Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 76: Spooky Rescues and Data Crunching
Running down a pathway with a carnival themed design, we find Shadow looking around with an annoyed expression.
"Where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?" the black hedgehog grumbled to himself. As he arrived at the carnival's entrance, Shadow's ears pick up the sound of a jet plane and looks up only to immediately recognize who it is "Isn't…that Tails?"
Sure enough, it's Tails in his Tornado which was currently hovering in the air as he surveys the area.
"Look at that! It's Eggman's theme park. He made it out of the rings he collected from all over the world, I've got to get those rings back," said Tails thoughtfully.
Shadow noticed something installed at the front part of the Tornado which caught his immediately "A Chaos Emerald!"
Before he could do anything else, there were multiple explosions in the air and apparently the Tornado got caught up in it before being sent spiraling into the distance with Tails desperately trying to regain control of his aircraft.
"This is too easy, guess it's my lucky day!" said Shadow with a smile before running into the carnival towards where the Tornado could have possibly crashed and retrieve the Chaos Emerald.
Meanwhile at the Freedom Fighters Mobile Center which was driving along the road, Naruto and the others were communicating with Sonic as well as the other Freedom Fighters concerning the activities of the Black Aliens while also being at the ready to respond to any SOS signals.
"How you guys found out anything yet?" asked Lilac curiously.
"Not more than what we already know so far about the Black Aliens, Sonic and the rest are going all over the place to intercept and acquire information about them," said Sally with a small frown on her face.
"Well, there has to be some form of records about these aliens since those flying temples meant that they came to this planet a long time ago," Carol pointed out to the group.
"But then the major question would be who would possess the information," said Nicole thoughtfully.
Naruto was about to speak up when one of his ECG-X gloves started beeping to signal a call, so he tapped on it to answer {You've got Naruto here}
{Naruto? It's Vanilla} the other person spoke up.
"Vanilla-san, what's wrong? Are you and Cream-chan okay?" asked Naruto with concern which caught the attention of the others.
{Actually, that's what I am calling you about; whether Cream and Cheese are with you or Amy?}
"She's not with me but I'll quickly get in contact with Amy to find out then bring her home to you," Naruto responded.
{I'd really be grateful if you do that}
"Sure thing, I'll get back to you later," Naruto ended the call afterwards then turned to Nicole "Could you contact Amy, Nicole-chan?"
"Will do," The hybrid lynx nodded in affirmation then went over to the console to contact the pink hedgehog, soon enough she responded.
{Hey guys, what's up?} Amy inquired.
"We're calling to find out if Cream and Cheese are with you. Miss Vanilla has just called Naruto, asking about them," Lilac explained.
Amy then had a troubled look on her face {Actually, they were with me but ended up wandering into this spooky castle when I wasn't looking. And they aren't the only ones}
"What do you mean, who else is with them?" Sally asked worriedly.
{Milla, Spicy, Wendy and Carla came along too}
"What!?" Naruto shot up to his feet upon hearing that "I told them to stay at home because of this ongoing invasion!"
Carol groaned "Oh boy, why didn't Carla stop them?"
"That's what I'm gonna be asking her when I get there and find them all," Naruto turned to Nicole "Send me the coordinates to the location, I'm heading over there right now,"
Nicole nodded in affirmation "Right, be sure to bring them over to the FF HQ where it's safe,"
"Will do,"
Amy is currently standing at the entrance leading to a large haunted medieval castle and shivered when she heard the ghostly wails coming out from the building. Her ears perked up at the sound of a sonic boom in the distance and turned to see something quickly approaching her position before slowing down to a stop, revealing to be Naruto riding atop the Dragoon.
"Naruto, you're here," said Amy.
"Yeah," Naruto hopped off Dragoon for it to fly away and wait for his call "Let's head in and find those girls, they're gonna get a scolding for this,"
"It's all my fault, I should have paid more attention when I know that their curiosity often gets the better of them," said Amy, feeling disappointed in herself.
"Now's not the time to be playing the Blame Game, not with the current situation," Naruto pointed out to them.
"You're right, let's go and find them,"
With that said, the duo rushes through the entryway to begin the search for their lost friends.
Music Start: Shadow the Hedgehog OST; Cryptic Castle
Upon smashing through a larger set of doors, Naruto and Amy dash down a sloped path to the end where they came across a couple of Egg Pawns wielding lances which caught their attention.
"Egg Pawns, could it be that this castle belongs to Eggman?" asked Amy confusedly.
"It could be possible, considering that the previous haunted castle which my team entered belongs to Eggman," Naruto sensed something else as he looks up to see several Black Wings flying in the skies above "And apparently it's under attack by the Black Aliens,"
"Then we need to hurry and find them, let's ignore the robots as we search for them," said Amy urgently.
