Chapter 11: The Not So Endless Mine
Soft giggles were coming from the abandoned corridors that they were traveling. Two females, one Mobian, the other Human, were both laughing. Lucky for them, this section of the base was completely deserted. It was here that Lisa Prower and Annie Cobald hid after escaping their prison cell.
Despite this favorable turn of events for the two companions, they hadn't been able to do much else other than hide. Lisa kept sneaking back to the prison block. She could not stop thinking about Amy, her friend that she had been with this entire journey. Did Eggman roboticize her? Lisa hoped not and remembered that Robotnik was hoping to use her somehow against Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic was a name that came up often between her and Annie. They couldn't stop talking and wishing that the hero of Mobius was with them. Because they still couldn't find a way out. Yet they still passed the time telling stories and jokes of their lives back home. It was something that kept their spirits up.
"And so he showed up..." Lisa paused again to giggle "In a laced suit, it was pink!"
They both laughed again. Lisa kept her smile as the memory remained at the front of her thought.
"At least he was a good kisser..."
Annie's jaw dropped slightly in awe, but she quickly looked away. Lisa sensed her immediate change in mood and asked,
"Whats wrong?"
Annie kept her eyes averted, licked her lips and replied,
"I wish I knew what it's like. I...I haven't even been out on a date..."
"Wow, really? Why?" Lisa asked. For human, she felt that was Annie very attractive for a human. Surely there would be someone that would ask her out.
"Father forbids it." Annie said sadly. "He says that as his heir to family, I cannot date. That in time I will later be presented with a husband."
This concept seemed so foreign to Lisa. She was curious how someone can go through life not being loved.
"So, your father will make you marry someone you don't like?"
Annie nodded.
"But...but that's not right! Why would anybody want to do that to someone like you. Your one of the sweetest and kindest people I have ever met."
Annie allowed herself to smile. She then spoke up,
"There are a lot of things I have never seen from the confines of the apartment my father locks me in. I...I never knew that Mobians were so...so real. He was wrong about you. I never knew that my first friend would be a fox."
They both held affectionate eye contact for a moment. Lisa broke it when she noticed they were walking into an unfamiliar corridor. She glanced at a closed door and saw the words 'Armory' stenciled onto it.
She tapped Annie's shoulder and the girl also discovered what her friend was looking at. They both became instantly excited. The door wasn't even locked and would be the turning point for the two girls.
"These are a lot like the ones my bodyguards had." Annie was holding a wicked blaster pistol.
Lisa looked anxiously at the weapon. It was a lot like the sidearm her father had once worn. A surge of guilt went through her tummy as she realized that she had been carrying it with her. But that was until she and Amy had gotten kidnapped. Could Eggman have hidden it in here? The vixen moved boxes around in her quest. She didn't find the small Mobian pistol, but she did find,
"Annie! Look!"
Lisa held the object aloft so that her friend could see it.
"What? Whats that?" The teenage girl asked back. Lisa smirked. Unbeknown to Annie, a small and dangerous flame had been kindled inside the fox. Even under the watchful eyes of her step parents, Lisa was insatiable pyromaniac. She thought this to be a bit ironic, given her past.
"Plastic explosives silly. This is what we really need." Lisa said as she moved more of the boxes aside to reveal a whole shelf full of the deadly munitions. Annie finally showed signs of understanding the implications of this and said,
"So that means..."
"We can blow this place sky high and put an end to Doctor Robotnik." both females said in unison. Lisa raised her hand up, clearly to get a high five. And after several jumps, Annie made it. The fox then asked,
"Think you can find the roboticizing chamber?"
"You worry about to bombs Lisa Prower! I've got this place mapped in my head, just follow me."
The two then took off, trotting through the corridors of Eggman's headquarters with no resistance.
Sonic couldn't deny it anymore. He was addict. Yet unlike many Mobians or Humans, it wasn't a substance that hooked him. Well, maybe it is a substance, but this is something produced naturally inside the little hedgehog. Adrenaline and lots of it, ripped through his veins, fueling his muscles and driving his brain. Strong when he ran and even stronger when he fought, this assault was a great euphoria to the dare devil hedgehog.
