Chapter Text
“Charmy! Take over the wheel; I'll take that Empire ship down!”
“what?! I— What?! I don't know how to drive an aircraft, Vector!”
“Why the hell would you ask Charmy?! I’m right here, dude!”
“I—I Uh—,” Vector frantically zipped his gaze between the two. Their eyes staring him down with equally frantic looks. Sweat bead at his (non-existent) brow. He tried to form words but none developed.
So, in time like this, Vector knew he had to take change and be ‘the man’ of the operation!
How did he do this?
By immediately turning tail and booking it out of sight. This instance being the back unit of the aircraft.
“Don’t yell at me, Silver!”
With that, Vector disappeared behind the back door, abandoning them with his tail between his legs.
Again…
“God damn it, Vector!” Silver grunted before snapping his head back to charmy. His usually lovable and annoying friend shell shocked to the point no movement was plenty over all. Silver tried to grab his attention by shouting his name, but it was no use.
Chamry simply stared out into the white void of the clouds around us, unable to see the land or even the sky.
Silver didn’t have the time to reassure him like he’d usually do, so to help his spirits. He pulled up the weapons panel and typed in the final authority code. Once the laser cannons were enabled, Silver grabbed Chamry, tossed him the keys, and threw him in his seat.
He took control of the aircraft's main console and thrusted the ship out of the clouds and into the thin mountain canyons below.
Once he was certain they'd gained ample distance, he took the time to briefly glance at the side mirrors. Sure enough, his expecting gaze caught sight of the Egg Empire ship; one that’s been following them for the past 200 miles and onward.
The aircraft recklessly surfaced from the clouds and once spotting them, swiftly closed distance; just a mere 20 feet away from colliding into them.
Silver’s eyes narrowed until they lay in slits. Watching. Waiting. Calculating. However, who was he to be all edgy and serious? Nah, leave that to the catastrophe duo of his estranged trio.
So, with a smirk slipping onto his muzzle, Silver sighed and brushed his quills aside. All cool and radical like. “Alright bud, You better be good at your shoot 'em up games. I’m counting on it!” he winked, throwing a thumbs up.
Charmy rolled his eyes and adjusted his seat, clearly unamused. He inserted the key into the laser panel's ignition, producing a monitor and a complementing control deck. He only glanced once to the land in front of them, his brows lifting slightly before focusing solely on the monitor.
“Yea yea, I got it. Just get your head in the game and focus on not dying, Ay Silver?”
“What do you mean by that— Whoa!”
Silver’s eyes bulged out of his skull as his eye caught sight of a large stone pillar. The rock towered over their ship and looked to be the size of a house. As silver caught sight of another behind it, he could only guess there'd be more.
Why did this even matter, it's not that they were in direct flight path with the stone?
But they were.
They were flying towards it. Expecting to be hit dead on.
swiftly Silver grabbed hold of the wheel and He shot it to the side. The force threw both Mobians' flesh against the pressure and violently swerved the ship away from a stone pillar.
The bee snickered to himself as Silver stirred them back on course. All the while clutching his rabidly seizing chest and pounding heart. He caught wind of Charmy's giggling and snapped his neck to meet his gaze, quickly glaring daggers. Charmy's smug smile fell as he hastily averted his gaze, now focusing on his control panel as if it was the most captivating thing on the planet.
The bee took charge and pulled up the ship's back side monitor. There, he took the laser controls in his hands and steered its aim until their enemy aircraft came straight into the crosshair.
He waited until the cannon’s inter mechanical lining glowed a red hue, signaling the enemy ships decision to start attacking. With the signal Charmy held aim and—in an instant—fired three rapid and explosive shots.
Each rocket coursed through the sky with high pitched whistles. They shot like bullets, landing and erupting in flashes of light before connecting directly on the opposing ships' cannons. The resulting explosion erupted out into the air, making the machinery to now be completely out of commission.
“Heak yeah! bullseye!” Charmy giggled, an… unnerving… look forming in his eyes.
Silver chuckled silently and turned his attention back to his driving. “Okay buddy, uh—don’t get trigger happy on me now…”
Charmy laughed as another ball of fire erupted behind them. Another cannon down…
“Too late for that!”