"Sounds good to me,"
Moving past the Egg Pawns, the duo came upon a Halloween themed balloon which they hung on to be carried towards one of the towers which was connected by a long grind rail. They dropped down to grind along the rail to the tower ahead of them. Inside appears to be empty but Naruto's use of the Aura Sight helped him find an opening covered by a slab of stone after he flipped it over to descend to the lower level.
Moving on ahead, Naruto and Amy had an encounter with a particular Egg Pawn which was balanced atop a large ball and was juggling multiple bombs above its head.
"I remember this kind of robot, we need to be careful when it rolls the ball at us or toss any of those bombs," said Amy.
"I don't think we can ignore all of Eggman's bots if that's the case," said Naruto before calling upon his foxfire "Foxfire Barrage!" he thrusts his hands forward to fire a salvo of azure fireballs to simultaneously destroy the ball and the bombs being juggled which leaves the Egg Pawn in a state of panic before closing in on it "Foxfire Kick!" his foot lights up with an azure flame before striking out with a roundhouse kick to destroy the robot.
Moving on, Naruto and Amy reached a rather high ledge which the former would be able to run to the top and would have to carry the latter to do so. that was when Amy called out to him.
"Look over there, those weird looking braziers are unlit. Maybe they're a puzzle of something?" Amy inquired curiously.
"Let's give it a try," Naruto ignited the two braziers with his foxfire which caused a large skull-themed rubber ball to appear. Apparently, it could be used to bounce them up to the top of the ledge which they did before moving on
They came across a giant unlit lantern when they heard Eggman's voice through the speakers {Attention all Egg Pawns, I must repeat that lighting the giant lanterns is of the highest priority in order to secure the castle from these alien pests! Now get to it}
"Seems like Eggman's pretty occupied with fending off the alien invaders, we can use this opportunity to find the girls while he's distracted," thought Naruto.
Ignoring the giant unlit lantern, the duo grabbed onto another pumpkin balloon and floated through the air before dropping through one of the towers below and entering a large room. Naruto suddenly paused for a moment and started sniffing the air.
"I'm picking up Cream's scent," said Naruto.
Amy instantly turned to him "Really, where is she!?"
"Hold on," Naruto continues to track down the scent then activates his Aura Sight vision for the surroundings to become monochrome and seeing the blue aura emanating from Amy, he looked around and found a long golden trail of footprints that leads right through a wall. Naruto walked over and tapped on it a few times to hear a slightly hollow sound then he enshrouded his hands with foxfire and literally tore down the wall to find Cream quivering in fear behind it "I found you!"
Cream looked up and was happy upon seeing familiar faces "Naruto! Amy! You're here!"
"Yeah, your mom asked me to find you. Where are the others?" asked Naruto.
"I don't really know, we got separated when some ghosts suddenly appeared and scared us. Cheese has also wandered off too!"
Naruto frowned at the info "I see, I'll have a clone warp you to FF HQ for now before taking you to Vanilla later on. In the meantime, Amy and I will go further into the castle to find the others,"
"Okay, please be careful!"
"No worries, we'll find them!" said Amy confidently.
After creating a Shadow Clone to warp Cream to safety, Naruto and Amy exited from the tower to find a large abyss ahead of them with numerous Black Wings flying in the sky.
"What do we do now?" asked Amy with concern.
"No worries, I've got just the thing. Dragoon!"
Naruto calls upon the mystic glider as it is summoned to their side before them to get on as it took to the air. Sure enough, the flying aliens saw them approaching and prepares to attack them. In response, Naruto unholsters the Peacekeeper rifle and prepares to fight back.
"Full Auto," Naruto said the voice command for the rifle to beep in confirmation as he releases the safety lock and began firing bullets rapidly at the incoming aliens with some getting shot down while others darted out of the way and retaliated by launching blue crescent waves of energy at them.
"Watch out!" Amy yelled in alert.
"I see them!" Naruto maneuvered Dragoon to swiftly evade the incoming attacks and prepares a counterattack "Hi-Ex!" he pulled the trigger to fire explosive rounds at the Black Wings with the explosions from each projectile inflicting splash damage on other aliens too close to them. They swerve around the tall towers with the Black Wings in pursuit when Naruto switched to his Lightning Aspect and began channeling electric energy into the rifle as he took aim at the pursuing aliens "Thunderstorm!" he pulled the trigger to launch a salvo of homing electric blasts which struck down what's left of the aliens.
They reached the next section of the castle and jumped off Dragoon for it to fly away as the duo went inside to find it swarmed with the small alien spawns which are crawling all over the place.
Amy was understandably repulsed by the sight of them "Eeew, what are those things?! They're so disgusting!"
