SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in the start of the Sonic 2 arc for Wind of the Night Sky. I'm going to be going about things with a different format, given that there's going to be a lot of characters here to cover given who's going to be hitting up the campaign on West-Side Island. This should be fun and hectic at the same time. Here we go!
-February 14th, 0066-
[Non-Administrated Planet #97 "Earth"]
[Undisclosed Location]
[Time: 0830]
[BGM: "Eggman" Sonic X OST]
Doctor Eggman, scientist extraordinaire, could not stop himself from breaking out into dance as he savored the sounds of his machinery working in the background. Robots were manufactured en masse with the animals he captured from West-Side Island acting as the power supply. For him, Little Planet was merely a setback and he was certain that the data he gathered from it would harden him against intervention.
"Ah yes. There's nothing like the sound of my mechanical hubris." The doctor grinned to himself as he sipped from a mug of fresh, steaming black coffee, "The perfect way to wake up."
"Doctor Eggman-sama!" A messenger robot bearing an egg-shape stood at attention before him, "All preparations for the invasion force are complete."
"Excellent," chuckled Eggman, tapping his fingers in a tent-like formation, "And what about the search for the Chaos Emeralds?"
"Well, about that…" the robot paused in reply, "We can't find them."
"What?" Eggman's expression darkened as he asked for a repeat
"We can't find them." repeated the robot, "We've scanned the whole island at least twice."
The doctor's patience wore thin from the negative report he received from his messenger robot. Normally, it would be around this time that he would, quite violently, lose his temper upon the poor machine, however that did not occur. Instead, Eggman leaned back in his seat and took another sip of his coffee, his expression schooled though strained.
"Let me ask you something.' The doctor began, "What is power?"
"Power, as defined by science, is the amount of energy transferred or converted per a unit of time." The robot replied as if from a dictionary, "It can be defined as the amount of wo-."
"NO! YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!" In his frustration, Eggman cut the robot off by throwing his now empty mug at its head, "I did not want the scientific definition. I wanted the conceptual definition. Evidently, I forgot to put that in your programming. Consider that a lesson learned.
"Now, let me tell you what power really means. It refers to the ability to act, or, specifically, the ability to influence." Eggman's lecture carried on, "You see, power means strength or standing. And the more power someone has, the more influence. I seek to have power over all of the world. I seek domination, conquest. However, my last attempts have been foiled by a rotten blue hedgehog and his elementary schoolgirl sidekicks.
"And those Chaos Emeralds that I seek are, and I mean this quite literally, the only things that can guarantee that my plans won't be foiled again! So, when I ask for progress, I do not want to hear that you can't find them." The doctor took a deep inhale, signifying his lecture was complete, "Now, do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal." came the emotionless reply, "I can report that there are faint energy readings from each zone on the island. But they're too weak to get a lock on."
"Well, then we'll just have to look for them the old fashioned way. Deploy the invasion force!" Eggman spoke with finality, his decision made, "I want a thorough raid of the island. I want a search of every farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse in each zone. Leave no stone unturned!"
"As you command, Eggman-sama!"
An assortment of loud alarms rang throughout the base as the machinery reacted to Eggman's orders. The doctor laughed madly from his seat as he watched the hangar doors of his base open. A sea of robots poured through the doors from air, sea and land. With this, Eggman's assault on West-Side Island had begun.
[OP: "Bright Stream" Nana Mizuki, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 2nd A's]
Sonic the Hedgehog: Wind of the Night Sky
Chapter 11
West Side Island Phase 1: Invasion
[South Island Archipelago]
[West Side Island]
[Emerald Hill: Act 0]
[Time: 0840]
[BGM: "Emerald Hill (2Player)" Sonic the Hedgehog 2]
There was a peaceful, if a bit windy, climate that greeted Amy and Tails as they arrived on West Side Island. The first point of contact was Emerald Hill, a lush plain of verdant grass and beautiful sandy beaches. Cascading waterfalls spread about the zone greeted the pink hedgehog and yellow fox duo as the Breeze was parked on the beachhead.
Even though the pink hedgehog's car had only one seat, that had not deterred the twin-tailed fox from being able to keep up with her. Amy had discovered fairly quickly that the fox could use his twin namesakes to fly at some fast speeds. The only downside was that Tails did not feel that he had the strength to carry anyone else while he was flying, though he refused to say that outright in front of her on the count that the pink hedgehog was a touch sensitive about her weight.
"What a beautiful day to go house hunting," Amy smiled as she hopped out of her car, "Wouldn't you say, Tails?"
"Uh, yeah…" the fox kit replied fairly timidly, his tails shaking from the nerves, "Very nice."
"You can relax a bit, no one's going to hurt you here. At least not while I'm around." the pink hedgehog was quick to assure as she looked around and began to notice how empty the area was, "In fact, this area is completely vacant, how odd. I mean I wasn't expecting company or anything.
"At most I was hoping to see some of the critters you'd find here in these islands. Not like the baka losers from the Casino zone that were giving you a bad time the first time you were here." the pink hedgehog trailed off, adopting a thinking gesture, "This is really weird."
"Maybe we should come back another day?" offered the fox timidly, yet he had a point, "I have a bad feeling about this."
"No, we didn't just come all this way just to turn back." Amy shook her head, "We'll see what we can find, and if it doesn't work, we'll go back home and try again another day."
Tails let out a soft sigh and shook his head; as much as he would rather not admit, the pink hedgehog had a point, it would be a waste of time if they just turned back after the long ride it took to get to the island. Still, there was something about this morning that felt off and it gave him a bad feeling. Amy was not one to be fooled either; she could tell that there was something very wrong about today, but she could not pinpoint it.
[BGM: "Eggman Machine" Sonic X OST]
It was no more than a few minutes into their excursion into Emerald Hill that Amy and Tails found the foreboding feeling to be justified. All of a sudden, a humming sound could be heard overhead as a large shadow descended over the zone, blocking out the sun for a few moments.
"Amy!" Tails was the first to take notice and turned his gaze toward the sky, "Look!"
Both hedgehog and fox paused and could only watch as a huge, beige aircraft began to hover over the entire island. The humming noise turned out to be mechanical as robots shaped like animals invaded the island like locusts. On the side of the aircraft bore a symbol that Amy had quickly recognized from previous experience.
"That's Doctor Eggman!" exclaimed the pink hedgehog in shock.
"Egg...Eggman?!" the twin-tailed fox shivered in fright, staring helplessly as the robots descended to the ground, "How can you tell?"
"I recognize that old coot's logo from anywhere, and also…" Amy answered with a pause, "I've been tied up by the man before. Trust me, I know when he's coming."
