse nearby, he smiled.
"I know where to get some!"
The White House, however, was still up in arms over taking on Eggman, shouting going all around.
"This may well be our only opportunity, Mr. President. If Eggman leaves to chase after that Chaos Emerald, we can attack the base while he's gone, which will improve the odds of our success." The CI director argued.
"And we'll have Eggman on the run." The Chairman agrees. The President's hands were folded together and covering his mouth, foot tapping rapidly as he thought over the situation, until the CI director perked up,
"Mr. President?"
"All right, then. Let's get this job done!" The president shouted. Better to get it done than never…
Outside, signals go off as the troops position themselves miles away from the fortress in preparation for the infiltration and distraction. Unbeknownst to them, a hedgehog and an echidna were spying on them from the forest.
"I wonder what's up now." Knuckles thought. He and Sparkle had their own thing to deal with and broke off from Tails and Amy to see what was going on. They were glad they did so.
"Looks like some kind of prep for infiltration…" Sparkle guessed. "But who would they…?"
Out at the bay, many Naval forces start moving down into the ocean by submarines or cut through the waves by power boat as other agents station themselves at rows of computers to receive signals from the control room nestled in FIB headquarters, all hands on deck.
Eggman however found something rather uplifting from his base of operations: on his monitor, another Chaos Emerald was buried somewhere in the cornfield near Tingalin Villa. Smiling at the chance to grab it, he used his Selection Machine to choose which machine would do the job for assisting him in getting another Emerald. Thus the E-35 FunFun was chosen; a giant chicken-like robot with a fan embedded in its chest. It powers up its boosters and takes off out the launch doors into the sky, Eggman not too far behind.
From the ground, several G.U.N. Agents spot him. One grabs his walkie-talkie and speaks to base,
"There he goes. Get ready to mobilize!"
"Squadron A is away! Squadron B, get set for your run on the island." One commander shouts orders as the soldiers grunt in acceptance of orders and prepare to race for infiltration.
"They're attacking Eggman's base!" Knuckles realized.
"Not without us." Sparkle smirked, ready for the chance to kick butt.
Back in the cornfield, Amy and Tails with their newly acquired shovels begin to dig into the earth, over the spot where the Emerald was located.
"It must be deep. Keep digging." Tails wiped some sweat from his forehead and kept digging with a tight grip.
Amy stopped digging when the sound of an engine sounded in the distance. "Hey, that sounds like a jet!" She shouted as it started to get closer. The two look up and their jaws drop. Funfun flies overhead, landing nearby where our heroes were digging. Tails squint up, seeing another vehicle following suit, and someone familiar with a giant mustache, bald head and goggles.
"Oh, no, it's Eggman!"
"Do something!" Amy demands, gripping her shovel hard. Tails nods, dropping his shovel and runs for the Tornado, hopping into the driver's seat and revving the engine to life.
"Have you found my Chaos Emerald yet?" Eggman lands on the ground, smiling at the two hedgehogs.
"We're not going to give it to you!" Tails shouted defiantly.
"That's right!" Amy nods.
"Very well, I'll just take it then!" Eggman growled.
"We gotta call Sonic and tell him to hurry!" Amy reached for her walkie talkie.
"Go! Get them, Funfun!" Eggman shouted, pointing at his enemies.
"Stop 'em, Tornado!" Amy shouts, switching channels on the talkie to reach Sonic.
"Let's go!" Tails got the plane to start hovering over the earth. Flooring it, the Tornado took off and flew right for Funfun. But the machine quickly activates the fan in its chest, streaming up a powerful current and sending it towards the two. Amy tried to keep her feet in the ground as she tried to stay grounded, but the current proved too much for her. Losing her feet, she goes flying backwards with a scream.
"Amy!" Tails shouted worriedly, but losing focus gave the Funfun the chance it needs to send the Tornado back to the ground.
"You're blowing those brats away! Good work!" Eggman cheered. The strong current started creating an opening in the field and even wrecking a building further away due to the sheer force.
"Uh oh!" Tails tried to get the plane stable against the gale pushing him back.
Eggman cackled at the hedgehogs' attempts to stay close to the ground. "This is the most "fun fun" I've had in a long time!"
