Author's note: Few changes from the normal world of Mobius.
First, yes all Mobians are clothed. It helps with the plot later.
Second, this is very dark. I know I mentioned this in the summery but Tails is a girl, and very, very abused by her mother and father.
With that out of the way, a quick hopefully better summery. Eggman has his empire, which has been at war with the Kingdom of Acorn for the last 25 years. Sonic has only joined the war five years ago and has a personal score to settle with Eggman. This is the beginning of the end of the war.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. And after writing this, I think it might be a good thing.
Something was wrong with dinner tonight.
Not that it hadn't tasted good, nor that for the first time in weeks Miley had as much as she wanted to eat. Heck, even after enjoying the meal where she'd stuffed herself her mother had brought out cake. Cake! That should have clued her in but once again her stomach took over and now she was in bed with two pieces of cake in her, feeling round and tired.
Tired wasn't good. Sleep made her vunerable. Not that being awake helped any but at least she wasn't giving the satisfaction of being startled awake.
Miley forced herself to relax, willing her muscles to let her sleep. "It should be fine," She thought. "It's mom's turn this week and why would she bother herself after giving me such a good meal? I should be safe."
But she knew there was no rationalising her mother's actions. What Miley just ate could have been a treat to lull her into a false sense of security, or payment for the rights to treat her worse. Not that she thought her mother could treat her worse.
The Universe seemed ready to prove her wrong.
The door to her bedroom creaked open and Miley's heart jumped to her throat. "No, not tonight. He never comes tonight!" She thought desperately, trying to rationalise the door opening, frantically denying what was happening. "It's mom's turn, she never shares her turn. He shouldn't be here!"
The sound of heavy footsteps told her otherwise. A sudden weight on her bed jarred her, and a soft voice called to her. "Miley?" It crooned. "Sweetheart, you awake?"
Miley couldn't move. She lay there, paralyzed as she stared up at her father. He gave a low chuckle. "Did you enjoy dinner? Your mom made it extra special for you." Miley's eyes widened and her father's hands played with the bottom of her pyjamma top, feeling her belly. "My you did enjoy it, didn't you chubby girl? And how much cake did you take?"
Miley had enough and tried to force her body away. But she couldn't move. His chuckle rose into a deep laugh. "Ah, she did a good job. It looks like it was worth trading three days to her for this." Realisation sank into Miley as her father spoke. While she lay there,he slowly started undoing her buttons.
"It was real smart of her, wasn't it? Feeding you all that through all the food and lacing the cake full of paralytic. You can't pull away right now, can you?" He laughed again, huskily. "But you'll do all right for tonight. No struggling, only natural complience. What else can you expect from a freak?"
Miley winced at that, begging her body to move but she was stuck. Her dad pulled her shirt from her, leaving it undone over her shoulders as he ran his hands down her torso. He let his fingers linger around her chest, gently feeling before slipping lower. "So, how do you want this? Slow and a few times or fast and many?" Miley only whimpered and he laughed harshly and huskily. Miley just closed her eyes and prayed it would end soon.
Before her father could make it any farther, there was a low whine from outside that caught his attention. Turning to face the window, her father squinted as he looked outside, trying to determine what was happening. Before he could respond, the wall and house exploded. Miley watched her father get flung back as the walls collapsed. Her bed had flipped during the explosion and was sitting over top of her, pinning her legs. The ceiling groaned and collapsed, causing her to black out.
After a while, Miley groaned as she slowly came to, her head pounding. Coughing lightly from the amount of dust, she looked around and saw slabs of wood and plaster that made up her ceilling and she wondered why she wasn't crushed. She tried to move and found her legs to be trapped. Squinting, she followed what was trapping her legs and allowed herself a bitter grin.
Her bed frame was solid steel, built by her dad himself and he was good with machines. The frame had been made to withstand and restrain her when her dad had been in a "kinkier" mood. Ironically, the bed meant to bind his daughter had just saved her life. She stopped struggling and listened to everything around her, suddenly remembering her house was blown up. A noise to her left caught her attention.
She managed to hold in a gasp as she stared in horror at the feet next to her bed. "Those are Swatbots," She thought numbly, as she was sure death was upon her now. She might not know much about what was going on but she knew Mobians had been at war with the Eggman Empire for years. But Swatbots had never made it as far into the Knothole Kingdom as her house as long as she could remember. Had the front lines fallen?
"Hurry," A voice snapped. "We don't have much time. The other attacks have already been neutralized. We need to make some sort of progress today. Grab the Mobians."
