The three Mobians strode together through the night, their eyes bright against the darkness. Dappled moonlight and shadows flickered over their bodies as they made their way down the path.
Sonic shot Tails a look on his left. The fox's jaw was clenched tight. Ready to fight.
Sonic looked up from the scratches they had made in the dirt, shooting Tails a sharp grin. "You fixed that radio on purpose, didn't you?"
Tails had glanced up at Sonic, his forelocks falling into his blue eyes. He managed a grin. "I had a lot of time to think when I was sick." He shrugged, looking up from the map of Cloven Drew he had made. "Things can start to look pretty awful when you're stuck in your own head for too long…"
Sonic had smirked back. He crossed his legs and leaned back on his hands in the dirt. "Yeah..."
Then he had smiled. A real smile, without any sarcasm, any smirk, any suave. Just a genuine, full smile.
"Boy…" he shook his head to himself. "I'm so glad you and Ames and Sal are still here…" Then he looked straight at Tails. "What I'd I do without you guys, huh?"
Tails eyes lit up.
Sonic may have said it silently every day. But he didn't usually say it out loud.
Tails tackled him, wrapping his arms around his brother's waist and burying his head against his tunic. Sonic threw an arm around Tails, closing his eyes hard.
The wind whistled down on them. On his left, Amy Rose clutched her hammer, her green eyes narrowed to slits.
Of course they were scared. They always were before something like this. They'd been scared back when Uncle Sparks sent them out on a mission. Back during the truce, when they had chosen to keep going out on their own. Just cause this was a fight they thought they could win didn't mean something couldn't go crazy wrong.
But boy, they didn't care. They were ready.
Sonic laughed, jabbing at the dirt map with the toe of his foot. "Wouldja look at us, huh? Sal would be proud. Even she'd admit I've got brains enough to plan a mondo killer attack this time." He chuckled. "All the same, I'll let her do the planning when we get back to the Underground."
Tails reared back from hugging Sonic, raising an eyebrow.
"We're going back?" he asked.
"Yeah." Sonic shrugged one shoulder.
Tails sat back, curling his tails around himself in happiness.
"If we're gonna take out Robotnik, we're going to need Sal." Sonic said. "She probably won't like it at first, but, hey? We won't know unless we give it a shot." Sonic jabbed at the communication tower next to the Ignitium pump on the map. "Hmm. Wish she was here now. She could use NICOLE to break up the combot's mind-link thing."
Tails crossed his arms, lowering his eyelids. "You know I'm the one that taught her how to do that, right?"
There was something at the end of the path. Sonic motioned forward with his finger.
Tails nodded, exchanging glances with Sonic. He began marching ahead and winding his tails together, but Sonic clapped his hand on his shoulder.
Tails looked back at Sonic, his eyes wide.
Sonic held out his fist.
Tails grinned. He shot out his own.
Bop, top, swack, side, clasp, down, thumbs up.
Tails scooted back, looking very small beneath the towering trees and the danger up ahead. His eyes were bright though. He turned on his heel and began to run, whirring his tails together.
Sonic turned to look at back Amy.
She rocked back and forth on her heels, hammer clasped in hand.
"Can I get on now?" Amy asked.
Sonic raised a hand—
She leapt onto his back and swung her hammer around his waist. She held onto it with both hands like it was the safety bar at a circus amusement ride. Sonic almost staggered back, but caught his balance with a wince.
Amy dropped her head against Sonic's shoulder.
"I love you," she whispered.
Sonic pretended he hadn't heard. He began to walk towards the light up ahead, bowing his head to hide the smile that crept over his face.
"We're still going to keep fighting like we used to?" Amy Rose had snatched onto him the minute he had finished talking to the others. She rocked from side to side. "And you'll let me be a part of it?"
"Of course you're on my team, Ames," Sonic said, leaning against the tree she had pinned him to. "It's my job to protect you, right? Every damsel needs a knight in shining armor?"
She nodded.
"And it's your job to smash anything that tries to do me in, right? So I can keep rescuing you?"
She nodded harder.
"So sounds like you and me are supposed to stick together, huh?"
"Yes!" she blurted, hurtling at him.