"Huh?"
There was a rather humorously awkward pause between Amy and Tails following the odd choice of wording flying right over the fox's head. Time seemed to slow for that instance as the robots that had landed on the island started to pillage and plunder about. Amy broke the moment with a turn, brandishing her piko-piko hammer.
"Where are you going?" questioned the fox.
"I'm not going to sit on my tail and wait to be rescued like some princess in a castle." replied Amy as she settled herself into a modified runner's stance with her hammer held over her back, "If that rotten egg wants to ruin a perfectly good day, I'm gonna give him hell."
"What about me?" Tails asked with uncertainty, "What should I do?"
"Honestly, that's up to you. I can't tell you what you should or shouldn't do. I'm not your keeper; we're just roommates" Amy replied in a soft but firm tone, "You can hide and wait for help or for this to get taken care of, I'm not going to fault you, this can get pretty scary. Or you can stand up and fight and put your life on the line. There is no correct answer here, just do whatever feels right."
Amy said no more as she took off with only a trail of dust in her wake. Tails, on the other hand, remained where he was as his nerves took over. The fox was young, timid and recently had a history of being bullied. It was not out of cowardice, but uncertainty, that he found himself hiding behind a bush, watching as Eggman's robots invaded the island.
[Uminari City, Japan]
[TSAB Branch Headquarters]
[Time: 0845]
[BGM: "Vow of Unity" Tales of Vesperia OST]
Thanks in part to the Arthra's monitoring of the planet from orbit, Eggman's invasion force did not go unnoticed by the Bureau. Lindy had received word of it shortly after the initial strike and was quick to call for the members of Project 97. As Fate and Alicia were living with the admiral, they were the first to arrive dressed up in civilian garb. Sonic, Hayate, Reinforce and the Wolkenritter were next to arrive followed very shortly by Nanoha.
"Alright, what's up," the hedgehog seemed to pick up the habit of getting the first word in, though he sounded either grumpy or tired, "That was a very good breakfast you interrupted."
"I believe that this is a matter that holds higher precedence," the admiral was remarkably unfazed by the snark, "But if it's that important, I could treat you all to lunch after this is over."
"What's going on?" queried Fate in a soft tone.
Lindy calmly answered that question with a wave of her hand. Durandal pulled up several viewing screens that were given to her from the Arthra. One screen in particular stood out as it was a map of the South Island archipelago. An island on the western coast of the main island had a flashing red glow on it.
"It appears Doctor Eggman has made his move again." Lindy began the debriefing, "Just under a half-hour ago the scanners on the Arthra picked up a massive disturbance from the island shown here, Sonic?"
"West Side Island, also known as The Illusionary Island." The hedgehog replied without missing a beat, having recognized the island from the location, "Figured moustached baldy would target there next."
The hedgehog took the wordless queue from the Admiral to explain his reasoning. Supposedly, it was said that the inhabitants of the island had used the Chaos Emeralds to advance civilization and achieve prosperity. Prosperity that was said to have disappeared almost overnight when the people tried using the Emeralds for the wrong reasons.
"They say the gods sealed the emeralds away within the depths of the island." the hedgehog concluded his brief exposition dump, "But that has been mainly dismissed as urban legends because I found six of the Chaos Emeralds in my first tussle with Eggman."
"But, Sonic, didn't you say the emeralds disappeared after you collected them that time?" Nanoha asked as a counterpoint, "It's possible that the emeralds returned."
"I can confirm that the Arthra has also picked up signs of unusual energy activity coming from somewhere on the island." As Lindy spoke, seven alternating indicators appeared over the island, "We can't pinpoint it, but we can at least say this is coming from seven unique sources somewhere on the island. If they are indeed to be these Chaos Emeralds mentioned before, it's fairly likely that Eggman is going to be looking for them.
"There's no telling what sort of madness he would be capable of if he attains that power. We must secure these emeralds before they fall into his hands." The admiral concluded, looking about the group gathered, "If Eggman's going to bring his full might, I shall counter with the same."
Lindy watched as Sonic, Nanoha, Alicia, Fate, Vita and Signum stepped forward first. As they were the original team that stopped Eggman on Little Planet, they were a definite lock for deployment. What followed next was a surprise to everyone else gathered.
Hayate, now taking to using her walker as her leg strength had recovered considerably since the adventure at the arcade, stepped forward. Reinforce, sensing her mistress's resolve, joined at her side rather without pause.
"I've been sitting on the sidelines for too long." The brunette spoke with determination in her voice, "I want to help."
"Are you sure?" The admiral had to ask despite knowing the answer already, "This mission will be dangerous."
"100%" Hayate replied instantly, "I'm feeling better now, and I don't want to just sit while everyone else is doing their best."
"You are sure of this?" Signum asked of the Master Program, "Our mistress will be put in harm's way."
"If she wasn't sure, she wouldn't have volunteered." Reinforce answered in kind.
"Very well," The admiral spoke with a clap of her hands, "You have your orders. You are clear to deploy."
With a nod and salute, everyone slowly started to leave from the debriefing area to engage. Sonic, Hayate, Reinforce, Signum and Vita were the first to leave followed shortly by Alicia and Fate. Once again, Nanoha had brought up the rear, but she was stopped by the admiral before she could take the final step outside.
"Just a moment, Nanoha-san." Lindy requested, "I would like a quick word."
"What is it?" The girl asked, somewhat in understandable confusion.
"I've heard from Nakajima and Reinforce that you have been over-exerting yourself with the training drills recently and that they've had to pull you from the last few as a precaution." There was an unmissable note of concern in the admiral's tone, "This is concerning because it has become something of a habit."
"I'll be fine." Nanoha replied, though her head was hung, and she could barely bring herself to make eye contact with the woman.
"I can't order you to stay, you are going to be needed out there." the admiral let out a sigh, "Just… don't push yourself too hard on this. You could get seriously hurt; and your friends and family will be worried."
Nanoha's left hand shook as her grip tightened on Raising Heart, but she said nothing. All she could offer was a nod before she was soon out the door.
[South Island Archipelago: West Side Island]
[Emerald Hill: Act 0]
[Time: 0900]
[No BGM]
It was only a slight breeze that greeted the deployed squad as they came up on the beachhead of Emerald hill, the first zone of West Side Island. Sonic, having taken the Tornado with the rest of the mages in a split but organized formation, could not help but reminisce a bit in the familiarity of the zone to Palmtree Panic and Green Hill from prior adventures.
"I wonder if this is going to become a trend." The hedgehog thought out loud as he and the rest of the group made their final approach for the island, "The view would be great if not for that ugly battleship above it. I swear that Eggman has no taste."
