CHAPTER 9
Interrogation and Collective I
1
FOUR YEARS AGO
The twelve original recruits gathered around a gazebo where they met five new recruits, three officers and two warrant officers. All 17 of them sat around on bleachers for the opening lecture. Stepping up to them is a familiar face they have all seen before, it was Colonel Samuel Moss, the man they met right after Selection.
"Good morning," Colonel Moss addressed to them.
"Good morning, sir!" the 17 recruits shouted back.
"Congratulations to all of you for completing your Military Occupational Skills course," Moss announced to them. "For the next 14 weeks, the collective phase of your Special Forces training, you will use your new-found individual and MOS skills to become an asset to your team. That is what you men must learn, teamwork. You may think you're ready for combat, but no man can fight a war alone. There is a saying that goes, 'Individuals fails, only teams survive.' That saying is true in our line of work. In every training exercise, you will be randomly selected as team members. However, you will not be training alone. Two positions are not entry-level positions, who know what they are?"
Immediately, Ryan raised his fist in the air with his right arm in the shape of an L. Unlike school, there is a right way and a wrong way to raise your hand. Ryan was doing it the right way.
"Perreault," Moss said. Ryan stood up in front of his bleacher seat in the position of attention.
"The 18-Fox Intelligence Sergeant and the 18-Zulu Operations Sergeant, sir!" Ryan reported.
"Outstanding, Perreault, take a seat," Moss said. Ryan sat back down. "You 17 are all recruits, so obviously none of you are Intelligence or Operations Sergeants, so my senior staff will supply you with our professional Sergeants we have here on base. You treat them with respect, and they will treat you as if they are on your team as well. Who knows, maybe one day, you enlisted men will become an Intelligence or Operations Sergeant some day. Now, we will begin this phase with simple classroom lectures, and then later on today you will use what you learned in the field. We only have one rule, work as a team! Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.
"Good. Rise and, in an orderly fashion, report to classroom 4175. Hoo-ah!" Colonel Moss said to them.
"Hoo-ah!" was the recruits' reply just as they were exiting their bleachers.
2
PRESENT DAY
In Robotropolis, Robotnik sat at his desk looking over Ryan's profile. There was so much information within the files that Robotnik was upset about and was impressed at the same time. It was hard for Robotnik to read it, but he had to know more about Ryan.
Staff Sergeant Ryan M. Perreault has an outstanding record in the Special Forces. Ryan was first deployed to Afghanistan, after his 18-month Live Environment Training and being promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, just in time to stop a civil unrest rise. Three months into Afghanistan and the civil unrest suppressed, he was sent to Iraq where he and his ODA found a series of underground explosive-making quarters. His team was detached to track down the bomb makers all the way up into Iran. During that time, Ryan and his team were in civilian clothing where they provided over watch and reconnaissance for a small Delta team to make the capture. After his services in Iraq, his ODA was sent to work on a campaign with SEAL Team THREE in Georgia and Azerbaijan, which is where Ryan earned his Purple Heart. While there, Ryan trained Azerbaijani forces to push back invading rogue Russian forces. When the SEALs found out who the rogue Russian general was, Ryan and his ODA were sent in to the South Ossetia region of Georgia to raid the large summer home to capture the general, which was successful. The ODA was ordered to remain as a policing and training force in Armenia until they were called back home to Fort Bragg. Within several months, the ODA was sent back to Iran to help a German KSK unit to rescue hostages from a hijacked German airline at an Iranian airport. Before the rescue operation, former GSG-9 operators trained Ryan's ODA in advanced CQB (Close Quarters Battle). Within three days, Ryan and his team snuck aboard the airline undetected, wearing balaclavas and MP5's and retook the hijacked airline. As a token of reward, Ryan's ODA was sent to Germany to train alongside the GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit. Several months in the training, Ryan himself was top of his class. Due to his expanded education and training, and a good clean record, Ryan was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Once training was over, there was an emergency call back to Iraq. The ODA was sent back to discover that a British Army base was raided and most of the soldiers there were taken prisoner. Along with the British Special Air Service, they were able to track down the location of the prisoners. Due to Ryan's ODA being trained heavily in CQB, they were the first responders inside the prison complex. Ryan's job was to take out the guard towers, which he did without alert. S.A.S. was sent in through the west of the base while Ryan's team went in from the north. They worked their way through to the prison block and met halfway through to liberate the prisoners. Once the prisoners were released, they extracted by V-22 Osprey's just before terrorist reinforcements showed up. Ryan was awarded the Silver Star for that rescue operation. For the rest of the few months, he was sent to Kuwait to train indigenous forces weapons techniques. Suddenly, they get a call from command that an unidentified terrorist organization was about to breach Kuwait City limits. Ryan's ODA, along with friendly Iraqi forces and Marine Force Recon, were able to contain the terrorist unit into a chokepoint. They did recon of the hidden base of operations of the terrorist unit. Ryan, alone, was ordered to sneak in close to a small summer-like home complex and use a laser microphone to record the conversations inside. Ryan's Arabic was so good, he understood that there was a stash of Stinger missiles in the basement. When Ryan gave the report to his commanding officers, it went all the way to Langley, where they decided to send in a small SEAL team to recover them. When the SEALs were sent in the complex, Ryan's ODA stayed outside to provide cover. They heard gunfire inside but the SEAL Team was able to recover the Stingers. With the Stinger missiles captured, the rest of the terrorist organization surrendered and were taken by Ryan and his team back to the American military bases. The captured terrorists revealed that half of the Stinger missiles left the complex before the SEAL raid, but not sure where. After a few days, Marine Force Recon units reported seeing the missing Stingers in a village just on the Iraq-Iran boarders. Ryan's ODA and the Marine unit on sight raided the village and recovered the remaining Stingers with no further losses. After the Stinger missile crisis was over, Ryan's ODA was stated as completed in their Iraqi assignments. They were ordered back to Bragg until needed again. After several weeks have passed of non-stop training in North Carolina, the team was not called back to Iraq or the rest of the Middle East. Ryan requested a vacation witch he received.
The file ended there. Robotnik knew the rest; during Ryan's vacation, he was captured and brought to Robotropolis where he escaped and is now loose on Mobius and has no idea where he is. Robotnik slammed the folder down in disgust. Just as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, the metal doors slid open, and stepping in are Sleet and Dingo.
"What do you two want?" Robotnik asked.
"Well, you see, sir, if we can't fight this guy on the ground, why not try to get rid of him in the air," Sleet said. Robotnik knew what they meant. He figured they could kill him through an air strike, but he did not want Ryan dead yet.
"That's good, but I don't want him dead, just captured so I could robotosize him!" Robotnik said, "Overall, an air capture sounds good. Set it up."
"Already did so, sir. We already set up," Sleet said.
"Well, I did most of it, Sleet just told me to—" Dingo almost said.
"Shut up, you idiot!" Sleet yelled, hitting Dingo behind the head.
3
After the training and test Ryan gave them, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor fell asleep easily. Ryan however, could not sleep. As much as he enjoyed spending the past couple weeks training these furries to be Green Berets, he wanted to get home. Ryan has seen so much scary images and been to scary places in his life. However, none of his past was scarier than being in this cartoon world.
Ryan loves to jog. He found it as a stress reliever, especially during his times in Kuwait. Before leaving, Ryan left a note on the kitchen table explaining where he will be and a radio signal if needed. Ryan grabbed the radio Cyrus made for him, clipped it to his belt of his real-life pants he is wearing, and began his jog outside and into the city of Robotropolis in the early morning. Ryan completely forgot about Robotnik and the risk of getting captured again.
4
FOUR YEARS AGO
It has only been a few weeks in the collective course and already everyone is exhausted. None of them were physically exhausted, they were all mentally exhausted. There was so much information that they had to ace on in order to proceed. Every time a soldier enters out into the field, they have to do so many things that sound almost impossible. They had to stay off ridges, watch for shadows, move low to the ground, move in tight patterns but do not bunch up, and so on. Every second that passes in the field gives the recruits headaches. However, their headaches are about to get worse.
All 17 recruits entered in the large barracks classroom and sat at different tables. In front of each seat was a small booklet and a number two pencil. The cover of the booklet had the Special Forces emblem with the crossing arrows and the banner that said De Oppreso Liber. Underneath the emblem had the text 'Special Forces Identification Course.' Up front on the podium is Colonel Moss with a projector behind him.
"Take a seat everyone," Moss said to them. All the recruits did as they were told. "Let's get started. Your role as a Special Forces operator would be to identify targets. These include indigenous personnel, weapons, vehicles, tanks, and aircraft."
The entire class felt uncomfortable. It was more hard work on their brains. Not only did they have to use their smarts to outwit the enemy on the field, now they got to learn how to identify them enemy. They all know where this will lead, the instructors are going to put friendly forces and civilians mannequins in the field and they have to be able to find then, identify them, and execute the command.
