HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Forty-seven

__Tails stood back up once Cream let go and looked towards the Death Egg. Its left arm finally grew back. Doctor Eggman was ready to start attacking again. The fox clapped his hands together and started shouting. "Destroy all its weapons! Break its legs! Get that old man out of there!"
__He waited for everyone to start cheering and running back into battle before he flew up on to the supermarket. He checked his plane to make sure everything was in order before running to the end of the roof. He saw Knuckles running straight for the building he was standing on and smiled. "Great timing! I need you, bro!" He then looked over at Sage. "You, too!"
__Tails backed away as both Knuckles and Sage joined him on the roof. Sage didn't bother getting too close to the boys.
__"What's happening, little man?" Knuckles asked excitedly. Apparently the stab wound on his arm wasn't bothering him anymore.
__"Scourge's dagger is still attached to that thing's head," Tails explained. "I'm gonna need you to use its power to try and shut it down while Sage and I distract Eggman. Sage, I have to ask you to try and reason with him while everyone else slows him down. If we can avoid any more conflict, that'd be great."
__Sage nodded. "I'll do what I can."
__Knuckles smirked as he pounded his fists together. "No need for more details. I'm on it."
__"Then let's go!" Tails hopped up on his plane and waited for Knuckles to climb into the back seat.
__As soon as the plane started moving, Sage began following close to its side. When they were in the air, the others started their advance. While Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Scourge took care of the robot army, everyone else stormed the giant Death Egg. The runners and armed men focused their attacks on the legs while the fliers tried to deal with its arm canons. Something everyone had forgotten, however, were the Death Egg's laser vision. It attempted to shoot at everyone down below. That's when Sally came riding on T-9. She held up her plasma gun and fired her weapon. The plasma beam shot through the Death Egg's left eye. Sally and T-9 took this time to retreat while the others took advantage of the situation. Tails flew straight for the Death Egg's face and got a look at the human inside. He was not happy.
__"You're still not dead!?" he growled.
__"You should know already that it had to take a demon overlord from Hell to kill me before, dumbass!" Tails shouted back. "This all stops now!"
__"Nothing stops unless I say so!"
__The Death Egg lifted up its right arm canon and started firing. Knuckles barely pulled Sage over to him in time as Tails dodged the attack.
__"Hey, genius!" Knuckles shouted. "We got your daughter right here!"
__The Death Egg dropped its arm immediately only to have to start swatting the fliers away. Tails dove for the robot's face and fired his guns to shatter the glass. Knuckles took this chance to set Sage down in his seat while he jumped out and glided towards its head. After pushing a button that would keep the Tornado floating in place, Tails stood up from his seat and continued shouting.
__"What the hell happened, Eggman?" Tails was trying to not sound too concerned for the human. "You never had a problem losing to us before! Why are you losing it now?"
__"What are you even talking about, vermin!?"
__"You let it slip out that you wanted to take me down with you! Of course I would understand what that means!"
__Sage flew out from her seat and floated in front of Tails. "Father! Please, tell me it's not true! All of this, just to end up dying!?"
__Doctor Eggman looked distraught and furious at the same time. "You would really believe him over me?"
__"Don't manipulate your own daughter!" Tails stood up and shouted. "We're not letting you take your own life, old man!"
__"Listen to him, Father!" Sage pleaded. "We can work this out! Just stop and come with us!"
__"I won't back down now!" Doctor Eggman pulled out a weapon and fired it at the Tornado.
__Sage moved quickly and grabbed Tails before flying away. The plane went down, leaving Tails and Sage to keep to the air by themselves. Tails had to keep dodging the human's attack while he tried speaking with Sage.
__"We have to force him out of there!"
__"Stay behind me then! Father won't dare harm me!"
__Tails followed Sage's lead as they made their way back to the broken windows. Doctor Eggman had to stop shooting so as to not shoot his little girl. He immediately lowered his weapon and glared at Sage. "You would defy me!?"
__"My top priority has and will always be your safety, Father!" Sage shouted. "I will take care of any threat that should harm you, even if that threat is you!"
