Chapter 7: Egg Rocket
The sun rose gently, giving the few clouds in the sky a ring of bright pink. Few robots scurried around the scaffolding surrounding the rocket, making last minute preparations. With a spark, the main engines roared to life, followed closely by the booster engines.
In the shadows of the twilight four figures quickly made their way to a door near the base of the rocket. “This walkway’s going to break off any second now,” Knuckles said, glancing around them.
Sonic tried the door. “Locked,” he yelled over the roar of the engines. He pulled out his card and edged it into the door latch, trying to force the lock open.
“Try the lock,” Tails yelled.
“I did, it’s locked!”
“No, put your card through the lock. Just try it.”
Sonic raised his eyebrow and scanned his card. Sure enough, the door sprung open. “Odd…” The four of them quickly dashed inside and shut the door behind them.
It was relatively quiet in the rocket, but not by much. The engines weren’t deafening, only loud. “Do you think we’re safe here?” Amy said.
Tails shook his head. “Naw, if Eggman’s smart, he’ll have made this a stage rocket. We need to get higher.”
“Stage rocket?”
“It’s a rocket that loses parts as it rises. When the bottom part’s burned up all its fuel, it falls off. It helps the other engines push the load higher since there’s not as much weight weighing them down.”
“So the part where we’re standing…?”
Tails nodded. “Where we’re standing is going to be falling back to Mobius within ten minutes of the launch. We need to get higher.”
“Works for me,” Knuckles said. He ran over to the nearest wall, dug in his spikes, and started climbing.
“Doesn’t work for the rest of us,” Sonic muttered. “Wait, there’s a ladder over there.”
Sonic, Tails, and Amy began the slow climb up the long ladder. When they reached the platform at the top, they looked for the next ladder, and so on. Halfway up the second ladder the rocket gave a lurch and all four of them felt themselves being pulled downward at a spectacular rate.
“This is no place to be during a rocket launch!” Tails yelled.
A mechanical voice rang over the intercom. “T-Minus 300 seconds to stage one release.”
“300 seconds?” Sonic yelled. The three of them tried hard to climb to the top of the ladder, fighting both gravity and the force of the rocket. The ladder seemed like it would never end, but after a minute Sonic, Tails, and Amy found themselves at the next platform.
“Five minutes doesn’t seem so long now, does it?” Knuckles said. He led the group through a door at the far end of the platform onto a small floating platform barely big enough for the four of them. The platform was outside, and Sonic and Amy could see the fast retreating ground below them. Spanning the chasm was a small bar that led to another platform.
“I think this way is quicker,” Knuckles said. “We climb across this bar here to that platform over there and go through the vacuum tubes.”
“Tubes?” Amy asked with an edge of concern.
“Sure. You can spin, can’t you?”
“Um…”
“We don’t exactly have time for this,” Sonic said, seizing the rod and beginning to shimmy across. Knuckles took a running start and glided after him. While Sonic made it across safely, Knuckles timed his glide wrong and began to sink below the platform.
“Tails, he’s not going to make it!” Amy shrieked.
“Just wait,” Tails said, holding his hand in front of her.
Knuckles noticed his situation long before Amy did. As he glided beneath the platform, he thrust up one of his fists and latched onto the bottom of the platform. Slowly, as if he was climbing across monkey bars on a playground, he made his way to the edge of the platform where Sonic helped him up.
“I don’t think I can make it,” Amy said softly. “I just know I’m going to fall.”
“Then I’ll go right behind you,” Tails said, trying to reassure her. “If you fall, I’ll come after you. At the very least we’ll be able to get to ground safely.”
Tails half-expected her to glomp him with a bear hug like she did with Sonic whenever he said something like that, but she only swallowed, tensed herself, and jumped up to the rod.
Tails knew better than to remind Amy not to look down, since that would only make her look down. He just followed her across the rod in silence, simply letting his presence reassure her. They made it across without incident.