"The control stick is jammed up!" Tails shouted, pulling as hard as he could but the winds were proving to be too overpowering for him and his flying machine.
The seas by Dr Eggman's fortress were high and virile as the air and naval forces began their operation, approaching with laser-focused glares. The fighter planes and battleship, on command, fire rockets and peojecfiles towards the base in a storm.
Bocoe and Decoe, going about their business as usual, half when the building began to shake and pieces of rubble began dropping from the ceilings.
"What's happening?!" Bocoe shrieks, only to be shut up by Decoe whacking him.
"It's an attack, you bolt brain! Those fighter planes are firing at us, and there are battleships, too!" Through the surveillance cameras, the two bots see the size of the army they were dealing with.
"We will show them! Let us launch a counterattack!" Bocoe commands.
Outside the base, A sealed hatch splits open, revealing two new machines: the E-11 Beacon, a giant yellow and purple robotic bird, and the E-14 Sneezer, a gray and red missile launcher. The Sneezer starts to unleash bombards towards the battleships to counterattack while the Beacon zooms down to attack the fighter planes. From the foliage on a part of the island, Rouge watches the distraction armada fight with keen eyes under her black suit.
"They're putting up quite a fight! Now let's knock out the power!" She whistled, giving the all clear for the true special forces team to move into the base. They do with quick steps and rifles in arms.
Station Square was abuzz with activity only to stop when nearly every tv in every restaurant to every store stops people in their tracks as the news team begins their broadcast. "We interrupt our regular broadcast to bring you this live, emergency address from the President!" Switching over to the President, he stands tall at the podium, speaking,
"My fellow citizens, today our military forces launched an all-out assault against the headquarters of Dr. Eggman!" He announced, catching more and more people's attention to the screens.
Especially in the warehouse…
"Despite repeated warnings, Dr. Eggman has continued to threaten the peace and wellbeing of our nation!" The president continued. But Cream had zoned out the rest of the president's speech and flew off the couch in a Frenzy.
"We have to tell Sonic about this!" She runs for the rooftop doors as Cheese quickly follows, not knowing what else was happening at the island, where the fight was going on strong.
"This conflict is unfortunate, but we cannot allow Dr. Eggman to achieve his goal of world domination. We must stop him now, before it is too late!" The president slammed his fist onto the podium top with great strength.
The Beacon and Sneezer continue to hold off their enemies against all three forgoes of the military, naval and aerial with great speed and power, unaware that in the other end of the building, an explosive had gone off, blending in with the rest of the rapid fire. The explosion, set up by Rouge and her force team, managed to break open the back entrance to Eggman's warehouse and quickly double time inside before they could be potentially spotted.
Back at the main base, more missiles were being installed for backup by the soldiers as Knuckles and Sparkles quickly bolt for one of the planes and hop in with the freight. Ducking low, the pilots hurry to the hatches and hop in, bringing the glass dome down and buckle in, taking off down the runway with more with a slam of the pedal.
Back at Tingalin Villa, the FunFun was still rampaging away with strong gusts of wind, ripping through the fields and pushing back Tails and the Tornado. Amy, however, was nailing planks of wood into the ground, the Piko Piko Hammer tight in one hand as she gripped it with her other hand to avoid getting blown away.
"I won't…. let you…win, Eggman!" Tails promised as he pulled and pushed harder on the control stick.
Eggman merelay guffaws, "That measly machine of yours is no match for my robot!"
"Oh yeah?!"
"Let's compete and see whose robot rules! Knocking the wind out of your puny Tornado will be a breeze!" With a snap of his fingers, the FunFun turned the speed of the fan up higher, making the current of wind even more powerful than before. Tails tried to push the Tornado forward, but it slowly started falling back. Making Eggman laugh hysterically,
"It seems Tails is in way over his head!"
Sonic, having gotten the news from Cream about what was going on, dropped the book he was reading and took off, leaving Cream and Cheese to guard the warehouse together, ready to assist his friends.
"My fellow citizens," the president continued on the televisions as the people of Station Square watched with horror, surprise and anticipation at the footage that was being captured of the intense fight. "The assault against the headquarters of Dr. Eggman has begun. Our military forces will press on until Eggman is no longer a threat to the world. We will not fail. Dr. Eggman must be stopped now!"