__Before Tails and Sage could move, Doctor Eggman moved around his controls to shake Knuckles off of the Death Egg's head. While it thrashed about, its metal mustache knocked both Tails and Sage out of the air. Sonic had seen them falling and rushed over beneath them before running around in circles. His speed created enough of a whirling wind to be able to catch Tails and Sage before setting them down gently. Sonic went over to help Tails stand while Sage floated up on her own. Tails shook his head and pointed up at the angry Death Egg. "Knuckles is still up there! He's gonna need help with that Anarchy Beryl!"
__"I'm on it!" Sonic ran straight for the Death Egg robot.
__Tails noticed all the people running straight back. Most of them looked fatigued.
__"The robot's armor is way too strong!" One of the Freedom Fighters shouted.
__"No matter how many hits we throw at it, they don't make a dent!"
__"What do we do!?"
__Tails immediately turned to Sage. "Weakness! What's that thing's weakness?"
__Sage looked uncomfortable as she started twiddling her fingers. "The heart of the cave. At the center of the robot, just behind its large plasma canon. If we can remove it or destroy it, then its defenses will greatly weaken. It sounds easy. However, it'll take a lot of power to get to it."
__Tails knew just the thing. He let out a loud whistle and waited until T-9 came running over with Sally still on its back. "Sally, you need to shoot the Death Egg's plasma blaster the next opening we get, straight center. Can you do that?"
__"You betcha!" Sally said eagerly.
__Scourge then came running over. He was panting, but he didn't look tired in the slightest. "There's only a quarter of the army left! We can do this!"
__Tails wasn't surprised in the least that it took the four strongest male hedgehogs so little time to deal with the robot army. "Perfect! Once Sally takes care of that heart, the rest of us will charge at the Death Egg and get ready to catch Eggman if we have to."
__"Scourge!" shouted Fiona's voice. "SCOURGE!"
__Scourge turned and ran immediately. He caught the red vixen as she tripped and fell and hugged her tightly. "What are you doing here!?"
__Fiona was desperately catching her breath while trying to explain. "He actually did send a few robots to the house! I got out of there as fast as I could!"
__"Why did you come here!?" Scourge shouted. "You were supposed to flee to the next city!"
__This was when Fiona started shaking. "They took the Chaos Emeralds! I...! I had to come warn you!"
__Tails looked up at three robots in the sky. They flew over to the Death Egg's face and delivered the three Chaos Emeralds to Doctor Eggman. The human gladly accepted them. Tails couldn't see what he was doing in there, but the Death Egg's left eye plus all the broken windows fixed themselves in an instant. Tails nervously looked at T-9 and Sally. "Only one Chaos Emerald left before he becomes unstoppable..."
__But Sally was still smiling. "He couldn't even successfully kill me last time! He won't be able to kill me for this emerald! Don't worry about it!"
__"I still need to." Tails turned towards everyone. "We have to be able to cover for Sally and T-9! Do not let him get that last emerald!"
__The same three robots that stormed Tails's house landed right by everyone. These robots were modeled after griffins, and they were huge. Tails caught a glimpse of Scourge trying to keep Fiona behind him while backing away, but Tails knew they wanted the final Chaos Emerald. Just as the middle griffin-bot took the first step, Tails started spin dashing and attacked it, knocking it back. This made everyone else strike. While everyone attacked the robots, Scourge grabbed Fiona's arm and started running the opposite direction, away from the danger. Sally had commanded T-9 to charge straight for the Death Egg. She allowed T-9 to do the attack and provoking at the giant robot's feet.