A worried look passed silver’s features, however, that emotion quickly subsided as he turned his attention back to piloting the ship. He lifted the controls until they bypassed another protruding stone pillar. They zipped closely to the wall, tempting the dinged up metal of the ship to collide with the mountain's rocky and sharp edge. But with his expert skill and determined focus, Silver made sure not a scratch came to their only saving grace.
After all, they were lucky this ship had been docked when they were escaping their infiltration of the Eggman Empire. If this thing goes down, who knows what the big egg would do if he got his hands on them and a chaos emerald?
They turned dangerous corners, bumped into foliage, and ducked into open caverns, all in hopes of losing the still undeterred Empire ship. But still, it followed like a hound dog chasing prey, just a few undesirable feet away.
Suddenly, a large crash erupted from behind them. Silver drove the aircraft forward, cranking up the duel and their speed . A large force rammed against the ship, denting the metal and causing them to surge forward. The impact sent their wings off balance and before anyone could grasp their situation, the aircraft began shaking; Quickly making a descent for the ravine below.
Silver snapped his gaze to their altitude meter in an attempt to gauge how fast they were truly dropping. But unfortunately for him, those ideas were swiftly turned into a worried feeling that creeped to his gut.
11,000 feet in the air, and the meter was only falling…
How did they not feel the drop in oxygen… did they not realize?
It sickened him to think about it, but looking ahead, that feeling only got worse…
Silver noticed how the towering mountains enclosed them at each angle, swallowing them in its depths. If he had to say, they had been fleeing for a few hours now in some unknown direction.
If they passed out, took the risk of toppling over the mountain's top, or flat lined…
no one would find them.
at least not alive…
Even still, Silver didn’t get time to think, just to act.
In his thoughts, Silver didn’t realize their direct plummet and started to feel himself rising into the air. The pressure soon displaced anything that wasn’t tied down.
from the force that picked up in seconds, Charmy was launched out of his seat and thrown to the roof; His body colliding with a heavy thud and shout of pain. Silver nearly slipped out of his seat when he came too. But, once regaining control, he gripped the wheel and used the leverage to plant his feet back on the ground.
With a grunt, he pushed out his psychokinesis to flip the emergency ignitions and take control of the back up steering panel.
Now with full control, silver pulled the wheel until he practically laid back into his seat. Using his full force, the ship began to tilt up, slowly coming back from its death fall. The ship returns to the sky, reckless, maybe even shaky, but stable and flying.
Silver’s heart roared through his ears as he continued to weave between pillars of rock. Eventually, Charmy got back into his seat and in no time began firing back at the ship.
But just as they've begun to calm down, a screeching and scrapping caught their attention. From the back of the craft, Vector emerged.
With him? A large, military grade, laser machine cannon.
Charmy’s eyes bugged out of his head as he finally caught sight.
“Vector! Where’d you find that?!”.
Vector dragged the gun further towards the aircraft’s sliding door, slamming the metal wide open and welcoming the whipping air to rush into the space.
“HAHA! This bad boy was hidden in some boxes behind the cargo! Who knew egg had some taste in his mech work!” his voice boomed out.
Without another moment's notice, Vector threw the gun out in front of him, pointing the nozzle out of the ship and towards the enemy. He sat in place, waiting for the right moment. Then, finally, when their cannons were in his sights he took a strong stance and pulled the laser's tempting trigger.
The room burst into a white flash of light before narrowing into one point at the gun’s nozzle. Then, the light coiled and silently shot straight back in the blink of an eye. The laser not only took out a cannon—but after another violent fire— pierced through the window as well, sending whatever troops were inside scattering or blind.
Vector laughed and hollered as he witnessed the damage, throwing his scaly tail side to side in a fit of excitement. “WOOOWIE! Hell yeah! Bullseye!"
Silver quickly rubbed his eyes and returned them to the space in front of him, "Focus Vector, they aren't out of the sky yet!”
The window roared as Vector turned back to him, flashing him a smile and winking. “Don’tyou worry about me kid, just run these guys off our tails and getting us home!” he laughed, turning his attention back to his fun.
Charmy flapped his wings at the display and got his hands back on his control panel. “Thats what I'm talking about! Light em’ up, Vector!”
Charmy followed with Vector led and focused on his own cannon fire. His eyes— now fervently locked on his monitors—fire missile after missile as enemy fire screams out in the sky.
