Fear and Nothing
Snively POV. He lays a trap for Sonic and Sally while Robotnik's away, will his plan work?
I don't own Snively, Robotnik, Sonic, Sally, or Dulcy. They belong to Sega, Dic, and Archie
When the cat's away the mice will play.
Perhaps that was their mindset as they entered the city that morning. I am not so foolish as to think they know nothing of our movements, of the plans made in secrete code and whispered hush. I give them more credit than Uncle Julian ever did. He sees a certain weakness in it I suppose, admitting that dirty animals had any sort of ability. It's one of the reasons he fails time and time again. He thinks too much of his own intelligence and far too little of theirs. He thinks himself naturally superior over the Mobians. He's human after all, a species far beyond, far above scurrying rats, like a pitiful and dim-witted demi-god, much too stupid and far too powerful. Self-righteousness is his first flaw.
Technology is his second. It is a crutch that holds up his immense weight and he has become ridiculously dependent on it. Robots, machines, computers . . . fallible things. Easily destroyed, easily compromised, and easily bent to the will of another. If it doesn't bleep, or flash, or have an off switch he has little use for it. He has renamed himself Robotnik after all and what sort of robot-nik would he be his he lowered himself to using something as simple as a gun? Or a person? Or something as simple as a dog? It's beneath him.
I was once a young man, a child really and I once knew other's like me. But not like me, for no one was really as I am. I was an outsider even among my own people, small and weak. I was nervous and to smart for my own good, I was often the butt of many jokes. But there were those who were if not kind, at least tolerant. There was Jacko, a knarled old man, his right hand void of all fingers except his arthritic thumb. Jacko let me help him some evening with the hounds that he housed. They were used during the Great War, they had a knack for finding Mobian's waiting to ambush advancing troops. It was a game to those sleek, baying dogs. Find the animal, tear it apart. Most Mobians were just large versions of the things the dogs had been breed for generations to hunt, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels. I liked Jacko, as much as I've ever liked anyone I suppose. He told me stories of his battles, he taught me things I could never hope to learn from Uncle Julian. I am certain I've forgotten a lot of what he told me. I tend to forget, or muddle in my mind a lot of things. Its stress I tell myself and partly it is. But not all, not completely. You can only take so many blows to the head before it begins to effect you. I've forgotten a lot, but I remembered two of the most important things.
"The simple way is almost all the time the best way, Kid." Jacko had always called me Kid. I don't think he honestly believed me when I told him my name or perhaps he felt too much pity to mutter such a hurtful word. "Furs ain't like people. They ain't little hairy people, Kid. They's animals and if ya back 'um far enough ita a corner you'll see for yaself just how much a wild thing they are." He'd always wave the remains of his hand in the air. A badger had taken his fingers, a small female who he said had seemed harmless. But Jacko had tried to take her four year old son, a practice that was common at the time. Many male children were killed to prevent them from growing up and joining the ranks of the Mobian army. He had bent to pick up the kit and the female had attacked him, biting off his fingers. I remember vaguely telling him I was sorry such a horrible thing had happened. He had laughed and shook his head.
"Save you sorry's for yaself, I bet ya gonna need 'um more than me. I kilt 'um both dead anyways."
When the cat's away the mice will play.
I knew they were coming. I was certain they knew Uncle Julian had left and that he would be gone for nearly a week. I knew they saw me as no real threat. I was certain they were aware a new SwatBot factory was nearly complete and I knew they would attack it. I was surprised how easy it had been. Dawn was just braking when they appeared on my monitor. Just the two of them, just Sonic and the Princess and that was good. That's what I wanted. They were not careful and if they had fear they didn't show it that day. They spoke for a while, their mouths moving mutely on my screen. I didn't need to know what they were saying. The plans never varied too much. They did what worked and Uncle Julian was to stupid to really keep them on their toes. After a time the conversation ended and they separated after their moronic little handshake.
There was a fence around the factory, the first factory in the city to have one. They didn't seem to notice or perhaps they simply didn't care. I watched on my little hand held monitor, standing just inside the factory planned to blow sky-high. The door flow open, then swung shut again and Sonic was standing before me. He paused, pulling a little homemade bomb from his pack. I was shadowed by the dark of the unlit factory. I wasted no time with dramatic declarations or hollow threats. I simply shot him, the dart from the gun hitting his squarely in the left shoulder, just above the strap of his pack. He whirled around, looking more surprised than anything else. He opened his mouth, probably intent on shouting a warning to the Princess, but he swayed drunkenly, his eyes rolling back into his head before he crumpled to the ground.