Sonic squirmed as she kissed him. "Eeek, Ames…"
She pulled back, her green eyes shining. "I'll carry your rings for you—I can pick them up if you drop them—I'll carry and pick up anything for you-!" Then her voice dropped. She clasped her hands behind her back and bowed her head. "And I…I'll try really hard not to bother you…"
Sonic raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You will, huh? Really?"
Amy blushed, and her ears flicked down. She nodded.
Sonic took her by the shoulders. "Thanks, Amy…" He hugged her. For real.
The two of them reached the top of the path. Sonic stopped and stared down at what remained of Cloven Drew.
The place where the houses had once been had already been leveled for new construction. The massive Ignitium pump gleamed in the moonlight, bright with heat, sparks flying from its peak.
Amy caught her breath. They both gazed at the landscape before them. Sonic thought he could glimpse shadows of moving creatures through steaming widows around the Ignitium pump.
"With liberty and justice for all," Sonic murmured, his brow narrowed, staring at the shadows in the windows with bright green eyes. "I always liked that part. And boy is this planet ready for a bit of both." Sonic huffed, keeping his eyes on the sky. He glimpsed a small figure hovering up to the communication tower from the other side of the village.
"Ready to pound some trash cans, Ames?" Sonic hissed.
"Oh boy," she gurgled to herself.
"Then we are outta here." Sonic leaned into his crouch—Amy held on harder. "Up, over, and game on!"
Sonic cracked into Speed.
Benji gasped for breath, struggling with all his might against the combots, trying to reach his daughter. "Daisy! Daisy-be brave, Daisy, I'm right here!"
The combots held him by the wrists. They marched forward, away from the Ignitium pump and the slave lines, half-dragging the Mobian groundhog through the dirt.
Benji tried to lunge forward, towards the combot up ahead. The one that carried his daughter over its shoulder. She held completely still, her large pink eyes fixed on her father.
"It's all right, Daisy, I'm coming with you, it's all right!" He shouted again and the combots jerked him back.
They began to approach the machine seat up in the middle of where their homes had been…the one that looked like a bed. The one that had already sucked the life out of any that could not work. That meant every elder and infant Mobian that had not left the village in time.
Benji whirled his head, looking at the combots at his side. "Please, she is four years old, she can still work—she can wipe down the pump—she can carry things—my Mobium alone will be enough—"
The combots did not respond. They never responded to the Mobians. They just did.
Along the shadows on the walls around the village, something blurred. It was barely visible in the dark, leaving only a small "whoosh" sound behind. A slight clang sound shook the mesh wire gate.
One combot turned to look. But there was nothing there.
They reached the Mobium extractor and paused. Benji stood, breathing hard, his eyes still fixed on his daughter.
The head combot, taller and bigger than the others, with dark lines of encased circuits snaking along its scalp, turned to face Benji. It held Daisy in its arms.
"Monsters!" Benji shouted for all he was worth, straining against the combots. "What does your Master want with us?"
The head combot beeped to itself, still staring at Benji.
"Mobian downgrade. You have resisted every time an extraction has taken place, inciting rebellion among the other downgrades. For that, you now qualify as liability rather than an asset, and will be exterminated."
They began to take him to the extractor. He did not resist.
The head combot strode to the end of the machine. "As an inciter of rebellion, you qualify as a rebel beneath your Master's criteria, and will be extracted without the full aid of a Mobium moleculizer."
With that, the head combot adjusted the switch on the canopy over the Mobium extractor.
Benji took a deep breath, steeling himself. They stretched his body over the dome-shaped magnet and secured his wrists and ankles. He still watched his daughter.
She blinked. "Daddy, no…"
"It's all right, Daisy—" Benji said. "I love you—you need to cover your ears and close your eyes now—"
"I estimate his extraction to take twenty minutes," the head combot said to the others. "Then we will proceed with the extraction schedule." It began to back away, carrying Daisy with him. It stepped over a line drawn in the dirt and put Daisy down. She would be next.
She stared back at her father, her face white. Then she clapped her hands over her ears and closed her eyes.
