Sand Blast City, Sand-Blasters HQ
September 21, UC 0079
2050 Hours (PDT)
Under most circumstances, a severed ear on your desk was far from a flattering gift. For Jack Rabbit, though, it was a trophy. After a seemingly endless game of back-and-forth between him and Beauregard Rabbot, the Grandmaster was finally dead.
Already weary from the long day, Sapper didn't feel like putting up with any of the guy's giddiness right now and had no regrets about being a wet blanket. "After today," he said "my bill's gone up. 35,000 Mobiums."
"Thirty-five!?" a gobsmacked Jack exclaimed. "Reaper, the deal was 25,000!"
"It was," the Mole confirmed. "But somebody dropped in during the job. A guy called Sonic."
Jack's face soured further upon hearing this.
"I take it you've met him before?"
"He was our hero," said Jack, embittered "and after all the tributes we showed him, what does he do? Helps a buncha Robians."
"Why would he do that?" Sapper asked, sensing it was only a fraction of the story.
He wouldn't get it, though. An intruder alert was sounded throughout the city.
"Sounds like some dumbass from the Legion tried to sneak in here," said Jack. "Beacons have probably fried him something good by now."
"Ten fingers," Harvey Who noted, surveying the captive. "Most likely human."
"When he wakes up," said Elias, "he's probably going to be surprised to still be alive. Sedative should be worn off by now."
The "visitor" in question was the last survivor of a small party of trespassers Nicole had detected in the area. He'd seemed to have been trying to get away, but a combination of minor wounds and small tranquilizer dart from Lyco had made him unconscious for several hours. If Elias had given just one more inch and let his arrow fly, Harvey would really have been at his throat.
The trespasser woke up, discovering himself bound to a chair. A number of eyes were fixed on him, belonging to figures he'd run in with that day. Thankfully, they weren't trying to kill him right now.
"You've come to," said Harvey. "We've taken the liberty of addressing your wounds following your capture."
"You can talk?" said the captive. "You look like a bunch of animals, how can that be? Are you aliens or just a top-secret Feddie project?"
"Neither," said Elias, "did you guys knock off the Overlanders for their fashion?"
"Standard Zeon normal suit," he shot back.
Silver raised an eyebrow at the utterance of the word "Zeon". It was vaguely familiar.
Harvey approached the man stared right in his eyes. "Harvey Who, former head of Acorn Secret Intelligence," he said, as an introduction. "Who are you?"
"Grant, Arthur John of the Principality of Zeon, Bunch 2 New Moscow. Private, Zeon Earth Expeditionary Forces, Christiansburg garrison."
"Earth?" Silver said, astonished. "That light from the other day… this is the past?"
"What are you going on about?" asked the Zeon. "Even if I were able to get out of here, I'd be tried for treason for being captured."
"This planet we know as Mobius went by the name of Earth thousands of years ago," Elias explained. "That flash from the other day could have had Chaos Control properties and potentially rewound the flow of time."
"Time travel, too?" the guest asked. "Boy, the KSA is going to love hearing this. Then again, they could believe me after the distress call earlier."
"W-What are you talking about?" asked Larry.
"We've been doing periodic fly-overs in Dopps and Lugguns ever since the anomaly appeared in the valley. Today was the first manned mission to survey it."
"Anomaly?" asked Leeta.
"The walled city," said Grant. "After the flash, objects and places which weren't originally there emerged out of nowhere. After Bella and Sheheen died today, you can bet that our guys are going to solve this mystery once and for all."
Larry bit his lip worriedly. It was a bit hard to tell if his ability to create bad luck was going to get these strangers to bust out the big guns or if it only affected that vehicle of his so he could be captured. Maybe a little of both?
"If your contacting your comrades didn't remove civility from the table," said Harvey, "your earlier aggression did. I think we need a little more information; would you mind telling us what a 'bunch' is?"
"A space colony," said Grant. "O'Neill cylinders built for human habitation placed in orbit around the planet. A cluster of bunches create what's termed a Side. As each Side was completed it was given a number: Side 1, Side 2, Side 3, and so on. Sides 1, 2, 4, and 5 were destroyed in the carnage of January, and Side 6 has declared itself neutral."
"And Side 3?"
"That's Zeon," said Grant. "Under the leadership of Zeon Zum Deikun, we broke away from the Earth Federation during the Revolution of 0058. He died of a heart attack ten years later and power was ceded to Degwin Zabi, his hand-picked successor."
"What happened in January?"
"The war started. In about a month, the fighting killed half the human species. The signing of the Antarctic Treaty prohibits further usage of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Everything has to be fought by conventional means now: spacecraft, armor, mobile suits, that sort of stuff."
"What's a mobile suit?"