Miley frowned as she listend to the commanding voice. It sounded strange, like nothing she had ever heard before. It sounded completely off from every Mobian she had ever met. In fact, it almost sounded... human?
Miley felt her blood run cold. She forced her body to contort and twist out from under the rubble as she looked from under her bed to look at the speaker. Even as she started to look, she understood exactly who was there and what was going to happen. She wasn't going to die today. That would be too kind a fate for her.
"Hurry it up. Bring those two over here," The bald head turned and snapped at the Swatbots that were holding onto her parents.
"Yes, Doctor," The mechanical voice droned as it pushed the struggling fox Mobians forward.
The alarm rang out for the third time in his dorm and Sonic bit back a groan.
It was the middle of the night and he had just run through two opperations. He might be able to move at the speed of sound but even Sonic grew tired and when he did, he crashed completely. And the Freedom Fighters knew that and rarely disturbed his sleep when possible.
Obviously tonight it wasn't going to be possible. Sonic finally let out the groan as he reached over and sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand and activating the holo-com with the other. "What is it Sal?" Sonic asked tiredly as an image of the Acorn Princess appeared.
Sally raised an eyebrow at Sonic's shirtless for but simply straightened her vest and told him, "There's been multiple attacks on central civilian homes tonight. I've sent out all the Fighters I can spare but I need you to handle this job Sonic."
Sonic sighed and rubbed his forhead, leaning back into his bed. "Sally, I completed two full team missions solo missions today. I'm exhausted. Can't Amy or Rotor handle it?"
"Sonic, Eggman is in the Knothole Kingdom."
Sonic bolted upright. "What?" He demanded.
Sally expanded the view of the screen and pointed to the flared dot. "This is the latest attack location. The satalite reports live Mobians and the Doctor only had one reason to keep such beings alive. You just destroyed his Robotcizer so that means that he has to Robotcize everything himself. He has to be there Sonic."
Sonic blurred out of the Holo-com view for a moment and appeared fully dressed in his combat gear. Slipping on a combination eye-piece/ear-piece, he nodded deftly to Sally. "Upload coordinates to me and I'll take care of it. Let's hope Robobut's slow today Sal."
"Don't underestimate him Sonic and don't strain yourself. Just try and get those Mobians out alive." Sally ordered. Sonic saluted and the device in his ear beeped, imputing a map to the lens over his left eye. With a grin, Sonic shot off into the night.
It took almost no time for Sonic to arrive. Not that he thought that it would be otherwise; he was the fastest thing alive. He just hadn't expected there to be enough time for everything he was seeing to have happened.
The entire street was a mess. Buildings were collapsed, fires were burning and Mobians were running everywhere. Swatbots were doing their best to round everyone up but the most frightening ones chasing people weren't the Swatbots. They were the Robotcized.
Sonic shuddered as he saw three Robotcized Mobians, or Robians, chasing after those who may have once been their neightbors, devoid of free will and far more deadly than any Swatbot could hope to be. Oh it was posisble to resist the control that came from being Robotcized but why would you? Normally by the time you are one, your life was over anyways. Robotcized Mobians were discriminated against and in many situations, executed for losing control. Eggman offered a much easier way out, so most took it.
Fortunately, Sonic had another solutiont that didn't involve killing. He built up his speed and shot forward in a Spin Dash, knocking the three Robians off their feet. "Run," He commanded the civilians as he readied himself, drawing power from deep within him.
The Robians got up and focussed in on Sonic, who was one of the highest priority targets. He shot backwards as the first went to strike him, lightly deflecting a second blow while never taking his eyes off the Robians. All three shot forward and he dodged backwards, blocking and occasionally knocking away but he did his best to avoid hurting his assailents. He just wished he didn't have to hurt them at all. But it was unavoidable, so he simply focussed and let his power build.
He fell back slowly, letting the Robians surround him. Before any could strike, he sucked in a deep breathe and blew on them. Chaos mixed with the air in his lungs and released in a slow breeze that surrounded the Robians and where Chaos touched them, Mobian flesh began to return.
The three recently cured Mobians collapsed as Eggman's monstrosity left their forms. Sonic stared at them for a moment, the sudden drain of energy locking him in place. Taking several deep breathes, Sonic forced himself to move again as he dashed forward and started destroying the Swatbots and yelling, "Get into the clear, and bring the ones over there with you. They're cured; they are no longer Robians!"
He didn't wait to see who was listening to him, Sonic's only goal was to remove the Swatbots and find Eggman. The Swatbots were an easy task, and soon all that was left behind was piles of scrap metal that would be gone by morning. Sonic made sure there were no more bots hiding around anywhere before taking off towards Eggman's signal.