He found himself spinning high in the air. This wasn't in evasion because split second later, the blue ball smashed through another robot. Sonic stood now over the smoldering ruins of the once proud machine, catching his breath. A volley of lead shot by a pair of sentry robots caused Sonic to shorten his break. The hedgehog was speeding off again. He made a swerve around the fighting machines. The turrets of these sentry bots were far too slow to hit Sonic. Their bullets instead wrecked havoc on the large mechanical drills and dirt filled carts outside the mine entrance. The blue blur completed his semi-circle and jumped to land on the head of the nearest sentry bot. It's partner fired before completing its targeting sequence, blasting a series of holes through the torso. Sonic did a back flip off of the smolder hulk as it tumbled to the ground. The sentry bot had wised up though and as soon has Sonic had his balance, the cannons were already aimed at the hedgehog. Before the firing signal could travel from the computer to the trigger, sparks flew from the neck of the machine. It tumbled over and Tails stood over it.
"I was wondering when you'd stop loafing and join in?" Sonic said sarcastically as he cracked a grin. But the fox did not return his smile and instead turned his back to Sonic and walked away. His friend's twin tails were low and somewhat stiff, his way of displaying anger and annoyance. The hedgehog caught up quickly to the fox. He couldn't understand why the other was acting this way, so he said,
"Look Tails, I'm sorry if you think I ignored you back there. We were in a tough spot..."
Tails stopped dead in his tracks and swiveled to meet Sonic's eye. The hedgehog noticed the glimmer of anger in his friends eyes. They both allowed an uncomfortable silence last until Tails finally said,
"I just don't understand you sometimes Sonic. You love to take risks and just can't get enough thrills, but how could you just give up our only real hope of beating Eggman?"
"And what was I supposed to do Tails?! Just run out of there and into the frozen tundra? With out their help, we wouldn't have found this place."
Tails just shook his head as he scowled. Sonic glared at him for a moment longer before he growled,
"We've beaten him before without the chaos emeralds. Come on buddy, lets put this aside for now. Your my best friend, and Robotnik's armies are dangerous enough, I can't afford to not have you at my side."
The fox's face softened a bit and his wistful blue eyes projected silent agreement to Sonic. Both heroes now turned to the mine shaft gaping in the ground.
Sonic has been through many mines before. From the mystic caves of Westside Island to the molten reefs of fire beneath Angel Island. For the most part, they were all the same to the blue hedgehog. Pits of unfathomable darkness, enormous unloving creatures of stone and, of coarse, Eggman's robots. The entrance chamber greeted both heroes as they entered. It was featureless save for the flickering torches lining the walls and a few empty mine carts sitting motionless on a track.
"Those tracks must lead somewhere" Tails commented as he looked towards the dark tunnel that they lead to.
"Only one way to find out, see you there if you can keep up little buddy..." Sonic replied with a wink. The hedgehog then took off down the tunnel, leaving a think cloud of dust hanging in the dimly lit air.
Tails stood there for a few moments, his face again going bitter.
"Why does he always act like that? One of these days it's really going to hurt us." His voice was a soft whisper that nobody was around to hear.
But the fox's heart was consumed with a new feeling of determination. He wouldn't let Sonic beat him without fight, not now, not ever. He twisted his twin orange tails and leaning forward, propelled himself at a rapid speed down the same path his friend.
"We will see who wins this race..."
Sonic the Hedgehog was right. He was traveling down what he reckoned to be the very heart of the mines of Whitocropolis. The tunnel grew wider as other tunnels containing train tracks branched out from the one he traversed. The shinny gray stone that made up the walls of the underground corridor widened as he ran deeper into the complex. Sonic felt that it was wide enough for Tails to even fly the Tornado through the path. He glanced back and noted that the fox was still nowhere to be seen. Could Tails really be that peeved at him?
"Not really..." Thought Sonic. His gut told him that his little brother would be back there working to catch up. What was troubling Sonic though was the lack of security down here. Eggman's robots put up a fight on the surface, as if the dead mastermind was directly controlling them.
CRASH!
Sonic shut his eyes to prevent shards of sharpened stone from slicing his eyeballs. The cause of this disruption was a robot unlike any the hedgehog had encountered before. It wasn't some bipedal hunk of metal like Eggman usually deployed. Instead, it resembled the anatomy of a large black worm.
Two rings of sharpened metal teeth spun around the front of the head. Grinders obviously meant to help the machine eat through solid earth in its master's quest for minerals. The rest of its bloated torso was covered in ribbed wheels that pushed the machine along on its tunnel burrowing journey. But the feature that really caught Sonic's eyes was the opening in the center of the grinding teeth at the front. It glowed fiery orange; an opening to the inferno within the machine. This it seems, was were the ore that it found was deposited and smelted. Perhaps intruders were meant to go into this smelter as well, such as the blue hedgehog that stood before it.
