Chapter Text
"Tron, Tron, get in here! You have got to see this!" Distorted by wall speakers, a higher-pitched gravely voice called, demanding attention despite the condition of the individual they called for. Locked in a struggle with wrenches and a engine dangerously close to overheating while small robots surrounded her, panicking, trying to decide if they should be using fire extinguishers or helping with the suddenly vital repairs, a young sixteen-year-old girl, a mechanical genius without peer, not counting the ancients or a certain other blond-haired girl, Tron Bonne groaned in response while rolling her eyes.
She pulled back from her work, allowing her servbots to dart in and start working on the engine. The airship wasn't at any risk of falling from the sky anytime in the immediate future, but if she didn't make her repairs now, the ship's engine would have only hours of life left in it after the stunt her brother had pulled. So Tron frowned at the speakers placed on the wall before grabbing a headset and turning on its microphone. "Teisel, what the hell is this upgrade you stuck in our engine? The darn thing nearly tore the ship apart!"
"Ah Ha! Tron...it... iiiiiiT Worked!" Teisel shouted, his voice half between a motivational cheer and a feral growl of victory.
"Worked? Worked!?! Teisel, the damages might take me days to repair; that upgrade you bought was a ripoff!" Tron shouted on her headset while watching a fire burst from the engine, only for her Servbots to rush into the flames, combating the fire or running in circles, panicking as the fire covered them before others put them out along with the engine fire. Soon the yellow headed, pincer-handed 41-centimeter bots had the fire under control and were back to engine maintenance. While small, relatively weak, and childish in nature, all the Servbots were dedicated workers, loyal to the extreme, and often capable of some rather creative ventures and solutions, even if those solutions didn't always work out in the end.
Tron watched on as Number Twenty-seven handed her a list with the bot's initial appraisal of the damages, reading it as she continued her response to her older brother. "Teisel, we can't move anywhere, and it didn't seem like we moved that much before this device nearly tore the engine apart. There is no way this thing is cost-effective; we're not using it. Who did you say gave you this? I want to give them a piece of my mind!"
"Grrrr, Tron, just get up here! It worked; the ship didn't move; it warped, like those portals that were up on Elysium. And we REACHED IT! The big score, Lost Island!" Teisel's voice responded over the speakers, prompting Tron to roll her eyes, put aside Number Twenty-seven's notepad and begin making her way to the bridge.
The Gesellschaft II had been an expensive endeavor and took a lot for Teisel to build, yet thanks to being among the first people to reach Elysium since the Ancients. The Ancient space ruin was full of technical wonders, massive refractors, and other valuables the Bonnes could loot and sell. Of course, the whole space endeavor had been funded by Verner Von Bluecher so the man had a legit claim over a large portion of everything Tron and Teisel had brought back, and yet even what they had been left with had still given the family of Sky Pirates a fortune of several million Zenny. That had been able to recoup all the losses the Pirate family had suffered over the two years they spent dueling with Megaman and dealing with the dangers of the mysterious Mother Load.
Of course, the adventure had ironically left Teisel with a taste for adventuring once again, and it hadn't been long before he was planning the Bonne's return to piracy. Which was well and good enough seeing how he was still terrible at managing their general store routinely operating at a loss though far less severely than before the race for the four Keys to the Motherload. Still, Tron kept finding him buying impressive shelf items that had little practical value and were unlikely to be sold. Even their younger brother Bon Bonne seemed to be in much higher spirits when Teisel announced his plans to return to piracy and looting ancient ruins.
However, midway through building, the Gesellschaft-II Teisel had suddenly gone off on some sort of unplanned business trip before returning, shaking with excitement, holding coordinates that Tron couldn't decipher and insisting one large device be added to the ship's engines. He even had a large stockpile of raw materials, which further allowed Tron to build more machines and even experiment with her idea of creating some remotely controlled machines that the Servbots could use to search ruins or combat enemies with.
