Still a Need for Heroes
Chapter 4: Strange Connection
"Prepare for landing. Adjust accordingly." Knuckles shouted as the team was falling at an incredibly fast rate. They glided through the air to their approximate landing location. "On my mark. Three… Two… One… Mark!" He shouted as he was the first to deploy his parachute. The rest of the team followed in a timely manner, making sure their deployments would not interfere with each other. They came up on a field close to their primary target in Mercia.
Ray was the first to land, being the last to deploy his chute, and Knuckles landed after the rest of his team. They clicked a button on the parachute packs and the chutes zipped into the pack in an instant. A little innovation The Brotherhood created to reuse said parachutes for such insertion purposes as this.
"Pack check." Julie su called out as she adjusted the straps on her pack.
"Check."
"Check."
"Check." The team sounded off once all their packs were closed and accounted for.
"We're all ready Knuckles." She stated.
"I hear ya. Alright Chaotix, let's get out of this open area. We don't expect any hostilities but we all remember what happened a few missions ago in the Land of a Million Lights. There are still some rogue legionnaires out there." The echidna commanded as they all headed into Deerwood Forest. They got just barely into thicket, enough to be out of sight, when they stopped to go over the mission details. "So what exactly is our objective and plan of operation? I wasn't exactly present when we accepted this mission." Knuckles said as he looked over at Charmy.
"Sorry, just figured we could help." He said with an 'oh me' kind of expression.
"Well according to King Elias, a reactor in their Mountain Faction was showing staggering disturbances for a few days now. Sonic, Sally and Tails went to investigate yesterday and was able to readjust the programming to stabilize the reactor. Want to see the official report?" Julie su said as she already was getting out a small packet of papers that was stuffed into her pack, knowing the answer of the head echidna.
"Sure." By the time he said it, the report was already in his hands. He browsed through it as Julie su continued.
"It says Tails simply changed the master coding to adjust to the fluctuations and that there must have just been a little mistake in the initial programming. The core controls were perfectly intact which raised question to the little guy but he soon dismissed it."
"And what's of this fuel line shutdown I'm reading about?" Knuckles prosed.
"It says it was set to turn off as the programming was reconfigured." Espio joined in. "After Sir Charles analyzed the shutdown signal, he found it was rigged to go offline after the reactor was fixed." Knuckles looked up and starred at the chameleon with a raised eyebrow, not expecting him to perform as he usually does due to his intoxicated state the night before. "What? You think a little hangover is going to stop me from doing my job well?"
Knuckles just shrugged and brushed it off. "You never disappoint Espy."
"You said the system was rigged" Mighty asked questionably at Espio's choice of words.
"Yeah. It was set like a ticking time bomb. At least according to Sir Charles." He answered, not wanting to take the older hedgehog's credit.
"So it was sabotage then?" Knuckles commented.
"Huh?" His girlfriend simply responded.
Knuckles pointed his head back down to the report still in his hands and began scanning. "It says Tails initially suspected sabotage of the system but then he threw out that idea shortly after."
"Sabatoge?" Charmy questioned a little worriedly.
"So someone is after Acorn?" Vector burst in with an unnecessary loudness.
"The only thing though, this did absolutely nothing to the Kingdom, or the surrounding area." Knuckles said still focusing on the papers as he flipped through a few of them.
"Except send a radio transmission here." Espio casually proclaimed, closing up the circle they were forming.
"Great! So not only do we have to do Acorn's dirty work, we just might run into to baddies in the meantime." Vector threw up his arms as his voice elevated. In the background, a few twigs snapped.
"D-did you guys h-hear that?" Ray stumbled over his words as he raised alarm to the entourage. Everyone stopped in their tracks and didn't move a muscle.
After a short pause, Mighty spoke up. "Sounded like…"
"someone's watching us." Knuckles said, helping conclude the thought with more of a statement of his own.
And as if given a command, the sextet dashed toward the sound of the snooper. But whoever was watching the plotting Chaotix was well concealed and knew the terrain better than the group that was pursuing him. For given away only by the sounds and shaking of the underbrush of the forest, he tried to evade the shadowing group of trespassers. Unfortunately for the eluder, he was not very fast and the Chaotix was closing in.
