"Now that is a base."
Twilight couldn't help but agree with Rainbow Dash as she, her friends and all six of the Freedom Fighters stood at the edge of a cliff. Down below them was a colossal base with eight different structures sticking out of it. Hundreds of badniks swarmed the sky while abominations of darkness patrolled the ground. The desert allowed the group to easily see them, but it also lacked any cover for an attempt to sneak in.
"Hundreds of troops. No cover whatsoever. And I take it you can't teleport us in?" Sally asked Twilight. Twilight shook her head. "Ugh. Well, then that means there's only one option available to us. And it's the one I like the least."
"Frontal assault?" Sonic asked.
"Yes Sonic, frontal assault it is."
"And you all said that today would be a bad day," Sonic laughed.
"Rainbow, Twilight and Applejack. You three are with Sonic, Bunnie and Antoine. Clear a path and get the forces attention," Sally instructed. The rest of us are going to sneak inside and try to find Nicole. Amy says that she's somewhere in there and I intend to get her out."
"An reason as to why we didn't bring Amy with us?" Rarity asked.
"Because Twilight and I don't know what the full effect Sombra's magic had on her. And I don't like unknown variables on the battlefield. It's hard enough dealing with Sonic," Sally replied. Sonic gave her a mock hurt look and she smirked back at him. "Any questions? No? Then go team, GO!"
Sonic and Rainbow were off like a rocket, with Bunnie and Twilight right behind them. Bunnie held Antoine and Twilight had Applejack. Sonic let out a whoop before he charged right into the shadow forces, sending them skyward from his speed alone. Rainbow Dash slammed into the aerial foes with enough force to create a sonic rainboom, blasting them out of the sky. Bunnie and Twilight dropped off Applejack and Antoine to assist Sonic, before they took to the skies to deal with the oncoming badniks that had slipped by Rainbow.
"I think this will be our first time working together. Show me what you can do!" Twilight instructed.
"It'll be a pleasure, yer highness!" Bunnie replied. Her left arm glowed with green light before she unleashed a beam of energy that tore through waves of baniks. "HA! Think ah got twenty with that shot alone. Yer turn, princess."
Twilight smirked at Bunnie before she turned towards the badniks, her eyes narrowing. "No life detected within these metal shells. Let's do this." Twilight's horn glowed with power before a violet wave erupted out of her, decimating every badnik that was around them. "Forty," Twilight said as metal rained from the sky.
"Just forty? Man, pick up the pace you two." Twilight and Bunnie looked over to see Rainbow come to a stop in front of them, with badniks falling out of the sky behind her. "Because I'm already up to eighty. Chop chop." She rocketed back into the fight, leaving Twilight and Bunnie to share a smirk.
"We can't let her win, can we?" Twilight asked.
"Of course not. Her ego get's any bigger and her head'll erupt. We can't let that happen," Bunnie agreed. The two flew after Rainbow Dash, joining her in her fight.
"And that's eighty!" Sonic laughed as he skidded to a stop. The shadows that he had torn through exploded, giving him a moment to check up on his friends. "Yo AJ and Twan, how the two of you doing back there?"
Applejack let out a yell as she hurled a punch through one of the shadow beasts, while a flash of steel cleaved another in twain. AJ and Antoine went back to back as the monsters encircled them, smirking at one another before beginning their next move. Antoine grabbed on of AJ's arms and swung her around, the mare unleashing kicks with enough force to blast back the shadows around them. The monsters opened fire upon the pair with magic, but with a skill and precision unmatched, Antoine deflected each of the lasers off of his family's blade and back at each of the beasts that had fired them. With a smirk he sheathed his blade and watched as they all exploded, cape fluttering epically behind him.
"Not bad you two. Make a pretty good team," Sonic said as she skidded to a stop next to them. "You two going to partner up?"
"Most likely no. No offense to you, madam Applejack, but zere is only one cowgirl for me," Antoine said. He looked up at the sky as Bunnie did a Rider Kick through a particularly large badnik, sighing with a smile as is exploded to the sound of Bunnie's laughter. "But if I am needing a partner from Equestria, I see that you have what it takes."
"Yer not too bad yerself. Maybe ah could have somepony watching mah back after all," AJ replied. "After all, the one who's supposed to be watching mah back keeps flying off all the time!"
"Hey, I keep my eyes on your back! Uh, I mean, I keep an eye out behind you for...uh...you know what I mean!"
Then all three sets of heads snapped to the side to see that shadows the size of buildings were now charging towards them. "And not that those things are scarier or anything, but maybe ah could use some help in bringing them down."
"But of course. What kind of a gentleman would leave a delicate lady to handle this all on her own?" Antoine asked.
"Pretty sure Applejack is as far from delicate lady as you can get, Twan," Sonic said.
"Quiet, barbarian."
Applejack then let out a whoop as she jumped in front of the both of them, slamming her hooves into the ground with enough force to collapse the ground and send the shadow beasts tumbling downward with a roar. Sonic looked to Antoine and smirked, before racing back into the fight. Antoine shook his head and conceded that, this once, Sonic had been right.