"Close the gate and electrify the fence." I commanded softly, reaching down for the sleeping hedgehog.
It didn't take as long as I thought it would for Sonic to awake, but I was more than prepared long before his eyes fluttered open. I watched from a distance as he began to struggle against the chains that held him. He was upright, his legs spread uncomfortably wide and securely fastened by simple metal cuffs around his ankles to both the wall behind him and to the floor. His arms were stretched over his head and held in place by similar cuffs, a thick chain attached to the ceiling and the wall. For extra security a thin metal band had also been placed around his neck, a short chain bolted to the wall he was trapped against. I was silent as his struggles increased, his large blue paws flexing as he attempted to pull away from the wall. I had not made the same mistake Julian made all to often. I had stripped the hedgehog of anything and everything that wasn't attached to his body and had disposed of it all, having no interest in the power ring inside the pack. I let him struggle vainly for a moment more before I stepped into his view. Sonic's eyes widened slightly and he growled at me. He could do little else as I had wisely secured a leather strap across his muzzle to keep him quiet until I was ready for him to speak.
"Ah, you're awake." I greeted, smiling slightly. He made a muffled sound, his chains clanking slightly as he fought. "Don't worry Hedgehog. I'm not going to hurt you. No, not you." I pointed to the large monitor before him and I cut it on. An image of the enclosed factory came into focus, the Princess wondering around aimlessly, trapped in the electrified fence. Sonic growled again, his brow knotting in anger. "This is the way it's going to work. I'm going to push this button here, see?" I held up a little control pad. "When I push the button five hounds are going to be released into the enclosure the Princess is in. They will proceed to chase her and . . . well if they catch her it's going to be quite ugly. All you have to do is tell me the location of Knothole and I stop the dogs. Understand?" Sonic shook his head and made more muffled sounds. "No? Well, let me demonstrate."
Sally is fast. She would never think so, she has had Sonic to compare herself to, but for most Mobians she is quite fast. Her body moves sleekly, with a beauty and grace the hedgehog could never come close to obtaining. Her fur clings to her, wet and slick with sweat. Her chest heaves as I watch her run, staying only a hairs length ahead of the dog chasing her. It is large, it's white body speckled with large blotches of brown and black. Its tail wags rapidly, the joy of the hunt apparent in every inch of its tone body. It brays and the sound mixes with the strangled sobs of the creature chained on the wall behind me. I removed the make shift muzzle a moment after I released the first of the five dogs. I was not so foolish as to let them all go at once. They would have brought down the Princess too quickly and I'd never get the information I wanted. At first Sonic had shouted a plethora of curses and threats at me, struggling franticly against his bonds until he hurt himself, blood oozing from his wrists and ankles. The threats turned into pleas about ten minutes into the chase when Sally had narrowly escaped the hound's jaws, losing her vest to his snapping bite. He began to tell me things, all sorts of things I didn't care to know, everything but the one thing I had asked for. I understood what he was trying to do. He hoped to sway me, to elicit some sympathy that simply didn't exist. He told me how important Sally was to the others. He told me how she was a mother to Tails. He told me of his despite, undying love for her. He told me things I couldn't really understand because he had begun to cry and his voice had become too nasal, his words too punctuated with strangled sobs. He managed to pull himself together a little to plea his case to uncaring ears.
"Please . . . please." I couldn't help but enjoy his begging. He'd never begged my uncle for anything.
"Tell me where Knothole is." I reply calmly.
"Please . . . please don't do this. Please. Sal . . . she's . . . she's . . . please . . . she's pregnant!"
"Really?" I ask, turning to look at him.
"Yeah, yeah . . . honest . . . I swear it! Please . . . let her go . . . you can have me . . . just please let her go."
"She'll surely have a miscarriage if I don't release her." I point out, looking thoughtful.
"Right . . . . ya gotta let her go. I won't fight . . . ya can have me . . . I'll walk right inta the robotisizer! I'll stand there real good and let ya . . . just please . . . she's gonna loose it! Please let her go!"
"I will let her go." I tell him, smiling viscously. "All you have to do is tell me where Knothole is."
Twenty minutes into the chase and there is blood on the Princess's thighs. I am vaguely surprised the hedgehog hadn't been lying about her condition. It wouldn't have changed anything, even if I'd known for sure. I wish the blood would have waited just a little longer to appear though, for I am certain Sonic was about to give me what I wanted, but the loss has driven him to tears once again. I do not waste words on him, but internally I berate him for being so incredibly idiotic as to think he could bring new life into this dying world. How selfish of both of them such an endeavor was. I have done the little leech that had been inside the Princess' womb a favor, ending its pitiful existence before it really had a chance to begin. God knows most days I wish my fate had been the same, that I had been nothing more than a smear of blood on my mother's legs.
