Sonic Squad

Season Two, Episode Three

Thrillers of Killers

By Cole Bezotte

Right when Tails had said those hurtful words, Courtney felt her pounding heart being torn apart. She could not believe what she had just heard; Tails, her closest, most dearest friend, said that he hated her. Tears immediately began to stream from her eyes; her eyes became blurred, and so she could not bear to look at what Tails had become.

"It all ends here, old friend," Count Cobra said to Courtney as he pointed at her. "Miles Prower… KILL!"

Following Cobra's diabolical order, Tails lunged out at Courtney. He went straight for her neck and began choking her. Courtney used her mysterious power to blow him off of her. She coughed and wheezed miserably as she tried to regain her breath.

(Note from the author: I still promise to reveal to you her power. Just wait until the proper time.)

"What is wrong with him?!" Courtney thought. "What has happened to the best friend I've ever had? Have I finally lost him?"

As Tails continued to attack at Courtney, Cobra rushed over to his assassin, who was adjusting the weapons built into his mechanical arm. "Hurry!" Cobra told him. "There are intruders in here, and I want them obliterated! Go and slay them!"

Obeying Cobra's command, the assassin hurried off to the front of the temple. Once he arrived, he found King Max, Sonic, Luigi, and Mario destroying Cobra's combat robots. The assassin had the good guys right in his sights, and so he pulled out his double chain-guns and began to fire rapidly at them.

Max and the others noticed the assassin, and so they quickly dodged every bullet being hurled at them. "Take cover!" Max exclaimed as he led the other three down the hall.

The assassin ran after them, and he was right on their heels. He ran faster than them; he was so close to Sonic, he could touch him. "You can't hide from me!" the assassin roared behind his mask in a hissy voice.

He was just about to reach out and grab Sonic's arm; but right when he did, Sonic zoomed with his very fast speed and wrenched himself away. Mario and Max both turned to the left hall while Luigi turned to the right; this gave Sonic enough room to speed ahead, then quickly turn back around to attack at the assassin.

After that big blow, Sonic stood to his feet to take a good look at the assassin. This killer looked awfully familiar to him; perhaps he resembled somebody from the past. Sonic stared deep into his eyes and noticed a gleam that nobody could forget. "Are you…?!" Sonic started, but was soon interrupted by a powerful return blow by the killer.

"Do not underestimate me, hedgehog!" the assassin spoke. "I am far more superior than you think I am!"

"Don't get in over your head, Christopher!" Sonic replied.

The assassin stopped after he heard that name; he did not move a muscle. He was very speechless; he did not say a word after hearing what Sonic called him. But he then had to think of a lie in order to break the silence and keep the fight going. "I…" he stuttered, "…I don't know what you mean."

"Don't lie to me, Chris!" Sonic replied. "I know you are Christopher Thorndyke, and I will prove it!" With that, Sonic ran past the assassin, taking off the strange mask in the process. Christopher's true face was revealed; it really was him behind the mask. "I knew it was you all along, Chris!" Sonic continued as he tossed the torn mask aside. "Why are you doing this to us?! Why would you want to kill us?!"

Chris' face was scarred, unshaven, and beaten. Cobra did this to him as he placed him under his spell of evil. Cobra had poisoned Chris' mind to become his assassin. Chris' identity was now revealed, but his mind was still under Cobra's powerful spell; he had still had a mind of evil.

Sonic came at Chris again, but Chris quickly turned his leg around to trip Sonic up. He made his move so fast, Sonic easily tripped on his leg and stumbled onto the floor. "He is fast," Sonic thought as he got back up to his feet. "But hopefully, I can bring him back to his senses."

Sonic ran straight back to Chris and tried to throw him off balance. But that backfired as well as the previous move; Chris quickly slipped out of Sonic's way and kicked him back down to the floor. Sonic did not think that he would be able to bring Chris back to his senses… that is until help finally came.

Luigi suddenly came back and gave Chris a big punch on the back of the head. "Chris…" he said as he made the blow, "…if you're in there, I'm sorry I have to do this!" Chris was pushed down to the floor, hitting his head hard as he landed.

Struggling to get back up to his feet, Chris placed the palm of his hand to his dizzy head. His mind had been cured from Luigi's blow; he could think and react like his normal self again. "What…happened?" he said as he went back to his feet. "I feel very strange."

"That's what we were gonna ask YOU, buddy," Sonic replied. "Did Cobra put you under a spell or something?"

"I do remember him doing that. Right before I was going to activate my portal, Cobra grabbed me and pulled me here into Mobius. I remember him placing the palm of his hand onto my forehead, placing me under his spell. I recall him roboticizing half of me, adding to his spell. I don't know how he got his hands on the Roboticizer, but he did it."

"Don't worry, Chris," Luigi said after hearing Chris' reason. "We'll bring you back to your normal look in no time. First we need to win this battle and defeat Cobra in his war game."

Max came forward and added: "We can use your new fighting abilities, Thorndyke. They are very useful."

"But they will only be that way until I get de-roboticized," Chris replied. "I will use these fighting abilities until this battle is over."

Right then, Sonic finally remembered something. "Wait a minute!" he said. "What about Tails? I told him not to come here! We better go find him!"

Meanwhile, Tails continued to beat Courtney senselessly. He did more than just hurt her physically; he also hurt her feelings very hard. The more he hit her, the more her bruises showed. But it hurt her feelings more than it hurt her physical wounded body.

