Chapter 2: New Allies, Old Foes
The Tornado, Bunnie, and the Speedstar raced over the Wastelands. They were flying over the whole night, it was dawn now. Rouge fell asleep beside Big, Sally didn´t blame her for this, the bat flied nearly a whole day, and a little nap was okay. When they must fight, it should be better Rouge was rested.
Sally looks over to Amy, the pink hedgehog girl sitting on the steering and seems to be tense. " When you feeling tired Amy, we can land and I change place with you, okay?" The other girl shook her head. " No time, Sally! And I'm not that tired now!" Sally shrugs and looked at the others in the back. " Big, everything´s okay?" The huge cat nodes and nudge accidently Rouge´s shoulder. The bat blinks and stretches with a yawn. " Uaah, are we finally there?" Big scratches his head. " Sorry, I didn't want to wake you up!" Rouge smiles. " No, big guy, all fine! The nap was good." She looks around. " Hey, perfect! The factory isn´t far away! We should look for a place to land, otherwise, they notice us!" She points to a range of hills, Sally followed her view, then she pushed a button on the panel of the Speedstar for the com. " Tails, Bunnie, were close to the factory, the hills on the right! Rouge said it´s too risky to get closer in the air, we should land a bit aside!" The voice of the young fox sounds a bit nervous when he answers. " There is a rock plateau beside, should be enough! I don´t wanna land the Tornado in the dust!" Bunnie gets a bit closer to the Speedstar and noded.
Rouge taped Amy on the shoulder. " I forgot, what is now with you and Sonic?" Sally tried to answer when Amy nodes. " Well, you know, he didn´t get it, so I act like I'm too busy for him! And that seems to work!" Sally giggles. " First, even Sonic sees that your body changes, you don´t look so young anymore. Second, this guy in Station Square, Tyler, that made him mad!" Bunnie´s voice came over the com, she laughs. " That hot guy that flirts with Amy? Oh yeah, that boy seems to hook her up and marry her immediately!" Rouge nodes. " You become a woman, Amy! And the guys notice that!" Amy smirks. " Sure, I must get my dress a number bigger than before! Yes, I think Sonic notices me more as a girl than a friend now!" She looks a bit dreamily away. " Maybe..." Rouge looks at her. " You know, I only flirting with him to tease you! I just make fun, sometimes I´m flirting with recruits for G.U.N. to tease them!"
Amy laughed. " I can imagine how you do that!" She puts a hand on her hip and switched her voice. " Hello, you cuties! I am Rouge the Bat and I know, I´m hot!" Sally giggles and switches her voice too. " I show you guys how we handle this!" Sie blinks overthrown with her eyes, Amy and Nicole laughed, even Big giggles and over the com, they heard Bunnie´s laughter. Rouge sighs annoyed. " Hey, I don´t sound like that!" " Indeed, she sounds like that!" Came Nicole´s voice from the handheld, then she materializes beside Sally, with a flirty grin on her face and blinks with her eyes towards Sally. " Hi Sally, sweetie! You look amazing!" The lynx-girl winks at her girlfriend. " Should I show you what I got?" She leans over and blows the strands out of Sally´s forehead, Sally widens her eyes and shivers. " Uhm, Nicole, you scare me a bit!"
Rouge giggled. " Nicole, you should do that again when you two are alone, I think she likes it!" Now the bat, Amy, Big, and Nicole giggled, also Bunnie and Tails laughed on the com. Sally rolled her eyes and smiled annoyed. " Ha, ha, you silly guys! Nicole, this is not yourself!" The black-haired girl noded puts her hands together and smiles at her girlfriend as sweet as she can, with big googly eyes. Sally blinks and smiles. " Yes, this is what I love about you!" She grabs Nicole´s hands and kissed her on the cheek, making her smile. Amy giggles. " You two are so cute!"
Rouge laughed. " Indeed, Amy´s right! I´m happy for you both! But, Nicole, I guess being a bit more flirty, I´m sure Sally liked it a bit!"
They all laughed again, then Nicole stops with a concerned look. " The sensors got something!"
Bunnie´s voice came over the com. " Yap, girls, on the left! Badniks, three, four, heading towards our position!" Nicole looked over to Amy. " Amy, the blue switch!" The pink hedgehog nodes and pulls a light-blue lever on the panel, Sally frowns and looks over. " What´s that?"
Amy points to the badniks that came closer and closer. " A jammer, now they can´t contact the base" " And for the base, it seems to be technical difficulties." Tails` voice came from the com. " Not bad what? I told ya about some upgrades for our vehicles!" Sally nodes. " Ah, right, you talked about!" Rouge whistles. " Nice gadgets, sweetie!" She frowns. " That things weren´t here yesterday, they must work up their security!"
Big looks at the badniks too. " Must be something important, when they need more guards!" " Shuga, ya right!" They heard Bunnie over the com. " We should lure them away from the factory, so no one notices when we shoot`em up!"
Sally nodes, Amy steers to the left, directly toward the badniks, Tails in the Tornado, and Bunnie followed them. Nicole blinks. " Sally, it´s Balkiryes, you guys know what they do!"
Amy gulps. " Those kamikaze-things! Tails, Bunnie, we distract 'em and you guys get 'em!" Rouge taps on her shoulder. " I can distract one of them too and when I´m near enough, I can destroy it!" Sally looks concerned over to her. " But watch out, those things are fast!" The bat nodes. " I´m fast too!" Amy interrupts. " Okay, lets go, Rouge! You others, fasten your belts, this will be a wild ride!"
