A/N: Sorry for the massive delay.
Chapter 3: Infiltration
The next day, Sally called the Freedom Fighters together for a mission briefing. Sonic, being the way he is, was the first one there. Part of it was to show off, but it was mostly because he was eager to go on his first mission. All he had ever wanted was to make a difference, ever since he was young... back when he had brown fur and was in his own time period. That bit was still a mystery to him, but not nearly as important as what was going on at the moment.
The rest of the FF soon began to enter the control room. Tails was his usual eager self, jogging in with youthful vigor. He was followed by Rotor, who was attempting to keep up. Next were Bunny and Antoine. While the cybernetic rabbit gave Sonic a friendly wave, Ant shot him a distrustful look, eliciting a swift elbow bump from Bunny.
Once everyone was settled in, Sally began to speak.
"Alright, the objective of this mission is simple, but the execution will be difficult. NICOLE intercepted a transmission from Robotropolis. There will be a group of prisoners being transported to the city. Robotnik may think they have something to do with the Freedom Fighters, so we can expect them to be heavily guarded."
"Prisoners? Who are they?" asked Tails.
Sally began to answer "A small resistance group from Furville, led by..."
"Geoffry St. John," Sonic finished.
"Yes. How did you..."
"We've met."
"Excusez moi, but 'ow will we be intercepteeng zis prison transport?" questioned Antoine. "Any vehicle we use weel be far too loud to go undetecteed."
"He's right, Sally. I haven't been able to silence our vehicles with the equipment we have," Rotor added.
"Well, that one's easy. As you know, we've recently gained a new member. It just so happens that he has the ability to move faster than the speed of sound. He'll be able to attack the transports before being detected by the SWATbots."
"Can we really trust zee 'edgehog? He just came out of ze blue. Why not join us earlier?" questioned Antoine.
"Now isn't the time to question loyalties, Antoine. Besides, you, Bunnie, and Tails are going with him. Once he's taken out the SWATbots, you three will secure the transports.
"Does that mean we'll be bringin' the prisonas back heah?" asked Bunnie.
"Yes. If we return them to Furville, then there's a chance they'll be captured again."
"Hang on, what about the Citizen Chips? Won't they be able to track the prisoners with 'em?" Sonic asked"
"Rotor and I have that covered," explained Tails. "We've got a way to jam them, until we can remove them."
"Sonic," Sally started, "you'll have to take out the SWATbots on your own. Do you think you can handle it?"
"Hey, it can't be any worse than a thirty foot tall tree cutter of death," Sonic replied.
"Alright then. The mission will begin in two hours."
Sonic awaited the prison transport about half way between Furville and Robotropolis. It would be there in a matter of minutes. He knew that this wouldn't be very difficult for him, but for some reason, he was more tense than he's ever been. He figured it was because he wanted to make a good impression. Sonic had never really used his abilities like this before. That's not to say he didn't use his speed often, it's just that he had always used it away from anyone who might see it. Besides his Uncle Charles, Sonic was the only living soul that knew of his powers. It was Chuck who helped him to control it in the first place.
Thinking of this, Sonic wondered what happened to him.
The transport was in sight. He radioed his friends (and Antoine), telling them to get ready.
"Transport in site. Moving to intercept."
"Ya know, you don't have ta be so formal, Sugah," Bunnie said.
"Hey, I just wanna make a good impression. Anyway I'd better get goin'"
Sonic didn't waste any time (unsurprisingly). After a quick stretch, he shot off like a rocket toward his target. As expected, the SWATbots were unable to respond quickly enough to stop him. Sonic, quite literally, broke into the back of the transport. He quickly dispatched the driver and the co-pilot. Without the bots, the transport skidded to a halt. The hedgehog went to the back of the vehicle to check on the prisoners. There were only four of them. A female red fox; Fiona, a blue chameleon; Valdez, a black and white cat; Hershey, and of course, Geoffrey St. John.
"Hey, Geoff. How's tricks?"
"Sonic? Blimey, you're a sight for sore eyes," the skunk said, relieved.
"Sonic? Sounds made up," the fox said.
"You gonna complain, Fiona?" asked the chameleon.
"Guess not."
"So, what happened? Did you find 'em? Geoffrey asked Sonic.