Almost as if the ship had taken offense to Sonic's jive on it, a laser beam shot out from it and nailed the Tornado in the center of the fuselage. This forced the plane to make an unexpected landing on the shoreline. While everyone else was concerned for his well-being after, Sonic was only minorly injured and, rightfully so, a bit upset.
"That jerk!" raged Sonic, kicking at the sand with his foot, "This was a vintage that took so much time restoring!"
"There, there." Hayate descended to the hedgehog's level on the ground, using her wings to keep her weight supported.
The hedgehog soon went off on a mini tirade of just pacing and grumbling whilst he was tuned out by Signum and Reinforce discussing the plan of action for stopping Eggman's threat. With the number of mages and combatants, including Sonic being even, they could split up into two teams; A and B.
Reinforce took command of Team A, which had Hayate, Sonic and Alicia in. Nanoha and Fate had developed too good of a chemistry pair to be separated, so they took to Team B alongside Vita with Signum taking command. With the teams formulated, there was only one thing left to decide and that was how to handle the zone progression.
"If anyone else remembers Little Planet, normally we would just blaze through the zone, beating up robots and so on until we get to the boss area for a showdown with Eggman." Sonic noted, "But it looks like these zones here are much bigger than Little Planet's, so I think we can take different routes."
"That does appear to be so," Signum added, "You sound like you have an idea, speak."
"Well to keep things fair, how about a wager?" The hedgehog grinned, "Namely a battle race through each zone. The fastest and highest scoring team to clear the stage gets first crack at the boss."
"That sounds fair enough," The blazing general agreed to the terms, "I presume points will be acquired and tallied per robot elimination."
"We can use our devices to keep a running tally of the score," Nanoha offered, "Raising Heart and I can keep track of our team's score."
"Confirmed" came the reply from Raising Heart.
"Lucky Star and I will handle our team then." Alicia added.
"Yes sir!" Lucky Star chimed in confirmation.
There was one last thing that had to be addressed before the team's battle race through West Side Island could begin; the force was not alone. It was evident from the point of landing, as Signum and Reinforce both detected the new presence behind one of the bushes bordering the shore and greenery, but they kept quiet on it. The being they detected was weak and non-threatening.
"You can come out now," Reinforce called out, her attention focused on the bushes that shook when she spoke.
The mages and hedgehog watched as a small twin-tailed fox slowly extracted himself from the bushes. It took a lot of Alicia's willpower not to tackle and hug the little guy out of pure adoration of his cuteness. Slowly, the fox made his way to the gathering.
"Um, hello." Tails greeted them rather timidly, his attention mainly focused on the blue hedgehog of the group.
"Well, hello there," Reinforce knelt in front of the fox, careful to keep her distance so as to not startle the little guy, "What are you doing here?"
"I came here to find a new home after I lost to my old home on South Island," replied Tails in an extremely timid tone, "But… Eggman."
"You weren't alone, were you?"
"No, I came here with a pink hedgehog named Amy, but she went off to fight Eggman by herself."
It was on that note that Sonic and Hayate joined Reinforce in the discussion with the fox. There was something about Tails that got Sonic's attention, besides the fact that he had two tails.
"Are you worried about her?" Hayate asked, her presence radiating an aura of kindness that was even soothing to the timid fox, "That she's out there on her own?"
"Y-yeah…" Tails replied with a small hiccup, "I want to help her, because she took me in when I was in trouble, but I'm not…"
Sonic decided that he had heard enough and dismissed Hayate and Reinforce with a wordless glance. He took a few steps forward, just enough to be within arm's reach of the twin-tailed fox. Taking a knee, he extended his gloved hand outward, much to the obvious confusion of Tails.
"Just do it then." said Sonic, his tone firm, "If you wanna help out, then do so."
"But, is that... the right thing?" The fox asked,
"If you believe it is. To live a life of power you must have faith that what you believe is right, even if others tell you you're wrong." The hedgehog took the fox by the hand and helped him up to his feet, "The first thing you must do to live a life of power is to find courage. You must be ready to reach the boundaries of time and space itself.
"And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step…" Sonic patted the fox on the back.
Once again, everyone present found themselves completely shocked at the sheer wisdom that was within the words of the ten year old hedgehog. Tails, in particular, paused as he processed what the hedgehog said. Slowly, he found his resolve growing, his courage building. A life of power, power to live your life by what you feel is right.
"Can I go with you?" Tails asked after a deep breath, "I want to help out, but I'm not sure what I can do. Maybe if I can watch and tag along, it can help me."
"Sure, I don't mind." Sonic patted the fox kit on the head, "I always welcome the company."
"This is my first adventure here too," Hayate joined back in, unable to resist the urge to pet Tails on the head, eliciting a cute blush, "We can learn together."
"Okay…" The fox's expression brightened as his excitement rose, "My name's Miles Prower, but Amy calls me Tails, and I don't mind if you do the same."
"Nice to meet you Tails. My name's Sonic." the hedgehog grinned, "Sonic the Hedgehog."
With that, a new friendship had blossomed. Tails opted to join Sonic on Team A. He wanted to keep with Sonic as he felt the most familiarity with the blue hedgehog. The campaign for West Side Island had just begun.
[Emerald Hill: Action Stage]
[Time: 0905]
[BGM: "Emerald Hill" Sonic the Hedgehog 2]
The layout of the zone provided two main route options to choose from, which allowed the teams to split and take each route for their battle stages. While Reinforce's team took the lower route, which was more tailored to Sonic's great groundspeed, Signum and her team took to the higher route that allowed for their aerial units to take to the skies on a more consistent basis. Both teams were balanced in composition; Sonic and Fate were the respective speedsters, Nanoha and Hayate provided shooting aerial ranged support, Signum and Alicia proved that they could handle close and mid-ranged while the melee range was dominated by Reinforce and Vita.
There were three types of robots that camped the zone in Eggman's search for the Chaos Emeralds; the Stingers, Gabuccho and Aiai, each befitted with rather unique choices of weaponry. The Stingers were aerial mechs that held a wasp-like design similar to their Buzz-Bomber predecessors, only these robots could shoot bullets from their stinger tails in addition to using them in a divebomb attack. Gabuccho were the fish-type robots that were successors to the Bata-Bata line; and while they used the similar jumping attack that relied on the element of surprise, their base design was bulkier, like a bass versus the piranha of the predecessor. Lastly, the Aiai were a new model of badnik that were designed like monkeys; they were designed to camp out in trees and ambush unsuspecting interlopers with deadly coconut bombs.
