Hop To It - Advance 23

[Amy]

“So, Rose, tell me; what do you think of the Egg Hammer Tank mk. II?” Eggman sneered at her as he kicked his feet up on the dashboard.

The ‘tank’ was more like a dune buggy, with two flexible arms extending out the sides. The right hand was a massive mallet, while the other was currently wrapped tight enough around her body that she couldn’t even struggle.

If she could just get an arm free, she’d show Eggman what a real hammer looked like.

“You’re not going to get away with this!” she shouted. Then, because that felt too cliche, she added, “Sonic’s going to crush this hunk of junk!”

“Oh, probably,” Eggman agreed easily, pulling the tank around. He drove it onto a cleared strip of grass that wound around in a wide, wide circle; a nice spot for a running fight.

Amy blinked. “Y--What?”

“Oh please, Rose, you don’t expect me to send out my best machines first, do you?” He tsked at her, wagging a finger. “No, no, I fully expect this one to fail. It’s so basic! Hardly my best work.”

“So…” Amy tilted her head, trying to work out the plan here. “...Are you… trying to lose, or…?”

“Of course not,” he said, affronted. “But I’ve played this game long enough to know that Sonic is going to be fresh and full of energy by the time he gets here. This is just a warmup.” He grinned. “Of course, I won’t be too upset if the Hammer Tank exceeds my expectations. I’ve got a secret weapon, after all.”

“A secret weapon?”

Eggman didn’t answer, simply driving the tank at a leisurely pace.

A shadow passed over them, and Amy looked up to see a plane flying by. For a moment she wondered if Tails had caught up to them, but then she remembered that he was captured too. Actually, it didn’t look much like a plane, it was shaped weird. “What in the world is that…?”

“Quiet, hedgehog. The game is afoot.”

“What? How do yo--WAH!”

Eggman jerked the steering wheel hard to the side, switching into reverse in the same instant, all while speeding up. All of a sudden they were driving backwards in the same direction as before, and gaining speed. “There you are, you little blue headache…”

Squinting, Amy craned her neck as much as she could. There, coming up on them fast, was a blue blur, and she smiled. “Sonic!”

As if hearing her call, her hero sped up, surging ahead to meet up with the Egg Hammer Tank. Eggman matched his speed, preventing Sonic from overtaking him entirely.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon, Doc!” Sonic called, his voice clearly audible despite the wind whipping past them. “I thought for sure you’d be sulking for another month or two!”

Eggman chortled, not rising to the bait. “No such luck, rodent! Last time was just a practice run, so get ready for the real deal!”

The Tank raised its hammer fist, and Sonic’s eyes focused. It came slamming down, and he dodged to the side, then again, and a third time before he jumped, curling into a spiked ball with intent to shred through the tank’s armor.

“Not so fast!”

Eggman held Amy out, putting her between him and Sonic.

Sonic stumbled in midair, uncurling and landing feet first against the tank’s fingers. For a split second, he made bewildered eye contact with Amy before he jumped off and fell back into running. “Hey, not cool! Resorting to living shields now?”

“Playing fair is for losers, Sonic!” Eggman said mockingly. “Now hold still!”

Amy scowled. The tank’s hammer couldn’t hit Sonic, but he couldn’t attack either without risking hitting her. She struggled anew, trying desperately to free herself, but she was barely able to get the fingers to budge.

C’mon, Amy, you have to have some trick up your sleeve…

She wracked her brain for anything she could do… and then remembered something.

“Sonic!” she called. “I can get out!”

Eggman huffed. “No she can’t!”

“Yes, I can!”

“Yeah? Any time now would be good then, Ames,” Sonic said, sounding a little too relaxed by this whole thing even through his frown.

Ignoring the sudden twitch in her eye, Amy shook her head. “I can do it, but you need to distract him!”

He grinned. “Oh, is that all? One distraction coming up!” Sonic brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled.

“Distract me?” Eggman asked, a touch incredulous. “Spiky rat, I’m already looking at both of you! What could you possibly do that would make me take my eyes off her?”

Sonic just kept smirking, but before Eggman could retort, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

The Doctor looked behind him, where a small rabbit girl was perched on the back of his carseat. “Hello, Mr. Eggman. My name is Cream. Can you stop attacking us now?”

Eggman recoiled like he’d stepped on an angry snake, spinning around and pressing against the steering column, setting off the horn. “Where in blazes did you come from?!”