"Yeah. They sent me to get you out of here. Speaking of which..." Sonic contacts the other Freedom Fighters with his earpiece. "Bunnie, the tranport's secure. Waiting for extracti..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the transport started moving. The transport had gone into auto-pilot. Sonic was about to do something about it, but Geoffrey stopped him.
"Wait! For all we know, it could be rigged to blow if we muck with it!" he stated. He had a point. To Robotnik, a dead prisoner is better than an escaped one.
"Okay, then we're gonna have to jump out..." Sonic started. This plan would have worked, had the transport not been encased in an energy shield that suddenly went up.
"Hey guys, we've got a bit of a problem. The transport just went into auto-pilot, and it looks like we're stuck in here."
"Yeah, we see ya, sugah," Bunnie replied. "Just hold tight, and we'll getcha outta there. 'Till then, you should maintain radio silence."
"Got it." Sonic switched off his radio.
"I hate to say it, mate, but this is lookin' like a trap," Geoffrey stated.
"Why would Robotnik want him?" Valdez chided.
"Because he can break the sound barrier on foot," Geoffrey snapped. "Do you know what would happen if Sonic got robotisized?"
"Oh..."
"Oh heck no, I ain't getting robotisized! When we get there, I'm gonna tear the place up!" Sonic was obviously not interested in being turned into a robot.
"What do you plan on doing? Fight the battalion of SWATbots that's probably waiting for us?" Fiona asked sarcastically.
"If I have to."
The situation didn't look too good. Not to mention he just got captured on his first mission. That was just insulting. Although, this presented him with a unique opportunity. Robotnik was bringing him right into the city. It was too good for him to pass up. He had to do something. Sonic had missed twelve whole years, and it was time for him make up for it.
As they approached the city, it became noticeably darker, and not because it was getting late. The smog was so thick, it actually blotted out the sun. The buildings were caked in grime, soot, and all manner of filth. This city was an absolute nightmare.
The transport pulled into a hanger, where it came to a stop. The inside wasn't much of an improvement from the outside. The lighting, or lack thereof, made for dismal atmosphere, and the angle of the walls seemed to crush down on them. Fiona had been right, there were dozens of SWATbots waiting for them. To anyone else, the situation would have looked bad. To Sonic, this was a brisk exercise.
Sonic burst out the transport, lashing out against the robots in a great, blue blur of attacks. He brought down six of them quickly, but the others were beginning to surround him. The hedgehog gets ready for their attack, but then one of the bots suddenly started bashing at itself, quickly reducing itself to a lump of twisted metal. As it crashed to the ground, Valdez gradually became visible. He had gone invisible and attacked one of the bots. Moments later, Fiona leaped from the transport, and Valdez tossed the fallen robot's laser rifle to her. She open fire and took a few down. Geoffry and Hershey rushed out, armed themselves, and followed suit. Through their combined efforts, the five mobians brought down the SWATbots. Seeing them in action, Sonic only had one thought.
"Okay, how did you guys get caught?"
"We let ourselves get caught," Hershey said"
"What?"
"We didn't mean for you ta get mixed up in this mate. You weren't supposed to be here," Geoffrey assured. Sonic sure didn't feel assured.
"Look, we over heard the some of the swaties talkin' about something they'd located. They only ever referred to it in code. Called it CE-2. Omega level priority. That means it's something big. Now if I'm right, there's already a CE-1. We need to find it,"
"What do you think it is?" Sonic asked.
"Dunno. What ever it is, it's important enough to get the big man's full, undivided attention. Now let's get outta here before more badniks show up."
With no arguments, the group moved out of the hanger, but not before Fiona grabbed the head off one of the SWATbots. Once outside, Sonic found it difficult to breathe without gagging. In the transport, they were sealed off from the environment of the city. He actually started to miss being in the transport. They eventually enter another building, and manage to find a monitor that wasn't being operated by a robian. Fiona connected the SWATbot's head to it and began hacking its data banks. After looking through the files, she found what she was looking for: the whereabouts of CE-1.
"Okay, according to this, CE-1 is being kept in a building just a few blocks from here. There's a ton of security... this thing must be important," Fiona explained.