Sonic started to draw up Chaos energy while he ran and nearly collapsed. After all he had been through today he had no more energy to spare. Try as he might, there was no way for him to use any more Chaos power until he had some rest. With a grimace, Sonic pushed himself to go faster, hoping that there weren't any more Robians waiting for him in the night.
"If wishes were fishes," Sonic thought as he stared at the two captured Mobian's in Eggman's grip. Well, only one was literally in his grip, a small orange kitsune who was struggling as the power of the Roboticizer crawled up its body. Already the transformation covered the Mobian's legs and arms. He wanted to stop the process but he knew it wouldn't help. Very few Mobian's survived being partly Robotcized, which was part of the reason that Bunnie was such a valuable member of the team.
He wasn't entirely sure what he should do. If he interefered now, the Mobian could be half-Robotcized and potentially rescued. But at the same time, such an action could kill the Mobian, especially if even one organ had be Robotcized. Once even on organ was Robotcized, it ceased to function and that could mean a quick or excruciatingly long death. Sonic had seen it once and the Mobian was begging to die by the end of it. He didn't know if he could live with it again.
But with Eggman right there, he couldn't wait for him to finish. "Just once," Sonic thought, "I'd like a fight with him to be fair."
Sonic decided waiting wasn't an option. Maybe he'd only have to fight one Robian and he could bring that one back with him. With a little rest or a Chaos boost, he could reverse the Robotcizing process. Sonic dashed forward, slamming through the first wave of Swatbots and slamming into Eggman himself. He kicked away the now fully Robian and grabbed Eggman by the throat.
"I'd order those Swatbots to back down if I were you Eggbutt," Sonic told the Doctor, a grim smile on his face. "After all, wouldn't want me to get startled and snap your neck, would we?"
Eggman's eyes widened and he tried to swallow, before managing,"Sonic? What a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to see you yet. perhaps we can talk about this civilly?"
"Civilly? Why Eggy, I don't think we've had a single civil exchange in the five years we've known each other." Sonic told him cheerfully. "Those Swatbots still haven't lowered their weapons you know. And don't waste either of our time using that arm of yours: we both know what happens when you touch me."
Eggman's hand fell limply to his side as he scowled up at Sonic. "Ah yes, your blasted Chaos powers. First Shadow, the that pink girl, and now even you. What is it with hedgehogs and their affinity for Chaos always ruining my plans?"
"You're the genius doc, you tell me. Now get rid of those Bots so I can avoid doing further damage to you." Sonic told Eggman, a look of disgust on his face.
"What? After all those years chasing after me, you aren't going to kill me? Shame on you Sonic, disobeying orders!" Eggman sneered.
Sonic snorted. "These are my orders. If were up to me, I'd have just killed you now by slicing right through you and your Bots. No, the order is to keep you alive, which is coming from way over my head. Someone has big plans for you," Sonic grinned grimly.
"Ah, I'm a hostage now. Snively can't run the Empire alone because everything is programmed to obey me," Eggman mused. "And with that in mind, he'll have to bargain to get me back. That means all the Mobians I captured in the raid last month will have to be released, won't it?"
Sonic shrugged. "I wouldnt know. I didn't expect you to keep them alive. Now let's go Eggman, before I'm forced to disobey my orders."
"Oh, and I wouldn't want that, would I?" Eggman chuckled darkly."But before you drag me off to wherever it is you're planning, I have one quick question."
"Shoot," Sonic replied, never taking his eyes off the mad doctor.
"Why didn't you deal with my second latest Robian when you had the chance?" Eggman asked him innocently as said figure tackled Sonic from beind.
Sonic grunted as he hit the ground, knocking the Robian off of him only for the second to rush for the attack. "Keep him busy," Eggman ordered the Robians as he gathered his Swatbots. "I'm pulling out. There's nothing more we can do here."
Sonic knocked away the Robian on his back, starting himself up into a Spin Dash while he yelled, "Oh no you don't. Get back here Eggman, I'm not done with you!" He started forward with his famed attack, only to try and pause partway through.
One of the Robians was right in front of him.
Sonic wanted to stop, wanted not to slice through it. But Robian's metal skin stood no more chance than ordinary flesh and blood and Sonic tore through the Robian with ease. He stopped, horrified as he stared at the remains. Eggman laughed loud and smug, scolding Sonic, "You should be more careful with those civilians rodent. They just can't help getting in the way."
The other Robian was no longer directly attacking Sonic, instead blocking his way and striking him whenever the hedgehog hesitated. He was already injured but he didn't want to hurt the Robotcized Mobian anymore than he had to. But as he watched Eggman getting away, and felt his injuries worsen, Sonic didn't have any choice. With a painful grimace, Sonic made his deciscion and charged forward.