[POV: Team B (Signum, Vita, Nanoha, Fate)]
Signum led her team through the higher route with her blade in hand. Each of her squad members had their own specialties which were put to good use in subjecting Eggman's mechanical menace to their doom. Nanoha had the team covered from the long range, keeping the Stingers at bay while Fate and Signum made short work of the monkey shaped robots. Vita and Fate were able to time and take out the jumping fish, though the road they took had less of them.
It was nearly five minutes into their race run when Signum halted the party to a stop, though everyone knew why. Someone had been tailing them since they started on their route. Though Bardiche and Raising Heart had picked up on the presence, the team had initially opted to wait for the shadow to reveal itself. With that plan failing, it became Signum's duty to coax out the new presence by any appropriate means.
"You can stop hiding yourself now, we know you're out there" the blazing general began neutrally, "Come out quietly, and no harm will come."
The general's callout had garnered no response, though the party was quick to pick up a funny movement from a nearby bush. One could swear they saw a glimmer of pink from the shrubbery. Alas, the mysterious tail had not revealed itself quite yet, thus another tactic was warranted.
"You have ten seconds." warned Signum with a level tone, "If you do not comply…"
Her statement was unfinished, though it was obvious given the way she had wielded her blade. Nanoha took the silent queue to begin the countdown from ten.
"Ten... nine... eight…"
"Schlangeform!" Laevateinn spoke, converting into its bladed whip form, its target identified within the bushes.
"Seven...six... five... four"
The bladed whip, upon Signum's command, slithered its way towards the bush. Its pace was slow, but deliberately so. Closer, and closer, it was almost within lunging distance from the target.
"Three… two… one…"
"Alright! I'm coming out!" a familiar female voice shouted as a small white flag on a stick was raised.
A brief, awkward pause followed as Amy Rose extracted her pink hedgehog self out of the bushes and took a few minutes to brush the leaves and twigs from her small frame and dress. Once she was done dusting herself off to a presentable level, Amy turned her attention towards the group.
"Amy Rose," Signum addressed the pink hedgehog informally, "If you're looking for Sonic, he is with Mistress Hayate and Reinforce on the other team. We decided to split our forces up for this mission."
"Normally horror movie 101 is to never split the party, but I can see why for this one, divide and conquer." Amy replied, "But I have a question, how did you find me out so fast?"
"We already knew you were present," said Nanoha in response, "We ran into Tails the fox splitting up. He said you went off on your own."
"Yeah, that lasted all of three minutes before I realized how stupid that was." the pink hedgehog glared at the ground to hide a growing blush, "That old lardo has mechs that shoot bullets, coconuts and have a nasty sting. While all I have is a hammer."
Vita, Knight of the Iron Hammer for the Wolkenritter, held her device, Graf Eisen over her shoulder in a neutral position. She raised a questioning eyebrow at the pink hedgehog as if to ask her what her point was.
"Mine doesn't change shape and I don't have access to the magic stuff you guys do!" countered the pink hedgehog.
"She has a point," Nanoha offered accurately.
"Shut it, Nanoha." The iron knight grumbled again, "We should get moving, if blue boy beats us, he'll never shut up about it."
"Mind if I tagged along with you?" Amy asked, eager to not be left behind.
"If you can keep up." Signum replied, not one to turn down the extra hand, "In case you're wondering, Tails is with Sonic on Team A."
"I may not be as fast as Sonic, but I still have some good hedgehog speed." Amy took that challenge, "If Tails is going to be doing his best, I will do the same."
Upon Signum's acceptance, Amy Rose joined Team B in their battle race on Emerald Hill. She proved quite quickly that she was no slouch in combat with her good footspeed and skill with the hammer. Granted she was not close to Vita's skill, but she was still passable.
[POV: Team A (Reinforce, Hayate, Alicia, Sonic, Tails)]
While Reinforce's team did not have as many experienced hands in their lineup with Reinforce, Hayate and Tails all being newcomers to this sort of adventure, the experience was made up for with Sonic being on his third adventure against Eggman while Reinforce had seen her share of battles whilst being in the Book of Darkness. Their power also compensated for the lack of experience as well. Hayate and Reinforce both had access to a wide variety of spells thanks to their shared Rare Skill, Use of Collection.
In action, Use of Collection allowed for the use of Mid-Childan and Ancient Belkan spells at their full potential. The spells were derived from mages whose Linker Cores were previously absorbed by the Book of Darkness. Though they were limited to the spells that the mages had access to at the time of absorption, the wide variety allowed Hayate to focus on long range support with shooting spells while Reinforce focused on cross range with mana-enhanced melee techniques.
Alicia Testarossa, though she lacked some of the power that her sister had, still made for a formidable combatant mage in her own right. Lucky Star had a wide variety of forms that could be used for combat and progress. For her team, Alicia had opted to be the in-betweener for the cross and mid-range, utilizing her device's split form to dual wield her handgun and paper fan. She was small and rather comical in her approach, but the way she swung the paper fan was quite deadly, especially for the fish-shaped robots that tried to surprise them.
As for Sonic and Tails, it became quickly evident that despite the fox kit's young age and hesitance, he had quite the deceptive amount of power for his small frame. He quickly picked up on Sonic's spin-dash ability and formed a devastating tandem with the blue hedgehog. In addition, he could even spin his namesakes like a helicopter to allow for great speed, flight and could even carry Sonic, albeit for short distances before he tired out.
Given that the team took the lower route to maximize the impact of Sonic's groundspeed, there were fewer aerial wasp robots for Hayate or Alicia to shoot at, but the closer proximity to the water led to more fish robots to fry. Though Hayate also had one more issue that led to some near funny accidents with Sonic, her aiming was horrible! She had nearly clipped him with one of her shooting spells.
"Oi!" the hedgehog called out quite humorously, "Watch the friendly fire!"
"Sorry!" Hayate apologized sheepishly, "It's harder to aim these spells on my own."
'She also had issues with aim and control during the drills as well.' Reinforce thought to herself as she casually punched a hole through a monkey badnik, freeing the robot inside.
"Wow..." Tails thought out loud in awe as he watched the mages effectively neutralize waves of badniks, "Magic really does exist."
Unfortunately, the fox's surprise and awe had to be put on hold as the party encountered one of the oddest obstacles in the island thus far. Oddly placed in the middle of their route was an odd contraption that resembled a street-light or lamppost. The base was a yellowish gray with an emblem of a star in the middle. Extending from the base was a grayish-white stretch rod extended from the base that ended in a large blue bulb.
"What is this?" Hayate asked as she stared at the post.
"Looks like some sort of sign-post." Sonic offered somewhat obviously, pausing when he drew looks from the rest of the team, "Hey, don't look at me, I've got no idea what this thing is either."
