Part 1
By now, the Egg Carrier Mk. III had started to turn around and fly away from the ocean; Eggman had gotten what he wanted, and had no reason to be here anymore. By the shoreline of the ocean, Xevioso could be seen approaching, looking up towards the sky for any sign of the airship. His keen eyes soon detected the massive shape partially obscured by clouds, and he growled.
"There! That must be him!"
"Interesting," Tel-Eth said, his coat fluttering behind him. "He is more advanced than I expected. Still, we are strong enough to defeat him combined. I can use my psychokinesis to get us up there."
"Are you sure you'd be able to lift me with that?" Xevioso questioned, frowning.
"I have torn a Black Comet in two with this power. It shouldn't be a concern."
The beast nodded.
"Very well, then; let's go!"
Xevioso was covered by a green glow as he and Tel-Eth floated towards the Egg Carrier. Eggman, meanwhile was gloating over his good fortune after having successfully captured Tiamat.
Cubot, having been fully repaired, was heading over to see Eggman and Orbot when...
"Oh man... I need to ditch those energy drinks, they're really--" Cubot soon spotted the carnage from the main hall inside the Egg Carrier, with many of the destroyed Egg Pawns being hauled away.
"WHOA! Did I miss the party?! And I wasn't even invited?!" Cubot hurriedly meets up with Eggman and Orbot.
"Eggman, my dude, what happened?! Was there a party I wasn't invited?! Orbot, you didn't tell me there was gonna be a party!" Cubot exclaimed, throwing his arms up.
Orbot merely groaned out in annoyance, upon sensing and hearing Cubot's presence. "Oh joy... if only you were still under repairs..."
Eggman was too giddy to really be annoyed by Cubot's idiocy.
"Sorry Cubot, but the party happened a bit too fast to properly invite you," he chuckled. "The aftermath, however... we can all enjoy this! Hehehe!"
He pressed a button on his wrist-mounted communicator.
"Egg Knights, get in here and clean up this mess; I've got a date with a so-called goddess!"
Still chuckling to himself, he started to walk out of the room, as some Egg knights showed up to gather the broken remains of the Egg Pawns.
Cubot was still confused before Orbot approached to his lackey, whispering to him. "It's a long story. We should just focus on the main task at hand."
"Yes, let's hurry it up now," said Eggman, clearly keen on checking out his new prize. He walked into the holding bay, where an unconscious Tiamat lay; already she had bee put in restraints, in the form of specialized chains around her neck, limbs, tail, and waist.
Cubot looked at the unconscious Tiamat, and he quickly ran behind Orbot. "Ah! What is that thing?!"
Orbot groaned out in more annoyance. "I refuse to be your shield, Cubot! Plus, that sea monster, or Tiamat mentioned by some Mobian, is fully unconscious and poses no threat to us."
Eggman grinned as he approached the unconscious beast.
"Impressive... truly impressive," he hummed, rubbing his chin.
"I wonder what shall we do to them, oh glorious leader?" Orbot asked, quite curious. Eggman chuckled.
"Same thing I'm working on with that treant; Cyberize it!"
"Ooohh! How wonderful!" Orbot claps his hands with excitement. Cubot looked at the unconscious Tiamat.
"Say uhh... Eggman, my dude? How'd ya manage to capture this... uhh... giant sea monster thingy?"
"I basically shot a giant fire laser at it to fry it into submission," Eggman chuckled. "I did have some help from a meddling pyrokinetic fox, but he's no longer any use to me."
Back with Team Watts...
With Razer still motionless and unconscious, he was very unresponsive as he was taken somewhere, destination unknown. It seemed to be in the slums of a city, and a tired but somehow dry White and Sephtis were pumping on his stomach as Sephtis carried a ball of oxygen with his spear.
Razer was still lifeless and unconscious. His mind was filled with silence, unable to hear anything going on at all. Sephtis groaned. "I guess I'm hafta gonna do this again," he said, trying to insert the oxygen into Razer.
He was soon breathing normally, though thanks to his pyrokinesis having been squeezed dry by Eggman earlier, his recovery won't be that simple.