"Yeah, they're alien spawns. I ran into them a while back, now to clear a path," said Naruto "Lightning Chain!" he launches a stream of electricity which strikes one of the aliens then arcs out to shock the others, quickly clearing out the area within seconds.
Preparing to leave, something caught Naruto's attention as he took note of several handprints which seem to have melted into the floor and walls, giving him an idea of the cause. The kitsune activates his Aura Sight to see golden glowing handprints and footprints which he tracks into a wooden crate and senses someone inside in.
"Spicy-chan, are you in there?" Naruto asked while tapping a fist against the wooden crate before the top suddenly popped open and the little vixen popped her head out and was happy upon seeing him.
"Naruto, you're here!" said Spicy joyfully.
"Yeah, I already found Cream and sent her to HQ so I'll be doing the same for you. Have you seen where the others are?" Naruto inquired.
Spicy shook her head in response "No I haven't, we got separated when those ghosts appeared and scared us,"
"Alright then, we'll keep looking," said Amy.
After warping Spicy to safety, Naruto and Amy left the room to head back outside and found another Pumpkin Balloon guarded by Egg Pawns. They ignored the robots and hung onto the balloon to carry to the higher levels where they dropped down onto one of the longer ramparts which they ran along to go inside only to find the room enclosed with walls.
"Oh no, it's a dead end," Amy complained.
Naruto simply grinned "If one can't find a way, then simply make one," he activates his Earth Aspect with large pieces of stones beginning to float around him "Terra Punch!" he gathers stones from the surroundings to his left punch to form a large fist made of stone, he lunges at one of the walls and smashes it down with a fierce punch to reveal another.
"That's a good idea," Amy brings out her Piko Piko Hammer and joins Naruto in breaking down the walls.
After smashing through several walls, the duo found themselves in a large chamber where a giant unlit lantern is located at the center. But it was filled with something neither friend nor foe.
"Oh no, there's so many Chao! I can't tell which one of them is Cheese!" said Amy worriedly as she looks at the many Chao wandering around the chamber.
"This doesn't seem like the work of Eggman since he's too busy dealing with the alien invaders. This must be the ghosts' doing," said Kurama thoughtfully.
"Then I should be able to find the real Cheese with my Aura Sight," said Naruto before altering his vision but soon noted that the real Cheese isn't in the chamber. However, he was able to locate a golden trail leading to the right which he followed to a wall, he pushed against the wall, making it slide inwardly to reveal a tunnel where they heard a familiar voice.
"That sound…I think it's Cheese!" said Amy hopefully.
Sure enough, they found Cheese who chirped happily upon seeing them, flying into Amy's arms.
"Glad to see you're doing okay. Now let's get you back to Cream before she gets any more worried, okay?" said Naruto.
"Chao Chao!" Cheese chirps in affirmation before Naruto has a Shadow clone warp the Chao to FF HQ.
"We've found, Cream, Cheese and Spicy which leaves Wendy, Carla and Milla who must be further into the castle,"
Amy nods "Sounds about right, let's go!"
Returning to the chamber and taking the main exit, Naruto and Amy had to light some stone lanterns in order to activate the bridge to cross over a large pit then exit to yet another dead-end so Naruto calls upon Dragoon once more to fly over it the massive. They were flying over a rampart when they caught sight of Wendy and Carla fending off Egg Pawns that were attacking them.
"Oh no, they're in trouble!" said Amy worriedly.
"Which is why we're gonna help, let's go!" said Naruto.
Flying close enough, Amy and Naruto leapt off Dragoon as they drew out their weapons with the latter choosing to use Kanshou and Bakuya in their bayoneted gun form. Amy brought her Piko Piko Hammer down on one of the Egg Pawns, smashing it to bits before swinging around to send two more flying off the rampart and plummeting to the gap below. Naruto on the other hand slammed into an Egg Pawn with a dive kick before somersaulting into the air as he took aim and fires a shower of bullets down at the robots before slamming the guns together to transform into a double-bladed staff which he uses to slice them to bits upon landing on the ground.
After defeating the surrounding Egg Pawns, Naruto turns to Wendy with a stern expression "You have some explaining to do, young lady,"
Wendy quailed under Naruto's expression, having never seen him be this way towards her "Um well…,"
Carla stepped up to defend her like always "Hey now, there's no need for you too-,"
"You're at fault as well, Carla!" Naruto interrupted the flying cat, surprising her "Out of all people, I was expecting you to be the responsible one and had prevented this from happening otherwise Amy and I wouldn't be here to begin with!"
"Well I…um I-er…," Carla didn't know what to say and bowed her head in shame.
"Calm down, Naruto. We still have Milla to look for," Amy pointed out to Naruto.