Courtney used her powers to push Tails away again; but every time she did it, he kept coming right back to her. She finally decided to give Tails a blow that can help take away Cobra's spell. "I really hate to hurt him…" she thought, "…but I must do it. It will be better than having an evil friend. I don't want Tails to do this to me, and so this is the only way to stop him."

Just as she promised herself, Courtney made her move. Before Tails could attack at her again, she grabbed hold of his head and slammed him onto the floor. Tails received a large bump on his head as he stood up again. But Courtney's trick did not work at all; he was still evil. "Why didn't it work?!" she thought. "He's still insane! Perhaps I can get that spell out of him with my powers."

(Note from the author: Now I can spill the secret of Courtney's power.)

Courtney closed her eyes and concentrated very hard. Tails suddenly felt himself levitating up off the ground, floating in midair. Courtney was using her powers of levitation on Tails, using her mind to control it all. She used her powers to push Tails against the wall, then continued to push him even harder. Tails struggled to free himself, but he could not free himself from Courtney's gravitational push. Finally, with one more push, Courtney finally pushed the spell out of Tails' head. Tails was normal again, and so Courtney let him down to the floor.

But Tails could not stand up; in fact, he could hardly breathe. His fur was a yucky yellow from the beating that Cobra gave him; he was still bleeding, mostly on the face. Courtney thought he was dead from the way he looked. "Tails!" she whimpered to him as she knelt down to try and shake him to wake up. "Tails, wake up! Tails!" But Tails did not answer; he did not move a muscle. Tears again began to stream from Courtney's eyes; she thought she had lost her friend forever.

Meanwhile, Max and the others finally found the control room of the base; now they were going to destroy all controls and blow up the center of the temple. The only problem was that they forgot to bring bombs with them, so it all seemed pretty hopeless. But Chris had an idea: he still had a built-in time bomb in his mechanical arm. He quickly planted it on the master computer, then he signaled everyone else to evacuate immediately.

After the desired time expired, the bomb exploded and blew up the main computer. But the fire was so strong that it spread to all the other systems and destroyed THEM too. "That ought to wrap things up!" Sonic said as he watched the explosion. "We've won!"

"But wait!" Max interrupted. "Where is Cobra? He escaped!"

Chris looked behind him to see if Cobra was still where he was before. He was not. "I just turned away for a minute," Chris muttered. "But I have a feeling we have not seen the last of him."

"Say…" Luigi said to him, "…weren't you with someone else before getting here?"

"That's right!" Chris replied as he finally realized what he had done. "I just saw what Cobra was doing earlier… he was commanding Tails to attack Courtney!"

"What?!" Sonic exclaimed. With that thought torturing his mind, he sped off down the hallways to go look for Tails and Courtney. But no matter where he ran, he could not find what he was looking for.

Finally, he reached the rear entrance of the temple, where he found Courtney carrying the injured Tails. "Tails!" Sonic exclaimed. "What happened to you?!"

Courtney had to tell the story about what had happened. Tears stained her face the entire time she told everything. By the time she finished, Max and the others had caught up with Sonic. Mario took one good look at Tails as he felt his heartbeat. "He's still alive," Mario said as he carried him. "Chris and I will take him back to Mobotropolis; we'll do all that we can there."

"Are you sure he'll remain alive?" Courtney asked Mario, doubting his word.

"I'll have you know that my kingdom has the best-trained medics and most effective medicines," Max interrupted to answer.

Luigi hopped into Tails' plane, the tornado, and started the engines. "I'll fly this back to the village," he said. "I'll keep it safe from any thief's hands."

Soon, Tails woke up and found himself back at Mobotropolis. He was placed on a cot in a hospital room. Next to him, Mario and Chris went to work creating the antidote for his sickness. He was already bandaged in certain areas, mostly the head, but his blood still stained most of his fur.

Mario noticed that Chris had put the wrong chemical in the mixture for the antidote. "What seems to be ailing you, man?" he told him as he poured the incorrect mixture down a sink's drain.

"I just can't think straight," Chris answered in reply. "It must be my half-robotic head; my brain isn't functioning properly."

"Why don't you go home and figure out how to de-roboticize yourself. I'll go get Professor Elvin Gadd. Luigi tells me that he is one of the best scientists ever known. Perhaps HE can help create the solution."

Mario put on his coat and left with Chris, leaving Courtney behind to keep watch on Tails. Everything was quiet and very still, mostly because of Tails' very light breathing. To break the silence, Courtney finally spoke to him: "I'm sorry all this had to happen. I know it wasn't all your fault, but I still forgive you for attacking me."

Tails did not answer at all. He still lied on his cot silently, but he was awake. His lungs must not have worked properly, which may have been the reason why he could not speak. But suddenly, Courtney heard a sound coming from him. Tails began to wheeze and cough hard. He was coughing up blood, which made a mess on his cot.

Quickly and desperately, Courtney grabbed Tails and carried him out of the room and into the hallway. Arched over her shoulder, he continued to cough as his spilling blood ran down her shoulder. It seemed as though he could never stop at all.

"Tails!" Courtney exclaimed as she tried to shake him to stop. "Tails! Stop it!"

Tails finally stopped his coughing. But then, tears were now streaming down his face. He began to cry hard; he could no longer take any of this pain. He was desperate for it to stop, but it would still take a long while until he would be his normal self again.

NEXT TIME: MORE FOXES, MORE MARIO CHARACTERS, AND MORE OF COBRA'S SCHEMES!