__Tails was attacking one griffin-bot alongside Blaze and Ray. Ray was doing his best to cover for Tails while Blaze was having no trouble attacking the robot head on. As soon as Blaze as was able to drop the robot on its legs, Ray went to help her hold it down while Tails flew on to its back and started pulling out its wires. Learning from his mistakes, he made sure to pull off its head and smashed it on to the ground. He held on tight as the robot collapsed to the ground while Blaze and Ray backed away. Tails felt relieved for only a few seconds when he saw the griffin-bot's tail move in the corner of his vision. He couldn't react in time. The tail wrapped around him and pulled him off the robot's body. Apparently the tail had its own power source. It tried to smash Tails on to the road, but Blaze moved fast and cut the tail in half. Ray quickly dived underneath the fox and caught him on his poor back. As soon as Blaze pulled the tail off of him, Tails rolled off of Ray's back and thanked him while rubbing the squirrel's back.
__The other two griffin-bots overwhelmed their opponents and took the opportunity to turn and run for the Death Egg. They knew where the last Chaos Emerald was. Tails got up immediately and started running after them. All three had to stop running as Sonic and Knuckles crashed in front of them. The echidna got up immediately and started attacking one of the griffin-bots. Tails continued to chase after the last one while Sonic struggled to sit back up. Tails managed to jump on to the robot's back while it began its pursuit after T-9. Sally had no choice but to hold on tightly as she couldn't use her plasma gun just yet. Tails was having a difficult time trying to get to the wires while T-9 turned around and used its flamethrower. Tails had to duck down as the griffin-bot dodged the fire. The two large robots, while the two mobians clung on with their lives, began attacking each other with tooth and beak. T-9 tried to grab on to the other robot's beak, but the griffin-bot was too quick. It dodged its snout and grabbed on to T-9's throat. Tails winced as he heard this beast tear into his dog's throat. T-9 let out a yowl as it pulled away and headbutted the griffin-bot straight on its chest. Tails flew off of it from the impact and hurriedly went to get Sally off T-9. The robot wolf jumped back and made an attempt to use its flamethrower, but all that came out were hissing sounds. A big part of its neck was gone, meaning its weapons were now damaged. The griffin-bot let out a loud shriek, as if mocking the robot wolf. This made T-9 start growling as it charged at the griffin-bot. The griffin-bot flew up and over the running wolf before it dived down and dug T-9 into the road.
__Once Tails found a safe place for Sally, he went to join T-9 and help it. Tails spin dashed and knocked the griffin-bot off of T-9. He went back on to its back and started messing with its wires. The griffin-bot started screeching as it tried to knock the fox off. Tails was finally able to pull out its wires, but before he could grab its head, the robot managed to toss Tails off. The fox went flying right before the robot grabbed him with its claws and shoved him into the ground. Tails felt all his air leave his body as he felt the robot pressing its front foot against his back. Tails could then feel its beak on both of his tails, plus his right leg, as it started yanking on him.
__Sally was then scrambling back over. She grabbed on to a nearby pipe and scurried over as best she could without falling. When she was close enough, she smashed the pipe against the griffin-bot's neck, forcing it to let go and turn to Sally. It screamed right as it swiped its foot at the chipmunk and threw her back. Tails was still feeling out of it when the griffin-bot grabbed on to Tails with its beak and threw him on top of Sally. It then started making its way over to them. Sally pulled out her plasma gun, but Tails put his hand on it and shook his head. The two mobians flattened their ears and sunk their heads into their shoulders as the robot ran towards them.
__That's when T-9 jumped in front of them and started butting heads with the other robot. The griffin-bot was knocked back, but it tried getting around T-9. It was just so mad at the mobians that it didn't seem to care about T-9 anymore. The griffin-bot had no choice but to tackle T-9 into the ground before grabbing on to its front right leg and pulling it off. T-9 let out a painful yowl as the griffin-bot walked back to the mobians. But T-9 still stood up and limped back in between the beast and the mobians. The griffin-bot started screeching out its frustration just as T-9 started hacking. It kept going until it threw up the last emerald and transformed back into T-Pup. The little dog shoved the emerald towards the large robot before collapsing on its three legs. The griffin-bot went silent and stared down at the purple Chaos Emerald. It forgot about the mobians immediately as it grabbed the emerald and started flying back to the Death Egg.
__Tails quickly scrambled over to T-Pup and picked up his whimpering dog. "Sh. Sh. It's okay, buddy," Tails rasped. "You're not broken, not at all. You'll be better in no time, okay?"