Finally, Tron reached the ship's headquarters and bridge, storming on with her frustration fully on display as she glared at her older brother. Tron wore something at least resembling normal clothes, with her hair fanned out behind her, a pink shirt with the family logo on her chest, and her blue jacket. Along with an armored blue leotard and black pantyhose, she could at least pass as a regular person while still striking an impressive enough appearance when commanding from atop one of her war machines.
Teisel, however... it would be a surprise for anyone to mistake him for a civilian in his typical get-up. Teisel wore green battle armor much like a highly ranked digger would, even occasionally replacing his hand with a buster on very rare occasions. Teisel had permanently replaced his original eyes with red cybernetic lenses long ago and almost always had his gray hair pulled back into some form of spiked ponytail.
Next to Teisel on the bridge and towering over their older brother was the baby of the family, Bon Bonne. Forever encapsulated inside a mechanical body, the baby Bon was easily mistaken for a robot by anyone who didn't know their family. The yellow and orange frame of Bon included thick arms, while the torso and head were a single unit that housed the optics, vocalizer, and emergency weapon that looked like a pacifier on Bon's face. Meanwhile, the helmet on the unit had two intimidating spike horns, and like Teisel, the family crest was built into his shoulders.
"Ah Tron! Look!" Teisel cheered on the verge of laughing in triumph. "Lost Island, just like the Doctor said!"
"Teisel You can't just... just..." Tron froze, looking out the bridge windows and seeing a massive expanse of land with a small city laid out before them. All across the city, several buildings that looked to have been in the middle of either collapse or being constructed all stood. Many had a strange logo that looked like a face with a big bushy mustache in red painted proudly on their side.
"Exactly! The risk was worth it! There haven't been ruins in this good of condition since Elysium, and we get to keep all of it! No blue menace to ruin all our hard work. We can probably milk this place for millions—maybe tens of millions! We'll be rich!" Teisel cheered, and many of the Servbots on the bridge joined in a chorus of "yay"s as Teisel began to laugh.
"B-but Teisel. W-what even is this city?! I've never even heard of an island like this before, and it's so massive, I can't even see the ocean on the other side. H-how?" Tron stuttered out in shock and near disbelief at what lay before her.
"It was all that, Doctor; he trusted me with the prototype of his Warp Engine. He told me about Lost Island and how the Warp Engine was meant to create the portal to and from it using his coordinates. The rest of it all was a lot of technical talk, but he said our payment could be the ruins of the island; he even showed me a few of the crystals he claimed came from the island. He even claimed the one he showed me was a low quality imitation of the main seven. They told me they were called the Chaos Emeralds. They said they were the most powerful refractors in all of existence; they're sure to be worth a fortune!" The eldest Bonne announced.
"Teisel just who is this doctor?" Tron asked, still amazed but slightly suspicious.
"Meh, Doctor... umm, Noodle... no, Nevel? ... Mega? Ahhh, whatever, it's not like we're going to give him back that Engine and risk someone finding these Chaos Emeralds before we do! Sixteen, do we have that scan back yet?!" Teisel dismissed Tron's question, turning back to focusing on the city laying before them.
"Ummm, the life sign monitor shows that there's only... ummm, four... yeah, four heartbeats in detection range." The Servbot reported.
"People's Heartbeats?" Teisel then asked.
"I... don't know, can you tell a piggy heartbeat from a person's heartbeat?" The Servbot replied.
"Maybe a piggy heart also oinks?" Another of the Servbots suggested.
"Oh, what about a doggie heart?" Yet another asked.
"What would that even sound like?" A third other Servbot then asked.
"Well, there are only four, so I don't think there's much to do with them. They're probably all the same animal, maybe a herd of cats?" One more Servbots suggested causing Teisel to shake with frustration.
Teisel then snapped at the robots. "Shuddup! Alright, there are four things living down there, but it's still possible that the city could be crawling with Reaverbots! That's why we will be launching a full operation, and remember, we are taking absolutely everything we can carry. Jewels, Refractors, Gold, tables, even all the toilet paper!"
Immediately, the Servbots cheered, snapping from their tangent and joining Teisel in his excitement, though Tron still felt a slight sense of unease. "Teisel, we've never seen a place like this, are we sure we should be doing this?"