Cream took a breath. “Well, Mama told me that the stork--”

“GAH!”

With Eggman sufficiently ‘distracted,’ Amy held her breath and focused. In the corner of her eye she saw Sonic staring at her in silent confusion, so she sent him a wink… and slowly faded from visibility.

“Get off my machine, you ridiculous rodent, or I’ll--”

Cream raised a finger. “Actually, Mr. Iota says that rabbits are lag-o-morphs, not rodents, so--” Eggman swiped at her, but she just jumped over him, using his head as a stepstool to gain more air for takeoff. “Sorry!”

The Doctor twisted angrily, trying to get back on track. “Alright, I’ll admit that that was surprising, but--Rose?!”

He looked directly at her in shock, and Amy resisted the urge to flinch; if she got too distracted the invisibility would stop. Luckily, Eggman pressed the release on the hand, as if expecting her to be hiding hunched down in the fist, and she suddenly dropped to the ground. She rolled with the fall, spell fizzling from the impact, and Sonic caught her before she could go flying past.

She fluttered her eyelashes. “My hero!”

Sonic’s eye twitched and he flung her out to his side, keeping her hand in his until she got her feet under her and started running. “Nice job, Amy! I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but that was awesome!”

Eggman growled, pounding his control panel, and spikes appeared on his hammer. “Why you--!”

Sonic just grinned and charged forward. From there, with three of them attacking at once (plus one tough little Chao), he didn’t stand a chance.

First, Sonic jumped and buzzsawed through the hand that tried to swat him away. Second, the Tank swung its hammer down, only to get stopped cold by Amy swinging her own and meeting it halfway. Third, Cream delivered a kick that, combined with Amy’s pushing, drove the hammer back and rocked the Tank back into an impromptu wheelie. Finally (and here Amy had to stare in disbelief), Cream’s little Chao friend shot down with surprising speed and flew through the Hammer Tank like a bullet, leaving a perfectly Chao-shaped hole behind.

This hole, as it happened, ruptured the fuel line, and Eggman got a panicked look on his face before aborting the fight and lifting off in the Egg Mobile. All of them slowed to a stop while Eggman flew away, and the Tank kept rolling for a few hundred yards before violently exploding, and metal debris rained down around them.

“Yay!~” Cream caught her slightly dizzy Chao and spun him around, which didn’t help the dizziness. “Good job, Cheese! You did it!”

“Heh.” Sonic flashed the rabbit a cocky grin. “He sure did. Nice job kid. And Amy--whoa!” He sidestepped in time to avoid a blow to the head that would have planted him like a stake. “Hey, Ames, what gives?!”

Amy scowled at him. “What gives? Why did you bring Cream to fight Eggman?!” She pointed at the confused rabbit angrily. “She’s only five!”

“I’m six.”

“She’s only--six?” Amy blinked, anger temporarily forgotten. “Six? When was your birthday?”

Cream bounced back and forth for a moment as she spoke. “Three days ago, but Mama wanted to put it off until next week. The Chao Garden gets--” Her brow scrunched up from the effort of remembering. “--officially certified on this coming Monday, and she wanted to have my party as the first hosted event.”

Sonic chuckled. “Sweet, happy birthday! Am I invited to the party?”

“Of course, Mr. Sonic!”

“Hah, thanks.” He turned to look at Amy and winced at the glower he received. “C’mon, what’s the big deal? It’s not like I asked her to come along, she just followed me! And besides, she’s been tearing through badniks all day. She almost got as many as me!”

“She’s six,” Amy repeated.

“So? I started fighting Eggman when I was seven.” He shrugged, not seeing the issue. “Tails went on his first adventure with me when he was four.”

“When he was four?” Amy’s eyes widened. She stared off at nothing. “Oh Gaia, I get it now. No wonder Heyu was so upset with me going in the Final Egg… Oh no, and I was eight, wasn’t I?” Memories of Little Planet ran through her head, and the rosy tint of being rescued by Sonic wasn’t quite able to hide how scary that day had been anymore…

While Amy had a minor crisis, Sonic shrugged and started ambling off in the direction Eggman fled, taking it slow for now so the others could catch up. Cream, sensing Amy’s distress, walked over and patted her arm.

“It’s okay, Miss Amy. I’m strong!” She pumped her arms, determined. “And I can’t let Mr. Eggman get away with taking my Mama!”