With rapid fire to his left and large flashes of light from his right, silver gained just the slightest bit of confidence that things were gonna be okay. However, like several times before, Silver knew better than to get cocky at a moment like this. Because usually, it's the calm before everything goes to shit.
Unexpectedly, another crash comes surging through the ship. Metal creaks as bents from around stone walls and seams.
Charmy (again?) Is sent flying through the air. The small bee slamming right against the front glass and splattering on it like an insect to a window. But to his continued misery, another hit rang out across the space, throwing Charmy bee flat on the ground.
The vibration hits vector hard, leaving the man holding onto his newly found heavy artillery like it would hold him in its arms and give him a loving kiss.
Once silver turned back and assessed that the crocodile was still up and kicking, silver turned his attention back to the lasers that had been abandoned by the newly squished Charmy. However, as soon as Silver got a good look at the monitors, he started to realize how those few rounds of blasts didn't sound—or hit—like the others. Instead, they sounded much more violent...
That fact was made all so clear when he took control of the lasers again.
Click.
“What the…”
Click click.
“Why isn't anything firing? Did they…” he whispered, still holding on to some delusional deniability.
Then, the violent force ripped into his ears once again.
CRASH!
The impact's thunderous rumble echoed through the craft, only heightening Silver's suspicions and blood pressure. His control on the wheel faltered, and he slammed them into the side of a mountain. The impact sent inner debris scattering in the ship as well as throwing Chamy instantly against the affected wall.
Silver looked back and winced at the damage but he shook his head. He needed to know what the explosion was, and if his suspicions were right, things just got a hell of a lot worse…
Silver tossed away the laser modulus and used his psychokinesis to grab Charmy. Levitating the bee, he brought him to his side without looking away from the sky in front of him.
“Charmy, I need a reading,” he directed.
However, silver received no answer. Now with no other choice, he took a glance to see what the hold up was, only to find swirls in Charmy's eyes and legs limp as wet noodles slumped on the floor. Silver shook him side to side, snapping a now very irritated bee out of it. "C'mon man, give me something. What hit us?”
Chramy shook himself out and tugged off of his grasp with a glare; he flew up next to Vector, scanning for a brief moment before flying back to the other side of the aircraft and scanning the windows. Once he got a better view, Silver heard a gasp as he rushed back.
“Silver! They’ve blown out the laser cannons!"
Silver's stomach dropped; guess he was right…
“The ones on the sides… or the top?” he swallowed.
stammered as he whipped his head around. “Both! they're destroyed! The Egg ship launched bots to rip them apart! They're even tearing away at the walls!”
Silver’s browned furrowed in concern and before anyone (including himself) knew, the wheel hit its turn limit.
His foot slammed on the gas and forced The ship to collide and skidded with the mountain rock; Destroying the bots as well as whatever was left of the laser modules.
Charmy braised himself and clung into silvers quills, yanking them back and holding himself down. Once silver finally turned the wheel back He clutched his chest and flared his wings. “Silver, what the hell!”
His hands tugged on his quills and silver whined to the pain. He shoved charmy off of him before tending to his frizzled quills.
“It was necessary, buddy; if they would’ve burrowed a hole in this thing, the wind trajectory could’ve thrown everything off! One side of the ship is already exposed. We would’ve crashed!”
Before Charmy could retaliate with a swift tug, Again, another blast hits the craft and pushes them forward. launching Charmy’s grab past silvers head and flying back into the front pilot area. Silver grunts at the impact, and a growl rips through his chest.
He wasn't going to lose them at this rate. if they kept going like this their ship would be in flames in a matter of minutes. Silver decides to stand slightly and his eyes fall on the front below. To his surprise, at some point the terrain had changed, seething a lush and plentiful forest below.
Trees stack on top of earth other like blocks, so close it wouldn’t surprise him if they were knitted together. It might be dangerous, perhaps even deadly…
But he didn’t have a choice when his chances below lead to possible salvation to the certain death behind them.
So, with a final steady breath, Silver surged at the opportunity.
Charmy struggles, but eventually lifts himself into his co-polite seat. But as soon as his butt is placed firmly in his seat he notices the sky leaving the aircraft’s window.
Actually, now that he was looking, they seemed to be… falling?
Falling down… into… a tree?!
