It didn't take long for Sonic and Tails to exit Hidden Palace Zone, which had a Christian cross above the outside entrance, thereby confirming Tails' theory that this was once used as a place of worship, not that the organ hadn't already done so. As soon as they got outside, something caught Sonic's eye…
"What is that?" Sonic pointed at a huge factory not too far from their current location.
"It looks like some sort of factory…" said Tails.
"I know that, but for what?"
Tails shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Whatever it's for, it don't look like it belongs here, and I wanna blow it up! Let's…"
Just as Sonic got into running position, he felt a rumbling in his stomach.
"Sonic, what was that?"
"Ya know, I just now remembered that I ain't had anything to eat since lunch!" said Sonic.
Tails smiled. "I got some food!"
Sonic smiled. "Do tell me more!"
"Here…"
Tails opened a pouch on his tool belt and pulled out a square yellow package labeled "CalorieMate BALANCED FOOD BLOCK".
"I never seen anything like that before," said Sonic.
Tails opened the package. "They sell them at convenience stores sometimes. They're great when nothing else is around. I think they might be imported."
Sonic took the foil-wrapped pack that Tails handed to him. "Well, here goes…"
Sonic opened the pack and found two bars inside, which somewhat resembled shortbread cookies. Taking one bar, he sniffed it a little and got a slight cheese smell. After a dramatic pause, he took a bite out of one bar. Sure enough, it did taste like cheese and had the texture of shortbread. With some vigorous chewing, he swallowed before consuming the rest of the bar.
"They're all right, but they're kinda dry," said Sonic. "On the other hand, I feel like I ate six chili dogs! Thanks!" He smiled before eating the other bar.
Tails smiled. "You're welcome!"
Sonic and Tails sat down on a nearby rock while the latter had a couple of CalorieMate bars. During this time, Sonic reflected on his adventure so far. In the course of a day, he'd gone from just some unknown, uncared-for street urchin to being a guy who could potentially save the world. How many people could lay claim to that? In another fraction of that day, he found somebody for whom he genuinely cared about. Granted, there was still so much that Sonic and Tails had yet to learn about each other or do with each other, but things were looking up, and barring any unfortunate accidents between now and an indeterminate point in the future, they could quite possibly be in a nice, comfy home playing video games with each other. Sonic smiled, remembering a time he found a ten-Mobium bill on the street and blew it all at a local arcade in the South Terrace borough of Emerald City. He wondered if that arcade had even survived Robotnik's bombing, and if it did, what would become of all those cool retro arcade games within. He did his best to suppress any painful thoughts.
"OK, I'm done eating," said Tails.
Sonic blinked. "Huh? Oh, right! Let's race, Ace!"
Sonic and Tails ran down to the factory. However, Sonic made both of them come to a halt when he saw the big metal sign on two posts outside the complex, which read "IMPERIAL CHEMICAL PLANT NO. 1" and had that familiar "Eggman" symbol on top. Other, smaller metal signs on the chain-link fence surrounding the complex had warnings such as "DANGER: CHEMICAL STORAGE", "CAUTION: CHEMICAL MIXING AREA. PPE REQUIRED WHEN MIXING CHEMICALS" and "RESTRICTED AREA: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY". Though undeterred by the last one, Sonic took the other ones very seriously and started fishing around in his disguise bag.
"What are we gonna do now?" asked Tails.
"I think I got just the thing…"
Sonic pulled out two military-grade CBRN protective suits, complete with gas masks and combat boots with protective coverings.
"Are you sure those'll work?" asked Tails.
"Hey, the scuba gear worked, didn't it?" said Sonic.
Tails nodded. "Good point."
Without further question, Sonic and Tails put on the CBRN suits.
"Sonic, this mask feels a little tight…"
"Hey, if it ain't scrunchin' up your face, it could be savin' your life!"
"Again, good point."
"Now come on, help me over that fence!"
