Chapter Text
“Urgh! C’mere, you little rodent… just… stay… still! ”
Sonic grinned, jumping out of the way of the massive machine’s hammer-like arms. Too easy. He’d just so happened to be visiting Restoration HQ when Tails’ monitoring equipment picked up on the sudden appearance of an egg base, so he figured he’d lend him and Amy a hand. And clearly, it wasn’t looking like they’d need any backup.
“Fore!” He called, running into a scrabbling Badnik and sending it hurtling through the air. Amy swung her hammer, turning it into a projectile that hit Eggman’s mech with a satisfying crunch. The robot stumbled back, giving Sonic the opening to spin dash directly at its glowing weak point.
Seriously, why did he keep building them with those?
“How’s it going Tails?” Sonic zipped over, ignoring the enraged shouts of the doctor as he righted his new super-turbo-ultra-cool machine. The fox was typing away at a nearby console, ducking out of the way of falling debris with his eyes never leaving the screen.
“Good. Almost done.” He muttered, tails swishing behind him. “Just buy me a few more minutes and I’ll have cracked the system, easy-peasy.”
“Alright!” He slapped his hand on Tails’ back, earning a small squeak. “I knew I could count on you, little buddy. Now…”
He turned back around. Amy was smiling, batting away Badniks like swatting flies. Eggman had recovered, and now was heading straight for her.
“Hey, egghead! Keep your eyes on the prize!” The robot paused for just a second, and in that time he’d barreled into him again. The machine fell backwards, its occupant screaming some sort of incoherent barrage of threats and curses as it landed with a loud thud. He doubted it would be getting up again.
Man, this was just too easy! Easy enough that it was starting to nag at him a little. Why go through all the effort to build a base in a conspicuous location when the defenses would be this poor?
Sonic jumped up onto the face of the machine, crouching down near a broken portion of the glass to eye the doctor warily. “So, what’s your game, Eggman? Didn’t think you were this sloppy.”
Eggman sneered, his mustache bristling as he quit fiddling with the controls, seemingly realizing the hunk of metal was useless to him now. “Wouldn’t you like to know, hm?” He pressed a button on the machine, and suddenly a large, spike-laden wall of metal was hurtling towards him.
“Yipe—!!” He jumped backwards, just narrowly avoiding the swing of the robot’s arm as he landed on the remnants of its knee. A cacophonous crashing rang out as the momentum carried it forward into the mech’s chest, crushing the metal flat.
He couldn’t help but snicker. “Wow, really? Was that—“
Sonic gasped, eyes wide and words cut short as something slammed into him from the side. He had no time to react, hurtling through the air as the metallic figure carried him forward to some unseen location. He recognized that bright blue paint job, the familiar hum of the engine…
Metal Sonic.
“Haha! Yes! Not so smug now, are we, hedgehog?” He heard Eggman’s voice, loud and obnoxious as he was slammed against a hard surface. Sonic sputtered, quickly getting to his feet and kicking a leg out, sending Metal Sonic skidding a few inches away.
He wiped at his face with a gloved hand, taking in his surroundings. He was no longer in the lab proper, now in some sort of covered dome. The entrance they’d come through shut with a loud bang as Metal Sonic recovered quickly, glowering at him with that same inscrutable expression, eyes flickering in the dim light.
“Hey there, buddy. Long time no see.” He chattered, taking a step back and eyeing the surface of the dome. Most of it was made of a sturdy-looking metal, but a few panes of glass let him see through to the outside. He could see Amy running towards the structure, flanked by a squadron of Badniks that had definitely not been there earlier. “How’ve you been?”
As usual Metal didn’t respond, instead launching himself towards Sonic, sharp claws extended. He dodged, but winced as the metal caught his shoulder, opening up a small gash. This wasn’t going to be pretty…
He tried for the nearest pane of glass, wanting to bring the fight into a more open area. The robot reacted instantly, grabbing him by the leg and flipping him into the air, letting him fall back down with a thud. Um, ow. Okay, scratch that plan. He needed to keep his full focus on his doppelgänger, unless he wanted to end up as blue-and-tan ribbons.
“Oof… you know, you’re no fun. Won’t even banter back.” He taunted, probably unwisely, as he returned the blow with one of his own. Metal’s face remained unchanged, but he could tell from how he hunched that he was getting under the machine’s skin. Er… sheet metal. Good.
He was so distracted by his face-off that he hadn’t even noticed how the lights encircling their impromptu arena started to glow brighter, a distant hum increasing in pitch as he focused on dodging the robot’s frenetic movements. With the limited space it was difficult to build up enough speed to slam into Metal with much force, dragging out the battle much longer than he would’ve liked.
He’d just picked himself up off the floor when something seemed to… shift. He felt light-headed, like he’d been hanging upside down from a tree. His eyes felt heavy as they sluggishly moved to his opponent, fear spiking in his chest as he realized he’d be easy pickings like this.
But strangely Metal seemed to be just as affected, his arms falling to his sides as the lights of his eyes seemed to flicker and grow dim. What was happening to them? Why…
The lights intensified, and Sonic could no longer stay standing. Just his luck…
Tails, I sure hope you haven’t started that self-destruct sequence.
