Mobius: The Final Stand Ch. 57
Outcroppings of Green Hill Zone
5:41 am
…
Silence reigned in the pitch black of the interior of the Ice-Twister as Tails and Raymond remained sitting quietly in their seats.
"Wha…?" Tails leaned forward, gripping the sides of his armrests in apprehension. He reached out and grabbed one of the joysticks; wobbling it around, but to no avail.
"What's going on?" Cosmo had woken in the backseat when the low, comforting hum from the engines had abruptly stopped, sending the cockpit into total silence. She sat up in the seat, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering as the temperature started to sharply decrease without the heater on.
"I…" Tails trailed off as he squinted, trying to peer through the front windshield into the inky blackness. Without any light emitting from the Ice-Twister, the whole world seemed to fade away into nothingness…
Raymond stood up in his seat and experimentally reached out and tried to open the hatch above them, but finding it to be blocked by the ceiling of solid ice that rested above their heads, he shrugged and sighed dejectedly.
"Looks like we're trapped." Raymond stated exasperatedly, pounding his fist against the hatch in obvious frustration. "That's just great!"
"Hmm…" Tails started to fiddle with the controls again, nonchalantly pressing a few buttons on the dashboard. "I think the drill is stuck, that's why we can't move and why the power shut off…"
"What do you mean?" Raymond asked.
"Well…" Tails went on to explain. "I built the Ice-Twister basically as a large generator that would convert the mechanical energy from the spinning motion of the drill and to electrical energy that could be used to power the mechanism. In addition…"
"Woah woah hold it a second…" Raymond laughed. "You kinda lost me there…"
"Oh, sorry.." Tails grinned and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "I do that sometimes when I get carried away…"
Raymond laughed again. "It's fine, don't worry…"
"Heh, well if you say so…" Tails tried to make his explanation seem more clear. "Basically, the spinning motion of the drill powers the Ice-Twister. So when the drill is stuck, as in this case, the power shuts off."
"Ah. Gotcha." Raymond replied. "So the drill is stuck, but how does that help us if we can't get out and free it?"
Tails shrugged in response. "I.. don't know…" He thought for a minute. "The hatch won't open, right?"
Raymond nodded. "The ice above our heads is blocking it…"
"I've got an idea: What if you used your fire power and melted the ice?"
Raymond hesitated. "Wait, what?"
Tails continued. "I mean, if you could melt the ice above the hatch, then it would melt into water, right? So then you'd be able to open it without any trouble…"
"Oh.." Raymond slowly nodded in agreement. "That's true… I could give it a shot…"
He carefully shifted positions in the cramped and confined space of the cockpit until he was standing under the hatch once again. As he did so, Tails stood up in his seat and closely watched from behind.
"Careful…" Raymond delicately balanced himself and lifted one hand; a small, free-flowing ball of fire appearing in the palm of his hand. As he held it against the bottom of the hatch, the temperature started to slightly increase, the noise of the fire crackling barely audible in the prevailing silence.
As Raymond continued to warm up the metal hatch, it started to slowly turn colors from light gray, to dark gray, to black, until it finally became white-hot. The sound of hissing as water on the top of the Ice-Twister made contact, instantly evaporating, was evident. In the back seat, Cosmo and Galaxina were already awake by now, realizing that something was wrong. As the two of them along with Tails continued to watch Raymond, he finally decided that it was enough, and punched upwards, blasting a hole through the pliable, heated metal. Small bits of white-hot metal rained down around him, and a torrent of ice-cold water poured in; dousing everybody.
"Brr…" Cosmo and Galaxina both shivered instinctively. It was already incredibly cold enough without having several gallons of ice-cold water soak you, chilling you to the bone. Raymond and Tails were fine as they at least had their fur to keep them somewhat warm, but the two seedrians were sensitive to the extreme cold.
"Whoops. Sorry about that." Raymond apologized as he cleared away the remains of the hatch, putting both hands through the hole and hoisting himself to the top of the Ice-Twister. He had to crouch and duck his head as the ceiling was still quite low, but he was able to scramble along the top towards the front of the mechanism.
"You alright up there?" Tails called down from the Ice-Twister. He was lounging on the back couch; Cosmo and Galaxina snuggled into his body on either side of him. Tails was trying his best to keep them warm through his own body heat.
"A-Ok." Raymond replied, then smirked. "You sure seem preoccupied down there…" He noticed and pointed out jokingly.
"Oh.." Tails blushed a crimson red. "Well I mean otherwise if one is exposed to the extreme cold when your body is wet as water is a poor insulator of heat, it causes one to lose immense amounts of body temperature which can ultimately lead to hypothermia or…."
Raymond laughed, losing track of Tails' rambling. "I gotcha. It's okay." He drew back from the edge of the cockpit and expertly maneuvered himself to the front, melting the ice along the way with his fire as small puddles of water started to form. As he began to create a small "passageway" along the top of the Ice-Twister, more and more space was made available as Raymond continued his slippery journey.