It was apparent that whoever they were chasing was pretty small as they have not yet seen the suspect over the waist high growth in the area. The rustling of the bushes and ferns stopped near a large oak. The Chaotix slowed their approach, not knowing what to expect and not wanting to rush in in case of a trap. As they crept toward their halted target, a large snap was heard as a custom contraption went off and a small hooded red figure shot up from the undergrowth while holding onto a vine which wrapped around a few trees with a large boulder on the other end as a counterweight. The little guy's momentum stopped just as he was at the level some of the tree branches where he flung himself to land on one of them. From there, he immediately took off again, jumping from tree branch to tree branch.
"Whoa! The little guy's a monkey!" Vector shouted as they spectated the acrobats.
"Come on! Let's not lose him! Or even worse, let him get to where ever he's trying to get too." Knuckles commanded as they all began running again. Their fleeing friend was much quicker through the trees than running on the ground which gave the group some trouble in keeping up. "Let's try and throw this guy off. Espio, cloak yourself and try to get as much ahead as possible. It doesn't matter how far, as long as he doesn't see you he might be shaken up a bit. Charmy and Ray, take flight and try to catch him. If you can't, get above the tree line to try and figure out where we're heading. Su, you and Vector keep up the pursuit. Mighty… throw me."
"You got it!" They shouted as they each broke off and performed their tasks. Knuckles jumped in the air to have Mighty catch him and grab him by the wrists. He quickly spun around for a bit and tossed Knuckles in a hammer throw. Knuckles flew through the air with a much needed level of speed. When he felt his push was going down, he began to glide. He approached the small hooded red fellow and it would only be a moment or two before he had him in his grasp. But the guy turned to see Knuckles and quickly dropped to avoid being snatched up. But dropping down on a tree branch can have its consequences as there is not much room to adjust for balance.
"Wahh!" Their pursuant began shouting as he was trying not to fall off the branches. But if only shouting could help, he finally lost his footing and fell right out of the tree into Espio's camouflaged arms. The chameleon began to reappear as Knuckles, up a head by a few meters, flipped into a landing and turned to regroup with his team. Julie su Vector and Mighty caught up as well while Ray glided down from the tree tops with Charmy quickly following.
"About time you little bugger." Vector stated slightly annoyed.
The 'little bugger' remained constrained by Espio to make sure he wouldn't get away but his in the fall, his hood slipped over his face concealing it. "Alas, villains! Let me out of thy grasp!" The small Mobian said in a childish sounding voice. He jerked his head back to throw off his hood, wanting to see the faces of his captors and revealing he was a young echidna.
"Stop!" Ray shouted out after seeing his face.
"What is it Ray?" Mighty asked.
"L-let him go! H-h-he's only a k-kid." He quickly explained. Espio released his grasp and the child backed away from the group.
"I respect thy morality of you foe, but you have trespassed on peaceful lands with plots and schemes. I must not allow such treachery!" The child said valiantly.
Knuckles stopped and stepped forward. "But…you're an echidna?"
"That I am. Why does thee sound so puzzled?" The child asked curiously.
"What are you doing in Mercia?" He asked before suddenly coming to a possible answer himself. "Unless…"
"Little Jon? Is that you?" A familiar voice came from not too far off in the woods
"Rob O' the Hedge! Long time no see?" Knuckles said as whom other than the King of Deerwood himself revealed himself.
"Knuckles! Long time indeed old friend." He said as he came up to the Chaotix and shook their leader's hand.
"Father! You know these scoundrels?" The child barked.
"I see you have already met my son's acquaintance. Here be my son Jon." Rob said as he stood behind the young echidna and rested his hands on his son's shoulders.
"I assume you are familiar with The Chaotix." Knuckles said as he moved his arm toward them in slight introduction.
"Ah yes. But recalling some of their names may be trouble after so long." The hedgehog responded. He moved forward to shake the group's hands as they gave their names one by one. "Come with me. Thy Mari-an is cooking some porridge. I shall tell her we have guests." He said redirecting Little Jon to head back to their homestead all the while the Chaotix followed respectfully.