He hated how easy it was to end the Robian's life. His spines gave him a weapon that slashed through steel as easily as a hot knife through butter, leaving no second chances for the victim. Sonic took a moment to look at the remains of the Mobian before turning in the direction Eggman had run.
It wasn't that far. He could take off after him. Granted, Sonic was now thouroughly exhausted and injured but he didn't care. Eggman was all that was holding his empire, and the war efforts, together. He would gladly end his own life to end that war.
But he didn't run. Something held him back, keeping him the ruins of the rubble. Sonic looked around, staring at the house. He could see the remains of walls, a door, and the tipped over bed.
The bed surprised him; it was made of steel. Steel was a commodity because of the war and right now people treated it better than gold. To make a bed entirely out of steel would be a waste. But if someone was in it, and it flipped over them...
He cautiously approached the bed, his mind intruigued by the idea that someone could be underneath it. But knowing Eggman, it could be a bomb underneath it rather than a Mobian. So to avoid getting too close, Sonic held back, staring and wondering why this was trumping taking off after Eggman. After staring for a moment, Sonic sighed and turned to follow the Doctor. But as he did, he saw what he'd been looking for.
Something moved under the bed.
He didn't even think, just moved. Sonic ran to the bed and lifted it, one handed, with his other hand reaching beneath. There was someone there, a young fox Mobian. Sonic flipped the bed off of the child and stared. The child wasn't moving, was barely breathing but very much alive.
Eggman suddenly didn't matter. Sonic knelt down and gently picked the child up, terrified that he might hurt them further. Then he noticed the tails.
Sonic winced as he picked the Mobian up. A two tailed Fox, or a kitsune, wasn't appreciated in society. If Robian's were discriminated against, beings like kitsunes or himself weren't people. He was "affectionanetely" called a Freak by the majority of the kingdom and he was a hero. Someone like this would be hated for being different, and normally only had their parent's to rely on.
"And I killed them," Sonic thought ruefully. He didn't want to after Eggman. He knew he should, that going after him would be a best. He could catch up with him, end the war today.
At the cost of this child's life. He knew that a Freak wouldn't survive a day alone, with no home or family. The Orphans Of War wouldn't take a Freak even if there was room for them. But after so many years, the Orphan's houses were full, and even if Sonic pulled strings to allow this child in, no one could take them.
Sonic looked back at the direction Eggman had run off in. He couldn't catch him now. Even the fastest thing alove needed to know where to go and Eggman could be anywhere. He looked at the child again and closed his eyes. He knew he shouldn't do this, but he was out of energy, there was no way to catch Eggman and this child needed him now. He reached, deep into his Chaos reserves and called on a power he could only use when he was drained, when he had nothing left.
"Chaos Control," Sonic murmered, the force of the words negating how quiet they were. There was a bright, brief flash of light engulfed him and he was gone, nothing but the rubble remaining.
Sally was getting worried. Sonic should have reported in by now.
She didn't have a logical reason to worry. Sonic was their best solo fighter, and he had made more progress against Eggman in five years than the entire Kingdom had in twenty. And it wouldn't be the first time the doctor had jammed communications during an attack. But something felt off tonight, something that she didn't like. The Chipmunk girl shuddered as she stared out of the Freedom Fighter's HQ, looking for the trail of dust to let her know Sonic was ok.
"Sonic, where are you?" She wondered out loud, still staring out the window. She hoped, almost expected Sonic to come dashing from the kingdom back to the base the moment she asked the question.
She didn't expect to have him fall on her from behind, knocking the wind out of her. She landed with a grunt, rolling away as Sonic lay, barely moving and craddling something.
"Sonic!" Sally snapped. "What on earthis the meaning of this?"
Sonic croaked something that she didn't catch. Sally's anger wasn't satisfied but her curiousity was peaked. "What was that?" She snapped again. Sonic gave a hoarse cough, before giving her an answer that stopped her cold.
"Child," He rasped. "Dr. Quack." With that, Sonic uncurled himself a bit, revealing the orange kitsune in his arms.
Sally knelt down, gently taking his burden from him. Sally lay them both out on the floor before pressing the call button on her desk. "Rotor, Big, I need you two in here imediately. And someone, wake Dr. Quack immediately. He has two patients who need him now!" An affermative call from Rotor confirmed that he was on his way. Sally knelt down, staring from the child to her comrade. "It'll be fine now," She whispered to them, wishing she felt as confident as she tried to sound.