~~✧~~
“Errrrgh! You damn fox— what are you doing?!”
Tails grit his teeth, ignoring the doctor’s obnoxious screaming as he slammed his fist on the keyboard. Damn it! He should’ve seen this coming, should’ve been paying more attention. Of course this was a trap! And now the blaring sirens and red lights of the facility told him that they had mere minutes to correct that mistake before they were all blown sky-high. He couldn’t turn it off!
“What are you doing?” He ground out, eyes shifting to where he could see Amy frantically beating off a swarm of Badniks, back pressed against the curvature of the dome. Occupied as she was, he doubted she’d be able to break Sonic out of there before the machine finished the job or, worse, the place went kaboom . “What is that thing?”
“You engaged the self-destruct?! ” He roared, shoving Tails roughly in his chair to get at the keyboard. The fox cried out, sniffing in indignation as he tried to squeeze past him to see what he was doing. “ And you’ve disabled the fail-safes? Do you have a death wish?”
Tails frowned, rolling his eyes slightly even as he fought down a wave of nausea. Sonic was supposed to speed them out of there long before the first set of explosions could go off, and they didn’t want to take the chance that Eggman would simply shut the sequence down in the interim. It was a good plan, one that had worked in the past, so it shouldn’t have been a problem. But this time…
“You still haven’t answered my question. What’s that thing doing to them?” He motioned to the dome where Metal and Sonic were trapped. The blaring sirens echoed off the sharp walls of the lab, heightening his anxiety. The window on the computer screen read 3:47:13…12…11…
“Not important right now.” His tone was strained, fingers typing away furiously on the keyboard. “Great. Now I’m going to have to abandon this project and start from scratch… what a pain.”
“Erm. Shouldn’t you be more worried about, y’know…” Tails frowned, watching him punch in commands. In seconds his question was answered, a small transport ship descending from the rafters. Right, of course.
Eggman stepped back from the console, climbing inside. “You know, you might’ve actually done me a favor. It would be pretty convenient if the blue rat went down with the base, heh.” The clock kept ticking. 2:37:29…28…27… “Though I can’t say I actually expect that to happen.” He grumbled, taking control of the ship. “Toodles!”
Tails groaned, burying his head in his hands. C’mon, Prower. Think. Think! There had to be a way out of this. Amy was distracted, Eggman was escaping, the clock was ticking down at less than a minute. He needed to think of something… anything to stop that powerful explosion.
Wait… power. That’s it!
He launched himself at the keyboard, typing furiously as the clock hit 30 seconds. He might not be able to stop the sequence, but he could pull the plug. Finally he found what he was looking for, only hesitating a second to press the last key. He only had one chance at this.
He hit the button with a bit more force than necessary, his whole body freezing in place in anticipation. At first, nothing happened… then all at once, everything stopped. The lights went out, taking the blaring sirens with them, plunging the whole base into darkness as even the hum of the console disappeared. He breathed, his whole body relaxing as he realized it worked.
He fished out his flashlight, turning it on and making his way over to where Amy stood panting, surrounded by Badnik scraps. She looked rattled, which was… understandable. “Did you— did you stop it?” She breathed, still clenching her hammer tight. “Gosh, it’s so dark…”
Tails nodded, turning his flashlight beam to the dome. “Yeah. I’m really glad I thought to cut the power. Otherwise…” He pressed a panel next to the door, but as expected, without electricity it was useless. “Sonic? Can you hear us in there?”
They waited, earning no response. Perhaps it was simply soundproof, but… “I’m going to smash a window.”
Tails nodded, stepping back and illuminating the nearest pane with his light. It took a surprising number of swings before the first cracks showed— wow, Eggman really wanted this thing to work, huh?
Finally she managed to make a hole big enough for them to crawl through. The inside was rather plain, his flashlight roaming over the smooth, paneled floor and the extinguished bulbs until at last it landed on a pair of crumpled forms.
“S-Sonic!” Amy gasped, running over and leaning down to check on him. Tails joined her, a bit nervous as his eyes kept flickering over to Metal Sonic. But luckily, he didn’t show any signs of stirring.
“He’s just out cold.” Amy breathed, sighing in relief. “Thank goodness. I—“ She looked up from Sonic, her eyes landing at last on Metal. His body was uncannily quiet, just as silent as the base. “Is that—“
“Tails?” The communicator on his hip crackled to life, broadcasting the voice of a Restoration member and startling the two of them. “Is everything okay? Local operatives say the base has gone totally silent. What happened to the self-destruct sequence?”
Tails picked up the communicator, holding it to his face. “Yeah— we’re okay.” He looked to Amy, who was slinging Sonic’s limp body over her shoulder. “We ran into a bit of a problem. Self-destruct had to be aborted, I’ll give the details when we get back to base.”
“Affirmative.” A pause. “Do you need transport?”
“That would be… appreciated.” Amy grunted, approaching the hole in the glass while dragging Sonic’s body. “Let the medic team know that we’ll be needing a bed, too.”