In three seconds they were at the red oven.
They leapt inside and Sonic shut the door behind them. Tails clambered off of Sonic's back, they slid to the ground, and the two of them crouched on the floor of the tunnel.
Surveillance bots began to whizz through the air above ground. Below, the two Mobians huddled in silence, listening, their large ears cocked.
The sounds began to die down and Sonic unclicked the walkie talkie from his vest-tunic's strap. "Checking on Bunnie," he whispered.
Tails watched Sonic, blue eyes wide, biting his lower lip.
Sonic punched in Bunnie's channel. "Hey, Bunnie?" he hissed.
Static.
Sonic grit his teeth and glared to the side.
They used the highest frequencies they could underground—enhanced by Mobium ring connectors-but it was still hard to pick up each other's signals in the sewers.
"That you, Sa'nic?" Bunnie's voice came in, muffled by her gas mask.
Both Sonic and Tails sagged in relief.
"You okay?" Sonic asked.
"Well, it's never been exactly clean down here," Bunnie sniffed.
Sonic shot Tails a thumbs up and winked. The fox's ears pricked up.
Sonic narrowed his eyes. "Keep your wits up, Bunnie, the bots are upping their game today—"
"Sa'nic, did somethin' happ-"
"We're fine, Bunnie. Gotta run. Over n' out." He signed off.
The hedgehog spun to Tails, grinning hard. The fox met Sonic's gaze, and his eyes brightened a little.
Sonic kicked towards the oven door above them. His tone took back on its characteristic panache. "Not fast enough today, buzzbots." He snatched Tails by the shoulder and ruffled the fox's forelocks, "And not bad back there with the thermos can, kiddo."
Tails ducked his head, hiding a small smile.
"We're almost getting too good at this." Sonic's green eyes flashed. "We're gonna get out just fine too—with Knux."
He sounded as sure as ever, he made sure of that.
But Tails noticed the way Sonic's eyes burned and how he fisted his hands.
"I—I know." Tails forced a grin, but his eyes said more than his words could. He wrapped his arms and tails around himself.
Sonic pushed his legs out in front of him and scooted closer to Tails. "Hey don't you worry, bro." He knocked the fox against his side and gave him a punch in the chest. "It's gonna be okay, see. We're gonna make it okay. If we don't find Knuckles tonight, we'll just keep coming back until we do, got it? We're not gonna stop until we find out what happened to him."
Tails looked up at him. He had that determined hope in his eyes. The hope Sonic had taught him to have down through all the years, all the things they had survived this far… "Got it, Sonic."
Sonic glanced down at the darkness of the tunnel and frowned.
Of course, Robotnik could have roboticized Knuckles.
Sonic glared and let out a sharp breath.
He turned back to Tails. "You be careful in there."
Tails nodded and began to get up. Normally he and Sonic stuck together, but they were low on people tonight and they had a lot of ground to cover.
"Wait." Sonic whipped another coin-sized ring free from his third tunic belt. The ring pulsed, warm and glowing in Sonic's hand, a continuous twist of fluorescing Mobium energy. He stretched out his palm, letting the ring expand to the size of a plum. "Take this."
The gold of the ring reflected in the fox's eyes like fire. Tails gaze hardened. "That's your only shield ring."
Sonic smirked. "So?"
Tails stared at him dead on. "I can do this." Even though his voice shook a little. "Besides, the rings are only an emergency…you are better at using rings than I am, and if anyone catches footage of someone using rings, they'll know it's you behind this-"
"Aw, let the Doctor know it's me," Sonic snapped. He glanced away, his spikes unsheathing. "At least then we'd have a good reason to cut loose. I'd rather be on the run then licking his boots any day. Sometimes I just wanna bring a whole bucketload of rings and fire them at this city 'til it melts down to a pul-" Sonic stopped, closing his eyes. He scowled hard and snapped his fingers. "What'm I saying…Thanks to that fake truce with Robotnik, I guess right the planet kind of depends on me sticking around to lick his boots."
Tail's eyes sparked, his jaw set. "We'll be free again someday, Sonic."
Sonic glanced back up at Tails. A small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
"And I'll help carry all the rings you need to destroy this place if I have to," Tails finished. His hands were fisted tight.
