Chapter 6: Recovery
"Ughhhh...where am I? What happened?"
Sonic rubbed his head, hearing ringing in his ear, slowly regaining the strength to lift himself off the floor of the shuttle. He saw everyone in various positions, regaining consciousness from the crash. Jericho got up, rubbing his own head.
"Ugh...my aching head...ow..."
Amy slowly got up as she regained consciousness. She then saw Cream passed out next to her. She crawled over and lifted Cream's head.
"Cream, you alright? Cream? Cream?"
"Uhh...Miss Amy...?" said Cream.
Sonic crawled over to check on Tails.
"Uhhh...Sonic..." said Tails.
"Tails? You alright, little buddy?" said Sonic.
"Boy do I feel dizzy..." said Tails.
As Sonic was helping Tails get to his feet, Derek and Milena came to, and looked at each other.
"Derek...would you mind getting your fat rear off my tail?" said Milena.
"Speaking of, can you get yours off my arm?!" said Derek.
"Hmph," said Milena.
She and Derek worked to get off each other's' appendages. Antoine was checking on Bunnie.
"Bunnie? Bunnie, are you going to be okay?" he said.
"Ugh...yes, Antoine, ah'm alright," said Bunnie.
Rotor slowly got up too, feeling a bit dizzy, but he soon came to.
"Whoa...Everyone alright?" he said.
"I'm okay, I guess," said Knuckles.
Jericho looked out the window.
"Yep. We're down...on a desert planet of all places," he said.
Derek sighed.
"Where it's hot...& dry...with no water in sight. Great," said Derek.
"Well, that definitely sucks," said Milena.
"Oh, you think?" said Dayton.
Rotor tried to access the boarding ramp, but it was apparent it was blocked and inoperable.
"Not getting out this way. We're gonna have to find another way out," he said.
Jericho examined the cockpit window.
"Hey, Knuckles, Bunnie. Come help me smash this," said Jericho.
"Sure thing, sugah," said Bunnie.
Bunnie and Knuckles climbed onto what was left of the control panel next to Jericho, as Knuckles counted down.
"On the count of three...one...two...three..."
The three of them used their strength to punch the window, hitting it over and over until it finally broke open, allowing them to get out. They made sure the broken glass was cleared out of the way.
"Watch the glass," said Knuckles.
Sonic wasted no time racing out of the shuttle, hoping to find civilization in the distance, but he slowed to a halt. All he could see was sand, rocks, and more as far as the eye could see. Sonic dropped to his knees.
"It's hopeless! We're doomed! We're going to die in the middle of nowhere on this desert planet!" he said.
Jericho stepped out, helping Milena out.
"Oh boy...this may be a problem," he said.
"And I thought that Antoine was a drama queen," said Milena.
Tails stepped out, looking up at the two suns in the sky.
"That's definitely not helpful," he said.
"From bad to worse. And I thought the summers back home were bad," said Derek.
"Guys, I have some very bad news," said Geoffrey.
Rotor came out of the shuttle right on cue.
"We checked the supply rations we could salvage, and... well, even if we divide them all up and use them carefully, it still will last only up to about a few days, a week at most if we're lucky," said Rotor.
"Which won't mean much unless we find civilization here," said Milena.
"Don't you all get it? We're gonna die here! Either from starvation, or dehydration, or both, we're never gonna get out of here! And Sally is still out there in the clutches of those vile Imperials! We've failed! We've lost! The battle is lost and the war is over!" said Sonic.
"Sugah-hog, that ain't even true! We're free, ain't we?" said Bunnie.
"Free? FREE?! Bunnie, don't you realize where we are? We're in the middle of a DESERT, and we don't have enough food and water to SURVIVE! And we don't even know if this planet is even inhabited!" said Sonic.
Amy clenched her fist and walked over to Sonic. She then slapped him hard across the face.
"GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF, SONIC!" she said.
"Oui! Your whining iz of no help to us!" said Antoine.
"But Sally's still out there! And we don't even know where she is!" said Sonic.
"We'll find her, sugah-hog! We lost today, but we're still standin'!" said Bunnie.
"Sonic, listen to me! Remember all the times when it seemed hopeless and we'll never get out of it? Well, how is this any different? We'll find a way to survive! We always do!" said Rotor.
"Come on, Sonic! You're still here, aren't you? We escaped the Empire's clutches, didn't we?" said Tails.
"Please, Mr. Sonic, help us, please?" said Cream.
"Chao?" said Cheese.
"C'mon, Sonic! You think you're going to let the Empire bring us down? We've been beaten before, but we've always come back!" said Amy.
Sonic sighed.
"C'mon, Sonic. We're not gonna let some crash ruin our day, will we?" said Rotor.
