Sonic and the Freedom Fighters
Chapter 10: Matters of the Heart
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. All characters portrayed in this story, unless specified otherwise, belong to SEGA.
-Eggman's Base-
"Unbelievable!" Eggman bellowed as he slammed his fist down on the control console, his anger over Metal Sonic's failure yesterday having not subsided in the least. "How in the world did Metal Sonic lose to those rodents?! In spite of all his modifications, no less!" He turned around to face Orbot after he had finished his rant. "Orbot! Progress report!" He barked.
"Well, Metal Sonic is still undergoing repairs, and as for your latest weapon, I'm afraid it won't be field ready for at least another twenty hours." The robot explained hesitantly.
"Drat! That's not soon enough!" The doctor replied. "I've located another Chaos Emerald in the town square, and I do not intend on letting those Freedom Fighters get to it first!"
"I suppose you could just deploy a few Egg Pawns to retrieve the Emerald for you?" Orbot suggested.
"And risk having that meddling computer turn my own tech against me? I don't think so!" Eggman said before turning away in thought. "I suppose I'll have to take matters into my own hands for the time being." He turned back to the two robots standing next to him. "Orbot! Cubot! Ready the Egg Laser Tank!"
-Tails's House-
Sally was currently seated in the living room, staring at the green Chaos Emerald she held in her hand. Sonic had showed it to her before, but this was the first time she had a close look at it. She could practically feel the energy radiating from it. And for some reason, that energy felt familiar.
"Hey, Sal." Her train of thought was suddenly cut off by a familiar voice. She looked up to see Sonic standing in front of her, with Tails close behind.
"Oh, hello." She muttered.
"Is something wrong?" Tails asked.
"I don't know. Something about this Chaos Emerald feels familiar. Like I've come across it somewhere before..." She said before trailing off.
"Hey, where's Ant and Bunnie?" Sonic asked after a few seconds, noticing the lack of distinctive accents.
"I sent them to search for the remaining Chaos Emeralds earlier. Yesterday's events confirmed that Robotnik is looking for them, and I seriously doubt he intends to use them for altruistic purposes." She explained.
"Uh... right. Whatever that means." Sonic muttered. "Will they even know where to look?"
"Well, there was some sort of odd energy signal coming from Emerald Town, so I gave them a radar before they left." Tails stated, catching Sally's attention.
"Wait, you built a radar for the Chaos Emeralds?" Sally asked, taken aback.
"Yeah. It basically detects Chaos Energy signals in a nearby area and pinpoints their location." He explained enthusiastically, before his expression became more concerned. "Although, it's kind of an old model, so the signal might not be one hundred percent accurate. Hopefully they're not just flying aimlessly around the city."
-Emerald Town-
"Found anythin' yet?" Bunnie asked as she flew through the air above Emerald Town with the rocket boosters embedded in her feet, with Antoine, who was holding the radar, flying beside her on his newly-built Extreme Gear.
"No. Zis stupid thing must be broken! Ze signal seems to be coming from ze entire town!" The frustrated Mobian coyote replied.
"Calm down, sugah. It prolly just needs recalibratin'. Let's get back down to ground level and see what's wrong." She suggested.
"Uh... Oui, good idea." Antoine said, calming down. They descended onto the street, and Antoine tried to fix the radar. However, Bunnie noticed that Antoine looked a bit distracted.
"Somethin' wrong, Antoine? Ya don't seem entirely focused." She asked him.
"N-No, it is nothing." He said unconvincingly.
"Ya sure? You can tell me if there's somethin' botherin' ya." She pressed, concerned. Knowing that Bunnie could easily read him, Antoine sighed heavily and turned to face her.
"It regards ze princess." He admitted.
"Oh." Bunnie muttered sadly. She knew Antoine well enough to know exactly where this conversation was heading. "What about her?"
"I-I just don't understand. I mean, just what does she see in that reckless, immature fuel of a hedgehog?" He ranted, while Bunnie tried her hardest not to smirk at his mispronunciation of "fool".
"Antoine..."
"Sorry. I know that is no way to talk about a fellow teammate. I just wish I could understand why she chose him." He said.
