Chaos Rising-Part 3 (Second Half)

Four minutes had passed since their last contact with General Prower. Tails and Nicole had finished every necessary adjustments and modifications to the Tornado, and still no word from the General. Sonic was outside, watching if the shield would be lowered. Tails was just sitting on the front seat of his plane, with the radio on his right hand, waiting for an answer. He tried to contact his father a couple of times, but the General didn’t answer “Miles!” Nicole called “We have a situation going on”

The cub jumped down from the plane and landed right before the lynx “What’s up?”

“Do you remember that Nanite replica that I made to help us escape?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“He is about to be brought before the Council”

“You kept him walking all this time?”

“Yes. I thought that if I undid him, that soldier might come searching for us and stop our work. I’m sorry, I should have accounted for the possibility of us not being able to leave the city earlier”

“Hey, it’s alright. I’m pretty sure he overheard me telling Sonic to meet us here. You did the right thing, so don’t beat yourself over it”

“Maybe so, but if the Council is calling for you they will have some questions, and they will want to hear coherent answers. If we leave your duplicate standing without saying a word it will give away that something is wrong”

“You’re right” he admitted while rubbing his chin, a sign that he was considering what to do next. “And we can’t undo him until the shield goes down, because if he just disappear…”

“…This will be the first place they’ll come looking for you” she finished the fox’s phrase

“Exactly” the fox replied “Which means we have to stall them, but how?”  Tails thought about it for a few seconds, and then a small plan came to him, one inspired by the radio he still held on his hand “Nicole, do you think you can reproduce my voice and facial movements in nanite me while we hear what he is hearing?”

She smiled “I can do better than that…” without warning her nanite body started to melt. That made Tails extremely worried for a second, until he saw the nanites that were previously making up Nicole’s body surround him. They began to adhere to his fur, making a thin nanite coat over his entire body, which changed to match Tails’ original appearance as they were fitting in place. They also entered inside his ears, and formed a purple visor over his eyes “Now you will be able to see, hear, speak, and control nanite Miles’ movements”

“Perfect! I think you’ve outdone yourself this time Nicole” he praised “Sonic! Can you come over here for a second!?” Tails yelled

“Coming kiddo” and in about a second Sonic was inside the workshop “What’s with the googles? Is it one of your gadgets, or is it a new fashion attempt?”

“Closer to the gadget, but it was made by Nicole not me. Anyway, I’ll be busy for some time, so could you hold the radio for me?”

“Sure thing little bro” he took the radio from Tails’ hand “I’ll go back outside to keep an eye on the shield”

“Thanks Sonic. Warn me as soon as you get any news” Tails requested, and Sonic nodded in accordance “Where is my copy right now?” he asked Nicole

“Right about to enter the Council Chamber, do you want me to establish the link now?”

“Yes”

“Very well. Keep in mind, once we are fully connected to your nanite version any movements you make will be reproduced by him. I suggest you stay away from anything that you might bump into”

“Got it” he said while walking away from the Tornado to an area inside his workshop with more free space “I’m ready”

“Starting link…now!” the purple visor started to glow, indicating that the connection was going as it should. At first all he could see was a projected blue screen divided by darker blue lines into a honeycomb-like pattern. In seconds the small hexagons began to fade.

Tails watched in pure amazement as each hexagon faded, revealing more details of the image that seemed to be hidden behind it. After only a few seconds he identified what it was, a hallway with a dual door in the end, from a place he had become all too familiar with in the past few months. The entrance to the Council Chamber

“Visual connection established” Nicole said when the entire video transmission came into focus “Initiating audio transmission” and soon he could hear it, the sound of footsteps, both from nanite Tails and from two Royal guards that were escorting him to the Council Chamber. The sound was as clear as if he was there himself, no, as clear as if he was his nanite counterpart “Audio transmission successful, delay of 0.02 seconds between the original sound and the reproduction. Delay within acceptable parameters. Preparing vocal and movement reproduction settings”

Tails observed astounded, he felt for a second as if he was no longer in his workshop, but inside the Acorn Castle “Good thing I moved to a plain area, I can’t see any of the workshop anymore” he said, sure that Nicole could still hear him