Sonic kicked off again, counting on his speed to be something that this bulky machine couldn't match. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins again and his speedy dash from the burrowing giant would have worked, but the tunnel he was following entered a massive subterranean chamber. Like several sport arenas put together, Sonic gasped in the wide open space, hidden within such a claustrophobic place. Wooden scaffolding lined the walls
This chamber wasn't empty. Hundreds of droids were hard at work with drills and picks, hammering at the wall and pouring ore down to the floor where other machines collected it. These fragments of earth, soon to be converted into instruments of war, were being loaded onto a train which was creeping along the tracks that ran through the cavern. Sonic could see that the tracks were leading it to yet another tunnel at the other end of the room.
By now, several of worker robots had noticed their blue visitor and greeted him with hail of small stones. The hero openly laughed at this as he zoomed around the room, the thrown rocks harmlessly slamming into the caverns walls and occasionally, another worker. Sonic was enjoying himself, darting away from the projectiles, but then his peripheral vision caught sight of the train about to enter the dark tunnel. The hedgehog screeched to stop.
"It was fun playing dodge ball with you guys, but I've gotta run!" He waved at the crowd and took off at full speed. As he drew closer to the engine, he rolled into a ball spinning like a living, blue saw. It worked, Sonic drilled through solid steel, cutting through it and stopping just inside the train tunnel. The sparks of his attack hit the fuel tank and the machine erupted in flames. Carts filled with raw ore derailed, piling on top of each other, against the smoldering metal ruins of the locomotive. When the crash had finally settled, Sonic admired the wreck proudly. The entrance to his tunnel was completely blocked. No robots would be following him to Eggman's base.
Yet on the other side, another creature not of Eggman design entered the room. The orange fox was spinning his tails as fast as possible. The reason was not apparent until a series of loud crashes announced their arrival. Three Eggman burrowing robots had joined him in the cavern. One came from the tunnel he had just escaped from, and the other two drilled their way into the room, as if summoned by the now cheering worker bots.
Tail's gritted his teeth. He knew he was in a lot of trouble. The hails of stones that the worker robots had previously greeted Sonic were now turned to him. Tails ducked the first volley and used his feet to run away from the teeth of the three tunneling robots. The glow of their internal smelters glowed menacingly at the fox, eager to feed themselves with his flesh.
One thing that the young hero realized is that the tunnelers had a very difficult time turning themselves. And this is how Tails exploited this. He continued to run on foot beside one of the burrowing bots. It tried and tried to turn to consume Tails with its teeth, but the fox was far quicker, able to turn on a dime. He remained at the side of the machine, like a thorn upon the side of an elephant.
The other two tunneling robots hatched an idea that they believed what put an end to their crafty little nemesis. The machine that Tail's was following suddenly halted, to the shock of its enemy. Tails then spotted them, well, one of them anyways. The tunneler was moving very fast, only moments from pinning the Mobian fox to the side of its ally. But lucky for Tails, that never happened.
He was amused with himself. "I've been hanging around Sonic too much" he said as the smug blossomed within him. These silly metal machines had underestimated him. His extra tail was not there for show. Right as teeth of the burrowing machine were about to eat him, he spun his Tails like a rotor and lifted into the air.
A horrific shriek of metal hitting metal deafened Tails as it happened. From his airborne viewpoint he could see the catastrophe. It turned out that the third machine was also charging at him from the other side. They both tore through the fuselage of the middle robot in less then second, and then, into each other. A geyser of molten metal spouted into the air, nearly hitting the the flying fox. The other, smaller robots were now throwing stones at him again, but their projectiles came less and less often as the puddle of molten metal oozed out from the wreck of the three tunneling bots, setting them ablaze before they toppled over.
Tails now noticed the wrecked train at the other end of the cavern and pushed himself through the air to make it there. He was hoping to escape this way. But as he landed on the rubble, he realized that the tunnel had completely collapsed. Sonic had beat him to it. Did he really intend to cut him off? Tails felt trapped now. He had nowhere to go now, Sonic won his little race. The fox felt a wave of shock go through his head followed by sharp pain. He felt the wounded area with his hand and then spotted the stains of blood on his glove when he pulled it back. Some of the droids had escaped the disaster in the middle of the cavern and were still committed to killing him. As he ducked behind some of the larger boulders around the wreckage, his keen ears picked up a peculiar sound.