"Well, maybe when things calm down a bit, ya'll could ask her. It'd prolly give ya closure, if nothin' else." She suggested. The two then stayed silent while Antoine returned to trying to recalibrate the radar, until Bunnie decided to speak up again. "Hey, Antoine?"
"Yes?" He replied, his gaze not leaving the radar.
"Well, Ah, uh... A-"
"Hold zat thought, Bunnie." He interrupted. "Ze signal seems to be coming from ze town square. Let's go." He said as he rushed ahead. Bunnie stayed behind for a second, her face taking on a dejected expression, before following him.
The two eventually reached the busy town square and spotted the Chaos Emerald atop a stone statue in the middle of the square. It was just like the one Sally showed them earlier, only this one was blue instead of green.
"That must be it!" Bunnie stated as the two rushed towards the statue.
"But why here, of all places?" Antoine wondered.
"Dunno. Maybe someone thought it'd make a nice decoration?" She mused. "Think we should leave a note or somethin'? Ah mean, we are kinda-"
"Wait! Are you hearing zat?" Antoine interrupted, hearing a strange noise that seemed to be getting louder, and placing a hand on his blade in preparation. Bunnie looked around for the source of the noise before noticing a large shadow crawling along the ground.
"Huh? What the-?" She muttered as she looked up at the source of the shadow, a gigantic, near-rectangular object that seemed to hover high in the air. And to her shock, the object suddenly began falling towards the ground. Reacting quickly, she extended her robotic left hand to grab the Emerald, gripped Antoine's arm with her right, and leapt a great deal backwards, narrowly avoiding the large metal mass that crushed the statue underneath it.
The sudden, violent arrival of the object caused the civilians to panic and run to safety, while Antoine and Bunnie remained in place, seeing the object was in fact a tank that was mostly light grey in colour, with a few yellow and black accents lining the upper hull. The main turret had a long, thin barrel, and two smaller, seemingly automated dual-barreled turrets were positioned on the front of the hull. The lower hull was large and bulky, and seemed to be separated into front and rear halves, each having a set of caterpillar tracks.
"Not so fast! That Emerald belongs to me!" The two heard Eggman's voice call out from inside the tank before he fired a powerful energy blast from the main cannon at the two Mobians, who were just able to dodge it by jumping to the sides, avoiding the blast it made upon impacting with the ground. The two automated turrets then aimed and fired orange-coloured energy bolts at the duo, forcing them to run behind a building to take cover.
"There's no way we'll be able to take him on ourselves! I'll call the others!" Bunnie said frantically as she activated the communicator built into her left wrist and called Sally.
"Hello?" She heard Sally's voice on the other end.
"Guys, we need backup! We got the Emerald, but Robotnik showed up outta nowhere and attacked us!" Bunnie responded urgently.
"Bunnie, calm down. Where are you right now?" She asked.
"Me an' Antoine are in the town square!"
"Okay, just hold tight. We'll be there as soon as possible." Sally said before the communication cut off.
"Easy for you to say." Bunnie snarked. Antoine took the opportunity to look around the corner of the building, only for one of the turrets to turn and fire at him, with Antoine just barely getting his head out of the way in time.
"I say we take out ze turrets first, then deal with ze cannon!" He proposed, before turning to his comrade. "Bunnie, can you draw ze fire from ze tank?"
"Well, Ah can give it a shot." She replied before using her boosters to jump onto the roof of the building and walking onto the edge, overlooking Eggman's tank.
"Hey, Butt-nik!" She yelled to grab his attention, before holding up the Chaos Emerald. "Lookin' for this?" The doctor immediately began firing at the cyborg, who flew around the air to avoid the energy blasts from both the main cannon and the turrets.
As this was happening, Antoine emerged from behind the corner of the building and rushed towards the vehicle, drawing his sword from its sheath as he did so before leaping onto one of the automated turrets. The second turret detected this and tried to fire at him, but he anticipated this and jumped into the air to avoid the blast, leaving it to hit and destroy the turret he was originally standing on. Antoine then landed on the other turret and impaled the optic with his sword before leaping off, causing the turret to turn and fire wildly in multiple directions. Antoine remained careful to avoid any blasts that happened to come his way until Bunnie dived down and ripped the remaining turret out with her cybernetic arm, throwing it to the side as she landed next to Antoine, both hearing Eggman's irritated growl.
