Sonic Haven
Season 1 - Episode 8
"The Best Soldiers"
The rain started to come down harder as evening fell on the city. Occasionally it would splash in through a little hole in a window on the far side of the wall. The picture painted on the other side of the glass told a silent, yet horrible story.
Buildings had no lights, no signs of life. The streets were empty, at least in terms of people. Cars sat all over, roads and sidewalks. Some were smashed, others in perfect condition and still running. There was hardly a sound from the city outside. Maybe the occasional scream or loud crash could be heard, but it would be quickly followed by yet another eerie silence. The rain that cascaded through the city's air was like icing on this depressing robotic cake. Nature itself was crying over what had been done.
There were only a few survivors left, most of them huddled inside this small apartment. It had apparently been the residence of a fox family if the picture on the wall was any indication. Obviously they were long gone. They'd left in a hurry, most likely when Robotnik had first hit the city earlier in the morning. As such, most of their things had been left behind. But not much of it would be useful. It was mostly ill-fitting clothes and personal items like jewelry, none of which would be very useful in a survival setting.
Sitting around the tan-walled main room of the home, these last few remaining individuals had just finished recounting the day's events. Though they were each very different, they all had similar stories to tell. They sat either on the dark brown leather couch or on the lighter brown floor trying to figure out where they should go from here.
After everyone had finished with their stories, Tiara, who was sitting next to Sally on the couch, changed the conversation to something more immediate. "So what do we do now?" She asked hoping that someone else would have an answer.
Knuckles spoke up from the corner of the room. "I think it's obvious we need to get out of the city."
"Wait a minute," Max said in a moment of realization, "Didn't you come here for a reason? Why are you trying to leave?"
Knuckles shook his head. "The Chaos Emerald was my responsibility. Losing it was my mistake, and it's a mistake that I will correct. But getting others out of this city first is the top priority. Once all of you are safe, then I can come back and get what was stolen from my people."
"And what about the others?" Tiara asked from the couch. She turned to look at Sonic. "You said that you saw another group getting chased by those robot things. Those… Ro - - bians. What about them?"
"We should check to see if they made it out of the city." Sonic said plainly.
Max shook his head. "And how in the world are we going to do that?" He gestured toward the window. "This city is huge. It'll take days to search it from one end to the other." He pulled his arms in on himself, feeling insecure but trying to hide it from the others. "I don't think we could last for days even if we wanted to. A better option would be to make our way out of the city and hope that they've already gotten out themselves."
"Maybe if you were talking about an average search party." Sonic put a thumb to his chest. "But I'm not exactly an average search party. I found Sally and Tiara in no time! Plus, I'm not at as much of a risk of getting caught by the Robians as you guys. I'm too fast."
"You're not wrong," Sally said through her lost gaze. "But you could use a little more humility next time."
Sonic almost made a comment, but wasn't sure how to respond. Especially to her. Of course, she was royalty and was as such formally in charge of the group. But more than that, she seemed distant. It was the loss of her parents that afternoon that still ate at the edges of her spirit. If it hadn't been for the fact that he knew she was grieving, his best guess would be that she was, well… bored.
Having thought about it, he finally said: "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"So what's the plan then?" Tails asked.
Everyone looked at Sally, who was now the ruler of the kingdom and the de facto commander of this group of survivalists, and she didn't look back. She was lost within herself, fighting a war of emotions that was going to take more time for her to come to grips with. She was obviously in no position to lead.
"Well Sonic," Tiara said from beside her, "you said it yourself. You're the only one who can search the whole city, so how are we going to do this?"
Sonic looked around at the rest of the group, examining each one and their capabilities. Although there were others who would be able to survive by themselves out in the city, like Tails and Knuckles, neither were fast enough to really help with the search. Tails flying through the air to spot them from the sky might be helpful under normal circumstances, but he'd just make himself an obvious target that would be captured the moment he landed. As far as he could tell, there was only one thing to do.
"Well, Max is somewhat right." He started to explain. "The longer we stay in the city, the worse our odds of making it out okay. But we still need to try and help the others if they haven't made it out. I'll search the city tomorrow morning as best I can until noon. If I haven't found them by then, I'll come and get the rest of you and we'll try to escape ourselves."