He waited for the sounds of rocks pelts his location to stop before he dared to take a peak. When he did, Tails visually spotted what his ears had told him about. Water! On another end of the cavern that he had previously disregarded was a small pond fed by short water fall. This was his chance. The young Mobian twisted his namesakes together again, silently promising them plenty of rest once he made it through this crisis.
Tails was in the air again, and like a bomber, dodging anti air craft fire, he swerved and dove as more robots tried to bring him down. He squinted and now was close enough to tell that opening in the cavern wall was indeed large enough for him squeeze through. Whether or not he would suffocate from lack of air was something far from his frightened mind.
"Oh what a fool I am" cried a soft female voice. The speaker looked to her side and a large, decloaked stealth bot looked back at her. Amy sighed. Could anyone understand?
For most of her life, she had known only love. Could this mysterious and powerful force drive her to to her own demise? She had certainly felt that way before and that feeling was visiting her yet again. It had all started four years ago. She seen him, from a distance, Sonic the Hedgehog marching through crowds of cheering spectators in the streets of Novus Spes. From that day onwards, she had dedicated every scheming thought and aspiring dream to becoming Sonic's girl forever. Charms, magical potions, bribes or even threats of violence, no means were out of the question for Amy Rose to get her prize.
This had reached its pinnacle when Sonic's nemesis, Doctor Robotnik lured her to the mysterious Little Planet hovering over Never Lake with a forged note from her heart lust. There, she was kidnapped and used as a decoy to prevent Sonic from obtaining the chaos emeralds. It was one of her greatest moments. Her hero, idol and future husband saved her from danger. He was shy at first, but she knew he would eventually stop being the stereotypical man who hated commitment and accept her proposal of marriage.
The pink hedgehog continued to daydream of the wedding ceremony until she passed through a set of heavy metal doors. Amy had arrived in the nerve center of the Whitocropolis Base and in front of large set of screens, sat the man responsible for it all.
"Ah, I am so glad you have come to join me!"
Doctor Robotnik greeted Amy as he stood up from his over sized throne chair. The hedgehog noted that he was in a particularly good mood, and knowing Eggman, that was never a good thing.
"What do you want Eggman? I don't feel like listening to you gloat!" Amy answered defiantly.
The large man laughed and held his hands out as if to calm her down.
"Now now my hot headed rodent. I will concede that I am in need of a bit of company at this glorious moment. And EDDIE is a bit of a party pooper."
Amy noticed the small black robot standing motionless next to Eggman. It acted as if it took no notice to its master's remark. Amy wondered if perhaps it did have feelings that the mad scientist had just touched.
"And what is there to celebrate? You kidnapped me again and your going to destroy the world. Sounds like the last thing anyone would want to celebrate."
"On the contrary, take a look."
Eggman pointed to the large wall screens that the pink hedgehog finally dared to look at. There were images of it. The war had begun.
One was an image of warplanes, human made, bombing a Mobian airfield. The other, a column of black uniformed Mobians and small tanks rolling along the road. The images then switched to a feed which Amy instantly recognized as the Mobotropolis News Channel. Robotnik did her the courtesy and tapped a button on his chair that enabled the sound. A well groomed female Mobian lion read the report,
"Negotiations have failed again. Grand Imperator Cobald, joint leader of the united Terran families has refused to meet envoys of Mobotropolis. Meanwhile, the war in the skies has shown no signs of ending. The defense ministry has reported a total of thirty enemy planes shot down. We also regret to report that the northern airbase has been destroyed by a surprise Terran attack which we have confirmed to have sparked the start of hostilities.
Ground forces of the MSF have already begun to organize the defense of our great city. General Brashen has ordered an evacuation of the city as he expects a Terran land assault to commence soon. This is Lana Hugh with the MTT"
Amy was speechless for a moment. She just watched Robotnik massage his red mustache as he continued to smirk at the pink hedgehog. He did finally say,
"Do sit down my dear, you seem to be a bit touched by the ascension of the Eggman Empire."
At once, a chair was summoned out of nowhere and Amy found herself sitting in it. Several metal bars strapped her in place, preventing any attempt to escape.
It was hopeless. Amy saw nothing but dis-pare. Her world was being torn apart, and she had no escape. Just the mercy of a madman. Soft tears swelled in her green eyes, one, rolled down her pale cheek.
"Oh Amy, I thought you would have a bit more courage then that my dear. You certainly wouldn't want to spoil your makeup before your boyfriend arrives..."