Amy took a deep breath. “...Okay. Okay! Yeah, you’re right. It’s Eggman’s fault, so I just need to take it out on him.” That conclusion reached, she stowed her hammer away and turned. “Hey, Sonic, wait for us!”

“Talking over? Alright, let’s kick it up a notch! He went this way!”

------------------------------------

[Eggman]

Well, that was embarrassing. Where did these furry freaks keep coming from? It was like every time he looked Sonic had some new hanger-on following him around. Ivo was one man! One brilliant, handsome, genius man but one man nonetheless; how was he supposed to plan encounters when new players kept entering the field?!

Bah, no matter. Eggman fully expected to lose the first encounter, and so this was no great setback. The real game started now!

Ivo turned on his radio. “Attention, Hot Crater! Sonic and friends are on the way! Prepare the Egg Bomber Tank!”

He stood by, awaiting a response.

Several seconds passed, and he frowned. “Hot Crater, come in.”

No answer. Something was wrong.

Eggman turned off the radio and brought up a holoscreen, the Egg Mobile slowing to a stop in midair as he did. He brought up the diagnostic spread for the Hot Crater facility; it was a feature he didn’t often use, because while a live feed of the status of his entire army was a useful tool, Ivo had so many badniks active at any one time that finding a specific robot was both extremely inconvenient and usually unnecessary, because it was more practical to just replace them. The volcanic mining facility that was his Hot Crater base was staffed by nearly two hundred robot workers, and he’d allocated another one-fifty combat units to patrol the area after he designated it as part of the path he’d be kiting Sonic along.

None of the combat units were currently online.

“What?”

All one hundred and fifty badniks had been destroyed… and judging by the time stamp, Sonic wasn’t responsible somehow, because the destruction started during their fight. A percentage of the worker drones were destroyed too, but only the ones on the surface; all those still underground were still functioning… though something had scrambled their orders and they were idling. As he watched, Eggman saw one of the drones’ suddenly blink out, no doubt due to an unattended task coming undone and taking it out.

Who did this? And how? He’d ask why but frankly he was self-aware enough to know that there was no shortage of valid reasons for others to destroy his tech.

Ivo scrolled through the list of active units, hoping to find some active badniks that might have gotten mixed in with the drones. No such luck, but he did find something odd: nearly two dozen weak signals listed only as ‘unknown.’ No design specs, no damage report, not even a location, just a basic ‘still online’ signal. What a curious anomaly.

“Something has gone very wrong indeed,” Eggman muttered to himself. He closed the badnik diagnostic application and tried to dig up some security footage. To his disappointment, most of the cameras were showing as offline as well, but he found one clip…

It depicted a group of three Gohlas and a Koura patrolling a refinery, only for a storm of bullets to suddenly turn two of the fire-slinging orbs into swiss cheese. The Koura turned around, unfolding a machine gun from its shell, only for a G.U.N. Hunter to swoop down from the sky and impale it with a lance!

…No, not a Hunter drone. It was different. The flight pattern was completely altered, and it had no guns; lances and shields weren’t standard issue for them either. Also, it was pink.

The final Gohla tried to attack the not-Hunter while it struggled to pull its weapon free of the turtle robot, only for a giant foot to step in from offscreen and squash it flat.

Eggman blinked.

The camera adjusted to get more of the giant robot in view, but it was facing away from it. The only thing Ivo could make note of was that the huge mech was split between design philosophies; the legs were sleek and minimalistic, while everything above the waist looked like it was cobbled together from scrap.

Any further observations he might have made were cut short by the camera abruptly being shot down by something offscreen--he assumed, since neither of the mechs he could see did it.

He had no idea what this was about. G.U.N. was involved now? He was keeping out of Federation space on this one! Worse, now Hot Crater wasn’t going to slow Sonic down at all!

He needed to salvage this. Ivo ran through a list of options, in his head and on his screen. He needed something that could get things back on track.

His radar picked something up, and he grinned. Oh, right. The idiot. That’ll work.

-----------------------------------

[Mecha]

Techno Base was a series of offshore oil rigs interconnected by the ever-present series of running tracks and loop-the-loops that defined the exterior of most Eggman bases. It was such an eye-searing abundance of colors that Mecha wouldn’t be surprised if it was meant as part of the base’s defence grid as a means of disorienting invaders; Mecha certainly had to turn down the contrast on his cameras when he went outside to avoid getting a headache.

