The Albion Prophecy (A Sonic Fanfic)

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Sonic gave Kay a smile that stretched a mile wide, his emerald green eyes gazing at her cheerfully despite the battle that raged on just beyond the rocky mountainside. “How’s it going? Last I saw you were in New Mobotropolis. What are you doing all the way out here?”

Kay briefly recalled the last time she had seen the famous hedgehog. It was two weeks ago, just after he’d rescued her from the Casino Night Zone. Again she felt relieved at his reappearance – he had impeccable timing, too. She smiled back and replied, “It’s a long story.” There was an explosion in the distance, like a bomb going off, and the seriousness of the situation was brought back into sharp focus. “I don’t have time to explain right now. We have to get Eggman away from all these people.”

“I agree,” Sonic said as he rose to his feet, helping Kay up with him. “Do you know why he’s here?”

Kay brushed herself off and then looked back at Sonic, careful not to make eye contact until she had time to tell him about the bigger picture. “He’s here for me.”

“Still?” Sonic shook his head. “You’d think the guy would move on.”

That’s right, Kay recalled. He saved me from Eggman the day we met. “The situation has become a bit more complicated, Sonic.”

A bullet whizzed past her ear and bounced off the boulder, startling the both of them and turning their attention in the direction they’d just come. The two bots that had remained on the roof with Kay were now on the ground, running towards them and firing their weapons. The next thing she knew Sonic was holding her in his arms again, saying, “Outta here!” and zooming away from the enemies and their bullets.

When they stopped this time they were further down the mountain, closer to the heat of the fight but still invisible and protected behind a set of large rocks. Sonic put a hand on her shoulder, indicating for her to kneel down. “Okay, fill me in.”

“Do you know anything about the ancient Albion prophecies?” Kay asked once she had a knee in the grass. Sonic shrugged.

“All I know about Albion is that it’s gone now. Eggman leveled the place.”

The sound of gunfire was nearing their location. “Then it will take too long for me to fill you in.”

“Just give me the basic idea.”

Well, this is going to sound arrogant, but... “I’m very important and Eggman wants me.”

Sonic nodded. “And that’s bad?”

“That’s bad.”

“Then I should get you out of here.” The blue hedgehog grabbed her hand and pulled her back to her feet, intending to race her away to safety, but Kay pulled back and shook her head.

“No, Sonic. I’m the reason Eggman is here, so I’m going to help fight him off.”

Sonic observed her for a moment, but he didn’t waste much time in doing so. He smirked at her and held up his hands in surrender. “Fair enough. Let’s go.”

Kay followed him as he led her out away from their cover and into the open battlefield, which was a mess of grey G.U.N. uniforms and red robots. Bullets flew everywhere; some robots even had laser weapons. No one had seen the two of them emerge from hiding. Sonic knew exactly what he was doing and hurried towards the city streets below, where civilians were still attempting to escape the crossfire. Soon he wasn’t even at her side anymore and was instead down below, helping people to safety. Kay slowed to a stop where she was, looking around and taking in the details.

The mountainside merged with the city buildings about 100 yards away, and behind them the rooftop Kay had been on barely showed its face in the far distance. Sonic had practically taken them all the way down the mountain. There were plenty of rocks and boulders for use as shelter, and many human soldiers were taking advantage of the landscape to aid them in defeating the enemy. Kay glanced into the air. She saw several airborne robots shooting at Rouge, and to the bat’s left flew the Tornado, Tails’ plane.

Team Fighters is on the scene, Kay thought with a smile. That means that Tails, Amy, and Silver are here too, somewhere. As she began to scan the area for them, the Master Emerald invaded her thoughts with a grayscale image: Shadow was further up the hill, fighting off ground troops without a problem...but he wasn’t looking to the sky, where a winged bot was aiming its laser blaster at him from behind. The weapon was fired and Shadow fell to the ground.

And suddenly everything was in color again. Kay began running up the hill towards the black hedgehog, though she couldn’t see where he was at the moment. All she knew was that the last time she saw something in grayscale, it had turned out to be the future. If that were the case here, she would be able to help him before he was shot.

There he was! Kay tried to quicken her pace, though running uphill was no picnic and her muscles were already screaming in protest. Shadow drove a Chaos Spear through one robot, kicked another downhill...and turned his back to deal with the last few enemies just as the airborne bot came into view behind him.

She was in earshot, at least, and with a few more paces she would be at his side. The robot aimed at him.

“Shadow, get down!” Kay yelled. The black hedgehog whirled to face her, glaring, at the same time that she collided with him and sent them both down. The laser fire singed a nearby patch of grass.

“Get off!” Shadow growled, pushing her away before she could fully recover from the fall. He threw a Chaos Spear upwards and destroyed the metal menace in midair. Kay sat up and saw that he was already on his feet, glowering down at her. “I don’t need your help, girl.”

Wonderful. He’s calling me “girl” again. Kay stood up as well, trying to ignore her burning leg muscles. She frowned at him and said, “I apologize.”

He sneered at her obvious sarcasm and hurried off to another part of the battle, forming a third Chaos Spear on his way.

Kay sighed and put her hands on her hips, dropping her gaze to the grass and thinking back to her last conversation with him. What had she said to get him so mad at her all of a sudden? She was replaying the scene in her mind when she became aware of the fact that she was no longer alone. Snapping her gaze back upwards, she saw four large robot minions, two on each side, all aiming their weapons right at her.

“Hold your fire,” the all-too-familiar voice boomed overhead. “I want her in one piece.” Kay spun around and looked up. Eggman sat in his personal carrier, grinning wickedly down at her. He wasted no time gloating this round and deployed his mechanical arm immediately. It snapped around Kay’s torso, pinning her arms at her sides, and as soon as she was secure she was lifted off her feet. Eggman steered his carrier towards the Death Egg II and went at it with full speed. He didn’t even boast about his capture on the way up. The doctor had obviously learned from his past mistakes and was waiting until he had her far away from the city to do his evil routine.

Kay didn’t bother calling out. She knew no one would hear her over the sounds of fighting anyway, and that she’d be able to get away from Eggman one way or another as she had in the past, so she just sighed and let him bring her to his flying fortress...again.

Meanwhile Tails was piloting the Tornado, firing at the doctor’s air bots, when he saw a carrier rise up on his left side. When he looked over he noticed that Eggman had caught someone with his transportation’s mechanical arm. It looked like a female hedgehog, and for a split second she looked right at him. He considered maneuvering his plane to intercept the carrier, but at the rate it was going it would be inside the Death Egg before he could turn himself around.

Instead he decided to turn in the opposite direction and descend so he could tell Sonic.