"Sounds like a plan." Max said with an exhausted sigh. He was more than just exhausted though; he was a wreck, both physically and mentally. The death of his best friend and co-operator still seemed distant and numb, but that wasn't the only thing off. Every time he tried to remember what had happened in the tank it seemed to become fuzzier, and every time he tried to forget it, it rushed back into his mind with a fury. Still, as painful as it was, he internalized it, trying to show the rock-hard resolve that most people expected of a soldier.
As the group split into smaller, more quiet conversations, Sonic walked over to Max to see what was bothering him. "Hey," He said in a voice soft enough that no one would eavesdrop on their conversation, "You alright?"
Max put on a fake smirk similar to the one Sonic himself was known for. "About as good as can be expected. How about yourself?"
"I'm alright, but I wasn't stabbed." Sonic pointed in the general area of Max's midsection that was still dark red, though now it was dried blood.
Max tried to shake off his own worry as he spoke. "I'll be alright. Like I said, your friend Tails patched me up."
"Yeah, you said that back at the garage." Sonic paused for a moment before asking another question. "What happened to you anyway?"
Max felt a cold drop of sweat trickle down the back of his neck and come to a rest between his shoulder blades. "I'm a tank operator for the Kingdom's military. I was stationed here at the capitol when Robotnik attacked and was asked to defend the city. One of his Robians attacked the tank and tried to rip me and my partner out. It… uh - it ripped him out of his seat and smacked his head against a console. Broke his neck. I tried to defend myself and it grabbed my knife. When I ripped it out of its hand, the blade caught in my side; I passed out. Woke up in the garage, met you and the others… end of story."
"Sounds pretty rough." Sonic said with a slight grimace. "You were able to shake all that off?"
Max hesitated before answering, deciding to give the answer Sonic wanted to hear and not the answer that he knew was true. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He told himself he'd deal with all of this later once they left the city. "The one you should really be concerned about is the princess." He said with a glance over to the couch. "She doesn't seem totally with it, and there's a good chance that we'll need her to be."
Sonic didn't know what to say, so he just nodded and started to make his way over to the couch to check on the other rattled spirit. He dropped to a knee in front of her so that he could look her in the eye as she sat on the couch rather than standing over her. "How are you holding up?"
Sally felt her eyes get a little wetter. "Sonic, my parents are dead." There was just the slightest tremor in her voice. "I never got to say goodbye to them. And now, in a situation where I need their advice more than ever, this is the first time in my life they won't be there to help me." She shook her head back and forth. "I just can't believe it. They were still so young and healthy, both in their mid-forties and with so much life left to live. How can they be gone?"
Tiara spoke up from beside her. "Robotnik did it. You couldn't have planned for his attack, and frankly neither could they. He was supposed to be locked up and kept in a safe and isolated place to prevent things like this from ever happening. It just all went sideways."
Sonic wasn't sure what to do, or what to say. He barely knew her; they'd only met a couple of hours ago. So he just did what came naturally. He dropped his head down a little bit and looked up at her while she tried to stare at the floor just in front of his feet. "Hey," He said softly so as to gently get her attention. "I only got to speak to your parents once. They didn't know what I wanted or how exactly I was supposed to help them stop Robotnik's invasion. But once they found out what I could do, they only had one thing on their mind, one priority. You. They loved you Sally, and it was their dying wish that you stay safe and live on to lead the people of the Acorn Kingdom yourself. I have no doubt in my mind that their last thoughts were of you."
Tears streamed down the sides of her face as she gritted her teeth and tried not to cry, but the effort was just too much. She once again buried her head in her hands and cried. Tiara slid across the couch to sit right beside her and placed her arm over her shoulders to comfort her. It took her several minutes to finally regain her composure, but when she did, she looked over at Sonic, eyes still feeling heavy and vision still foggy from tears. He was still there in that same position, just waiting for her to pull it together. She swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and let out a slow, quivering sigh. "Thanks Sonic." She said with the slightest of nods. "I needed that."
"Don't mention it." He said with a smirk as he stood up again. "You just take care of yourself. Alright?"
She smiled softly. "Yeah… Alright."
"Don't worry." Tiara said. "I'll make sure she keeps her head on as straight as possible."
Sonic gave her a thumbs-up. "Good. Make sure she gets all the support she needs and then some."
She winked back. "Will do."
At that, he left the two of them to their own devices. Tiara would help where she could, he was sure. Besides, he'd actually managed to cheer her up and didn't want to blurt out anything that might spoil her mood again.
