All characters belong to Archie and SEGA.
Good Chance
"So...you're the Baron?" Rotor voiced, his even tone betraying none of the seriousness of the situation.
Here on the plains just outside of New Mobotropolis stood Rotor and his team, the sinking sun casting its evanescent glow upon them. Simultaneously, Beauregard stood before the Freedom Fighters, the shadow he threw upon them almost threatening to swallow the beings before him. Surprisingly, no other Legionnaires lay in sight. Regardless, Rotor Walrus, for the sake of his fellow teammates, did not waver in his subtle stare-down with the elderly Rabbot.
Beau did not nod. Rather, he cocked his head to the side with a smirk. "And I'm guessin' ya'll must be...Team Freedom, if I presume correctly?"
Rotor dipped his head curtly to affirm. "Yes...?" he slowly responded, unable to hide the suspicion-filled twinge in his voice. Something about this scenario was...just off in the walrus's perspective. 'Why on Mobius would the Doctor send out one of his own Grandmasters all the way out of his own region?'
That oddity was part of the reason Rotor had declined the company of his team members at first. At least that way, if something happened to him, the rest of his team would at least have something of a chance of protecting the city. For all he knew, this whole meet could be a set-up to entrap his entire team and leave the city defenseless. Unfortunately, when you have a Grandmaster threatening to make his own way into your home to "make his own appointment," there's not much you can do but hear the person out. As a consolation, though, Rotor had enough confidence in his abilities and in his nanite suit to satisfy himself with the assurance that he could take the Baron on, with or without assistance from his teammates. Actually, now that the walrus pondered on the matter, this man was quite brave, coming all the way out into enemy territory without so much as a single unit or even an assistant—and to meet with the group responsible for beating back Eggman's supposedly ultimate robotic enforcers, no less!
"Good, there's some business my legion's got a score to settle with the Kingdom of Acorn." Beau's sunny smile only served as a façade, though. One could almost feel the tension that crackled in the air following that statement. Indeed, Rotor's stare narrowed almost imperceptibly at Beauregard…until a certain, well-meaning, violet tabby spoke up.
"Uh...excuse me, Mr. Baron...?"
"Yes, uh..."
"I'm Big, sir."
Beauregard lifted a thick eyebrow quizzically, wondering if this rotund feline was trying to mock him. He wouldn't put such a lowdown trick past these followers of the King. "Yes, you certainly are, but what's your name, son?"
A thick, clawed finger—Rotor's finger—rose up to halt the sidebar conversation. "Actually, Mr. Baron, that is his name: Big," the light purple walrus explained matter-of-factly. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Cream and Cheese would have giggled at Beauregard's slightly stupefied expression. That man appeared as if he'd just discovered fire that freezes instead of burns. The Southern Grandmaster quickly cleared his throat in a nearly vain attempt to regain his composure.
Ignoring the Baron's almost comical expression, Rotor turned to the violet tabby and gestured him to proceed with his question. "Anyway, what were you going to ask, Big?"
"I was gonna ask why Mr. Baron's calling this place a kingdom," Big queried, scratching his large head. "Wasn't this place supposed to be a republic?"
Being the patient sea-dweller that he was, Rotor chuckled lightly and smiled good-naturedly before patting his perplexed comrade's hefty shoulder. "Don't worry, Big. It's still a republic." Team Freedom's leader, however, switched to an annoyed countenance when his verdant eyes bounced back to the Baron. "Someone just needs to get his facts straight."
"And someone needs to remind you, walrus," the elderly Mobian suddenly uttered dangerously, jabbing his cane in the air towards Rotor as his mechanical hand clenched itself into a fist, "that this so-called 'republic' is allowing the same ol' oppressors a piece of power."
Shaking his noggin in exasperation due to the rabbit's stubborn prejudgment, Rotor sighed wearily, hoping to perhaps bring to sense to this man. "Power that is shared among the people..."
Alas, though, Beauregard only fixed Rotor with an unruffled, haughty scowl and scoffed, coldly deriding the correction. "Awfully funny choice of words to be comin' from a councilman; yet here you are instead on the front lines. I guess this kingdom's followers aren't so spineless afta' all."