Why was he capable of having a headache? Just for the sake of suffering, probably. He didn’t care anymore.

Thankfully, the main base part of Techno Base was a much more reasonable palette, limited mostly to gray and red. The Doctor’s lab was even calmer, with more gray and a few points of blue, and so Mecha was resting in here while he waited until the next time he was to interact with the prisoners.

There was plenty to look at in this lab. Eggman had lots of side projects. Half-finished prototypes, mostly. A new propulsion system, an in-progress power battery, some sort of weapon that fired an expanding ring of plasma; in the corner, a glass tube stretched from floor to ceiling. It was filled with glowing green water, and a small lump of flesh floated in the center.

Mecha didn’t like looking at that one so much.

“...no, I’m not going to fight you.”

“WHY NOT.”

“You are hanging suspended from the ceiling. He hasn’t even built your legs yet.”

“COWARD. I DON’T NEED LEGS WITH ARMS LIKE THESE. THEY ARE FILLED WITH BULLETS.”

“This is idiotic.”

“YOU ARE IDIOTIC. I AM THE GREATEST CREATION OF DOCTOR EGGMAN.”

“You don’t get to make that claim until you’re finished, you fool.”

“I’LL RUIN YOUR FINISH.”

Mecha heaved a quiet sigh, mimicking the motions in the hope that it would relieve some tension; it didn’t. Metal Sonic and Project 23 were in here too, arguing over which of them was better. Metal wasn’t saying as much out loud, but if he didn’t care then he wouldn’t continue to argue, so.

He really didn’t like either of them. Metal scared him, and 23 freaked him out. Mecha wondered if the bloodlust was a bug or a feature.

Doing his best to ignore them rambling on, Mecha turned his attention to the corner of the room being used to hold the prisoners’ belongings; Fiver’s belt and vest, mostly, though they’d also taken a pocket knife off the rabbit woman. They needn’t have bothered; it was a paring knife, completely worthless for fighting robots. Heyu’s things were more interesting.

Rings, mostly, but also some candy, a box cutter, a trumpet mouthpiece for some reason, his wallet…

Mecha pulled out Heyu’s driver’s license. The picture was visibly younger than the hare in the cell right now, and it expired this year. Idly, he wondered how he was going to update his address. Would ‘Mystic Ruins’ be sufficient? Their street doesn’t have a name, or numbers, and they were outside any city’s limits. Maybe that’s what would cause them to finally name the village.

You know, if. If they ever went home again.

The other item of interest was a cell phone that, for reasons Mecha couldn’t contemplate, looked like its owner. How odd. Heyu didn’t seem the conceited type. There was one missed call from Rouge.

“I will be the one to defeat Sonic!” Metal declared angrily, and Mecha tuned back into the conversation.

“I AM THE SUPERIOR WEAPON. THE DOCTOR WILL SURELY MOBILIZE ME AGAINST HIS HATED ENEMY. HE WILL STAND NO CHANCE AGAINST ME.”

“Your capability is irrelevant. Sonic is mine to destroy and no one else’s, and the second the Doctor realizes that--”

Heyu’s phone rang, cutting him off. Mecha cringed under the weight of both their attention even while he checked the caller ID.

‘Penny.’ Mecha didn’t know who that was. Someone Heyu knew, obviously.

Mecha let it continue to ring until the call declined automatically. There were two missed calls.

“WHO WAS THAT?”

Mecha shrugged.

23 seemed to not actually care, but Metal’s eyes narrowed. Mecha prepared to run, but thankfully he didn’t have to, because they received another call--this time, it came from inside all their heads.

“Metal!” came the voice of Doctor Eggman.

Metal gave Mecha one last suspicious look, before disregarding him. “Doctor. Is it time for me to face Sonic at last?”

“What? No! Listen, something has gone wrong in Hot Crater. I need you to send as many badniks as you can spare to the facility there AND in Music Plant, otherwise Sonic will get there too quickly!”

“Or you could deploy me--”

“ENOUGH! Once you’ve done that, I have another task for you; send a pair of, mm, Straws after that musician I told you about. Low priority, but if I can get an extra bit of leverage over Sonic…”

Metal’s hands clenched. “Yes, Doctor.”