"Lucky Star." Alicia requested of her device, "Please analyze."
"Yes sir! Scanning." Came the robotic reply as the device started to scan the contraption, "Scan complete! Displaying results."
According to Lucky Star, the signpost had a delayed teleportation spell weaved in with a specific trigger. The spell was to activate when a specific individual who matched the parameters the trigger sought made contact with the post. Upon activation, the individual will be transported to another dimension temporarily and then teleported back after either a certain amount of time or when another condition within the dimension was met. Coincidentally, a specific blue hedgehog had an exact match for the spell parameters for the trigger.
"So...I have to touch that thing in order to activate it." Sonic began as he read the results once more with everyone staring at his spikey head, "That sounds an awful lot like the Special Stages from my first go around."
"Stands to reason that this is an invitation to a trial for one of the Chaos Emeralds you mentioned before." Reinforce offered, "I would recommend undertaking it, seeing that one of our objectives is to secure the Emeralds before Eggman."
"Alright, might as well see what trials they want me to do this time." The blue hedgehog held out his arm, "Here we go!"
Once Sonic made contact with the post, the blue orb changed color to red and the base gave off a glow. For a brief moment there was a flash of light that surrounded both hedgehog and post, and once it disappeared, Sonic was gone.
[Eyecatch #1: Sonic: Wind of the Night Sky bio card #21: Arisa]
Name: Arisa Bannings
Katakana: アリサ・バニングス (Arisa Baningusu)
Gender: Female
Age: 9
Height: 125cm
Weight: 27kg
Color: Orange
System: Mid-Childa
Device: Flame Eyes*
Rank: Not yet tested
[Eyecatch #2: Sonic: Wind of the Night Sky bio card #22: Suzuka]
Name: Suzuka Tsukimura
Kanji: 月村すずか (Tsukimura Suzuka)
Gender: Female
Age: 9
Height: 124cm
Weight: 26kg
Color: Violet
System: Mid-Childa
Device: Snow White*
Rank: Not yet tested
[Coordinates Unknown]
[Special Stage]
[Time: Unknown]
[BGM: "Special Stage" Sonic the Hedgehog CD (JP/PAL)]
Upon touchdown, the blue hedgehog found himself something of an ominous environment that had long winding roads over randomly placed pools. The background of this stage was rather eerie and reminiscent of space. Looking up, Sonic could have sworn that he could see the solar system, or at least Earth, Mars and Earth's Moon. It was almost as if the blue hedgehog was on another planet, but the space behind the planets alternated in color between red, blue and black.
'Wow, cut a check to whichever deities designed this place, this certainly beats falling endlessly into the abyss looking for the emerald.' Sonic thought to himself as he took in the sight, 'Now what am I being tasked with this time.'
As the hedgehog looked around in place, he could notice six mechanical round-shaped spaceships, some blue with white lines or purple with yellow lines. They were all just slightly bigger than the hedgehog in length. The way they floated about was erratic yet held a pattern.
Whilst Sonic was gathering his thoughts about the stage and UFOs, an odd white and red sphere of light hovered and circled around him, leaving sparkles in its wake. As the orb reached the hedgehog's face, it paused in its movements.
"The way to the emerald you seek is paved by the floating objects before you." spoke a teenaged female voice in the young hedgehog's mind as the orb rotated around his head, "Time is limited, however, and playing about in the water reduces your time."
'Breaking stuff to get to the emerald huh…' Sonic thought to himself, 'This is new.'
"You must always remain in motion; you may only stop whence you are done." The orb spoke again, revolving at a faster pace now, "Take caution of the field, it may lead to a quick victory or defeat."
The orb swirled around once more before it disappeared into the skyward horizon. A small screen appeared on the hedgehog's left wrist with a time display of 100 seconds.
'Not much time, but I think I can work with it.' Sonic thought to himself as he took a runner's stance, 'Here we go!'
Time started as Sonic began his trot; he kept a moderate pace, but as he was unable to stop, his turning was much slower. He quickly took notice of the main gimmicks and obstacles scattered about the zone. Fan and spring blocks elevated the hedgehog high into the air while the dash zones boosted the hedgehog into the direction that they were pointed. The final obstacles were the chopper blocks, while they did not reduce Sonic's time like the water could, they did force him to a complete stop, which would have cost him the time needed to recover his bearings and speed.
Breaking the UFOs gave the hedgehog some fairly noticeable bonuses or boosts. The white-striped machines gave him a temporary boost of ground speed which he could use to get more momentum in his jump, although it came at a cost of control with his turning. As for the yellow-striped ones, they gave him a slight boost in his turning and handling which he found could be chained by breaking multiple in a row.
The hedgehog went with a strategy of chaining the yellow-striped UFOs one to two times consecutively before hitting a white-striped. Given the placements of the UFOs and the obstacles, he had little room for error. But he eventually managed to destroy them all with just under 35 seconds remaining.
Time felt slower as the hedgehog came to a stop after the last UFO. He waited for a few moments before he could see the light-blue Chaos Emerald slowly drop from the sky above. As Sonic outstretched his gloved hands to receive the emerald, the red ball slowly returned and hovered around his head.
"Well done, young hedgehog. You have passed the first trial of the Seven Chaos. The emerald is yours, please take care to use it with responsibility. The sins of the past need not be repeated." The young girl's voice echoed in Sonic's mind,
"Thank you~!" Sonic gave the ball a cute thumbs-up gesture, holding the emerald in one hand.
"Take care, young hedgehog. For there are six more trials ahead, each more difficult than the last." The voice spoke with a cautionary tone, "You will be returned to your friends, and next we meet, it will be for the second trial. Farewell."
As the orb spoke, a pillar of light engulfed the hedgehog and spirited him away from the dimension. Perhaps this was a play on his mind, but Sonic could have sworn that he caught a glimpse of an orange figure before his departure, but he would not be able to recall as it was but a fleeting image.
[Non-Administrated Planet #97 "Earth"]
[South Island Archipelago]
[West Side Island: Emerald Hill: Action Stage]
[Time: 0920]
[BGM: "Emerald Hill" Sonic the Hedgehog 2]
After what felt like a few hours, though it was but minutes in reality, Team A watched as Sonic reappeared from the teleportation array generated from the signpost. The light-blue Chaos Emerald shining in the hedgehog's hand served as the indicator that he was successful in his trial. Questions were raised regarding what sort of trial the hedgehog had to undertake for the Chaos Emerald.
"I was taken to some weird dimension where I had to crush UFO machines to win the emerald." Sonic explained, "At least, that the girl's voice from the orb thing was telling me to do."