"The weapons that Special Forces use include the M4A1, the M92 Beretta, the AT-4, and the new SPR or Special Purpose Rifle," Moss explain while the projector shown slides of each weapon. "The M4A1 is built off of a variant of the aging M16 rifle, yet its firepower packs a powerful punch. It has a collapsible butt stock and has five picatinny rails for add-ons, such as scopes and grenade launchers. The AT-4 is a shoulder-launched recoil-less disposable anti-tank weapons. The SPR is a new sniper weapon built off of an M-16 variant, though its range and accuracy matches that of the most accurate weapon, the Springfield 03."
The projects then shown a series of Kalashnikov rifles, some no one has ever seen before.
"The standard weapon the enemy uses is the AK-47, built after the turn of the Second World War. Newer variants of this weapon is the AK-74U, which is more compact and has a further range. The sniper version is the Dragonov which has high accuracy and further range than all other Kalashnikov's. The common pistol is the Makarov built off of a similarity to the Walther PPK," Colonel Moss explained. "The equivalent to our AT-4 rocket launcher is the RPG-7, or Rocket Propelled Grenade. They are lighter and are able to reload, but lacks in accuracy."
The slides then shown a series of vehicles such as trucks, hummers, armored plated cars, and tanks.
"Next we'll look at vehicles," Moss said to the class. "Being able to identify vehicles is a must when conduction missions like ambushes. To be able to identify a tank, there are several ways, such as the main gun, see if it has a muzzle break, location of the muzzle break, length of the barrel, number of machine guns and hatches, shape of the hull, is it tracked or wheeled, are the tracks supported, and number of support rollers."
This was boggling the recruit's heads. However, they realize that if they were just normal civilians and just started taking this class, they would be confused beyond limits. At leased with the harsh training they went through, they are able to control their stress and understand the lectures.
"Now, let's take a look at aircrafts," Moss said as the projects shown pictures of helicopters. "There are three types of aircraft, fixed winged, variable winged and rotary winged aircraft. We will only focus on rotary winged aircraft for now." The recruits knew that a rotary winged aircraft is better known as a helicopter. "The rotary blades on top of a helicopter have the same dynamic principles as wings, thus they are classified as wings. There are three types of rotary winged aircraft, single, dual, and coaxial. Single helicopters have a single set of blades on top and one smaller set of tail blades in the back. Dual has two sets of main blades one on top of the other spinning in opposite directions. Coaxial are two main blades on top on different sides, both spinning on opposite directions, such as the Chinook. Look out for types of weapons on the helicopter, number of main blades, number of small blades, and the size and shape of the fuselage."
Suddenly, the projector clicked off.
"That's it for this lecture," Moss said to them. "In front of each of you is a booklet with four questions on each page. I will show you a slide witch you will have 15 seconds to study. Then, I will give you 15 seconds to answer the four questions on the page. Sign your name on the front page and let's begin. When you're done, turn it in to me and walk back to your barracks."
Ryan took the number two pencil and signed his name on the front as: 'Cpl. Perreault, Ryan M.' Cpl is the short NATO term for Corporal which is what Ryan is right now. In the corner of his eye, he saw the first slide appear. He looked at it and it was of two indigenous personnel, one with a Dragonov and the other with an RPG on the roof of a desert building. The slide clicked off and Ryan looked at this questions. They seemed simple enough being as multiple choice. The questions were like, what weapon was the guy on the left holding? What time of day did it look like? Was the guy with the RPG standing or crouching? How many rockets was left in his gear pouch?
Ryan actually found the test to be slightly easy. When he looked around at the other recruits, he can tell the others found it simple as well. Any normal civilian without their training would have a hard time, but these men were prepared.
The last slide clicked off. One by one, almost simultaneously, the twelve enlisted recruits and five officers got up and laid their test booklets on the podium in from of Colonel Moss. It was followed by a series of clattering sounds when they slid their pencils in a coffee mug just off to the right of the podium. In a single file, the 17 recruits made their way back to their barracks in hopes for good scores.
5
"I am pleased to announce that all of you passed your tests," Moss announced to them while the recruits were in the recreational room. "Some of you just barely passed and some of you scored perfect 100's. Outstanding! Hoo-ah!"
"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied.
6
PRESENT DAY
Ryan continued to jog down the streets. The weight of his Bates boots kept attempting to slow him down, but they kept increasing the muscle build in his thighs and calves. When all of a sudden, he bumped into Bartlby while turning a corner of a street. He did not literally bump into him. He seemed to have been taking an early morning walk.
"Bartlby?" Ryan said.
"Oh no, you again," Bartlby said sarcastically in his British-like accent. Right next to Bartlby was a dog, a fox, a wolf, a badger, a cat, and a mink, all aristocrats. The same ones he beat up at the party a while ago. The badger has a bandage on his nose, when Ryan broke it. He remembered the injuries he caused the aristocrats and the stares he got while at that party.
"Well look at this, it's the fuck-up squad," Ryan said.
"Fuck this," the cat said as he began to claw Ryan. Ryan instantly grabbed the cat's claw and twisted him around. The cat is now on his knees, back facing Ryan and he is moaning in pain as Ryan is twisting his arm.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" the cat shrieked in pain.
"Apologize to me now," Ryan said.
"Hey, leave him alone," the badger said to Ryan. Ryan clearly saw the white bandage on his nose showing where he hit the badger earlier. In a quick snap, he punched him in the nose again. There was a crack sound as the badger fell backwards.
"My nose!" the badger cried while lying on the floor.
"Now, apologize before you fall asleep," Ryan said. Ryan held the jugular vein of the cat's neck and pinched it half closed. Even through blood was still flowing to the cat's brain, he was slowly feeling light-headed and his vision was becoming gray.
"Fuck you," the cat said in a winded fashion.
"If that's the case," Ryan said. He then flipped the cat over his shoulder, ramming him into the dog hard knocking the wind out of both of them.
The fox ran to Ryan to hurt him, but Ryan grabbed the fox's arm and he used his other arm to knock the fox off his feet and land hard on his back.
The wolf grabbed Ryan by the neck from behind. Ryan instantly grabbed the wolf's leg and flipped him over releasing him. The mink also ran to Ryan to catch him off guard. Too late, Ryan did a spin kick kicking the wind out of the mink and causing the mink to fall on the ground.
Ryan took a look at Bartlby and Bartlby just stood there worriedly.
"If your friends continue this shit, I will also hurt you as well next time," Ryan said threatening Bartlby.
All of a sudden, Ryan heard the familiar whirling of an aircraft above. He looked up and noticed Sleet and Dingo's scorpion aircraft hovering above them at slow speed as if they were searching for something. The huge Sleet and Dingo scorpion aircraft landed on the empty city street. Sleet and Dingo exited the aircraft and walked to Bartlby, Ryan, and the aristocrats lying prone on the ground in pain. Immediate seeing them, Ryan took a step back to put Bartlby's body in between him and the two bounty hunters. Ryan drew out his Heckler & Koch USP sidearm, but can tell that neither Sleet nor Dingo was holding weapons of any kind.
"What the fuck do you two want?" Ryan asked harshly.
"Well, there he is, Sleet," Dingo whispered to Sleet.
"I can see him," Sleet said. He walked to the two, Dingo staying several feet behind. "Hey, Bartlby, what are your opinions on Ryan here?"
"He hurt my friends twice!" Bartlby exclaimed.
"We would give you a few thousand mobiums to turn him over to us," Sleet said.
"Sure thing," Bartlby said. He turned around and quickly tried to grab Ryan. Instantly, Ryan grabbed Bartlby's arm and kicked his legs causing him to trip and fall on his back. Ryan himself also fell on his knees, using Bartlby as a living shield.
"It'll take more than just a weak aristocrat to take me alive," Ryan said.
"I know, that why we have your friends," Dingo said.
Sleet pulled out a hologram projector and turned it on. Showing it are Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor all tied up and the background showed the interior of the scorpion aircraft. However, Ryan was familiar with the Sonic Underground episode 'Friend or Foe' where Sleet and Dingo showed a video of Sonic, Sonia, and Manic planning to steal a chaos emerald from the Floating Island to Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, of course, fell for it completely unaware that the video was doctored. Ryan, however, was not fooled because he was trained to detect doctored documents, and this was one. Sleet and Dingo's, or whoever made the hologram of the furries tied up, made the mistake of scaling. Sonia was sitting on the ground in front of Sonic which would make her ropes thicker due to being closer, but they were thinner. Also, the color contrast in Manic's green fur, which was really brighter than Sonic's, was almost the same in the hologram. In addition, when Manic fell over the log during training, he left several scratches on his muzzle. Sleet mentioned that they were just captured, meaning Manic would have to have the scratches on his face, but they were not there. Ryan knew this hologram projection was a fake, but he decided to play along and let them think he was fooled.
"What do you say to that?" Sleet asked. "Once this projector is shown to Mobius, the world will have to cower to Robotnik."
"I don't think so, because you've got to deal with me. One question, is that the only film of them?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, we haven't made any copies," Dingo stupidly said.
"What I thought," Ryan said. Instantly, Ryan aimed his sidearm and shot the projector, destroying it into many broken pieces.
"No! Get in the vehicle, Dingo!" Sleet yelled. Both Sleet and Dingo ran to the scorpion. Ryan was about to chase them, but a SWAT Bot came from out of nowhere and grabbed him from behind. Ryan knew that Robotnik was getting better, feeling that he had to take every precaution to capture Ryan the Green Beret. Sleet and Dingo boarded the aircraft, closing the door behind them.