They followed Rob and Jon a good distance to an opening in the forest where a small village was present. "Before you, lo and behold, is the onsets of a new Deerwood Village." The group continued walking as Rob played the tour guide for the moment. "After the Eggman and his devious minions were over thrown, the crazy critters of Mercia slowly and cautiously came back together. This village is one but of few that mark a new beginning in Deerwood."
The group made it to the end of the village where Rob's own little hut-like cabin was. The village must have been built around Rob's own croft because his residence was the exact same as Knuckles recalled it a few years back.
Jon was the first to make burst through the door of the house. "Mother! We have visitants!"
"Greetings my dear Mari-an." Rob said almost simultaneously as he too entered the house, followed by each of the Chaotix. He came up to his wife and gave her a quick kiss on the check. "Our son is right, we hold the presence of Knuckles and The Chaotix."
She moved away from the fire where a large cast iron pot was suspended, cooking the meal Rob mentioned earlier. "Ah, greetings friends! What brings you to this side of Mercia?"
"Well King Elias requested us to investigate a strange occurrence we picked up in this area. You haven't experienced anything unusual by any chance?" The echidna asked driving straight into the matter at hand.
Rob and Mari-an looked a little puzzled and gave each other glances before returning their gaze to Knuckles where they both answered in chorus, "No."
"Do go into more detail if you allow me to ask." Rob said as he placed himself into a seat, still facing the group of guests. Mari-an went to stir the porridge again.
"Sonic Sally and Tails went on a mission to a reactor in the mountains near Acorn City yesterday to investigate fluctuations in said reactor. When they fixed the problem, the fuel line was programmed to shut down and also send a radio signal to an old abandoned power station here in Mercia. We accepted the King's request to investigate the power station." He said giving a brief explanation of their operation.
"Hmm. The soundings of something suspicious." Rob said rubbing his chin in thought. He looked up and noticed the group was still standing in a cluster in the center of the room. "Please, take rest! There should be plenty of seats for thee." And at his request, The Chaotix sat down as Rob continued his first thought. "The old power station resides a near trek toward the east, about an hour's time. But like you said, it is abandoned long since thy High Sheriff was in control."
"Do you expect any contacts or hostiles in the area?" Espio inquired.
"Nay. This land has been quite peaceful through recent years." Mari-an added in after coming back from tending to the food.
Vector was sitting impatiently, tapping his fingers on his crossed arms. Mighty and Ray were sitting listening into the conversation but not taking much note of what was being said. Julie su did the same except she was taking note of what was being said, along with Espio. Charmy was off with Little Jon keeping the little tike, and partly himself, entertained.
"You do not wish to depart so early to continue your mission, no?" Rob asked.
"If it's not an insult to you, we'd like to get moving." Julie su stated a little ambassador-like.
"You do not wish some sustenance?" Rob's wife offered as she began pouring bowls of the finished soup.
"We can stay for a short while Chaotix. And we brought our own meals if you don't mind. I don't want to take your food." Knuckles said with a smile.
"Understood. It is over the fire if you have a change of heart." She answered back kindly.
Knuckles team dropped their small packs and pulled out some small plastic bags with dehydrated substances. They opened a canteen of water and poured some into the bag, followed by shaking the bag vigorously. In a short while, the contents of the bags were hydrated and warmed as well and they began eating and conversing.
...
The group finished their meals and was now just sitting talking, mostly about the reactor and power station.
"So you said this power station was used to power one of Robtonik's roboticizer machines?" Knuckles asked.
"Correct my friend. It was a prime target for the original Crazy Critter Freedom Fighters but a few moon's before our planned assault, my comrades were captured and roboticized themselves." Rob explained.
"And after the takedown of the High Sheriff a long while back, it was left dormant?" This time it was Espio's turn to interrogate.
"Only in part. The Dark Egg Legion reignited thy facility's sparks for their legionization efforts. It was only after their downfall, it has been abandoned in its entirety." Rob continued to explain.
"Well it looks like it's not as abandoned as once thought." Knuckles said as he got up out of his chair.