The kitsune sighed "You're right, we need to look for her. But don't think that this conversation is over,"
"Y-Yes!" both Wendy and Carla stammered in response before a Shadow Clone warped them back to HQ.
Naruto crossed his arms and exhaled "So, the only one left is Milla,"
"I doubt you need to worry much since she's more capable of protecting herself," said Kurama.
"Doesn't stop me from worrying nonetheless, let's get a move on," thought Naruto.
Resuming the flight on Dragoon, Naruto and Amy made their way to the end of the area which turns out to be the final castle tower. They went inside and began hearing sounds of battle which made them hasten their steps then entering a large chamber similar to the previous one where they had found Cheese. There the duo came across Milla destroying Egg Pawns that were attacking her.
Not wasting a moment, Naruto and Amy swooped in to help the Basset Hound destroy the robots with hammer and bayoneted handguns respectively until the entire area was cleared up.
Milla turned to them with a relieved smile "Thank you, I was a bit worried there for a moment,"
"I'm glad too but that doesn't excuse you and the others from wandering around while the planet itself is under attack by aliens," said Naruto sternly.
Milla bowed her head with guilt "I'm sorry…,"
"We've already found Cream and the others, so we'll be sending you home too," said Amy.
Seeing Milla still sad, Naruto decided to speak up before sending her away "I'm not really mad at you all, I was really worried because this situation is just as bad if not worse than when we faced Brevon. I don't want what happened back then to happen again, you understand what I'm trying to say, right?"
"I do," Milla was told about how Naruto and Lilac flew into a rage when they went to confront Brevon after being forced to subdue her when she was mutated, she always felt guilty about it and wanted to become stronger so it doesn't happen again. She felt a hand on her head and looked up to see Naruto smiling at her softly.
"All in all, we're glad that you're okay," said Naruto with warmth.
This made Milla smile back at him "Mhm,"
With that, Naruto had a shadow clone warp her to safety and hence accomplishing the Search and Rescue mission.
Music End
Naruto and Amy proceeded to contact Sally "Mission accomplished, Sally-chan. We were able to find everyone and sent them to HQ,"
{That's great to hear, and there's also something that I need you to do} said Sally.
"What is it?" asked Amy curiously.
Somewhere in a large computer room, we find Vector the Crocodile, Charmy the Bee and Espio the Chameleon as the latter is typing on a holographic keyboard with the others looking on rather impatiently.
"Aren't you done yet? At this rate, the whole day will be wasted after all the trouble we went through to send Charmy to collect all those Secret Discs from Prison Island!" Vector complained.
"Yeah! A whole day wasted!" Charmy chimed in.
"Hey, back off. Data Retrieval isn't exactly my specialty," Espio pointed out to his teammates.
Charmy started shaking Espio's shoulder "Let me do it them, how about I give it a try!" but then he found his face being grabbed and pushed away by Vector.
"Stop bugging him, Charmy!" said Vector, feeling annoyed by Charmy's childish antics.
They were about to continue arguing when the doors behind them suddenly opened, causing the trio to turn towards it sharply.
"An assassin?" Espio prepares to fight whoever it is that's entering the room.
"Chillax, you guys. It's us!" said the person who's coming inside alongside another.
"Well well, if it isn't Naruto and Nicole! Fancy meeting you here," sad Vector feeling relieved to see the kitsune and hybrid lynx.
Naruto grinned in response "Right back at ya, what are you guys up to?"
"Sorry Naruto, we can't tell you due to confidentiality. But we can say that we're trying to hack into Eggman's computer for data relating to our current case," Vector explained.
"That's quite the coincidence, Sally has also sent us to acquire information from Eggman's database since he often possesses lots of info that we can't get anywhere else," said Naruto.
Nicole went over to the keyboard and started typing on it before frowning a bit "It appears that Eggman's database is being attacked by foreign sources, similar to when the CIA's servers was attacked,"
"That would explain why the retrieval of data was so difficult," said Espio with realization.
"Then that means we'll need to go directly into the system to acquire the info ourselves," said Naruto, being familiar with what they're about to do.
Nicole nodded in affirmation "That's correct, just give me a moment so I can create a link…," she typed on the keyboard a few more times before hitting the enter key as a yellow rift materialized before everyone.
"We'll be going on ahead, let's go!" Naruto leapt into the rift with Nicole close behind.
"That's so cool!" said Charmy with sparkles in his eyes.
Vector grinned "This could be THE big case!" then he turned to Espio "We'll be counting on you for this, Espio!"
Espio nodded in affirmation "Roger that!" then he leapt into the rift as well.
