Chapter 8: Cosmic Angel
“Well, it’s certainly flashier,” Sonic said. They were inside a brightly lit room inside Robotnik’s spaceship, the Cosmic Angel.
“Do you think he knows we’re here?” Amy asked softly.
“Probably,” Sonic said. “He’s probably looking at us now on some computer monitor smiling his sadistic smile thinking of what insane torture he’s going to inflict on us next.”
“Don’t forget he’s probably got that Emerald up here with him,” Tails said.
“So how about we split up?” Knuckles said. “Me and Tails can look for the Emerald—”
“No,” Sonic said flatly. “There’s no reason to split up.”
“Especially when we’re under attack!” Tails yelled.
Sure enough, several robots were flying toward the small group. Amy yelped and tightened the grip on her mallet.
“Get out of here; the room’s too small,” Knuckles yelled. The group ran as fast as they could towards the door. The other side brought new surprises, however, as it led to a catwalk only as wide as the door itself spanning a chasm that one did not want to fall down.
“Typical,” Sonic muttered. “What do we do now?”
“Simple,” Knuckles said quickly. “Now each of them has to come out the door one by one, and they can’t surround us as easily.”
The five robots flew out the doorway in perfect single file. The first one met Sonic’s spines. The second one few around and was answered by Knuckles fists. Two more found Tails and Amy, and the last one went straight for Sonic.
“Might as well have a little fun!” he yelled, running off into the distance with the robot in not-so-close pursuit. A small explosion told Tails, Amy, and Knuckles the robot hadn’t lasted very long.
-
- *
In the next room, Tails saw a computer terminal and ran over to it. “Is he… yes! He’s running Gooey!” he said excitedly.
“He what?” Sonic said.
“You know that Minitech company I was telling Sally about? Their operating system is full of security holes, and I know all of ‘em.” Tails cracked his knuckles and started typing. “Access code root,” he muttered, “identification RotorW, password… done. And… what?” Tails hit the screen. “What do you mean ‘Access denied’! This hole—”
“What’s the problem,” Knuckles said, trying to calm Tails down.
“I tried this method on the server at Castle Acorn two days ago and it worked! I don’t see how it could have been fixed that quickly.”
“Two days is a long time.”
“Not for Minitech. They take a good week to come out with security fixes, and this hole was just made public two days ago. It’s like Robotnik’s got some special version…”
“Tails, we’re sitting ducks here,” Sonic said quickly. “Are you done?”
“Almost,” Tails said. He pulled up a few more windows on the screen and announced, “I know where he’s keeping the Emerald. Dumb egghead isn’t smart enough to put that thing under password protection.”
Within five minutes the group was standing on a wide catwalk. “See that thing attached to the bottom of that catwalk?” Tails said, pointing straight up.
“Yeah…” Sonic said. “Looks like a container or something… but how do we get up there?”
“Well, I could fly up there, but I’d need a small boost…” Tails winked at Sonic. Sonic nodded slowly and motioned for Amy and Knuckles to stand back. Tails stood in the middle of the catwalk and Sonic began running in a fast circle around him. The faster Sonic ran, the more Tails began to feel a small tornado coming.
Finally Tails jumped and began spinning his tails. The extra momentum generated by Sonic’s tornado sent Tails flying straight upward. In no time he reached the container. In a split second he stopped spinning his tails and spun himself around. The whiplash of his tails shattered the container and Tails managed to catch the Emerald. He began hovering just before hitting the ground and landed safely on his two feet.
“That’s six, isn’t it?” he said calmly as he handed the Emerald to Sonic.
-
- *
The small group walked silently through the bowels of the spaceship. Every so often Sonic or Tails would point out small things they remembered and little incidents that had happened at certain points. “You know what I miss, though?” Sonic said.
“The gravity room?” Tails said, smiling.
“Oh, yeah.” Sonic smiled with a hint of nostalgia. “Nothing like having your innards turned upside down when the gravity in the room switches.”
Amy covered her mouth and made gagging noises. Knuckles just rolled his eyes. “You’re right, Sonic. There is nothing like it.”
Without warning another group of flying robots swooped toward the group. Knuckles, Tails, and Amy ducked out of the way while Sonic took off running. All of the robots followed him.
