The Hell We Live In

Thirty-one

__Tails was flying his plane high above the trees. Shadow had been standing on the top wing. Tails felt alive feeling the wind violently brush against his face, even if he did have a window in front of him to block that wind. It didn't take long to find the open plain. Sure enough everyone was already there and attacking The Devil. From up here Tails could see The Devil knocking everyone back with its large hands. It was smiling. Tails, despite being utterly terrified, hated that smile. Tails started circling the plain and started shouting at Shadow. "Go now, and make sure no one's too close to him!"
__Shadow nodded before he leaped off of the plane and began falling. He had extended his fist, which was glowing red, and he nailed The Devil in the snout. The Devil roared out as the force of impact caused it to tumble backwards. But it shook its head and began swiping its claws at Shadow while snapping its teeth. Shadow kept teleporting out of it's way and kept striking it at it's back with his Chaos Spears. Eventually The Devil managed to grab Shadow and dig him into the ground only for Shadow to just teleport out. Everyone backed up.
__Tails started flying down. He locked The Devil on target and pushed a button that released two missiles. They made impact on the demon and it was thrown back rather far while it roared. But despite all the smoke coming off of it and it's visible discomfort, it was completely fine. Tails cursed himself, wishing that did more damage, especially since he only had time to make two large missiles for this plane. But he hadn't even started yet. Before he got too close to The Devil he quickly flew up while rolling the plane in circles. He turned back and flew back down again, this time firing bullets at the demon. The Devil continued to roar as it tried evading the fast flying bullets. Once Tails was close again he started pulling up, but The Devil brought up its large hand and swatted the two left wings of the plane. The plane's alarms started going off so Tails immediately pushed a button that transformed the plane. The wings that remained shortened and the plane sprouted two legs. Tails had a bumpy landing as the plane tried to balance on the ground. He turned it around and his heart immediately sank. That demon had this hungry look in its red eyes. It wanted him. Tails had flattened his ears and instinctively started backing up the Tornado. He wanted to fight, but now that he was on the same level he couldn't. He was safe in the air, but he was down here.
__This caused some of the others to attack. Vector had come to its side, not too close, and let out his sonic scream. This obviously hurt The Devil's sensitive hearing as it started to run from the crocodile. Espio was already behind it as he started throwing shurikens and kunais, but they had no effect on it's tough skin. That wasn't the point, though. As The Devil went to attack Espio Charmy flew in and started pulling on its hair, dragging it until it lost balance and fell on it's back. The bee made sure to fly out of its range before it could get back up.
__Kitsunami had been slowly walking up to it as the water began coming out of his pack by his will. They formed into large tentacles and grabbed hold of The Devil. While the demon struggled Surge ran by and sent her electricity into the water that sent painful shocks to the demon. It wasn't enough. The Devil roared out and swiped its arm out of the water's hold, causing all that water to lose form and fall into the dead grass. He immediately turned and swiped Surge, but she managed to back up just enough so it could not seriously injure her. Kitsunami had retreated to the crowd.
__Knuckles had ran in and started fighting The Devil with his bare hands. Despite The Devil's quick and powerful swipes, it could not land a hit on the echidna.
__Tails looked at the broken wing and saw that T-Pup was sitting there, waiting for his instructions. Tails just pointed at the demon and watched the robot dog sprout its propellers and start flying. T-Pup had been circling them as they fought. While making sure it couldn't hit Knuckles T-Pup opened it mouth and activated its flamethrower. The Devil had kept trying to evade the robot dog while it fought Knuckles. Although the fire couldn't do anything to its skin, it was hurting it. T-Pup would then start shooting powerful lasers at the demon before it got close enough to start sending electric shocks to its legs, causing it to stumble.
__At one point The Devil managed to grab Knuckles and throw him at Mighty just as he was about to run in and help. This made T-Pup want to keep its distance as it tried to get away from the demon. This made Sonic come in and started using his homing attack. Scourge had joined him, but he wasn't using his dagger yet. While T-Pup landed and was getting ready to use its missiles Surge had ran over to it and crouched down.
__"Give me the rest of that electricity, won't you?" It didn't sound like she was asking. T-Pup waited for the tenrec to place her hand on it's back before it gave her the rest of the electricity it had that it could give without powering down. This made Surge stare at her fist excitedly as it started sparking. "All right!" She then charged with the two hedgehogs and punched The Devil in the stomach. All those shockwaves exploded and actually threw the demon pretty far, but it just shook its head and growled before standing back up.
__Tails was examining the entire dead plain. He couldn't see Amy. This was good, but he still needed to make sure. He leaned to the side of the Tornado as Antoine started running with his sword out. "Where's Amy?"
__The coyote stopped and looked up at Tails. "She is staying at H.Q. with all ze other disabled and kids." He then ran into action as Bunnie ran with him.