"Are you taking your leave?" Mari-an asked.
"Yeah. If you'll excuse us, we have some investigating to do. Chaotix?" The echidna commanded to his group as they too got up and began readying their packs to move on.
"We appreciate your hospitality in letting us stay under your roof." Espio said as he gave a quick bow to Rob and Mari-an, letting his eastern roots show a little.
"Our pleasure. Do you wish an escort?" Rob offered.
"I think we'll be good. We don't want to cause any disturbances if it comes down to it." Knuckles explained. The group began to leave the house one after another. "It was good seeing you again. Don't be strangers." He said as he too left the residence.
"Alright, so now we have some sort of background." Julie su said as her and Knuckles trailed the rest of the Chaotix as they headed east toward the abandoned power station.
"Yeah. But could we have wasted anymore time!" Vector shouted in suppressed anguish.
"At least he'd getting better at not being so rude in front of others." The female echidna whispered, bringing a smile across her mate's face.
Mighty kept looking around at the surrounding area with drooped ears and a low expression while Ray and Charmy were flying and gliding around in circles, keeping themselves occupied.
Espio noticed Mighty's expression. "Something getting at you Mighty?"
"No…" He said unconfidently. Espio let the pause continue, knowing the armadillo would speak up soon enough. "It's just…it was in an area like this, in a shack like back in the village, that Matillda and I grew up in. With my parents."
"I know it's tough buddy. But it's a sad part of war. But just think, you and your sister turned out fine." The chameleon said trying to cheer him up.
"Matillda was legionized and I let her down after years of just sitting back with you guys at Angel Island. How is that fine?" Mighty said with quite a discomforting and self-blaming tone.
"Mighty, you can't think like that. What ended up happening, happened and there was nothing that could have been done. It was not your fault you lost your sister over those years. If you weren't captured by the Eggman's forces, you wouldn't have been separated. And even worse could have happened." Espio tried to explain.
Mighty gave him a smile, a weak smile, but still a smile. "I guess."
Espio smiled back and gave him a pat on the back.
*o*
They continued walking for a good while, as Rob said it was about an hour's journey, before they approached the power station.
"There it is." Knuckles said he pulled back a few tree branches to see the grey and gloomy facility off in the distance.
"It's about damn time." Vector stated causing Julie su to roll her eyes.
"Let's make our approach. Be advised of your surroundings and report any movement. It's supposed to be abandoned but that signal was sent here for a reason." Knuckles said as they continued to move forward.
The day was coming to a close and the forest glowed red and orange in the setting sun. They would not have much natural light to investigate the facility so they had to make it quick, especially if they found any hostilities. They came up on the gate which was partially broken and torn down from stagnant years and hoodlums seeking trouble. They maneuvered through an opening and began looking around.
The facility looked eerie even in the majestic sunset. The shadows from the trees in the orange light made the grey walls look more unnatural then they already were. They were inside the chain link fence that adjoined the gate but that didn't take much from the sight. Debris was scattered on the dead dirt ground and much of the structural integrity of the facility looked questionable. They slowly made their way through the vacant area between the gate and fences and the building ahead.
"Well the abandoned part was pretty close to the target." Vector said as he kicked a bent and rusted 'Not Trespassing' sign that lied on the ground at his feet.
"Don't get complacent. Keep on your toes." Mighty urged as they pressed forward. They got up to the facility and pushed open the door, causing a loud creaking noise. It was a large metal door but the lock was blown off from previous activity. "Weird seeing a place like this in the middle of a forest." He added. Julie su pulled out a flashlight as the night more and more engulfed the day; it was hard to see inside the dark and enclosed building. The rest of the group followed with their own flashlights.
The Chaotix moved in cautiously as the musty smell of rot and rust filled the air. The inside of the building was just as torn as the outside. Ceiling tiles were missing, the floor had holes in it, trash and broken interior pieces littered the rooms.
"Rem-m-minds me of the p-prison camps Mighty." Ray said, speaking his mind.
"You had to creep me out even more didn't you Ray." Mighty with a joking intent but a completely serious tone.