"Alright. Let's move out," Geoffrey said. The group left quickly, wanting nothing more than to find CE-1 and get out of that accursed city. They made their way to the building that it was supposed to be in. The guards didn't put up much of a fight, and Sonic was able to destroy the security cameras before they could even see him. As they went through the building, they noticed something a little disconcerting; there wasn't anything inside except guards. No experiments, no robians working on things, no weapon assembly lines... nothing. This meant one of two things. 1: The information from the SWATbot was inaccurate, or 2: The whole building was dedicated solely to CE-1.
They came up to a room with several guards posted outside the blast door. As before, they weren't much of a match for Sonic. The blast door on the other hand was going a bit of a problem.
"Fiona, you think you can get it open?" Geoffrey asked?
"Probably. I'll need a few minutes with it," replied Fiona, as she began to fiddle with the control panel.
Sonic looks down the hall, and sees a large number of SWATbots coming toward them. "Um... I don't think we have a few minutes."
"Ah blimey... Cover Fiona! Don't let 'em get through!" Geoffry commanded. He, Valdez, and Hershey began firing down the hall. Sonic couldn't get in without being in the line of fire. All could do was watch as the laser blasts flew past. After what seemed like an eternity, Fiona finally hacked the blast door, and it flew open. The group quickly went through, and Fiona shut the door behind them, locking it from the inside. As they breathed a sigh of relief, Sonic looked toward the center of the room. There was a sort of high-tech container that was the entire hight of the room, with a transparent section at eye level. Inside it, something was emitting a soft, green glow. Sonic walked toward it, almost eager to find out what it was. When he reached it, Sonic saw what CE-1 was. A fist sized, glowing, emerald.
"A gem? CE-1 is a gem? I mean, it's huge, but Robotnik doesn't need money, he'd just take what he wants!" Geoffrey raved.
"That is no mere gem," a voice interrupted. A robotisized hedgehog came out of a dark corner. He looked as if he was pretty old when he was robotisized. He had a white metallic mustache across his upper "lip."
"Robian!" The team aimed their weapons at the robotic hedgehog.
"I don't want any trouble." This robian spoke well. Sonic was told that when someone is robotisized, they lose their free will, making them speak like, well, robots. This one sounded like he was still thinking on his own. Something seemed oddly familiar about him to Sonic.
"That gem is called a Chaos Emerald. It emits enormous amounts of power, enough to power a whole city by itself," the robian explained.
"Why are you telling us this? Aren't you supposed to be totally loyal to Robotnik?" Hershey asked?
"Robotnik had me analyze it, but as soon as I touched it, my free will was restored. I'm not a slave anymore, I'm a prisoner. Robotnik has forced my to study the Emerald. He wants me to make a weapon for him, but I've been stalling. I cannot consciously allow him to have this kind of power. You must take it. You must not allow Robotnik to have it!"
A loud banging came from the blast door. The SWATbots were attempting to force their way in. The robian quickly went to the containment unit and smashed the glass in. He took the Emerald out of it, then handed it to Sonic.
"Hey, wait a minute...!" Sonic stammered, a little concerned about holding something like that with relatively unprotected hands.
"Don't worry, it's safe to touch. Take it away from here... take it to the grotto."
"What?"
"Um, how exactly do we get out of here? The swaties are outside the door and it's the only way out of here." Fiona pointed out.
"Clear the door. Fiona, when I tell you, open it," Sonic said.
"Are you crazy?" Fiona yelled. "They'll gun you down in a second!"
"Just do it!"
Sonic got himself ready, he wasn't about to let a bunch of robots drop him.
"NOW!"
Fiona opened the door, and before she could even turn her head to look at him, he was already moving. The hedgehog charged at the bots, curling into his signature spin move. He drilled through the SWATbots and nearly hit the opposite wall. The others didn't waste any time and followed him out of the building. But as soon as they got out, there were something like a hundred SWATbots waiting for them. Needless to say, it didn't look good.
As the SWATbots charged their weapons, a hover craft touched down behind them. The bots step aside to form a walk way for the man inside: Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
"So, you thought you could just take what is mine? You lot have been more trouble than you're worth." Robotnik... this was the man who took over the whole planet, and turned many of its people into machines. Sonic wanted beat him within an inch of his life.
"Now, you're going to come with me."