“If you need to stop the transmission for a moment to speak privately with me or Sonic you can press the button in the palm of your right hand.” she replied

He was about to ask ‘what button?’ when he felt the nanites rearranging in his right palm, forming at first just a bump, which then turned into the button she had mentioned “Copy that”

“Vocal and movement reproduction settings ready to engage, standing by for final authorization”

“Wait until he’s on the center of the room”

“Understood”

The dual doors were opened by the Royal guards that were accompanying him. As he stepped into the chamber he noticed that his scout stayed outside. Inside the six Councilors plus King Naugus were all seated. The fox was greeted with a series of stares, each of them seemingly demonstrating some sort of feeling. Penelope Platypus and Dylan, the porcupine, looked in a rather curious fashion. Hamlin, as expected, glared angrily at him. Rosemary and Rotor’s eyes sparkled with happiness and relieve to see Tails safe and sound, especially Rosemary’s. Sir Charles was unreadable; Tails simply couldn’t tell what message the elder hedgehog was trying to send “If any” the cub remarked mentally. Last but not least, Naugus had a whole expression of amusement in his face, something that said ‘My, my…look who we have here.’ He heard the wooden doors closing behind him, and when he was close enough to the center he decided it was time “Engage the final settings Nicole”

“Vocal and movement reproduction initiating in three, two, one…” and after the ‘one’ nanite Tails stopped dead on his tracks, now he would only move at Tails’ command

“Miles…are you alright?” Rosemary asked, tears of relief preparing to stream down her face

“I’m fine mom” he replied with a smile “So, to what do I owe this meeting?”

“I believe you already know why you are here young Prower” Naugus answered

“I’ll concede you this much young Prower. You were right about Robotnik’s retaliation, and that our outposts did little more than give us a warning about the incoming threat. That being said, the Council never authorized Nicole’s release” Hamlin said

“Are you accusing me of something Councilman Hamlin?” it was a pathetic question. Obviously Hamlin was accusing him of helping Nicole escape, but then again he was only worried about stalling the Council. Whatever could buy him even a few seconds was fair game as far as he was concerned

“Don’t play dumb with me, boy. The private that scouted you back to the Castle told us where you and Sonic were found. It is more than obvious that you helped Nicole to break out of her custody” the pig informed

“Is it? What if I told you I had nothing to do with it?”

“Then I would say you are a lousy liar” Hamlin replied “Did you think you could simply do as you please? Just because you were right about Robotnik it doesn’t put you in a position above the law!”

Before Tails could reply in any way Sir Charles spoke “With all due respect, Councilman Hamlin, we agreed to talk to Miles so that he could explain himself, but all you seem to be doing is throwing an angry rant at him. What we really should be asking is why did he do it?” Sir Charles turned his head towards Tails “Miles, we all know you did it, and I would like to ask you not to deny it. You also knew we had an eye on Nicole at all times, and that there was no way you could cover her escape, so why? And why in the middle of an enemy attack of all times?” that was the perfect opportunity for Tails to take the lead

Tails gave Sir Charles a smile, one that said ‘Thank you.’ The elder hedgehog nodded in response, his nod saying ‘You are welcome.’ The fox clenched his hands together behind his back, careful not to press the button in the palm of his right hand “I went to ask Nicole for help…” Tails started explaining his plan. He told them about how they broke into the eggfleet’s mainframe, and that given enough time they might have been able to stop the attack altogether. He mentioned the power outage in the HQ and briefly went over the SWATbots attack, as the deduced the latter had probably been talked about by the soldier that took him to the castle.

“Intriguing” King Naugus commented while rubbing his chin

“Regardless of your plans, your methods are not excused” Hamlin said “The laws are here for a reason, and we won’t start making exceptions to anyone, especially not a kid who thinks he knows best just because he is part of a resistance group that is on the verge of being completely disbanded”

A noise sounded, someone rising from a seat, so unexpected that it drew everyone’s attention towards the source of the disturbance. It was Councilman Rotor Walrus. He was up and not even trying to hide how annoyed and angry he was, he couldn’t even if he wanted to. Hamlin had always been a huge pain in the neck to deal with on a daily basis, but this time he went too far for Rotor’s taste “You speak as if the Freedom Fighters were nothing! Let me remind you that they are directly responsible for you being here in the first place. If that wasn’t enough you try to debase Tails! ‘A kid who thinks he knows best’?! He has been part of the Freedom Fighters his whole childhood. He has been fighting in this war for years, and he proved himself over and over. He has more experience than you want to admit, and his word has a lot more weight than you care to acknowledge!” he sat down during the brief moment of silence that followed. Everyone seemed shocked, some more than others, but Rotor didn’t care if he had damaged his image with that outburst or not. He was very satisfied with himself, and for now that was all he cared about.