Tails started flying and got Sonic over the fence, which was topped with barbed wire. They landed behind a group of 55-gallon steel drums, and Sonic peeked out from behind them, only to notice a group of SWATbots patrolling the grounds.
"Wait here," said Sonic. "When I give the signal, we run like hell!"
Tails nodded. "Right."
Sonic took his time, carefully analyzing the SWATbots' patrol patterns. In doing so, he noticed that a few seemed to have heavy laser rifles and additional armor plating, but decided that they wouldn't be much more of a challenge than the regular garden-variety models that him and Tails had faced thus far. Still, he didn't want any trouble with them, fearing that access to the Chemical Plant Zone would be blocked off if the alarm were raised. Eventually, though, Ol' Blue found a suitable opening, gave a thumbs-up to Tails and ran like the proverbial wind. Fortunately, his plan worked, and they were now inside. The interior was fairly typical of industrial complexes, with metal walkways, several pipes leading every which way but loose, black/yellow danger stripes on random surfaces, fluorescent lighting…the works.
"Tails, you got anything that'll level this joint?"
"No, I don't have any explosives on me. Robotnik might have some lying around somewhere, though."
"But where?"
"Why don't we log into that computer and find out?"
Tails led Sonic over to a metal office desk with a Waverman WLTR 3000 personal computer on top. Fortunately, some inattentive lackey had left a session open, so Tails went about trying to locate an armory using the directory program. While this was going on, Sonic eyed the computer with a somewhat derisive curiosity. His main question was why someone like Robotnik with a huge intellect and such advanced machinery at his disposal would be using a personal computer that looked like it came from the late 80s-early 90s. He then chalked it up to the facility being around for a while and its personnel operating off the principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". He had to give props to that clicky IBM Model M keyboard, however.
"I found the armory!" Tails hopped out of the swivel chair that he was sitting on.
"Yeah?" said Sonic.
Tails beckoned Sonic along. "Follow me!"
Follow Tails? That was new to Sonic. He didn't exactly follow Tails in the traditional sense; he merely ran alongside Tails as closely as he could without losing sight of him. Along the way, they encountered more SWATbots and Caterkillers, which fell before them as all that had come before. On the way to the armory, they encountered yet another new robot, a red and gray robot with eight spines on top and eight appendages around it for crawling. Tails dispatched it with a Spin Dash, but before it died, the eight spines on top opened up as if it were going to use a weapon. Neither Sonic nor Tails stopped to ponder what sort of weapon that might be, however. Eventually, they reached the armory, which was locked.
"OK, how are we gonna get in?" asked Sonic.
"Hmmm…"
Tails looked at the lock next to the door. It appeared to be a combination keypad/keycard/biometric/RFID lock. Eventually, the Two-Tailed Wonder decided to eschew hi-tech fakery and go for something decidedly primitive: a claw hammer. He pointed the claw end at the lock and cocked his arm back, hoping that the lock didn't have a fail-safe mechanism in it.
"HALT! Unauthorized personnel detected!"
Sonic and Tails turned around – the latter lowering his hammer – and discovered one of the heavy SWATbots that Sonic had seen outside, pointing its heavy laser rifle at them. They raised their hands.
"Don't shoot!" said Sonic. "We give up…NOT!"
Sonic and Tails did a Spin Dash and tore through the heavy SWATbot like a regular SWATbot, although it did kick back on them a little.
"Forget the hammer," said Tails. "I think I got another idea…"
"Well, ya better try it quick!" said Sonic. "We're probably gonna have company soon!"
"If this works right, we should be out of here before too long. Help me lift this corpse!"
In all his years of existence, Sonic never thought he'd hear anyone ever tell him "help me lift this corpse", never mind a two-tailed fox with intellect beyond his years. Nevertheless, the Blue Blur helped his friend out and propped the heavy SWATbot's corpse up as well as he possibly could. In doing so, he discovered that – in spite of its hefty looks – the heavy SWATbot really wasn't much heavier than an average person of that size, leading him to wonder just what manufacturing wizardry was used to put it together. That aside, Sonic kept the corpse upright, while Tails popped open a panel on the back of its head and started messing around with random wires.