White crouched, putting fingers to Razer's neck. "He's breathing, but still unconscious," he said. "And we still don't know where Tina is..." White slumped him over his shoulders. "Let's head to GUN."
"Alrighty," replied Sephtis, and the two headed to the base.
Back at the G.U.N. base in Station Square, a G.U.N. soldier approached Leon, with a sense of urgency.
"Mr. Leon, sir! There's been reports of Dr. Eggman in the Sagebrush Steppe; not only that, but we've gotten reports of a huge creature, like a wyvern or something, in the prairie as well! It seems to have been injured badly, though; we think Eggman attacked it. There's also a civilian stuck in the prairie, as well, near the creature!"
This caught the attention of Ajax. "'Wyvern'...?"
Leon frowned.
"Another one of those beasts?" he asked, arms crossed. "Hmm... that's definitely worth checking out right away. We'll take this information to Commander Tower and see what he says."
The G.U.N. Soldier nodded, motioned his head. "Yes sir. Follow me."
"I'll join up if you want, Leon." Ajax offered. He seems to have made a full recovery from the incident.
"We wanna come too!" Calvin squeaked, jumping up from his chair. Leon had looked over at Ajax, nodding a bit, before frowning at Calvin.
"Ohhh no, I am not bringing children along with me," he said, arms crossed. "This could be a very dangerous mission, and I'm not risking your lives."
"You two will have to stay for this one. If any, your brother still has an injured ankle that's still in need of recovering." Ajax told them before looking at Leon.
"Shall we head to the control tower?"
"But... but that's not fair! We encountered that dragon and didn't get hurt!" Calvin pouted, but was ignored by Leon as he motioned for Ajax to follow him.
"Let's go," he said.
Ajax nodded and followed Leon, leaving the brothers behind. The brothers weren't hurt by the dragon, but did nearly got hurt when the AVG-246 sustained heavy damage and landed roughly. Calvin just growled and started to pace.
"This stinks! I don't wanna be cooped up in here while they get t'have all th'fun...!"
Micah frowned, fidgeting a bit.
"C-Calvin, maybe we should just listen t'them," he mumbled. "They mentioned that Eggman guy, right? Isn't he really, really dangerous...?"
The older brother frowned, arms crossed.
"Yeah, but they said he left th'scene already, so it's not like we'd run into him..."
Leon and Ajax soon reached the command room, with Leon knocking on the door. It opened after a few seconds, revealing a somewhat harried-looking Commander Tower.
"Leon? What is it?" he asked, frowning.
"Sir, there's been reports of Eggman activity in the Sagebrush Steppe," he said. "And they found some huge animal there as well; it's supposedly another beast, like that dragon that destroyed the battleship."
Tower's frown only deepened.
"Great, just what we need; Eggman, and more monsters," he groaned.
"I'm requesting permission to travel to Sagebrush Steppe and scope out the situation," Leon continued. "A civilian was additionally found there as well, near the beast."
Tower rubbed his chin as he paced.
"Well, it wouldn't be wise to leave them there, then," he said. "Permission granted, but I suggest you take some good backup with you; we don't know what that creature's capable of."
Leon saluted.
"Understood, sir," he said, turning to leave.
Ajax listened throughout the conversation before asking Leon as a request, "Shall I fly, Leon? I'm no G.U.N., but I'm one hell of a pilot. With the others still out, I'm not sure when they'll fully recover."
He muttered softly at the word 'civilian'. "I hope Razer's out there..."
"You're sure you're well enough to pilot?" asked Leon, not hearing him mumble under his breath. He was walking towards a rec room to see if anyone wanted to accompany the two on this mission.
Ajax nodded and grabbed his pilot's license from his vest, and presents it to Leon. It contains both his name and picture, as well as his rank as 'Ace'. Leon rubbed his chin as he considered the license, before nodding.
"I meant if you're well enough in a physical sense, but this works too," he smiled a bit, before walking into the rec room.
