Back to Chapter 76

Enormous bursts of laser fire filled the sky. Tails yanked at the Tornado’s wheel, dodging and weaving in mid-air, but it was no good. A stray blast tore into the thrusters of the bi-plane and ripped them clean off. Sonic’s eyes widened as the force of the blast hurled him from the plane and onto a gantry atop the Wing Fortress. He turned to see Tails waving him on, “Go! Get him! I’ll be fine! I can fly, remember?! I’ll just have to time my jump carefully, that’s all…”

Sonic felt a pang of guilt. Despite Tails’ assertion that he would be fine, Sonic desperately wanted to rescue his friend. And, yet, there was nothing he could do but watch as the Tornado spiralled out of view beneath the clouds.

Robotnik’s voice crackled through the speaker, barking an order, “Balkiry Prime Badnik, your orders are to destroy that pitiful fox!”

Sonic could only watch as a huge Balkiry shot from the Wing Fortress and downwards in the direction of Tails. Now all Sonic could do was hope for the best.

Sonic stood up and walked forward a few paces. Suddenly, he found himself being flung through the air, as if on a catapult, as a mechanical device used to launch the Balkiry Badniks threw him across the back of the plane, before he crashed through a skylight and into an indoor section of the Wing Fortress itself. An undignified entrance to say the least but, if nothing else, in here he didn’t have to worry about an aerial assault- not even the Badniks would be so stupid as to fire on Robotnik’s own craft, even if their target was inside.

Sonic walked through the corridors of the Wing Fortress. Cream coloured walls over dark wooden trim and red carpets gave the place a sense of class that Sonic knew didn’t belong anywhere in connection with his least favourite despot. Regal portraits of Robotnik hung on the wall, no doubt produced by some sort of art-bot the lunatic had designed. Sonic didn’t necessarily know art, but he knew what he liked- and he hated this particular gallery. Worker drones occasionally buzzed back and forth but they seemed to be low level machines with no real artificial intelligence as they took no notice of Sonic. The maintenance of a structure like this obviously took a lot of man power- or droid power, as it was. Sonic was sure he spotted a robot wearing a chef’s hat and apron, presumably headed to the ship’s kitchens to prepare a feast for old lard-belly.

What attracted Sonic’s eye was a door marked “STRICTLY NO ENTRY – AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY” and bore an angry diagram of Robotnik’s face snarling. If Robotnik felt that strongly, clearly whatever was behind the door was important, which only made Sonic want to smash it more.

Suddenly, an egg hit Sonic in the back of the head, causing him to let out a cry of “Ouch!” Sonic looked to the floor and found the egg fully intact. Only it wasn’t an actual egg, it was more a sort of—

Whapp!

Another egg smacked into Sonic, this one hitting him in the arm. He was annoyed now. Turning in the direction of the shot, Sonic eyed a Chicken Badnik sat on (or, perhaps, in- it may not have had a lower half) a sort of podium turret, wearing a communication earpiece. “Orders received,” the Badnik noted, “Clucker unit engaging target”

The Badnik fired off a barrage of eggy bullets at Sonic, some of which hitting their target. It wasn’t especially easy for Sonic to avoid short-range fire in such an enclosed space. Forcing himself to focus, the bruised hedgehog caught one of the eggs out of the air, an angry look on his face. Winding up a shot, Sonic hurled the egg at the Badnik, with the ovoid bullet smashing through the robot’s cranium and blowing it apart.

“There’s egg on your face,” Sonic remarked to nobody in particular. He checked the broken husk of the Badnik for any prisoner. Nobody. Just a sentry. That was probably for the best, the last thing Sonic needed right now was a hostage situation when he held absolutely none of the bargaining chips.

Turning the wheel handle on the door, Sonic entered the room he was clearly not intended to enter. Inside, the surroundings were less ornate. Bare grey metal clanked underfoot as Sonic walked, matching the walls. Lights on computer boards blinked as the machines hummed and whirred and clicked quietly to themselves.

Sonic walked down a single step and pressed onward. Suddenly, with a loud hum, a wall of bright yellow light shot directly from the ceiling about twenty paces ahead of him- and a matching wall shone down a few steps behind him. A door down the far end swung open and Sonic could make out the cockpit of the plane. A familiar, fat figure walked up to Sonic with a grin.

“What’s the matter, spikeball?” Robotnik spat, “Can’t you read? Didn’t you see the sign? You’re not authorised personnel!”

“If you think this funny light show is going to stop me, Robotnik—” Sonic reached out for the mad would-be dictator but contact with the wall of light burned him, “EEYOW! …then… maybe you have a point”

“Oh, please, Sonic,” Robotnik shook his head, “We both know you’d find a way to escape this particular prison. I’m not so stupid as to think someone who’s managed to hand me three personal defeats is totally clueless”

“So, what, we just stand here until I get a bright idea and get out?”

“Oh, no, no, no! I stand here- and you get obliterated!”

A panel in the roof slid open revealing a circular glass that, if Sonic had to guess, probably operated similarly to the laser blaster atop the plane. Three spiked metal balls whizzed descended into the room.