"Sure you will, Tails," Sonic said. He said it like he meant it.
The hedgehog tossed the ring in the air and caught it backhanded. "Okay, enough gabbin'. This one's still yours."
"Sonic, I-" Tails started.
Something in Sonic's green eyes sharpened. He glared. "We don't have time for this, I'm the Ringweilder, I know who the rings are supposed to go to, 'kay? This one's screaming your name."
Tails glared back. "….All right. I'll only use it if I have to." Stubbornness tinged his tone, but Sonic knew he was relieved too.
Sonic closed his eyes, the heat from the ring burning in his hand. The truth was, the ring was for Tails. He'd felt it in his gut when he had chosen it before they left. Exactly when he was supposed to give it to Tails, the ring wasn't saying. So it was up to him.
He mentally bequeathed the ring, granting the fox the right to manipulate it into a force shield. Then he opened his eyes and tossed the ring to Tails. The fox put it into the pocket of his cargo pants.
"It'll only work as a shield though. No funny tricks," Sonic warned. "Now you better get out of here. Let me know if you find anything, got it?" He wrapped an arm around Tails ribs and squeezed tight.
"Got it." Tails squeezed back, fisting his hands against Sonic's back spikes. They both let go, their gazes meeting, fear and resolve mirrored in their eyes.
Then Tails jumped to his feet. He took off and ran down the tunnel, propelling his tails to help him keep his balance.
Sonic paused, taking a second to watch his brother disappear.
He'd be okay.
Sonic took his gas mask from his side pack and picked the walkie talkie back up. He switched the screen to distance message and dialed the channel that connected him with Sally.
"Hey, Sal," he whispered into the recorder. "Save some food from the party for us three, okay?" He smirked, his eyes bright. "I'll touch back with you in a bit. We may be able to scrounge up something here instead. See ya."
Miles from Robotropolis, the palace of Capitol Aero stood at the peak of a great cliff face. Inside the palace, in a great dining hall, the ruling bodies of the planet had assembled—the People's Council, the royal family, and one human. Or, at least, he had once been a human.
Doctor Nikolos—known as "Robotnik" by all who hated him-sat at the head of the assembly table, an egg-shaped bulk towering two feet above the Mobian members. Bronze, claw-like hands clutched the arms of his wood chair. The hinged extremities attached to a bronze forearm. The metal continued. Up his shoulder. To his robotic neck. His jaw, his nose, his cheek bones. His eyes were black lenses encased in vinyl orbs, each orb filled with a red laser substance that resembled a pupil. He wore a bronze skull cap screwed to his scalp to protect his brain, one of the few parts of his body that he had not yet roboticized. The only other parts of him that were still flesh were his red mustache, his lips and his teeth.
Faint harp music echoed through the assembly dining hall.
"You know, I really appreciate how you creatures set out food for me even though I cannot actually eat anymore—don't have to. Not having to worry about food has been very convenient. All the citizens of Robotropolis agree," The Doctor said.
The ruling Queen Alicia, sitting closest him, sat straight and stiff, her head bowed. She was a beautiful Mobian, a chipmunk, with dark facial lines accenting her delicate features. Her soft chestnut brown hair had been piled on top of her head and draped with a gold head piece that trailed down in front of her ears and brushed the nape of her neck. Gold make up studded her weary brown eyes.
"Doctor," she said. "Would you then prefer we forgo offering you food in the future when you reside as guest here?"
"Hmm…" Robotnik said, tapping his metal fingers. "Well…yes. That would simplify things for all you little animals, wouldn't it, dear?"
Queen Alicia did not respond to his disrespect. No one corrected him anymore.
Heavy silence filled the hall.
The queen took a deep breath, then tried to speak again. She stood up. "Doctor Nikolos, I thank you for encouraging us to band together during this difficult time in our planet's history. I am sure I speak for us all when I say Mobia thanks you heartily for your assistance. Angel Island has always been a reminder to us of our planet and universe's eventual cleansing, when darkness will be consumed from all hearts and lands once and forever. It is tragic indeed that the island finally fell."
