City of The Lost: Part 1: The Darkest Night
Silver closed his hands tightly around the Chaos Emerald and his eyes shut to protect them as he concentrated on where he wanted to go. Soon the all-too-familiar blurring of reality and wave of nausea struck him. He really did have to find a way to make this more bearable as it was starting to make him feel really sick. He wasn't sure how beings like his Master and Mephiles managed to move between Timelines all the time without losing their sanity... then again, maybe he didn't have that much sanity to lose. In the blink of an eye he was there now he was here, which raised the question… where, and more importantly, when is here? Silver opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was on a rocky shoreline standing in front of a massive megalopolis stretching for miles in every direction he could see, and he would have taken more of it in… if he didn't immediately bend over and deposit his lunch on the rocks at his feet.
"Ugh… ech… ugh…" He stood back up, cleaned his mouth with the sea water and walked up the shore to a boardwalk, where he was met with even more surprises. He saw humans and mobians having fun, shopping, eating and having a good time which was no surprise but the fact that they were also doing it alongside Eggman robots was downright shocking.
"What the-" He was rendered speechless by the sight, he didn't know if the humans and mobians were under some sort of brainwashing and to start attacking the robots and lead a rebellion or if he should let things be, but one thing was clear. He was not in his home timeline. He walked down the boardwalk doing his best to both not draw attention to himself while also taking notes on what was going on around him, from what he could tell the robots were responsible for doing hard labour while the humans and mobians just enjoyed the pleasures set out before them.
After taking notes on the people he looked for any signs of Robotnik that wasn't his robots, which after looking around for a few minutes he found none of. He took a seat at a bar to assess what he found so far. "Alright, so, Eggman is seemingly running the show with the amount of Egg-Robos about while the citizens are… just fine with it… but why?" The bartender came over to him and snapped him out of his thoughts "Hello Sir, how may I help you? It is happy hour, all drinks are $1 Ring till 5 P.M."
"Uh.. no, I'm fine, just taking a break." The man nodded and turned back to the other patrons before the TV emitted three short buzzes, like an alarm, the sound startled Silver causing him to fall off the barstool. As he got back up the tender changed the channel to a news station, it looked like a press conference was about to start an important one at that given that every TV in the bar and all around the boardwalk was changed to it.
The reporter on screen began to speak after receiving a queue off-screen. "We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for an important announcement from our Leader." She stepped out of the frame and the camera zoomed in on a man walking towards the podium escorted by a pair of robots, when the frame came into focus the person Silver was expecting to see was not there, in fact, it was the most unexpected of people.
Miles 'Tails' Prower
Yet it was not the young child Silver was accustomed to dealing with, he was older, early fifties perhaps, a stern look on his face and eyepatch covering his left eye. Standing at the podium he carried a sense of commanding and ruthlessness about him and the same was reflected in his speech. "Hello citizens of New Mobotropolis, last night the greatest threat to our city was finally apprehended. The streets of our city that once black with your robotic servant's oil will no longer show its ugly head. Metal Sonic has finally been destroyed and there is no sign of 'the good doctor' returning to rebuild him once again."
"What the-" SIlver was dumbfounded, Tails the leader of a city with Egg-Robos serving the people of it? Then 'The Good Doctor' is presumably Dr Eggman and he made Metal Sonic to fight them? Some of the broader details matched up to his home universe's past but the finer ones were where things started to clash. On-screen Tails was about to continue when one of his aids approached and whispered in his ear then retread back against the wall. Silver could've sworn he saw a quick flash of fear and uncertainty across Tails' face before the steeled determination returned. "I've just been informed that a new threat has come to our city, another one of Dr Robotnik's devilish schemes to upset our order and world…" He paused for reporters to blurt out questions.
"What is it?" "Who is it?" "What can we do?" "How do we stop it?" Tails let the questions flow out before holding his hands out in a silent signal to shut up so he can speak.