"A humanoid weapon developed by the Zeon military. With the advent of Minovsky physics, things like long-range missiles have become less effective." He laughed. "It was thanks to our Zakus that we were able to smash the Federation spacy so thoroughly."
"And what is the purpose of the Earth Expeditionary Force?"
"After our success in January, we were able to launch an invasion of the Earth itself. Zeon controls roughly half surface, including this continent, North America. One of my higher-ups remarked that at the rate things are going now, the Feddies should surrender no later than Spring."
"What makes you say that?"
"Their fleet still hasn't recovered from Loum and they have no mobile weapons that can match our Zakus. Luna II's the only bit of space they have left, for God's sake! You're much smaller and weaker than the Feddies, ousting you would take a day at most. That UFO that tried to fight our boys in Canada went down in a couple of hours."
"UFO?"
"I wasn't part of the group, but the news circulated from Notre Dame Base. A large, egg-shaped weapon was shot down at Fundy National Park."
"The Death Egg?" said Silver. "You defeated Dr. Eggman?"
"Commissar Garma did," said Grant. "He's probably been taken prisoner, I shouldn't wonder."
A spell of silence overtook the room. The SFF looked at one another ominously. They all knew about the Xorda, but to think that life on the planet had been nearly wiped out before that! Zeon meant business. The fact that they took down Eggman was proof enough.
The probe continued on into the night.
A jeep slowly rolled through the desert outside Sand Blast. Apart from its headlights, light projected from a searchlight wielded by the occupant in the passenger seat, a black Cat with a white belly and muzzle. This was the second pass around the area the beacon had gone off in, but nothing was turning up.
"Still n-n-no sign of the tre-tre-tres-the intruder, Friz?" asked the driver at the wheel, a Mobian Pig with a stutter.
"It doethn't make any thenth," the cat lisped. "Thomething had to have tripped that beacon." He picked up the CB radio on the console. "Frith calling Jack! Thtill thearching Thector Five with Mel. No thign of Robian activity."
"You kidding!?" Jack replied. "Those beacons were programmed to go off whenever a Legion goon shows up. Keep looking."
"F-Fr-Friz, l-look!" Mel was pointing ahead. Someone, a Rabbit, was lying in the sand. Dainty, long-haired, pink leotard, metallic-limbed. They did get one!
The two Sand Blasters parked and jumped out of the jeep, guns in hand.
"You're under arretht!" said Friz. "You're coming with us."
The duo carried their captive to the vehicle and began to make for the city.
"What are you thinking, Bunnie?"
Across sand and rough terrain with a flashlight in hand, Sonic dashed forward.
The madness at Oil Ocean had left the Chapter devastated and leaderless. Right now, they were keeping a low profile.
Bunnie, on the other hand, had barreled out of Red Rock. It wasn't hard to figure out her motive, but she was still not up to 100%.
Sonic's path reached a precipice: the edge of what Mobius knew as the Great Canyon. A fuzzy, orange blob could be seen in the distance.
Light.
The light of Sand Blast.
The intercom on Jack's desk buzzed and the voice of an underling could be heard. "Frith to Jack, Frith to Jack. We've found the vithitor. A rabbit with thyber parth."
Jack smiled. "This day just keeps getting better," he remarked. It buzzed again; another call was coming in. "Yes?"
"Jack, it's Avery. Jones and I had to deal with an intruder in Sector 10."
"Another one?" Jack asked. "Mel and Friz just notified me that they'd nabbed Beau's broad of a niece. What about you?"
"A plane of some sort over the Widow's Bend. Weird-looking one, too. About 100% sure it was the Legion's."
"Any survivors?"
"None that we could find. If the rocket didn't get him, the crash did."
Jack was a little disappointed by the reveal, but it didn't get him down. "Well, I can let that slide," he told him. "Especially after all the winning today. As you were." The Sand-Blaster leader switched back to the previous channel. "Sorry about that, Doc, that was Avery. Had a guest of his own. Bring her back here and we can have a little chat."
No response from Friz or Mel.
"Friz? Are you there?" Jack asked. He raised his voice, thinking something was up. "Mel? Friz? Where are you?"
He did get a reply, but it was neither of his underlings. "Howdy, Jack. Sorry I ain't one of your boys, but they're out to pasture now."
"Bullshit!" Jack's joy dissolved in a microsecond. "How can you even move? I know those beacons wrecked your circuits!"
"Anti-EMP coating," said Bunnie, a little smugly. "One last present from Uncle Beau before you had him killed. Now It's my turn to whoop you. See you real soon!" Static followed, as if the line had been severed.
Jack pounded his desk, frustrated. There was finally a cloud to rain on his parade.
