Tails the Fox
Chapter 28 - To The Rescue!
Stage 15 - Under Construction

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?

Sonic was hungrily munching away on his chili dog lunch, while Tails sat across from him, tensely awaiting Eggman's call. He knew he shouldn't, but still, Tails blamed himself for what happened to Amy and Cream. He was supposed to protect them, but instead he went chasing after that black fox. Now, he had to set things right.

Soon, SPOT hopped onto the table and projected a hologram of Eggman. "Good afternoon, Sonic! Did you enjoy your lunch?" the hologram chuckled. Tails impatiently banged his fist on the table. "Get to the point, Eggman! Where are Amy and Cream!?"
"Be quiet, fox boy!" Eggman growled, "I'm talking to Sonic, not you!" Sonic stood up and started impatiently tapping his foot. "Then talk, Eggman!"
"OK then, Sonic!" Eggman said. "Meet me at the top of the construction site at 5:00! That should leave you plenty of time, right?"
"Twenty minutes? C'mon, where's the challenge in that?" Sonic chuckled.
"Just remember to bring all the Chaos Emeralds you collected! You'll need them!" Eggman said as the hologram vanished. Tails looked at SPOT's monitor. "OK, we've got the coordinates! Let's go!"

Upon reaching the construction site, Tails produced a bag with three emeralds inside. It consisted of two Chaos Emeralds and a yellow fake. "OK, Sonic! You take this Chaos Emerald, and I'll keep these. I'll meet you at the roof!" Tails said. "All right!" Sonic said. "Good luck!"

Meanwhile, Amy was banging her hammer on the bars of the cell Eggman was keeping them in. "Let me outta here, you rotten egg!" she shouted. Eggman simply laughed at her. "Not a chance! You'll make a valuable hostage...assuming Sonic really cares about you..." Amy started pounding the bars more violently. "How can you say that!! Of course he cares!!!" Eggman pretended to look around. "Then where is he? Muahahahaha!!" Amy backed away from the bars, tears forming in her eyes. "Stop teasing me!" Cream tried to comfort her. "It'll be OK, Amy! Sonic will be here soon." Eggman grinned devilishly. "Ha! I almost wouldn't count on it!" This was all Amy could take. "That's it!! Out of my way, Cream!! I'm breaking out of here!!" Amy slammed the bars of the cell with all her might, finally smashing through! She ran out of the cell and charged down the stairs into the construction site. Cream, however, was unable to escape, as Eggman's robots quickly blocked her exit. "Oh, well. A single hostage will be easier to manage." Eggman said calmly. "Whatever happens, Sonic can't stop me this time anyway! Hahahahaha!!"

Sonic had been dashing through the construction site for a few minutes, clobbering any robots in his way. The site was pretty close to completion, but was abandoned for unknown reasons. Over time, it fell into disrepair, and it seemed almost like a haunted tower. In several places, the floorboards had fallen to termites. Sonic had to step carefully. Unfortunately, Amy didn't realize this, and soon fell through the floor and landed on top of Sonic! "Help! Ambush!!" Sonic shouted in alarm, but then noticed that his "attacker" had offered her hand to help him up. Sonic stood up on his own and looked at Amy, whose face had lit up since seeing him. "I knew you'd come for me, Sonic! That Eggman's an idiot!" Sonic cracked a slight smile. "Glad to see you escaped..." he looked up at the hole in the roof. "Uh, where's Cream?" Amy looked up as well, and her face went pale. "Oh-my-gosh! I got so caught in the moment that I forgot to make sure Cream got out!" Sonic started back on his way to the roof, leaving Amy behind. "Hey, wait a minute! You're not going to leave me here!?" Sonic turned to her. "I have to help Cream! You should stay here. There's no room in the plan for you!" Amy, upon hearing this, whipped out her hammer. "What do you mean!? Wasn't saving me part of the plan!? What are you saying!?!" She had an almost demonic look in her eyes, and Sonic realized that he had said something VERY stupid. "N-now calm down, Amy! I didn't mean it like-- Aaaack!" Amy started chasing Sonic through the tower with her hammer, swatting aside any robots that may get in her way. Apparently, she can almost keep up with Sonic if she puts her mind to it...