The combots turned on the extractor. It sucked Benji's body to itself, sealing him tight to its surface. At once his golden color began to pale and melt into liquid. He tried to whisper under his breath, but cut short and let out a sharp screech of pain.
Daisy flinched, hands still over her ears. "Daddy—!"
Benji stared up at the night sky, screaming. His skin was ripping open—he could feel his organs shifting, beginning to tear—his rib cage creaked—
And then it stopped.
The combots did not move. They stared at the magnet as it powered down, as it released its hold on the Mobian secured to it.
Benji still screamed, gasping in pain, but he knew it had stopped too.
The head combot paused, registering the problem. It did not speak out loud, but just strode forward and began examining the extractor's control center.
The other combots did not move. Daisy stood where the head combot had left her, still holding her ears.
"Communication link interrupted," one of the combots murmured. "Voice commands activated—"
Something whooshed past— whipping over the combots—around the extractor.
"'Bout time, Tails!"
The head combot spun around, levelling its canons—the other combots staggered—
Daisy was gone.
Suddenly, a gold globe shot up around the Mobium extractor, cracking like an explosion. It threw the combots back—
"C'm here little trash can!" a second voice screamed.
The head combot barely had a chance to load its blaster before the pink piko hammer slammed into its control panel and smashed its face in.
Amy Rose pulled her hammer free and shouldered it with a war whoop. She spun on her heel, her skirts flying—the hammer shot out from her hands, spinning into the other two combots. Her bangles flashed. She hit the ground, rolling into a ball, and spun away from the slugs that spat towards her.
The golden globe shifted. It shot out into a shield and smashed into the combot slugs, absorbing them.
Amy Rose brought her hammer down onto two other combots with a cackle. She pulled back and slammed again, and again, grinding their metal blasters and panels into the dirt of the village.
The golden shield whipped in front of her, cutting her off. She stopped, puzzled.
Sonic rose from the extractor, his green eyes blazing. He held Daisy on his shoulder with one hand. The other he held out towards the ring shield, his fingers clawed.
The shield wrapped around all three remaining combots, then began to shrink—down, down—
The gold from the shield glittered in Amy's eyes. She and Sonic smiled as the metal monsters began to crack.
Sonic took a deep breath and let out a sharp growl. He shrunk the ring until he could close his fist no longer.
The ring shield dissipated. All that was left was a dome-shaped pile of melted metal scrap.
Sonic straightened. Daisy still covered her ears, her eyes wide. Benji breathed hard on the Mobium extractor.
Sonic turned around to face Benji and snatched up a walkie talkie from his belt. "You're gonna be okay, sir."
Benji just stared in shock, panting for breath.
Sonic clicked on the walkie talkie. "Communication tower secure, Yellow Sky?"
"Right-o, Blue Blur." The voice came back. "The combot's mind link is down."
"They started turning on the extractor down here," Sonic said. "I had to cut through its power lines with a ring—the guy here is real hurt, but Rose and I are moving on. Even if the combots' communication link is down, they might've heard us-"
Amy Rose rocked from foot to foot behind Sonic. She waved at Daisy, swinging her hammer.
"I'll take him, Sonic." Tails said. "It's secure here."
"Got it, we're gonna run," Sonic snapped off the walkie talkie. He took a ring from his belt and bowed. "You're a brave guy, sir. Hold on."
Up in the sky, a dark shape leapt from the communication tower and began to hover down towards them.
The hedgehog winked. He set Daisy down on the Mobium extractor and handed her the ring, "Give this to your Daddy, okay? It goes in his mouth, it'll make him get better." He saluted, spun on his heel, and burst into Speed. Amy Rose let out a squeak as he swooped her up, and the two raced towards the Ignitium pump.
Benji and Daisy did not dare move. The girl stared, her jaw dropped.
Something thudded onto the dirt behind them.
The two Mobians turned their heads, eyes huge.
A two-tailed fox jumped up from the ground, a laser knife in hand. His blue eyes flashed in the dark as he hurried to Benji. "Hold still, sir, I'll cut you lose in no time—watch my back for combots."
Thank you once again for reading, all! :D Your encouraging words keep me going. We're almost there. :)
To Infinity and Beyond,
Connie/April