Sapper didn't show a sign of emotion. He just whipped out a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth. "You know, Jack," he said "this isn't unforeseen. You got what you wanted, the Baron's dead. Yet you expected the Desert Chapter to roll over and die with him. Did you even consider the possibility of retaliation?"
Jack, looking pained, tried to cover his hide. "Reaper, you didn't just kill Beau, you took out a load of his equipment and a bunch of his men!"
"Yet I told you that Sonic was there," Sapper countered. "Even though he's with Acorn, he held quite a bit esteem for the Baron, as I did. You're also aware of his niece, but you didn't consider her trying to avenge him. I know you're missing an eye, but I would have thought you'd have the foresight to make a contingency plan." Striking up his lighter, he held the flame to the tip of the cig until it started glowing.
"W-We'll hit her hard!" said Jack.
"With what, your tanks?" Sapper asked, letting out a puff of smoke. "Even with armor you got nowhere."
"There's you!"
Sapper laughed. "As I said before: 'I'm not a charity'. What are you willing to pay?"
Embarrassed and over a barrel, Jack relented. "I'll give you another 10,000."
A strict curfew was imposed on all civilians within Zeon-occupied zones apart from certain exceptions. Pre-war nocturnal activities became rarer and rarer for the average guy on the street, but for the occupying forces and upper crust, things were different.
Lombardy was an Italian supper club in San Diego. Normally, the ritzy establishment was jumping with West Coast blue-bloods, but the main patrons tonight were mostly uniformed ZEEF officers, about fifty in all. A smorgasbord of dishes had been laid out: pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, you name it.
Garma Zabi, the young commissar of the ZEEF North American division, was seated at a round booth table in a corner with three other men. The waiter approached with a tray bearing stromboli, enough to satisfy all four seated. "Thank you," he said, before turning his attention back to his underlings. "So, anyway, Eggman and that Snively claim they're not part of the Federation and keep blabbing on about this Mobius nonsense and places that don't even exist! This morning, he brought up something about humanoid animals."
"You think we should hook him up with the El Paso garrison?" asked the major to his right. "A few guys over there claimed to have seen a big hedgehog or something walking around on two legs."
Laughter blossomed among the foursome. Garma proceeded to get a slice of the stromboli onto his plate, but noticed an approaching lieutenant with a vanilla folder under his arm. "What is it, Darota?"
"Commissar," said the lieutenant "we have a development from the UFO investigation. This was discovered inside the wreck." Opening the folder, he handed him a pair of photos.
Garma looked at one. It was of a gemstone of some kind; diamond-cut, a very deep blue. The next image showed one of their soldiers holding the same object. It was sort of big, its crown about five-to-six inches in diameter, but could be carried in the hands of the average adult. "Very pretty," he remarked, "but this sort of thing is more M'Quve's speed."
"There's more," said Darota. "Airbase Mojave has reported the loss of a Luggun in the vicinity of the Colorado River Anomaly some fifteen-to-twenty minutes ago. A similar situation occurred at the Shenandoah Valley. Christiansburg and Mojave request clearance for engagement."
"It seems our aliens threw the first punch," Garma said, smirking. "Contact Sablin. Mojave has clearance to move. Also, arrange another meeting with Eggman. I want to have to have a little talk about these 'Chaos Emeralds' of his before he goes to Zeon."
Main Street glittered with lights and neon despite a revenge-minded ex-Freedom Fighter's rampage. Sonic turned up late to the party, but he was able to lay eyes on some of the leftovers from one of Bunnie's skirmishes: several wrecked jeeps, smoking craters in the road, and several lifeless Sand-Blasters.
A voice from the wreckage: "Damn bitch… damn… bitch…!"
Sonic rushed over to the survivor, now trying to claw his way out of the mess, and knelt. It was Shift E. Wolf, one of Jack's inner circle. "Where's Bunnie?" Sonic demanded.
The Hedgehog wouldn't get a response, the survivor expired three seconds after asking. He'd come too late. He squeezed his eyes shut in a show of disappointment. Back to square one.
As Sonic rose back up, a sense of calm overtook his psyche. Not peace of mind, but an uneasy kind. Like on the morning of a final exam for a class you're barely getting by in: you studied hard for it, and you're afraid of failing regardless.
In Sonic's case, it wasn't any exam. In fact, not even he knew what it was. All he knew was that it was coming.
He had to find Bunnie before it was too late.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
+ In keeping with the theme of the Sand Blasters being Looney Tunes references, the original characters of Mel and Friz are based on Porky and Sylvester, respectively. Mel is named for Mel Blanc, who voiced the bulk of the characters, and Friz is named for director Friz Freleng.
A big thanks not only to SonicEvan, but also HyperionGM for helping me out with feedback when I got stuck.
EDIT 6/9/19 - Correction: "Tech E. Wolf" corrected to "Shift E. Wolf".