“Of course,” Robotnik added, “I’d much rather you entertain me first! So dance for me, hedgehog! Or else the choice is simple; you can either get bashed by the spiked balls or you can get fried by the laser”

So it was a laser. Sonic tried to think of a way out of this one, but he found it hard to concentrate as he ducked and dived to avoid getting hit in the face by sharp metallic death. Without much in the way of warning, a blue light shot from the laser cannon and fired towards the ground for a sustained period of seconds before blinking off to recharge. If Sonic touched that, there’d be no coming back. In fact, there wouldn’t be much left of him to come back.

Robotnik laughed as Sonic ducked and weaved to avoid the assault from all sides. Here he was, with a front-row seat to the demise that persistent thorn in his side. This was going to feel good, Robotnik knew. The rest of the hedgehog’s little friends would be no match for his genius and would either allow themselves to serve in the new Robotnik era or else they too would be easily dispatched. Sonic had to tire eventually. And when he did, it was lights out for him- permanently.

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Sonic was tiring. He’d been on the go since the middle of the previous day and his body was beginning to feel the effects of that. He tried desperately to think of something but all he could see was either the blinding laser flash or the spiked spinning spheres.

The spheres!

How had he failed to notice it before?

The one place Robotnik had failed to put a spike on the spheres- was on their top!

Sonic was only going to get one chance at this as he knew Robotnik would probably activate another death trap if he suspected the hedgehog had a plan. Sonic tried to concentrate on the movement of the spheres as best he could, waiting for the laser to charge up but not waiting so long that it fired. The laser blinked- it was close to ready for another shot.

Fast as lightning, Sonic leapt atop the nearest sphere, then bounded from that to the next, then the third one- and from there, high towards the ceiling, colliding with the glass at the end of the laser turret. The glass shattered as Sonic made impact with it, spraying shards everywhere and, more importantly than that, shorting out the system. The spheres, evidently connected to the same system via computer control, fell harmlessly to the ground. Sonic dropped down too, landing safely, if a little out of breath.

And, yet, Robotnik wasn’t angry, “You really think you’ve won, don’t you? You think I’d stop at the skies above Mobius this time? No, hedgehog. I’ve aimed higher. So, so much higher”

With a laugh, Robotnik slid down a hidden compartment and out of view. Sonic looked around for a few moments before the wall of light shorted out and blinked off. With as much speed as he could muster, Sonic leapt into the compartment. Coming out on a narrow walkway, Sonic spotted to his horror Robotnik was in a cross-winged spacecraft, not unlike the ones from one of Sonic’s favourite movie series, Evil Emperor From Space. Of course, in those movies, the hero was the daring space pilot, rather than the titular emperor. Come to think of it, Robotnik looked a bit like the baddie.

“So long, Sonic!” Robotnik called from the cockpit of the spacecraft as the engines kicked in, “I’ve activated the Wing Fortress Zone’s self-destruct. So it looks like I win and it all ends here for you. Unless, of course, you’ve learned how to fly!”

The spacecraft took off, shooting upward with a tremendous noise, second only to the sound of Robotnik’s laughter. Sonic got a sinking feeling. The Wing Fortress Zone lurched horribly in the air. He was going down. This was the end.

“Sonic! Jump on!”

It was Tails! The Tornado roared through the sky!

Sonic leapt onto the wing, not a second to lose, “Tails! Am I glad to see you, pal! I thought that giant Balkiry came to get you?”

Tails raised an eyebrow with a cheeky smirk, “Where do you think I got the new jet engine?”

Sonic peered below and could just about make out an enormous thruster attached to the underside of the bi-plane, “You mean to say you beat that thing… then attached its thruster… while you were freefalling?!”

“Mid-air repairs aren’t my favourite kind, I’ll admit. But you can’t argue with results!”

“Tails, you’re brilliant! Think that thing’s gonna give us the extra oomph to catch fatso?”

“Take a look for yourself”

Sonic looked up ahead. Sure enough, they were gaining on Robotnik, who had somehow failed to notice he was being followed- of course, why would he think he would be?

“Tails, I don’t know much about engine maintenance,” Sonic admitted, “but I’m fairly sure the Tornado isn’t going to survive in deep space. Just draw me close and I’ll stow away on Robotnik’s ship. I’ll take it from there”

“Sonic… good luck”

“Hey, pal, thanks for everything,” Sonic gave Tails a thumbs-up.

Tails managed to draw level with Robotnik’s spaceship just as the Tornado began to judder, far beyond altitudes it was never designed for. Sonic’s heart stopped for a moment as he leapt for the spacecraft- and he grabbed on.

Sonic looked back as Tails gave him a salute and brought the Tornado down and out of sight.

As Robotnik’s ship reached the edge of space, Sonic opened an access hatch on the back of the craft and hid himself safely inside it. The air was thin this high up and it was about to be non-existent. Now Sonic had to wait for Robotnik to dock the ship… somewhere.

Sonic knew things were about to reach a new level of conflict, worse than anything he’d ever known. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes… and waited.

On to Chapter 78