"Try raising its right arm, too," said Tails.
Sonic did so. It took him a few tries, but Tails managed to temporarily reactivate the SWATbot. In doing so, the lock beeped, the red light on the panel turned green and the digital readout displayed the message "RFID PATTERN OK". With that, Sonic and Tails opened the door and dragged the SWATbot's corpse and other loose components into the armory.
"So where's the stuff?" asked Sonic.
"Right over here…"
Tails led Sonic over to a locker marked "DANGER: HIGH EXPLOSIVES", which was locked with a keyed Master lock. Rather than hammering away at the lock itself, Tails pulled out a key ring, selected a Master-brand key and inserted it into the lock.
"Hold the lock, please," said Tails.
Sonic did so. Keeping his hand on the key, Tails pulled out his claw hammer again, took aim and struck the key while turning it, thereby unlocking the padlock.
"Holy crap, that trick was dy-no-mite!" said Sonic. "How'd ya learn that?"
"It's called a 'bump key'," replied Tails. "I'm not going to go into too many details, but if you use a special key and turn it while striking it, you can open most any key lock."
"Damn, I sure coulda used ya around for those times I broke into people's houses!"
"What!?" Tails nearly dropped his tools.
"Ah, never mind; that was the old me. Let's just grab those explosives!"
Tails opened the locker. Inside was a bunch of explosive charges with fancy electronic detonators hooked up.
"So what kinda bombs are we lookin' at?" asked Sonic.
"This stuff is Semtex," said Tails, "or more precisely, Semtex H."
"Say what?"
"Semtex is a type of plastic explosive – usually red or orange in color – manufactured and commonly used by Communist Bloc countries. It's very popular with terrorists because until recently, it was difficult to detect due to a lack of a taggant."
"So that must be why Robuttnik got his mitts on the stuff! Now how do we use it?"
"Before we get into that, I want to grab a bunch of these charges."
"Right."
Sonic and Tails grabbed some nearby plastic garbage bags and put a few charges in each one. Then, they put down the bags, and Tails grabbed another charge.
"First, you turn the detonator on."
Tails armed the charge with a red button that showed a white "power on" symbol. A digital display activated and showed the word "TIME".
"You use these arrow buttons to select options," continued Tails. "Fortunately for us, this particular detonator is a digital multi-mode model, meaning that you can select different detonation modes for the device. Personally, I think it's a good idea if we set them so we can arm all of them once the last charge is placed, so I'm gonna set this to 'SYNC' mode…"
Tails pressed the arrow buttons to select "SYNC" mode and then pressed a little green "ENTER" button on the detonator. This caused the digital display to show "SET SYNC CHANNEL" before showing the numeral "1".
"…and we don't really need those other channels, so let's pick Channel 1."
Tails pressed "ENTER" again, this time causing the message "SET TIMER" to show before a timer set display came up.
"Lastly, we'll use the arrow buttons to set the timer," said Tails. "Since we're fast enough, I'd say five minutes would be good for us, wouldn't you?"
"Hey, works for me!" said Sonic.
"OK then." Tails pressed "ENTER" one last time to set the time before putting the charge back into the explosives locker. "Do you think you can remember everything I just said?"
"So lemme get this straight: turn on the power, set it to 'SYNC' mode, do Channel 1, set it to five minutes and BOOM! Did I miss anything?"
"Nope."
Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Groovy! Ya know, I'm surprised you ain't wanted by the police as a mad bomber! Just one more question…"
"Yes?"
"Where exactly do we place these?"
"Just place them on structural supports, chemical storage tanks, anything like that. As long as it'll cause maximum damage to this facility, place the charges."
"I can dig that!"
"I think we should also split up if we're to place all the charges as quickly as possible, though. If we do that, we'll also need to keep in radio contact. Here…"
Tails dug around in his own hammerspace and pulled out a pair of General Electric MPR hand-held radios.
"Where'd ya get these?" asked Sonic?