I doubt Sally will last much longer. She is slowing, has been slowing for some time now, her body drenched in sweat, her tongue hanging from her mouth in what looks almost like a pant. The dog has caught her twice now. The first time it managed to grab her tail, but got mostly fur, leaving it with nothing but a hair ball for its trouble. The second time though Sally fell and the dog had been upon her in an instant. Sonic had been making so much noise I hadn't been able to hear anything, but I could nearly feel the bray of victory and then the yelp of pain as Sally managed to fight the hound off of her exhausted body, biting and clawing at it like . . . well like the wild animal Jacko had told me Mobians were. After that little incident Sonic suddenly seemed much more willing to comply with my wishes. He offered to take me to Knothole, he swore he didn't know the coordinates, but he would take me. I simply shook my head and turned my attention back to the screen. He knew the coordinates. He is not nearly as stupid as he pretends to be. I see it when I look into his eyes. A minute later he blurts out a set of coordinates and I chuckle softly, recalling the well trained dog, while releasing a new, well rested hound into the enclosure.
"Those coordinates are in the middle of the Great Swamp. I'm not a complete moron Sonic." I watch as the hound bounds toward Sally, braying happily. She doesn't run, all the fight seemingly gone out of her. The dog jumps to tackle her to the ground . . . and turns to solid ice mid-leap. I curse, flapping my hands on the control panel. I knew the others would come looking for them eventually, but not this soon. I usually took hours for the group to come to the aid of another. It was almost surely dumb luck that the dragon that had lighted in the enclosure and was now gathering Sally up, had been in the area. I watched as the winged lizard flew away with the Princess, then turned to Sonic, who was weeping relieved tears.
"It isn't over hedgehog, I still have you." I hissed at him, but he didn't seem to hear or perhaps he didn't care. I pulled my laser pistol from its holster and pointed it at his head. He doesn't look up at me and his eyes slip shut, as if he has in that second come to terms with his fate and has accepted it with an amount of composure that seemed uncanny. The bastard was smiling for god sake. I go through the motions in my imagination. Pulling the trigger, seeing his body go limp. I would save it to show Uncle Julian upon his return. And he would . . . he would . . . What would he do? Give me a sound pat on the back and say good job, have a couple days off? No. He'd be angry. Angry that I had done something he hadn't been able to accomplish in years of trying. For as much as he wanted to be rid of Sonic, he wanted the extermination to be by his own hands. He wanted that glory. I didn't care what he wanted. I've never cared, but I care about my own miserable hide and presenting my uncle with the maggot ridden remains of his supreme enemy could very well be the last thing I do. His rage would be great. His rage needs an outlet and I am that outlet. I no longer hold some great hatred for anyone or anything. I did once I think, but a strange numbness has crept into my soul in the passing years. I have only two emotions now, nothing and fear. The nothing emotion begets just that, nothing. But fear, fear is what drives me. Fear of my uncle. Fear of his fists and his curses and worst of all, though not as often, fear of his needs for which he uses me again as an outlet. Fear leads to a sick want to please him. It's why I cared enough to attempt to glean the location of Knothole from Sonic. I wouldn't have even bothered to go to the village. I would have simply giving the information to Julian. Once I would have been biting at the bit to get a hold of them, for they are a source of pain from me. They come to the city. They mess things up for Robotnik. Robotnik messes me up. The blame is squarely on their furry little heads. And back when I could hate, I hated them.
I holster my gun, one of Sonic's green eyes opening just a crack to see what was taking me so long I suppose. I kneel, popping open the ankle cuffs. He stares at me as I move close to his face, much to close for comfort so I can open the tiny lock on the metal band around his neck. He seems to understand then that I'm letting him go, I see his muscles relax some as I work on the cuffs around his wrists. He doesn't ask me why, I think he understands in a way. I don't have a cell that can hold him long enough to keep him prisoner and his death by my own hands is certainly not worth my life. He is free and I turn my back to him, walking away. He could attack me if he wanted, but he doesn't. He should have and I wonder if he's starting to get a little numb too. I'd nearly killed his mate after all and had effectively killed the potential child within her. He had every reason to, but he didn't. He turned the other way and rushed off, leaving me alone with things that could barely be called thoughts anymore. Leaving me to my nothingness.