Music Start: Shadow the Hedgehog OST; Mad Matrix
After going through a lightspeed circuit in their digitalized spinball forms, Naruto and Nicole found themselves emerging in a blue cyberspace which is built of mainly blue and purple blocks with giant yellow Security Wall Panels forming the side walls. There are also floating red crystals on purple pedestals. To top it off, red and yellow strobe-like lights can be found on the walls and floors.
Then Espio appears as he lands close by before turning to them "Thanks for the help earlier,"
Naruto nods in response "No prob, how about a team up while we're still here?"
"A plausible suggestion which I would accept,"
"In that case, we'll need to be careful and remain undetected the best we can otherwise we would not only attract the notice of the antivirus programs but also the doctor himself," Nicole instructs the two.
"Then let us commence with the mission," said Espio.
The trio proceeded to make their way through the pixelated pathway while making sure to avoid the Egg Pawns patrolling the area as well as the ones appearing from portal when they were obstructed by a barrier and on the floor is a three-color panel.
Naruto turned to Nicole "Any ideas about getting through the barrier?"
"You need to change the colors on the panels by touching them so that they can match a single color, that will bring down the barrier as well as activate anything else in this cyberspace," Nicole explained after system before they came in.
"Alright then,"
Naruto stepped on the color panels several times to make them match a single color which deactivated the barrier so they continue onwards whilst evading the Egg Pawns. That was when several Black Warriors with energy swords and blasters appeared to attack them.
Naruto swiftly unsheathes Hazy-Moon "Lunar style: Crescent Strike!" he flips the katana around to hold the blade in a reverse grip then performs a 180 spin to slash at the enemies then follows up with several high kicks as he darts around.
"Digital Projection!" Nicole manipulates the data around her and creates multiple spears that hovers above her head before she launches them forward and piercing many of the aliens before changing targets which are the Black Wings "Digital Torrent!" she thrusts her hands forward to fire continuous streams of pixelated projectiles, shooting them all down.
Espio formed a handsign "Ninja Art: Camouflage!" he disappeared from the enemy's sight, putting them in a state of confusion before suddenly finding themselves getting slashes all over, courtesy of the invisible ninja and his kunai which he follows up with a barrage of shuriken.
Moving on, there was a wide gap but Nicole manipulated the surrounding to form green platform constructs for them to use to get across to the other side where they made use of the giant purple data blocks that were moving about to ascend to the higher levels till they reached the top and came across another obstruction being a another gap but the other side is blocked by a barrier with two colors hovering separately above the gap which they can't reach physically.
"I got this," Naruto took out Kanshou and shot at the two color panels a few times until; they match which disables the barrier and Nicole creates a green pixelated platform for them to get across with.
Reaching the end of the cyber pathway, the trio encountered a red glowing core at the end before Nicole approaches it.
"These are one of the terminals that we need to activate in order to access the information that Eggman has stored away," Nicole explained to the others.
"So we must access the other terminals in order to obtain what we need," Espio inquires with the hybrid lynx nodding in affirmation.
"Then let's find them all," said Naruto.
Nicole placed a hand on the terminal for a moment, making it light up in response before they found themselves being lifted up into the air and going through an opening above. There, the trio saw for themselves just how massive the main cyberspace is. From what they could tell, the cyberspace has been sectioned into four areas with each having a tower of different colors being Blue, Yellow, Green and Red while interconnected with Lightspeed Circuits of their respective colors as well.
"In each of those towers are the terminals that we need to access," Nicole instructed.
Espio's eyes narrowed upon seeing something on the lightspeed circuits "Look over there, there's something on the circuits," Naruto and Nicole also looked and realized what the ninja meant.
"Those kinda look like…bombs?" said Naruto, not feeling that sure.
"It would seem that the black aliens are seeking to destroy Eggman's mainframe, similar to when they wanted to do the same for the CIA's mainframe," said Nicole with a thoughtful look.
"Then we need to hurry and activate the terminals and acquire the info then get outta here before the bombs go off," Naruto insisted.
With that said, they entered the circuitry and were moving at highspeed with Nicole serving as a navigator so they could stay away from the bombs scattered around until arriving at one of the towers being the yellow one. They made their way over to the entrance which was blocked by a barrier before they solved the color panel puzzle on the floor to disable it. They venture further inside and discover a portal which took them inside the tower.
Moving forward, several vertical lasers moved about that they had to watch out for which was when a giant sandworm emerged from the ground and leer at them.
"Nico-chan, restrain the worm so it doesn't burrow underground!" Naruto called out.
"Got it, Digital Projection!" Nicole manipulates the surroundings data, shaping them into chains which she controls to wrap around the sand worm and hold it in place as the alien struggles to free itself.
"Alright then…," Naruto activates his Lightning aspect as blue bolts of electricity arcs throughout his body with a majority emitting from his hands "Lightning Spear!" he leaps high into the air while creating a lightning spear with chakra onto his hand then he threw it down into the worm's mouth, electrifying it from the outside out and hence defeating it thoroughly.
