Zavok flew her Dragon Mech over the skies of Lava Mountain Zone, drifting off into a much-deserved sleep every now and again only to snap herself back awake through sheer raw determination. All of a sudden, her communicator went off. She pulled the small pager out, and saw an incoming call from Master Zik. She immediately answered.
"Master? Hi!" Zavok exclaimed as the small hologram emerged from the pager. "We haven't talked at all the past few days." Nobody had heard from Zeena, Zoga, Zomom or Zik for a while. They had all gone missing in action, starting with Zomom not long after Sonic was seen in Sugar Lane. Zavok was especially worried about her, but hearing her master safe and sound put her mind at ease a little.
"Zavok. This was a test to see if you were awake. You have failed by staying up past your bedtime," Zik said. Shock flashed across Zavok's eyes.
"I can't believe I've failed such a simple task!" Zavok exclaimed, facepalming repeatedly. "I am truly a disgrace!"
"Relax, I was messing with you," Zik laughed. Zavok, hand still on her head, separated her fingers so she could see. Like a child watching a scary movie. "This thing says you're in Lava Mountain Zone. You're that much closer to shutting down that machine and saving both worlds."
"Yeah, it took a while to get through the Badnik squadron in Sky Road, but I'm approaching the exact coordinates now. Give it an hour or two," Zavok replied. She looked down to the location displayed by the communicator, unable to see the fear on Zik's face. "What are you doing in Silent Forest?" When Zavok looked back to the hologram, Zik looked like she was trying to hide something.
"Just… regrouping with Zor," Zik answered. "She called me and said she needed help with her Owl Mech." Zavok felt like Zik wasn't telling the truth. Zik was a master of many things, but lying wasn't one of them. Mostly because of how little she ever had to do it.
"No!" A far-off, familiar male voice shouted from the other end of the line. Zik immediately looked in its direction. "Get back here, you hear me?!"
"The hedgehog!" Zavok exclaimed, frightened. She knew how dangerous Sonic could be. Both from firsthand experience and Robotnik's rage-induced defeat rants. "Master, hide! Sonic is—!"
"Not a threat," Zik groaned. "I have to go. See you later." A new call came in as soon as the other one ended. Zavok saw that it was from Zor. She quickly accepted this call as well.
"Zor, what's going on?!" Zavok asked.
"Hey, Zavok," Zor yawned. "I captured Tails with this owl guy. What do I do with him?" With this sentence, Zavok knew something was up with Zik. She was definitely lying about helping Zor with her mech.
"Wait, like a live owl?" Zavok asked. "Why aren't you using your mech?"
"I had a premonition that using my Owl Mech would lead to a swift defeat," Zor stated. "I don't know why." Zavok's heart sunk with dread. She began to piece everything together.
"I see. Was anyone else there with Sonic and Tails?" Zavok asked. "Master Zik was just acting really strange when she called me, and she was close enough to Sonic for the communicator to pick up on his yelling. Do you think—?"
"I didn't see anyone else," Zor replied. "You think our master is siding with Sonic?"
"Well, between this and all the towers going down, maybe so. At least that could solve the mystery of where the others went as well," Zavok groaned. "I don't want it to be the case, though. I know they can hold her own, but… against Robotnik and his army? None of us stand a chance. If they're caught, then that's probably it for all of us." Zavok's head ached with stress. She felt like she wanted to scream. She opened her eyes, determined to follow through on the hasty decision brewing in her head. "I'm turning back!" Zavok swerved the Dragon Mech around. It shot like a bullet away from her prior destination.
"You really think Master Zik and the others would do that? What about the Dark Battery?" Zor asked, raising a single eyebrow. "Wasn't it your job to turn it off?"
"I'll try to make it back in time," Zavok growled as the wind whistled in her ears. "We still have a while until the Dark Gaia Force is all swept up and the battery starts eating away at Erius' life. Even more time before it starts affecting us up here. But one Badnik spotting Master Zik could be the death of us all!"
Far away, in Silent Forest, Zik, Zoga, Zeena and Zomom wandered through the woods, searching for Sonic. "Where'd he and Tails run off to?" Zeena asked, puzzled.
"Do you think they're hurt?" Zomom asked. "What if a Badnik found them? Or Zor???"
"Zor would have called me," Zik sighed, just as confused and alarmed as everyone else. "If it was a Badnik, I don't think Sonic would be concerned about it enough to yell like that."
"HEY SONIC! TAILS!" Zoga called loudly. "Question: where the heck did you go?!"
"Shh! What if a Badnik hears and reports us to Robotnik?" Zik hissed sternly. Suddenly, a blue blur shot right past them. The wind trailing behind the blur almost blew them away. Then, Sonic jogged back up the hill they were on.
"Sonic!" The Hexis whispered, all smiling in great relief.
"Where were you?" Zomom asked. Just then, everyone noticed something was wrong, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. Everyone but Sonic. Sonic looked like he knew exactly what was wrong. "Sonic, what happened?"