"Do not fret my people! Our security forces will handle this threat quickly and efficiently if you wish to help look for this man!' Tails motioned to two large screens off to his sides, his government seal was replaced with a large top to bottom image of Silver the Hedgehog. Within moments the bar patrons looked at Silver sitting at the bar then at image on screen then back to him, some began to panic and run while others got up and started to make their way towards him It was then that Silver decided that now would be a good time to run, he threw the bar's collection of alcohol on the floor behind him with his psychokinesis and barrelled down the boardwalk with an angry mob after him growing larger with every citizen that recognized him.
All around him Tails' conference and call to action continued. "If you see this man alert the nearest security bot as to his location and do not engage him. He is capable of moving things with his mind, a telekinetic, he is also ruthless willing to kill someone if it means creating a better, brighter future. Yet how can a killer imagine or create a better, brighter future than the one that I gave you! He is a threat to our lives! A threat to our city! A threat to our society! A threat to your leader! Find him! Stop him! Arrest him! Kill him! Whatever it takes! Do you hear me SIlver! We will find you! They will find you! -beat- I WILL FIND YOU!" Then the conference ended with a polite pre-recorded message "This message from your dear leader has ended, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."
Except they it didn't, as Silver charged down the street away from the boardwalk now using his psychokinesis to fly faster than he could run, a loop of Tails' call to action to find and kill Silver played in their stead, on every screen possible, TVs, Phones, Computers and Electronic Billboards. If it had a screen, it played the message and no matter where Silver ran he couldn't escape him or the angry mobs chasing after him. "Oh, dear sweet Chaos something is definitely not right with this place!" He took every twist and turn he could find but every alleyway he entered lost one mob but lead to another; they eventually herded him into a massive square with electronic billboards showing Tails lining the walls of every shop, top to bottom.
At this point, Silver would've flown away or used something to blockade himself from the swarm of people but he was out of energy from running away and there was nothing around he could use to block them without hurting them. As Silver stood in the centre of the square hearing the people chant over Tails' message he looked up at the night sky and said a silent prayer. As the crowd encroached, screaming louder and angrier, Silver's ears flicked at the sound of something new; an engine roaring loud and approaching the square quickly accompanied by blaster sounds. Silver brought his head down to look at the source of the noise and saw people beginning to fall to the ground and those that didn't were running in panic.
Then a large bike type EX-Gear burst through the crowd and power slid to a stop in front of Silver the rider, clad in a black bodysuit with black gloves and boots; accented with red bands with grey trimming complete with a helmet with red visor, handed a helmet out to him. "Put on and get on kid!" Silver didn't even take a moment to think, he snatched the helmet and got on the bike jamming the helmet on at the same time. The biker didn't even wait for Silver to grab something to hold on to before revving the engine, firing the blasters, and dashing off through the crowd and down the street. "Thanks for the save but who are you!?" he shouted over the roar of the wind rushing by and either the words were lost to the wind or the biker simply ignored them as he swerved through the crowds and streets, knocking down anyone that got in the way with the EX-Gear's blasters. Eventually, they found their way to an electronic rail running the length of the city and out of it, they followed it for almost an hour till they reached the outskirts. A place to which men now rarely ventured or robots even worked. The dark streets flickered under failing street lamps. They were away from the machines and away from the people trying to kill Silver.
Looking around Silver didn't see any screens broadcasting Tails but he could still be seen on a massive telescreen mounted to the top of a giant skyscraper, he could see his mouth moving but could hear no words. The biker coasted the EX-Gear to a stop in an alleyway, silenced the engine and lowered the kickstand, as the duo disembarked Silver heard footsteps, slow and deliberate, echoing from the darkness of the alleyway. Silver, despite being low on energy, braced for some sort of fight; the biker held out a hand to signal Silver to calm down as the footsteps emerged from the darkness of the alley and into the uneven glow of the flickering street lights.
It was a grey-haired man, mid to late sixties, balding, long messy beard eyes covered with thick blue glasses, dressed in a thick brown trench coat that concealed the rest of him. He carried the air of an intelligent but broken man full of regrets and looking for a way to atone for them, he scanned Silver with his analytical eyes before turning away back into the alley calling behind him. "Bring him in Knuckles, he's the one." The biker removed his helmet confirming what the grey man said, it was Knuckles who saved him yet, like Tails, he was much older than the Knuckles he knew. "Come on, the Doc probably has a lot to explain, as do you."