"Impressive skill," Espio commented.
"Thanks, been doing a lot of training to reach this level," Naruto replied.
They moved forward to launch off a dash ramp before bouncing off several pixelated springs to land on top of a platform comprised of color panels, so they matched up the colors to make the platform rise up to the next level for them to go through a tunnel and avoid getting detected by the Egg Pawns patrolling the area. They found another platform of color panels with this one forming a square ring around a large pillar. They went across some moving purple blocks and realigned the color panel to ascend to the top where the second terminal was waiting for them which Nicole access then they were lifted to the top of the tower.
"This leaves only two more towers to go to," Nicole informed Naruto and Espio.
"Then let's keep this momentum going," said the kitsune.
Returning to the circuitry, Naruto and the others navigated their way to the Green Tower which they went inside via the portal after deactivating the barrier blocking the entrance.
Once inside, the trio proceeded through the cyber pathway and like always were attacked by the black aliens appearing from portals then engaged them in battle. Espio took out a large shuriken and flung it to strike several of the aliens, Nicole detaches her SMG from the Arms Case and was shooting at them rapidly. Naruto on the other hand unsheathes both Hazy-Moon and Masamune as he performs the Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance as he moves along rapidly and lightly around groups of enemies at the while slashing with his dual katanas.
They reach a massive gap with a U-shaped platform of color panels, apparently they'd need to use the platform to crossover to the other side and so solved the color puzzle to make it move. However, the group had a situation as they were approaching a barrier which will push them off the platform to the abyss below if they don't do something quickly.
"Naruto, we need to activate the color panels ahead of us before it's too late!" said Nicole, pointing at the aforementioned color panels with urgency.
The blonde kitsune nodded in response "Right, you aim for one of the panels while I go for the other!"
Naruto took out his Peacekeeper Rifle while Nicole switches her Arms Case to rifle mode, they took aim and shot at the color panels to cycle through the colors before making them match up and disable the barrier. This happened a few more times as they kept encountering more barriers that they had to disable along the way. It didn't help matters when the Black Wings flew at them to attack but Espio was there to provide support with use of his shuriken and kunai to take them down.
They finally reached a dead-end but the was a purple block with a color platform for the group to use to ascend to the upper level. Moving to the end where the third terminal awaited for them to access which Nicole did before they were lifted up to the tower's exit and back to the main area.
"There's only one terminal remaining, we must hurry!" said Espio urgently.
"It goes without saying," Kurama retorted.
Diving back into the lightspeed circuitry, the trio made their way over to their final destination being the Red Tower but the entry point was a bit different since there wasn't a portal involved. Regardless, they progressed through the pathway albeit the Egg Pawns were being more alert and aggressive than before; no doubt it would have to do with the Black Aliens attacking the mainframe and hopefully not their presence having been detected.
Locating a Lightspeed Circuit, Naruto and co used it to find themselves right at the very core of the red tower.
"It would seem that the security in this tower is much higher compared to the previous three," said Espio.
"Makes little difference to us, just need to locate the final terminal," said Naruto, looking around for it.
"It's right at the top, positioned just like the others," Nicole pointed above the tower's massive core,"
"Alright then, now to find over way up there,"
They soon discovered that certain areas around the core are affected by antigravity but they had to watch out and not fall out of the antigravity field as they were reaching for the purple blocks moving around that would lift them to higher levels before getting across and finally reaching the fourth terminal for Nicole to access.
Music End
"There…now all information that Eggman has is available to us," said Nicole.
"Nice job, Nicole-chan!" said Naruto with a foxy grin, making Nicole smile with her cheeks tinged pink.
Espio bowed his head slightly in gratitude "Thanks for the help, we truly appreciate it,"
"No prob, Espio. Now for us to get outta here,"
Nicole spoke up "I know of an exit not too far from here, I'll guide us there,"
"Then lead the way, Nicole-chan,"
Sometime later, the trio were making their way through a cylinder-shaped room with a trail of Rings going around it and there are floating cubes above them. They were almost at the exit when sometime emerged from it, blocking their way.
It appears to be a giant mech which bears a strong resemblance to the Egg Emperor they had faced during the Neo Metal Sonic incident, except it bears a red and blue paint scheme instead of gold, and its right hand is a giant spiked ball. Sitting at the open cockpit was none other than Eggman himself.
"I see that you sneaky rats are back again," said Eggman with annoyance, already having enough problems to deal with for this to be added up to them.
Espio frowned in realization that their mission wasn't entirely successful "Damm, we were discovered after all,"
"Please listen Doctor, we came here looking for information that would help us deal with the alien invaders which I'm sure is also being a detriment for you as well as everyone else," Nicole explained.