At the platform Knuckles was beginning to take the cover off of the vacuum tube. “Once this thing opens,” he said, “it’s going to suck everyone inside. Just… Amy, just do a somersault and you’ll do fine.”
“Tails, go behind me,” she whispered. Tails just nodded.
Sonic entered the tube first, demonstrating his trademark spin. This was old hat to him. Amy went next, trying hard to do the same thing. Tails and Knuckles followed, hoping that they wouldn’t bump into Amy.
A voice sounded over the now-empty platform. “Section one separation in T-minus 30 seconds…”
-
- *
Knuckles shot out of the vacuum tube at an incredible speed. He tried to spread his arms out to stop himself, but the floor was so slippery he still ended up sprawled against the far wall. He heard a loud hiss and a slam.
“Looks like you got out just in time, Knux,” Sonic said.
Knuckles got up and looked at the tube. A large door had slammed into place where the opening once was. “Odd…” Knuckles said.
Just then the rocket made a loud lurch followed by the whine of metal on metal. “What the… huh?” Sonic yelled above the noise.
“The first stage is separating,” Tails said. “Five minutes.”
Amy hit the ground with her mallet. “No food, no rest, we just keep on going.”
Sonic still retained his sense of humor. “Come, Amy,” he said in a fake accent, “we’re gaining on them!”
Tails picked himself up and went over to help up Amy. “You have seen that movie too many times,” he said to Sonic.
“Look who’s talking,” Sonic retorted. “You’re the one that saw it every Friday for a month!”
“Leave us alone, precious,” Tails muttered.
“Gentlemen,” Knuckles said from the other end of the room, “we do not stop until nightfall.”
“Touche…” Sonic said.
The group began their long ascent up the ladders. When they reached the top, they found themselves at the bottom of a long shaft with no ladders in sight.
Sonic squinted at the ceiling. “Is there something up there?” he said.
Knuckles followed Sonic’s gaze. “Hand me an Emerald,” he said to Sonic. He took the Emerald and muttered, “Chaos See.” His eyes began glowing the same shade of red as the Emerald he was holding. After a few seconds he returned to normal and handed the Emerald back to Sonic.
“There’s a hatch at the top,” he said. “And to get up there…” He began running to one end of the small room. Sonic, Tails, and Amy began following him to a small platform hovering a few inches off the ground. “Have fun,” Knuckles said. He then ran over to the wall and began climbing.
“Loser,” Sonic muttered. He hopped on the platform and looked around for a set of controls. “Ah, here it is,” he said as Amy and Tails climbed aboard. Slowly the platform began rising towards the top of the shaft. “Not too bad,” Sonic said. However, when the platform was halfway up the shaft, it abruptly stopped. “What?” Sonic yelled.
“It’s as high as it goes,” Tails said. “There’s another one over there.”
Amy looked and nearly toppled over. “It’s a long way,” she said. “A very long way.”
Sonic smiled and began to say something, but Tails yelled at him before he could. “There is no way I am going to toss you over there you overweight nimskull!” Both of them cracked up laughing after that.
“What?” Amy asked, putting on her best the-joke-you-just-told-went-flying-over-my-head face.
Sonic just waved her hand and said, “Never mind.” He moved to the far edge of the platform they were on, took a running start, and jumped over to the other platform. He wasn’t able to jump quite far enough and was forced to grab onto the platform with his hands and pull himself up.
Amy gasped sharply when she saw this. Tails just put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Same thing as before.” Amy gulped and nodded.
From the beginning Tails could tell she wouldn’t make it. Her running start did more to slow her down than give her distance. When she jumped, she was more vertical than horizontal, leaving her to fall screaming between the two platforms.
Tails dived off the platform and pressed his arms to his side so he could catch up to Amy quicker. She had her eyes squeezed shut and her arms were flailing, making it extremely hard for Tails to grab a hold of her. As soon as he had her wrists he began sending his tails into motion. For the first few seconds all it did was slow their fall, but slowly they began rising until they reached the platform with Sonic.
“Don’t scare me like that again!” Sonic said when they reached the platform.