"Oh, so you heard a girl's voice?" Hayate locked onto that detail rather quickly, "Did she sound cute?"
"Uh… I guess?" replied the hedgehog with a shrug, "She sounded really formal though."
"Interesting…" the brunette grinned, much to Sonic's confusion, "Quite interesting…"
Setting aside Hayate's interest in the voice that guided the blue hedgehog through the special stage, the team continued their progression through the remainder of their route. There were fewer robots to slow them, which was an indicator that they had reached the goal. The metaphorical finish line had been crossed by Team A first.
They were not alone though, as Signum and her squad had reached the goal merely seconds later. Amy, upon meeting Sonic for the first time since the Little Planet, ran over and attempted to apologize for her earlier behavior. The blue hedgehog, however, simply shrugged and told her not to worry about it. Shortly it came time for the scores to be calculated and compared.
"First Place bonus: 10000 points. Enemy bonus: 100 x 20 enemies." chimed Lucky Star as the device ran its computations, "Final score: 12000 points!"
"Second Place bonus: 7500 points. Enemy bonus: 100 x 35 enemies." Raising Heart chimed in response, running its tally, "Final score: 11000 points!"
"Whew~!" the hedgehog whistled, "That was close, but it looks like our team wins this round!"
"Indeed, this round is yours. Which means your team will be the first to engage the doctor," Signum replied, "We will watch from afar."
With Signum and her squad watching from a safe distance, Sonic, Tails and the rest of Team A progressed through the remainder of the zone. They soon paused upon reaching a wide open area that seemed to be quite suitable for a boss battle. It was there that they encountered a rather peculiar sight.
Doctor Eggman, playing to a theme tune similar to a psychedelic pop group, stood in his egg-mobile as he directed an armada of robots that were designated to be the second wave for Emerald Hill's invasion. There would have been majesty to the spectacle akin to a composer of an orchestra, if the orchestra director was overweight, and balding with a hilariously shaped moustache. In other words, the doctor looked like a tool in front of the rest of the other heroes, not the best impression for the evil genius to make.
"Ettoo… Sonic-kun?" Hayate poked the blue hedgehog in certain amounts of confusion, "Is he normally like that?"
"I know the old coot's eccentric, but this is a whole 'nother world of weirdness…" the hedgehog replied, looking rather off-put by the display, "And it's rather disturbing, can someone please stop him before he breaks into song?"
Hayate nodded and ascended into the air with her staff in one hand and her tome in the other. A white triangular glyph of magic appeared at her feet and the pages in her book began to turn rapidly as she focused her power and searched for a suitable spell. It only took for a short time, but the girl's eyes lit up as she found a standout on a page
"Aha! This should work!" The brunette raised her staff up into the air, "Claíomh Solais!"
The doctor's symphony of machinery was abruptly put to an end as several white pillars of light rained down upon the robots. Contact from each beam with the robots caused an immediate explosion that somehow did not scratch the land any more than a few splotches of dirt and charcoal where the enemies were previously.
Understandably so, Eggman was quickly made upset when he realized that the robots he had gathered were destroyed in such an audacious manner. When he turned to face the source of the destruction, he was greeted by a cute wave from a brunette standing airborne in a black and white outfit with gold trims. Following her descent, he then took notice of the familiar blue hedgehog as well as the short blonde human from Little Planet. It was then that the realization dawned upon him.
"Oh, you guys…" Grumbled the doctor in annoyance which soon faded into another realization that his dance routine from before was likely on full display, "You'll forget you saw any of that."
"No." a smirk graced Sonic's face, "Not for nothing, but you have a solid taste in music. What is that, uh 1970's pop?"
"Uh, yeah." Eggman let out a sigh as his patience was thinning, "Look, why don't you go play elsewhere, I'm busy."
"Unfortunately, we came here to stop you." declined Reinforce bluntly, "So that cannot happen."
Upon the signal from the Master Program, the rest of the team took a readied stance as they prepared for battle with respective devices in hand. Tails, for his part, did try to look somewhat remotely close to intimidating, but it came off as cute to the other girls.
"Very well," the doctor retorted with a few button presses, "If you do not comply. You will make the perfect subjects for a test of my latest creation."
Following another series of button presses and a whistle from the doctor, the ground started to shake. A huge hole sprouted from the ground. The whirls and sounds of gears could be heard as a huge robot bearing the shape of an antlion leaped forward and slammed into the ground with a resounding shockwave. The antlion had razor sharp metallic pincers and stood quadruped on four legs. One of the standout features, apart from its feral appearance, was its eyes; they cycled between yellow and red.
"This baby, I will call the Egg Antlion," The doctor grinned madly, "It's armored to the teeth and I've even included some programming that will give even you magic folk a hard time."
"Wow." Sonic whistled, "You may have outdone yourself."
"I wish I could stay and watch this baby rip your resistance to shreds, but I have other things to do," Eggman grinned as his mobile turned and started to fly away, "Sayonara."
Before the team could give chase either through land or sky, the huge antlion machine lunged forward to bar their path. Its pincers wide and eyes settling on a yellow glow; it readied itself for battle and the heroes readied in kind.
[VS: Egg Antlion]
[BGM: "Eggman Battle" Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)]
The antlion's eyes shifted to a yellow color as it lunged forward, forcing the heroes to split up into a wide formation. Sonic and Tails attacked first with a combined spin attack into the robot's back, but they merely bounced off and left a crack in the robot's shell. In addition, the mecha immediately countered the attack with a harsh pincer swipe that the two animals were just barely fast enough to avoid.
"Whoa! That thing's fast!" Sonic remarked, as he and Tails fell back.
Reinforce focused a fair amount of power coalesced into her right hand. As she curled it into a fist, a dark aura enveloped it. Her eyes located a target spot in the middle of the antlion's back where the hedgehog and fox just struck. Her wings unfolded, she swooped downward and delivered a magically enhanced punch to the mechanical beast. There was a roar of pain as it, like before, tried to sweep at the aerial unison device, but she too avoided it.
"It's automatically countering physical attacks," the woman spoke in cautionary, "Try using magic."
Hayate and Alicia took a queue and readied spells of ice and lightning respectively. Though the brunette still had trouble with her aiming, she was able to offset by coordinating with the blonde. Within seconds, the antlion roared as both spells pierced its shell.
The mecha was not one to go down quietly, after the second volley of ice and thunder elemental spears, its eyes shifted to a red color and it lashed out and fired its pincers in a guided boomerang-like fashion at the mages, forcing them to scatter once again. At that moment, a pattern was deduced by Reinforce; the pattern stemmed from the robot's eye color and movements.