"Let's split up and take a different room. Everyone grab a partner, no one goes alone. We have to find the receiver for that radio signal. Look for anything out of place. Anything that's not old and busted. If you run into trouble, signal us over the com links in your pack." Knuckles said as him and Julie su went one direction. Ray and Mighty went another and Vector, Espio, and Charmy went a third direction.
...
"Say we find something. What do we do with it? We can't really analyze the system with the supplies we have." Julie su stated as her and Knuckles walked down a stairwell that opened into a hallway. They scanned the nearby rooms in the hallway for anything.
"We should be able to get enough info to report back to King Elias. In the report of Sonic's mission, it said the signal was an official authorized signal but it was not sent by anyone back in Acorn. In another words, someone hacked the system and stole authorization." Red explained as he was focusing on the looking around the surroundings.
"And how does that answer my question?" She snapped.
"Since it was authorized, it automatically has both a back-up and a tracer file. We can find that and sent it to Sir Charles and King Elias for them to look into it. Hopefully our tech assailant doesn't know that tidbit of information." Knuckles said as he came up on a closed door.
"Let's hope." She responded in congenial agreement.
Knuckles shook the handle to the door but it wouldn't budge. He stopped and looked at Julie su who returned with a similar stare. He jiggled the handle again but to no avail. He gave her a small head nod. She returned with an acknowledging head nod of her own and the two swapped positions. She drew her blaster and got into the breach position along the wall. Knuckles raised three fingers. Then he dropped one, then the next one went down. As soon as the third finger was lowered, the echidna kicked open the door for Julie su to storm in.
...
A vacant room was suddenly invaded after its only door slammed open. Vector and Espio casually walked in while Charmy followed. "I've always wanted to kick down a door." The crocodile said, content.
"Doesn't look like there's anything in here either." Charmy said as he circled the room, shining his flashlight from above.
"Agreed. Let's move to…" Espio began to say but something caught his eye. "Hold up." He moved toward the far end of the room, hopping over any decent sized debris that lay waste in his path.
"What is it Es?" Vector asked curiously as he started following up on the chameleon. Charmy flew over as well. Espio stopped at his destination and bent down and picked up a metal cased notepad binder. It was in a relatively new condition which is what brought it to the ninja/spy's eye. He sprung it open to see a bundle of papers that looked new and more importantly, official. "Whoa, nice find man!" Vector shouted in slight jubilee.
Espio flipped through some of them to see what they were about. "Hmm… 'Schematics to internal security outpost zero-five-seven.' Location…" But he stopped. "That's weird. these papers have some of the words scratched out." He said, reading a little bit of the papers aloud. "Someone went through these and edited it to their pleasing. Sharpie marks over some important details." He said as he put the papers back in the notepad binder, closed it and put it in his pack. "Definitely worth taking. Come on, let's keep searching the place."
"Shouldn't we report to Knuckles about the binder?" Charmy asked.
"Good point. Want to go ahead and take care of that one?" Espio asked.
"Sure." He obliged.
...
"I w-w-wonder if anyone else f-found anyth-thing." Ray said as him and Mighty were moving through a long hallway. The doors were flung open but surprisingly to them, these rooms were completely emptied. The contrast to the other parts of the facility raised suspicion in the squirrel and armadillo.
"I don't know. But it's a little odd these rooms have been cleared out." Mighty said, keeping up his guard for anything he might not expect.
"Look!" Ray shouted out as farther down the hall, a couple flashes were taking place. They looked like electrical flashes from a broken ceiling light but there hasn't been recorded power in the station for years.
"Let's check it out." And the two steadily moved forward. They stopped before an open door where the light was emulating from. Mighty barely poked his head into the doorway to see what was going on. He glanced around to see no one was in there. "Alright, the coast is clear." He said and the two entered the room.
They instantly looked around to see a number of computers with flashing monitors. Ray moved over to one where data was flashing through the screen at a rapid rate. Mighty moved to the central computer which also hosted a large blurry monitor. Beneath was a flashing red button that had a sideways triangle – 'play.' He hesitantly hit the button. The screen flashed and blipped a few times.