"As much as I will regret saying this...but...we need your help. We cannot do this without you. If or when we leave this planet, we're going to, as you say: 'crack that Eggman wide open.' What do you say?" said Knuckles.
Sonic looked down at the ground, and then he began to grin.
"You're right, guys! We shouldn't quit now! We're free, and Robuttnik and his Imperial friends are gonna pay. It's gonna take all our elbow grease and brainpower to find a way outta here! Now let's get to work! We got a princess to save!" he said.
"Wow, that pep talk was really great and all, but that still begs the question: How the hell are we supposed to get across this burning desert?" said Milena.
"Gee, 'mom,' isn't that the question of the hour?" said Jericho.
"Will you knock it off, Jericho?" said Milena.
"Well, I think Tails and I can try to search the wreck and see if we can find anything useful. If we pool our resources, maybe we can build a vehicle from scratch, if we're lucky," said Rotor.
"Well, let's get to it, it was cooler in the wreck, anyway," said Derek.
Bunnie looked around, and then turned to Jericho.
"Jericho, you've been all ovah the Galaxy, ah bet. Do you know what planet this is?" said Bunnie.
"Never been here before, but judging by the twin suns, I'd say... this is Tatooine. The Empire has no presence here...or at least they shouldn't," said Jericho.
"What do you mean, 'they shouldn't'?" said Derek.
"Well, this is a desert planet and a haven for criminals, Derek, from what we know," said Milena.
"I know that, 'mom', I meant the part as to why the Empire shouldn't have any presence here," said Derek.
"There's nothing of any real value here, Derek. And considering there are crime syndicates who operate here, they have no reason to come here," said Milena.
"Oh, I almost forgot. The Empire sure did a lousy time checking me, they didn't find this, at least," said Jericho.
He was reaching into his pocket, and pulled out...
"What the? That's NICOLE! How and where did you find her?" said Sonic.
"Sally dropped her on the floor of the command center back home. I picked her up, and before we were captured, I hid her," said Jericho.
"Why didn't you tell us you had her with you, Jericho?" said Amy.
"Uh...aside from being shot at, nearly blown up, and nearly getting killed, what would have happened if the Empire got her?" said Jericho.
"He has a point, y'know," said Sonic.
"Fine, but STOP KEEPING US IN THE DARK, OKAY?!" said Amy.
"Now, now, Amy. No need to start fightin'. Jericho is trained to do this kinda stuff," said Bunnie.
Amy simply pouted.
"By the way, where exactly did you hide her?" said Sonic.
"Uhh...you don't wanna know," said Jericho.
"Hey guys! We found something in the back!" said Rotor.
"What? What is it?" said Tails.
"Best if I showed you!" said Rotor.
Rotor slowly pushed a small hovering platform through the broken cockpit window, and hopped back outside soon after.
"Check it out! A fully functional cargo sled!" said Rotor.
"Rotor, that's designed to haul containers, not people," said Milena.
"Yes, Milena, we can see that," said Jericho.
"What are you thinking, Rotor? You think if we remove the floor plating from this, we can take the seats out of the shuttle and fix them onto the frame?" said Tails.
"Well, if we can salvage some stuff from the shuttle, and put some elbow grease into it, I think we can refit it to do just that," said Rotor.
"We need something to propel it, though," said Tails.
Rotor then looked at Sonic.
"Hey, Sonic, after we retrofit this cargo sled, do you think you can push or at least pull us outta here?" said Rotor.
"Well, I think I can give it a shot? I just need to check my stash of power rings...Good thing the Empire didn't check my secret compartment for the Power Stone...glad I didn't leave it behind either. Let's see here..."
Sonic pulled out one of his Power Rings, but Jericho stopped him.
"Save them, Sonic. We might need them later. And when did you find time to get that Power Stone and hide it?" said Jericho.
"This Hedgehog plans ahead to have a few hiding places. And Rotor lined my backpack to make it easy to smuggle the power stone if the need arises. But it'll be a lot easier if I use a Power Ring," said Sonic.
"Well, we may need 'em later," said Geoffrey.
"And you already have a ton of used ones in there, from the looks of it," said Milena.
"Your point being...?" said Sonic.
"Can't we just get back to work?" said Derek.
"Yes, the sooner the better. Come on, put those brains to good use," said Milena.
Dayton came out, holding a crate.
"I found all our stuff in here! Weapons, equipment, everything!" he said.
"Good," said Jericho as he looked inside, retrieving his blaster pistol in it's holster, and strapping it on.
"Hey, guys...we almost forgot. Thanks for breaking us out of there," said Amy.
"No problem," said Dayton.
"How'd you guys plan that escape anyway? You couldn't have known we'd be captured," said Tails.
"We didn't," said Jericho.
"You did not plan to break out of ze prison?" said Antoine.
