Chapter 4: Trouble
"What was that?" Sonic spins around.
"What was what?" Tails asks.
"That sound, a rustling, like someone's following us."
"You know what? I think I heard it too..." Rouge complies, looking around.
"Yea, me too," Amy mutters, also scanning around.
"It's probably nothing," Shadow grunts.
"I didn't hear anything. Lets just keep going," Knuckles orders, walking ahead.
Everyone sighs. Sonic, Tails, Rouge, and Amy continue radar, searching for what has made that noise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I see them, and I'm keeping a close watch. I won't show myself until they are getting too close, or when the robots have made it to the target. The reason is, since I am out numbered, they might defeat or get by me easily, or more quickly, over," Metal says into a walkie-talkie.
A voice emits from the walkie-talkie, "Okay, I understand. I'll let you know when you can come back, over and out."
Metal returns the walkie-talkie to a belt around his waist. He peers at Sonic through the bushes, waiting until the right time to initiate his attack.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrea wakes up to the sound of rustling. She strains to hear where the sound is coming from.
Andrea gets up and crawls out of her little hut to look. Before she can take one step, a robot leaps out and grabs her. Andrea tries to scream, but the robot clasps a hand tightly over her mouth. The freezing, metal hand sends a chill through Andrea's body. Her eyes widen as she attempts to pry the seal from her mouth, freezing her fingers in doing so. Damn hunk of junk. Why is he so cold? Yeah, it's cold outside tonight, but is he intentionally freezing? she wonders, panicking fiercely. She manages to remove his hand for a brief moment; however, instead of a scream for help, only a quiet gasp escapes her mouth before the robot gains control once more.
The robot quickly runs away, with Andrea struggling to free herself from his arms. She attempts to twist and turn every which way, but the robot clutches her in a firm grip, a painful grip. Her mouth hurts from the hunk of junk's hand. Her entire body temperature seems to be dropping, as if she just jumped into the Arctic Ocean. Within minutes, she passes out, trapped in the rushing robots clamped arms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Metal grabs the walkie-talkie and listens to Eggman, "Okay, Metal. It's time. Go out there and stall them so that the robots can get away and back to me before Sonic finds them, over."
"Yes sir, over and out," Metal turns off the walkie-talkie and puts it in his belt. He gets ready to go out, he just needs to make the timing perfect. He slowly trails behind the group, watching their movements, preparing to interrupt.
Sonic and Knuckles are up ahead a bit further, while Shadow, Tails, Amy, and Rouge trail behind.
All of a sudden, a figure jumps out in front of them.
"What the..." Knuckles gasps as he stares at the figure.
Sonic walks toward the figure cautiously, "Hello? Who are you?" Just then, a metal hand suddenly grabs Sonic and slams him hard to the ground.
"Sonicཀ" Amy screams as she runs over to his side. "Sonic, are you alrightཀ"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sonic carefully rises, rubbing the back of his head, and turns to face the assailant. He gasps when it steps out of the shadows, "Metal? What are you doing here?"
"There is no need for you to know this information," Metal spin dashes and slices Sonic as he passes, sending Sonic to the ground once more.
"Heyཀ What do you think you're doing?" Knuckles sprints up to Metal and rapidly punches him. Only a few minor dents appear on Metal's metal skin, "Damn it!"
"Ha! You think that will hurt me? I'm made of metal you know! Mere taps won't do a thing." Metal punches Knuckles a few times and shoves him into a thorn bush.
"Knucklesཀ" Rouge runs to Knuckles, "Are you some kind of idiot?" Rouge helps Knuckles out of the thorn bush, his face bloody with scratches covering his body.
"Who are you to say that to me at a time like this?!" Knuckles snaps. Silence dominates the air around the two for a moment. "Sorry Rouge, didn't mean to snap at you like that..."
"It's not like I care if you did! Geez, what makes you think you have to apologize for doing something stupid, like you do all the time! What the hell are we talking like this for anyway?" Rouge snaps back, rushing back to Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Shadow.
"Metal, why are you doing this? What's your problem?" Shadow questions with disgust.
"I already told you. The information is not necessary for you to know. Besides, why would I tell you?" Metal tries to punch Shadow, but he dodges and performs a spin dash, scratching up Metal.
"You'll tell us because we told you to," Shadow growls.
"Yeahཀ" Tails shouts from next to Amy, who's addressing Sonic's wounds.
"You're next, fox boy," Metal rushes next to the yellow fox, attempting to punch him, but Tails flies up high, causing Metal to miss, "Damn you..."
"Haha! You missed! You missed!" Tails taunts, not paying close enough attention to the preparing Metal. Knuckles attempts to run to Tails, but his leg remains tangled in the thorn bush, painfully receiving gashes with each movement. Rouge returns to Knuckles, tugging on his as he wails, unable to free his leg. She stops her futile yanking and begins snapping the thorn vines hidden in the bush, although they rip with strong difficulty. Shadow, after helping Sonic and Amy aside, rushes to counter Metal, but he is already too late.
Metal leaps up and tackles Tails. The two fall to the ground with a thud. When Tails's back meets the ground, a sharp rock digs harshly into his back, a loud, gasping screech pouring out his mouth. Metal starts punching Tails. Shadow reaches them and yanks Metal off Tails, hurtling Metal into a very thick tree trunk.
Tails lies on the ground, unconscious.
Sonic, with assistance from Amy, hurries over to Tails, "Tails?! Can you hear me? Tails?!" Tails does not respond. "Come on Tailsཀ You have to be okay! You're my best bud! Come on! Wake up!" Tails still does not respond. Sonic turns away, puts his face in his hands and mumbles, "Tails... no..."