If that comment was intended to lower the team's morale, then Beau gravely miscalculated. Indeed, Big huffed and frowned—Froggy as well—upset at this man's callous attitude. Bomb and Heavy straightened up as one, the former already prepared to blow a certain rabbot sky-high. Rotor, usually an easygoing and tolerant person, crossed his arms in defiance, unwilling to let the Baron have his goat. Even Cheese scowled a bit, having up to had it with Beauregard's taunts and jabs.
Only Cream did not share in the defensive negativity permeating her team. 'I know he works for Eggman, but why does he have to be so...so rude to us?' After all, they were only doing what they had to do: protecting their home and loved ones. What wrong possibly could persist in those motives?
Thankfully, Rotor did not answer to Beau's bait. "Why are you here?"
Much to the team's sudden confusion, Beau raised a metallic finger in response. "First a question: do any of ya'll know of the Sand Blasters, otherwise known as the Sand Blast Freedom Fighters?"
Rotor merely nodded warily. What sort of question was...? The inventor all of a sudden narrowed his eyes in dark suspicion. "Would they have anything to do with the fact that you're here?"
"Why as a matter of fact, walrus, they do." Uh oh, Cream didn't like the smile on the man's face; it looked too much like the kind Eggman would don whenever he'd partake in torturing someone or, God forbid, roboticizing. "You see, a few days ago, my scouts picked a mighty large exodus emergin' from Sand Blast City." Beau began walking off to one side then back, repeatedly as he administered his report, never looking back at Team Freedom. "At first, it looked like they mighta been gettin' bold and tryin' a frontal assault on the legion..."
Finally, the golden-haired rabbit stopped in his tracks—right back in front of Rotor.
"But then..." Beau let the sentence taper ominously.
"Then...what...?" the team's leader inquired cautiously.
The Baron shot another "Eggman" smile in Rotor's direction. "Surprise, surprise...they actually went in a different direction! Any of ya'll wanna take a wild guess to where?"
Two seconds of silence passed before the forest green and earth brown eyes of Rotor and Cream slowly expanded to the size of car tires.
"Oh no..." Rotor softly uttered in horror.
Cream began to tremble in fear, whimpering as she did, Cheese's and Big's efforts to comfort her in vain. "B-But...why would those mean Sand Blasters want to come all the way here?"
Team Freedom's leader swore he detected a trace of something other than contempt in Beau's eyes—guilt perhaps?—when the elder rabbit's eyes landed on Cream for about two seconds. Then like a lightning bolt, that iota of onus vanished beneath malicious amusement. "Very good question...! And, quite frankly, one that even my troops and I ain't too sure about..."
Rotor crossed his arms with firm resolve. "We can't trust you or your Dark Legion troops here, even if what you're saying is true."
Beau raised a thick, bushy, orange eyebrow knowingly. "Actually...more for a reason that Eggman would love to hate..."
'Love to hate...? Is he...asking for our help?' thought the sea dweller in numb shock and a baffled mien, his fellow members wearing similar expressions of disbelief. The notion itself was unfathomable. "And that reason would be...?"
"You see this arm, son?" Beauregard nodded his head to his robotic limb, never taking his eyes off the Freedom Fighters.
"Oh, it's a really neat looking arm, sir!" Big exclaimed with a smile. Everybody just stared at the round, dark purple tabby in dumbfound silence...before the rest of the team either chuckled or giggled at the cat's compliment, even Bomb and Heavy managing tinny sounds reminiscent of laughter. Big had made a surprisingly valid point.
"Um, thank you," Beau returned awkwardly, not quite sharing in the warm moment. These new Freedom Fighters surely weren't what he expected them to be. "Anyway...this arm gives me enhanced strength like so."
Before anyone could even blink, Beauregard, his robotic limb shooting out like a rocket, grabbed then lifted up Rotor by the collar of his suit as if the walrus were a sack of potatoes. Big and Cheese gasped; Froggy croaked out urgently; Bomb and Heavy tensed, ready to save their leader; the poor sea-dweller himself yelped in shock at the sudden action and prepared to retaliate...
"Put him down now!"...But then came that tiny voice, filled with outrage like a tiny volcano set to erupt, breaking through the tension. For the third time that day, everyone went stark silent, this time stunned by the boldness of none other than little Cream. Her face stone solid, the young rabbit frowned deeply and passionately at her (secret) stepfather's lack of respect for her friend.