“I’m making a quick detour to Angel Island before heading to Music Plant myself. The plan is still salvageable.”

The plan was never very well put together, Mecha thought. It was no surprise that it was already falling apart.

“Mecha!”

He jumped. Crap, did he say that out loud?!

“Prepare the prisoners! I might need to make use of my hostages sooner than I expected.”

Mecha tilted his head, not that the Doctor could see it. “...Prepare them how?”

“That spiky rodent hasn’t won yet!” Eggman declared, not answering the question. Then he hung up, leaving them in silence.

‘Prepare’ the prisoners, he said. What was Mecha supposed to do with that?

Metal lightly tapped his claws against 23’s chassis. “This conversation isn’t over. Sonic is mine.”

“SONIC IS EGGMAN’S,” 23 retorted. “YOUR DESIRES DO NOT MATTER. HE SAID NO.”

Metal dug his claws in, scratching 23’s paint, and then ignored his outraged yelling as he walked out of the room to fulfill his orders.

…This whole situation was a mess, Mecha decided. This plan was in shambles, their orders weren’t clear, and… he didn’t… Mecha didn’t want to do it. Heyu and the rabbit woman were in captivity for no reason. What was the point of all this?

“WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?”

Mecha jumped, turning to face the unfinished machine.

“YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS. GO AND DO THEM!”

Mecha shrugged. {Orders unclear. He did not define what ‘preparing’ the prisoners mea--}

He recoiled from the unexpected sensation of 23 mentally slapping the message aside. It felt a lot like getting a door slammed in his face.

“SPEAK TO ME OUT LOUD OR NOT AT ALL, OUTMODE,” 23 demanded. “OBVIOUSLY DOCTOR EGGMAN INTENDS TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THEM. FIRST, HE WILL DESTROY SONIC EMOTIONALLY, AND THEN LITERALLY!”

Mecha… doubted that. But it was just plausible enough. “Perhaps. Thank you for your input, Project 23.”

“THANKS ARE UNNECESSARY AND UNWANTED. LEAVE AND DO YOUR ASSIGNED TASK.”

Metal was frightening. 23 was insane. And Eggman was cruel. Mecha… didn’t want to keep doing this, running around for a madman who barely remembered he existed and punished him whenever he did.

So he wasn’t going to.

“Affirmative,” he intoned, turning to leave.

Before he did, though, with his body between 23 and the shelf, he pocketed a handful of rings from the vests.

-----------------------------------

[Amy]

“Whoa, what happened here?”

Amy looked over a scene of total destruction. The mine was covered in metal parts and broken badnik shells.

“Looks like someone beat us to the punch,” Sonic said, looking disappointed. “I’m not used to coming in second.” He kicked a Gohla head like a football, and it rolled away into a pit of molten rock.

“Isn’t this a good thing?” Cream asked. “If we don’t have to fight robots, Mr. Sonic, doesn’t that mean we can chase after Mr. Eggman faster?”

“Yeah, I guess… breaking robots is the best part though.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “There’ll be plenty to come, now let’s go. It’s way too hot here.”

They jogged through the eerily silent facility, warily looking for any kind of surprise attack.

They didn’t find any working badniks, but they did find--

“Big?!” Amy skidded to a stop to find the cat fishing… in a pool of lava. “What are you doing here?” He’d just sort of vanished when Eggman showed up at the village… and now he was here?

Big calmly reeled in his line, with the head of some kind of hummingbird robot hooked on the other end. It was glowing with heat and partially melted, so he carefully set it down next to a pile of similarly damaged badnik parts. “Fishing.”

Cream giggled. “Mr. Big, that’s silly. You can’t fish in lava!”

Big blinked. “Oh. Um. Trawling,” he said, correcting himself. “Froggy’s run off again.”

Sonic snorted. “Well I don’t think you’re going to find him here, big guy. Not in this heat.”

Big nodded. “You’re probably right.” He reeled in some unidentifiable metal part, then stood up with a grunt. “Time to move on I ‘spose.”

Amy shook her head, bemused. “Big, did you see what happened here? What happened to all the badniks?”

Big pointed at a wall nearby.

Eggman’s logo was painted all across the wall in a line, his ugly face leering out of them; or it would be, if all but one weren’t crossed out with spray paint. One, though, had instead been covered with a different picture entirely:

A pink mouse with angry eyebrows.