Ryan flipped the bot over his shoulder. Then he ran to the aircraft as it was about to take off. The scorpion lifted into the air, but Ryan aimed his sidearm on a series of grates on the side of the aircraft. These grates had small strands of black smoke puffing out of them, meaning they had to come from the engine. Ryan took aim and shot the grate.
Inside of the aircraft, the gauges went haywire. There were emergency displays of the left engine failure.
"What was that?" Dingo asked.
Sleet looked out the window. "It's that man! He shot out the engine!"
Suddenly, the whole scorpion aircraft started loosing altitude as it tilted on its side. Ryan ran through the streets following it. Even though Ryan lost visual contact with it, he was able to follow the trail of black smoke. The aircraft landed hard on its left side and continued to slide down through a non-busy empty street while spinning counter-clockwise. It stopped when it hit a large pipe coming out of the sewers.
Ryan jumped over piles of debris to reach the smoking tilted aircraft and left a large trailing divot. He approached the wreckage just in time for Sleet to kick open the canopy glass, taking the while frame with it. Sleet crawled out of the opening with a strange-looking laser sidearm in his right hand.
"Freeze!" Ryan shouted. Sleet looked up and noticed Ryan with his USP sidearm fixed on Sleet and slowly side-stepping toward him. "Throw the weapon away!"
Sleet obeyed without hesitation. This confused Ryan; Sleet had the gun aimed in Ryan's general direction. Sleet could have attempted to aim and shoot Ryan. Ryan could have been fast enough to shoot first, but Sleet could have been lucky as well. Yet, Sleet threw the gun away almost instantly, throwing his chance away of shooting Ryan.
Ryan looked at the gun tossed at the side and easily noticed a selector switch on it similar to the one on his sidearm. It was set to the setting called 'stun.' This further confused Ryan because, not only could he have been shot, but he could have been taken alive as well.
Suddenly, all the confusion was gone when Ryan heard the clattering sounds of robot footsteps approaching from behind. In Ryan's experience of watching the show, he knew they were SWAT bots behind him. Ryan took a slow peek behind him and noticed that there were at leased twelve of them, too much for Ryan to try and take out on his own. Slowly, Ryan raised his arms to show he surrendered.
Sleet stood up and took his weapon, fixes the front muzzle on Ryan. He stared at the tall red-headed man with a grin of victory.
"We anticipated you this time, Green Beret," Sleet sneered at Ryan. "Looks like the one and only Special Forces operator lost to us finally." Sleet then noticed a grin form on Ryan's face. Sleet had no idea that Ryan turned Sonic and his friends into Green Berets. However, he was going to find out in seconds.
All of a sudden, Sleet's sidearm laser gun blew up in his hand, immediately followed by the sound of a close-by gunshot. Due to Sleet wearing a glove, the scattered pieces of his gun did not impale his skin, but it did scrape up his glove. The shock also blew Sleet on his back.
In seconds, Sleet looked around and saw five small piles of ruble literally stand up. They were Ghillie suits that looked like rubble ruins trash. The five Ghillie suits opened fire on the SWAT bots on all sides emitting Earth-like gunfire. In seconds, all the SWAT bots dropped to the ground with oil splattering everywhere.
Sleet, laying on his back, looked up to see Ryan standing over him with his own sidearm pointed at him. Ryan returned with a similar grin Sleet gave him seconds ago. The five Ghillie suits ran up to Ryan and circled around Sleet in a half circle with Ryan being the center. The hoods of the Ghillie shuts were pulled off revealing the faces to be Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor. Their faces were painted gray and black in a pattern similar to an older version of the American Army urban camouflage.
"Wait!" Sleet cried out, "I'll tell you anything!"
"Good, that's what we want," Ryan said with a grin. He turned to the furries around him. "Anyone else coming?"
"Negative, no outbound radio signals," Manic said to Ryan. "No one is coming."
Just as Dingo started crawling out of the hatch all dazed from the impact, Sonic and Manic ran to him with their weapons drawn. As Dingo was being taken into custody, Ryan looked down at Sleet and began asking him a series of questions.
"How did you know where to find me?" Ryan asked.
"We kept a SWAT bot air patrol around Robotropolis and several square miles, expanding a search for you," Sleet replied in fear.
"Why do you still want me?"
"Robotnik wants you robotosized."
"Still? After weeks of being away?"
"Yes, he modified the robotosizer so that it will take away your free will but at the same time keep your skills."
"So, Robotnik wants my skills as a Special Forces operator?"
"Yeah, he figured you would make an excellent lackey in the fight against the resistance."
"Robotnik knows he cannot find me, so why is he still looking after a few weeks of being missing?"
"Because no one can hide forever! He knows you cannot get back to your home planet without the Dimensional Matter Displacer."
"The DMD? How do I access it?"
"I don't know, it's on one of Robotnik's computers in his control room," Sleet replied. None of Sleet's facial features twitched, meaning he was telling the truth.
"So, he can go back to Earth whenever he chooses?"
"Not really. It takes a long time for the DMD to charge up before access back to Earth."
"How long?"
"It's been almost three weeks since your arrival to Mobius, I'd say it would be ready in several days."
"Is there a way to cancel its ability to open the portal to and from Earth and Mobius?"
"Yes, but you would have to destroy the computer itself and make sure the resource disc is unable to work."
"That's easy, destroy it, right?"
"No, the disc with the DMD on it is way too strong for heavy machinery. It cannot be destroyed."
Ryan stared at Sleet. Sleet was not lying, but at the same time knew something he did not know. He could always destroy the computer up and right now, but that would destroy the portal from opening, thus destroying his chances of getting back home. Ryan had a plan; he would wait until Robotnik activates it back up, then go in, destroy the computer, and steal the disc with him. That way, the disc on Earth will not have any use on the kind of computers and technology they have. However, he would need a reason for Robotnik to open the portal.
"Sleet, once Robotnik activates the portal, can it be deactivated on command?"
"No," Sleet responded, shaking his head. "It could take at leased an hour before the energy dies down."
"But I saw you activate it back on Earth," Ryan sneered at him, remembering being stunned back on his hometown street. Sleet pulled out that garage door opener contraption and aimed it in the air and, a few feet away, a large blue portal appeared.
"I didn't activate it, I turned off its camouflage. It was always on."
"Tell me, even if the computers with the DMD programs on it are destroyed, will the portal still stand when it is on?"
Sleet responded with a nervous nod, not displaying any signs of lying on his wolf face. This was further giving ideas to Ryan's plan. First, Ryan would have to wait until Robotnik activates it, then he would have to destroy the computer, take the disc, and get back to the portal. It was a one shot chance, but Ryan would have to risk it. If he misses his chance, he might as well be stuck on Mobius forever.
Ryan had to destroy the Dimensional Matter Displacer so that Robotnik could not use it anymore. Ryan was going to be robotosized, but he was lucky enough to be a Special Forces operator and escape. If Robotnik were to capture anyone else, they may not be so lucky and end up being a victim of Robotnik's war machines. He could not let that happen, so he had to prevent Robotnik from ever crossing over to Earth again.
That was it! Ryan had a reason for Robotnik to go after someone else. He will hide out in the one place that Robotnik has no idea about. He will be safe there. Soon, Robotnik will get impatient knowing Ryan was in that location, but soon realize that the portal program was fully charged. He would be forced to open it, and that would be Ryan's chance to destroy the programs and get back home at the same time.
"Sleet," Ryan slowly said looking down at the wolf bounty hunter, "I want you to give Robotnik a message for me. Tell him that I spent the past few weeks teaching Sonic and his friends how to be Green Berets, so now you are up against six, but it doesn't matter. Tell him that I am going off to Sanctuary and I am never coming out. He will never capture me, no matter how hard he tried. Can you give him that message?"
Sleet looked at Ryan confused, but at the same time, nodded.
"Good," Ryan said. He began to slowly back away. "We will all leave you alone now. Go back to Robotnik and tell him what I just told you. Guys, we're leaving them."
Ryan spun on his heel and began walking away. In a heart beat, Sonic sped in front of Ryan with a shocking look on his face.
"Say what?" Sonic asked in his trademark high-pitched confused tone. "You are letting Sleet and Dingo go?"
"Trust me, Sonic," Ryan said. He gave Sonic a wink and a grin. Sonic understood that gesture but still did not fully agree with Ryan's tactic. At the same time, Sonic did trust Ryan's judgment, so he shrugged his shoulders and followed Ryan who continued walking. Soon enough, the other furries followed Ryan out.
Sleet got back on his feet as well as Dingo. The two bounty hunters, still shocked by what just happened, turned tail and ran down the streets of Robotropolis, opposite where Ryan and the others went.
7
FOUR YEARS AGO
The 17 Special Forces recruits were getting mentally exhausted, but not to the point where it broke their threshold. There were regular physical training schedules to keep their muscles tones at large. Suddenly, Colonel Moss announced to the recruits that they will be going on a team obstacle course. In other words, in order to pass an obstacle, the whole team must work together. It was possible to complete an obstacle alone, but it would be discouraging to the instructor staff. This obstacle course, what the Marines call the Confidence Course, is a team exercise to demonstrate team work, tactics, and to show that the officers can be leaders as well as the enlisted can do what they are told.