Yet no one proved more shell-shocked than Beau himself. The arm gripping Rotor began to slacken (not that the walrus bothered to notice at the moment), its owner's face losing the will to remains stone-stoic.
Never tearing her righteously furious gaze from that of the older lapine, Cream took a step forward to address the Baron more clearly.
"There's no need for that. If you really do want our help, Mr. Baron, then you'll have to be nicer than the way you are right now! To be honest, I don't care what the Acorns ever did to you. It doesn't give you the right to treat us as if we're bullies," she pointed a finger at him, "...especially when you're the only one doing the bullying! All we're doing is defending our home and here you come, looking down on us as if we're nothing but common criminals. Well...you made yourself the criminal the moment you joined Eggman...and what you're doing right now just proves it! So unless you want us to start treating you like a criminal," the brave girl pointed an index finger to the ground, "then you'll put our leader down this instant."
"Chao, chao!" Cheese chirped, nodding in agreement alongside his mistress.
Struck through the heart by the one person he never anticipated to snap at him, Beau, straining internally to keep the deep-seated hurt from appearing on his face, gingerly set Rotor back on his feet. The walrus, still somewhat phased by the recent turn of events, backed up a bit to be with his team. Fortunately, though, Rotor quickly regained his composure, and put a bulky hand on Cream's shoulder, inciting the young rabbit to look up at him and his sweetly smiling face.
"Thanks, Cream," was his soft utterance of gratitude. The young rabbit returned the walrus's expression with an affirmative hum.
Beau couldn't deny the pang of jealously that arose within him as he enviously viewed this touching scene. "On the other hand," he continued indifferently, "...thanks to this technology, the Doc also has complete control over our lives. He could destroy me in the blink of an eye if he ever felt I'd outlived my time as an asset."
Cream gasped, her anger at the Baron momentarily forgotten. Rotor scrunched his eyebrows in grim understanding and nodded as he confirmed, "The explosion device..."
The Baron nodded back solemnly, a grave frown on his own face.
NICOLE, following the Council's decision to accept her back into Mobotropolis, had notified him of the schematics of the Legionnaire machinery obtained thanks to the efforts of an old friend working as a double agent in the Dark Legion. Just last night, the aquatic engineer and his program-based companion, with the aid of Sonic's Uncle Chuck, managed to discover the full internal workings of the Dark Legion's implants, their explosive function in particular. Unfortunately, they had yet to devise a feasible solution to utilize this technology in a way that would greatly cripple the Dark Legion and, in consequence, Eggman. (1)
As Rotor thought more deeply on the matter, however, his countenance softened in shock and a touch of concerned sympathy. "But...do you know how much you're risking just by talking to us? The Doctor could be listening in right now!"
Beau merely scoffed, throwing his head to side before facing Team Freedom once more, "After the defeat ya'll handed to him...? Believe me when Ah say the man has more than enough on his mind right now...especially with Team Fighters houndin' 'im."
Rotor tilted his head, curiosity overriding his distrust towards Beau. "What are you trying to ask of us?"
"Eggman is powerful...but even he can't handle everything by himself. That's why he has the Dark Legion and his robots. Take away either one and that man gets swamped. That's why ya'll are researching this stuff." Beau pointed a metallic finger at the light violet sea-dweller. "And I know just the man willing to help ya'll. Help us find a way to disable the explosion device...and I might just consider us in your debt."
None of the Freedom Fighters had any words to say in response. In other words, the Baron had done just about all he needed to do...well, almost.
The Grandmaster of the Great Desert Dark Legion dismissed himself with a pleasant grin and a tip of his ten-gallon hat. "I'll let you folks think over it." With a final nod, the wizened rabbot nonchalantly rotated his body and face away and start to walk away for some unknown destination...
...only to freeze in place..."Oh and, uh, wal—I mean...Rotor?" Beau's rough voice dropped in volume, the elder rabbit never turning to face the walrus.
"I know. I'll keep her safe for you." For the first time, Rotor Walrus gave Grandmaster a genuine smile.
No thanks needed to be issued out. Rotor could see the surprised gratitude in Beau's grey azure eyes quite well.
(1) An OC character whose name will remain unmentioned...
