No Substitute for Victory
by Nathan Stanley

Email: nstanley@hotmail.com
Rating: E
Warnings: None
Disclaimers: Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by SEGA, and the SWAT Kats are a property of Hanna-Barbera, and created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay. Other characters mentioned are mine or owned by their respective trademarks.
Author's Note: This is an attempt to meet my own challenge of a Sonic the Hedgehog and SWAT Kats crossover.

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It was no surprise Dr. Eggman was furious at himself, his robots, and most importantly, Sonic. No matter how much he tried to conquer the world with or without the use of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic was always stopping him in his tracks. It was what Sonic did best, and being a hedgehog of short patience, he never could wait to do it again. Eggman spent most of his time wondering how to exterminate Sonic, often only to scream, “I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!”

Being a rock star, however, Sonic was getting better at being patient with Eggman. He and his band, Sonic JAM, hadn’t topped the charts very much in the last few weeks due to increased competition from the SWAT Kats Band and the Martian Freedom Fighters (starring the Biker Mice from Mars). This made it more of a game of cat-and-mouse, with occasional hedgehog interruption.

And, speaking of the SWAT Kats, they were high in the sky in their beloved Turbokat at this moment. They had gotten word that Dr. Viper was on the loose again, but he wasn’t in Megakat City.

“Odd,” Razor had commented. “You’d think he’d just be worried about Megakat City, seeing as how Dark Kat’s in solitary confinement right now.”

“I know, buddy, but we’ve still got to stop him,” said T-Bone. “I hear he’s causing havoc in Station Square.”

“Station Square?” Razor exclaimed. “That’s Sonic’s hometown!”

“And, Sonic’s probably trying to stop Viper!” T-Bone added. “Switching to maximum thrust… now!” He gunned all the engines until the Turbokat was going at full power and headed for Station Square.

It soon became evident Station Square was at the mercy of Dr. Viper. Dr. Eggman had agreed to help him out, hoping Viper’s use of Katalyst X-81 (something else Dr. Konway had stated had been stolen from Megakat Biochemical Labs) would wipe Sonic to the ground and leave Amy brokenhearted. But, Sonic was avoiding all pitfalls while cruising at the speed of sound, and Amy was currently worked up over Eggman’s action by swinging her hammer back and forth, crushing mutant after mutant. Tails, Chris, and Knuckles provided assistance from the X-Tornado, and Cream watched from the safety of the Thorndyke residence.

“Hey, Tails!” Knuckles called. “What’s that other jet coming right for us?”

“That’s the Turbokat, the plane of the SWAT Kats,” Tails explained. “It’s a pretty intense ride. That fighter jet is even better than this one, and that one was built out of scraps.”

“Hey,” said Sonic, suddenly landing on the wing of the Turbokat. “Sounds like it’s time to party!”

“I guess the SWAT Kats are coming to help us out, seeing as their enemy is the weirdo snake with the mutants,” said Chris. “But, where’s Eggman?”

“Eggman’s probably hiding, waiting to ambush us,” Tails replied. “That doesn’t surprise me. Oh. Here comes a call.” His communicator was beeping. “X-Tornado,” he said. “This is Tails.”

“Hey, Tails. It’s T-Bone. We didn’t intend to scare you if we did, but we had a proposition. You think you could help us out in stopping Dr. Viper from taking over the city?”

“We planned on doing that all the time, but we’re looking for Dr. Eggman at the moment. I’m sure there’s a way we can help.”

“We’ll try not to let you down, then,” said Razor.

The two planes flew on down towards the main streets of Station Square, only to find there was Viper, just as Razor suspected. Then Sonic and Tails caught sight of Viper’s mutants, for in the clutches of the mutants, there was Amy!

“Amy!” everyone shouted. “She’s been catnapped!”

“Hang on, Amy!” Sonic called as he whipped into a Sonic Spin and headed for Dr. Viper.

But, Dr. Viper was prepared and sent his mutants after the hedgehog. Sonic promptly missed the target and landed in the street, dazed and confused.

“My spin didn’t even damage those dozos,” Sonic said to himself. “Perhaps I should’ve had a bigger breakfast this morning.”

“Now, my little creatures,” said Viper with his hiss, “go and see the SWAT Kats are finished. And, get that other plane, as well. I want them both out of the picture. Once I get through with Station Square, Megakat City will be mine!”