The 17 men stood on a line in the middle of a large flat field with the trees as boarders. They are wearing their combat pants, khaki boots, and light brown T-shirts with no covers. A cover is a military term for a hat. The instructors stood around them and several stood at each obstacle.
"Okay, you men know what to do," Moss told them. "Hydrate and let me know what you're ready." The recruits all took several sips of water from their canteens. One by one, they twisted the caps on and placed them on the ground. This was a sign that they were ready. "Okay, get ready!"
Moss placed the whistle in his mouth and held it with his teeth. Within a few seconds, he blew the whistle hard, echoing a loud pitch throughout the whole flat field. In a dash, all 17 men ran side-by-side in suicidal-like runs toward their first obstacle.
The first obstacle was called 'The Weaver.' The weaver looks like the frames of a house roof with a series of logs evenly spaced apart from another, giving enough space in between each log for a body to slip through. They lead all the way up top a point and then back down through another set of logs. The first recruits to make it there, First Lieutenant Falcon, dove head first through the first log and started to move under and over every other log. In other words, he was 'weaving' through them. Falcon was soon followed by other enlisted men following his lead. Falcon made it to the top and sat on the top log, making sure his recruits were okay. This was a good sign of leadership.
Ryan himself was having a great time. His body was not as muscular as the others, but he does have a ton more stamina than most of the recruits. He easily slithered his way through the logs with ease. Once he made it to the top with Falcon, Ryan almost lost his grip, but his wrist was snatched by, none other than, Sergeant Robert Davis, his buddy. Davis pulled Ryan back up on the log. Falcon, and the other instructors saw that as a sign of team loyalty. Ryan slithered through the logs and stayed the at the end to help the other recruits off. Finally, all 17 recruits were off of the weaver and now they moved on to the next obstacle witch will take a lot of upper-body strength.
The next obstacle was the Confidence Climb, which looked like a ladder to a baby's point of view. There were two steel beams sticking high up in the air with a series of logs leading straight up. They did not have to weave through them, but they had to get to the top, over the top log, and down the other end.
Again, showing leadership, the officers ran to the obstacle and offered to help the enlisted up first. The officers cupped their hands as the enlisted stepped in them and started their climb all the way up. In some places, the log was too high to reach with their regular arm lengths, so fellow recruits helped each other up developing team work.
Ryan was the first to reach the top. To display his loyalty, he sat on the top with the log between his legs. He looked down and noticed he was about 50 feet off the ground. Soon afterward, he started helping his fellow recruits slide over the log and onto the other side. One by one, with the officers following, they all made it down the tall ladder and made the small jump back on ground, jumping in a pile of sawdust.
The 17 continued running toward their next obstacle which was the arm walk. It was like a moving dip. There were two horizontal bars about shoulder-width apart extending to at leased 20 feet and suspended at leased 10 feet in the air. The recruits lined up one by one leading to the arm walk polls. They gripped the bars and used their arms to walk through the long path, adding extra pressure on their biceps, shoulders, and pecs. As they moved, they used their knees for supports, flexing one knee while moving with the opposite arm. One by one, as they made it to the end of the bars, they performed one stationary dip to show they were not the leased bit tired.
The recruits stayed at the end of the bars until the final recruit finished. When all 17 were reunited at the end of the arm walk obstacle, they ran for their next one, which was the swing and jump. Ryan, being one of the fastest ones there, was able to reach the obstacle first. There were two ropes suspended above a tall jog and the recruits had to swing across them over the pit of mud. Fortunately, they get two chances. Ryan dove forward, grabbed on one of the ropes, and his momentum swung him on the other side in one attempt. He stayed behind on the other side and tossed the rope back to them, waiting for his team.
Soon afterward, the recruits started running and winging off the ropes on the other side, and they tossed the ropes back for the other running recruits. This also built reflexes and reactions to make their swing and hand it off to a recruit before they accidentally ended up running in the mud. Fortunately, no one fell in the mud pit. The run continued on to the next obstacle.
The next obstacle was the horizontal ladder. It looks similar to the monkey bars in the playground, only the bars are a lot further apart, thicker in diameter, and the whole thing was suspended ten feet in the air. Again, like the last obstacle, all the recruits lined up behind it, jumped on the log step, jumped onto the first bar, and used their arms to run through it. Just like monkeys, they swung from bar to bar in smooth motions, as opposed to jerky starts and stops. All on a line, the twelve enlisted and five officers swung their way down the long path in single file toward the end. One by one, they all dropped off at the end, landing in a patch of sawdust. They all gathered around the end waiting fro the last recruit to drop off. As soon as he did, the 17 made their mad dash runs toward the last obstacle.
The last obstacle is simply dubbed 'The Tough One.' With one simple glance at this obstacle, it should be called 'The Impossible One' but it is really not impossible. The whole obstacle starts off with a low log used to reach a rope. The rope leads to a suspended walk-able platform with logs, each evenly spaced apart. The platform of logs lead up to a tall ladder similar to the ladder they encountered earlier but smaller. At the top of this ladder is a rope suspended in the air leading down the 50 feet to the bottom.
The recruits slowed down as Lieutenant Falcon jumped up to demonstrate to his team that the obstacle is not hard. Falcon climbed up the rope leading to the top and on the log platform. He sat on one of the logs and gestured the team to follow suit. One at a time, the recruits climbed up the ropes leading the large platform. Ryan had a little trouble and would have fallen off it was not for Davis' catch. Davis pushed Ryan up onto the log platform, in return he helped pull Davis up with him.
Soon enough, all 17 recruits were at the top and ready to finish. On their own, they ran along the logs toward the ladder quickly. Each one cupped their hands to help each other up the tall ladder, leading to the pillar with the suspended rope. First one up the top of the ladder was Ryan. He was sure he kept one hand and one foot on the ladder as he climbed up. Once Ryan reached the second long from the top, he sat on it and held on the ladder uprights with both arms. He used his boot to grab the rope and bring it closer to him. He grabbed with rope with his hands, then with his boots, and slowly climbed his way down with one hand and boot under the other. Sliding was prohibited this time. As Ryan was descending, he looked up and saw his fellow recruits on the rope above him descending.
Ryan dropped down in the pile of sawdust bellow. He stepped away and helped any recruits trying to get off. Soon enough, the last one off was Lieutenant Falcon who displayed outstanding leadership throughout the course. Falcon was the first one on the first obstacle, the weaver, and was the last one off the last obstacle, the tough one.
As soon as all the recruits were reunited at the end, Colonel Moss blew his whistle as he approached the high-fiving recruits.
"Okay, everyone, take a knee," Moss told them. The recruits gathered around Moss on one knee. "Outstanding work, you displayed good teamwork and you worked together well. Officers, especially Lieutenant Falcon, I'm proud of you guys for displaying good leadership to get your team through. I saw a few mishaps where you worked alone, but you overall did an outstanding job. Hoo-ah!"
"Hoo-ah!" the recruits shouted in glee.
8
PRESENT DAY
That night, back at the Underground Base, Ryan explained to the five furries of his plan. The only problem is it will have to wait a few days before it can actually be taken into effect.
"Good idea, Ryan," Sonia said with glee as she sat on the couch next to the tall red-headed man in the American digital-pattern camouflage pants.
"Dude, you honestly think that is going to work?" Manic asked. All five furries are wearing their current trademark clothes.
"It has to," Ryan said. "Maybe the execution of the plan might go awry, but the plan itself is perfect. We just got to hope that Robotnik will feel like he has to try and get someone else."
"But, Ryan, if this doesn't work, he will have you and some other civilian from Earth," Cyrus explained.
"Cyrus, I'm no civilian," Ryan replied with a chuckle. When Ryan joined the United States Army, he signed away of his legal American civilian-hood. He was still American, but at the same time, a government weapon.
"Right, right," Cyrus nodded, standing corrected.
"So, tomorrow night, let's be off for Sanctuary," Ryan said to them. "Night because I don't want Robotnik's goons to follow."
Sanctuary was a place in the great forest of Mobius where most of the freedom fighters hang out. Only a small few are allowed to know of their location on any map. They kept it as a place to keep their children safe. Luckily for Ryan, the hedgehogs knew of Sanctuary's location. When Ryan first saw Sanctuary on an episode of the show, he noticed it looked very similar to Knothole village from the 1993 Sonic show simply titled 'Sonic the Hedgehogs' but dubbed by fans as 'SatAM.'
The six went off to their bedrooms for a good night sleep. Ryan kicked off his boots, exposing his dark green wool socks, and laid down in the guest bed, the same guest bed he slept on in his first night on Mobius. He felt to cushions and mattress and easily remembered being captured and escaping from Robotnik fortress. He felt homesick, but at the same time enjoying his stay. He has been away from home for so long; it was almost as if he forgot what it felt like to be back in Massachusetts. The only downside of his home state was that it was the strictest state in the country when it comes to gun laws, and Ryan is a gun-fanatic. It did not matter, he wished to be back home and soon.
TO BE CONTINUED...