__There was oil leaking out the hole in its neck, but it looked up at Tails and let out a happy bark. This made Tails smile as he hugged it tightly.
__Sonic and Knuckles were running over to Tails and Sally. Sonic went to help Sally stand while Knuckles went to kneel down in front of the fox and put his hand on T-Pup. "We managed to take out our griffin."
__"Eggman got the last Chaos Emerald," Tails said promptly. "We need to hurry and take out his plasma cannon."
__Knuckles groaned as he started rubbing the back of his head. "Eggman would not let us get near that dagger. I'm not sure how we're going to get him to use that cannon."
__"Oh, I can," Sonic said with a scowl as he walked over. "Leave the taunting to me. You told Scourge and the others that he wanted to take me down with him, too, didn't you?"
__Tails was feeling a little uneasy with how upset Sonic was getting, but he tried to brush that off. "Yeah... yeah! Exactly! We need...!" Tails stood up and started looking around for Sage, but he just now realized she hadn't followed after him. "Sage..."
__"What do you need her for?"
__"She's playing with Eggman's anger right now. If you have her with you while you taunt him, he may just snap."
__Tails felt better when Sonic made a big smile. "Givin' the doc a taste of his own medicine, huh? I like the sound of that! I'll find her and get started. Don't worry." And then he was just gone.
__Tails felt someone's hand on his shoulder and turned around to see it was Scourge. He held out both of his hands towards T-Pup. Tails made sure to give T-Pup one last tight hug before handing it and its leg over to Scourge. The green hedgehog then ran off with the robot dog very quickly. He didn't come back, but Tails wasn't worried.
__Tails stood up with Knuckles before turning to Sally. "You gonna be okay?"
__Sally held up her plasma gun and nodded. "I'll need some cover. I won't be able to run like this."
__"I can help you with that," Knuckles said as he wrapped his arm around Sally's waist. He turned towards Tails.
__"Right, right..." Tails forced himself back on to the scene. "I and everyone else can distract Eggman for you two. Just keep your distance, Knuckles. Worse comes to worse, Sally can't run, and carrying her will slow you down." For some reason, Tails felt the need to hug the both of them. "Be careful. Please!"
__"You don't gotta worry," Knuckles reassured the fox. "I won't let anything happen to her."
__"Likewise," Sally added.
__They didn't even wait for Tails to reply as they started moving away. He didn't dwell on it, though. He promptly slapped both of his cheeks and found Shadow immediately.
__"Everyone's gotta get Eggman's attention. Don't let him see Knuckles and Sally."
__Shadow nodded before motioning the G.U.N. soldiers to follow after him. It didn't take long for some others to notice and get the idea, so they followed along and started attacking the Death Egg's feet and arms. Tails could see Sonic running along the giant robot's arm with Sage tailing behind him. Sonic would keep hopping around to dodge the Death Egg's laser vision while Sage kept deflecting them to the sky. Gun shots and sounds of angry shrieking could be heard throughout the city now.
__Tails was observing the battle. He was trying to figure out what he could do now to help. He didn't have his plane or T-Pup. He didn't even have any of his fancy gadgets today. The rest of the robot army was basically taken care of. There wasn't much...
__Just then, the final griffin-bot landed right in front of the fox, causing him to fall back on his ass. It looked like this beast still held a grudge. Well, fuck me.
__Tails flew straight up as the griffin-bot swiped its claws at him. Tails was not having it this time. This thing almost broke T-Pup, and since this was just a machine, he wasn't going to let it get away with that.
__He started spin dashing and slammed right on to the griffin-bot's right foot, smashing it to nothing. The robot shrieked as it tried to grab Tails by its beak. It managed to grab him by the arm and started flailing him around, but Tails was able to grab one of its eyes and pull it out, making it drop him. He got back up and made a swift uppercut to the griffin-bot's beak. He then quickly grabbed its head and pulled himself over on to its back. He began to fiddle around its wires with no hesitation until the robot threw him off. It wrapped its tail around him before digging him into the pavement. Tails was starting to feel sore all over. It lifted him back up and got ready to grab him when a green sphere came out of nowhere and took its head off. Tails fell to the ground, but he immediately got up and tore the robot's tail clean off. The griffin-bot stopped moving and collapsed.