"Meh he he he!"
"What the–?" Mighty shouted out in surprise. Ray jumped back and stood behind his friend. The screen displayed blips and images of a distraught overlander. He wore a lab coat and had square glasses that rested so low on his nose, they looked like they were going to fall off any second. The man continued to sob for a short while as the video played with a time count in the bottom right hand corner. It read 19.8.2063 – 20:43 with the last set of numbers seemingly a time counter as they would change about every minute.
"Everything… It all went horribly wrong." The figure on the screen continued to blip in and out and he released unusual whimpers in between some of his words. "The Xorda are attacking the planet with weapons…" He sniffled before continuing. "weapons on the scale of nothing we have seen before. They plan to *kshzz* entire human race *krshzz*" The video started to cut in and out as now both the image and audio was clouded by static. "My family…I just got word they bombed Atlanta…My family… is *ktzz*" Mighty and Ray could do nothing but watch in a trance the haunting and curious spectacle that was before them. "Ivan took *krtzzshhzz* hands and secluded himself and Isaac in the underground lab at *kkkzz*." The video was getting worse and worse. Whatever had damaged the recording was getting close to terminating it. "Professor Clarke was killed earli– *kshrrrshzz*riot. I *kzz* not *kzzzt*. This is th– *kshzt* –nal log of the research file five-zero-six-eight-niner." The man on the screen let out a few sobs and sniffles again before continuing. "The da– *ksshhzt* –rmation found from the research proved and showed –" And the screen went blank for a moment. No image or audio. Then it picked back up again, just as quick as it let off. "This is Dr. *kshtz*Niven…Goodbye." The man raised a gun to his head. Quickly, Mighty dove for the keypad beneath the monitor and hit the same red flashing button he pressed before in a high-hope attempt to cut the video before the inevitable. Thankfully the video froze just before the man pulled the trigger.
"Well that was close." Mighty said, giving Ray a slight smile. He looked back at the screen and noticed something. "Hold up. Ray, do you see that?"
"W-what?"
"The counter. On the corner of the screen." He said, pointing to the numbers.
"Yeah, what about it?" The squirrel raised an eyebrow.
Mighty inspected the element one more time as it read 21:34 now. "Let me see something." He studied the keypad for a few moments and figured a large dial with arrows pointing left and right was what he was looking for. He twisted it and the video, still paused, rewound with every click of the dial. He stopped it just before the strange blackout of the screen before the man killed himself. "Look! Just before the video cuts out, the counter says 20:49 but after the blackout…" He swiveled the dial in the other direction which fast-forwarded the tape. "It says 21:34."
"Sooo, what d-does that mean?" His friend asked.
"It means someone either deleted part of the video… or took it and left the rest. Tails showed you some programming stuff didn't he?" The squirrel nodded slightly. "Do you think you can somehow transfer this to a removable file?"
Ray leaned onto the key pad and hit a button next to an input slot with the hunch it was an eject button. Fortunately, his hunch was correct as a scratched up disk slid out of the slot. "Or w-we could j-just take this." He said smartly.
"Knuckles, this is Charmy, come in. Over" Ray and Mighty heard come over their radios.
"This is Knuckles, send traffic. Over." While words were being exchanged over the radio, Ray slipped the disk into Mighty's pack and they left to regroup with the others.
"We found something with a lot of important information. About what, we don't really know. We're reporting back to you. Over." Charmy sounded off again as the two were headed back down the hallway.
"Umm, negative. Meet back in the main room. Over." The echidna said, with a little bit of an unsure tone.
"Bad copy. Where do we meet? Over."
"Where we split up. Su and I will be there in a bit. We found something as well. Knuckles out." Knuckles finished off with a strange tone in his voice. Like something just wasn't right.
Mighty and Ray caught onto it immediately and stopped to look at each other, just to make sure the other picked up on it. "I think there's something more to this place than we thought."
The door burst open and Julie su rushed in with her blaster held steady in both hands, ready for anything. But nothing was there. "Room clear." She said as Knuckles followed. The room was completely empty except for a peculiar desk in the very center of the room. This desk, however, was not destroyed like the other pieces of furniture in the facility; it was new. And on that desk was a single computer monitor.