CHAPTER 9
Interrogation and Collective I
1
FOUR YEARS AGO
The twelve original recruits gathered around a gazebo where they met five new recruits, three officers and two warrant officers. All 17 of them sat around on bleachers for the opening lecture. Stepping up to them is a familiar face they have all seen before, it was Colonel Samuel Moss, the man they met right after Selection.
"Good morning," Colonel Moss addressed to them.
"Good morning, sir!" the 17 recruits shouted back.
"Congratulations to all of you for completing your Military Occupational Skills course," Moss announced to them. "For the next 14 weeks, the collective phase of your Special Forces training, you will use your new-found individual and MOS skills to become an asset to your team. That is what you men must learn, teamwork. You may think you're ready for combat, but no man can fight a war alone. There is a saying that goes, 'Individuals fails, only teams survive.' That saying is true in our line of work. In every training exercise, you will be randomly selected as team members. However, you will not be training alone. Two positions are not entry-level positions, who know what they are?"
Immediately, Ryan raised his fist in the air with his right arm in the shape of an L. Unlike school, there is a right way and a wrong way to raise your hand. Ryan was doing it the right way.
"Perreault," Moss said. Ryan stood up in front of his bleacher seat in the position of attention.
"The 18-Fox Intelligence Sergeant and the 18-Zulu Operations Sergeant, sir!" Ryan reported.
"Outstanding, Perreault, take a seat," Moss said. Ryan sat back down. "You 17 are all recruits, so obviously none of you are Intelligence or Operations Sergeants, so my senior staff will supply you with our professional Sergeants we have here on base. You treat them with respect, and they will treat you as if they are on your team as well. Who knows, maybe one day, you enlisted men will become an Intelligence or Operations Sergeant some day. Now, we will begin this phase with simple classroom lectures, and then later on today you will use what you learned in the field. We only have one rule, work as a team! Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.
"Good. Rise and, in an orderly fashion, report to classroom 4175. Hoo-ah!" Colonel Moss said to them.
"Hoo-ah!" was the recruits' reply just as they were exiting their bleachers.
2
PRESENT DAY
In Robotropolis, Robotnik sat at his desk looking over Ryan's profile. There was so much information within the files that Robotnik was upset about and was impressed at the same time. It was hard for Robotnik to read it, but he had to know more about Ryan.
Staff Sergeant Ryan M. Perreault has an outstanding record in the Special Forces. Ryan was first deployed to Afghanistan, after his 18-month Live Environment Training and being promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, just in time to stop a civil unrest rise. Three months into Afghanistan and the civil unrest suppressed, he was sent to Iraq where he and his ODA found a series of underground explosive-making quarters. His team was detached to track down the bomb makers all the way up into Iran. During that time, Ryan and his team were in civilian clothing where they provided over watch and reconnaissance for a small Delta team to make the capture. After his services in Iraq, his ODA was sent to work on a campaign with SEAL Team THREE in Georgia and Azerbaijan, which is where Ryan earned his Purple Heart. While there, Ryan trained Azerbaijani forces to push back invading rogue Russian forces. When the SEALs found out who the rogue Russian general was, Ryan and his ODA were sent in to the South Ossetia region of Georgia to raid the large summer home to capture the general, which was successful. The ODA was ordered to remain as a policing and training force in Armenia until they were called back home to Fort Bragg. Within several months, the ODA was sent back to Iran to help a German KSK unit to rescue hostages from a hijacked German airline at an Iranian airport. Before the rescue operation, former GSG-9 operators trained Ryan's ODA in advanced CQB (Close Quarters Battle). Within three days, Ryan and his team snuck aboard the airline undetected, wearing balaclavas and MP5's and retook the hijacked airline. As a token of reward, Ryan's ODA was sent to Germany to train alongside the GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit. Several months in the training, Ryan himself was top of his class. Due to his expanded education and training, and a good clean record, Ryan was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Once training was over, there was an emergency call back to Iraq. The ODA was sent back to discover that a British Army base was raided and most of the soldiers there were taken prisoner. Along with the British Special Air Service, they were able to track down the location of the prisoners. Due to Ryan's ODA being trained heavily in CQB, they were the first responders inside the prison complex. Ryan's job was to take out the guard towers, which he did without alert. S.A.S. was sent in through the west of the base while Ryan's team went in from the north. They worked their way through to the prison block and met halfway through to liberate the prisoners. Once the prisoners were released, they extracted by V-22 Osprey's just before terrorist reinforcements showed up. Ryan was awarded the Silver Star for that rescue operation. For the rest of the few months, he was sent to Kuwait to train indigenous forces weapons techniques. Suddenly, they get a call from command that an unidentified terrorist organization was about to breach Kuwait City limits. Ryan's ODA, along with friendly Iraqi forces and Marine Force Recon, were able to contain the terrorist unit into a chokepoint. They did recon of the hidden base of operations of the terrorist unit. Ryan, alone, was ordered to sneak in close to a small summer-like home complex and use a laser microphone to record the conversations inside. Ryan's Arabic was so good, he understood that there was a stash of Stinger missiles in the basement. When Ryan gave the report to his commanding officers, it went all the way to Langley, where they decided to send in a small SEAL team to recover them. When the SEALs were sent in the complex, Ryan's ODA stayed outside to provide cover. They heard gunfire inside but the SEAL Team was able to recover the Stingers. With the Stinger missiles captured, the rest of the terrorist organization surrendered and were taken by Ryan and his team back to the American military bases. The captured terrorists revealed that half of the Stinger missiles left the complex before the SEAL raid, but not sure where. After a few days, Marine Force Recon units reported seeing the missing Stingers in a village just on the Iraq-Iran boarders. Ryan's ODA and the Marine unit on sight raided the village and recovered the remaining Stingers with no further losses. After the Stinger missile crisis was over, Ryan's ODA was stated as completed in their Iraqi assignments. They were ordered back to Bragg until needed again. After several weeks have passed of non-stop training in North Carolina, the team was not called back to Iraq or the rest of the Middle East. Ryan requested a vacation witch he received.
The file ended there. Robotnik knew the rest; during Ryan's vacation, he was captured and brought to Robotropolis where he escaped and is now loose on Mobius and has no idea where he is. Robotnik slammed the folder down in disgust. Just as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, the metal doors slid open, and stepping in are Sleet and Dingo.
"What do you two want?" Robotnik asked.
"Well, you see, sir, if we can't fight this guy on the ground, why not try to get rid of him in the air," Sleet said. Robotnik knew what they meant. He figured they could kill him through an air strike, but he did not want Ryan dead yet.
"That's good, but I don't want him dead, just captured so I could robotosize him!" Robotnik said, "Overall, an air capture sounds good. Set it up."
"Already did so, sir. We already set up," Sleet said.
"Well, I did most of it, Sleet just told me to—" Dingo almost said.
"Shut up, you idiot!" Sleet yelled, hitting Dingo behind the head.
3
After the training and test Ryan gave them, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor fell asleep easily. Ryan however, could not sleep. As much as he enjoyed spending the past couple weeks training these furries to be Green Berets, he wanted to get home. Ryan has seen so much scary images and been to scary places in his life. However, none of his past was scarier than being in this cartoon world.
Ryan loves to jog. He found it as a stress reliever, especially during his times in Kuwait. Before leaving, Ryan left a note on the kitchen table explaining where he will be and a radio signal if needed. Ryan grabbed the radio Cyrus made for him, clipped it to his belt of his real-life pants he is wearing, and began his jog outside and into the city of Robotropolis in the early morning. Ryan completely forgot about Robotnik and the risk of getting captured again.
4
FOUR YEARS AGO
It has only been a few weeks in the collective course and already everyone is exhausted. None of them were physically exhausted, they were all mentally exhausted. There was so much information that they had to ace on in order to proceed. Every time a soldier enters out into the field, they have to do so many things that sound almost impossible. They had to stay off ridges, watch for shadows, move low to the ground, move in tight patterns but do not bunch up, and so on. Every second that passes in the field gives the recruits headaches. However, their headaches are about to get worse.
All 17 recruits entered in the large barracks classroom and sat at different tables. In front of each seat was a small booklet and a number two pencil. The cover of the booklet had the Special Forces emblem with the crossing arrows and the banner that said De Oppreso Liber. Underneath the emblem had the text 'Special Forces Identification Course.' Up front on the podium is Colonel Moss with a projector behind him.
"Take a seat everyone," Moss said to them. All the recruits did as they were told. "Let's get started. Your role as a Special Forces operator would be to identify targets. These include indigenous personnel, weapons, vehicles, tanks, and aircraft."
The entire class felt uncomfortable. It was more hard work on their brains. Not only did they have to use their smarts to outwit the enemy on the field, now they got to learn how to identify them enemy. They all know where this will lead, the instructors are going to put friendly forces and civilians mannequins in the field and they have to be able to find then, identify them, and execute the command.