Lord Further, A Mobian warthog with thick black hair pulled back from his face applauded. "Well said, our Lady. Why," he forced a chuckle, "I remember, when I was a child, seeing the island float over my little village and everyone came out to stare, and for weeks no one talked about anything else except the island relic." He cleared his throat, "Well, you can imagine just how devastated we were when we found it had crashed on the M'Leah mountain range—no Guardian, no relic, the holding room cracked open." His bright eyes darkened and he averted his gaze.
The Queen smiled. She turned to the mecha-human. "While we are here, do you have any further news? Have your spy ships uncovered anything more?"
Robotnik toyed with the end of his mustache. "Not much more…only it still looks like the work of Deks."
On Robotnik's right, a young Mobian chipmunk sat in silence, her head erect. She had kept from speaking all evening, her face nonchalant, but at this comment she arched her eyebrows quickly.
They all knew it was not Deks. He had taken down Angel Island himself. No one knew why, and no one was going to say or do anything about it.
A stray tendril of her thick auburn hair fell forward from where she had swept her hair back from her brow. She tucked it back behind her ear, glancing down.
"Thank goodness, my region hasn't seen any Deks yet," Lord Further said, gaze still averted. "We all too remember the great wars we fought with them in our youth—back before you came and saved us, Dr. Nikolos."
The girl pinched her lips together.
Before the human had cracked a hole in the dimensional divide. Before he had brought the tech, and electricity, and radio waves from earth, and robots and machine guns.
He was going to kill them all one day.
"Speaking of which." Dr. Nikolos said. "I have some matters to discuss with all of you. I did suggest we gather for a reason…since Deks are coming back, I have been attending to preparations for the planet's protection. I've been studying the design of my airborne destroyers. I'm sure you all have seen some of them—big hulking things. Could definitely level a medium sized city with a few well aimed shots. But they are slow, so I've been making many millions of smaller ones. They'll move faster. Millions, I tell you all. You should come down to Robotropolis and see them sometime."
"We would like that very much." Queen Alicia said.
"Millions," The Doctor went on, ignoring the queen. "I just love this little deal I have going with you all. I never could have built all this if you hadn't let me advertise under our truce. You all were right—letting your people decide to join instead of me just taking them does work better in the long run—"
The girl almost rolled her eyes. Like he still didn't take their people. He'd just forced the Council to make it legal.
He went on. "—So many of your people have decided to live in Robotropolis thanks to you, building millions and millions of destroyer ships… factories… Before you know it, there will be thousands of more cities like Robotropolis. This whole planet, a utopia-"
Next to Robotnik, the girl raised her head, her large, almond-shaped blue eyes burning. "Doctor," her voice was clipped. "I am sure you will need those destroyers frequently in a utopia."
The Doctor fixed his red laser pupils on her.
She would have shrunk from his hideous face, but not now. She hated him too much. Instead she pasted on her trained smile.
"Many people might try to sabotage a mission as crucial as mine," The Doctor said, his voice lowering. "Many people might not understand, princess…"
"I see," the princess said. She took a quick breath, then finally dropped her gaze. She took a sip of sparkling pear juice, ducking her head.
"You are right, Doctor," Sir Torrence, an elegant Mobian eagle, affirmed. "You are wise, as always."
A murmur of agreement circled around the room from the Mobians.
The sound rang in the princess' ears. She stared at the carved wooden walls beyond the table, gripping the seat of her chair with locked knuckles. She took a deep breath as tears pricked her vision.
Sonic. Sonic, at least, was still fighting.
FINAL UPDATE 10/27/2018
UPDATED 4/16/17. I changed the introduction to Sally a lot in this chapter. Hope it's more fun to read and easier to understand. :-)
... I had so much fun writing this chapter. Hope everything made sense! If anyone's confused on anything, feel free to ask questions to clarify! ;-)
If you liked this story and you'd like to see more, please leave a quick review and let me know! I have way too much fun with this story and each character in here has some inner back plot or side story I could really delve into more if I had the time-trouble is, I don't have the time. XD So, if you like a specific character, please tell me who, and maybe I'll write more about them someday. ;-)
God bless you all and Happy Resurrection Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!
Keep fighting,
~Connie