Amy looked back up to notice that Robotnik had changed the view on the screens. Instead they showed him. Sonic the hedgehog was running, fast through dark tunnels. Her hero's eyes were focused, not only from focus on avoid underground obstacles, but determined. Did he know that she was being held by Eggman? Was he coming to rescue her again like a knight riding to his princess? Amy made herself a bit more comfortable in the seat and finally put her game face on for man sitting near her.
"Where is he Eggman?"
"Very close my dear, very close. He sure has made a mess down there in the mines. But I know that his girlfriend will bring some reason to his unstable mind. For my demands are simple."
"Oh, and what are those you maniac?"
"All in good time my impatient little rodent."
Eggman turned away from her to watch Sonic continue his progress through the mines. Amy too turned to watch him. Maybe hope had not yet vanished from this dark hole in Mobius
It was yet another cavern, tall, wide and dark. Sonic had arrived in it. But this one was slightly different than the previous one that he had just escaped. In the center was a large lake. He cautiously moved closer to the edge of it to notice the still surface, it was too dark for him to see anything beneath the surface. At the other end, was a magnificent white marble stair case that ascended up. A polished gold statue of none other then Doctor Ivo Robotnik stood in pompous glory to greet any who wished to climb the steps.
"Got this far into Egghead's little palace with almost no fight. This hero job thing is starting to loose its excitement..."
Sonic commented loudly. He then scanned the room again before adding,
"And Tails is loosing his edge. He's always been able to at least keep up...I've never seen him loose a race this bad before."
A loud and unmistakably familiar series of coughs along with a splash of water startled the hedgehog and he turned to see the source of the noise climbing out of the subterranean lake water. The sight of Tails challenged every bit of self control Sonic had to not laugh. His orange fur was plastered to the side of his head and the rest of his body. He looked even more runty without it all puffed out and his twin tails looked like two out of control weeds growing in an untended Mobian garden. Yet Sonic managed to keep his amusement contained to just a smile. Tails finished coughing and retorted his friend's previous comment,
"That because I didn't loose. I've been waiting for you in here. I thought that you were an Eggman robot when you first came in and hid."
Sonic simply crossed his arms and retained his smug smile. Tails now was looking closely at the Eggman statue, seeking some guidance from his mentor he asked,
"So whats the plan Sonic?"
"Simple little bro. We go up there, find the guy who's in charge and get the girl back."
Tails wanted a bit more detail than that, but he nodded and the two heroes turned to ascend the stairway. Their departure was instantly halted when a large crash of crumbling rock knocked them both to the ground.
There, at the entrance to the tunnel Sonic had been traveling down, stood a new and deadly menace. It was a robot, built to resemble a human, but stood nearly twenty feet tall. It's head had a helmet resembling that of a mine worker, sporting a bright lamp at the top of the visor. Glowing green eyes gazed upon its two targets with anticipation. These were shielded by a crystalline glass that was supported by the mech's helmet. It's torso was covered in thick carbon steel plate, painted and polished red and yellow. A large Eggman Empire icon was stamped on its chest. No less then four arms were attached to this monster, two of them were wielding a hammer and a pickax. Both of these had to be the size of street lights. The ground it stood on sank, allowing its massive steel boots to to create large foot prints.
"Welcome to Whitocropolis Sonic the Hedgehog! I am unit 436, the Eggmine Boss. Your trespass ends here, surrender now or be destroyed."
Sonic chuckled and answered,
"Haven't you metal heads learned anything? This hedgehog only gives up when the heart inside this chest stops beating."
"Same with this fox!"
The time for words was over. Both heroes charged at full speed towards the mine boss. The machine had expected and hoped for this and with seemingly little effort, swiped his pick axe horizontally across the ground in front of him. This attack missed Tails by mere inches, but Sonic wasn't so lucky. The force of the attack sent him flying across the cavern. He landed head first in the subterranean lack. A second strike with the heavy sledge hammer went straight for Tails. The head of the tool went several feet into the floor, instead of the agile fox. He was now flying in the air, pushing his way towards where he saw Sonic splash into the lake. The hedgehog still had not floated to the surface of the water, something which concerned Tails. But he also noticed the robot responsible for Sonic's little swim wasn't making any more moves. It just stood at the edge of the lake waiting patiently. Tails taunted with a particularly selected finger on his gloved hand,
"What wrong? Have enough? Come and get me!"
The mechanical voice responded sardonically,
"Cowards who flee after the opening salvo have little room to judge my valor. Come and have a real fight on the ground, instead of skulking in the air little hero."