"The weapons that Special Forces use include the M4A1, the M92 Beretta, the AT-4, and the new SPR or Special Purpose Rifle," Moss explain while the projector shown slides of each weapon. "The M4A1 is built off of a variant of the aging M16 rifle, yet its firepower packs a powerful punch. It has a collapsible butt stock and has five picatinny rails for add-ons, such as scopes and grenade launchers. The AT-4 is a shoulder-launched recoil-less disposable anti-tank weapons. The SPR is a new sniper weapon built off of an M-16 variant, though its range and accuracy matches that of the most accurate weapon, the Springfield 03."
The projects then shown a series of Kalashnikov rifles, some no one has ever seen before.
"The standard weapon the enemy uses is the AK-47, built after the turn of the Second World War. Newer variants of this weapon is the AK-74U, which is more compact and has a further range. The sniper version is the Dragonov which has high accuracy and further range than all other Kalashnikov's. The common pistol is the Makarov built off of a similarity to the Walther PPK," Colonel Moss explained. "The equivalent to our AT-4 rocket launcher is the RPG-7, or Rocket Propelled Grenade. They are lighter and are able to reload, but lacks in accuracy."
The slides then shown a series of vehicles such as trucks, hummers, armored plated cars, and tanks.
"Next we'll look at vehicles," Moss said to the class. "Being able to identify vehicles is a must when conduction missions like ambushes. To be able to identify a tank, there are several ways, such as the main gun, see if it has a muzzle break, location of the muzzle break, length of the barrel, number of machine guns and hatches, shape of the hull, is it tracked or wheeled, are the tracks supported, and number of support rollers."
This was boggling the recruit's heads. However, they realize that if they were just normal civilians and just started taking this class, they would be confused beyond limits. At leased with the harsh training they went through, they are able to control their stress and understand the lectures.
"Now, let's take a look at aircrafts," Moss said as the projects shown pictures of helicopters. "There are three types of aircraft, fixed winged, variable winged and rotary winged aircraft. We will only focus on rotary winged aircraft for now." The recruits knew that a rotary winged aircraft is better known as a helicopter. "The rotary blades on top of a helicopter have the same dynamic principles as wings, thus they are classified as wings. There are three types of rotary winged aircraft, single, dual, and coaxial. Single helicopters have a single set of blades on top and one smaller set of tail blades in the back. Dual has two sets of main blades one on top of the other spinning in opposite directions. Coaxial are two main blades on top on different sides, both spinning on opposite directions, such as the Chinook. Look out for types of weapons on the helicopter, number of main blades, number of small blades, and the size and shape of the fuselage."
Suddenly, the projector clicked off.
"That's it for this lecture," Moss said to them. "In front of each of you is a booklet with four questions on each page. I will show you a slide witch you will have 15 seconds to study. Then, I will give you 15 seconds to answer the four questions on the page. Sign your name on the front page and let's begin. When you're done, turn it in to me and walk back to your barracks."
Ryan took the number two pencil and signed his name on the front as: 'Cpl. Perreault, Ryan M.' Cpl is the short NATO term for Corporal which is what Ryan is right now. In the corner of his eye, he saw the first slide appear. He looked at it and it was of two indigenous personnel, one with a Dragonov and the other with an RPG on the roof of a desert building. The slide clicked off and Ryan looked at this questions. They seemed simple enough being as multiple choice. The questions were like, what weapon was the guy on the left holding? What time of day did it look like? Was the guy with the RPG standing or crouching? How many rockets was left in his gear pouch?
Ryan actually found the test to be slightly easy. When he looked around at the other recruits, he can tell the others found it simple as well. Any normal civilian without their training would have a hard time, but these men were prepared.
The last slide clicked off. One by one, almost simultaneously, the twelve enlisted recruits and five officers got up and laid their test booklets on the podium in from of Colonel Moss. It was followed by a series of clattering sounds when they slid their pencils in a coffee mug just off to the right of the podium. In a single file, the 17 recruits made their way back to their barracks in hopes for good scores.
5
"I am pleased to announce that all of you passed your tests," Moss announced to them while the recruits were in the recreational room. "Some of you just barely passed and some of you scored perfect 100's. Outstanding! Hoo-ah!"
"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied.
6
PRESENT DAY
Ryan continued to jog down the streets. The weight of his Bates boots kept attempting to slow him down, but they kept increasing the muscle build in his thighs and calves. When all of a sudden, he bumped into Bartlby while turning a corner of a street. He did not literally bump into him. He seemed to have been taking an early morning walk.
"Bartlby?" Ryan said.
"Oh no, you again," Bartlby said sarcastically in his British-like accent. Right next to Bartlby was a dog, a fox, a wolf, a badger, a cat, and a mink, all aristocrats. The same ones he beat up at the party a while ago. The badger has a bandage on his nose, when Ryan broke it. He remembered the injuries he caused the aristocrats and the stares he got while at that party.
"Well look at this, it's the fuck-up squad," Ryan said.
"Fuck this," the cat said as he began to claw Ryan. Ryan instantly grabbed the cat's claw and twisted him around. The cat is now on his knees, back facing Ryan and he is moaning in pain as Ryan is twisting his arm.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" the cat shrieked in pain.
"Apologize to me now," Ryan said.
"Hey, leave him alone," the badger said to Ryan. Ryan clearly saw the white bandage on his nose showing where he hit the badger earlier. In a quick snap, he punched him in the nose again. There was a crack sound as the badger fell backwards.
"My nose!" the badger cried while lying on the floor.
"Now, apologize before you fall asleep," Ryan said. Ryan held the jugular vein of the cat's neck and pinched it half closed. Even through blood was still flowing to the cat's brain, he was slowly feeling light-headed and his vision was becoming gray.
"Fuck you," the cat said in a winded fashion.
"If that's the case," Ryan said. He then flipped the cat over his shoulder, ramming him into the dog hard knocking the wind out of both of them.
The fox ran to Ryan to hurt him, but Ryan grabbed the fox's arm and he used his other arm to knock the fox off his feet and land hard on his back.
The wolf grabbed Ryan by the neck from behind. Ryan instantly grabbed the wolf's leg and flipped him over releasing him. The mink also ran to Ryan to catch him off guard. Too late, Ryan did a spin kick kicking the wind out of the mink and causing the mink to fall on the ground.
Ryan took a look at Bartlby and Bartlby just stood there worriedly.
"If your friends continue this shit, I will also hurt you as well next time," Ryan said threatening Bartlby.
All of a sudden, Ryan heard the familiar whirling of an aircraft above. He looked up and noticed Sleet and Dingo's scorpion aircraft hovering above them at slow speed as if they were searching for something. The huge Sleet and Dingo scorpion aircraft landed on the empty city street. Sleet and Dingo exited the aircraft and walked to Bartlby, Ryan, and the aristocrats lying prone on the ground in pain. Immediate seeing them, Ryan took a step back to put Bartlby's body in between him and the two bounty hunters. Ryan drew out his Heckler & Koch USP sidearm, but can tell that neither Sleet nor Dingo was holding weapons of any kind.
"What the fuck do you two want?" Ryan asked harshly.
"Well, there he is, Sleet," Dingo whispered to Sleet.
"I can see him," Sleet said. He walked to the two, Dingo staying several feet behind. "Hey, Bartlby, what are your opinions on Ryan here?"
"He hurt my friends twice!" Bartlby exclaimed.
"We would give you a few thousand mobiums to turn him over to us," Sleet said.
"Sure thing," Bartlby said. He turned around and quickly tried to grab Ryan. Instantly, Ryan grabbed Bartlby's arm and kicked his legs causing him to trip and fall on his back. Ryan himself also fell on his knees, using Bartlby as a living shield.
"It'll take more than just a weak aristocrat to take me alive," Ryan said.
"I know, that why we have your friends," Dingo said.
Sleet pulled out a hologram projector and turned it on. Showing it are Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor all tied up and the background showed the interior of the scorpion aircraft. However, Ryan was familiar with the Sonic Underground episode 'Friend or Foe' where Sleet and Dingo showed a video of Sonic, Sonia, and Manic planning to steal a chaos emerald from the Floating Island to Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, of course, fell for it completely unaware that the video was doctored. Ryan, however, was not fooled because he was trained to detect doctored documents, and this was one. Sleet and Dingo's, or whoever made the hologram of the furries tied up, made the mistake of scaling. Sonia was sitting on the ground in front of Sonic which would make her ropes thicker due to being closer, but they were thinner. Also, the color contrast in Manic's green fur, which was really brighter than Sonic's, was almost the same in the hologram. In addition, when Manic fell over the log during training, he left several scratches on his muzzle. Sleet mentioned that they were just captured, meaning Manic would have to have the scratches on his face, but they were not there. Ryan knew this hologram projection was a fake, but he decided to play along and let them think he was fooled.
"What do you say to that?" Sleet asked. "Once this projector is shown to Mobius, the world will have to cower to Robotnik."
"I don't think so, because you've got to deal with me. One question, is that the only film of them?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, we haven't made any copies," Dingo stupidly said.
"What I thought," Ryan said. Instantly, Ryan aimed his sidearm and shot the projector, destroying it into many broken pieces.
"No! Get in the vehicle, Dingo!" Sleet yelled. Both Sleet and Dingo ran to the scorpion. Ryan was about to chase them, but a SWAT Bot came from out of nowhere and grabbed him from behind. Ryan knew that Robotnik was getting better, feeling that he had to take every precaution to capture Ryan the Green Beret. Sleet and Dingo boarded the aircraft, closing the door behind them.