Knuckles led Silver into the shadows their boots splashing in puddles of water and crunching over gravel and other debris; he was led down a small flight of steps to a metal door locked with a keypad, thumbprint and eye scanner and voice recognition. There was even a camera watching them from the top of the door frame, 'the doc' and Knuckles weren't skimping out on the security which with the world the way it is can you really blame them? Knuckles unlocked the door and held it open for Silver who cautiously walked into the building and it was as if he had stepped into a home-brewed garage robot factory. Frames lined the walls, spare and broken parts littered the floor, schematics lay on the tables covered with half-built, or half broken robots, oil cans, and lubricant bottles were stacked in various places some of which were toppled over and their contents spilled on the cement floor.
"Sorry for the mess, I don't get a lot of company these days…" The old man said not looking up from a set of blueprints he was working on. Silver jumped as Knuckles tossed the pair of helmets on a table causing even more parts to fall on the floor.
"Careful knucklehead, I may need those…" Knuckles rolled his eyes and crossed to a beaten, broken, ripped and stuffing coming out couch. "Sure." Silver was about to speak but, and again without looking up, the old man interrupted.
"I'm sure you have a million questions running through your head right now, who are you? Where am I? What's going on? Why am I here? So on and so forth, am I correct?" Silver nodded "Yes, but I think I have some inkling of an idea."
"Oh really? Then please tell us." Silver cleared his throat and wrung his hands. "Well going off the past hour twenty minutes or so, uh, it seems that Tails is a tyrannical dictator posing as a benevolent technological messiah and you are Doctor Robotnik." At the mention of his name, the man looked up at Silver over the rims of his glasses.
"Robotnik? Heh heh heh oh I haven't gone by that name in over 30 years, same with Tails he hasn't gone by that for about the same time… you seem nervous, what's the matter, boy?"
"Oh, sorry, where I come from you're not exactly… a, uh, a nice guy." Robotnik harrumphed and returned to his drawings "Probably, there is an infinite number of universes out there and in one or more of which there exists a version of me that isn't 'a nice guy'."
Knuckles broke in to back him up "I can vouch for the Doc, he's a smart and kind-hearted man." Robotnik looked over at him over the rims of his glasses. "He's just got one of those hard candy coatings over it." Knuckles finished.
Robotnik rolled his eyes, placed his pencil down on the blueprints, laced his fingers and looked at Silver. "The Guardian speaks some truth, for if I weren't you would be strung up on a light post by now."
Silver nodded "Yeah, the citizens of the city didn't seem too… happy after Tails started speaking."
Robotnik nodded "Yeah he probably picked up your Chaos signature like I did then, well, you experienced what he did after. So care to tell me why you're here?"
Silver's shoulders shrugged as his mouth struggled to form words eventually he spoke "I don't know, to be honest. I've been trying to get back home, my Prime Timeline, for a long while now but I keep winding up in these alternate universes and timelines."
Robotnik's eyes had closed, head nodding, processing this information "What happens when you arrive in these alternate dimensions?"
"Uh, well I end up being pulled into some sort of world-saving adventure, which seems to be becoming a pattern." After a moment Robotnik spoke, "Well then, seems it was fate that brought you here to help; or at the very least, let me ask you for it." Silver nodded slowly for a moment, eyes looking down to the side "Yeah, I'll help but I want to hear the full story, how this happened, why it happened, who's on your side, who's against you, everything."
Robotnik nodded and invited Silver to take a seat across from him at the table "Then know everything you shall. It was just over 30 years ago when this whole mess started to form. Tails and I were brilliant robotic engineers and scientists, we were driven by a promise we made to the city; to create something that could withstand all the hell that man goes through. Something that would lessen the chances of men dying while on the job… something that would make it so that no son would ever have to say 'My father worked himself to death.'"
"I assume you achieved that goal." Robotnik nodded in response "Yes, yes we did… but I could never have imagined what cost it came at…"
"Cost? What cost?"