”SILVER WHAT THE FUC—“
Silver swarves away, down into the depths of the forest, nearly avoiding many thick tree trunks upon his descent.
”just hang on!”
Silver racks up the speed and makes a series of sharp turns, cruving around trees, nearly crashing into dangling vines. From the thousands of feet from the skies above to the now mere feet of the ground, the ship began to take a real beating.
”uh… hey man, you think you might want to pull up— Ack!” Vector cried out as a rouge branch whacked him in the face.
His whines of agony and annoyance are shut out as silver finally gets a read on their radar for a location. Charmy shoots to his side and almost screams.
“We’re leading them straight back home! We have to change course!"
he bolts to change the ships auto pilot but silver’s
”Wait! We might’ve lost them, this might be our only chance to get away!”
Charmy looks back and hesitates to push on. His eyes flicker to silver then to the space behind him. All in worry, all in concern.
“Let me check…”
He flies away from Silver's grasp and checks near the window.
He’s silent for a moment when…
“Aw, man!” He whines, “Do these guys ever let up?”
”They're still following us?” Vector screeches, finally backing into the ship, having enough of the foliage outside. “persistent dogs…” he grunts.
Charmy couldn’t pull his eyes away from the glass as he watched the Egg Empire ship draw closer to them. Worry fills his expression as he tries to pull himself out of it. ”What do we do, Vector…”
“Awe, don’t you worry buddy, we'll lose them!” He winks.
but even as he tried to sound positive and cheer up the bee. Vector couldn’t stop the bead of sweat that ran down his face when Charmy didn’t meet his gaze. Instead choosing to stare towards the window with glossy eyes.
Before charmy knows it, vector is at his side with a hand on his shoulder, face stoic and very unlike his smiley self. He looks up at him and feels a pain fill in his throat, one vector catches on to immediately.
”hey…” he says as calmly as he can over the still raging winds. “It’s going to be okay, we're gonna get home safe and sound. So keep your head up. Okay kid?” He shoots a toothy grin.
A moment passes between the two with Charmy staring up doubtably. But eventually, he sucks in a breath and furrows his brows. His chest puffs out as he nods solemnly , to which Vector smiles wider and a glint of pride fills his eye. His hands swatted out to hit the charmy’s shoulder. “That's my boy!”
Vector turns his attention around and walks over to silver. “So Mr.Time Genius, got any ideas on how to lose these freaks?”
Silver’s grip on the wheel tightens at the comment. How to get rid of them… a good question… a really good question…
i
f he was being honest, they were lucky to have made it even this far…
A giggle began pushed past his mouth; the thought trailing into nauseating hilarity. That little giggle started to grow. As the seconds ticked by, Silver's laugh turned into full blown hysterics.
Vector's smile faltered as his voice grew rougher under the mania.
“These guys are from the Eggman Empire; they’d give their lives for the old quack! The idea of losing them is nearly impossible! It's ridiculous!”
“Uhhh—Vector…!” Charmy shouted cautiously, backing away slowly. “I don’t know how much longer Silver’s going to last! He’s got that crazy in his eye…”
Silver couldn't help but find his concern adorable. The sound of laughter finally dies down as a malicious grin slides on his face.
“I’ve got plenty of fight in me, buddy. Don’t you worry. I’ll get rid of these guys in no time!”
Silver makes a tight turn and ruins the dramatic atmosphere by sending Charmy flying to the nearby wall of the craft. “God—damn it, Silver! Quit throwing me around!”
“Ay! Watch your mouth, little man!” Vector scolds.
Charmy loudly scoffs and throws his hands out bewildered. “I can say hell but not damn?!”
Vector paused then turned his head up and crossed his arms. “We don't condone Shadow’s attitude in this agency!"
“We’re in the sky!”
Silver could feel a headache start to grow…
“Guys, focus!"
Vector scoffed, “Like you got any say in this ‘half-pint’—“
Within the moment that Vector glared down at his hedgehog associate, a laser slams right into the giant cannon still dangling near the ship's door. The Egg machinery then collided with the beam near the nozzle and erupt into a blazing fire. Exploding and sending shrapnel bearding into the cockpit.
“Crap! Get down kid!” Vector yells tugging charmy behind him and shelling silver the best he could. Vector grunts as he takes sharp shrapnel and debris to his arms that swing in front of his face.