Amy got up slowly. “Wonder what that was all about…”
Tails nodded. “Usually they go for all of us. Wonder why they only went for Sonic?”
Tails was answered by the revving of an engine. Charging toward them was Robotnik, driving a small tank with a gigantic drill on the front.
“Oh, not AGAIN!” Tails yelled. “Can’t you come up with something slightly more original, Eggman?”
“Don’t retire a good idea,” Robotnik answered.
“Didn’t you and Sonic demolish this thing?” Knuckles whispered. Tails nodded.
“It’s so big it can’t turn very fast,” Tails whispered back. “Jump over it or step to the side and then hit the engine.”
Robotnik shifted the tank into gear and began speeding towards the group. Knuckles stepped to the side and scraped the side of the tank with his knuckle spikes. Tails lifted Amy over the tank and dropped her onto the back where she proceeded to hit the engine several times.
Needless to say, they made quick work of the robot. Robotnik seemed to have anticipated this, since within thirty seconds he was ready with his hovercraft, dangling a large wrecking ball beneath it.
“Didn’t Sonic tell me about this one?” Amy said.
“Poor fella’s out of ideas,” Knuckles said.
Knuckles climbed up a nearby wall and glided to the hovercraft. He latched onto it with one hand and began tearing it apart with the other. Tails ran around beneath the craft teasing the wrecking ball. Amy tried to hit the ball with her mallet, but it just bounced off and left her hands hurting. She retreated to the sidelines and watched Tails and Knuckles finish off the hovercraft.
Robotnik finally flew out of reach. Tails, Amy, and Knuckles stood together beneath him looking up at him. “Well…?” Tails asked after a minute of this.
Robotnik shrugged. “I guess I’m just out of ideas,” he said with a hint of sarcasm. “All I’ve got is this red button here, but I’m sure you’ll defeat whatever robot comes out of whatever door this opens, right?”
Tails caught the sarcasm. “I’d say that’s the first sensible thing I’ve heard you say, Doctor. How’s about us all going home now, eh?”
Robotnik frowned. “After I push the button,” he quipped. The platform that Knuckles, Amy, and Tails were on tilted to the side, and the three of them fell down through the depths of the Cosmic Angel.
-
- *
Sonic loved running, even if there were killer robots behind him. He zoomed over catwalks and across chasms, always one step ahead of the robots. A couple of times he looked back and glanced at them. They looked like buzz-bomber robots, except they had three or four rockets attached to them instead of wings. They had no stingers either; they were suicide robots.
Sonic just kept running. He told himself he’d have to dispose of the robots eventually, but he wanted to have some fun with them at first. He found a staircase off to the side and promptly grinded down the handrail with his soapshoes. As he hit the bottom, he nearly ran headlong into a wall. Acting on impulse, he ran a few strides up the wall, jumped off it, and began spinning. By this point, the robots were going too fast to stop themselves. Two of them ran into the wall, and the third one was shredded by Sonic’s spin.
Sonic landed on his feet and pretended to dust himself off. “Easy come, easy go,” he muttered. He was about to run back when he noticed a small glint on the ground. He leaned closer and saw that it was the green Chaos Emerald on top of another typewritten note. The first thing he did was put the last Emerald into his medallion. He then picked up the note:
“Your friends are in trouble. You may want this. Just be careful with it; you know what kind of damage it can cause. Don’t go crazy on me or I’ll have to kill you. And I will kill you. — A friend”
Sonic smirked. Whoever this “friend” was, he still had something of a sense of humor. If not humor then irony. Sonic tossed the note to the side and slowly took a few deep breaths. He had to concentrate with what he was about to do.
Slowly Sonic fingered his medallion. “Beyond the power of Chaos is Order,” he said quietly. “So may the power of Order protect me now and keep my hands from harm.” It was a quiet invocation Knuckles had taught Sonic after Sonic had heard stories of people using the Chaos Emeralds and becoming consumed with a lust for power.
As he held the medallion, he felt the combined energy from the Emeralds flow through him. In his mind’s eye he tried to picture himself as what he would become. He tightened his grip and yelled, “Chaos… TRANSFORM!”
-
- *
Tails, Amy, and Knuckles fell though the depths of the Cosmic Angel. Amazingly, they landed on a narrow platform that seemed to be made of gigantic blue bubbles. After they finished bouncing, Tails said with a smirk, “Well, we’re alive.”