"Of course... we'd probably go broke with the engine repairs otherwise." This caused Tron to roll her eyes.
The female Bonne then stepped forward. "Alright, everyone, you heard Teisel! Get the Drache fleet ready, load up the Neu-Leopolds, and let's use this to test my new Diebeswagens!"
"Tron!" Teisel shouted over to the eager female pirate... "Umm, yes, get the ships and equipment ready. Boys; we're going to be scouting these ruins in force!"
Tron then turned to begin her descent, planning to join the expedition. However, Teisel's voice stopped her mid-stride. "And where do you think you're going?"
"In what?"
"The Gustaff!" Tron shouted back while trying to step off the bridge; however, her brother's reaction beat her to her escape.
"What? Did you build a new one?" Teisel asked with a dangerous undertone to his voice.
"Ummm... why? The current one worked on Elysium." Tron responded.
"There's no way I'm letting my baby sister out in that deathtrap of a machine. Not when I have an actual say in the matter!" Teisel insisted.
"Deathtrap! It's my machine, Teisel!" Tron snapped back.
"It's an under-armored, open-top bullet magnet is what it is! We made it that way to fit into the rocket going for Elysium. Even you admitted that it had to be cut down to fit, and that Roll girl still almost demanded we leave it behind!" Teisel explained pressing his point with several stomps of his foot.
"And I've upgraded it, Teisel! It's for a shield for the co*ckpit and a deployable reinforced glass cover; besides, it's got some of the best equipment we've built incorporated into its design. It's the best armed combat unit for its size we've had in years!" Tron countered, her logic sound but not reaching her still very protective brother.
"You might be sixteen now; happy belated birthday, by the way, BUT this is another matter entirely. I can't risk endangering you on the front lines, not with that machine. Scars aren't attractive, it turns out." Teisel held to his ground.
"Scars... wait, this is about that mixer you went to a week ago, isn't it!?" Tron burst with an accusing point of her finger, which caused the eldest Bonne to slump his head and shoulders, trembling as a tear rolled down his cheek.
"One of the ladies called me disgusting, Tron. Disgusting!"
"Maybe it has to do more with your personality?" Tron muttered under her breath.
"What was that? Hmmm?" Tron was sure if her brother had heard her, but she certainly didn't want to repeat what she had said.
"Listen, without any real combat data, I can't make a new Gustaff. At least not until all the tech in the current one has been field tested properly. These ruins should be perfect for testing out the equipment. I mean, Reaverbot Masters almost never come to the surface, so if this city does have Reaverbots, we should be in the perfect situation to test all of the Gustaff's current systems without risk. Besides I'll stay behind the Servbots. Is that alright, big brother?" Tron explained, ending her sentence with a more cutesy voice that seemed to reach Teisel.
"Rrrrr, fine!" Teisel then pressed a button on the ship's command console, and the speakers across the Gesellschaft chimed before carrying Teisel's voice across the ship. "Numbers one through twelve you're with Tron, thirteen through twenty eight you're following me, everyone else your on support duty! Leeets Gooooo!"
All across the ship, Tron could hear the Servbots shouting, "Aye Aye sir!"
Tron then turned and rushed to the ship hanger. Here the first wave of Draches six of the blockish fighter transport airships were prepared for launch, four of which had Neu-Leopolds hanging from magnetic carrying cables underneath. The last two were waiting for Tron's Gustaff and Teisel's newly completed Bohrer Soldat with their own grab bars/landing struts extended so the machines could hold onto them.
While the reddish Draches were blocky with a small turret for the buster machine guns underneath and a front hatch door meant to allow the crewing Servbots to quickly leave and reenter the ship, the Nue-Leopolds were Blocky squat tanks with a singular tower like central turret and two smaller turrets on the tracks that supported buster machine guns.
And of course, Tron had to take a moment to inspect her two current best war machines. The Gustaff was shorter than its previous interactions but had thick, powerful arms that incorporated some of the design philosophy Roll had "shared" with her, occasionally by literally hitting Tron with her creations. Tron, of course, had to take several cost-cutting measures, but she figured her design was now far better than anything her so-called rival could make, and she was certain she could prove to Megaman that she was once and for all the better choice next time they encountered one another.