Once he reached where the front would be but was blocked by the wall of ice in front of him, he stopped and punched through it. Once. Twice. Thrice. Finally, the ice gave away due to its weakening from the heat and it shattered to reveal the top of the drill. As the wall of ice cleared, Raymond could peer through the front windshield of the Ice-Twister and see Tails waving from the driver seat.
"…" Raymond waved back, then set to work on clearing the rest of the drill.
"Watch out! The drill might start up at any moment.. Make sure that once you clear it, that you don't accidentally get hurt or anything…" Tails warned, his voice muffled a bit by the thick glass from inside the cockpit. In response, Raymond turned around to look back over his shoulder and grinned, flashing a thumbs up.
"No problemo! Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Raymond continued melting the ice away, evaporating the remaining water as it dissipated into the atmosphere.
Finally, the entire area around drill was all clear; a chasm created by the lack of ice where Raymond had thawed it away. As Raymond started to scramble back, something through the ice got his attention out of the corner of his eyes.
"Woah! Hold on a second!" Raymond abruptly put his hands to the side of the ice and pushed as a whole sheet of ice fell away to reveal a long tunnel that seemed to go on forever in the distance. "Cool! Tails! Come over here!"
Instantly, Tails was at his side; Cosmo and Galaxina following closely behind. He gaped at the hidden corridor in awe. "Woah… Looks like someone's been here before, but who could it be..?" Tails stooped down and picked up a small piece of metal, examining it by rubbing it between his index and fore fingers.
"Eggman." Raymond and Tails both stated and looked at each other.
"Great…" Raymond groaned. "I should have figured Eggman would have the intelligence to build something like the Ice-Twister to burrow through the ice…"
"Yep.." Tails agreed solemnly. "I can't say I'm very surprised either… Well what do we do now?"
Silence prevailed as the four of them stared down the tunnel in silence, thinking of a reply.
Finally, Raymond spoke up: "Well I'd like to go down and find out what Eggman's been up to the past couple of days…"
"And if you're going, there's no way I'm not coming with you!" Galaxina responded, worriedly taking Raymond's hand in her own.
"And I'm coming too!" Tails and Cosmo both replied until Raymond shook his head.
"Wait hold on a second…" He turned to face Tails. "All of us can't go at the same time…"
"Why not?"
"Because someone needs to inform Sonic and the rest. Someone at least needs to travel… What was it; 3 hours?" Tails nodded as Raymond continued. "Someone needs to go to Sonic while the rest of us stay here."
"How about Tails and Cosmo both go to Sonic? It's too dangerous for them to encounter Eggman alone…" Galaxina stated, her breath turning into a vapor in the extremely cold air.
"Why? I wanna fight Eggman too!" Tails countered bravely, his eyes alight.
"Come on Tails," Raymond pleaded desperately. "You're the only one that knows how to drive the Ice-Twister. You have to warn Sonic and get them to come back us up!"
Tails sighed dejectedly and rolled his aqua-blue eyes. "Fine…" He started to head back to the Ice-Twister, but was stopped when Raymond suddenly placed one hand on his shoulder. "What?" Tails turned back around to face Raymond expectantly.
Raymond smirked. "Sorry if I'm being a bit rough, but imagine how Sonic would kill me if I let something bad happen to you…"
Tails managed a small laugh as he started to think about Sonic's reaction. For some reason, that thought seemed hilarious to him. "It's okay, I understand." Tails replied. He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a headset. "Here, take this." Tails handed it to Raymond, who curiously inspected it. "It's a com-link headset. I have another one, so I'll be able to contact you within a fifteen mile radius. If you don't venture too far, I'd still be able to reach you from Amy's house.
Raymond nodded and grinned. "Okay, I got it." He positioned the headset on the top of his head and pulled the mouthpiece closer to the side of his muzzle. "Hello? Hello?"
Tails laughed. "Here, you have to turn it on." He flicked a switch on the side of the com-link and the sound of quiet static became audible in the background.
"Ah. Okay; I see." Raymond turned the headset off and grinned. "Thanks."
"Welcome." He grinned. "So… I guess this is where we part and say goodbye?"
Raymond laughed. "You're making it sound like we're leaving forever or something…" He joked.
Tails shrugged. "Well… bye! Don't die while we're gone!"
Galaxina smiled and affectionately ruffled Tails' muzzle with one hand. "Don't worry about us, we'll be fine!"
With that, Tails and Cosmo started to head back to the Ice-Twister. As they did so, they turned around one last time and waved goodbye. "See ya! Be careful!"
Raymond and Galaxina waved back in response. "Bye! Don't worry, we will!" They turned around and headed into the foreboding entrance of the long tunnel while Tails and Cosmo hopped into the Ice-Twister and turned the engine on again, continuing to drill in the direction of Sonic's house. As the four of them parted ways, one thought was running through their minds, even though they didn't dare mention it out loud:
"When would the next time they saw each other be…?"