“Not for much longer,” Knuckles said, looking to one end of the platform. Attached to one end of the platform was another one of Robotnik’s vehicles. This one looked like a large doughnut that encircled the platform. The top side, which Knuckles saw, was outfitted with several rows of spikes and two energy cannons.
“Tails, see if you can take a look at the bottom of that thing,” Knuckles said. Tails nodded and tried to jump off, but once he reached the edge of the platform he was pushed back by an energy field.
“That can’t be good,” he muttered. As he said that, the robot gave a jump and began moving slowly towards the group. Knuckles and Amy were able to jump over the spikes to the other side, and Tails took to the air. No more than a dozen feet overhead, however, he ran into another force field. Trapped, he thought, and Sonic’s nowhere in sight.
-
- *
Sonic, now Super Sonic, hovered over the ground for a few seconds, trying to put his mind in the right frame. It had been at least a month since he had been Super Sonic last, and he had to make sure he didn’t go overboard. Once he was sure of himself, he took off down the nearest corridor. When he reached a wall, he either turned or went straight up. He tried his best to get back to where he left Tails, but when he got there the platform was missing.
Not knowing where to go next, he followed the inkling in his mind and dived down. After all, if Super Sonic was invincible and could fly, what did he have to be afraid of? After half a second of flying down he saw Tails, Amy, and Knuckles trying to hold their ground against Robotnik’s latest vehicle.
Seriously, Eggman, Sonic thought, how low can you go? He dived down, determined to make quick work of the vehicle.
That was when he found out he couldn’t fly through force fields.
Tails was the first to notice Sonic. He flew up as high as he could and yelled, “Where’d you get the last one?”
“A friend. Is there any way for me to get in here?”
“You’ll need the shutoff. I have no clue where it is, but I think Eggman turned it on by remote.”
“Where’s he?”
“No clue either!”
Sonic thought for a second to choose his options. “Stay alive,” he yelled back, “I’ll go trash his sorry—”
“Go!” Tails yelled before Sonic could finish his insult.
Sonic turned and flew out of the pit. If I were a rotten egg, he thought, where would I hide… He saw a small tunnel that looked promising and flew into it. It opened into a large hallway with what looked like a giant robot at the far end. Got you now, Sonic thought as he sped toward the robot.
When he was halfway into the hallway a siren sounded. Suddenly Sonic felt himself being pulled toward the ceiling. The gravity change took him by surprise and he, despite his invincibility, crashed into the ceiling, now the floor.
Sonic looked up to see Robotnik coming toward him in a hovering car with a gigantic claw on the front end. Before he could react he was locked in the claw’s grip, staring down Robotnik’s face.
Robotnik laughed. “To be honest,” he roared, “I never thought it would work. I always knew, deep down inside, that somehow you would get past my trap. And yet… here you are, trapped while your friends die.”
Sonic opened his mouth to retort, but decided not to. He looked around for something, anything to use, but found nothing. He couldn’t try to fry the claw, since it was obviously touching him with no adverse effects. He could Chaos Control… but he’d still be stuck. He couldn’t concentrate enough to teleport…
Sonic concentrated all his energy on the small joint between the claw and the hovercraft and yelled, “Chaos Spear!” The joint exploded, sending the hovercraft and Sonic off in opposite directions. Sonic pulled out of the now-limp claw and sped towards Robotnik. Robotnik, on the other hand, went straight up towards the ceiling.
Again, Sonic heard the siren, but this time he was ready. He lined himself directly above Robotnik’s hovercraft, so when the gravity changed, he sped towards it with full momentum. Robotnik apparently saw the writing on the wall and ejected just before Sonic obliterated the empty hovercraft.
Despite his enhanced state, Sonic was still dazed by the explosion. When he looked around, Robotnik was nowhere in sight. His first impulse was to chase after him, but an inkling in the back of his mind reminded him of Tails. Quickly he looked around the hall for the right control panel. He finally saw a large machine labeled “MTC Force Field Generator.” He wanted to tear the thing to pieces, but decided instead to press the obviously labeled “Off” switch. He then hurried back to Tails and company.
-
- *
Once the field had been deactivated, Tails airlifted Amy and Knuckles latched onto the wall. The spike ball had been gaining speed and was becoming next to impossible to avoid, so the three of them just let the thing speed to its heart’s content. When Sonic arrived, he made quick work of the contraption and carried everyone to safety.