The frontal battle had both sides on equal ground as more fighter planes and battleships fly or swim in to help and take down the fortress, forcing more Sneezer bots to appear out of the base and fire more rockets to make the enemy draw back.
Up above in one of the fighter planes, both Knucles and Sparkle were hiding out in the space with the other missiles, waiting patiently for the pilot to eject the wave. On cue, the pilot jams the red button with his thumb to let go of the bombs. The hatch opens, releasing all the missiles, flying once they hit the air and right for Eggman's base. Attached to one of the flying missiles was Knuckles and Sparkle, waiting to get close enough to the island and the building to launch off and stick to the fortress tower's wall. Knuckles managed to land first, Sparkle monkey clinged to his back. She nodded, securing her arms around his neck and Knuckles began to climb the wall.
Rouge and her squadron keep running through the dark halls of Eggman's lair, keeping sharp eyes and heightened instincts for any hostile enemies. Rouge's eyes widen when he heard something coming from farther down and holds out her arms.
"Hold it!" She stood at the ready. "We're about to get a visit from Eggman's welcome wagon."
On cue, an E-12, the Behemoth, with a gray body, yellow forearms and hands, purple feet, blue lower torso and orange chest plate begins to stagger down the dark hallway, shrouded by the shadows before stepping into the light. It snaps it pincher-like hands as Rouge flicked her wings up,
"I'll take it!"
The Tornado flew through the fields of Tingalin Villa, spinning over and over as it crash-landed into the ground, finally overtaken. The FunFun didn't stop as it started to advance towards Amy, her grip becoming tighter on the wood as the FunFun and its winds drew closer. She opened her eyes, facing away from the wind in her eyes, gasping as she saw Tails. Unconscious for a moment, he slowly woke up only to jolt awake fully, feeling the earth under him shake tremendously.
"Hey, Tails!" Amy yelled, only to gasp in horror as the FunFun lifted its foot and prepared to crush the plane under its foot.
"That's right, Funfun. Show that furry urchin who's in charge! Put your foot down!" Eggman cackled, watching the robot follow his command. Tails screamed in fear, trying to escape the rubble before he could be killed.
Sonic darted through the fields with his speed, looking everywhere for where his friends could be. At the sound of Tails' scream, he zoomed over to the source of the noise, hoping he's not too late.
"Ha ha! Ta-ta, Tails! It's crunch time!" Eggman shoutd with victory. But just as the FunFun came close to putting all its weight onto the prepared foot, a blur of blue appeared and slammed into its side with brute force. Caught off guard, the mad doctor gripped his hair with venom. "Ergh, it can't be!"
Sonic smiled as he kicked down the robot, away from the crush zone and his friend. But in doing so, he pointed the Funfun's fan at Eggman Himself, the gusts of wind, now sailing at the mad doctor, and launching him into the sky.
Eggman screamed as he went flying,"Stop it, Funfun! Shut down your motorrrrrrr!" His voice got more and more quieter with the amount of distance he was thrown, before vanishing completely. But his command managed to get the FunFun to shut off.
"You've saved us all!" Tails smiled gratefully as Sonic helped put the plane upright and helped Tails out from under.
"Yeah yeah, but, Tails, why'd you wind up way out here?" Sonic asked, putting aside the praise for now.
"We've found out the third Chaos Emerald is here. Woah, that's right, I almost forgot!" Tails went to grab the shovel he long abandoned, but Sonic stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.
"Easy, pal!" Behind them, the Funfun started to get back up, making Tails scream and hide behind Sonic. "Cool your jets, big guy! Just let him dig up what he came for and we'll all go away!" Sonic assured, until he heard the familiar whirring of fan blades. "Guess I'll have to knock the wind out of ya!"
"Sonic!" Amy shouted, slamming her hand onto the button, forcing the Tornado's dashboard cupboard to open and release a Ring. She caught it and threw it to Sonic, which he caught with success.
"Got it!"
Burning bright in his hand like a star, the Ring glowed yellow, blinding the Funfun, giving Sonic the chance to curl into a hall, spin at top speed and launch himself at the machine, piercing through it like a cannonball. The FunFun staggered, a gaping hole in its chest before powering down and falling backwards into the dirt. The distraction gave Tails the chance to dig faster than he ever could and hit something before unearthing the yellow Chaos Emerald.