Once Vector lowers his arms, his eyes widen at the blood that starts to trickle down them. “Shit…”
Silver reaches out but before he could speck Vector turns back to him with a determined look.
"Hold out for a little longer Silver; I need to grab back up!”
he bolts from his position and starts running to the stroke door, only pausing in his rush to reach for a pocket on his belt.
“Here Charmy,” he says quickly, pulling out a small laser gun from its holster and tossing it to the bee.
“Take over!”
“Vector, again?!” silver snaps
“Ah! Damn it! Sorry! I mean—just—uh—“ Vector again stands conflicted before turning around. “stay safe!”
“hypocrite!” Charmy shouts after him.
Silver rolls his eyes and keeps piloting, dodging enormous trees and their loose spindling branches. He keeps tabs on how close the enemy ship is flying as he takes tight turns around protruding rocks. Eventually, they gain enough distance to only make out a small sliver of their ship's paint from behind the tree lines.
Silver’s doing just fine until a clattering catches his ear. Charmy is keeping an eye out the window, so when he turns his head and sees Vector dangling out the ship by the damned nozzle of the large laser cannon he practically screams.
”Vector! Are you nuts?!”
Vector tightens his grip and continues to shoot out the craft, holding a still decently sized laser in his hand and furring back at the enemy ship.
”Don't worry buddy, no one can aim this far! I’ll just create a distraction to make them think we still have our full fire power!”
”That's dangerous! It doesn’t matter what they think, just get back inside!”
Vector lets out a hardy laugh and turns to charmy, “you worry too much kid, just sit back. I got this—“
his friend is quickly shut up when a large exposition erupts from his side. What was presumed to be a missile nearly misses the ship and hits the front just a bit informs of their path. Even still, the explosion was enough to shake the ship and cause it to stumble. This causes Vector to lose his grip and slip, crashing into the forest floor a few feet below.
“Vector!”
Silver reconciles that tone of voice and almost snaps his neck before he turns to the door. Time stops as silver catches a missing vector, his friend that was just trying to save their skin gone within a second. But following his descent was one Chamry bee. Scrambling out the door and flying to save vector.
Silver curses under his breath, heavily debating whether to leave them for now until the threat was dealt with. After all, what harm is there if they hid in a bush for a day or two?
Although the thought sounded tempting, he knew better than to let them get rung out by the harsh jumble around them. So against his (better) judgement, he swerves the ship back around, hightailing himself straight back to the enemy.
Silver scans the area , frantically searching the front for a sliver of their yellow or scaly green. While he zips around, at some point the egg empire aircraft flies right past him. He swore he caught the eye of the driver who had a confused but more over bewildered expression flashing across his features.
Silver takes this as his chance, so before they completely pass each other, he rams into the side of the ship, sending it off trajectory and barreling into the forest.
Once he hears the muffled sounds of a crash, he finally dashes forward and spots Charmy helping up an injured vector. Within another moments thought, he passes them and squirrels around, turning back one last time. Chamry notices and swiftly picks Vector off the ground. He waits patiently and watches as silver comes barreling towards them, once the door is in sight, Chamry launches their bodies forward with full force.
cold metal slams into his cheek like a tank. The force is almost enough to keep him on the ground, but once he notices vector groaning, he quickly flies back up and helps him to the wall of the ship.
However, while Charmy's heart might have calmed, Silver’s started to develop in his ears.
”Charmy!” Silver hissed sternly, grabbing his friends' attention within the same second. Hes still tending to Vector whose arm was now bleeding and broken, Charmy nods to vector before flying up.
”Vector’s hurt! We can’t keep fighting like this!”
”Don't you think I know that?!” Silver spits, feeling the presser of the situation truly set in. His eyes land on the wrecked machinery blocking the door and panic starts to fill them as a hiss reaches his ears.
“Get the gun out of the ship—!”
Silver feels a large hit come to the aircraft. fearing for the worse to take another glance at the gun, but still, it stills there hissing. Silver’s confused but decides they had bigger problems.
“Charmy, I need you to push the gun out of the ship!” He commands, but still, he hears no answer. Instead, feeling a rough tug to his shoulder. Silver shakes his hand off to focus the terrain in front of them but again, Charmy’s tugs become more frantic.