Ryan flipped the bot over his shoulder. Then he ran to the aircraft as it was about to take off. The scorpion lifted into the air, but Ryan aimed his sidearm on a series of grates on the side of the aircraft. These grates had small strands of black smoke puffing out of them, meaning they had to come from the engine. Ryan took aim and shot the grate.
Inside of the aircraft, the gauges went haywire. There were emergency displays of the left engine failure.
"What was that?" Dingo asked.
Sleet looked out the window. "It's that man! He shot out the engine!"
Suddenly, the whole scorpion aircraft started loosing altitude as it tilted on its side. Ryan ran through the streets following it. Even though Ryan lost visual contact with it, he was able to follow the trail of black smoke. The aircraft landed hard on its left side and continued to slide down through a non-busy empty street while spinning counter-clockwise. It stopped when it hit a large pipe coming out of the sewers.
Ryan jumped over piles of debris to reach the smoking tilted aircraft and left a large trailing divot. He approached the wreckage just in time for Sleet to kick open the canopy glass, taking the while frame with it. Sleet crawled out of the opening with a strange-looking laser sidearm in his right hand.
"Freeze!" Ryan shouted. Sleet looked up and noticed Ryan with his USP sidearm fixed on Sleet and slowly side-stepping toward him. "Throw the weapon away!"
Sleet obeyed without hesitation. This confused Ryan; Sleet had the gun aimed in Ryan's general direction. Sleet could have attempted to aim and shoot Ryan. Ryan could have been fast enough to shoot first, but Sleet could have been lucky as well. Yet, Sleet threw the gun away almost instantly, throwing his chance away of shooting Ryan.
Ryan looked at the gun tossed at the side and easily noticed a selector switch on it similar to the one on his sidearm. It was set to the setting called 'stun.' This further confused Ryan because, not only could he have been shot, but he could have been taken alive as well.
Suddenly, all the confusion was gone when Ryan heard the clattering sounds of robot footsteps approaching from behind. In Ryan's experience of watching the show, he knew they were SWAT bots behind him. Ryan took a slow peek behind him and noticed that there were at leased twelve of them, too much for Ryan to try and take out on his own. Slowly, Ryan raised his arms to show he surrendered.
Sleet stood up and took his weapon, fixes the front muzzle on Ryan. He stared at the tall red-headed man with a grin of victory.
"We anticipated you this time, Green Beret," Sleet sneered at Ryan. "Looks like the one and only Special Forces operator lost to us finally." Sleet then noticed a grin form on Ryan's face. Sleet had no idea that Ryan turned Sonic and his friends into Green Berets. However, he was going to find out in seconds.
All of a sudden, Sleet's sidearm laser gun blew up in his hand, immediately followed by the sound of a close-by gunshot. Due to Sleet wearing a glove, the scattered pieces of his gun did not impale his skin, but it did scrape up his glove. The shock also blew Sleet on his back.
In seconds, Sleet looked around and saw five small piles of ruble literally stand up. They were Ghillie suits that looked like rubble ruins trash. The five Ghillie suits opened fire on the SWAT bots on all sides emitting Earth-like gunfire. In seconds, all the SWAT bots dropped to the ground with oil splattering everywhere.
Sleet, laying on his back, looked up to see Ryan standing over him with his own sidearm pointed at him. Ryan returned with a similar grin Sleet gave him seconds ago. The five Ghillie suits ran up to Ryan and circled around Sleet in a half circle with Ryan being the center. The hoods of the Ghillie shuts were pulled off revealing the faces to be Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor. Their faces were painted gray and black in a pattern similar to an older version of the American Army urban camouflage.
"Wait!" Sleet cried out, "I'll tell you anything!"
"Good, that's what we want," Ryan said with a grin. He turned to the furries around him. "Anyone else coming?"
"Negative, no outbound radio signals," Manic said to Ryan. "No one is coming."
Just as Dingo started crawling out of the hatch all dazed from the impact, Sonic and Manic ran to him with their weapons drawn. As Dingo was being taken into custody, Ryan looked down at Sleet and began asking him a series of questions.
"How did you know where to find me?" Ryan asked.
"We kept a SWAT bot air patrol around Robotropolis and several square miles, expanding a search for you," Sleet replied in fear.
"Why do you still want me?"
"Robotnik wants you robotosized."
"Still? After weeks of being away?"
"Yes, he modified the robotosizer so that it will take away your free will but at the same time keep your skills."
"So, Robotnik wants my skills as a Special Forces operator?"
"Yeah, he figured you would make an excellent lackey in the fight against the resistance."
"Robotnik knows he cannot find me, so why is he still looking after a few weeks of being missing?"
"Because no one can hide forever! He knows you cannot get back to your home planet without the Dimensional Matter Displacer."
"The DMD? How do I access it?"
"I don't know, it's on one of Robotnik's computers in his control room," Sleet replied. None of Sleet's facial features twitched, meaning he was telling the truth.
"So, he can go back to Earth whenever he chooses?"
"Not really. It takes a long time for the DMD to charge up before access back to Earth."
"How long?"
"It's been almost three weeks since your arrival to Mobius, I'd say it would be ready in several days."
"Is there a way to cancel its ability to open the portal to and from Earth and Mobius?"
"Yes, but you would have to destroy the computer itself and make sure the resource disc is unable to work."
"That's easy, destroy it, right?"
"No, the disc with the DMD on it is way too strong for heavy machinery. It cannot be destroyed."
Ryan stared at Sleet. Sleet was not lying, but at the same time knew something he did not know. He could always destroy the computer up and right now, but that would destroy the portal from opening, thus destroying his chances of getting back home. Ryan had a plan; he would wait until Robotnik activates it back up, then go in, destroy the computer, and steal the disc with him. That way, the disc on Earth will not have any use on the kind of computers and technology they have. However, he would need a reason for Robotnik to open the portal.
"Sleet, once Robotnik activates the portal, can it be deactivated on command?"
"No," Sleet responded, shaking his head. "It could take at leased an hour before the energy dies down."
"But I saw you activate it back on Earth," Ryan sneered at him, remembering being stunned back on his hometown street. Sleet pulled out that garage door opener contraption and aimed it in the air and, a few feet away, a large blue portal appeared.
"I didn't activate it, I turned off its camouflage. It was always on."
"Tell me, even if the computers with the DMD programs on it are destroyed, will the portal still stand when it is on?"
Sleet responded with a nervous nod, not displaying any signs of lying on his wolf face. This was further giving ideas to Ryan's plan. First, Ryan would have to wait until Robotnik activates it, then he would have to destroy the computer, take the disc, and get back to the portal. It was a one shot chance, but Ryan would have to risk it. If he misses his chance, he might as well be stuck on Mobius forever.
Ryan had to destroy the Dimensional Matter Displacer so that Robotnik could not use it anymore. Ryan was going to be robotosized, but he was lucky enough to be a Special Forces operator and escape. If Robotnik were to capture anyone else, they may not be so lucky and end up being a victim of Robotnik's war machines. He could not let that happen, so he had to prevent Robotnik from ever crossing over to Earth again.
That was it! Ryan had a reason for Robotnik to go after someone else. He will hide out in the one place that Robotnik has no idea about. He will be safe there. Soon, Robotnik will get impatient knowing Ryan was in that location, but soon realize that the portal program was fully charged. He would be forced to open it, and that would be Ryan's chance to destroy the programs and get back home at the same time.
"Sleet," Ryan slowly said looking down at the wolf bounty hunter, "I want you to give Robotnik a message for me. Tell him that I spent the past few weeks teaching Sonic and his friends how to be Green Berets, so now you are up against six, but it doesn't matter. Tell him that I am going off to Sanctuary and I am never coming out. He will never capture me, no matter how hard he tried. Can you give him that message?"
Sleet looked at Ryan confused, but at the same time, nodded.
"Good," Ryan said. He began to slowly back away. "We will all leave you alone now. Go back to Robotnik and tell him what I just told you. Guys, we're leaving them."
Ryan spun on his heel and began walking away. In a heart beat, Sonic sped in front of Ryan with a shocking look on his face.
"Say what?" Sonic asked in his trademark high-pitched confused tone. "You are letting Sleet and Dingo go?"
"Trust me, Sonic," Ryan said. He gave Sonic a wink and a grin. Sonic understood that gesture but still did not fully agree with Ryan's tactic. At the same time, Sonic did trust Ryan's judgment, so he shrugged his shoulders and followed Ryan who continued walking. Soon enough, the other furries followed Ryan out.
Sleet got back on his feet as well as Dingo. The two bounty hunters, still shocked by what just happened, turned tail and ran down the streets of Robotropolis, opposite where Ryan and the others went.
7
FOUR YEARS AGO
The 17 Special Forces recruits were getting mentally exhausted, but not to the point where it broke their threshold. There were regular physical training schedules to keep their muscles tones at large. Suddenly, Colonel Moss announced to the recruits that they will be going on a team obstacle course. In other words, in order to pass an obstacle, the whole team must work together. It was possible to complete an obstacle alone, but it would be discouraging to the instructor staff. This obstacle course, what the Marines call the Confidence Course, is a team exercise to demonstrate team work, tactics, and to show that the officers can be leaders as well as the enlisted can do what they are told.