"Oh, wow!" He holds it up in both hands with a smile.
"Why, Tails, you shouldn't have!" A voice drew Tails' attention elsewhere, but looking back, he gasped as he saw too late a claw had snatched the Emerald from his grasp. He looked up, seeing Eggman in his Egg Mobile, and took off, stowing it away.
"Let's go get it back!" Sonic shouted, running for the Tornado
"Huh, yeah!" Tails and Amy follow. Sonic plants himself at the front of the plane, Tails at the wheel and Amy landing in the passenger seat. The Tornado came to life and took off after Eggman in the blink of an eye.
The inside of Doctor Eggman's Fortresses was chaotic, as Rouge continued her battle against Behemoth. She managed to land several hits while gracefully avoiding all of the robot's attacks with speed and agility.
"Hurry, set the charge!" Rouge shouted over her shoulder to the squadron. One of the soldiers quickly throw an explosive towards the Behemoth, landing under its feet. Rouge dove for cover after giving it one last kick and the explosive is set off with the smash of a button. It exploded, eliminating the ground under the Behemoth, toppling backwards and falling down into the hole.
"Our situation is becoming dangerous! Those soldiers have us outnumbered!" Decoe was too focused on the surveillance cameras outside and started freaking out, flailing his limbs everywhere.
"We must formulate a new strategy quickly before they deactivate us!" Bocoe claims, just as warning beeps come from the Radar. He glanced over, seeing another approaching plane and panicked, "Another enemy ship is approaching! This one must not get through!"
"Blast them!" Decoe screams, forcing Bocoe to hit another flashing blue button, making more missiles from the machines defending the base to launch more missiles. Unaware that the missiles they just launched were flying towards their own boss…
"Cease fire! It's me, you scrap heads!" Eggman swerved to avoid the oncoming missiles, making them hit nothing in mid-air. Eggman tried not to have a headache as he approached his base, seeing the war zone below.
"Ergh... the President thinks he's got me in his sights! Hah! Well, I hope you didn't rehearse a victory speech because I'm back in command now!" He cackled, pushing for more gas on his machine to get him to his base, only to look forward and see more missiles coming at him. "Hey, those are my missiles!" He shouts, preparing for more evasive maneuvers.
Station Square was now abuzz with word of mouth and watchful eyes as the citizens were now glued to the screens and watching the fight's live coverage on the news on the edge of their seats.
"The attack on Eggman's base appears to be failing. Wait, what's that? A new aircraft is on the scene. Is that one of ours? There's something on the nose of the craft. It's a blue- it can't be...a blue hedgehog?!" The camera zoomed in on the Tornado coming into the viewfinder's range, zooming in even closer to film none other than Sonic.
Elsewhere, Eggman's base was still in chaos. Just as the first Behemoth fell, a second one replaced it.
"Don't sweat it. I'll handle this robot. You guys go to the generator room and set the charges!" Rouge commands. They nod and quickly made their way around the Behemoth, backs against the wall as Rouge quickly dispatched the second Behemoth. The team wasn't able to make it far down the hallway as an armada of E-13 Guardbot robots appeared in front of them. They fired off several bullets from their rifles as the soldiers quickly took over to avoid getting hit. Rouge, however, was fast with her wings and merely flew over them.
"Missed me, slowbot!" She winked, but the 2nd Behemoth, having gotten up from its dispatch earlier, snagged her mid-air and held her in its tight grip.
She tried to pry herself out of its grip to no avail. Feeling frustrated, she used her Spiral kick maneuver to break out of its hold, shattering the claw in the process due to the velocity and force.
However, it took her too long to realize she was her squadron was still at the mercy of the armada of Guardbots. They had started to get up only to dive back down just before another round of bullet fire could hit them.
Suddenly, from up above, Sparkle and Knuckles launch down and crush one of the Guardbots to pieces with fists. Leaping back, they stand in front of Rouge, guards up. But their appearance was what caught Rouge off-guard.
"Knuckles! Sparkle!" She gasped. The two didn't acknowledge her yet, too focused on the army of robots before them and the soldiers.