“So, he is wanting to take back Megakat City!” T-Bone growled, hearing Viper’s remark.

“Let me go, you big fat hunk of junk!” Amy bellowed, swinging her hammer. “I mean it!”

Things looked pretty grim for our heroes. No matter what tactics they tried, Viper’s mutant always had a counter plan. What could they possibly do that would send Viper packing? Was there nothing they could do? And, where was Eggman in all this?

Those questions seemed to be unanswerable until a deadly wave of sound suddenly shook the air.

“Whoa!” Sonic exclaimed with a smile on his face. “Rock and roll is here to stay!”

“Heh, I knew the Captain would go into battle armed with that electric guitar of his,” Razor chuckled. “He’s not part of our band for nothing.”

“No wonder they call him the world’s mightiest guitar hero,” Tails put in. “And now, he gets to prove that claim true. Wonder why we’re not going deaf over it?”

“‘Cause we’re superheroes,” said Sonic. “We can’t go deaf! You just give that guy a guitar and watch out! He’s Supercat!”

Amy continued swinging her hammer until she was able to break free of the mutants. Then she heard a loud bang.

“Uh-oh!” she exclaimed. “I think I just hit something.” She shooed away the mutants with her hammer until she found what she hit. “Eggman!” she screamed.

Eggman sat up from the daze he suffered. “You!” he exclaimed.

“Get out of my way, fatso!” Amy bellowed. She started swinging again.

Meanwhile, the deadly guitar sound continued, breaking down all of Eggman’s robots until there was nothing left.

Razor fired one of his octopus missiles, grabbing Amy and pulling her to safety just before Eggman could grab her. She waited patiently for Tails to open up the cockpit so she could hop back in the X-Tornado. When Razor let her go, Knuckles saved a seat for her.

“So, did you find Eggman?” Chris asked.

“When I hit him with my hammer, I did,” Amy replied. “He tried to get me again, but that net that came out of nowhere saved me. When I found Eggman, he was all dizzy and exhausted. I have a feeling Viper was going to double-cross him, because I heard him scream, ‘What about my end of the bargain? What about the share of the cash you promised me from that last bank you robbed?’ And Viper yelled, ‘I never planned on giving you any of it!’”

“He doesn’t have the money anyway,” came Razor’s voice from the other side of the link. “We helped Commander Feral stop him right about 8 a.m. this morning. Viper got away before Feral could grab him, and so we followed him here. Feral said he’d follow us, but he’d not be going anywhere in this mess.”

“Oh, I can take care of that,” said Sonic, jumping off the X-Tornado and turning into the famous blue blur he turned into, running around town, causing giant winds that blew away the mess until the city was squeaky clean.

Tails and T-Bone landed their planes in the main streets and exited their cockpits after finding Sonic was standing next to Captain Grimalken, who was indeed dressed in his rock star clothing and armed with his electric guitar. Grimalken turned down the volume before striking another A chord. The group also found Commander Feral placing Viper back in custody and transferring control over to the Sergeant, who took him back to jail. Meanwhile, the high speed S-Team led by Chris’s uncle, Sam Thorndyke, took care of Eggman.

“Hey, Captain!” Sonic smiled. “You’re the first one I’ve seen use rock and roll to lead a villain to downfall!”

“Glad I could help,” said Grimalken. “I’ve never seen a villain appreciate music of any kind, and if any genre is worthy of being used in a battle like this, it’s hard rock!”

“Well, you certainly showed him who’s boss!” Feral congratulated. “I had to shield my ears from it, but then again, who doesn’t appreciate rock, considering its roots are from blues music, which I like best. Great job, SWAT Kats. You’ve pulled off another one.”

“Hey, we couldn’t have done it without Team Sonic,” T-Bone replied, motioning towards Sonic and the gang, who waved to Feral. “Hey. We’ll be right back. Gotta go park the Turbokat after accomplishing another mission.”

This was an indication that the two would go park the Turbokat, don their normal identities of Chance and Jake, and then come back for lunch at the diner (Feral’s idea, actually).

Knowing what that meant, Sonic replied, “Great! See you there!”

Everyone waved to the SWAT Kats as they flew back to the hangar. Meanwhile, Tails turned his plane into street-driving mode (a new feature he added after the city gave him permission to do so) and headed back for the Thorndyke house.

THE END