Tails looked back down to see some bubbles popping at the surface of the water. He knew that Sonic could only stay down there so long, but hated the idea of turning his back to the large machine, not entirely convinced that the machine would stay away from the water. But he had to do something. So Tail's straightened his body, a lot like how he saw competitive swimmers before they jumped off the high board. He stopped his spinning tails and fell downwards, cutting into the lake head first.
As he was fully submersed, Tails opened his eyes. The water was still dark and murky, and Tail's knew finding anything, even hedgehogs would be a challenge. But instincts told the adolescent fox to dive deeper until his chin hit the rocky bottom of the lake. A gargling sound that he had heard initially was now very loud. Tails swerving himself around and saw him. Sonic, a proud and formidable warrior, was struggling to stay alive. Tails grabbed his best friend by the arms and used all his remaining energy to swim them both up to the top.
They wasted no time on the surface. Tail's hoisted Sonic into the air with him. The hedgehog appeared to be recovering quickly from his underwater odyssey. The airborne fox spoke quietly to the hedgehog he was carrying,
"I think he's scared of the water Sonic. We need to find a way to bring him into the lake."
"I think he's determined to not let that happen little bro." Sonic replied pointing at the still waiting Eggmine Boss.
Tails glanced down to see that his friend's face was stretched. A sign of the deep thought process going on within. His eyes soon sparked and he whispered to the fox,
"Tail's! There was a metal bucket down there. I remember feeling it when I was down below. I'll keep him busy while you grab it. I think I can knock that silly looking helmet off of him so that you can douse that small metal brain of his with water."
The simplicity of it masked its brilliance and Tails was glad that Sonic was with him. He set the blue hedgehog down at the edge of the lake opposite to the mech.
"Hey bot brain! Wanna fight? Lets see if you can catch me first!"
Sonic took of again, the thunderous boom echoed through the cavern as he got closer to mach 1. The machine worked furiously, swinging its weapons futilely at empty air. Each time, Sonic managed to duck, evade or jump through his carefully levied attacks. Tails observed this for a few more seconds and when he felt confident that Sonic could keep this up he dove down beneath the lake water again. He instantly found it, a bucket that could hold several gallons of water was sitting at the bottom. Tails rose back to the surface and into the air, the orange furred bomber waiting to drop its payload on a helpless target.
Sonic was focused. He was the bee, darting across the ground at phenomenal speeds and the mine boss was the swatter. He felt sorry for the robot, he really did. It had to be frustrating to be such a large machine, capable of throwing boulders like they were pebbles or ripping a car in half to be unable to squash a small, four foot tall hedgehog. One thing that Sonic knew he had other then speed was peripheral vision, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the time was just right. Tails was hovering directly above and behind the oblivious robot. Sonic did his part, breaking from his evasive run, he aimed a homing attack directly at the face of the mech.
Eggmine Boss saw it, but he reacted too slowly, his free hand swiped at empty air and Sonic's spinning body smashed through the glass visor and knocked the helmet clear off its head. Tail's saw the tangle of wires with intermingled computers that were once protected by the helmet waiting for him. He flew closer and then unleashed his wet attack. A frightening arch of electricity ripped through the air and the legs of the machine instantly froze. Its voice, still devoid of emotion emitted,
"Systems malfunctioning. Circuit damage severe. Unable to route to backup!"
Tails, still a determined little fox, had refilled the bucket with another load of water. This was the end. As the two tailed hero dumped his bucket onto the still exposed head, the machine gave one final quiver before it froze up completely.
Sonic and Tails had laid to waste to yet another creation of Robotnik. The two best friends gave each other a high five. But their villain was not going to hide anymore, his voice rang out from load speakers mounted on the walls near the marble stairs,
"Well, you both never stop surprising me. Sonic and Tails, I would like to invite you both to join me in my command chamber. Don't be shy, come on up."
The two heroes nodded at each other and moved to accept Eggman's invitation.
Far from the knowledge of the deadly duo inside the caves, two other partners in crime were plotting their way through the complex. Lisa was tired. Her upbringing on the farm had exposed her to periods of hunger before, but this one was a little different. The fox held her hands up and noted how they continued to shake. She wasn't scared, just paranoid, ready to pop at a moment's notice.
Despite their many unanticipated detours, Lisa was too polite to tell Annie she had gotten them lost, though they finally found the room they were looking for. The roboticizer looked far more menacing up close then it did looking down from the observation gallery they were in when first observing this monstrosity. They were presently surprised to find the room empty. Could Robotnik have been foolish enough to leave the machine he intended to transform the world without even a sentry or two?
"His mistake is our advantage" Lisa thought to herself haughtily.