The Guardbots fire several bullets, the soldiers still forced to the ground. But for Sparkle and Knuckles, it was just what they needed to wreck house. Leaping over the bodies of the soldiers, they run at the Guardbots, dodging bullets left and right.
"Too slow!" Sparkle curled into a ball and ricocheting from the wall, lightning sparks flying out from her quills, she barreled through several of the Guardbots, leaving gaping holes in their chests. They immediately powered down and fell in heaps of scrap behind her. Knuckles proceeded to smash and kick his way through the other half of the hoard at rapid speed, not missing a beat. Ripping a limb off here, punching through a body there, all fell one by one until the hallway was totally silent.
"Well, that was close." Sparkle dusted herself off.
"Let's hope that doesn't happen again." Knuckles chuckled, but turning around he eyed Rouge and the soldiers, all of whom were slowly getting to their feet to make sure the Guardbots were completely dead, as well as being skeptical about the newcomers. "By the way, what are you guys trying to do here anyway?"
"We came here to destroy Eggman's base. In fact, we're on our way to sabotage the generator room right now." Rouge answered suavely.
"There's no way you could do it! That room will be impossible to get into!" Knuckles scoffed. Rouge raised an eyebrow at his standoffish persona.
"Really…" she narrowed her eyes.
"It may be the only way to stop Eggman, for a while, at least." Sparkle mediated between the two, her hand on the echidna's shoulder and looking at Rouge. She still didn't trust the bat after what happened days ago. But she thought that if Rouge did succeed in winning and gaining the fake Emerald, she would've been cornered by Dorian instead…and who knows what could've befell her the same as any of them….
"They'll fail….unless they have us around." Knuckles reluctantly gave in, deciding to ally with Rouge this once to take down Eggman. And speak of the devil…
"That was me!" The mad scientist smacked the heads of his dunderheaded robotic minions Doctor and Bocoe, having made it back to base by the skin of his teeth. But pretty peeved off he nearly got blasted to Timbuktu. "You tin-canned turkeys nearly wiped out the evilest genius in the universe! Bah!"
"Sorry, doctor…" the two apologize with their heads down.
"I'll wipe that smirk off Sonic's face!" Eggman clenched his hand as he threw himself to the main computer and started inputting commands with the keyboard. "This time, I'm not holding back!"
The ground outside the base opened up, revealing more missiles locked and loaded, this time launching at the Tornado while the previous robots took care of the battleships and aircrafts from the CIA. Eggman's seat shifts to his liking, his knuckles cracking and grin wide and malicious.
"This time, the doctor means business!" Bocoe cheers as Eggman's smashed button after button, laughing as he spins in his seat, sending more missiles towards the Tornado. The plane, meanwhile, kept dodging the missiles via a Tailspin technique.
"There's more coming!" Any shouted as a new wave approached several feet ahead.
"Well, watch this!" Tails turnsed the plane back, activating mini rifles and began to short off rapid fire missiles to counter the new wave.
Sonic laughed with joy, "Pretty cool, huh?" His smile captured for all to see as the people of Station Square cheer for Sonic. They watch as the Tornado fired at the tower wall, making it weak enough for Sonic to smash through.
"Hey, Sonic, will that work?" Tails shouts over the gunfire.
"Perfect!" He smiled, got into a runner's position and launched off the front of the plane, curled into a ball and broke through the wall, making a large hole. Unfurling, he takes off down the corridor, seeing a familiar doorway and zips through only to stop once he saw his arch-nemesis
"That's close enough! It was a fluke that you pushed it this far, but now your lucky streak is over!" Eggman's swiftly spins in his chair to face Sonic with a cocky smile. A door behind him opened, revealing the E-18 Guerra-Hard; a giant grey body with blue-painted forearms, hands, feet and lower legs, black lower torso, chest and shoulders, red-bladed eppulates on its chest, and a giant crown-shaped head with red, green and yellow accents, the same colored eyes burning from a rectangular-shaped hole in the head. Eggman cackled as he directed the Egg Mobile to fly over the robot's head and attached to the top, hands gripping the controls.
"Ready, hedgehog?"
"You bet, Dr. E!" Sonic grinned. Eggman thrust the controls forward, forcing the Guerra-Hard to swing a punch at Sonic. He jumped up just as Guerra-Hard's fist collided into the ground where Sonic stood a second ago. The fight was on!