"Pay attention to its eyes before you attack." the woman declared, "When they are glowing red, it will counter any magic-based attacks. If yellow, it will counter physical attacks."
"Got it!" Sonic and Tails confirmed.
The heroes established a pattern to counteract the boss's gimmicks, when its eyes glowed red, Sonic, Tails and Reinforce took turns attacking with close range spin attacks and melee attacks respectively. After its eyes changed colors, Alicia and Hayate took their turn to bombard it with magic. The antlion mecha was heavily armored despite this, so they had to keep attacking at the first crack until it grew enough to give an opening.
After what felt like hours of chipping away at the armor, the crack grew enough where one could cleave through the center. Sonic and Tails took the silent nod to perform a double spin-dash, one that was charged immensely, and soon they pierced straight through the robot, leaving a giant hole in both ends. With one final roar of pain, the antlion robot exploded into dust, leaving only a capsule in its wake. The capsule soon broke, releasing a large amount of critters that were trapped inside.
[Boss Clear]
[Jingle: "Victory" Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)]
The post battle celebrations were a mix of energy and subtlety. Sonic had adopted one of his trademark finger wagging poses, Hayate performed a cute twirl of her staff while Alicia made a show of blowing the steam off her pistol. For Reinforce and Tails, they were both more subdued; the unison device simply looked onward with her fist clenched while the fox had nary a clue as to what he could do; so he opted for a simple wave that quickly gave way to a cute yawn.
"Alright!" the hedgehog cheered and attempted to make a quip, "Looks like we snagged that victory from its jaws."
"No!" Hayate and Alicia both double-teamed the hedgehog playfully with paper-fans, "Bad hedgehog! Bad!"
"Ow! Ow, ow." whined Sonic in return, "Mercy! Please!"
"Uh…" Tails looked upwards at Reinforce in concern, "Should we help?"
"Don't worry," the woman smiled, "They're not really hurting him."
When Signum and her team arrived, it was to the tail end of that very moment. They had watched the battle from one of the nearby hilltops and what was displayed, at least from Eggman's part, was rather concerning. Specifically, the advances the doctor made since the previous incident.
"That mech was significantly more armored then before." Signum pointed out in observation, "We also cannot overlook that it could counter magic."
"Eggman's picked up some new tricks since Little Planet." commented Sonic idly, "Figures he'd be the type to adjust for the unexpected. Watch out."
There was little time to continue chatting, Eggman was sure to have set up camp in the next zone. Little question was raised to the man's motives, the combined group just had to press on.
[Chemical Plant: Act 0]
[Time: 0930]
[No BGM]
The second zone that awaited our heroes was Chemical Plant, a factory based within an industrial cityscape. Immediately, one could notice a contrast between the cheery lovely hills of the previous zone and the grimy, grungy plant full of pollution and chemicals. Blue liquid flowed through gold-trimmed pipelines that were somehow strong enough to support the bodyweight of multiple people. Within the background was a dark city that had a rather unhealthy glow in the sky from the taint. Though it was fairly likely that this place was here before Eggman launched his campaign, it seemed like a home for him
Pink waters of an unknown chemical compound could be seen forming something of a pond in the bottom of the plant. The mere sight of them brought a rather considerable amount of nerves to Tails and Amy; the former even going so far as to cling to Sonic in fright while the latter tried her best to soothe him.
"This place looks eerie." Nanoha commented as she calmly took in the aesthetics, "Especially those pools, I really doubt the liquid is safe."
"One way to find out," Fate held out her device and called to it, "Bardiche?"
"Analyzing chemicals, please wait." Bardiche requested as it ran a scan of the chemical compound within the pink liquid, "Sir, caution is advised. The chemical compound within these waters is not safe. Minimal exposure will not lead to negative effects, but harm is assured if contact is prolonged."
"Oh darn, an excuse not to go swimming." Sonic said sarcastically, "What a day to forget my water wings."
"You're still due for those swimming lessons next weekend Sonic-kun." Hayate had a not so subtle teasing grin, "Don't think you'll be able to weasel your way out of that."
"Yes, of course~" chimed the hedgehog back, partly impressed that Hayate was able to return the snark.
The group began to plan out which route or path each would take to the goal for the second race. Though the higher route had more enemies in the first zone, it would be hard to predict that same success, given that it was hard to get a good read about the enemies from the beginning of the zone.
As it was likely that the higher route may run a lower risk of contact with the pink water, Tails had strongly requested that Sonic and Reinforce's team take the high route. The motion was accepted by Signum as they felt that there might be more enemies on the lower route for them to take; given that it would take a strong amount of luck to be able to outspeed any team with Sonic, even though Fate was fairly fast enough to give him a run for his money; any bit of score boosting by enemy eliminations would be a boon.
"Rules are the same as last time." Sonic started to explain, "First place team gets a bigger time bonus, but we need to make sure we're not just speedrunning and forgetting about the enemies."
"Indeed, any enemy left unaccounted for may come back to haunt us." Signum nodded, "Is everyone ready to go?"
"Hai!" Nanoha, Fate and Amy responded for Signum's team
"Yeah, yeah" Vita replied, albeit less enthusiastically so.
"Mistress Hayate?" Reinforce questioned of her master, "Are you and everyone else ready?"
"Un~" the brunette replied, sounding quite excited.
"Hai!" Tails and Alicia replied next in confirmation.
"Of course~!" chimed Sonic last.
Raising Heart ran a hard running count from ten. Each team member took a readied stance as they prepared to blast off. The atmosphere was light and fun with smiles aplenty for the youth, even Tails. As soon as the countdown included, the teams launched off at breakneck speeds with only a trail of dust left in their wake.
[Chemical Plant: Action Stage]
[BGM: "Chemical Plant" Sonic the Hedgehog 2]
There were two constants amongst the stage that were present regardless of the route either team took through the zone, the robots and stage hazards. For the robots, only 2 models were present in the plant, the Landers and Grabbers, but both had their own gimmicks that made things rather tough for the heroes. The Grabbers, as their name implied, were tarantula-based badniks designed to grab their target, hold them in place and then immediately self-destruct, which would have not only caused serious damage to the target, but also harm the animal within the robot. As for the Landers, they were shaped like sea anemone and had used their design quite effectively to hide out in unsuspecting places on the walls, ceiling or even the ground and then try to pick off their targets with potent energy blasts.
If the robots were bad enough, the natural hazards of the zone were also quite deadly. Some of the pipelines had gaps in between that could shoot jets of blue sludge that were dangerous enough to bypass magical shielding. Flying was also highly discouraged due to the presence of the deceptively slow moving but dangerously heavy blue and yellow square platforms, as they were heavy enough to potentially crush someone against the wall or ground hard.
