"…got it?" echoed in his head as he slowly opened his eyes.
Looking around Sonic realized that he had fallen asleep for quite some time, as he often stopped to take a rest on such long missions. The voice in his radio faded back in "…do you understand?"
While he already thought he knew what Nicole was saying he asked her to repeat, sighting some silly reason as an excuse for his lack of attention.
Nicole replied "We need you back here in less than five hours, the information you have is time sensitive. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, Yeah I got it, I'll be back in a flash." Sonic replied.
He sat up from the old couch where he was resting. Robotnik didn't care much for the old shipping yard, which meant there was minimal security. With plenty of old buildings, it was an excellent spot to take a rest. Although he had slept longer than he would have liked this time, he saw no reason to hurry, he had plenty of time to return back to Knothole. Taking his time, he made his way back down the stairs to the front of the abandoned building.
The longer and considerably more dangerous trips into Megatropolis had begun to wear on Sonic. His most recent mission involved sneaking into one of Robotniks headquarters and downloading as much information as he could from one of the terminals. Sonic didn't like dealing with computers much. Luckily Nicole and Roter had given him a PDA that did most of the work for him. This meant that he could often set up the device to hack a terminal and return for it later, greatly reducing the risk of him getting caught.
When Sonic reached the bottom floor he walked towards the door, which was barley attached to its hinges. This shipping yard was on the outskirts of the city, and the buildings had not yet been cleared to make way for any of Robotnik's factories. He carefully opened the door to prevent it from creaking or falling off the hinges all together. Even though Sonic had five hours, the last thing he needed was a security patrol to hear him. Taking a step out he stood at the top of the set of stairs that led up to the entrance of the building. He took a moment to gather his surroundings, and look out across the river. Many of the docks had fallen into the water right next to the sunken boats they were tied to. Sonic disliked this part of the city, it had a dark and dreary feel that seemed to get under his skin.
After reaching the bottom step, Sonic took off at a brisk pace along the river back towards Knothole. He quickly noticed the drastic change in the weather that had occurred while he was sleeping. As much as he didn't like the looming storm clouds, rain would be helpful; it decreased visibility and jammed many of Robotniks electronics.
Sonic continued to run by all down buildings at half speed, conserving his energy incase he would need it later. What was left of the city reminded Sonic of a ghost town, completely deserted, things left in place as if their owners would be home at any moment to use them. It created an eerie feeling of constantly being watched. Despite this he focused on finding a main road so that he leave the city.
Although, it then occurred to him that the whole reason he had been sent on this mission was to determine why Robotnik had suddenly lost interest in the few remaining Mobian's left in Knothole, that was not what was on the forefront of his mind. He was sure that had seen someone besides Snively in a factory the day before, and it certainly was fat enough too have been Robotnik nor metallic enough to be one of his bots. The lack of attention they had been receiving from Robotnik, almost always meant that he was up to something. He decided that perhaps he should pay extra attention on the way home despite the rain.
Normally Sonic stayed off the roads to avoid attention, but the rain had made the ground to soft to run on. He took a right onto one of the old highway bridges that crossed the river surrounding the city. Even though the river was close to a mile wide, the bridge only spanned three quarters of it until it fell into the water below leaving a large gap. From the best he could tell the bridge had been hit by an attack hundreds of years ago, which left a 100-foot break between his side and the other. Robotnik clearly had no interest in maintaining the roads. Most of his vehicles either flew or used a rail system.
Sonic knew that if he ran fast enough the gap would be no problem to clear; after all he had done it at least three or four times before. The large break in the bridge quickly approached. Speeding up he executed his jump no more than a step away from the edge. Just like last time, he cleared the jump with at least fifty feet to spare.
Just two miles after the bridge, the road changed directions heading out into the open prairie. It amazed Sonic how the scenery changed so quickly just a few miles outside of the city. Even though it was still early in the morning, enough light shown through the rain clouds to illuminate the spring landscape. Flowers were in full bloom, and the field grass that was almost as tall as he was swayed back and forth in time with the gusts of wind. It was a shame that the rest of the world couldn't share the peace and beauty this land had inherited. The sheer amount of toxins emitted Robotnik's city had killed all life surrounding the city long ago. Sonic enjoyed traveling on this road. While he had to watch out for many of the roads hazards caused by its extreme disrepair, the road swound across the wide-open plains letting its travelers see for miles on end.
After two hours of running, Sonic knew he was getting close to his final turn. He thought it was ironic that a road that lead straight out of Robotropolis cut so close to Knothole. While Knothole was still close to fifty miles away from the road, in the grand scheme of things that was close for a hidden city.
Sonic turned off the road in no particular place because he didn't want to make path that could be followed. He knew the surrounding area of Knothole down to every tree. It had been his playground when he was younger, and it had clearly paid off. He could now navigate the nearby forest at speed, greatly reducing his return times. Only a hand full of the other freedom fighters knew the forest as well as he did. The forest was infamously disorienting to anyone who traveled in it because of the all the tightly packed similar looking trees. Moreover the surrounding iron deposits made compasses useless and the tall trees kept out most satellite signals.
Knothole was an escape for him when he was young, but looking back it had changed a lot. Six years ago, Roter had devised a way to make the tree grow to three times their normal height. This essentially made the valley the city was built in, appear to be a flat forest. Because the trees were so much bigger, they could easily support structures, all the while obscuring the view of the city from the sky. This gave the freedom fighters a perfect place to build an entire city, part of which was elevated in the trees.
There were not too many ways into Knothole for the average person. Most areas surrounding the cities were at least fifty foot drops, making entrance to the city difficult. Sonic almost always used the log slide that had been there since he was kid. The slide reminded him of what the world used to be like when he was a kid, a world without a genocidal robot producing doctor.
Leaving the city without the King's permission was now strictly forbidden. As a result many of the normal entrances had been sealed off, just leaving the ones that no one knew about. This was to prevent citizens from getting captured or lost in the forest.
When Sonic finally reached the slide he took his pack of and tossed it in, jumping in himself a second later. The thirty-second ride down gave him a chance to relax, which after nearly three and a half hours of running was much deserved. When Sonic reached the bottom he put back on his backpack and dusted himself off. Deciding that he had run enough for the day, he casually walked towards the center of the city.
Having been gone on his mission for nearly a week, he noticed that almost nothing had changed since he left. Even though Robotropolis was only about four hours away, he had to spend a long time learning security patrol routes and access codes, especially when he was at the heart of the city where security was more intense.
Even though he was considered by almost the entire town to be a hero, he was able to walk through town with little more than a few waves and greetings. This pleased him, because he wanted nothing more than to drop off the information and return home so he could relax.
Even from a mile away, the capital building, which resembled a magnificent medieval castle, stood out above the surrounding buildings. Walking up to door, booth of the guards sized him up, and then motioned for the door to be opened. He expressed his thanks to the guards and continued to walk inside without breaking stride.
Much like the slide, walking through this building often brought back memories of his child hood. He had been there many times with his uncle when he was younger. While his uncle and the King talked, Sonic would play with the Kings daughter, Sally. With what had happened over the years, it was no surprise their friendship had endured, but he was still thankful for it. As he walked down the long hallway approaching the council of Acorn's meeting room, he began to wonder when he would get to see Sally.
When he reached the door, he could hear a large murmur coming from inside. Just as he suspected all of the Members of the council had already been convened there for some time awaiting his arrival. Given the sensitivity of the information he had he suspected they wanted to see it first. The guard at the door quickly said something inaudible on his radio and then proceeded to open the door for him.