The Bohrer Soldat, meanwhile, was something Tron made to Teisel's specifications. The machine was loaded with drills one on each arm of the six meter mecha's frame. The shoulders were also mounted with missile pods that had special drill missiles that should help with clearing and making tunnels or dismantling enemy positions. And of course the machine was painted Green just for Teisel.
With a grin of excitement, Tron leapt into the Gustaff, leaving the glass co*ckpit casing retracted so she could feel the wind in her hair as the Drache lowered down from the hanger bay. Teisel joined them shortly after his own transport, lowering the eldest Bonne down shortly after Tron. It was then that the voice of number forty-one came over the speakers on Tron's headset. "Objective is to capture anything of value and bring it back to the ship. Mission Start!"
Elsewhere in the skies
Doctor Ivo Robotnik, who instead preferred to go by the moniker of Eggman, a name first used to insult him by his rival, but now his own proud title sat fuming inside his Egg mobile. Of all days for that lousy Hedgehog to cause trouble, it just had to be today.
"Father, I suspect this course of action may be an overreaction." A ghostly digital construct manifested herself next to the Egg Mobile. Where Eggman was a tall man with rather lanky limbs and a proudly rotund body all marked with a bald head and a massive bushy mustache, his digital creation and daughter Sage were a smaller construction, smaller than the vermin the doctor had constantly plaguing his plans for world dominance. Her white bobbed hair covered one of her eyes, leaving only the other visible on a face he was almost certain was modeled by the AI construct after Maria's, the only one of the Doctor's female relatives to have a surviving record of her appearance.
Sage's digital code that marked the interior of her cloak and body alternated between black and red and white and blue subtly as she spoke with the world's infamous Doctor. "While Sonic and his companions clearly have initiated an assault against Egg-base theta, I do not think they planned it to cause direct harm to me nor to ruin my celebration of my return to life."
"It's the principle of the matter, Sage. He won't stop until he provokes a response from me. And I've had enough; we're going to carpet bomb the entire base and see if he gets the message! Besides, I'm certain that at this point, even if we carpet bombed the entire region, the blue co*ckroach would still survive just to spite me." Eggman grumbled back at Sage the Egg Mobile rocking as the Doctor exaggeratedly swept his arms through the air.
"I should note that I still think it's unwise to leave New Eggtroplois while it's still under construction. Father, what if they track our flight trajectory, or if Sonic has aerial allies on route, let alone Subject Shadow or Silver?" Sage pressed, her overriding concern for her proclaimed father's safety at the forefront of her argumentation.
"Then I'll deal with it. Besides, Sonic's allies are pretty predictable and easy to deal with once you know who you're dealing with. Take Knuckles, for example, he's probably one of the easiest of Sonic's friends to trick." The Doctor dismissed Sage's concerns with a confident smirk and a casual lean back in the eggmobile.
"Father..." She was still concerned, that much was obvious to Eggman, but she seemed to take comfort in his confidence. "Father, you must return to New Eggtroplois!" Sage's tone changed drastically and firmly... so maybe old Ivo isn't as good at reading her as he had thought, though, to be fair, most of his time was spent with blank faced robots rather than people.
"Sage, I said—" Eggman was cut off as Sage overrode his Eggmobile, glaring at him determinedly.
"Father, New Eggtroplois has come under attack!" Sage proclaimed sternly.
"What!? Who has the gall to attack my city while I am away? Sonic is all the way at Egg Base Theta still, isn't he?" Eggman asked while his very, very short list of people foolish enough to attack one of his cities running through his mind, each candidate being dismissed swiftly as the Doctor understood each well enough or had already confirmed their location before taking off. "It's not that annoying thief of a Tenric looking to swipe another power up from me, is it?"
Sage shook her head. "No Father." And with a flick of her wrists, the Egg Mobile's haptic interface turned into a holographic screen, displaying a rather unique sight to the Doctor.