__Tails was suddenly yanked back on to his feet. He did get scared for a second before he started dusting himself off. "Thanks, man." He turned around and was ready to joke about avenging T-Pup, but he frowned. "You okay?"
__Scourge's face and body looked stressed out. His fur was slightly bushed out, and his eyes were wide open while his ears were flattened. Tails knew he was scared for Fiona. He'd have a hard time focusing on the battle. Tails then saw that Scourge's hands were also shaking. He grabbed them gently and made direct eye contact with the hedgehog.
__"Hey, hey," Tails said softly. "Fiona's gonna be okay. Now that Eggman has the Chaos Emeralds, he isn't interested in her. He only wants me and Sonic. You don't have anything to worry about."
__Scourge couldn't stop shaking. "I lost you once, and I almost lost you again not too long ago. Why can't you go hide with Fiona?"
__Tails flattened his ears. Shit. I'm the one he's scared for. Tails then shook his head and smiled at the moebian. "'Fraid I can't do that. I hate being left out, remember? Besides, gotta make sure all of our friends come out okay. You as well, brother."
__Scourge stopped shaking as his ears perked back up. He was still frowning as he pulled his hands away and crossed his arms. "I know... I know."
__Tails then started patting Scourge on the shoulder. "Whatever happens, I love you, man."
__Scourge put his hand on Tails's and nodded. "Love you, too."
__"Wow! I think I'm gonna puke," Miles mocked as he went to join them. He had a smug look on his face. "Since when does the great 'King Scourge' care about love and affection?"
__Tails had to put his hand on Scourge's chest as the moebian started growling. "Fuck you. You got to have parents who cared about you. My old man just saw me as a profit while my bitch-ass mother wanted to abort me."
__That's when Bernadette came in looking confused. "That useless fool told you about that?"
__"No!" Scourge snapped. "I was able to remember every conversation you and the old man had while I was in the womb. He didn't need to tell me!"
__The older woman just turned her head and said nothing.
__"No more of that," Tails said while he grabbed Scourge's shoulder and pointed to the Death Egg. "We need to cover Sally."
__"Say no more," Scourge said right before popping his neck. "I got some pent-up anger I need to let out badly."
__Tails didn't dwell on that statement.
__While Bernadette and Miles went their separate ways, Tails and Scourge were riding back into battle. Tails was looking up at Sage, who was making an attempt to hijack the left arm cannon. Scourge saw this and ran ahead. He knelt down in front of Tails and cupped his hands together. Tails started twisting his tails as he stepped into Scourge's hands and was launched into the air. Tails almost lost his control after being flung like that, but he made it to Sage quickly. He grabbed on to any part he could and held on tightly as the Death Egg started to swing its arm around to fling him off. His fingers were hurting baldy while Sage tried to keep Tails on the arm. Scourge had finally managed to get back to his dagger and grabbed on to it. He was able to get it to malfunction while Tails pulled out a metal plate, exposing the large wires beneath. This made Sage quickly shoot her laser beams in order to disable the arm cannon.
__Something blew up in the Death Egg, causing everyone who happened to be holding on to fall off. Tails turned to Scourge but saw the Sonic had hopped off the Death Egg and caught the moebian. That left Tails to grab Antoine as he started flying while Silver used his powers to catch everyone else. As Tails started his descent, there was one robot that shot at Tails's side and made him fall to the ground. He just barely threw Antoine on top of him. A few more robots joined it, leaving Antoine to fend them off.
__The robot that shot Tails was walking towards it. Tails felt his sides burning as he pushed himself up. He glared up at the robot and flattened his ears. That's when Cream flew in and kicked it down. The robot fell on its side and got its chest stomped in by Cream. The robot was not destroyed, however, as it got back up and dropped Cream on to her back. She went stiff as she hit her head on the ground. Before she could try to get back up, the robot stepped on her right leg as it aimed its weapon at her. Cream let out a shriek.