"Dread was heavy in my heart the night we flipped the switch on the first set of robots… I knew that something was wrong… ever since Tails started demanding to see and alter the plans, designs, all of it… I couldn't say no…"
Robotnik continued " I couldn't pull the plug on the project as it would be admitting failure, failure to the people of the city… If I knew then what I know now, I never would've flipped that switch. Yet I flipped it and that was that and you see what it led to…" Robotnik was now crying slightly, his head hung low, forehead supported in the palm of his hand. Silver had heard all he needed to now and his decision was made; heck it was made back when Knuckles rescued him. "I'll help, what do I need to do?" Robotnik looked up at him in surprise "Really, you'll help?" Silver nodded.
"Well then, we first need to get you armored and covered up." Robotnik stated standing up and wiping tears from his face. "Co-covered up? What do you mean? I understand armoring but-" Robotnik started searching in a back closet for something as he answered "Remember when I said 'He's the one'? Well, these glasses I'm wearing aren't your average correctional spectacles, I made them so that they could pick up on trace amounts of Chaos energy. Not unlike the thermal vision I made for The Hounds."
"Alright, I'm guessing I'm letting of Chaos energy?"
Robotnik returned to the main room with a black bodysuit, black gloves and boots accented with cyan bands with gray trimming. "OH yes, like a wildfire. Put these on, I designed them to reduce Knuckles' energy for when he ventures into the city. He wasn't a fan of the colour so I made new ones, I hope they fit." As Silver started putting it on Knuckles removed a cushion on the couch revealing a weapons crate, Robotnik meanwhile folded back a robot plan on a table hiding a computer and radar. "What's that for?"
Robotnik started flipping switches and turning dials "This allows me to track Knuckles and Metal Sonic through the city." Silver flashed back to the start of Tails' press conference.
"Uh yeah, abo-"
"Metal Sonic is dead, I'm aware. Knuckles was there trying to help get him out of there." Knuckles recounted the event as he pulled out a few guns and checked them. "We were sent out to get in touch with an inside man who contacted us about forming a resistance, Metal went ahead to clear a path but the Hounds and their Master got to him first. I heard the clashing of steel from a distance and tried to get there but by the time I arrived, Metal was nothing more than a few scraps of steel. Then the Doc called up and informed me of a massive Chaos Energy displacement and to check it out, soon after Miles' announcement aired and I followed the crowds."
Silver replaced his boots and gloves with the ones Robotnik gave him. "What's the plan." Robotnik looked over his shoulder at him. "The same one, both of you sneak into the city and find this contact and do it discreetly, which means no firing 'less fired upon and no psychic showing off." Silver nodded and Knuckles holstered a pair of pistols "Got it."
"Now go! Quickly!" Robotnik shooed them out the door and locked it tightly behind them, the pair climbs the steps to the EX-Gear. "Alright Silver, once we put these helmets on we DO NOT take them off till we get back here. Understand?" Silver nodded and they climbed on, Knuckles raised the kickstand and fired up the engine; when Silver was in place they tore off back to the city the way they came. Cracked pavement and overgrown plants slowly put themselves back together and cut themselves down as they entered the embrace of the metallic robotic arms that held the city firmly in its grasp. Surprisingly in the short 2 hours since Silver left the city the citizens had apparently forgotten all about him and 'the threat' he posed to them, returning to their normal lives. Knuckles sensed Silver's thoughts and answered the question not asked. "Don't be fooled, they haven't forgotten about you their attention has just been diverted to other things to distract them."
"But why?"
"Why not? Life is short and everyone has the ability to do whatever they please, also distracts them from the oppression they live under." Oppression, a word Silver knew fairly well as his home was always under some form of it whether it came from a massive immortal fire golem god-thing or an oppressive council whose motto might as well be 'Our Way or The Prison'.
"Oppression is a funny thing, it could take the form of an overt military state or in this case, robots do all the hard labour, ya know jobs where men stand a reasonably high chance of dying on the clock. As a result, there are not enough jobs to employ people so they rely on Miles' Government to take care of themselves."
"Yet it doesn't seem to be enough if there are people willing to fight against it."
