Sonic: Rise of the Iron Dominion

Return of the King

"No—SALLY!" Dulcy screamed, still lying on the tile from the blast, now covered in dust. Throwing Iron Nicole off of her with the whip of her arm, she quickly sprang back to her feet and ran to the edge of the stone railing. She then jumped off, dive bombing for the Princess. She tucked her wings back as she fell, dropping towards Sally like a heavy pin.

Though thrown off from the shock of the explosion, the young fox still managed to hover with his dual rotary tails. He was spaced out for a moment, his sense being tossed all out of control. His ears rang, with his vision only a bit blurry. Even his head was still trying to wrap around what had just occurred. It reminded him of time when he and Sonic caught his defective robot, which exploded right in front of them.

He heard the scream from a familiar voice, knocking him back to reality from his mental cloud. Looking at the collapsing brick and stone below him, he saw Sally plummeting through a giant cloud of smoke and ash.
"Aunt Sally!" He yelled. Before he could act, Dulcy the Dragon had speared past him like a speeding bullet, heading right for the princess. Her nose dove down to a complete ninety degree angle, falling even closer to Sally.

Sally screamed on her way down, unable to grab anything due to her being blow too far from the wall's remains. She didn't want to look down, but from the pure adrenaline of fear, that's the only thing that could hold her gaze. The ground looked as if it were speeding towards her at a hundred miles an hour.

Was this it? Was this how she died serving her people? Though she screamed in terror at the mere thought of smashing against the ground, she had no fear of death. She did everything in her power to defend the people she loved almost as her father and brother. She always thought if anything, she would fall by Sonic's side. But if this is the way she was meant to go out, she was at peace with it.

Only seconds from a violent SPLAT, Sally placed her forearms in front of her out of pure instinct, and shut her eyes for what she thought would be the last time. But in a mixture of confusion and surprise, she felt something heavy swoop underneath her, snatching her only moments before she could touch the ground. The whiplash briefly caused her to tense in fear, flinching from the thought of hitting the ground.

Slowly opening her eyes, she felt the cool air whisk her face. She was flying. But how?

Looking up to her savior, she saw the tired smile of Dulcy. And hovering above her was Tails. A gut wrenching settle of relief filled her body, knowing that both her and Tails had not been harmed from the explosion.
"I've got you, your highness." Dulcy joked, looking down at the Royal blooded chipmunk.
"Thank you Dulcy. Maybe now those cannons will be—" Sally's relief and optimism was short lived, being interrupted by Dulcy's loud scream. It wasn't a cry of terror, but a cry of pain.

Her straight flying pattern then began to plummet, though not near as harshly as Sally did only moments prior.

Dulcy and Sally smashed against the battlefield, skidding hard into the dirt. From the brute force, Sally rolled off of the pained dragon and slammed her head against one of the fallen pieces of the recently destroyed wall. Ignoring the pain, her eyes immediately went to Dulcy, who seemed to be holding the left side of her waist. A small trickle of blood had began to pour its way from between her sharp fingernails. What could have caused this?

"Current objective," they then heard. From behind Dulcy, hovered the corrupted AI, her holo-blade now fresh with blood on the pointed tip. "Eliminate Princess Sally Acorn and Miles, son of Commander Amadeus Prower." Iron Nicole repeated, again approaching the recently crashed duo.

Without hesitation, she again charged her way towards Sally, who avoided the blade by only a hair length. The two again entangled in a game of fight and defense, with Sally being the only one defending with her glowing dual blades.
"Tails!" She shouted the fox who now again entered the battlefield. "Go find Amadeus! NOW!" She commanded, making sure she wouldn't make another mistake that could harm him. By the tone of her alerted voice, he knew his Aunt Sally wasn't playing around. He nodded his head, obeying the one person currently in charge of protecting him.