Chapter 13

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|    Table of Contents: http://pastebin.com/a4Cj2gT0          |
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|    Chapter: 13                                              |
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|    Next Chapter: http://pastebin.com/F9seWX3g               |
|    Prior Chapter: http://pastebin.com/z9nmLnK7              |
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|    Synopsis: Eggman confirms that heavily drinking the      |
|              night before a military operation is not       |
|              part of the master plan.                       |
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|    Revision: A                                              |
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|    Characters Copyright © Sega, Writing licensed under CC0  |
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A black, annoyed hedgehog stood in a large clearing and stared at a yellow fox and a pink hedgehog. “Explain to my why I’m here.”

Amy looked at Tails to have him do the honors. “I’ve detected a large movement of Eggman’s forces. This likely means he has discovered a settlement somewhere on Mobius and he’s going to take it out.”

The other hedgehog enthusiastically joined the conversation. “That’s where we come in! We make sure Eggman’s plan doesn’t go according to plan. We also rescue the animals and bring them back here for safety!”

Shadow glanced over at the tornado. “I don’t see you guys transporting too many animals in that...”

“That is why we have that!” Tails pointed at a larger aircraft next to the tornado. It had a distinctive Eggman design and paint job but the characteristic Eggman logos were scratched off the sides. “Sonic and I stole it from Eggman a while back. It originally moved robots, but it’s great for moving anything around, really!”

Amy made eye contact with Shadow. “So we need your help!” A period of silence passed as Shadow stood with his arms crossed.

“This is also a good chance for us to get close to Eggman. We need to get info on where he is keeping Sonic.” Tails’ bright expression diminished as he reminded himself of his lost friend.

“So will you help us?” Amy asked again, this time with a bit more urgency in her voice.

Shadow shifted around as he gave his response. “Fine.” Amy’s face lit up but Tails was the first to talk.

“We need to move fast! Eggman already has a good head start on us...” Tails pulled something from his pockets. “Here’s your goggles.” There had been a lot of paranoia that Eggman would utilize chemical warfare again, even though nothing happened the last time they paid Eggman a visit. The three began to rush to their stolen aircraft to begin their rescue operation.

~~~

Eggman rested his head on one of his arms as he stared drowsily at the instruments on his eggmobile control panel. His crushing headache made it hard to concentrate but it did not take a genius to fly towards a point on the map. Behind him several large engines roared as his small fleet followed. Below him he could see a quaint settlement. Small round wooden houses with thatch roofs nested quietly in a forest. Eggman nonchalantly smashed the “do your thing” button on his control panel and watched his forces take action.

It did not take long for the forest to be set ablaze. He watched the animals run like ants below as they were rounded up by the landing parties and herded into capsules. He thought to himself about how it was usually by now that a blue hedgehog would step on the release mechanisms, freeing the creatures. No such hedgehog came. Indeed, he was passed out on the living quarters floor of the mastermind himself.

A half-wish from last night came true as another one of his carriers flew under the cloud of smoke. Eggman thought nothing of it: he was not paying close enough attention to see his logos scratched off the sides.

~~~

Tails climbed out of the makeshift cockpit. The ship was designed to have the ability to be piloted manually by Eggman’s eggmobile that would plug a round inset where a cockpit would go. The doors in the back of the cargo bay slowly opened revealing Amy and Shadow. What they saw before them was nothing short of chaos.  The heat from the fires made navigating the fray a chore for organic beings, but the heat was manageable with the goggles. Badnicks moved throughout the burning mess with ease.

To their surprise, they watched as Eggman’s forces became disorganized. What used to be a cohesive effort at herding animals became a frantic mess of uncoordinated reactions. Animals started escaping the capsules as robots chased them around, still shooting frantically at nothing in particular in the process. One of the bullets hit of the capsules and crippled the door mechanism. Animals fled from the broken chamber adding to the chaos.

“I’ve never seen Eggman’s forces do this before!” Tails shouted as he watched the spectacle in amazement. “They’re out of control!”