"An airship, complete with a squadron of rather odd VTOL aircraft. Hmm, no, this certainly isn't G.U.N. I monitor their research and finances too thoroughly for them to slip development like this by me; also, this is far too small scale; I'd want to blame the Restoration or something like this is too big of a task for Tails or Belle to construct." Eggman pondered the display on the screen. Several rather unorthodox tanks and some squat tracked vehicles with mounted cannons, energy blasters, and shovel-claw-tipped arms were rampaging through the city, battling his Eggpawn defenders.
Given time and coordination, these attackers wouldn't be too much of a concern, enough that if they were on their own, he likely would have left it to the automated systems to battle them. However, those air vessels were bringing in more reinforcements, and some surprisingly durable lesser machines seemed to be supporting these vehicles. All while, three other unique machines seemed to be leading the battle, one of which had an exposed pilot. That third machine almost looked like it had been built from one of his old Egg Mobile's, but the weaponry, whoever developed it, was certainly no slouch. It was probably best to capture the pilot and her machine, cutting down the hours of reverse engineering to minutes, a single hour tops. Wouldn't such a weapon be a nice surprise to hit Sonic with? Have the blue pest think he's going to spin dash a fist only to find himself instead running straight into a stream of fire? Oh, the Doctor could only laugh at the mental image.
"Sage, how did that Airship get so close without us detecting it?" With his curiosity piqued but his wrath for Sonic not forgotten, Eggman needed more information; maybe these idiots would still be trying to win this battle for the city by the time he had bombed the blue blur into oblivion.
"I'm going over our records now; I estimate they used a device of some kind to transport the ship, there seems to be a radiation and data spike just before their arrival; I suspect it's some form of teleportation." Sage responded.
"Oh, teleportation, is it? It seems someone beat me to perfecting that technology.... Your lucky Hedgehog. I have a bigger prize to take today!" Eggman laughed aloud while Sage sighed silently to herself, thinking her father wouldn't notice. Eggman didn't like it, but he supposed she still felt somewhat indebted to Sonic after he faced off against the End and helped her save Eggman and the entire world. So long as she remembered that the Hedgehog was their enemy and didn't go soft like Mr. Tinker's child Belle. He couldn't stand the idea of facing off against two daughters; his ego wouldn't be able to handle such a betrayal.
"Turn the Egg-Squadron around! Sage, give me remote access to the command systems for New Eggtroplois' defense grid. And wake Metal from stasis. Let's see how long they can hold out with a little more pressure." Eggman grinned maliciously, his mind already analyzing and dissecting these invaders.
"Father, there is something else. There seems to be infiltrators inside the city. Unit designation: Diamond Cutters, with the addition of Amy Rose." Sage supplies.
"Oh ho ho ho ho!? So Sonic was just a distraction, was it? Don't put it past the Restoration to try and use trickery against me; while certainly a clever move, they overplayed their hand if these invaders were also their doing."
"I suspect that they are pirates." Sage then added.
"Pirates? What do you mean, Sage?" The Doctor demanded, and in answer, the AI brought up several images of the crest these pirates put on all their equipment, as well as a few text boxes in which she compared their operation and symbolism to that of pirates of the past.
"Eh whatever, wait, oh, how delicious. If they aren't friends with that Blue menace, why don't we try leading Miss Rose and her friends into these pirates right before I crush them all and see how they react to one another?" And with that, Eggman gleefully set to work, his imagination running wild with ways he could experiment with everyone who had entered his city."
In the streets of New Eggtroplois
"Ummm, com- I mean Amy... I don't think stealth is going to cut it anymore; there's explosions all over the city." Lanolin the sheep whispered to Amy which caused the former commander of the restoration to smirk.
"You know, Lanolin, you're getting so close. Maybe, eventually, you'll finally learn to loosen up a little." Amy teased the Sheep behind her which nearly caused Tangle to break out into laughter. Though the slight snickering caused Lanolin to give Tangle the Lemur an annoyed glance.