Sally and Big fasten their seatbelts, Nicole dematerializes while Rouge stood up, widens her wings and flies off. Amy headed toward the badniks, which were shaped like birds of prey, all in red and came closer very fast. Tails steered to the left of the Speedstar, Bunnie and Rouge to the right.
Sally bared her teeth. " Okay, let us do it to it!"
Both groups get closer and closer. Sally looks over to Amy, who had a grim expression on her face. " Ready, Amy?" The pink hedgehog nodes. " Yep!" Sally took a breath, then she talks to the com. " Everyone ready? We try to separate them!" The others copied.
The distance gets shorter. Then Sally gave a signal. " NOW!" Tails headed to the left, Bunnie to the right, Rouge gets up and Amy steers down, Sally feels the wind in her face.
It works.
The badniks split up, one following another target. Rouge still gets higher, one of the robots close behind her. She makes a circle and flies back in the direction they came from.
Well, show me what you got, screwhead! The bat looks down and saw a rock face, a smile appears on her lips.
Then she gets over into a nosedive, the badnik still behind. Rouge headed directly toward the rockface. She pulled in her wings and get faster. Then she turned her head a bit, from the corner of her eyes she saw the Balkirye still following her. She looked forward again, getting faster and faster.
A moment before she hits the rockface, she spreads her wings and makes a curve to rise. It was so close that her boot's lace nearly scratches the rocks.
The badnik didn´t get the curve and smashes at full speed into the rockface. A little explosion could be seen when Rouge makes a circle. The bat turns and looked for the Speedstar. She swa Bunnie, followed by a badnik.
Bunnie activates the laser in her arm and tried to get the badnik in front of her. The robot holds persistent behind her, the rabbit decides to try another tactic. She turned on her back and looked at her follower, flying blind now.
Then she aimed with her laser. The first shot missed the badnik as it dodges to the left. But Bunnie counted on this and fired a second one while the robot moves. And get hitted frontal. Spinning and with a smoke trail, the badnik fell into the dust. Bunnie made a circle to join the others again as Rouge appears suddenly beside her with a grin. " Not bad! Now we should help the others!" She said, the rabbit nodes. Both headed toward the Speedstar and the Tornado, both spinning around and dodging the attacks of the badniks.
That moment Tails flies a looping, fires a missile at his enemy and hit it in the back, the badnik spins away.
Amy steers hard around to get the badnik off her back. Sally clenches her teeth. Big makes himself as small as he can. The chipmunk-girl curses as she looks back. " We can´t get him off!" " One sec, got him!" They heard Tails in the com. Amy dives abruptly down to the right, the world turns upside down when Sally notices the Tornado passing them. One moment later Amy makes a circle, they could see how a missile hits the badnik and it explodes.
Sally took a breath in relief. " Tails, you get your follower?" " Yes, I do, that one is-WHAT THE-?" Sally looks over to the Tornado. A badnik with a smoke trail, seemingly the one Tails shot first, was back and streaks the Tornado. The scratching of metal on metal could be heard over the com.
" TAILS!" Sally and Amy yelled shocked and gasps were heard on the com. " Damn, the stabilizer is damaged, I must land somewhere! Where is that thing?" Sally saw Bunnie and Rouge, both flying as fast as they can.
Because the badnik turned around and headed for the stern of the Tornado. Sally starts to sweat.
" TAILS, IT IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" Amy steers hard around. " We try again to distract it!" Sally shook her head. " We don´t be there fast enough! Bunnie, Rouge" The voice of the rabbit came over the com. " We´re too far away too! And on that distance maybe I hit Tails!" Now Sally´s blood froze in her veins.
...
Sneak looks back to Perky who had problems making her way to the rubble of some rocks. Her heels get stuck several times. They walked through the desert for about two hours, now they must pass a slope.
Sneak sighs. " I told ya, the boots in that store were the better choice for our trip!" Perky glares at her. " That boots were black! That´s not my style! The only stuff I wear in black is a fancy dress or a skirt" Sneak rolles amused her eyes. " You´re so picky!" The wallaby girl climbs over the last rocks, then she stops to straighten her skirt and pats the dust out of her clothes.
Suddenly they heard a loud noise, followed by a louder cracking sound. Both girls looked up. On a rockface they saw a smoke trail, a burning object crashed between some rocks insight. Then the cracking sound was heard again, now Sneak and Perky saw some objects flying in the sky, one seems to be an airplane. The bilby-girl covers her eyes with a hand against the sun, two of the objects were persons, one has wings, the other one got a smoke tail. That moment the plane passes another blue-grey object and heads toward a red, bird-like thing. Sneak clenches her teeth. " They fighting badniks there, some kamikaze-robots! Look, another of this robot spinning around, seems it was damaged!" Perky blinks. " I never saw something like that!" Now they saw a white smoke trail from the plane hitting the badnik, it explodes.
Then Sneak points up. " The other one comes back!" The red machine streaks the plane made a turn, and get behind it. The plane seems to get slower and got some smoke over it. Perky gasps. " That thing gets him! And the others are too far away!" Sneak bit her lips, Perky was right. The plane gets a bit down, the damage seems to be very bad.
In a few seconds, the plane and the badnik pass them from above...! The bilby-girl dropped her stick, grabbed her bow, and get an arrow out of the quiver. She put it on the string. Then she focused to activate the power rings on her wrists.
Perky´s eyes widened when the purple rings start to glow and little streams of energy wandered over Sneak´s hands into the arrow. The bilby-girl squinted her eyes and aimed. " No fuss now Perky!"
The plane passes them, then the badnik came closer. Sneak follows the path of the machine and turns her body a bit, then she holds her breath.