The 17 men stood on a line in the middle of a large flat field with the trees as boarders. They are wearing their combat pants, khaki boots, and light brown T-shirts with no covers. A cover is a military term for a hat. The instructors stood around them and several stood at each obstacle.
"Okay, you men know what to do," Moss told them. "Hydrate and let me know what you're ready." The recruits all took several sips of water from their canteens. One by one, they twisted the caps on and placed them on the ground. This was a sign that they were ready. "Okay, get ready!"
Moss placed the whistle in his mouth and held it with his teeth. Within a few seconds, he blew the whistle hard, echoing a loud pitch throughout the whole flat field. In a dash, all 17 men ran side-by-side in suicidal-like runs toward their first obstacle.
The first obstacle was called 'The Weaver.' The weaver looks like the frames of a house roof with a series of logs evenly spaced apart from another, giving enough space in between each log for a body to slip through. They lead all the way up top a point and then back down through another set of logs. The first recruits to make it there, First Lieutenant Falcon, dove head first through the first log and started to move under and over every other log. In other words, he was 'weaving' through them. Falcon was soon followed by other enlisted men following his lead. Falcon made it to the top and sat on the top log, making sure his recruits were okay. This was a good sign of leadership.
Ryan himself was having a great time. His body was not as muscular as the others, but he does have a ton more stamina than most of the recruits. He easily slithered his way through the logs with ease. Once he made it to the top with Falcon, Ryan almost lost his grip, but his wrist was snatched by, none other than, Sergeant Robert Davis, his buddy. Davis pulled Ryan back up on the log. Falcon, and the other instructors saw that as a sign of team loyalty. Ryan slithered through the logs and stayed the at the end to help the other recruits off. Finally, all 17 recruits were off of the weaver and now they moved on to the next obstacle witch will take a lot of upper-body strength.
The next obstacle was the Confidence Climb, which looked like a ladder to a baby's point of view. There were two steel beams sticking high up in the air with a series of logs leading straight up. They did not have to weave through them, but they had to get to the top, over the top log, and down the other end.
Again, showing leadership, the officers ran to the obstacle and offered to help the enlisted up first. The officers cupped their hands as the enlisted stepped in them and started their climb all the way up. In some places, the log was too high to reach with their regular arm lengths, so fellow recruits helped each other up developing team work.
Ryan was the first to reach the top. To display his loyalty, he sat on the top with the log between his legs. He looked down and noticed he was about 50 feet off the ground. Soon afterward, he started helping his fellow recruits slide over the log and onto the other side. One by one, with the officers following, they all made it down the tall ladder and made the small jump back on ground, jumping in a pile of sawdust.
The 17 continued running toward their next obstacle which was the arm walk. It was like a moving dip. There were two horizontal bars about shoulder-width apart extending to at leased 20 feet and suspended at leased 10 feet in the air. The recruits lined up one by one leading to the arm walk polls. They gripped the bars and used their arms to walk through the long path, adding extra pressure on their biceps, shoulders, and pecs. As they moved, they used their knees for supports, flexing one knee while moving with the opposite arm. One by one, as they made it to the end of the bars, they performed one stationary dip to show they were not the leased bit tired.
The recruits stayed at the end of the bars until the final recruit finished. When all 17 were reunited at the end of the arm walk obstacle, they ran for their next one, which was the swing and jump. Ryan, being one of the fastest ones there, was able to reach the obstacle first. There were two ropes suspended above a tall jog and the recruits had to swing across them over the pit of mud. Fortunately, they get two chances. Ryan dove forward, grabbed on one of the ropes, and his momentum swung him on the other side in one attempt. He stayed behind on the other side and tossed the rope back to them, waiting for his team.
Soon afterward, the recruits started running and winging off the ropes on the other side, and they tossed the ropes back for the other running recruits. This also built reflexes and reactions to make their swing and hand it off to a recruit before they accidentally ended up running in the mud. Fortunately, no one fell in the mud pit. The run continued on to the next obstacle.
The next obstacle was the horizontal ladder. It looks similar to the monkey bars in the playground, only the bars are a lot further apart, thicker in diameter, and the whole thing was suspended ten feet in the air. Again, like the last obstacle, all the recruits lined up behind it, jumped on the log step, jumped onto the first bar, and used their arms to run through it. Just like monkeys, they swung from bar to bar in smooth motions, as opposed to jerky starts and stops. All on a line, the twelve enlisted and five officers swung their way down the long path in single file toward the end. One by one, they all dropped off at the end, landing in a patch of sawdust. They all gathered around the end waiting fro the last recruit to drop off. As soon as he did, the 17 made their mad dash runs toward the last obstacle.
The last obstacle is simply dubbed 'The Tough One.' With one simple glance at this obstacle, it should be called 'The Impossible One' but it is really not impossible. The whole obstacle starts off with a low log used to reach a rope. The rope leads to a suspended walk-able platform with logs, each evenly spaced apart. The platform of logs lead up to a tall ladder similar to the ladder they encountered earlier but smaller. At the top of this ladder is a rope suspended in the air leading down the 50 feet to the bottom.
The recruits slowed down as Lieutenant Falcon jumped up to demonstrate to his team that the obstacle is not hard. Falcon climbed up the rope leading to the top and on the log platform. He sat on one of the logs and gestured the team to follow suit. One at a time, the recruits climbed up the ropes leading the large platform. Ryan had a little trouble and would have fallen off it was not for Davis' catch. Davis pushed Ryan up onto the log platform, in return he helped pull Davis up with him.
Soon enough, all 17 recruits were at the top and ready to finish. On their own, they ran along the logs toward the ladder quickly. Each one cupped their hands to help each other up the tall ladder, leading to the pillar with the suspended rope. First one up the top of the ladder was Ryan. He was sure he kept one hand and one foot on the ladder as he climbed up. Once Ryan reached the second long from the top, he sat on it and held on the ladder uprights with both arms. He used his boot to grab the rope and bring it closer to him. He grabbed with rope with his hands, then with his boots, and slowly climbed his way down with one hand and boot under the other. Sliding was prohibited this time. As Ryan was descending, he looked up and saw his fellow recruits on the rope above him descending.
Ryan dropped down in the pile of sawdust bellow. He stepped away and helped any recruits trying to get off. Soon enough, the last one off was Lieutenant Falcon who displayed outstanding leadership throughout the course. Falcon was the first one on the first obstacle, the weaver, and was the last one off the last obstacle, the tough one.
As soon as all the recruits were reunited at the end, Colonel Moss blew his whistle as he approached the high-fiving recruits.
"Okay, everyone, take a knee," Moss told them. The recruits gathered around Moss on one knee. "Outstanding work, you displayed good teamwork and you worked together well. Officers, especially Lieutenant Falcon, I'm proud of you guys for displaying good leadership to get your team through. I saw a few mishaps where you worked alone, but you overall did an outstanding job. Hoo-ah!"
"Hoo-ah!" the recruits shouted in glee.
8
PRESENT DAY
That night, back at the Underground Base, Ryan explained to the five furries of his plan. The only problem is it will have to wait a few days before it can actually be taken into effect.
"Good idea, Ryan," Sonia said with glee as she sat on the couch next to the tall red-headed man in the American digital-pattern camouflage pants.
"Dude, you honestly think that is going to work?" Manic asked. All five furries are wearing their current trademark clothes.
"It has to," Ryan said. "Maybe the execution of the plan might go awry, but the plan itself is perfect. We just got to hope that Robotnik will feel like he has to try and get someone else."
"But, Ryan, if this doesn't work, he will have you and some other civilian from Earth," Cyrus explained.
"Cyrus, I'm no civilian," Ryan replied with a chuckle. When Ryan joined the United States Army, he signed away of his legal American civilian-hood. He was still American, but at the same time, a government weapon.
"Right, right," Cyrus nodded, standing corrected.
"So, tomorrow night, let's be off for Sanctuary," Ryan said to them. "Night because I don't want Robotnik's goons to follow."
Sanctuary was a place in the great forest of Mobius where most of the freedom fighters hang out. Only a small few are allowed to know of their location on any map. They kept it as a place to keep their children safe. Luckily for Ryan, the hedgehogs knew of Sanctuary's location. When Ryan first saw Sanctuary on an episode of the show, he noticed it looked very similar to Knothole village from the 1993 Sonic show simply titled 'Sonic the Hedgehogs' but dubbed by fans as 'SatAM.'
The six went off to their bedrooms for a good night sleep. Ryan kicked off his boots, exposing his dark green wool socks, and laid down in the guest bed, the same guest bed he slept on in his first night on Mobius. He felt to cushions and mattress and easily remembered being captured and escaping from Robotnik fortress. He felt homesick, but at the same time enjoying his stay. He has been away from home for so long; it was almost as if he forgot what it felt like to be back in Massachusetts. The only downside of his home state was that it was the strictest state in the country when it comes to gun laws, and Ryan is a gun-fanatic. It did not matter, he wished to be back home and soon.
TO BE CONTINUED...
