Chapter 3: Who is that Blue Blur?
Tails had enough, maybe walked a bit, she might tired herself out. He agreed to the thought and started walking.
"Where are you going?" She asked, vainly, "Aren't you supposed to watch me or something?"
"I want to find that strange object," Tails replied, "Besides, I think I need to walk."
"You can't do that!" She orders, "You can't leave me here!"
"You can go or stay, it's up to you." Suggested Tails.
"Tch, Fine."
It took a moment for them both to get used to the dark again. Tails and Airoma walked in a curvy line when they heard footsteps.
"Tails? It's that stalker again..." Airoma whispered. She huddles close to Tails.
"Maybe it's Sonic trying to scare us," Said Tails, "Sonic that isn't funny! Come on out!"
Suddenly there was light coming from behind them. They turned around revealing that it wasn't Sonic.
"You know Sonic?" asked the voice of the figure. It appeared to be a red armadillo. "Is he here? Lost in the forest I bet."
"A-are you Mighty?" asked Tails.
"Mighty? I might've heard of him." Answers the armadillo, "Isn't he famous for something?"
"He was the youngest Freedom Fighter I've heard. Impressive one at that but he disappeared after the assault on Triopolis. Do you know what happened to him?" asked, Tails.
"I'll tell you more at my place, friends of Sonic. Would you trust a stranger enough to follow?" he asked.
Tails considered the thought, seeing as how he doesn't have much of a choice. This guy possibly had the only light in the forest and seemed to know his around. On another note, he hasn't killed them off and being a stalker in the dark, he could have. Lastly, he wasn't robotic. "Since we don't have much of a choice, we will."
"Allow me to find Sonic, once I get you two safe." he suggested.
He escorted them through the forest. Sure enough he knew his way around as if he could see the path. Eventually he led them to a big rock by a tree.
"Hey! Is that the object I found?" asked Tails. He knocked on it and it made a small bang. "It is!"
"That explains the lack of vegetation covering it." Said the armadillo. He uncovers a code console and presses a sequence of buttons. The bottom half of the rock opened up halfway like slide doors revealing a small platform inside, able to carry passengers down a dark shaft. "Come on."
The trio went inside. The armadillo presses a button on the platform and down they went.
"What are your names, friends of Sonic?" he asked.
"I'm Tails, I'm Sonic's bro."
"I'm Princess Airoma of Triopolis, from the Violetta Castle."
"Interesting."
The platform reached the bottom. The gate at the entrance opens up and they walked down a lit tunnel of doors.
"I created this place myself." Said the armadillo, "Made out of robot parts still functional after I busted up badniks invading the forest."
"Cool!" Said Tails.
They walked about three doors down and went through the door. It looked like a lounge.
"This is where you'll wait for Sonic now," he said, "Make yourself as home."
Tails thanked him as he sat down on a soft sofa nearby.
Airoma nodded and sat down on the other end.
"Drinks over there and food in that fridge there. I appreciate it if you keep the place clean." He said.
Tails got up and raided the fridge. He grabbed a sandwich and soda and sat back down. "So is Mighty here? Is he your brother?"
The red armadillo smiles, "I am he."
Tail's eyes widened, "So like what happened to you? I've only heard stories told by others but they all said you disappeared. Everyone probably thought you died."
"I thought I was going to, but here I am." Said Mighty. "During the mission infiltrating that dam fortress Robotnik had, the one that was blocking the main water supply. I was able to destroy the fortress but he attempted to escape in a sky fortress. I infiltrated that one too. The impact of the destruction however, I lost my balance and fell into the Wild Green. I stayed here ever since." Mighty explained, "I... had a leg injury that kept me from running about. I wasn't able to walk on my own." Mighty sighed, "Probably can't run again. I've been living here ever since."
"You seem to walk just fine with us." Said Airoma.
"Sure, doesn't hurt as much, but after a few steps of running, I feel like I've twisted something." Said Mighty, looking down in self pity. Then he took a big breathe, "Well your safe here, I'll go find Sonic for you."
"Hold on," Tails said, "Don't forget Ross and Riff. One's red and the other is blue. We got out here to find them."
"Got it." Mighty replied, and he closes the door behind him.
Sonic stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He had searched a large chunk of forest leaving no tree trunk overlooked and no stone unturned. "I don't think I can do this any longer without my hourly diet of chili dogs." Then he heard rumbling and crashing of trees. He went to check it out.
Several badniks were tearing down trees, balding the part of the forest they occupied. It was so bare, Sonic could see one of the castles of Triopolis from the edge of the forest. Sonic spotted one of the robots had caged up Pyross, who was in a crouched pouting position. He did not see Sonic, only just looked at his own feet looking ashamed of himself.
"Hang on Pyross." Sonic said to himself, trying to figure out a good way to rescue him. The badniks had giant saw blades for hands and they cut trees like it was paper. He had no idea how to get back to town in time to call for the Freedom Fighters. He feels it is best to do it himself. Maybe this is what he needs to do to join them. He ran up to Pyross, "I'll get you out kid."
Pyross's face lit up in surprise, "Sonic, what're, why're you here?" He added, "It's too dangerous here!"