And shot..
...
Sally screams shocked when the badnik nearly approaches the Tornado- and gets hit by a purple flash! The robot was torn apart, the debris were raining down on the desert. Amy, Sally, and Big sighed in relief, per com they heard Bunnie. " You´re alright, lil bro?" " Yeah, yeah! That was close!" They heard the young fox. " I land on the plateau over there! Who shoot it?" " I don´t know! Two persons are heading to the position where the last badnik crashed down!" Rouge answered. Sally looked down. Yes, the silhouettes of two persons running through the dust, she turns to Amy. " We land there, near the debris, I wanna know who they are! Bunnie, Rouge, look for Tails, then join us, it´s not that far!"
Amy steers around and starts to land the Speedstar.
...
Sneak climbs between the debris and gets her arrow out of the chaos. Perky stopped beside her, panting, she seems to be excited. " That was awesome! I heard of power rings, but never see them in action! Cool!" Sneak shrugs with a smile. " I get them from my dad, he found me in a cave on a hunting trail with grandpa and together they find out how they work! Aiming and tightening I must do by myself, but the arrow gets a load of energy that´s strong enough to bring down bigger prey with one shot! Or destroy badniks!" Perky smirks. " Not the first robot you shot, huh?" Now Sneak smirks too. " Every time I get the chance to!"
Both turned around when the blue-grey vehicle landed not far away. To their surprise, it folded its wings and tires came out of the sides when it lowers its speed and hit the ground. Now it headed towards the debris on which Sneak stood. The bilby-girl climbs down, Perky gave her a questioning view. " You got an idea who they are?" Sneak moves no muscle. " Who knows, smugglers or scavengers, or mabe refugees, but I´m sure no friends of the eggheads!"
The vehicle stops beside them, at the steering sat a pink hedgehog girl in a red dress, on her side a chipmunk girl with a blue vest. On the backseat sat a huge purple and dark-purple striped cat. Sneak frowns, they don´t look like smugglers.
Suddenly Perky claps her hands with laughter. " This, this is Amy Rose of the...Freedom Fighters! I saw her on the media, at that tournament last year! You were there, and Sonic, and that cutie fox, Tails!" Now Sneak was confused when the hedgehog girl get out of the vehicle. " Who's the guy in the plane, you saved his life when you shot the badnik! Yes, I´m Amy Rose!" Perky jumped up and down, excited. " In that plane was Tails! Ol Sneaky, you saved the cutest boy in the whole world! Woohoo!" Sneak looks over and frowns. " How you called me?" " Uhm, Sneak, I called you Sneak! For sure! The Freedom Fighters, we mustn´t search them anymore!"
The chipmunk stepped beside Amy. " Sally Acorn, I´m the leader of the Freedom Fighters! The guy over there is Big the Cat! You searched for us? Why?" Perky makes a curtesy. " Princess Sally Acorn? Your Highness, my name is Perky the Wallaby! Sneak, that´s a princess, you must kneel!" Sneak squints her eyes. " I kneel before nothing and no one!" She reaches Sally her hand. " Sneak the Bilby! The eggheads kidnapped my grandpa, he is a geologist and researches for this Dark Gaia stuff!" Perky noded. " And they destroyed the trading outpost I lived! We wanna stop them!" Sneak pulls with her other hand the pocketbook out of the bag. " He begged me to take this with me, the notes inside should be important!"
Sally changes a look with Amy, then she grabs Sneak´s hand and shook it. " Nice to meet you two, you mustn´t kneel or make a curtesy, really not! And call me Sally, not your Highness, alright? As Amy said, thanks for your help, let me guess, it was one of your arrows that destroyed the badnik! It glows purple, I think your power rings around your wrists are the reason for this!" Sneak nodes, when a bat and a rabbit landing beside, last got a cybernetic arm and two cyber- netic legs, some smoke trails from her feet. The bat wears some daring stuff and makeup. Sneak guesses she needs hours in front of the mirror.
Both joined the group, Sally introduced them. " This is Rouge the Bat from G.U.N. and Bunnie D`Coolette! This two here are Sneak te Bilby and Perky the Wallaby! Sneak´s grandfather is the scientist that the EggArmy here searched for, Rouge!" Bunnie waves, Rouge smirks. " Hey, how ya doing? Tails´ alright, he´s just mad that the Tornado is damaged!" Sally nodes, then she points to the pocketbook. " Can I take a look?" Sneak hesitates for a moment, then she nodded. " sure, I didn´t look myself inside, I don´t understand all of the research of Grandpa!" She hands the pocketbook over to Sally, the leader of the team opens the first page, then she pulls out a little handheld.
" Nicole?" Before Sneak´s eyes a black-haired lynx girl materializes as from nothing, Perky gasps. " Woah, where...where do you come from?" The lynx laughed. " Out of the handheld, let me introduce myself! I´m Nicole the Holo-Lynx! A walking and talking library!" Sally smiles and kissed her on the cheek, Bunnie and Amy giggled. " You are more than that, Nicole, and you know that!" Perky giggles now too. " I see, how cute!" Sneak smirks, that lovey-dovey-stuff...! Nicole grabs the book and scrolls through it in seconds. Then she gasps and seems to get a bit pale. " Oh no, that...that couldn´t be!" Everyone looked at him, Sally frowns and put her hand concerned on her girlfriend´s arm. " Nicole, what is it?" The lynx girl looks stern over to Sneak. " Your grandfather found out that somewhere here in the desert lies a crystal fragment in the earth, it stores a lot of Dark Gaia energy! This is what they search out here! Your grandfather even found out the coordinates!" Rouge and Sally changed a look, the bat blinked. " The doctor tried in the past several times, to use that energy, don´t imagine what he can do with that crystal!" Sally nodes. " We must prevent this! Sneak, did your grandfather note the coordinates somewhere else?" The bilby girl shook her head. " No, only in the pocketbook, and..." She taps on her temple with one finger. "...in his head!" Amy swings her hammer. " I guess they wanna get him showing them the coordinates! We must get inside the factory, now!" Rouge nodes. " The factory is over therebetween that rocks!" Sneak gasps. " The factory is here? THen hurry, we must get in!"