"Knuckles, this is Charmy, come in. Over"
Knuckles fumbled around the side pockets of his pack to grab the radio. "This is Knuckles, send traffic. Over."
"We found something with a lot of important information. About what, we don't really know. We're reporting back to you. Over." Charmy said pretty casually over the radio.
The two echidnas approached the monitor and clicked one of the buttons. The screen blipped and words slowly faded into legibility.
'1 – Transmission received. 2 – Awaiting initiative action.'
"Umm, negative. Meet back in the main room. Over."
"Bad copy. Where do we meet? Over." The other end of the radio asked.
"Where we split up. Su and I will be there in a bit. We found something as well. Knuckles out." He stood there staring at the monitor with uncertainty.
"What do you think it means?" Julie su said a little frightened.
...
"I don't know. But I have a feeling we don't want any kind of 'initiative action' to take place. Unplug it." Knuckles commanded. Julie su hesitantly reached for the cord that plugged into the back of the monitor and yanked it out. Just as she did, the entire facility began to shake and rumble with loud crashing noises.
"I don't think it wanted to be unplugged!" Julie su said, trying to keep her balance in the small quakes. Knuckles looked back at the monitor, now reading '1 – Transmission received. 2 – Initiative action taken.'
"Shit." Knuckles said in sudden realization. "We're leaving, now!"
He grabbed Julie su's hand and they ran out of the room and down the hall. The ceiling was collapsing both in front and behind the two. A large piece of support from the floor above began to fall right above the two. Knuckles jumped up and punched through it, causing it to split and land around them, allowing them to continue running to make their escape.
"Hey, Knux! Where you at? I don't expect to become a pancake over the next few minutes!" Vector shouted over the radios. They didn't have time to respond so they kept on running. They dashed up the stairs to the main room where they were supposed to meet up with the rest of the group.
"Move! Move! Move!" The team lead shouted as the rest of the group didn't take a moment's hesitation for the order. They all bolted outside where they refused to even take the time to look back at the collapsing power station. They slipped through the gate and at a distance they felt safe, they finally turned around to see the destruction of the facility. They all panted from the sudden adrenaline rush and rested as a cloud of debris, dust, and smoke surrounded the foundation of the now leveled facility.
"Did we retrieve any intel?" Espio asked once his heart slowed down enough for him to speak.
"That's what you're wondering? Not why the hell did this place almost engulf us?" Vector shouted.
"Who ever made the connection between this place and the generator in the mountains wanted us to come here." Knuckles explained.
"What?" Mighty spoke up. "So this was a trap? An attempt to do us over?"
"That's what it would seem." Julie su said with better composure.
"I don't think it was all for nothing. We picked up something important." Charmy stated.
"S-same with m-me and m-mi-Mighty."
"Alright then. Let's get back home and check things out there. I'm ready for this day to be done." Knuckles said, as he pulled out a warp ring.
"I hear ya brutha." Vector added as he walked into the hovering circle. Charmy flew in after him where the greeting of an excited Saffron could be heard on the other side. Mighty and Ray went through next, then it was Espio and Julie su. Knuckles looked back at the demolished structure with one last thought, then turned and went through the warp ring just as it was closing.
Author's Note
Wow. This was fast. Was not expecting to update so soon but I did this in one day and it just kept flowing so I went with it. Not expecting it to be so long either. And with this being written in one day, I think it turned out very well! And kind of an impacting chapter too. Crazy stuff going on O_o
Also, I want to raise awareness of my story Rush. I really want to continue writing it but I don't think it has one view yet. It is a cross over between a few characters from some of my favorite games and they are involved in a bank heist. Sounds corny and like a total 'fanfic' but I think it's one of my most well written works and I have a lot planned for it if I have the support. I don't like to throw things in people's faces so this will be the only time I mention it. Now back to Heroes.
Can't wait for this story to keep developing. (Let me tell you a secret, I've been making it up as I go - but I'm starting to get a good idea of where it's heading. It gonna be good.) And until next time,
Read! Review! and Enjoy!