"Heh. Well, you know me." Ajax responded, follows into the rec room as he looks around inside. There were G.U.N soldiers hanging out in the room; some were watching TV, some were playing table tennis, some were playing cards, among other leisurely activities. A few looked up as the door opened, but didn't respond with much more than waves and friendly hello's.
As Ajax waved back, he soon hears his cellular device ring from his vest. "Huh?"
He pulled said device from his vest and answered it. "Hello? Yes, this is Ajax. I'm perfectly fine, thanks. Can't say the same about our crew and pilots. They're alive, but are pretty hurt. And the AVG-246 suffered catastrophic damage so I'm at G.U.N. base for the time being. If you have something to bring, well... it's about Eggman. If any, he's a much bigger threat than ever."
He gave a nod upon hearing the unknown but familiar caller notifying Ajax. "Right, got it. As for Razer? Well, I'm gonna look for him. I don't mind the long wait for delivery. Thank you."
Ajax soon hung up the call and puts the device back into his vest. Leon raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. A curvy female foxidna looked up from the card game she was playing with a male dumbo rat, waving.
"Hey Leon, what's up? Who's your new friend?" she asked, looking over at Ajax.
"Name's Ajax." Ajax commented.
"Just wondering if there's a hangar bay so we could retrieve hopefully my friend, and that legendary beast someone mentioned." He spoke as well. The foxidna practically jumped up in her seat.
"A legendary what?!" she gasped, eyes widening. "Wow... that sounds really exciting! Can we come too?!"
Leon chuckled a bit.
"I don't see why not," he said. "The backup would be appreciated, anyways."
"Right. Shall we get going?" Ajax asked. Leon frowned a bit, rubbing his chin.
"Let's see if we can round up anyone else first," he said, while the foxidna was busy tugging on the rat's arm, trying to get him to stand up.
"Terry, c'mon! Adventure!"
"Well, if you need to travel long distances, I know a moderately skilled pilot who has served GUN and I well. His Gorana APC is reliable, and I don't expect him to fool around and screw up the mission, unless..." Tower paused. "There are some people who get him pretty worked up, but there are only about nine of them, so your chances of running into them are slim. I expect everything to run smoothly. I'll call him up - why don't you all prepare?"
Ajax nodded, not saying a word, but did nod in response. Leon nodded as well.
"Sounds good to me, boss," he said, turning towards the foxidna and rat, who were standing nearby, now; the foxidna was looking rather giddy. Ajax simply chuckled at the foxinda, gotta love that enthusiasm. She looked over at Ajax now, smiling.
"Oh, I never introduced myself; I'm Josephine, but please, call me Jo," she said, reaching out her hand to shake.
Ajax returned the smile and shook her hand with his own. "Ajax. Pleased to meet you, Jo."
The rat walked up as well, smiling a bit at Ajax.
"Terry," he said, also holding out his hand to shake.
Ajax nodded and shook Terry's hand, happily obliged in exchanging introductions.
In a higher area near the GUN base, a brown-furred bat with a black leather jacket, pants, and cargo pants was looking at a plane, putting on a helmet and a blue jacket. When he turned around, he waved to the incoming visitors. "Did someone need a plane?" he asked.
Ajax gave a nod and waved a hand at the bat. "That's us."
"Well, you got a pilot for ya," said the bat. "The name's Baker, Hercules Baker. I guess I'll be your escort for this. Lemme get this straight, too," he continued, having put his helmet on. "I'm not sure y'all have seen the news, but are there some types of monsters roaming around?"
"They have been, yes. I happened to witness it myself and barely made it. Not it seems there's another ancient beast with a Mobian at the cliffs." Ajax confirmed to the pilot.
"Alright. For some reason, they've been keeping a closed lid on the details. Gotta say, y'all must be pretty brave to do something so dangerous... but I guess that's what GUN's for." With a shrug, Baker hopped into the plane. "When y'all're done talking 'bout tactics and all that, I'll be ready to let her rip."
"Our main priority should be to rescue that civilian," said Leon. "If the creature's anything like the one that took out that battleship, they're bound to be in danger, and we need to act fast."