“So how does Super Sonic handle, Sonic?” Knuckles asked.
Sonic shrugged. “I’m a little rusty, but it’s coming back.” He turned to Tails. “Tails, you think you’d have any use for that force field generator?”
“What brand is it?” Tails said.
Sonic looked up and tried to remember. “Um… MTC? Does that sound right?”
Tails’ eyes lit up. “I knew it! It’s a Minitech!” he said. “It’s the same company that makes that Gooey software I was talking about.”
Sonic began to tap his foot. “So do you want the thing or not?”
Tails raised his eyebrows. “Not sure how we’d be able to get the thing, but sure.”
Sonic grabbed Tails by the wrist and sped through the spaceship until they reached the generator. Sonic stood and gawked at the size of the colossal object. Tails ran up to the small console on the front, fiddled around with a few gadgets, and in a few seconds he ran back carrying a small object not much bigger than a 24-ounce soda can.
“Is that it?” Sonic said, still gawking.
Tails nodded. “All that other stuff is just supplying and channeling power. It’s not that important.”
Sonic raised an eyebrow. “So how are you going to power that thing?”
“A Chaos Emerald.”
Sonic nodded, not quite understanding.
-
- *
Sally was standing on the roof of Castle Acorn. Sonic had just called her, saying that she should head straight to the roof. So far she had been standing for two minutes with no results.
Sally rolled her eyes and groaned. “Sonic Hedgehog,” she muttered, “what, pray tell, am I supposed to be looking for?”
“Do you see that star right there?” Sonic said.
Sally jumped and turned around. There stood Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Knuckles was tossing the red Emerald while Sonic twirled his medallion by its chain. “Look, quick,” Sonic said again.
Sally, still slightly miffed at Sonic’s unannounced arrival, looked at the star Sonic was pointing to. It seemed to glow slightly brighter before it exploded in a small, inaudible supernova.
“I seriously hope that was Egg Rocket,” she said.
Sonic feigned hurt feelings. “What, do you think my aim was off? Of course it was Egg Rocket.”
“And you hit the self-destruct button?”
“Actually no,” Amy said. “By the time we regrouped, Robotnik had already pushed the button. All we had to do was get off.”
“And the Chaos Emeralds?”
The four of them looked at each other and back at Sally. “We’ve got six,” Knuckles explained. “Our ‘friend’ has the green one. He only loaned it to Sonic long enough for him to go Super. After all that was over, we look the other direction for five seconds and boom! The green one’s gone, and all we’ve got is this note that says he needs it and he’ll give it back when we need it.”
“Was that it?” Sally probed.
“Yeah,” Tails said. “We didn’t even see the bum.”
“I’d appreciate not being called a bum in the future, even though the term does suit me,” a gruff voice said from the corner of the rooftop.
Everyone turned to look for the source of the voice. A black hedgehog in a dark trenchcoat was smiling sadistically, fingering the green Chaos Emerald in his right hand. Slowly he walked towards the group, taking the time to look each one in the eye. After half a minute of silence, he said, “I must say I’m surprised. Most of the time they bust out with cries of ‘Who are you?’ by now.”
“So who are you?” Sally asked, becoming more wary of her guest every second.
The hedgehog smiled again, the kind of smile that says “I know something you don’t know and I’ll never tell you.”
“You’re Dulcy’s new recruit, aren’t you?” Sonic blurted.
The hedgehog pointed at Sonic. “Bingo. You’re still pretty sharp for a faker. And I’m afraid that will have to be enough for right now. We will meet again, Sonic.” With that, the hedgehog vaulted over the handrail and out of sight.
Tails stared at the ground. “I know him from somewhere…” he muttered, lost in thought.
“So can we trust him?” Sally said to Sonic.
Sonic nodded slowly. “I think so. If Dulcy’s got an eye on him, he’ll be okay.”
“Good, because Father wants to see all of you now.”
Amy jumped. “The… the king wants to see us?”
“Of course,” Sally said. “Now come on, he should be through with his address by now.”
As they were walking off the roof, Sonic stopped and thought for a second. “Wait a minute… he called me ‘Faker.’ Is… no, he’s not. He can’t be.”