Knuckles nodded "Yeah but they can't voice it if they are… then they simply disappear, never to be seen again. He's taken control of the city by exploiting our will to survive, no one speaks out and he crushes the will of the people. They have to support Miles to live, but in supporting Miles they only ensure they have no chance to be free." Silver looked around under his helmet and began to see the cracks in the society Miles built, security bots patrolling the streets with one on every corner and cameras everywhere. Screens with Miles face and government seal hung on every wall and the people walking with their shoulders slumped and head down. Even the people who were enjoying themselves seemed restrained as if they could be hauled off for being too rowdy. They came to a red light and his point was proven as he saw a police bot pull a drunken woman out of a bar and begin beating her.
"Why don't they fight?"
"How can they? Why would they? All their needs are taken care of by the state supposedly, those who think otherwise are gone by the next morning. And all the security forces are made of steel that no normal person even has a chance of putting a dent in. If one is taken out, two more will take its place." Knuckles replied, his voice laced with disappointment. "The last person who did stand and fight was turned into an example."
They pulled up to a high rise apartment building and got off the bike, they climbed the steps to the front door and entered. "Who was it, Sonic?" Knuckles stopped in his tracks and looked back at Silver, confused and instantly suspicious.
"How do you know Sonic?" Silver's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before remembering this was not his Knuckles but a different Knuckles. "Oh, well in my dimension Sonic was a great hero who fought against the 'not exactly a nice guy' Dr Robotnik and stops him from, well, doing what Tails did here." Knuckles nodded and smiled "Seems our worlds have something in common. Come on our guy lives all the way at the top so start climbing."
And so they did, up and up they went passing closed and locked doors, passing cameras, and screens, not even in the halls of an apartment could one escape the watchful eye of the Prower Administration. When they reached the 32nd floor Silver was out of breath, he wasn't used to climbing this many flights of stairs at once, he usually flew up them. He thanked the gods that this was the final flight as when they came to Apt 4 the door swung open to reveal someone Silver was well acquainted with but unlike the other familiar faces, he looked no older than the one Silver knew; it was Shadow the Hedgehog.
"You're late." He grunted, opening the door and leading them in with Silver closed the door behind him. Knuckles apologized and removed his helmet "Yeah, sorry we got held up." Shadow took a seat and lit a cigar. "Yeah, your new friend there caused quite the commotion earlier. But that's done and gone, let's get to business."
"Right, you said you know some people who are willing to form some sort of resistance force?" Shadow nodded and puffed on the cigar. "Got that right, I've got a turncoat M-100 series robot with the lust to destroy everything Miles has made. A ninja chameleon, he may be a bit on the older side but he still kicks ass. A veritable army of mercs, made of Ex-Military and Special Forces, whose business in the city has taken a massive hit since Miles took over and in general want their jobs and city back, same goes for a team of thieves and a few more individuals. All of them ready to go once I give the signal."
Knuckles thought it over for a moment "What do you want in return?" Shadow shook his head. "Nothing except freedom for the people and their hope to be restored." He held out his hand. "Deal?" Knuckles took it "Deal." They shook "Where should we meet to discuss plans?" Knuckles lead him over to the window and point out to the horizon. "See the Elec-rail, wait 4 hours after we leave the building before you do, when you do, follow it south for an hour or so till you arrive at a run downtown. When you reach the intersection with a liquor store on one side and hardware store across from it, hit one of the crosswalk buttons and wait. Someone will come get you, relay these instructions to your men. Everyone that intends to fight must be there by noon tomorrow."
Shadow's brow furrowed "Noon tomorrow? That's 13 hours from now, 9 after the four hours of waiting."
"Better work quickly then." Knuckles smiled as he put his helmet back on.
Then everything went boom.
Owl shaped robots clad in silver armor smashed through the windows sending glass flying everywhere and the trio flying back, letting the howling wind flying in, a helicopter lowered into view and hovered there letting wolf-shaped robots leap into the apartment. Knuckles un-holstered his guns and began firing at them, Shadow started blasting them with Chaos and shouted over the roar of the chopper blades. "GO! i'LL HOLD 'EM OFF! GET OUTTA HERE!" Silver didn't need to be told twice he scrambled to his feet ripping the front door off its hinges with his powers and slamming it into a robot behind him. Knuckles followed close behind him blasting the pursuing robots, with their cover blown Silver didn't mind taking the stairs any longer; mostly because he didn't plan on taking them at all. "Knuckles! Do you trust me!" Knuckles looked at him "Yeah, sure why!?"