Where Amy Rose had once been the leader of the restoration and was a world-renowned adventurer famed to those who took part in adventuring, she was both overshadowed by her friends and her love interest, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more frequently partaking in more mundane and joyful aspects of life. The Pink Hedgehog, though, today had her famed Piko Piko hammer out as she guided the Diamond Cutters on their mission to infiltrate and find the weaknesses of the new city Eggman had created. Her typical pink dress was covered in a dark parka to try and help the hedgehog stay unnoticed.
Behind her Lanolin the sheep, walked in her psudeo-military attire, her vest and baggy pants still visible, while her Golden Bell wispon was in hand as she was ready for any sudden engagements. While Tangle and Whisper had helped her over time, Lanolin still struggled to relax and ease up on being a stickler for rules and following authority blindly, though by now at least her confidence as a leader had grown, causing her to start seeing her own flaws and finally start working on them.
Next were Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf. Tangle was still as energetic as ever, wearing her black bodysuit and orange coat plus fingerless gloves. Tangle, fortunately, had mellowed only a little since Amy, Whisper, and Lanolin had first met her. Tangle had gone from a hotheaded thrill seeker without any experience to an experienced hot headed, thrill seeker with at least enough sense to watch out for those she cared about, which she mostly learned from Whisper with only light reinforcement from Lanolin and a few close calls.
Whisper was the most veteran member of the team. Her off-white body suit was always partially covered by her dark parka, while her specialty tech mask sat on the side of her head, ready to be used along with her specialty wispon at a moment's notice. Whisper brought the most baggage to the team as she was the sole survivor of the original Diamond Cutters after a traitor betrayed them to Eggman, and the clash and hunt between the last survivor and the traitor continued on into the new team. However, Whisper was the most experienced of the group, and as she opened up to being part of a team again, she became the unifying core of the trio. Keeping Tangle in check and preventing Lanolin from going too far in her pursuit to prove herself as a leader and her obsession with adherence to authority.
Amy and the Diamond Cutters had planned to infiltrate New Eggtroplois after Amy and Tangle had overheard Sonic plotting to destroy several of Eggman's bases as part of some other adventure the famed blue blur was taking part in. Of course, it was clear that Tangle couldn't be dissuaded from the idea, and Lanolin agreed with the plan, only asking that Amy come with them in case of an emergency. Of course none of them could have planned for or even knew how to react to the fact that suddenly unknown craft were bombing the city with some sort of massive green warship with a skull emblem, unleashing a full bombardment that has nearly struck the four and forcing them out into the open streets.
Whisper looked over the street and buildings carefully, her eyes noting any ambush points. "The situation is dangerous; we should... Amy dodge!"
The Pink Hedgehog flung herself aside, barely avoiding being crushed, as a massive Super Badnik dropped from above them. The machine swiped at the four without any hesitation. The Diamond Cutters immediately took action. Lanolin's Bell struck, sending a wave of destructive sound into the Badnik's head and causing an explosion of force. Meanwhile, Whisper summoned a block from one of her wisps under the Badnik's foot, throwing it off balance, and Tangle's tail caught the Badnik around the ankle before pulling, causing the machine to fall back and crash into the ground.
Taking her opportunity, Amy got to her feet and jumped with her Piko Piko hammer before crashing the hammer down onto the Badnik, shattering its chest armor. Just as Amy bounded away, Whisper fired her laser wisp punching through the opening in the Badnik's armor and destroying the machine.
"That was awesome... I don't think we have a name for that one yet!" Tangle cheered, and Lanolin sighed in relief before chuckling.
"No time now; how about later?" This caused Tangle to smile, giving the sheep a small fist bump.
"Not to ruin the mood, but more badniks are incoming!" Amy shouted then, pointing down the street as a force of Eggpawns rounded the corner, some already aiming rockets and energy blasters at the four.
"Run!" All four shouted at the same moment, turning and sprinting deeper into the city.
Far above, at the top of one of the structures still intact in the street, a camera tracked the four as they ran as a group. It watched as more Eggpawns would emerge, forcing the group to change their path before they fought through a smaller group of badniks heading towards the city's coastline and closer to the pirates who were invading New Eggtroplois.