Sally looks at her, confused. " We? That´s our job, we do stuff like this for years!" The bilby girl grumbles. " First, they have my grandpa! Second, who saved your buddy's life? You can need an archer like me! Third, I go inside, with or without you!"Perky pokes her. " And I go with her, that guys destroyed my home! And they are a threat, everyone that can help defeat them is helpful!" Sally rocks her head back and forth, then she nodes. " Alright, we go all together! But you do what I say when I say it, understood?" Sneak nodded, Perky laughed. " How cool, now we rock it together!"
Bunnie bows over to Sneak. " Is ya girl here always like that?" She whispers, Sneak laughed. " I know her one day, and I find it creepy!" Both smirked, Amy turned around. " Well, what´s now with the Tornado?" Bunnie uses the com in her arm. " Tails, how you get along with the repairs? The two strangers are okay, they are on our side mah lil bro!" A young voice came out of the com. " Good to know, more friends is a good thing! As I said, the stabilizer is broken, I can fix it, but that needs time!" Perky grabs Bunnie´s arm and giggles. " HI Tails, I´m Perky, saw you on the media, you are sooo cute! And your voice is sweet too!" She jumps up and down with a giggle, Tails answers, he sounds a bit confused. " Hi, unknown girl, nice to meet you too!" Bunnie smiles. " Tails, seems you have a burning admirer!"
Sally shook amused her head. " We have time for this later guys! Tails, we get in, you fix the Tornado and follow us, maybe we need you as backup!" In the com could the hissing of a welding torch be heard." Alright, I work as fast as I can! Oh, brother, yesterday I made maintenance, and now this! Good luck guys!"
The group split up, Amy, Sally, Nicole, Sneak, Perky, and Big forced themselves into the Speedstar, they would make the way to the factory on the ground. Rouge and Bunnie would fly at a low height. It was a bit tight in the Speedstar, even though Nicole get back into the handheld.
Amy winks at Sally. " Do you wanna see another upgrade that Tails made? Look at the tires, they´re new!" The hedgehog pushed an orange-colored switch. Sally frowns when the tires extended to the sides and the vehicle lifted a bit. She bows over the side and looked down, then she whistles impressed. " Offroad, nice!" Amy nodes. " Tails analyzed our last missions and overworks our vehicles! He got some things in plan for my Pink Cabriolet!"
Perky claps her hands and looked over to Sneak who sat between her and Big. " Wow, he´s not only cute, but he´s also totally smart!" She winks. " That makes him cuter!" Amy giggles when they drive on. " You are on fire for Tails, what?" Perky bows over. " He´s sooo cute, I hope he has no girlfriend! Or is one of you...?" Sally giggles and shook her head. " No, he has no girlfriend! But watch out for Bunnie, he´s like a little brother for her! So better don´t break his heart!"
Perky giggles. " Can´t promise anything!"
...
Perky finds, that the Freedom Fighters were cooler in real life than in the stories.
And she can´t wait to meet Tails directly. She was sure he felt for her in the first moment. She was so adorable and she knew it! Sneak looks over with an angry expression. " Can you stop to move around?" It was a bit tight beside the huge cat, the guy looked over with an apologizing view on his face. " Sorry, I´m not very small!" Sneak sat beside him in the middle, Perky beside her. The bilby girl laughed. " All fine, dude! As your name is Big, it fits totally! And that girl over here moves back and forth the whole time!" Perky sticks out her tongue toward Sneak. " Sourpuss Ol`Sneaky!" Now the other girl squinted her eyes. " Now I heard this! How do you call me? I warn you, don´t call me that again!"
Perky smiles apologizing. " Oops, uhm, I mean...! You are so stern, so reserved, and playing tough, the name fits!" She giggles, then she hugs Sneak and cuddles her. " But I still like you!" No matter what she said, Perky was happy to have her as a friend. She was sure that destiny brought them together. Now the bilby girl frees herself of the hug. " Okay, okay, shortie! But don´t call me that again, it sounds stupid!"
Perky laughed. " Okay, Ol`Sneaky!"
Sneak sighs, but Perky saw that her friend smiles a bit.
...
Nate the Beast opens the door to the room where the scientist was accommodated. The blue giant looked from left to right.
A small bed, a table with two chairs, an old cupboard, and a little bathroom with toilet, shower, and a sink, in the middle sat the dark-grey wallaby in a tattered leather jacket sat on one of the chairs and glares at him. Nate straighten his vest and smirked. " Good morning professor! Do you like your stay here, I hope all is up to your contentment?" Walker sighs theatrically. " Well, the bed is uncomfortable, the water´s cold, and the room service is a mess!"
Nate frowns, then he throws back his head and laughed out loud. " You have some guts, Walker, I must admit that!" Then he gets serious. " Back to the reason you are here! Dr. Eggman knows, that you know where a fragment of the Dark Gaia energy lies, and he wants it! And you make it complicated for you and us for no reason! To let your granddaughter escape with the pocketbook was not very nice of you!" Walker shrugs.