It took Hamlin a while to recollect his thoughts, but he eventually spoke again “I never meant to diminish the importance of the Freedom Fighters, if that’s what you are thinking Councilman Rotor. All I said is that it seems to me that being a part of that group made young Prower believe he can use any means he sees fit in order to accomplish what he wants”

“I think all of us want this situation to end well Hamlin, not just him. As for his methods, they are not much, if at all, different from those that the Freedom Fighters used. I don’t recall you ever complaining about how we handled things when you were part of the team, or did you forget you were a Freedom Fighter yourself?”

“Tails!” Sonic screamed

“What is it Sonic?” the fox asked. His heart skipped when he noticed he forgot to press the button, which meant nanite Tails made that same question in the Council’s Chamber. Thankfully he had asked in a relatively low voice, and due to Hamlin and Rotor’s discussion no one was paying attention to him.

“It’s your father he said it was urgent” This time he remembered to press the button, he walked towards Sonic and grabbed the radio from the hedgehog’s hands “How is it going…whatever you are doing?”

“You mean my conversation with the Council? It started normal but things are kind of heating up”

“Is that what you were doing?”

“Miles can you hear me?!”

“Yes I hear you dad”

“I’ve talked to the rest of the High Command. They approved of your participation, but you have to leave now! They will lower the city’s shield, but only for a few minutes”

“Got it, we’ll leave in a minute” he handed the radio back to sonic “I’ll finish my audience with the Council, can you start the Tornado for me?” Sonic nodded and turned to the plane’s direction. The fox pressed the button on his right palm again, the image quickly shifted from his friend walking towards the Tornado back to the Council’s Chamber

“That’s enough, both of you! We are not here to listen to your petty discussion. If you wish to settle your differences of opinion do it another time!” Naugus scalded, finally settling Rotor and Hamlin’s little dispute

“Well I would love to stay and talk until morning, but plan B demands my attention. If you will excuse me I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“You must be joking, this session is far from over and even if it was you are not leaving this Castle until Robotnik’s army has been driven back” Hamlin said

Tails gave the comment a small chuckle “Is that so? Tell me, how do you intend to keep me from leaving the Castle…when I never set foot inside of it in the first place?” he asked, but did not wait for a reply “Nicole, please undo nanite Tails now” and in a matter of seconds the duplicate’s structure began to break down

“What is the meaning of this!?” Hamlin demanded at the top of his voice, and that was the last thing Tails heard from inside the Council’s chamber before his substitute was fully reduced from a perfect replica of himself to a green pile of functionless nanites

The purple visor faded away, the cub heard the loud sound of the Tornado’s engine being turned on “Come on Tails! We don’t have all day” Sonic yelled while hopping to the back seat

“I’m coming!” Tails flew his way towards the plane and landed on the front seat The fox pulled Nicole's console from inside his left glove and connected it to the Tornado “Upload yourself Nicole, we're leaving” he said, and the plane began to move.

*************************************************************************************

Soon they were airborne and heading south where the fleet awaited. “Miles what's your status?” Amadeus asked through the radio

“We are already flying towards the edge of the city”

“Good. Listen, you have to be out of the city before they re-raise the shield. Once it’s up, it won’t go down until the end of the assault”

“How long do I have?”

“If you keep heading south towards the fleet you should have plenty of time.”

“Got it. Out of curiosity. How did you convince the High Command to accept my assistance so quickly? I thought they would be a little more reluctant about sending a kid to the fleet”

“They don’t know. All I told them was that you were a special agent who I trust and who’s assistance I personally requested”

“They didn’t ask any questions?”