“Let’s save as many as we can and find Eggman!” Amy’s suggestion was easier said than done. The three had to immediately step aside as a stray blaster shot landed on the ground alarmingly close to them. The chaos grew as weakened trees began to fall.

“Since when did Eggman start trying to kill the animals?!” Shadow was not sure if that was Eggman’s plan, but it looked like it from his point of view.

In the air, Eggman sat comfortably in his eggmobile with the glass shield up to keep the smoke out. He could not see much on the surface through the thick smoke and flames. He normally would have gone down there himself to micromanage the robots but with his headache and his mind elsewhere, he could not be bothered. It had been a few days since he had been in the special zone but his experience still disturbed him. The seeds it planted in his mind disturbed him even more. There was something wrong with Phantom Eggman’s logic, but Eggman’s soundness critiques offered no such enlightenment. He had gone through each premise in Phantom Eggman’s arguments and each premise he questioned just added more trouble to his already troubled mind.

Eggman’s thoughts were interrupted by a characteristic ‘PIKO’ sound. A dreadful noise accompanied only by Amy Rose as far as he knew. Eggman ordered his bots into attack mode.

The trio noticed right away that Eggman was alerted of their presence once all the robots stopped running around blasting things aimlessly and focused their attention on Amy, Shadow and Tails. This time it was their turn to run around like ants as badniks closed in from all around.

Tails watched in horror as non-empty capsules began to be lifted up by Eggman’s fleet. Through the smoke he could barely spot Eggman’s eggmobile. He got his tails spinning and took flight, not paying attention to the fact that he blew air around making the embers burn even hotter. Shadow and Amy shielded their faces from the sudden intense heat as they lost ground to the robot army.

The attacker took a sip of water as he watched a flying fox emerge from the smoke. He examined the situation and saw two critter capsules emerge from the same opaque cloud. Neither of them were very full. “Good enough.” He muttered as he ordered a retreat. Eggman was in no mood to deal with any of this any longer. As he turned around the fox had caught up to him enough to shout a single question through the glass: “Where’s Sonic!?”

Eggman brought his eggmobile to a halt and opened his windshield to share his response. “Oh he’s just passed out cold somewhere in my dungeons.” He closed and watched as the fox was forced to retreat due to the rest of the badniks taking flight. He chuckled to himself at the thought that half of what he said was true.

“What was that!?” Shadow was furious at Tails’ abandonment. “We can’t just fly away like you can! You left us in the middle of battle!”

Tails bowed his head in apologies as a condescending Amy changed the subject. “We can discuss what went wrong later. I would like to remind you all that we are still in a burning forest and we still have a job to do!”

The rest of the day was spent spent gathering panicked ex-residents of the forest.

Once aboard the aircraft and things had quieted down, Shadow began asking questions. “What are you going to do with them?”

“Well we can’t just leave them...” Tails looked back at the rising smoke cloud in the distance. “There’s not much of a forest left.”

“You think there’s room on Cocoa Island for all these?” Shadow removed his ash coated goggles.

Tails pondered for a moment. “We’ll make it work. We’ve made it work so far with the other refugees! It is a small island but I think it’s big enough for now.”

Shadow moved on to his next complaint. “What’s stopping Eggman from finding the island and repeating this process? You can’t hope to defend against an attack like that.”

“We just hope Eggman doesn’t find us… That’s why Cocoa Island is such a great spot! It can’t be found on any map. The only way to find it is to have been there before. It also has a set of ruins beneath it that utilizes the emeralds to keep it well hidden. Cocoa Island used to be a resting place for the Chaos Emeralds, you know!”

The hedgehog looked at Tails inquisitively. “Who was the first to find Cocoa Island, if what you say is true.”

“I was born there!” The fox said proudly.

That answer was satisfactory enough for Shadow to lean back, signaling the end of the conversation.

==== Revision History ====
A: First Draft

==== Remarks ====
I intended to get a lot more done in this chapter than I actually did. It is already a little longer than I expected. Overall I actually don't have many remarks about this chapter.