"And besides, you wouldn't have given us the info if we asked you," Naruto pointed out in addition.
"First those aliens invade my mainframe, then you rats come snooping around and taking what doesn't belong to you. I've had enough, prepared to be destroyed by my Egg Breaker!" said Eggman angrily, preparing his mech for battle.
Naruto sighed in response "I keep forgetting that words just don't apply for this guy,"
Espio walked up next to him "Indeed, he is often hard of hearing. Let's focus on defeating him so we can get out of here!"
Nicole activated her Arms Case "At the ready,"
Music Start: Shadow the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Egg Breaker
"I'm going to squish you all like pancakes!" Eggman declares as he calls upon his many Egg Pawns equipped with lances, bazookas and blasters to assist him in attacking his targets.
"All talk…no action…how typical," Espio retorted.
"So, what else is new about him? Keep an eye out for any tricks," said Naruto with caution.
The trio immediately scattered in different directions when they saw Eggman pilot the Egg Breaker to lunge towards them brought the spiked ball down at where they were which caused a radial shockwave from the point of impact.
"You're not getting away from me!" Eggman took aim at Espio and launches the spiked ball at the chameleon ninja who quickly forms a handsign.
"Ninja Vanish!" Espio disappears in a puff of smoke, dodging the incoming attack then reappearing elsewhere in midair with two large shuriken which he flung at Eggman, but the Egg Breaker quickly creates another spiked ball on the arm and uses it to bat the shuriken away from him.
"Analysis complete! The weakness of the Egg Breaker, inflicting damage on it will render the entire mech inoperable!" Nicole communicated to Naruto and Espio after scanning the mech from a safe distance.
"Got it!" Naruto used Shadow Step to avoid getting shot by an Egg Pawn with a blaster as he readies a counterattack "Kitsune Fire Wheel!" he radiates foxfire from his body and curls up for a spin dash before launching himself forward, barreling into several robots along the way before jumping into the air while uncurling himself and activating his Fire Aspect with his fists and the tips of his tails ignite in red flames as his body emit intense heat "Fire Bird Rider!" he creates a bird out of flames to ride on and make it swoop down at the Egg Pawns, crashing into them and exploding upon impact.
"Now for you…," Naruto turned to face Eggman while switching to the Celestial aspect as a white halo hovers above his head and starlight sparkles around him "Light Beam!" he thrusts his palm forward to fire a white energy beam to strike at the cockpit directly.
"You're not the only one with lasers, fox!" Eggman sneers as he presses a button on the interface to fire laser beams from the Egg Breaker's eyes.
"Light Barricade!" Naruto quickly crosses his arms together to create a translucent honeycomb patterned shield to absorb the laser beam "Returning to sender, Repercussion!" channeling the energy of the laser beams absorbed from the Light Barricade, Naruto launches a powerful energy sphere right back at the Egg Breaker, causing it to stumble backwards from the impact.
Eggman growled in annoyance "Why you little, Egg Pawns attack!" he deploys his robots to attack the trio.
"I don't think so, Shroud Spear!" Nicole initiated the bits to take on a unique formation as they proceeded to launch spears made of a special cloth that unfurled to restrain the Egg Pawns that they hit "And now, Gatling Blitz!" the bits create a gatling gun which took aim and began firing bullets rapidly with the empty shells flying out of the artillery at the restrained robots, Nicole wasn't being idle as she was using her Arms Case in rifle mode to shoot consecutively at the cockpit of the Egg Breaker.
Despite being attacked from different directions, Eggman still manages to keep a cool head "You know what they say 'The more, the merrier!" he pushed a button to creates multiple large energy bombs around the Egg Breaker before launching them outwardly at the same time.
"Whoa there, Luminescent Avatar!" Naruto dashed around in flashes of white light to evade the energy bombs all the while creating ethereal copies of himself along the way until the Egg Breaker was surrounded by them "And now, Luminescent Avatar Barrage!" he proceeds to fire a salvo of light orbs alongside the ethereal copies from all directions.
Recovering from the assault and seeing that his mech was seriously damaged, Eggman scowled at the group "Alright, you asked for this!" he pilots the mech to lunge at Naruto while swinging the spiked ball to attack.
Naruto glared back at him "That's what you think!" then he switches to the Air Aspect as strong winds swirls around him, ready to be used for battle "Aero Beast Swipe!" wind swirls around one of the Naruto's arms then condenses to form a large beast paw and swings it at the incoming spiked ball and manages to parry it before countering "Tempest Dragon!" the winds swirled strongly around Naruto before rushing towards the Egg Breaker whilst shaping itself into a serpentine dragon and slamming into it.