" Eggman has no good plans with the fragment, we both know that! The book is gone, with my notes, so, what I am doing here?" Nate stepped closer and bowed down, an evil grin on his face. " I bet, you got the coordinates in your head! And if you don´t want to make me angry, you better help us!"
Walker laughed. " When you harm me, you never get the coordinates! And my granddaughter is out of reach for you! So, what you wanna do?"
Nate tapped him on the chest. " I get reinforcements today, and that guy makes you talk, I promise! They are not very nice!" He gets up. " You get one hour to think about it, Walker! And then I await an answer!" He turned around, walked out of the room, and slammed the door.
Walker gulps, he was sure, Nate said the truth. He knew that some members of the Egg Army were ruthless. And Walker feared that Sneak breaks inside when something happens to him because he´s too stubborn.
He hopes she could get help to stop those guys, sure she did. Then they could free him.
Then Walker gets an idea. Nate wanted coordinates, and without the book, he needs Walker. The geologist grabs a pen and a piece of paper. He knew how he can borrow some time.
Time, that Sneak needs.
...
" Stop here!" Sally raises her hand, Amy stops the Speedstar and blinks. " What´s the thing?" They drove half the path to the factory. Sally turned around to Sneak and reaches her hand. " I nearly forgot, the pocketbook! Would be silly to take it with us! That Nicole has the coordinates, no one knows there!" " Right, we must hide it! We can´t destroy it, there are other notes inside, that are important for Walker, not for the Egg Army!" Nicole answered from the handheld. Sneak hesitates than the climbed out between Big and Perky. " I understand, but I have to do that by myself!"
Sally nodes when the bilby-girl jumped out of the Speedstar and scurries between some rocks. Sneak looks around, then she found a little gap between two rocks. She get the pocketbook out of her bag and looked at it for a moment. Then she put it to her lips and held it for some seconds. " We rescue you, Grandpa!" She whispers huskily.
Then she pulls the book into the gap until it wasn´t visible if someone don´t know where to search for it. She puts some little stones into the gap, then she lurks back to the Speedstar. She climbs a bit clumsy back to her seat. Sally looks at her, a concerned expression on her face. " You´re okay?" Sneak nodes. " Yes, yes, I´m fine! Let us kick those guys´ butts!" Sally nodes toward Amy. " Okay, let's go on, but careful!"
While they drive on she turned again around to Sneak and put her hand on the girl´s arm to comfort her. " You, I know how it felt when our beloved ones are in danger! I promise you, we try anything to free your Grandpa! But we have to be focused!" Sneak nodes. " I can do that Sally, I can do that! It is just, Grandpa is all I got! My parents are gone!" Perky wraps her arm around Sneak and smirks. " And you got me, nothing could be better! And together with the others here we get your Grandpa out of there in no time!" Sneak smirks too, Perky´s confidence was downright catching.
When they approach the ridge where the factory was hidden, they saw Bunnie and Rouge who sat behind some rocks and wave toward them. Amy slowed down until they stopped there. Rouge points to the ridge. " Better we walk the last part! They have cameras, watchtowers, all that stuff! Here should no one see the Speedstar!" Amy winks while the others left the vehicle. She pushes a button. A-frame with a camouflage net came off the stern and switched to the front. Now the Speedstar looks like a rock, only the tires were visible. Amy makes her way through the net and walked to the others. Sally shook her head with a grin. " Is there a coffee machine inside too? When did Tails show you the upgrades?" Amy laughed and straightened her hairband. " Last week, since I spend not so much time with Sonic, I got time for this! A coffee machine, no bad idea!"
Perky smirks. " Sonic? You are Sonic´s girlfriend?" The Freedom Fighters giggled, Amy shook her head. " I wish I am, but I´m working on it!" Perky winks at her. " Should I give you some expertise on how you wrap them all around your fingers?" Sneak interrupts. " Do you have no other stuff to talk about?" Sally smiles. " Focus, girls! Oh, brother!" Nicole materializes beside her. " Sally´s right, we can talk about this later!"
Bunnie checks her cybernetic arm. " Time to wreck some badniks, mah friends!" Sally looks over to Rouge. " Where do we have to go?" The bat gave the others a sign to follow her. Nicole dematerializes again and went back into the handheld. Slowly the group lurks between the rocks through the ridge.
Now they saw the first buildings. Rouge takes the lead and leans in the wall of the first building. She spies around the corner, then she waves to the others. One after another they all came over. Now all seven stood at the wall. Bunnie looks around the corner. " Two Motobugs, on patrol!" Sally frowns. " We must split up!" She whispers. " Rouge, Sneak, Perky, you come with me, we search that rilling machine and sabotage it! The others search for Walker and get him out!" Bunnie nodes, then she, Big, and Amy scurried around the building, the hedgehog-girl with her hammer in the hands.
Sally waits a moment, then the display of her handheld glows, Nicole´s face could be seen. " They are at a building that should be the prison! Standard, like all factories!" Rouge looked again around the corner and ducks. " The Motobugs are here, we must wait a moment!"
They were waiting, then they scurried to the wall, that Rouge climbed up the day before. The bat points to the roof. " I can take someone with me up, but only one after another!" Sally shook her head. " This takes too long, but I have an idea!" She activates her power rings on her wrists. Two blue glowing blades appeared, she puts them onto the wall and starts to climb up. " I can do that, the concrete is very rough! You help the others!" Rouge nodes and turns to Sneak and Perky. " Oka,y who´s first?" Sneak points on Perky. " Help her, I know how I do that!" She pulls her stick behind her back through the straps of her quiver and bag, then she opens her bag and pulls out two identical objects with claws. She pulled me over her hands. Sally nodes approving when Sneak starts to climb too. " Not bad, some climbing claws! Let us go!" Perky wraps her arms around Rouge, the Bat spreads her wings and glides up the wall.