He was caught by Tails from the far end of the room. He followed his yellow friend into the kitchen where Knuckles was already waiting.
"What's up guys?" He asked casually.
"Just a question." Knuckles said flatly. "Where are the rest of us going to hide while you're out doing your search?"
Sonic scratched his head. "I dunno, I guess I hadn't thought about it."
"We could just keep hiding here." Tails said. "It's worked for us so far."
"Nah." Sonic waved his hand, dismissing the idea. "You're not wrong, but we should pick something closer to the center of town. If there's still three of them then I won't be able to carry them all. They'll have to follow me to meet up with the rest of you, which presents a problem if they're on the other side of town."
"Well," Tails asked, "What's close to town center?"
Sonic snapped his fingers. "I've got an idea."
"Ya know," A soft female voice called down the staircase, "If y'all would move yer tail a little faster we'd be out of the city in a jiff." The voice belonged to Bunnie, a young Rabbit with cream-colored fur and long blonde hair. She had bright green eyes and wore a black jacket. Under her jacket, she kept a bright pink shirt that she always wore with her dark purple pants that fell down to the tops of her brown boots.
An overweight, dull-purple-skinned Walrus stepped up beside her and sent his own condemning words down the steps. "Hurry it up would 'ya? I'm not trying to hang around here for my health." He was wearing a backward yellow ball-cap and green shoes with white soles. His name was Boomer, but all of his friends called him Rotor because of his knack for working with mechanical things.
"I am moving ze fastest zat I can." The overly skittish coyote called back. His name was Antoine D'Coolette, a fitting name since he was always fretting over every little thing. He always kept his tuft of blonde hair arranged perfectly atop his head. Coupled with that was a well-fitting and recently pressed blue jacket that was far too formal for casual wear. Under that was a pristine white shirt tucked into his pleated red pants that came all the way down to his shineless brown shoes. Shineless because he nervously rubbed the top of either shoe against the bottom of the other when he was nervous, which was essentially all the time.
"Antoine." Rotor chided. "I'm not exactly what most people would call 'in shape' but I still move faster than you."
"Excusez Moi! I am moving slowly because I am not wanting to be stepping in any of ze traps!" Antoine said with a note of righteousness.
Rotor pressed his right hand to his forehead in disbelief. "Antoine, Robotnik just took over the city yesterday. He hasn't had time to set up traps."
Antoine frowned, then looked down to carefully place his step. "You are not to be knowing zis. He is ze supper genius, surely he has found ze way."
"That's super genius Antoine." Rotor corrected in a monotone voice.
Bunnie looked back down the staircase and sushed them. "Would y'all pipe down. Somebody's commin'."
Rotor reached out and grabbed Antoine's arm, dragging him up the last of the stairs and hurriedly followed Bunnie to a storage closet. Cramming inside, she shut the door, then put her hand over Antoine's mouth to quiet the paranoia-induced 'bdgt-bdgt-bdgt' coming from him.
This wasn't the first time they'd needed to hide either. Robotnik had moved into the building earlier in the morning along with a litany of those robot things. Since they'd been on the top floor, trying to get out had been a problem for the last several hours. It was now getting close to noon and they were still one floor away from making it out to the street.
The sound of footsteps got louder outside the door, a pair of voices coming through clearly along with them. "... And what about the remaining citizens?" Robotnik asked.
A nasally voice responded quickly. "It seems like there's still a couple of individuals inside the city. We also have reports of a speeding hedgehog from every district."
Robotnik stopped just outside the supply closet door. "This is unacceptable Snively." He said in a voice that sent chills up everyone's spines. "From now on nobody gets in or out. I'm initiating plan Zeta."
Snively choked. "P-plan Zeta?"
"Do you have a problem?" Robotnik said in a tone that implied it would be best if he said no.
Snively muttered incoherently before finally spitting out some real words. "But we'll be stuck in the city!" He protested weakly.
"I fail to see the issue." Robotnik dismissed him, verbally shrugging away his subordinate's concerns. "Do it Snively, or I'll put a Roboticizer on your back."
Snively gulped. "Yes sir." He then hurried away to follow through on whatever plan Zeta was. Robotnik then turned and continued walking through the hall.
Bunnie and the others waited in the closet for several minutes, trying to listen for other sounds in the hallway so that they could determine whether or not it was safe to come out. After a while, She opened the door a crack and peeked into the hallway. Not seeing anything, she lifted her hand from Antoine's face and motioned for them to follow her.