"Zor came by and swiped Tails with a giant owl!" Sonic explained. "I tried to get him back, but I… I failed." Sonic looked ready to cry, his voice a hoarse and high-pitched whisper as he held back tears. "She's gonna kill him. If she doesn't, then Robotnik will. I'm supposed to be the fastest. But I was too slow to save my best friend." Everyone else stood there, looking to the ground. Zik took a deep breath.
"Sonic…" she mumbled, walking forward until she was standing right in front of Sonic. She put her arm out as she closed in. She then jumped up and smacked Sonic across the face with the back of her hand. Zomom and Zeena gasped. Zoga's jaw dropped to the floor. "Get it together!" Zik cried as she landed back on the grass. "If Tails was here right now, he wouldn't want you to sit around moping, he'd want you to fight to get him back! There's an ancient spire somewhere around here that leads into Sky Road. We should go there and try to cut Zor off." Sonic looked down, and saw some kind of familiar device in her hand. The very same hand she slapped him with. It was in a similar shape to the communicator Sonic had while in the empire.
"What… is that?" Sonic mumbled in a devastated voice, a look of disbelief on his face.
"What's what?" Zik asked, confused. The determined look fell from her face. Sonic pointed at the pager she had just used to call Zavok. The color drained from Zik's face. "Oh… uh… Sonic, it's not what it looks like! I promise!"
"I was thinking about how 'convenient' it was that Zor knew exactly where Tails and I were!" Sonic cried. Zik was frozen. "You told Zor our location, didn't you? Tails is gone because of YOU!"
"Sonic, she was just checking on Zavok," Zomom explained. "She would never sell us out!"
"What do you mean 'us'? No such thing, apparently," Sonic asked. "You were with Zik when it happened, and you're all part of the Deadly Seven! You're just as guilty." Zomom jolted back with a gasp through her teeth, hurt to her very core. Sonic's expression softened a little when he saw tears.
"Shut up!" Zeena shouted, stepping forward. Sonic's face scrunched up in disgust. "Nobody talks to Zomom like that. She's only the sweetest person I know, and I'm not gonna let a paranoid jerk like you make her feel bad for something she didn't even do."
"Zeena, don't!" Zomom sobbed. "I don't want anyone to fight, please!"
"Excuse me for being 'paranoid' about you all when the man who betrayed me essentially uses you all as puppets," Sonic growled. "Tails was right to be worried. If I hadn't gotten carried away in trying to save all of you… if I hadn't trusted you, if I hadn't WASTED time singing and traveling and listening to your stories, maybe the only person who has ever really understood me wouldn't be gone!" Memories of all their good times together flashed through everyone's minds, only to be shattered like windows upon visualization. "I'm not your friend anymore. Never was. I'm going to save my real friend, then we're going to shut down the Dark Battery and go back home. Don't get in my way, because if you do I'll treat you like every one of my enemies before."
"Sonic, you don't really—?" Zik asked, choking up, only for Sonic to wrestle the communicator out of her hands, taking it for himself. "Hey!" Sonic ran off. "Sonic, get back over here!" Zik shouted, knowing that simply chasing after him wouldn't yield any results. "As your master, I COMMAND you to come back! PLEASE!" She wailed. Zik fell on her hands and knees, Zomom was hiding her face with her hands, Zeena had her arms crossed and a sour yet indifferent expression tacked onto her face. Zoga stood there awkwardly, looking to the ground.
Metallic footsteps broke the silence. Everybody felt a wave of fear wash over them, and looked over at the source of the sound. It was coming from all around. All that arguing must have alerted the Badniks in the area! "Oh no… we probably can't control all of these guys at once…" Zoga muttered, as dozens of Robo Pawn and Dragonfly Badniks closed in from all around.
"No, no this isn't happening! We're so screwed!" Zik hissed. The Hexis got ready for a fight, and began to manipulate the magnetic fields around them in order to turn the Badniks in the front lines against their subordinates. That's when the alarms sounded.
"OUT-OF-LINE HEXIS SPOTTED. QUANTITY: FOUR," The outlying Robo Pawns reported directly to Robotnik in unison. The Cacophonic Tower sounded. "ORDER RECEIVED: PURGE." The Badniks activated their weapons, only for a couple to be shot down.
The Badniks noticed this, and looked to the sky, where the opposing bullets appeared to be coming from. The Hexis looked in that direction too, and saw Zazz on her Moon Mech! She had an automatic assault rifle. She remained completely silent the whole time, with a blank expression as she continued to mow down the Badniks from her Moon Mech vantage point.
When they had all been shot, she lowered down to the mess of scrap metal and hopped off her Moon Mech, pocketing the rifle. The mech floated there in horror of what it just assisted in, attached to its little balloon string. An injured Robo Pawn reached for its laser gun, only for Zazz to reel in her Moon Mech, grab it on both sides, and smash the Robo Pawn into bits with it.
"Make that five out-of-line Hexis," she said softly as she turned around, smiling a little at the others.