Ajax nodded, "I can only hope that civilian is Razer..." He soon turned to Baker, "Let's go, Baker."
"Alright! Hop on in, and we'll get to savin'!" After they got on, the plane started up, and they were in the skies. A few seconds after being airborne, Baker asked, "I have estimated coordinates given, but I hafta ask: how will I know when I'm there? Have either of you been there before?"
"The location is the Sagebrush Steppe," said Leon. "I wasn't given the exact location except that it's near a cliff."
Ajax had already taken a seat upon entering the aircraft, listening to Leon and Baker talking. He was still visibly concerned, but all he could do was wait until they reach their destination.
"So what are we gonna do if we run into that monster, anyways?" Terry asked, frowning.
"Our priority is to rescue the civilian," said Leon. "I'd rather none of us try to engage the beast; if it's anything like that sea dragon, it'll almost certainly wipe us out if we tried to attack it."
Part 2
Deep within the caverns, a white-colored hedgehog, donning her spelunking hat fitted with a flashlight, with her hiking gear in tow, accompanied by her sister glanced around inside the area filled with catacombs and crevices. She stood close with her, not used to the darkness around.
"So uh... remind me again why we're doing this, Shima? You know I don't go well with caves... right?"
Shima wasn't really fazed by this and simply answered, "Father wanted us to seek out the legendary deities from deep within the darkness. If we do, then we will have to summon father to meet with them, and even perhaps gain more power from them if he wishes."
Her voice was eerie, but calm. Hali was a bit skeptical about this.
"I'm not so sure about this... are you sure we can meet them? They're not the friendly kind, really... we are finding these deities, after all..."
Shima rebutted her statement, "He gave us orders to discover them, Hali. We can't disappoint him, and it's been only three days since we arrived inside these caverns. I don't know where they are myself, but the area itself is substantially large. We might be able to discover hidden areas around here."
"You're right. Still, I freaked out loud from being swarmed by bats two days ago." She shuddered at this. "Gosh, I don't ever wanna remember this...!"
There seemed to be some kind of noise within the deep darkness of the seemingly endless cave...
Nearing the GUN base now was White and Sephtis, who entered suddenly carrying the unconscious Razer.
A G.U.N. soldier looked at the trio, with White hauling an unconscious Razer. "You came back alive! Anything going on? And who's that you're carrying with?" he asked, pointing at the unconscious and unresponsive Razer.
"Tiamat just doesn't want y'all going over the area with unconcealed weapons. And this guy," Sephtis said, trying Razer on his back, "-is the guy Eggman was using to power his thingamajob."
He was confused by this at first before taking a look at Razer, and back at Sephtis, "So Eggman used this Mobian as a living weapon? And is there any word of this Tiamat?"
"Yeah, it was really brutal," White explained, slumping Razer over his shoulder. "And what do you want by 'word?'"
The soldier merely shrugged. "Anyway, follow me to the medical room. We'll treat this Mobian ASAP."
White and Sephtis nodded, following the soldier to wherever he was taking them.
The doctors soon took Razer in and carefully sets him on the medical bed, wrapping an oxygen mask around him. He was still unresponsive.
One of the doctors turn to the duo. "How long has he been unconscious?"
Sephtis shrugged. "I dunno, depends on how fast the readers been going through the roleplay-"
White interrupted him. "It took us at least 15 minutes to get here, but I'm not sure if I could give you a good estimate. He was out like a light since he got him, though."
"...right. We'll handle everything from here." The doctor informed and joins up with the others to check up on Razer.
White followed him a few steps. "Is there anything else you need from us, sir?"
"That should be all, thank you. We'll try and inform Leon in the meantime." The soldier informed.
"Oh, alright. And one more thing..." White trailed off. "Have you guys seen two cats that look like brothers, that're super young? We had to split up with them, but they might know more about this whole thing."
The soldier looked concerned, now.
"Now that you mention it, two young cats were brought in to a base a while ago," he said. "They were involved in the second incident with the sea dragon, apparently."