Soon, they came to a floor without floorboards. The top of the stairs ended abruptly, and Sonic nearly ran over the edge! He lost his balance stopping, and was about to fall over, but Amy caught his arm before he fell. "That was a close one!" she said, panting from the effort it took to keep up with Sonic. "So, still think there's no room for me in this plan?" Sonic peeked over the edge of the stairs. The floor below looked as though it would have broken if he fell on it, and it may possibly have been a fatal drop. "OK... You make a very good point. Thanks Amy..." Sonic finally admitted. He looked across the tower and spotted a stairway leading up. The only way to reach it was to jump from girder to girder. The girders were spaced too far apart for Amy to jump across, and to make matters worse, Eggman had left a small army of robots resembling bats with a pair of lasers mounted on their backs. "I don't think you can follow me from here, Amy." Sonic said, a bit nervously (as she was still carrying her hammer). Amy winked at Sonic. "That doesn't mean I can't still help!"

Amy moved to the top step and waved her arms about, shouting, "Hey, dumb robots! Over here! Catch me if you can!" Half of the robots immediately took off in their direction. Sonic was confused. "Amy, what are you doing?!" Amy didn't have time to answer, as the robots reached them and she ran down the stairs, leading most of them away. "Good luck, Sonic!" she shouted back after a moment. Looking ahead toward the exit, Sonic noticed that the other robots had targeted him with their lasers. "Can't we talk this over?" Sonic said sarcastically. The robots, totally ignoring him, fired immediately. Of course, Sonic saw this coming, and quickly leapt into the air onto the first girder. The other girders were apparently too far for even Sonic to jump to, so he decided to use the bats swarming around him as stepping stones, leaping from bat to bat, finally landing on a girder close to the stairs. However, a group of Egg Pawns were waiting at the stairs with rocket launchers, and had spotted Sonic, so they fired their rockets as well. Sonic was forced to run back and forth along the girder, trying to think of a way to get across. There weren't enough bat robots left to get him to the stairs, and it was too far to jump. Running along the girder, Sonic realized the only solution, and dashed at the wall at top speed. He had built up so much speed, that he was able to run along the wall all the way to the staircase! Once there, he leapt off the wall and into the Egg Pawns, giving them no time to react as he reduced them to scrap metal! "Next time I should look for an elevator..." Sonic said to himself as he climbed the stairs to the next floor.

It took some doing, but Sonic finally reached the roof of the construction site, without a second to spare. Dr. Eggman was hovering in his plane above the center of the roof. Suspended from a cable attatched to the plane was a cage containing Cream & Cheese. On the ground were two robots, one red and one yellow. They looked like a cross between the Egg Wizards and the E-2000. Eggman waved to Sonic, a sinister grin on his face. "Just in time, Sonic! Did you have fun with my little friends on the lower levels of the tower? What about the wall lasers?" Sonic looked at Eggman quizzically. "Wall lasers?" he questioned. Eggman pounded his fist on the side of his plane. "Blast it! Why won't those lasers work! Whatever! Let's get down to business, eh, Sonic?" Sonic held up the Chaos Emeralds, one red and one white. "Here they are, Eggbrain! Now let Cream go!" Eggman shook his head. "Hand them to the robots first!" Sonic obeyed, handing one emerald to each robot. Eggman glanced at them. "Just two? Sonic, Sonic, Sonic.... What do you take me for? My scanners detect not two, but FOUR Chaos Emeralds! Given your track record, I bet you just handed me at least one fake! Tails has the real ones nearby, doesn't he?!" Eggman's plane rose into the air, and the two robots placed the emeralds into their "pockets." "Robots, get that hedgehog!" Eggman commanded. "Show him the true might of the Eggman Empire!"

The two robots produced a pair of staffs in their respective colors. A crystal ball was at the tip of each of the two robots' staffs, and they began to glow violently. "Something tells me this would've happened anyway." Sonic said. "Bring it on, Eggman!"

To be continued...