When Sneak approaches the roof and swings over the edge, the others sat on the other side of the roof, Sally got her handheld in her hands. Sneak pulls off the claws while she scurries over to them and gets in cover beside Perky. Rouge points up to the next roof. " I undergoing that camera there last time, sliding along the wall, but this doesn´t work when I carry Perky, and for climbing, it´s too plain!" " Sally, there´s a port, let me do that!" Nicole answered, then she materializes and grabbed the handheld out of Sally´s hands. She scurried over to the port and connected the handheld to it. A few seconds later she cuts the connection and came back. " Well, I programmed the cameras for a loop, showing the same empty picture all the time! Giving us time, enough to finish the job! I send Bunnie a message, I can´t program the cameras of the prison from here!" She smirks. " She said she´s making that old school!" Sally nodes. " Okay, good work! Guys, move on!" While they made their way to the other side of the buildings, Sneak looks over to Perky and frowns. " Why are you so nervous?" She whispers, the wallaby-girl smirks. " This is sooo exciting!" She whispers back, Rouge bows over to her. " And stuff like that we do nearly every day!"
When they reached the next roof, Rouge looks around, then she leads them to take cover beside the cooling tower she did the same yesterday. Now they all saw the drilling machine in the yard the first time. All except Rouge widen their eyes in shock, Perky gasps. " That thing is huge!"
And this moment the driller gets loaded over a ramp into a bigger transport vehicle. It has robotic legs like an insect, four on each side, was flat with a rocket-like front and edgy. Two soldiers and a badnik watched the loading. Sneak frowns.
" The dingo there, that is Curse the other one is named Loon as I remember! And the shape of that machine reminds me of a dust demon!" Sally looks confused over to Sneak, the bilby-girl rubs it´s nose. " A local predator, long, fast in the dust, very flat!" Rouge tapped her shoulder and pointed to the side of the machine. Sneak squints her eyes.
Indeed, in big letters stood DUSTDEMON-01 on the side. Rouge rolled her eyes. " So much creativity, didn´t know that those guys got that!"
Sally nodes, then she points to the yard. " Well, look who we have here!" They all looked down when three persons entered the yard.
The first was a purple weasel with a brown hat, brown gloves, a belt in the same color, and brown-white boots. The next was a huge yellow polar bear with a red-orange toque, a green scarf, brown-yellow mittens, and brown-orange boots. Behind them trots a bored-looking green duck with a red neckerchief, white gloves, and red-white sneakers. Rouge sighs. " The Hooligans!" Sneak gave her a questioning look. " Who are that guys?" Perky answers her. " They were on that tournament I think!" Sally nodes. " Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polarbear, and Bean the Dynamite! Mercenaries that work mostly for Eggman! I´m not surprised they were here for such an important operation!"
Perky snouts. " The green one looks cute, but working for those guys, how stupid you have to be?" Sneak smiles amused. " Which boy is not cute in ya eyes? I thought you have an eye on Tails!" Perky sticks her tongue out. " Ol`Sneaky!" Sneak grumbles. " Stop that!" Now Sally interrupts. " Can you TWO stop this please?" Rouge giggled. " Why, it getting funny now!" Then she stops and points again down. " Look!" They all followed her view.
In the yard, the Hooligans stopped beside the soldiers, Nack starts to talk with Curse. Then the weasel gave the polar bear and the duck ka sign and nodes through the dingo. Curse and Loon entered a door into a building with Nack and Bark, Bean stays beside the DUSTDEMON, Rouge smiles. " Seems Bean should be on guard, I bet he´s not happy with that!" The driller was nearly finished loading, the badnik, a Motobug, rushes away. Bean leans against some cargo boxes and looked at his fingers. He was seemingly bored. Sally points at him. " He´s alone, that´s our chance! But too much open space, we must get him quick!"
" I handle that!" Perky said and took off her belt and backpack. They all looked at her while she stood up, straighten her hair, and headed toward the stairs on the side. Sneak grabs her arm. " Are you crazy? How it sounds, that guy is dangerous!" Sally nodes. " Bean can summon bombs, that´s not to be underrated!" Perky waved the words away. " He wouldn´t get a chance to do so!" She shook Sneak´s hand away and smirks. " I show you how I managed to sell the people nearly everything! Watch and learn, especially you, Ol´Sneaky!" Then she swaggers away.
...
Perky checks her hair on a reflecting metal plate and straighten her clothes. She brushes off her hand and rubs it over her face. A last look, yes, perfect. Then she swaggers on the yard, swinging her hips with a flirty grin.
Bean leans still against the cargo box when he heard her heels on the concrete and looked up. Perky´s grin gets wider while she swaggers toward him. The green duck looks confused, but also curious. Perky raises her hand and waves with her fingers. " Oh hello!" She purrs while she stops in front of him. Sie puts a hand on her hip and bends a leg. The mercenary gets nervous. " Uhm, hello! What are you doing here?" Perky giggles silly. " Me, well, I work in the canteen, I have my break and decide to take a walk! Lucky me, otherwise I don´t meet a cutie like you!" Bean blushed a bit. " Uh, hehe, thanks! It´s been a while a girl told me I´m cute, even a pretty one like you!" Perky giggles, that guy was easy prey, what an idiot.