They stepped out into the hallway and breathed a collective sigh of relief in finding it completely empty.
"What is zis plan Zeta?" Antoine asked.
"Ah wish Ah knew." Bunnie said before shaking her head and getting refocused. "But let's worry about that later. Raht now we need to get out of this place before Robotnik or his shinies fahnd us."
Rotor pointed to their left. "Should be a staircase over there. If we're lucky, it'll be unoccupied."
Antoine rushed over to the staircase, completely forgetting about the nonexistent traps of five minutes ago. He stuck his head to the door and listened. "I am not hearing anyzing." He said as he turned the handle and stepped inside. He turned his head and looked up the stairs, then down to the bottom floor landing. "Oui, it is being clear." He said. "We should be leaving non?" He was sweating just a little; no doubt he was worried about plan Zeta and its mysterious nature. Typical Antoine. Nothing motivated him to overcome his fear more than fear itself.
They stepped into the staircase and quietly made their way down to the ground level before stepping out into the lobby and finding a clear path to the outside. They almost ran to the front doors of the building, scrambling through them and out into the street before being stopped in their tracks by a sound. A loud humming noise that came from the roof.
Looking up, they watched in horror as a purplish veil extended from the roof of the skyscraper behind them, across the sky, and down to the horizon. Then the humming quieted to more of a low buzz. They stared at it, silenced by their shock; a silence that was broken by Antoine.
"AUUUUUUGHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHAAAHHAAAAA! We're being DOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMED!" He screamed loud enough for the whole city to hear.
"Antoine, shut up!" Bunnie and Rotor screamed in unison.
It was too late, the robots were pouring out of the building and rushing toward them.
Antoine smiled nervously, as he received a pair of glares from his friends. "I am terribly sorry." He said with a whimper.
Just as all hope seemed lost, they felt a thud that rippled through the air and hit them in their chests. Standing between them and the cyborgs was the same blue hedgehog from the day before.
"Y'all couldn't have come at a better tahme." Bunnie said with a relieved smile.
Sonic smiled at her. "I'll get you out of here, just follow me." Then he took off at a pace that was just barely faster than their own.
Without any hesitation, the three of them took off in a dead sprint after him, running through alleyways and snaking between a couple of buildings before running down a set of stairs and into a silent subway station.
Sonic was standing in the middle of the station and smiling, waiting a moment for them to catch their breath. He whistled, the sound reverberating off of the smooth subway walls and echoing down the empty tunnel. Within moments, several people appeared from the ceiling supports. One by one, Sonic jumped up to the rafters and grabbed them before jumping back down and setting them on the floor. A yellow-furred fox also helped by spinning his twin tails until they created a rotor which he could use to air-lift people too and from the ceiling.
A couple of moments later, they were all standing in a circle. Tails spoke first. "Hey Sonic, we heard some kind of buzzing noise. Do you know what it was?"
Sonic shook his head. "I'm not sure, some kind of energy field around the city."
Rotor chimed in, sharing what they'd heard in the closet. "It's a barrier designed to keep people in the city from leaving."
"And to keep other people from gettin' in." Bunnie added.
"So what, Robotnik is scared of us?" Sonic asked in a mocking tone.
"Actually," Sally chimed in, "It's kind of smart. No doubt the G.U.N. has formed an attack force to come and take the city back. They're probably sitting outside right now. They have no way to get any info from inside the city, and we have no way of getting out."
"Which means we're all just sitting ducks." Tiara said with a chill. "This definitely doesn't look good."
"Then we'll just have to fight him ourselves!" Sonic said, striking his fist into an open palm.
"But we're not soldiers." Tails said, a lack of confidence evident in his voice.
"My training officer once told me that the best soldiers are the ones who have something to fight for." Max added in a notably more upbeat tone.
Sonic smirked. "The fortune cookie is right." He started walking toward the subway tunnel ahead. "Besides, what are we gonna do, turn ourselves in?"
Sally looked puzzled. "Um… Sonic. Where are you going?"
Sonic called back over his shoulder as he jumped down onto the recessed railway. "If we're gonna stay in the city, we're gonna need a place to hide." And he kept walking, making his way down the subway tunnel.
With a collective shrug, the rest of the group followed him. They hoped that they'd be able to find a place that would give them shelter, a safe haven from Robotnik's oppression.