Amy slowly opened one eye, then the other. “I’m… not dead?” she said slowly.
“No, you’re not,” Sonic said as he started sending the platform towards the top.
Tails had collapsed at his end of the platform and was panting heavily. Amy walked over to him and whispered, “Thanks.” She opened her mouth to say more, but the words caught in her throat and she simply walked away. Tails just smiled. Slowly the platform stopped at the top of the shaft.
-
- *
“Only one more stage,” Tails breathed. The rocket lurched, and Tails added, “And five more minutes.”
Knuckles chuckled and walked over to the wall, but Tails yelled at him to stop before he could drive his knuckles in.
“We don’t know if this is well protected,” Tails explained. “We’re going to be leaving the atmosphere any minute now, and one small hole can grow when there’s 500 PSI pushing on it.”
“Five hundred— huh?” Knuckles said.
“Just don’t make a hole that let’s air out, or we’re all dead,” Tails said sharply.
“Chill out, guys,” Sonic said. “It’s my turn to find a way up.” He pointed at the far wall. The corner between the floor and the wall was sloped like a skateboard halfpipe. At the end of the room where they were standing was a small treadmill and a set of handles. “Launch pad,” Sonic explained. “It’s like ol’ Egg-Butt wants us to go that way.”
“Careful,” Amy said. “It could be a trap.”
Sonic just laughed. “Bring it on,” he said. “Besides, I gots my lucky shoes.”
“You’ve got your soaps, Sonic,” Tails said. “You’d need your energy shoes to get up to the top.”
“Will you guys stop?” Sonic said, an insane glint coming into his eyes. “Don’t bog me down, okay?” He hopped onto the the launch pad and pressed a couple of buttons. A blue light began flashing from the floor, and Sonic began running as fast as he possibly could. After a few seconds he shot out of the device and up the far wall.
Knuckles was deep in thought. “Can’t use an Emerald; Genius just ran off with them… there must be something else… aha!” He ran off to a corner and came back with a small cart. “We can ride in this… I think,” he said.
Tails looked at the cart, and at Knuckles and Amy, and said, “Get in, both of you.” Amy looked confused, but Knuckles nodded and led Amy to the cart. The cart wasn’t very wide, so Knuckles sat towards the back and Amy sat in front of him.
“Hold on for dear life,” Tails said with a smile as he charged the launch pad. “Those with weak stomachs may wait three minutes and the rocket will escort you back to Mobius. Thank you for riding Eggman Rockets, have a nice trip.”
The cart, pushed by Tails, shot out of the launch pad. Once it started up the wall, Tails began twisting his tails to add momentum. They got closer and closer to the top, and Knuckles began to worry that they might crash into the ceiling.
As they got closer, however, they noticed that there was a small hole in the ceiling that they were lined up to go through. Tails gave one last push of effort, and they pushed through to a room that had slopes on all the walls. It strongly reminded Tails of a skatepark’s bowl. He gently brought the cart to rest in the middle of the room.
“Hey, you made it!” a voice yelled from above them. They saw Sonic poking his head down a hatch in the middle of the ceiling.
“How did you get up there?” Amy yelled back.
“Simple,” Sonic said. “You see the ceiling? It’s got the same slope as the bottom of the room. It’s like we’re in one giant ball! Just run up the side and—”
“Sonic,” Knuckles yelled back, “I’ve just about had it with this whole thing. Why don’t you just be a good boy and throw me an Emerald, okay?”
Sonic’s head disappeared from the hatch. Tails thought he heard him mutter, “Take the easy way, why don’t you.” In a second the red Emerald came flying down. Knuckles caught it and motioned for Tails and Amy to come over to him.
“You got any room for us up there?” Knuckles yelled.
“Not much, but yeah,” Sonic answered. “Why do you—”
“Chaos Relocate!” Knuckles yelled, and he, Tails, and Amy instantly appeared at Sonic’s side. Knuckles calmly handed the Emerald back to Sonic.
“Whatever,” Sonic said. “Just help me with this hatch.”