Silver grabbed him and a robot with psychokinesis, threw the robot through the window, breaking it, and leaping out with Knuckles behind him. They landed on the sidewalk and dashed for the bike not even bothering to put the helmets on, as soon as Knuckles got his feet on the handles he slammed it into first gear then second then third as they raced down the street pursued by the robot forces. Knuckles handed a blaster back to Silver "Use this to take 'em off our tail! Aim for the underside of the neck, the jugular!" Silver nodded and took the gun, he opened fire and found he shot as well as Sonic stayed in one place.
Instead of the gun, he started grabbing anything he could to throw at and halt the wolves advancement, it worked but not fast enough according to Knuckles. "We've got to get rid of them before we leave the city or they'll follow us straight home, use that psychic power of yours and take down that chopper! It's the one sending the command signal to the Hounds!" Silver nodded again and turned his focus to it, the chopper was following them, the spotlight focused on them. Unfortunately, it was too far away to grab hold of directly so he had to get creative if they could just get a little higher. Silver looked around for some sort of ramp and saw a building under construction further down the street. "Head up that construction! If I get higher up I can grab the chopper and bring it down!" Knuckles nodded and charged towards it.
The bike ripped through the plastic orange fencing while Silver threw robots and large machinery out its way, they dashed up the ramps the workbots used to navigate up to higher floors till the reached the roof level where they slid to a stop. Knuckles shot out the supports, collapsing the walkway up cutting off the Hounds "Alright kid, whatever you plan on doing do it quick. It won't be long before they smash this building down to get to us."
"Don't worry, the Hounds won't have a chance. How high can you make this Gear jump?"
Knuckles detached a shotgun from the side of the bike and started pumping the dogs with charges. "Doc engineered it so that if I get it going fast enough I can drive up the sides of buildings, theoretically."
"Alright, be ready to do that when I say so." Knuckles nodded and returned to firing at the Hounds. Silver turned his attention to the helicopter, it was in range but just barely and the constant barking, howling and gun and blaster fire didn't help calm his nerves. So he closed his eyes and concentrated… he pushed out the barking and howling hounds… silenced the gun and blaster fire… quieted the sound of metal clashing against metal… ignored the swaying of the construction as the Hounds slammed against it in attempts to bring it down… pushed all of it out so all that was left was him and the helicopter in a white space.
In the helicopter the pilot started to smile, these idiots he was chasing are just standing there waiting to be destroyed. And the grey one wasn't even trying to fight off the hounds like his comrade. He was just standing there staring at the chopper with his eyes closed and hands outstretched as if he could grab his bird. The pilot flipped the cover on the missile launch button and primed them for launch, all he needed to do was position his bird out of the range of any debris. He pulled up on the stick… but the chopper stayed in place, he pulled again but the bird did not move; then he heard a terrible metal screeching from above. He looked up through the windshield and saw the blades had stopped dead and were going a cyan blue. "What the?" Then the ground rose to meet him.
Back on the roof Silver's eyes flashed open his fur glowing cyan, he had full control of the helicopter; his voice sounded like multiple as he shouted over to Knuckles. "Get that Gear ready! Now!" Knuckles didn't even bother to respond, he leapt onto the bike, held the brake and slammed on the gas; a meter next to the speedometer started filling up. Silver leapt up, hands laced together, and slammed them down on the roof floor then dashed over and leapt on the back of the bike. "GO!" Knuckles let go of the brake and the bike shot off the roof with a little help from Silver bending a section of the roof to form a makeshift ramp. As they slammed through the windows of an office building then out the other side, the helicopter crashed down into the construction site. Igniting the construction materials and sending a fireball high into the air, the Hounds were either blown up in the explosion or deactivated and melted in the fire and flame.
Knuckles looked behind him as they made their retreat "Wow… That was something… think you could do that again?" Silver's fur stopped to glow and he sluggishly nodded and responded: "Y-y-yeah, sure…" Then slumped unconscious on Knuckles' back. "Not for awhile kid, not for a while."