“They did ask who you were and how I got in touch with you. I told them they would probably not know you by name, and that how I got in contact with you was a long story better left for after the attack. Their main concern was your plan, and whether or not you could pull it off, but just the fact that I trusted you to get the job done was enough for them”

“I’m surprised they accepted those answers. No offense dad, but they sound vague at best.”

“Heh…I would be lying if I said my reputation didn’t help.” That was an understatement and he knew it. Under the same set of circumstances, any other general who attempted to persuade the High Command into accepting such a plan via radio like he did would have failed.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“I think you’re all set to go. I’ll tell them to lower the shield now”

“Thank you dad”

“Good luck son”

Once the shield was down it wasn’t long until they were outside of New Mobotropolis. Short after, the shield was raised again. They flew in silence for the first five minutes, until a loud motor noise from below attracted their attention. Sonic looked down, and even though they were flying considerably high, he could clearly see a vehicle. It moved on a pair of tank treads, and had a giant metal drill on the front “Not good”

“What is it?”

“It’s a drill, and it’s heading towards the city”

“You sure about this?”

“Yes”

Tails took the radio to warn his father “Dad, Sonic just spotted a drill heading towards New Mobotropolis”

There was no answer “The radio is too weak to pass through the shield” Nicole informed

“I was afraid of that” the fox put the radio away “We have to do something”

“Like what?” Sonic asked

“The Tornado is loaded with two missiles. Nicole, did you happen to download anything about ground vehicles?”

“No Miles, and I have to advise you against attacking it. Even if you destroy it, you will throw our cover away. That would reduce our chances of success to nearly zero”

It was hard to accept, but she was right. Sabotaging the fleet was their priority “Let’s hope Robotnik will turn away after we are done with his fleet” he said bitterly

10 minutes later they reached what looked like a wall of smoke, consequence of the fire originated from the destruction of the outposts. The flames were burning wildly, spreading freely across the forest below. They couldn’t see past the smoke, but they knew all too well what awaited behind.

They flew into it. Both the hedgehog and the fox holding their breaths to avoid inhaling the smoke. When they came out of it, they saw the eggfleet. Hundreds of ships, shaped in all kinds of sea creatures. As Nicole said, the majority of them were considerably small, the interceptors were about the Tornado’s size. They could see the capital ships from a distance, all of them seemed to be based on killer whales, with the exception of one. They couldn’t quite define which creature was being represented, but just the difference in design made it obvious that it was Robotnik’s flagship. “Is the ID code working?” Tails asked while raising the Tornado’s altitude to prevent any possibility of eye from Robotnik when they got closer to his ship

“We are broadcasting it, and since we haven’t been fired upon yet I would say it is working properly. I can’t vouch for how long it will work though” Nicole replied

“Let’s make this quick then. I don’t know about you two, but I don’t feel like running all the way to the city under SWATbot fire…again” Sonic said

Tails dismissed the comment with a grin, which Sonic never actually got a chance to see. As they got closer to the capital ships they started to make out the shape of the one different ship. It was gigantic. Tails guessed that the entire ship’s length could match New Mobotropolis’ diameter. The very front of the dark-blue ship was shaped in what seemed like the head of a leviathan. It had a metallic mouth filled with teeth, but whether it could actually open or was just there for a matter of aesthetic was unclear. Above the mouth was a presumably thick glass window that went all the way from one corner of the head to the other. Though they couldn’t see the inside through it, it was safe to assume that behind it was the bridge of the ship. There were four metal wings coming out of the ship’s serpent like body, two pointing upwards, and two pointing downwards. As they moved even closer they could see that the head area was protected by five heavy turrets, two on each sides of the head and one on the top of it. There were countless other turrets which seemed to be placed randomly around the whole ship. The very back was where the ship was wider. Five thrusters were used to propel the ship forward, and though they didn’t see it there were plenty more on the lower part of the ship to keep it stationary in the air like it was at the moment. “What on Mobius is that?”