"Seems they've got them distracted well enough," Sally muttered. "How's your spell holding out, Rarity?"
"I'll...hold..." Rarity grunted. She, Sally, Tails, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rotor were all inside of a bubble of magic Rarity had created. The purpose of the bubble was to turn the group completely invisible to any spells or mechanical eye. And from the fact that they hadn't been overrun by the enemy forces, it seemed to be working.
"Not much longer. We're almost there," Fluttershy comforted. The group walked up to one of the side entrances, allowing Tails and Rotor to get to work. Within a matter of moments the two had hacked into the mainframe and gotten the door open, allowing the group to sneak inside. Once inside, Rotor pulled out a device and activated it, before motioning to Rarity to drop her spell. She did so and nearly dropped herself.
"This disruptor will keep us hidden from Robotnik's cameras," Rotor explained. "But it's only a matter of time before he figures out that we're in here so we need to move fast."
"Understood. Pinkie, how's Rarity?" Sally asked.
"Give me just one moment," Pinkie replied. She pulled out a bottle marked "Sugar Rush" and gave Rarity a sip. A moment later the mare bounced back up to her hooves, her mane sticking out and an eye twitching. "She's all good to go!"
"Excellent. Let's move."
The team raced through the base, using Tails and Rotors tech to alert them every time they came near a patrol or nearly activated some kind of security feature. Sally held the device that would allow her to track Nicole. It wasn't good at long ranges, but with how close they were, she was beginning to pick up a signal.
"She's here," Sally said with tears in her eyes. "Nicole is in here!"
"Lead the way, Sally," Tails said. Sally took point and raced ahead, with the others following her. But as they ran deeper into the base, the more Rotor narrowed his eyes as nothing happened. It got to the point that he grabbed hold of Sally and Tails to pull them back, before motioning for the ponies to stop.
"Why are we stopping I don't wanna stop is everything moving fast why are you two-?" Rarity spat out. Rotor held a hand over her mouth to silence her.
"Rotor, why are we stopping?" Sally asked. "We're so close to Nicole! My scanner says that she's just up ahead!"
"It's too easy," Rotor muttered. The ponies gave him a look of confusion while Tails nodded off to the side.
"Yeah, every time we go after Robotnik, it's always death traps, robots, springs, spikes and all sorts of things. But this place has been...boring. No death, saws...and if he's working with Sombra, then shouldn't there be more magical traps as well?" Tails pointed out.
"So they're slipping. We need to get to Nicole," Sally said. She tried to step past Rotor, but he placed a hand on her shoulder and kept her in place.
"Sally, I know that you're worried about Nicole. I know how close the two of you are. I'm worried too. But we don't have Sonic here. We don't have any of our heaviest hitters. So if we walk into a trap...I fear we may not be able to get out of it without..."
"We'll be fine," Sally said. "We always are. I'm not underestimating Eggman. I know what he can do. But I also know that every second we waste is another second they hurt Nicole. So please, we need to save her!"
Rotor frowned, clearly not happy, but with a sigh he moved out of the way. "You're the princess. By your lead."
Sally raced ahead with the others following, winding down path after path until they reached a large pair of doors. She nodded to Tails and the kid genius quickly managed to get the doors opened. Doors that smoothly opened without a sound. Sally looked over to Rotor, who mouthed the word "trap". She nodded to show that she understood before slowly slinking inside. The others followed her into the darkness.
"Tails, can you turn on the lights?" Sally whispered.
"I...can't," Tails grumbled. "For some reason the lights aren't working."
"Not good. Sally, do you have Nicole's location?" Rotor asked. Sally's eyes went wide and she shook her device a few times, before shaking her head in confusion.
"I...I don't understand. It's saying...that Nicole is all around us," Sally replied.
"We have a winner!"
Stadium lights snapped on and blinded the group, especially Rarity who screamed in pain at the light. AS their eyes adjusted they looked around to see what was going on...only for their hearts to go cold. Surrounding them was a line up that would make even the most brave fighter fear for their life. On one side of the room stood Shadow, Knuckles, Blaze and Ixis. On the other was Tirek, Big Mac, Cadence and Starlight. And all of them had a holographic Nicole standing on their shoulder.
"W-what the...?" was all Sally could say.
"What's the matter princess, cat got your tongue? No? Well give Blaze a moment, I'm sure she'll rip it out," the cackling voice of Eggman rang over the area.
"You seem surprised by what you're seeing. I mean, I can't say I blame you, being so feeble minded and everything," Sombra's voice added on. "But hey, at least you found your friend again. That's something, right?"
"EGGMAN, what did you do to her?!" Sally roared.
"Woo, that is some rage. Didn't know you had it in you, princess," Eggman laughed. "Simple, really. We broke her. We broke her into so many pieces that each and every one of our minions can now have a little Nicole with them. To plan, to calculate...and to make this fight as heart wrenching as possible."
As he said this, all of the Nicole's began to laugh. The group went back to back as their friends turned foes began to encircle them, Sally desperately trying to figure out a way out of this trap.
"Trap? No no no, princess, this isn't a trap," Sombra cackled, as if he was in her mind.
"It's an execution."