[POV: Team A (Reinforce, Hayate, Alicia, Sonic, Tails]
The higher route Sonic's team had taken had been more tailored to the hedgehog's speed like before, but there were major challenges present in trying to figure out how the high-speed tube transportation system worked. As the hedgehog and his fox companion could curl up into balls, they were just the right size, they could have utilized the tubes for rapid transportation, if only said tubes had taken them in the right direction. In at least two instances, the two were taken in the complete opposite direction of where they wanted to go with no chance of getting back without losing valuable time.
If the tubes and stage hazards were bad enough, the placement of the badniks almost seemed unfair for the team as well. At almost every corner, there was either a Grabber on the ceiling or a Lander on the side wall, and the latter's accuracy with their energy blasts were quite precise. Both Sonic and Tails had a near close call with a lunging grabber that they had no way of seeing until they were within their range of attack. Fortunately, Alicia was right on the case and had the excellent reflexes and was able to smash the robots away with her paper fan.
"Looks like Eggman's back to his old tricks again." Sonic commented as he watched a cute bunny critter escape from the wreckage of a Grabber, "Back to using critters for the power supply. Guess it's because he doesn't have access to Little Planet anymore."
"That's dangerous!" Tails added, "Those last few spider mechs have self-destruct sequences programmed in. If we let them explode, that can kill the animals inside."
"Yeesh." groaned Alicia, "How low can he go?!"
"We won't let him get away with this." the silver-haired woman.
'Poor things…' Hayate thought to herself.
The team continued their path through the zone, blazing through whatever enemies they could find. About midway into their run, the team located the same starpost they found in Emerald Hill. Taking the queue from Reinforce, Sonic activated it and was taken to the site of his next trial.
[POV: Team B (Signum, Vita, Nanoha, Fate, Amy)]
The lower route, much to the prediction of a certain fox, did run the risk of contact with the mysterious yet dangerous pink water, but the mages and knights of Signum's squad used a combination of their accelerated flight spells as well as Amy Rose's divination to predict and avoid the liquid. Said pink hedgehog's ability also was instrumental in helping to predict and time the appearance of the Grabber mechs before they could cause trouble.
The Lander robots, on the other hand, still proved to be rather troublesome as their spots were not as easily predictable and, in most cases,, this proved to be a demerit as they often were able to get at least a few energy blasts off before they were discovered and eliminated. Though the mages had protection from that in the form of their auto-protection spells, a certain pink hedgehog did not have that luxury.
"Must be nice having access to magic." The pink hedgehog commented with only a small amount of envy in her tone.
"Don't take it too lightly." spoke Nanoha with caution, "You still have to work hard, even with magic."
"Oi," Vita sent a telepathic ping to Signum, making sure it was in the private channel this time, "That's really something coming from someone who's working way too hard."
"Leave it. Reinforce and Nakajima have already informed the admiral." The general sent back, "This isn't our business to get involved in."
"Like hell it's not!" the iron knight was not willing to let the topic drop, "She's not like us or Testarossa, her body isn't going to be able to take that much abuse. She could die if she keeps that up."
"I did not realize you cared that much about her." There was but a subtle hint of teasing mirth in the tone of the general.
"Urusai! I-it's not like that!" an unmistakable blush graced the short knight of the hammer's face, "She's just become a real good ally and friend to Hayate. and I don't want to see her get hurt."
The pink-haired woman said no further, but she still sympathized with her compatriot. Vita eventually dropped the argument and refrained from speaking further on it. With all distractions out of the way, the squad cut through the rest of the zone.
[Chemical Plant: Race Results]
[No BGM]
Though Team A was able to secure the second Chaos Emerald, their troubles with the high-speed tubes had resulted in them just missing out on the first place finish by but a few seconds. Their only hope of victory for this round was if they received a big enough boost from the robot eliminations to offset. Raising Heart and Lucky Star calculated the scores once more.
"First Place bonus: 10000 points. Enemy bonus: 30 x 100." Nanoha's device chimed for Team B's results, "Final score: 13000 points."
"Second Place bonus: 7500 points. Enemy bonus: 40 x 100." came the tally from Alicia's device, "Final score: 11500 points."
"This round belongs to us." declared Signum, stoic in her victory.
"For the record, we would have won if those stupid tubes weren't a factor." The hedgehog groused a bit, but conceded the round regardless, "Have fun."
As Reinforce and her squad pulled back to one of the nearby rooftops to survey, Signum's group pressed onwards. They came to another clearing in the road much like where the Egg-Antlion was fought but was treated to a rather tame scene this time around.
The doctor did not have a gathering of robots, but he was seated in his Egg-mobile and sounded to be within a conversation with a party, likely robotic, on a computer screen generated from his vehicle.
"What? You mean to say that the scanners picked up two Chaos Emeralds, but you weren't able to retrieve them?!" exclaimed Eggman in frustration.
"Indeed." The robot on the other end of the screen confirmed, "The Chaos Emeralds physically appeared on our scanners, but then they just disappeared right afterwards."
"This can only mean one thing," the doctor grumbled, "Someone is collecting them… and I have a good idea as to who."
"Eggman-sama?" The messenger robot questioned
"Keep a close eye on those scanners." a small smirk found its way upon the doctor's face, "I'll check back later."
It was to the scene of Eggman dismissing his call screen that Team B arrived. Eggman had the foresight to expect company, but he was still somewhat surprised by the presence of this team versus the original group that fought him in Emerald Hill.
"I thought there was something suspicious about the way I was fought in Emerald Hill." the doctor addressed the group rather calmly, "Now where's the rest of your merry band?"
"That matter does not involve you." Signum drew her blade from its sheath, "You are fighting us now."
"Actually," Eggman had a counter ready, "Considering that you're approaching me as a combatant, I'm feeling pretty involved."
"Wow, you can talk real big." Vita's tone was full of sarcasm, "Besides that, is that all you have?"
"No, but thank you for asking."
As if on cue, the ground began to shake. The doctor had a grin that was giddy as he pressed another sequence on his egg-mobile as he called forth his latest creation. All that could be seen was a huge shadow that briefly blocked out the sun.
"Behold, my latest creation…"
[Ending: "Hikaru Michi (The Shining Road)" Aya Hiroshige]
[End of Chapter 11]
Author's Notes: Welp, here's my first time covering a game arc in a long while. Hope it's not too rusty. and it's readable. I'm going to set up a poll for which team takes the boss of which zone. Also for the notes on Arisa and Suzuka, those are from Brave Duel, for when the eventuality they get devices for magic, that'll be for them. Not yet