__Tails was scrambling to stand back up, but Vector came in first. He let out his sonic scream and threw the robot off of her. This allowed the rest of the Chaotix to jump the robot. Vector knelt down by Cream and asked if she was okay. When she nodded, he stood up and went to help his boys drive the robot away. Tails felt relieved as he sat down on his ass.
__"I lied, Tails." Tails perked back up and saw that Cream was gripping on her right leg tightly. The middle of her lower leg was turning red and purple. "I think I broke it..."
__Tails stood up immediately. He was about to run when he heard one of the arm cannons fire. He turned around and saw that both Sonic and Scourge had been knocked away by the beam. The Death Egg then spun around and knocked everyone down.
__"I will not lose!" The old human screamed. "I've come too far!"
__Sonic stood back up and started shouting back angrily. "How many times do I got to teach you, old man!? You can't knock me down!" Despite how confident he sounded, his knees were starting to shake.
__"I don't have to."
__The Death Egg brought up its disarmed hand and turned it into a giant fist. A large shadow loomed over everyone as it was brought down. Tails then realized Doctor Eggman was aiming for Cream. He started running to her right away as the fist got closer and closer. Before he knew it, he grabbed on to the rabbit and held her tightly as the fist was about to make contact. He could feel her wrap her arms around him in that moment while Scourge screamed Tails's name.
__That's when the fist came to an abrupt stop. Tails was nervous, but he turned to look at it. There were both Sonic and Scourge. Both held up one hand against the fist. There was a dark, powerful aura emitting from the both of them. Their quills then started to curve upwards as a sudden wave of hot aura shot out from them. Sonic's fur, what Tails used to see as pitch black before, turned into a dark navy blue. Scourge's fur had turned into a dark emerald green. Both made a quick glance at Tails. They still had their normal eye color, but they were glowing and piercing with anger. They turned back to the Death Egg and punched its fist, shattering it. The Death Egg had to pull its arm away as it regained its balance.
__Silver was slowly backing away from the scene. "Wait... this is worse... two supers will destroy more than this city..."
__Tails was starting to feel a little scared. It was already bad enough whenever Sonic turned into his dark super form. Now Scourge had one? Tails should have paid more attention to their emotions.
__Just as the two hedgehogs took a step, Tails looked around and started shouting. "Everyone! Back away! Retreat!"
__He quickly got up and started to carry Cream while everyone else started to flee, screaming and shouting in confusion. Sage was just about to join Sonic and Scourge when Shadow grabbed on to her arm and led her away. That's when the hedgehogs flew up. The Death Egg did not hesitate to fire its weapons rapidly at them. Tails found himself slowing down and stopping to gaze at them. With their power, they could easily destroy that Death Egg and end this, but they weren't in the right state of mind to think that far ahead. Tails didn't want to risk trying to tell them either. They'd be too unpredictable and unstable.
__"Tails, what's wrong?" Cream asked quietly.
__Tails tightened his grip on her, but he didn't look her way. "We still need Sally to make her move," he replied with the same tone. He perked his ears when the Death Egg's chest opened and started warming up its plasma blaster. That's when he heard Sally's gun start up nearby. They were still in this. Tails couldn't help but make a big smile.
__The Death Egg managed to smack the two hedgehogs away before looking down at Tails. "What are you grinning for, boy? I've had more than my fair share of this ultimate power. Even without the emeralds, they can't beat me!"
__Somehow, Tails's smile grew even bigger. "It doesn't matter if they can anyway! Everything will fall into place!"
__The plasma beam from Sally's gun fired as the fox shouted, just barely missing Sonic and Scourge when they tried to fly back into action. The plasma beam shot straight into the Death Egg's open torso. The torso blew up as the giant robot started falling back. That's when everything started to fill with a blinding white light. Tails was laughing, though. He wasn't sure if he was happy or if he had just completely lost it as he was blinded.