__At one point The Devil had grabbed Surge and threw her up into the air. While Kitsunami caught her with the water he had left The Devil smacked Scourge across the face and pinned him to the ground, knocking him unconscious. But before The Devil could try to bite his legs Sonic ran over and punched it in the nose, forcing it back and off of Scourge as Fiona ran to drag him away. When the Devil faced Sonic its nose was actually bleeding. There was shock in its eyes as it licked it's own blood. It then giggled in delight as it snapped its jaws at Sonic. The blue hedgehog kept evading it and kept using fast punches and kicks to force it back again as Antoine tried swiping his sword at its legs while Bunnie started using the flamethrower in her robot arm. The Devil smirked as it swiped it's long tail at Antoine and Bunnie. The two were knocked back very far; out of the perimeter. This made Sonic look back in shock. Big mistake. He turned back but The Devil had bit into his arm and lifted him off the ground.
__Tails stood up from his seat. He could have used the guns in the Tornado, but he wasn't risking it. He quickly flew out and began spin dashing. He aimed for The Devil's jaw socket, forcing it to open its mouth and drop Sonic. Tails immediately grabbed Sonic and flew him back to the Tornado as E-123 Omega and Gemerl started shooting their guns at the demon. When they got to the Tornado Tails set Sonic down and went back into Tornado.
__"Even now?" Sonic had asked Tails in disbelief. He was gripping his arm to stop the bleeding, staining his gloves red.
__Tails glared at Sonic. "Don't be stupid! Just because I'm still fucking pissed off at you and don't plan on forgiving you anytime soon doesn't mean I stopped loving you, man! Now stay back!" He managed to muster up the courage from this adrenaline and charged. The two robots backed off and allowed Tails to come in close enough for him to shoot a net at The Devil's feet. The net wrapped around the demon's legs tightly, causing it to fall forward onto its knees. T-Pup took this chance to finally launch its missiles, Gemerl following its lead. The missiles made contact and exploded.
__Everyone stopped where they were and waited. When the smoke cleared The Devil was on its hands and knees while panting excessively. It was tired. This was good. But the demon suddenly raised its hand and just held it up. Everyone was confused until Fiona and the Destructix all collapsed onto their knees. Scourge was already awake again and was looking worried. When The Devil lowered its hand Fiona and the Destructix all stood up. Their expressions were blank; empty. The Devil then roared and they all charged. Scourge had immediately grabbed Fiona while the Destructix attacked the Freedom Fighters.
__"Knock it off!" Scourge was shouting as he shook Fiona. The vixen hit her head against Scourge's chin before she kicked him in the stomach. The green hedgehog landed on his ass with a grunt. He looked up at Fiona and was shaking his head. When Fiona moved Scourge dodged and kept evading her. He did not want to fight her.
__At one point Predator had attacked one of the Weasel Bandits. This frightened Tails as the blue hawk fell down and started spazzing out of control before he went limp. He was only unconscious.
__Tails's ears perked up as he stared at Predator while the rest of the Destructix continued fighting. The Devil could not control them if they weren't awake, and they weren't like Scourge to have the sense to get back up right away. If all of them were unconscious it would make things easier, but he really wished it didn't have to be this way. He saw Dave the Intern running away and whistled him over. "Oi! Dave!"
__The capybara stopped and stared at him. "What do you want!? I'm trying not to die here!"
__Tails turned the Tornado and leaned the machine down to his level. "Have the rest of your gang go out of range of the Destructix! They'll stop fighting!"
__Dave was shaking his head. "They'll just follow us again! You have to hold them back!"
__"Hold them back!?" Tails looked behind him as the rest of the Destructix were beating up some of the Freedom Fighters. "We don't have a way to!"
__"I got it!" Tangle had ran over and started extending her long tail. She first wrapped it around Simian, then Flying, and then Lightning. "I got 'em!" She cheered.
__But since Simian was closer to the beginning of her tail that connected to her body he managed to grab her and yank her away.
__"Never mind! He got me!" Tangle was pulled off the ground.
__"I gotcha!" Vector had ran over and grabbed Tangle's hands as he tried to keep her from being pulled away.
__"Careful!" Tangle urged. "I only have one butt!"
__Tails glared down at Dave. "Get the rest of you and run, dammit!"
__Dave nodded nervously before he ran over to his friends and started urging them away.
__Tails made sure to count the feet for the closest member until they were about ten feet. He started yelling at Tangle. "Let go, Tangle! You'll get shocked, too!"
__Tangle's eyes grew wide as she began to unwrap her tail. Just as the Lightning Bolt Society were out of range Tangle was barely able to let go of Simian as the rest of the Destructix were electrocuted and collapsed onto the ground. Tangle was hugging her tail as she checked the end of it. "Phew! Only one little hair got singed!"
__Scourge was able to pin Fiona to the ground as he looked at his friends. "What did you do!?" He shrieked.
__"It's for the best!" Tails shouted back. "Just worry about Fiona!"
__As the Freedom Fighters dragged the Destructix away all of the G.U.N. soldiers started circling the demon. They aimed their weapons at it and everything went quiet. The Devil was looking around slowly and calmly. Too calm. Way too calm. The Devil started giggling. "Pathetic fools," it bellowed. "Your anomalies are all mine!"
__Hearing the monster speak so loud, harsh, and menacing made Tails cower back down in his Tornado as the shouting started up again. He started panicking.