"I'm going to rescue you of course," Said Sonic, "Hold on tight while I bust you out." While that plan backfired, he had to leap out of the way as a saw blade nearly stripped an edge of the metal cage. Sonic gets on top of the caged and taunts the robot, "Here I am Slo-mo!" and he tells Pyross, "You better duck."
"Why should-" Pyross notices a giant blade coming at the cage, "Oh carp!" and he ducks as low as he possibly could.
The blade slices through the metal like nothing. The failure of the robot's aim and the crash of the metal top alerted the other robots.
Pyross was free. He leaps out and runs as fast as he could, though he's no match at the blades.
"I'm coming kid!" Yelled Sonic, yet again, stopped by many giant blades circling around him, singing in an awfully screeching noise, threatening to filet him in pieces.
Pyross was trapped in a circle of blades too.
"All Freedom Fighters are to be perished by order of Robotnik." Said a bipedal figure in purple and white robotic components. It is seen standing on one of the robots. It threatened them with a gesture of a big gun on his shoulder. "Freedom Fighters are to be killed on sight." He gestured the other robots and they all began closing in.
Two robots crashed down broken due to a red streak surrounding them. The red streak stopped and there stood Mighty. He was angry and his eyes were red from crying, "How dare you do so much damage to this forest! This place has stood for thousands of years, long before you robotic abominations and you bear no respect!"
"Tell me, how do you feel when you throw away your garbage?" asked the purple robot man.
Sonic took this moment to grab Pyross and the three were together. "We must stop him!"
"I intend to do that Sonic. I owe this forest my life." Mighty's bracelets began to glow, "Get him out of here, I will catch up." He darted towards the robots but a twinge of pain in his foot stopped him, "Dammit!"
"Why don't you take care of Pyross, and I could handle these robot goons myself!" Sonic said with confidence.
"Wait, Son-" Mighty stopped and sighed.
"I can do this!" Said Sonic, "I'm up over and gone!"
"Is this the recent student that Slypher was training?" asked Mighty, "He's not bad at all."
Sonic was a blue blur around the robots, maneuvering them into attack each other. It was making the purple cyborg looking anxious.
He was seen holding his head, a cold voice was heard, "I see the deforestation stopped, I must know why? How many Freedom Fighters?"
"Only three and two of them are runts."
"They don't seem like trouble so what's the fucking holdup? Really Vile, is a few little critters too much to handle already?"
The purple robot shakes it's fist violently, "No, they're not, I got to go now."
Sonic already got five robots in desperate need of maintenance. "Awesome! Told you I can do this!"
"Don't get cocky! Watch out for Vile!" Said Mighty. He tried to get up, the pain was less but it remained. He was able to stand up fully though babying his injured leg. "I want to fight too."
"Alright enough! Clearly you pathetic piles of junk aren't worthy of this vermin!" He jump on top of one of the robots still standing, opens a compartment in the back forcefully and hops in to manually pilot the big robot. The robot gained in speed ten fold and it's behavior was much more sophisticated.
"I got to help." Mighty said to himself.
"What about me?" asked Pyross.
Mighty tapped the foot of his injured leg, testing its endurance, "I'll take you back in the forest. Stay in the shadows, I will come and get you."
"I guess," Sighed Pyross. He knew he can't handle the robots and he regrets it. Mighty picks him up and carries him into the forest. He puts down the little red ermine and runs back to Sonic.
"Sonic, we have to work together to defeat this thing!" Mighty shouts to Sonic.
Sonic narrowly dodges the blades of the rigged robot, "You got a plan? Let's do it!"
"We're fighting against Vile, Dr. Evil's upper henchman here. Fighting him alone can be trouble but as a team, we should be able to defeat him. The robot's fast but it's function is not for fighting and we must take that advantage." Mighty explains.
"Right, I think I know what you mean."
"I need you to be the ball on this."
"Ok, here we go," and Sonic curls up in front of Mighty.
Mighty aims and does a big kick in sonic's quilled behind. Sonic flew fast and shot through it's chest. Vile was thrown out of the robot from impact. Sonic just kept going, hitting all of the saw blade bots. The impact was too great for them to bear. At the impact of the last bot, Sonic uncurled and braked across the field and stopped just short of several miles from the castle.
A flying bot at the top of the castle tower zooms in on the blue hedgehog.
"What is that pesky little vermin there? Not any Freedom Fighter I've seen before." Said a cold voice. The voice belonged to a large, broad cybotic man sitting in a fancy futuristic chair big enough to fit him.
"That looks like a blue Paraechinus hypomelas sir," Said a robotic monkey with a lightbulb on its head.
"A hedgehog?" He laughs under his breath, "So the Freedom Fighters are hiding in the forest, just as I suspected. I'll finish the rest of them off there. Send Vile back, I got more plans for him."
"Yes sir," said the monkey.
Just then, Vile received the message. As he recovered from the impact of his robot suit falling apart, he said, "You think you got it easy? Try this for size!" From the big gun on his right shoulder, he lit the barren area with a ball of electrical light.
Sonic, Mighty, and Pyross got away just in time.
The blasted cleared away with no purple robot man in sight.