Dale impatiently dries his bronze, curly fluff. He's tired of waiting, tired of doing nothing while Dani, his friend, is in danger. Training? Who had time for that right now? He's done. He's ready.
He looks around for something to wear and notices a black box on a chair. One of the workers of the resistance must have delivered the box when he was showering. He reads the gold, lace tag aloud. "Honey Cat styles."
He opens the box. Inside are a pair of shoes and gloves, and a custom-made hoodie. The gloves are fingerless, made of black leather and with a white lightning bolt below the knuckle line. The leather-black strap shoes have studs on the bottom and a white lightning bolt on the sides. In keeping with the theme, the hoodie is also all black with a white lightning bolt on the front. Dale slips these on as well as a pair of black pants. He looks in the mirror.
"Wooooaah I look kickaaass. This Honey Cat styles company sure knows how to design, I should hit 'em up more often."
Finally, an hour passes. Dale opens the door silently and looked around. No one in sight. The only noise he can hear is music coming from Athea's room. He walks out the way he came in, and without noticing Athea's silent shadow behind him.
The near empty base is only a mile out of the town. With his chipped speed shoes, it only takes a few seconds for him to run the distance. He hesitates at the entrance, briefly shocked by the size and style of the old buildings. They're strange to look at, the town is a mash of different buildings; some are mortar and brick, others look almost Greek. Dale looks at the streets around the buildings in dismay. The streets are in no way the orderly, logical streets he'd grown up with. Even from here, he can see them twisting and turning in themselves like a maze.
Dale plunges into the maze without a look backwards. If he had, he might have seen Athea plunge into a different alleyway.
Dale wanders through the streets and alleyways, hopelessly lost. Where is the harbor? He can smell the salt in the air from the ocean, but he can't figure out where it is coming from. The streets aren't helping him either, why on earth-er, Mobius, are the streets so weird and twisty?
Dale walks into a part of the city that looks more modern. He can see skyscrapers, a train station, and yet another bell tower. Seriously, what is with this place and bell towers? Who put up three bell towers, looked at the town and said, 'You know what this place needs? Another bell tower.'
Exasperated, he walks up to a tired-looking man in a uniform. "Excuse me, can you tell me where the harbor is?" He asks directly.
"Tourist huh?" The man nods to himself. "Take the train, third stop should be at Arbor." Or was that the fourth stop? The man wonders to himself.
"Cool, thanks." Dale says. He knows he doesn't have the money for a ticket, but he can easily run along the tracks until he gets to the third station. He does this, arriving at the third station after only fifteen minutes. "I'd like to see a train go THAT fast." Dale laughs.
He looks around him and frowns. "This doesn't look like the sea. I can't even smell it anymore. Did that guy give me bogus directions?" The land around him is grassy, with mountainous boulders randomly scattered. He can see the place is also bordered by steep cliffs and a…castle? Maybe there's someone there who can tell me where the harbor is!
Dale jogs over only to slow in dismay as he gets a better look at the castle. It's clearly empty and falling down. "Aw man, there goes that hope. Guess I'll just have to get back to the station to ask someone else." Dale mutters and turns around. At this rate, Sonic was going to beat him to this 'Clutch' guy first.
"Excuse me young fellow, but what brings you here this late at night?" An elderly voice stops him.
"Just looking for a place." Dale says as he turns around. He blinks in surprise. The old man is standing in front of a bridge, with no sign of anything he could have been hiding behind. How come he hadn't seen the man?
"It must be very important for you to have come so far." The man observes. There's a kindly light in his eyes and impulsively, Dale decides to trust the man…even if he might be a ghost.
"Yeah, it is. My friend's in danger and I don't know where she is. I was told that if I went to the harbor in Soleanna, I might be able to find someone who does know." Dale says.
"That does sound urgent." The man agrees. "This is certainly no time for you to be lost."
"Can you tell me where the harbor is then?" Dale asks eagerly.
The man steps aside. "There is a river that flows through this castle, it empties out into the sea. Once you get there, simply head west, following the coast, and you will find what you seek."
Dale takes a step forward, but the man grabs his arm. "Be warned young man, this river will run through a tunnel. Take no turns, look down no halls. The sacred places of Soleanna are not for an outsiders eyes." The man says with an odd fierceness. "Stay on the river and keep your eyes forward." He steps back, releasing Dale.
"Riiiiigghht, whatever you say weirdo." He snaps a salute off and runs for the castle, quickly finding the river and following it.
This is so surreal. Dale thinks. I've seen Dani play this level, watching Sonic jump around these towers…but this place doesn't look much like it did in the game.
The river leads Dale onward, heading straight south. While at first, the river had been lazy and clear, after he left the castle behind it had quickly changed. Now the river is full of rapids, moving at a pace that would be dangerous to swim in. The cliff side walls around him start to get narrower, forcing Dale to run closer to the river. In the dark of the night, with the only light coming from the moon, Dale keeps his eyes on the ground, knowing that if he looks away, even a small misstep could put him in the water.