She came closer and tapped him on his beak which makes him blush harder. " Oh, this is sweet of you! My name is Peggy, and you?" Bean scratches his head embarrassed, as she came more close, her face only some inches away from his. He gulps and starts to sweat. " My name is Dynamite the Bean, oh, no wait, Bean the Dynamite!" He laughs nervously. Perky came still a bit closer. " Sounds as you are a cool guy!" Bean nodes with a giggle. " A tough mercenary, me and my guys been through a lot!" Perky puts her hand on her mouth and giggles. " Then a tough guy like you met a lot of girls, huh?" Now Bean shook his head. " But not such a pretty one like you, and nice!" Perky smiles girlishly. " You are really cute! Do you want a little thank you?" She puckers her lips. " But you have to close your eyes!"
Bean lowers nervous his neckerchief and nodes. " Really? O-okay!" He closed his eyes and puckers his beak. For a second Perky looked at him. Nearly she was a bit pity for him.
Then she jumps up and balances on her tail!
Successively she kicks Bean into his stomach and against the head. The mercenary gets ripped off his feet and flies over the box he leaned on. The kick into his stomach left him no air to scream. Gasping and panting for air Bean rolled over the concrete, Perky gets back on her feet and made a high jump over the boxes.
When Bean, a bit dazed, tried to get up, Perky balances again on her tail and kicked him again as hard as she can against his head with both feet. Bean has spun around and slammed with his head against the floor. he gasps one last time, rolled his eyes, and fainted. Perky taps with her feet and straighten her hair as the others rushed to her side. Rouge winks with a grin. " Not bad, the flirty trick is one I use too!" Sally nodes. " You hit that guy hard!" Sneak smiles. " Where you learned to balance on ya tail? And you can jump very high, wow!" Perky shrugs. " Well, that´s a wallaby thing, I can that since my childhood!" Sneak boxing against her shoulder with a grin. " For a second I thought you would kiss him to distract him!" Perky grimaces, while she puts on her belt and the backpack Rouge hands her over. " Nah, that one is too stupid for my taste!"
Sally points at the DUSTDEMON. " Okay, let's sabotage that thing and-" " WATCH OUT!" Sneak interrupts her and points to the other side of the yard. All four gasped. Around a dozen of badniks left a hall, Motobugs, Crabmeats, and five models of Egg Swat units. Sally activates her blades and grimaces.
" Can´t it be easy sometimes?"
...
Bunnie melted the next security camera with her laser while Amy smashes another Egg Pawn with her hammer. Big disassembles another one with his bare hands. Then Bunnie points through a door. " The control room! Let's say hello!" Big cracks the door like nothing and enters the room, Bunnie and Amy followed him. A scared ferret hides under the terminal with some monitors, most of them are black. The Egg soldier raises his hands in defense. " Please, please, don´t hurt me!" Amy bows down at him with a smile. " What is your name?" " Halfbake, Halfbake the Ferret!" The hedgehog girl weighs her hammer back and forth. " Okay, Halfbake, listen! You tell us where Walker is locked in, and then you run away! and we don´t beat you! Deal?" Halfbake nodes. " Yes, yes, deal! Walker is not here, they brought him into the main building! Shouldn´t get treated like a normal prisoner!" Bunnie and Amy changed a look, then they looked back at Halfbake. " Are there more prisoners?" " Yes, four, they cleaning and what else needed in the factory! There is the switch for the cell doors!" Bunnie activates the switch, then she aimed and melted the whole terminal. She moves her arm towards Halfbake. " Did you warn everyone that we are here?"
" No, no, I saw you destroying everything, so i hiding here! I thought you wouldn´t find me!" Amy looks amused over to the others, Halfbake wasn´t seemingly the smartest as his name said. " The rabbit points through the door. " Thank you! And now...RUN!" This she mustn´t say twice to Halfbake, he jumps up and left the room in a hurry. Bunnie activates her com. " Sally, here is Bunnie! Walker´s not here, he´s in-" She hesitates, loud cracking and laser shots could be heard when Sally answers. " We are in the yard, but even a lot of badniks, including Egg Swat! Come here, we need help! Sneak, on the left!"
Bunnie curses, turned around and ran out the room, Amy and Big close behind.
...
Sally cuts through the arm of a badnik and dodges the laser shot of another one.
They stood in a circle, side to side. It was revealed that Sneak´s stick was made of a type of wood that's hard enough to damage a badnik. Nicole uses her green energy shields to cover them all against laser attacks. Rouge flies around, dodges several shots, and attacks badniks with her spin kick. Perky jumps aside, when a shot or a robotic arm heads toward her and throws alternately her boomerang or dodges with her baton.
Sally was relieved that both girls were skilled fighters, otherwise, they were scrapped. But more badniks come out of the hall, it gets out of control.
When Sally dodges another attack, her view hits the building where the Hooligans went inside and came back outside, followed by three Egg soldiers. The chipmunk-girl curses, does that have to be?
...
Nate stops and blinks when he saw what happen in the yard. A group of kids destroyed his badniks! Curse gasps and points on a bilby with a stick. " That´s the granddaughter of the geologist!" Behind him, a shocked voice could be heard. " Sneak!" Loon and Bark, one of the mercenaries, got Walker between them. The other mercenary, Nack, points on something. " THis is some of the Freedom Fighters, they knocked out Bean! Nate, we must leave! We got the coordinates!" The giant nodes. " The badniks give us time, go, all inside the DUSTDEMON!" Suddenly he heard footsteps from the left, Halfbake approached, exhausted. " Boss, boss, some guys break into the prison! We must watch out!" Nate grabs his arm and turned him around. " Halfbake, look!" The soldier widens his eyes and gasps. " Okay, you know it! But, that guy looked different!" Nack changes a look with Bark while he ran up the side ramp to the hatch of the vehicle. " Just wanted to say, they are more when they come! Bark, get Bean out of there!" The polar bear nodes and ran off. Nate points to the hatch. " Loon, Curse, Halfbake, get in! The factory is unnecessary, we got what we need!" Loon drags Walker up the ramp when the wallaby gets free for a moment.