"The Amethyst Town Police Department had pallets of old radio equipment that they didn't want, so they let me have these, plus the chargers and test fixtures," replied Tails.
"OK, I think I know how to work one of these. How do I turn it on, though?"
"The power switch is underneath the push-to-talk button."
"Right."
Sonic and Tails turned their radios on.
Sonic held his radio up to his mask. "1-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, see the woman about a complete Egghead, over!"
"Don't waste the battery power on silly jokes, Sonic! We need to get moving! But first…"
Tails unlocked a gun locker with his bump key, and then proceeded to grab an EEA-4 blaster pistol plus extra power cells.
"Tails, what are ya doin'!?"
"Just grabbing an insurance policy."
"Those are dangerous! What if it went off and hurt me!?"
"Don't worry, Sonic; I know all the rules of gun safety: 1. Treat every gun as if it's loaded, even if it's not, 2. Don't point the gun at anything you're not willing to destroy, 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot, and 4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it."
Sonic dropped his jaw at Tails' gun knowledge.
"All right, all right, I'll let ya carry the piece around," said Sonic, "but you're gonna carry the consequences with ya for the rest of your life if anything goes wrong, ya dig?"
Tails nodded. "I understand."
"Then enough goofin' around! Let's plant these babies!"
Sonic and Tails grabbed their bags of explosives and headed out of the armory, closing the door on the way out to draw less attention from any of Robotnik's goons. Then, they split up. Sonic was a bit leery about letting Tails run off on his own like this in an unfamiliar location, especially with those heavy SWATbots milling about, but the fox cub hadn't let him down yet, so he decided to let it ride. Besides, he'd call over the radio if he was in trouble, would he not? That aside, a few dead robots later, Sonic came to a chemical tank.
"This looks like a good spot to set a charge!" said Sonic. "Now, let's see if I can remember…"
Sonic pulled out a charge from his bag, turned on the detonator and set everything else as per Tails' directions, which were still pretty fresh in his mind. Then, he planted the charge on the tank and grabbed his radio.
"Tails, this is Sonic. I set the first charge, over."
"Good," said Tails. "I'm on my way to set the second one! Tails out!"
"Gotcha. Sonic out."
Sonic and Tails continued to plant charges throughout the Chemical Plant Zone. At one point, Sonic encountered another new robot, this one resembling a large spider with thick yellow and black stripes, which was hanging from the ceiling. However, he was able to jump high enough to destroy it, although in doing so, he noticed that its legs were large enough to grab him should it ever get that opportunity.
Meanwhile, Tails was doing all right, but he nearly got grabbed by one of those spider bots due to not having a Hedgehog Sense like Sonic did. At one point, he decided to test out his new blaster pistol, and when he saw a couple of SWATbots on patrol, he stopped, took careful aim and fired. The blaster bolt left a nice hole through one of the SWATbots' heads, and the bot toppled to the floor, never to work for Robotnik again.
"INTRUDER ALERT!" said the surviving SWATbot. "Activate…"
The SWATbot didn't get a chance to activate anything because Tails put a bolt right through its power core, roughly where a heart would be on a human. Eventually, Tails placed his last charge and pulled out his radio.
"Sonic, this is Tails. I've set all my charges, over."
Much to Tails' surprise, he got no response.
"Sonic, this is Tails. I say again: I've set all my charges, over."
Again, Tails got no response.
"Sonic, do you copy, over?"
Still no response.
"Sonic, what's going on?"
Nothing.
"Sonic, respond!"
Zip.
"Sonic?"
Nada.
"SONIC!"
With that, Tails hurriedly flew around, looking for Sonic. He refrained from going back to the armory because he feared that Robotnik's troops might be carrying out an investigation in that area. Nevertheless, he kept a sharp eye out for him, fearing the worst but also hoping for the best. Fortunately, Tails found Sonic soon enough.
"Sonic, I've been trying to call you! What are you…"
Tails trailed off when he saw what Sonic was doing: the Blue Blur was standing motionless, entranced by a stream of blue chemical sludge in sphere form shooting from one small tube to another in a parabolic path.