"If there's one thing we've been taught, it's always be ready for the worst," said Geoffrey.
"One of my mentors taught me that," said Jericho.
"But how'd you hide that shank?" said Sonic.
Dayton pointed to the lining of his shoe heel.
"Always hide something in the place they never think to look. They never think to look at shoes too closely. I'm never buying another brand of shoe again," he said.
"You guys are good," said Amy.
"If we weren't, we wouldn't have lasted this long against the Empire, let alone Robotnik, just like you," said Geoffrey.
"Fair point," said Amy.
Tails and Rotor, meanwhile, powered down the cargo sled, and it floated down onto the sand. Tails then pouted.
"Aw man...I left my tool set back home! Aw man...my hydrospanners, my fusion cutters...they're all gone!" he said.
"Relax, Tails, I found a repair kit in the shuttle's emergency container, they're not the kind I'd use for this, but it's better than nothing," said Rotor.
Tails beamed in delight when he saw the tools.
"Whoa...this is some high-grade stuff!" said Tails.
"Yeah, good to be using tools that aren't over ten years old. Okay, let's start by getting the floor plates off, hopefully, we can get to the structure beneath, and we can make a good surface to mount the seats, and make enough legroom...," said Rotor.
He then started to mumble calculations to himself, examining the sled.
"Thinking about how were gonna arrange the seats?" said Tails.
"Yeah, it's just barely big enough for most of us, so yeah, this is gonna work. Let's get started," said Rotor.
Rotor and Tails then began to use the fusion cutter to cut off the floor plating off the sled. Sonic turned to Derek, who was helping move some ration containers off the shuttle.
"Derek, can I ask you a question?" he said.
"What?" said Derek.
Sonic pointed to Milena.
"How do you put up with...her?" said Sonic.
"If you can pretend that she isn't always so uptight...I owe her." said Derek.
"You owe her?"
"Yeah, her and her brothers. They saved my life from my idiot brother."
"Your brother? Who was he? What was he like?"
"His name was Kyle, and he was a Hutt in Mobian form."
"What's a Hutt?"
"Oh that's right, you don't know...A Hutt is a large worm-like creature native to the planet Nal Hutta. They dominate most of the criminal organizations in the galaxy. The stereotype is that they're hedonistic thugs with a superiority complex. That's my brother."
"Well, if your brother was so bad, why didn't you stand up to him?"
"I would if I could, had Jericho, Dayton, then later, Milena never showed up. Somehow, Kyle is immune to my powers. He's built like a tank, I tried, but I never succeeded. Jericho bruised his ego and got me out of my own house, but Milena later stood up to him. Long story short, Kyle lost his temper and they helped me capture him."
"What happened to him? Where is he now?"
"Prison. Life. No way he's getting out."
"But how can you put up with Milena if you hate her?"
"Well, after I saved Milena from my brother, I was indebted to her. But she tends to abuse that."
"If she's like that, why don't you just stand up to her?"
"I've tried, but she thinks I have no right to criticize her. I've tried to understand her attitude, but I keep getting stonewalled."
"Or maybe there's another reason. She is pretty easy on the eyes."
Derek leaned in to whisper to Sonic.
"Yeah, she's pretty, but I'd rather eat a raisin than kiss her."
"So you do like her?"
"No. She thinks I'm ugly. I lost my cool and took both her brothers to hold me back."
"Well, maybe if you gave her a chance, she might let you see a whole new side to her."
"Don't be naive, Sonic. She's an ice queen to the core, nothing will ever melt her heart."
Soon, Jericho began to sniff the air.
"What is it, Jericho? You smell something?" said Geoffrey.
"I smell something...upwind," said Jericho.
Antoine leaned towards Bunnie's ear.
"He has ze sense of ze smelly?" he said.
"You'd be amazed, Sugah. He's got a keen sense o' smell," said Bunnie.
Jericho pulled out some Electrobinoculars, and he looked in the direction of the smell.
"I got...I see a landspeeder! In the distance! Two people, two droids!"
"Hooray! We're saved!" said Amy.
"Wait! They could be bandits!" said Milena.
"And how do you know they 'could' be bandits, Milena?" said Derek.
"This is Tatooine, Derek. Take nothing at face value," said Milena.
Soon, the landspeeder came into view.
"No... they don't look like bandits, Milena," said Knuckles.
"So just calm down, 'your highness,'" said Derek.
Milena pouted and glared at the grinning Derek, who was trying not to snigger. Sonic rushed forward and waved his arms.
"Hello! Over here! Help! Need help!" he said.
The landspeeder soon came to a stop near the wreckage. At the controls was a young human male, with an elderly human male sitting next to him. On the back of the speeder was a Protocol Droid and an Astromech Droid. They looked at each other in awe.