However, another crash to their ship reconfirms that the ship is still heavy on their tail. So he keeps on. However that was until he felt rested slaps to the back. “Charmy, I’m trying to focus!”
The bee doesn’t waist another second and turns silver around in his seat, but before he could yell at him Chamry points and screams in his face.
“The roof!” His brows are turned up in fright before quickly getting behind silver to hide.
Silver’s gaze shoots up and realizes there's a massive crater on the ceiling.
That hit from eariler… this must be its cause. But what—
Suddenly, a trail of Mobians fell from the hole. Some immediately rush to a venerable vector. Several Mobians with bandanias covering their faces and weapons drawn from their holsters grab a hold of the crocodile and throw him towards the ship's open doors.
“Vector!” Charmy tries to rush over to him but Silver grabs his leg just in time.
“Don’t—“
but just as the words leave his mouth, a wolf median is on him, tackling him to the ground and pinning him down.
Silver scans the woman on top of him and notices the bandana. The cloth held the egg man empire symbol. A mark of loyalty amongst the organization.
his gaze shifted to quickly look at the other medians that filled the ship, each and every one of them held the stumble some were on their bodies.
these weren’t just any Mobians, They were drowned for the egg empire…
Silver's attention is forced back to the women pinning him as something flashes across his vision.
Upon looking fully, he realized the flash was the reflection of the serrated dagger in her hands.
“Mercenaries…” he mumbled, watching as the woman above him brought the knife above her head.
Silver throws his arms up and nearly blocks her from shoving the dagger into his face. Another mercenary realizes his fight and comes to his side, pinning Silver’s arms down.
His brows furrow and a blue glow started to form around the two. However before he’s able to throw them off Chamry throws himself and tackles the two away. His body sends them flying to the back of the ship before glancing at silver and darting to Vector.
dangling just out of the ship with a mercenary holding him out…
Charmy reaches the man and latches into his arms, trying desperately to pull him back into the ship as well with Vector. But as soon as he’s able to pull it off, Charmy is swiftly grabbed and thrown to the floor. The Mobian slams a hand over his head and reaches from an icepick at his belt.
Before Vector is able to help, he watches in horror as Charmy is stabbed in the leg. The kid cries out in pain as Blood starts to smear on the cold metal, leaving a crimson wake that starts to drip out and fall out of the ship.
Before the mercenary could lift his blade again, silver was on him. A blue hue surrounded the man and lifted him off of the ground. Silver doesn’t spare him another glance before tossing him out of the ship and coming to Charmy’s aid.
The others however, had no intention of watching. One by one, each Mobian that filled the ship surrounded the three and enclosed them around the door.
Silver quickly shoves Chamry into the corner and tucks the bee behind him. He eyes Vector from the corner of his eye, still watching and keeping a close eye on hired hits.
“Vector! Can you move at all?”
Vector growls and reaches for the two. Silver snatches his arm and pulls him into their corner.
Once the three are huddled in the corner of the ship, Vector and Charmy watch as Silver stands and starts racing into the mob.
Charmy immediately tries to fly and stop him but Vector holds him down. “You’re gonna kill yourself!”
Charmy’s pupils are blown wide as his antennas drop, “he’s gonna kill himself!”
He struggles against Vector's grip and swings his body back to bite his arm in hope he’ll let go. But Silver's voice quickly redirects him.
”vector, squeeze into the corner and don’t move!”
”what—“
”don’t move!”
In that moment, Silver rushes behind the crown and envelops them in a teal glow. Surprised gasps filled the space as the entire group of mercenaries lift into the air and were shoved out of the ship.
However, instead of accepting their fate like good soon to be dead people, they start clinging to the destroyed laser cannon. The hissing from earlier only got louder as the added pressure forced the metal to bend.
Deciding they were both good gone, Silver grunts as he slowly picks up the gun with his psychokinesis.
A beat passes as time seems to still for the obians dangling out of the ship. Silver doesn't care for the fear in their eyes and swiftly throws the large items out of the ship.
The ball of mass flies back and soon enough the hissing of the metal gun grew quieter.
Silver runs to the front of the ship and gets back on the wheel. His foot slams on the gas and accelerates the ship above the trees.
The enemy ship tries to follow but expectantly collides with the pile.
Without looking back, Silver hears a massive explosion as the aircraft finally leaves the forest and reenters the skies.