"Far out…" said Sonic.
Tails shook Sonic. "Sonic, are you nuts!?"
"WHA!? WHA!?" Sonic shook his head as he came to his senses, and then turned to Tails. "What's the buzz, kid?"
Tails waved his arms around. "I turn my back for a couple of minutes and you waste your time on THIS silliness!? I can't believe you sometimes!"
"I'm sorry, Tails! I couldn't help myself; it looked so trippy!"
"Never mind! Just place whatever charges you have left and let's get out of here! It's really warm inside this suit, you know!"
"OK! OK! I'm goin'!"
Now reunited, Sonic and Tails went to find a good spot to place one last charge, which they planted on what appeared to be an old computer server of some sort, what with its flashing lights and tape reels.
"Now what?" asked Sonic.
"Press the yellow button to activate the timers on all the charges," said Tails.
"You got it!"
Sonic pressed the yellow button on the detonator, and the timers on all the charges began counting down.
"Let's speed, Keed!" said Sonic.
Having turned off their radios, Sonic and Tails began to hightail it out of Chemical Plant Zone when all of a sudden, red lights started flashing and a klaxon began blaring. Knowing they'd been discovered, they gave it all they had and were about to reach the nearest exit when…
"Did you two really think you were going to get out of my Chemical Plant Zone alive?" said Robotnik.
"We don't think, we know!" said Sonic.
"You may say that, but my Egg-O-Matic Mega Mack Dispenser and I say differently!"
"Say that again?"
"In short, Mega Mack is an entirely new chemical patented by a scientific genius – me – which does fantastic things to drinking water! I wouldn't count on those pathetic chem suits stopping it, either!"
"Well, we'll just have to try it out, won't we?"
"We will, and it'll be the last time you'll ever get any use out of my Super Mega-Evil Costume Kit!"
Robotnik did another evil laugh, and began filling the clear container on his Mega Mack Dispenser with opaque blue liquid from a canister just behind and above his head. Sonic – having learned what the "S.M.E.C.K." on his disguise bag meant – stood around, while Tails aimed at the Eggmobile with his blaster pistol and fired.
"Uh-oh," said Tails, "I don't think I even scratched him!"
"You fool!" said Robotnik. "My Eggmobile is proofed against blaster fire! Now feel my Mega Mack fury!"
Having filled the clear container, Robotnik extended the arm that it was attached to until it was over Sonic and pressed another button, thereby dumping Mega Mack all over the Blue Blur. However, he was unhurt, and then put his fists on his hips and tapped his foot.
"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'mmmmmmmmm waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnng!" said Sonic.
"NO!" said Robotnik. "That stuff was supposed to soak you to the bone! No matter, it'll probably do so eventually!"
With that, Robotnik attempted to have another go with the Mega Mack. Just as the container was almost full, Tails took a shot at it with his blaster pistol, thereby penetrating it and causing it to spring a leak, which got all over the Eggmobile's control panel.
"NO! NO! NO!" Robotnik pulled out a grease rag and attempted to soak up the excess chemicals. "That container should've been bulletproof!"
While lamenting that the container was bulletproof but not blasterproof, Robotnik was unsuccessful in soaking up the Mega Mack, which caused the Eggmobile's control panel to spark and eventually resulted in the Mega Mack Dispenser exploding.
"Jeez, that was one of your worst yet, Robuttnik!" said Sonic. "How low CAN ya go?"
"THIS ISN'T THE END!" shouted Robotnik. "I'll leave you in here to go down with the plant!"
Robotnik flew away through a hatch in the roof. Sonic and Tails hurried to get to an exit before the explosives went off. Unfortunately, they got a nasty surprise on the way out: a thick metal garage-type door was going down over the regular exit door, attempting to seal them in.
"Here goes nothin'!" said Sonic.
Sonic and Tails curled up and attempted to Spin Attack their way under the garage door.
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.