Team Rouge, Sparkle and Knuckles managed to locate the Generator room, ready to blow the power system sky-high. With the explosive devices set up, Sparkle looked around, not seeing Rouge among the soldiers.
"Hey, where'd Rouge go?" She looked to Knuckles who pointed up.
"I saw her go that way." He answered.
"If she's doing what I think she's doing, it's finding an Emerald." Sparkle clicked her tongue.
Rouge flapped her wings carefully making her way up to the highest point of the room, eyes searching for any sign of an Emerald being stowed away securely, but finding none.
"Aww... Eggman must be keeping the Chaos Emerald someplace else, now!" She realized.
"Yo, Rouge!" A voice cut her from her thoughts.
"Yeah?!" Looking down, Rouge saw Sparkle peering up at her.
"Get down here! We've gotta go!" Sparkle shouted, seeing that all the soldiers on the team had placed the bombs and evacuated quickly, except for the three of them.
"Go on, I'll catch up!" She waved away, still determined. As was Sparkle, but for a different reason.
"But the team needs you!"
"There's something I've gotta take care of first!" Unaware to the two bantering, two sets of eyes were watching them.
"They appear to be working on opposite sides, but are any of them working for us? You should lock them all in until we can figure out who is who." Decoe narrowed his eyes.
"Good idea." Bocoe nodded.
Rouge stopped when she heard the sound of clinking and looked up seeing the small security camera aimed at her. "Ah! Uh oh, not good…"
The door down below slammed shut on its own, locking from the outside. Rouge flew down, meeting Sparkle and Knuckles, who tried to turn the knob and get it open, only for it to not budge.
"They locked us in, but not for long!" Rouge pushed Knuckles aside and sent a spinning back kick to the door, but it barely made a niche from her foot. Even trying several more times didn't work. "I can't kick through." She huffed and puffed.
"Leave it to me!" Knuckles took over, powering up his fist, feeling it far back and sending it slamming into the door, but just the same as Rouge, it barely made a dent. "Huh?! I didn't even make a dent…"
He proceeded to whale on the door, breaking a sweat as he did so.
Sparkle bit her lip with worry, watching the echidna bash at the door with an iron will. 'What now? If Rouge and Knuckles can't break the door, I won't be able to do it either. Unless…' she thought suddenly of an idea.
"We might not be able to break the door down on our own, but what if we did it together?"
"Better than giving up early." Knuckles nodded.
Rouge agreed, "You're right! Together, we have a fighting chance! Ready?"
The three started to send a flurry of punches and kicks at the door with all their strength.
Sonic's back slammed into the ceiling, the Guerra-Hard kicking him up with the force of five-hundred men. He groaned as he fell, only to shout in pain again when the Guerra-Hard kicked him again, slamming into the wall. Eggman's cackled,
"He's crushed!"
"Not yet!" Sonic grit his teeth as he launched himself from the wall towards the machine.
"The pressure's on now, Sonic!" Eggman pushed one of the levels forward, forcing the Guerra-Hard to grab Sonic mid-jump and pins him to the wall.
"Ergh, I've gotten out of tighter squeezes!" Sonic wiggled under the robot's hand.
"That's true, but this time, you've finally met your match! Guerra-Hard's the ultimate combat robot because it's got the ultimate power supply: two Chaos Emeralds!" Eggman's fingers deftly push a white button on the control panel of the Egg Machine, making the Guerra-Hard's chest cavity open, revealing the Blue and Yellow Emeralds embedded into the machine.
"So that's it!" Sonic realized now why this robot was far tougher to take down than the others before, the power source of the robot being two Emeralds!
Eggman glared down at Sonic behind his goggles,"I've been looking forward to this Sonic-" but a phone rang in the room, interrupting Eggman's speech. He growled and grabbed it, answering the machine with a pleasant, "Hello."
"Sorry to bother you doctor, but we have a problem." Decor's voice sounded static-like on the other end. "A group of intruders is locked in the generator room. We're unable to determine whose side they're on."
"Huh?" The mad scientist pushed on buttons to get on the small screen what the security cameras were picking up. When the screen was shown, though, his mouth dropped open. "Knuckles and Sparkle?! Those are our enemies, you dumb bot!"