Amy puts a hand on Sonic's shoulder, "He'll be okay. He's still breathing. We'll just have to take him home and clean him up. He'll wake up! You think our Tails just gives up so easily? Just look how hard he tried to handle Metal. He'll be fine once we get him home. Just have some faith." Sonic nods, although in his mind he just isn't sure if Tails is really going to be okay.
After he looks over Tails, Sonic gets up, his previous pain completely forgotten. His sadness starts to change, distorting into anger and rage. He looks to where Shadow has thrown Metal, but he's disappeared. Metal has run off. I'll get you Metal. What the hell was that anyway? Regardless of your reason, you'll pay for what you did to my friends and I. Especially for what you did to Tails, he threatens.
"You better take Tails home now. He needs some serious cleaning up," Rouge says, Knuckles clutching around her shoulders, limping on his right leg. Shadow picks up Tails, being careful not to touch any of his bad wounds.
"I'm sorry I was of no use..." Knuckles mumbles, ashamed.
"Don't worry about it, Knuckles. What happened, happened," Amy answers for Sonic.
"Alright, lets go," Sonic says, nodding to Knuckles.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrea regained consciousness when the commotion not far away began. She hears Sonic and the others only yards away, tears streaming down her face. She heard what happened, left in shock. No, she cries. I left so that they wouldn't be put in danger, but leaving put them in more danger. Now I wish I never met them. They shouldn't have tried to find me. What are they? Are they stupid? What nosy idiots...stupid nice people. Now, because of me they got hurt, and poor Tails might... why Robotnik?ཀ Why?ཀ
Andrea's thoughts overflow her mind, leaving her to forget her current situation, her current pain. She thinks about what had happened a few months ago, what she has done, knowing that she has been hunted down. She just doesn't want anyone else involved in this, but now it's too late.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They reach Sonic's house. Shadow places Tails on his bed
"Okay, lets clean him up. You don't want him getting infected," Amy says as she goes to retrieve towels and soap. She soon returns and hands the items to Sonic.
"Thanks, Amy," Sonic takes a towel and places it under Tails's head. He then grabs a wash cloth, gets up and hurries into the kitchen. Turning on the sink, he waits a minute for the water to warm up and then soaks the cloth in the water. Sonic then returns to Tails's side and places the warm, wet cloth on Tails's forehead.
Rouge fetches a wet cloth and starts cleaning Tails's wounds. She cleans up all the blood and puts medicated cream on each wound so it will heal faster.
Knuckles pulls up a chair and eases himself into it, carefully not pushing pressure onto his bad leg. Shadow takes a seat next to him, but gets up once he realizes Knuckles's situation, "Hold on a second." Shadow retrieves a wet cloth and some bandages to wrap Knuckles's leg. "Here, use these," he hands Knuckles a wet cloth to clean up the blood. Shadow shoves the bandages in Knuckles's hands to hold, "Rouge, let me borrow some of that cream."
"Ah, yeah, sure, here," she squeezes some cream into Shadow's hand before continuing tending to Tails, quietly mumbling, "How did I get stuck doing this?" Everyone ignores her selfish comment.
"Thanks," Shadow puts the cream on Knuckles, who cringes from the sting. "Don't be such a baby."
"Shut up. You get your leg stuck in a bush like that and we'll see your face after I lather this death cream all over your cuts," Knuckles sneers. He winces when Shadow rubs the cream in harder, purposefully putting a lot on the deeper gashes. "You little..."
Shadow smirks and snatches the bandages back from Knuckles, unraveling some, "I'll just wrap up your hold damn leg. You pretty much got a cut or gash on every inch from the knee down." Knuckles grunts as Shadow, smirking as he does so, begins to wrap Knuckles's leg.
"You need to turn Tails onto his stomach so that I can clean off his back," Rouge announces after a while of tending to his sores
"Okay," Sonic murmurs as he carefully turns Tails over.
Everyone gasps when they see the huge gash in Tails's back. An image flashes through Shadow's mind when he sees the gash. His eyes widen.
"Shadow? What's wrong?" Amy asks.
"The... the gash! It's because of a sharp rock. At least... it looked like a rock. Tails fell on it when Metal tackled him to the ground."
"Oh, no..." Amy worries. "At least we know what caused it."
"Yeah... now lets get a move on! We need to get Tails to a hospital for a gash like that!" Sonic says, hurrying everyone so that they can get to the hospital, before Tails's wound worsens.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Andrea is taken to Eggman's secret base, she stares blankly at the soiled ground, thinking.
Soon the robot takes her into a huge building. It seems like forever as she is brought up flight after flight of stairs. They finally reach Dr. Eggman's office and walk inside.
"Back so soon?" Eggman smirks, turning towards them. A smile spreads across his face when he sees Andrea.
At this point, the robot has removed it's hand from Andrea's mouth. She becomes irritated at the smile Eggman expresses, "What's that smile for you fat–"
"Woah, hold on there missy. Do I need to put a gag in your mouth? Or do I need to silence you?" Eggman's grin widens.
Andrea's anger rises, "Why you... who do you think you are? Messing around with me? I'm liable to tear you apartཀ Just like when I–"
Eggman frowns at Andrea's inability to listen. He cuts her off quickly by shoving a gag into her mouth. She immediately coughs and hacks at the feeling of the horrible tasting cloth. Eggman chuckles softly to himself as he instructs the robot to put Andrea in one of the cells.
Andrea tries to yell, but all that comes out were low moaning sounds, muffled by the gag. She sighs and starts to think again, I have to get out of here. I must think of something quick. I need to make sure Sonic, Shadow, and the others are okay as well. I just hope I can at least get out to check on them...but there's no telling what he's going to do to me...not after what I did.