The moonlight disappears and Dale skids to a stop. Running outside was one thing, at least there was a moon! But he can't see anything in this tunnel! Forced to walk, Dale hesitantly feels out the path ahead of him, making slow, painstaking progress. He can still hear the river rushing by him, and he takes care to stick close by it. "I am NOT going to be that one stupid guy in a movie who doesn't listen to the creepy ghost guy warning." He says aloud, noticing a patch of darkness that looks lighter somehow. It's away from the river though and he quickly looks away.
He rounds a corner and blinks in surprise at the sudden flow of light from the moon. "Aw yeah! Now I can start getting somewhere!" Dale runs, boosting down the path until finally, finally, he sees the ocean. He turns west and runs until he sees the strange, old buildings of Soleanna. He slows to a jog and follows the shore line until he sees the harbor. "I finally found you." He chuckles as he walks up to it. If Tails was right, Clutch had to be right around here somewhere…
Athea jerks awake and looks out the hole in her barrel. Finally! What took him so long?! She stretches her arms and legs as best she can.
Dale suddenly stops. Wait, what does Clutch look like? "I don't believe this. I've come all this way, and I don't even know what Clutch looks like?" Dale says in dismay.
Athea facepalms in the barrel.
Dale hears a whirring pop noise and dodges just in time to avoid the shot. He whirls around only to see a green possum in a purple cloak holding a mechanical fist straight out of a cartoon.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry. You gave me quite a fright there." The possum kindly says. "Did you happen to say you were looking for a Clutch?"
Dale narrows his eyes and doesn't relax. Something about this possums kind demeanor seems false to him. "Yeah. I got business with him." He says shortly.
"And what do you need a scoundrel like him for at three in the morning?" The possum asks, his hand slowly moving towards his coat.
"What did you say your name was again?" Dale asks. He notices puddles in the ground and smiles. Those will be dead useful if there's a fight…
"Oh, I don't believe I said." The possum says. "Shall I rephrase my question? What business do you have at the harbor at this time of night?" His hand disappears into his cloak and Dale hears a soft click. Swarms of buzz bombers emerge from the top of an old building near them and head towards Dale.
"Apparently waiting for you. Clutch is it? What kind of name is that?!" Dale runs towards the robots, lightning sparking between his hands. He shoots upwards and manages to hit three in a row. They short-circuit and explode, taking out an unlucky fourth in the process. Two more charge at him, shooting lasers that Dale barely dodges. He jumps as the bombers charge towards his knees and aims at them, exploding both of them.
Dale lands and looks at Clutch. "Man! And those ugly ass clothes. Looking like a hobo who's pretending to be rich." He taunts the man.
Clutch growls and brings out a remote. He presses buttons, prompting old swatbots to appear out of the same building. Dale charges towards them and skids, using the nearby puddles to spread his electricity, shocking the ground underneath the swatbots as he passes them all. They immediately break, short-circuiting and exploding just as the others had.
"Look man I'm not here to beat you up, Sonic will probably do that later, I'm just here to find out where my friend is." Dale says stretching. "Of course, I can just shock you as well to get the answer, but Dani wouldn't want that."
Clutch fumes. "Oh I'll show you a shock!" More buzz bombers emerge and Dale turns to face their threat. With Dale's back turned, Clutch powers up his mechanical punch with electricity, shooting straight at Dale.
Athea leaps out of the barrel, throwing a shield out just in time. "Dealing with the bots by yourself, not as easy as you thought it'd be, huh?"
Dale ignores this as he raises his fists and spreads his legs. "You didn't tell Sonic, did you?"
"Against my better judgement? Nope. I left my music on in my bedroom and left when I saw you did." Athea says, opening her hands. "Come on Clutch, it's two against one, and you've already seen that these bots are no match for Dale!" She shouts. "So why don't you call them off and we can settle this civilly?"
In answer, Clutch presses another button, releasing a fourth, and larger, wave of bots. "Okay then, hard way it is." Athea says. Quietly, she addresses Dale, "Wait for an opening and then go for Clutch. I'll keep the bots off of you and provide defense in the meanwhile."
It's an okay plan, but… "I've got a better idea." Dale says, rubbing his hands together. "You just make sure I don't take out Clutch, we still need to talk to him."
Athea glances at him and her ears lower. "Oh no." She runs towards Clutch.
Dale smirks and puts his hands to the ground. Lightning crackles and zips through the wet dock, setting off chain reactions between the bots as they all explode, one after the other. He glances back towards Athea and Clutch to see her holding a shield below them with one hand, and using the other to keep his mechanical fist pointed away from her. His cane lies on the ground, a few feet away.
"Well?" Dale speeds up to him, getting right in Clutch's face. "You ready to talk yet?"