"Then we will eliminate them!" Decor shook as he promised.
"What are they doing in the generator room anyway?" Eggman demanded more than asked.
"I am not certain, but they did mention about demolition charges." The robot answers truthfully. But that answer…
"THEY WHAT?!"
As for Knuckles, Rouge and Sparkle, All three continue smashing the door with all the vice and power they had in them. While behind, the detonating explosives read 5:00 til destruction, merely minutes til the place would go sky-high.
"Time's running out!" Sparkle yelled, polishing at the door, seeing to start to crack only a little.
Sonic, having heard her on the camera footage from Eggman's vehicle, got newfound energy in him and wrenching open Guerra-Hard's grip, he busted out. "This will be a cinch!"
Eggman growled and shouted, "Get Sonic!" Forcing the bot to move, Sonic curled up and sped around the room, making the bit chase after him like a child catching a ball. "Run all you want! Guerra-Hard will still pulverize you!"
Sonic merely chuckled as Guerra-Hard proceeded to kick him, but Sonic broke the ball form and jumped onto the robot, avoiding its attack.
"Get him!" Eggman forced the bot to use its hands to try and snatch him up, but Sonic traversed the planes of the bot, jumping and dodging the flying hands as he did so. "Gah! Stop him!"
Leaping high up, Sonic runs through Guerra-Hard's chest cavity and grabs the two Chaos Emeralds, wrenching them out of their holding spots.
"Yeah-heh-heh!"
"No, bring them back!" Eggman was now worried and shouted for the Robot to do something, but in Sonic's hands, the Two Chaos Emerald started to glow like burning stars, giving Sonic enough power to blast through the Guerra Hard with power to short circuit it and out the door he came through. "Oh no!" He saw the robot start to shake and twitch as it prepared to blow up. Sonic started ripping down the hall, knowing Eggman likely fled as well, leaving the Guerra Hard to self-destruct in a fiery explosion. Sonic didn't bother looking behind him at the explosion, too focused on finding his comrades and then getting out.
The generator room was already a mess, rubble falling from the ceiling and walls as the bombs read 2:30 on screen, leaving the three trapped inside to throw hands and feet like their lives were depending on it. The doors started to wear away, making it weaker and weaker at the constant bashes, especially Sparkle and Rouge.
"Not much time left!"
We're still locked in!"
"Don't worry, I'll punch us out!" Knuckles cracked his hands and using the last of his power, he hurled a sharp right look through the door, making a hole. "Alright!"
"Look out!" Rouge screamed, grabbing Knuckles in a flying tackle to the ground, just before Sonic burst through the generator room, making an even bigger hole in the wall.
"It's Sonic, He has the Emeralds!" Sparkle smiled with glee as he urged them to follow to the exit.
"Get off! I wanna fight too!" Knuckles shoved Rouge off him.
"Don't give me orders! I'm in charge of this operation! You follow my lead!" Rouge scoffed, dusting herself off.
"Guys?" Ignoring her, the two continued to bicker like they were a married couple, and it was irking Sparkle.
"Yeah?! Well, following you is what got us trapped to start with!"
"Guys?!"
"You're cute when you're angry-"
"WILL YOU BOTH SHUT UP?! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!" She lost it and proceeded to drag them both out as the timer began to reach the seconds.
Everyone made it to the exit with all they had left in them, the timer counted down the seconds one by one before going off, resulting in a huge fiery explosion consuming the generator room and the hallways. All three made it outside to safety, throwing themselves to the ground for cover, as the explosion from the detonation reached outside.
The explosion was seen from Station Square as nearly everyone gasped with wide eyes, the giant plumes of smoke creating a mushroom cloud up above….all was quiet before they let out a roaring cheer of victory. In the Crowd, Cream and Cheese shared a hug, the victory a resounding success!
"I bet we'll see him any second! Right, Cheese?" Cream smiled and Cheese squeaked in agreement, knowing their friends were safe and sound.
Up in the air, the Tornado was flying above the explosion and on top of the plane was Sonic himself, the Two Chaos Emeralds still in his arms.
"Ha, ha! Yeah!" Sonic cheered, holding them up in victory
"Sonic!" Tails and Amy smiled, joining up with the others for a celebrated victory.
"He did it!" And high fives were given all around.