“Robotnik’s flagship I believe” Sonic stated

“This must have taken an eternity to finish” Tails mentioned

“It is not finished yet. According to the data I gathered from it, the Egg-Leviathan is still missing one third of its defensive turrets”

“They still have enough of them to tear us to bits. I’m glad we are not trying to take it down conventionally” the twin tailed fox said, while secretly hoping that they were high enough that Robotnik wouldn’t see them

“Likewise” Nicole agreed

“Are we close enough yet?”

“Negative. We’ll probably need to be about three hundred meters from the bridge or less in order to get a good signal for what we are trying to do”

“Alright, just tell me when we are close enough” as they were almost above the dreadnought, Tails noticed something rather strange. The hull looked oddly irregular. Most of it was fine, but in some areas the plating seemed thinner than others. Some parts were painted while others weren’t. There was even a part of the ship that had an only half-painted red symbol of the Eggman Empire “He rushed this ship more than I thought” Tails told himself

“That’s it, we are in range” the Lynx informed. Tails immediately started flying in circles above the ship. Always with an eye on the massive battleship below, more specifically at its turrets “What!?”

“What is it Nicole?”

“I don’t know, the systems they are…That’s not good they are cutting me off of it!”

“Do you need my help?”

“There’s nothing either of us can do. The system is going into lockdown”

“Can’t you do anything?” Sonic asked

“No, we are completely blocked. Miles I’m sorry” she apologized in a very depressing tone “We have to get out of here before…”

“Calm down, we can still do this”

“No we can’t! Didn’t I just tell you? Everything is locked, there is no way to access anything”

“Not from the outside”

“Wait, you are not saying…”

“Tails, little bro. What are you thinking in that head of yours?”

“Nicole, where is the best spot to blow a hole to the inside of this ship?”

“The plating is too thick, your missiles won’t leave a scratch on it, let alone a hole”

“There has to be a soft spot somewhere. I’ve been paying attention to the hull, it’s incomplete”

“This is a terrible idea”

“I know, but we are out of options. Unless the Royal Army has a super weapon hidden somewhere they don’t stand a chance. If we fail now, New Mobotropolis is history!”

She hesitated, but he was right. That metal beast below them alone would be trouble enough for the city, if the whole fleet made it to the city in addition to the robot army on the ground, it would more than likely be the end of it all “Give me a second to go over the schematics again” she analyzed the whole ship, looking inch by inch for any weaknesses. After thirty painfully tense seconds she found it “Ok, remember those missing turrets I mentioned?”

“Yes”

“The areas where they were supposed to be attached are about the thinnest parts of the ship. Somewhere on the side of the Egg-Leviathan to your right, there should be a couple of the most unfinished attachment points. Some of them just have more metal plates behind them, but there is one that leads to a hallway big enough for the Tornado to enter. If there is any place where your missiles might be effective, it’s there”

“Got it”

“I really hope you know what you are doing” Sonic said in a rather nervous voice

“We’ll find out soon, enough. For now, just buckle up. This isn’t gonna be my smoothest landing” the Tornado descended to Tails’ right side. He started looking for the weak points Nicole had indicated. He found the first one fairly close to the front “Is that the one?”

“No, the one we want is closer to the middle. There should only be one there, so you will know when you see it” she answered

“Ok” They kept going. Tails was getting more worried with each passing second. They had blocked Nicole, if they started looking for anomalies and found them they wouldn’t have any hope of escaping, not this close to the turrets. Finally, after what felt like an eternity they reached the middle of the ship, and just like he had been told, it was there. The only one in that region, and much for his dread, there were three turrets in its vicinity, one above, another below, and the other one was in alignment with the weak spot, but farther back.

“You probably already know this, but if this works you will have to enter in an angle. Otherwise we’ll just crash in the corridor’s wall” Nicole informed

“Understood” Tails prepared the missiles for launching. He turned away from the giant aircraft to get some more distance. The fox was sweating bullets. If he fired too close, he wouldn’t have enough time to adjust his plane to the hole. On the other hand, if he fired too far away, the nearby turrets would turn and fire upon the Tornado. He had to be extremely careful. He turned back towards the ship. He aimed. His finger was already on the red button that would fire the missiles. The cub’s heart was beating against his chest as though it was trying to jump out of his body. He had one shot. As soon as he fired there would be no going back.

To be continued…