"You know, for a pair of rodents with ridiculous accents, you two can be very troublesome to deal with!" Eggman remarked, causing the pair to shoot each other a brief look of indignation at the mention of their accents. "Fortunately, I have just the thing to exterminate pests like you."
As he said this, the outermost section of the barrel of the main cannon extended forwards before suddenly separating into four parts that branched off the slightly thinner inner barrel at an angle, with the inner surface covered in glowing blue lines.
"It's almost a shame that I have to use this without Sonic here to see the results, but I'm sure the look on his face once he sees you defeated will suffice!" Eggman said as the outer parts began rotating around the barrel at a gradually increasing pace while the lines glowed brighter, and an ominous blue glow came from the inside of the barrel.
"Are you insane?! You'll take out an entire city block with zat!" Antoine shrieked, realising that the tank was its energy for a powerful blast.
"Not if Ah got anythin' to say about it!" Bunnie growled defiantly as she flew towards the tank and pushed onto the cannon, using the boosters in her legs at full force to do so. This forced the tank onto its rear as the cannon was aimed upwards, until a large, powerful beam of energy was launched skywards. Once the blast subsided, Bunnie pushed the tank further, flipping the tank upside down, and landed back down on the ground, exhausted.
"Well, that outta hold him off." She said between breaths, before the two heard Eggman laughing madly from inside the tank's cockpit.
"You fools! You really think I didn't prepare for this?!" Eggman asked rhetorically as the lower hull of the tank extended both forwards and backwards, while revealing four pivots attached to the front and back parts. Both parts split in half as the pivots moved from the base of the hull to the sides, and the four parts of the hull reconfigured themselves until they formed four long mechanical legs. The mech used its new appendages to right itself, its cannon now aimed at the two Freedom Fighters.
"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me." Was all Bunnie could mutter before the cannon fired, the two barely getting out of the way in time. Bunnie charged at the tank and jumped into the air to try and punch through the hull, only for the mech to nimbly leap backwards and make her attack hit the ground instead. The tank raised one of its legs and brought it back down in an attempt to crush the surprised Mobian, who was saved by Antoine diving into her, bringing her out of harm's way.
Barely skipping a beat, the coyote unsheathed his sword, jumped onto the mech's leg and began striking at the pivot, only to find that the armour was too tough to break through. The mech suddenly started moving in an effort to throw the swordsman off, eventually succeeding and tossing him into the air. Bunnie managed to leap into the air in time to catch him, but the tank fired where Bunnie was about to land, the blast sending the two flying backwards and knocking them onto their backs.
"Now, give me the Chaos Emerald, or I will blow the both of you to pieces." He demanded as the two struggled to get back up, aiming the cannon at them once more to emphasise. "And this time, I won't miss." Before they could reply, Sonic suddenly dropped down from the sky and onto the cannon.
"Didn't your mom ever tell you it's not nice to point cannons at people?" He taunted.
"Oh, Sonic. You're just in time to watch me destroy two of your closest friends!" The doctor retorted.
"Yeah, not today." The hedgehog replied with a smirk before calmly jumping off the end of the cannon, at which point Rotor suddenly dived down from above and slammed his fists onto into the front of the hull, sending the mech off-balance and leaving it sprawling on the ground. As the mech struggled to regain its footing, Sally and Tails dropped down and turned to help Antoine and Bunnie up.
"Talk about perfect timing." Bunnie remarked as she got back onto her feet. Sally flashed a relieved smile before turning round to look at the quadrupedal machine, which had started to get back up.
"We need to take that thing down, and quick." Sally stated, before turning back to Antoine and Bunnie. "Could you identify any weaknesses or design flaws?" She asked, the two thinking for a while before Antoine suddenly had an idea.
"Ze underside of ze hull seemed to be less armoured than ze rest of ze vehicle." He informed.