"Digital Wings!" Nicole forms birdlike wings comprised of blue pixels before taking to the air till she was hovering above Eggman "Static Bomb!" after forming a crackling orb of energy, Nicole flings it down at the Egg Breaker which unleashes a discharge upon impact, causing the mech to temporarily malfunction.
"Grrr, my mech is not responding!" Eggman growled in frustration as he tries to regain control of his machine.
"Just long enough for me to this…!" Nicole landed back on the ground and held out her Arms Case "Initiate final execution!" the Arms Case underwent a transformation into a large cannon then the system spoke up.
[Super Domain Ion Cannon – Online and charging]
White energy begins gathering at the muzzle of the Ion cannon as a blue holographic visor appears over Nicole's eyes, a reticle scanning the Egg Breaker for a few seconds before locking on to a weak point right as the weapon completed its charge.
"This is it: Super Macro Explosion!" Nicole pulls the trigger to launch a large sphere of pure energy which slams into the Egg Breaker, resulting in a massive explosion. This time, the Egg Breaker has received too much damage to be able to continue battling as it collapses to the floor with Eggman unable to do anything about it.
Music End
"Curses, I won't forget this!" Eggman grumbles before being forced to exit from the system.
Kurama rolled his eyes "The fool can't complain since we tried to talk him out of it,"
Naruto mentally shrugged "Tell me about it,"
"Once again, I am thankful for your help with everything," said Espio gratefully.
"Like I said before, it's no biggie," the kitsune smiles in response.
"Hopefully, this data will contain the information we need to combat these invaders," said Nicole.
"Alright then, let's get outta here," said Naruto with Espio and Nicole nodding in agreement.
The trio steps into the warp pad to be teleported out of Eggman's Mainframe and back into the real world to reunite with their friends and continue the fight against the black aliens.
In the dark forest, we find the vixen running as fast as she could while being pursed by some of the Black Warriors armed with blasters and energy swords before managing to corner her in a small clearing.
The vixen turned to face the aliens with a frown on her face "Why are you chasing me? I didn't do anything to you!"
"…," the aliens said nothing and continue to approach her.
"If you're going to keep trying to hurt me…," suddenly, the vixen's right arm glowed for a moment before a large spectral arm of red mystic energy suddenly appeared and is mimicking the movements of her right arm "I'll protect myself!"
Following the action of her real arm, the spectral arm lashed out and sent many of the aliens flying with just a swing. The vixen launches another arm to grab of the aliens and threw into the others. In spite of her current state of confusion, she seems to possess some fighting skills to be able defend herself which only makes her wonder even more who she was in the past.
After fending off the aliens, the vixen began looking around "I need to get out of this forest otherwise they'll keep coming after me," she was about to walk away when she felt great pain in her head again "Oh no, not again!"
She began seeing images of the green and blue hedgehogs and how they would look at her with negative expressions which seem to bother her a lot. Why do they look at her that way, did she do something wrong? Then there was a new image in the form of a nine-tailed kitsune who has a look of empathy on his face, different compared to the other two.
"That fox, he's different from the other two. Maybe he could help me if I ever met him? But for that to happen, I must get out of this place," said the vixen thoughtfully before leaving the clearing before anymore of those aliens showed up.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Shadow continues his search for the Chaos Emeralds and is currently looking for the fourth one which he happens to find in the possession of Tails when he encounters the two-tailed fox over at Circus Park and sets off to acquire it.
Back with Naruto, he was with Sally and the others inside the Freedom Fighters Mobile Center when he got a call from Vanilla about Cream's whereabouts so he contacts Amy and finds out the Cream along with Milla, Wendy, Spicy, and Carla had wandered into a spooky castle. So, he immediately heads over and joins Amy to find the girls and send to the FF HQ for their safety.
Afterwards, Sally assigns a mission for him and Nicole to infiltrate one of Eggman's bases to hack into his servers and extract information that would be of help to them concern the alien invaders. During their mission, Naruto and Nicole met with Team Chaotix who were also trying to hack into Eggman's servers in order to obtain intel and so worked together with Espio, it turns out that the black aliens are also invading the doctor's servers with the intent to destroy it so they had to work quickly to gain access. However this didn't unnoticed as Eggman personally came into the cyberspace to attack the trio but was eventually forced to retreat.
Apparently, the vixen seems have a link with Sonic and Naruto as she continues to find her way out of the forest, what would happen if she were to encounter either of them? Be sure to read and review like always.
This chapter was a bit tricky to work on but I was able to make it as interesting as possible. I noticed that some people are having trouble keeping track of certain things in the story like Naruto's powers and equipment as well as those of other characters so I'll see about making a separate page which would be updated as the story goes. Hope it helps in the future.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.