"Then that's where we'll strike!" Sally replied, activating her energy blades. "Bunnie, I need you and Rotor to hold it in position and keep its underside exposed while we take it down!"
"Got it." Bunnie said enthusiastically before charging towards the tank while the rest of the group drew the fire from its cannon. Once she got close enough, the mech tried once again to crush her underfoot, only for the bunny to catch it with her robotic left hand while using her boosters to push back. Realising his error, Eggman tried to steer the mech away, only to be interrupted by Rotor slamming down on one of the back legs, knocking the mech to the ground again and leaving the underside exposed.
"Now's our chance! Sonic, Antoine, with me!" Sally called, racing towards the crippled mech with Sonic and Antoine closely following. Upon reaching the mech, Sally drove her right blade into its underside and dragged it along to the other side, leaving a massive incision. Antoine then slashed through the centre of the incision multiple times, leaving behind what was essentially a large, vulnerable target for Sonic, who used his Spin Dash to bore through the underside and make a large hole that cut through the mech's vital systems. The three evacuated after seeing sparks form from the hole, with Bunnie releasing her grip on the leg once they were clear and following suit. The mech tried once more to pick itself up, but to no avail.
"Now what did they do?!" Eggman yelled furiously as the warning lights of the cockpit continuously flashed red.
"CORE SYSTEMS SEVERELY DAMAGED. SELF-DESTRUCTION IMMINENT." An automated voice sounded.
"Great." The doctor replied sarcastically, ejecting his Eggmobile from the mech and flying off, leaving the mech to explode, with the Freedom Fighters standing away to avoid the resulting debris.
"Well, at least we managed to minimise destruction as much as possible." Sally stated, looking across the damaged town square before turning to Bunnie. "Bunnie, do you still have the Emerald?"
"Course. Here ya go." She replied, taking out the Emerald and tossing it to her.
"Alright! Two down, five to go!" Sonic cheered.
-Freedom Fighter Barracks-
Later that night, after the Freedom Fighters returned, Bunnie decided to go to her room within the Barracks, her eyes aimed towards her feet and her thoughts still focused on her earlier conversation with Antoine. She had rarely ever stuttered or lost her words before, and yet the words seemed to just catch in her throat. She knew the reason, and tried to think of how to tell him, but her train of thought was disrupted when she walked right into the very person she was thinking about.
"Oh! Sorry, Antoine. Ah didn't see ya there." She apologised, slightly backing away from him.
"Not a problem." Antoine replied, before noticing the unfocused look in her eyes. "Say, Bunnie, are you okay? You look like you are ze million miles away." He asked.
"Yeah, Ah'm fine. Just had a lot on my mind, is all." She answered.
"If you say so. Well then, I am going to be turning in for ze night." He told her with a slight yawn.
"Actually, before ya do, Ah, uh... kinda wanna ask you somethin'." She said. Antoine was about to object, but saw Bunnie's organic hand shaking slightly.
"Remember how we were talkin' about your feelin's for Sal?" She began nervously, trying to approach the subject delicately. "Have ya ever thought about... movin' on?"
"Easy for you to say. You have no idea how it feels to be completely in love with someone, only for zem to carry ze torch for someone else." Antoine scoffed.
"Believe me, Ah know the feelin'..." Bunnie muttered under her breath, before resuming at normal volume. "Ah think you should at least consider it. Besides, Ah'm sure you'll meet the right girl someday. There's plenty more fish in the sea, after all. And, uh..." She began to stutter nervously. "Ah want ya to know that... that I... I-If you ever need someone to talk to, then... A-Ah'll always be there for you."
"Merci, Bunnie." He replied gratefully after a moment, a small smile adorning his muzzle. Bunnie looked away anxiously for a moment before suddenly moving forwards.
"It's gettin' late. Night, Antoine." She said hastily, rushing past Antoine as he turned to watch.
"Uh... Bon nuit." Antoine mumbled, confused by Bunnie's behaviour. He had never seen her act like this before, and began to wonder what would make her act in such a peculiar manner. But deciding that trying to pry would not be the best idea, assuming she would be willing to talk about it at all, Antoine decided to continue towards his room, but not before looking in the direction that Bunnie ran off in one last time.