" SNEAK!"
...
Sneak smashes the head of a robot when she heard someone calling her name, she turns around and gasps when she saw her grandfather. That wolf, Loon, drags him into the big vehicle. Followed by Curse and Nack. Sneak grabs her stick tighter. " GRANDPA!" Sally disassembles another badnik and turned around as a laser shot destroys another robot. Bunnie, Amy, and Big approach around a corner. Sally grabs Sneak at her shoulder as she tried to run off. " Wait, we get him out together!" The bilby girl hesitates for a second, then she nodes. While now Bunnie, Amy, and Big joined the fight, both running toward the ramp.
Loon stood with Walker who tries to escape at the hatch. Nate and Nack saw the two girls coming and getting ready to fight. Sally frowns, where was Bark? Then she saw him, he passes her and Sneak, a dazed Bean in his arms, who seems to wake up. Nate points to the hatch. " GO!" The giant grabs Bean at his neckerchief and points to a gate on the side, Sally heard in the chaos only the words. "...into there..." Then two Crabmeats blocked the way for her and Sneak. Both girls attacked the two badniks and destroyed them in seconds. Sneak jumped over the smoking parts of her enemy and tried to rush on, as she stopped in shock. Sally widen her eyes.
Bean stood beside the ramp and summoned a huge bomb, which he balanced a bit engaged. Nate stood behind him, Bark and Nack ran up the ramp and helped Loon to drag Walker inside. Sneak´s grandfather holds his stand for a second. " SNEAK, remember our magma picknick!" The girl woke up in her shock and tried to jump off, that moment Bean throws the bomb. " This is for tricking me!" Sally pushes Sneak to the ground. " WATCH OUT, A BOMB!" When she looks up, she saw the bomb smashing through a door and rolles into a storage room.
Full of fuel barrels.
Sally pulls Sneak down and covers her head. " ALL GET DOWN!" Then the world around her explodes in light and noise.
...
When Sneak open up her eyes, she first saw Sally, who stood up, dirty and a bit tattered, and looked at her, concerned. " Are you alright?" When Sneak nodes, Sally turned around. " Someone hurt?" " Only mah pride!" Bunnie answers while Sneak stood up. She looked around, debris, a burning building on her right and ash everywhere. Now the other members of the Freedom Fighters and Perky appear in the smoke. It seems the explosion hits all badniks who took no cover.
The DUSTDEMON was gone.
And with him Walker. Sneak walks slowly over to the place where she saw his lat. A whimper came over her lips, then she turns around and looked at the others. " They, they escape!" Then she gave Sally a death glare. " You said, we get him out!" Mad she walked over to the leader. " That we save him! But we didn´t!" She grabs her at her shoulders. " We gotta follow them, what are you stay here like a fool? HUH? What are we waiting FOR?" Nicole stepped beside Sally and pushes Sneak´s hands away. " HEY, that´s not fair!" But Sally shook her head. " Sneak is right, we get into the trap! I should have known that it doesn´t get that easy!" She looks down and closed her eyes. " I´m sorry Sneak!" Sneak still glares at her. " My grandpa is all I have!" Her voice starts to shiver, she felt her eyes getting wet. " I, I cannot lose him!" Her knees getting weak, she let loose Sally, fell down and pushes her hands on the floor. " Not him!"
Then she started to cry.
She hadn´t cried since her parents were gone. She made herself a shell of roughness, seriousness, and being strong. And the fear about her grandfather breaks this shell now. Sneak wraps her arms around herself and lets the tears flow. Se knew it wasn't Sally´s fault, sometimes things go wrong. Another lesson of her grandfather.
Then she felt someone hugs her. She heard Perk's voice in her ear. " Sh, sh, it is okay! It is okay to cry! Crying is no sign of weakness or something!" Sneak holds on to Perky and cuddles up to her shoulder. " Grandpa is all that is left of my family!" Perky fondles her hair. " I´m here for you, and until now nothing is lost!" " Perky is right, we know where they go! We even know the coordinates of the fragment, this is their goal!" Sally said. Sneak stood up with Perky´s help and wipe over her eyes. " So-sorry Sally! But I was so angry!"
Sally nodes and puts a hand on Sneak´s shoulder. " I understand you, it´s not easy when we are concerned about our beloved ones!" She points on Nicole who grabs her hand. " One time I thought I lost her, and inside I felt like I break into pieces!" Bunnie, Amy, Big, and Rouge walked toward them and made a circle, the rabbit smiles encouragingly. " I know ya two only since today, but you are so strong, brave, and ready to fight for something! Well, let's fight, save ya grandpa, and kick those scumbags butts!"
Sneak smiles a bit and she hugs Perky again. " Thanks, dudes, thanks!"
When they left the yard, Big pats carefully her shoulder, Amy hugs her. Together they headed for the way they came in. Bunnie points out some people who ran off the factory. " Other prisoners we get out here!"
When they were outside the ridge, Sneak examines the dust. " Good, we know the coordinates, that legs left no useable prints!" She looks into the desert. " Grandpa, hold on!" Amy nodes. " Your Grandpa must love you so much, what is that with this magma picknick?" Sneak smiles. " Ah that, some months ago we sat with some snacks and juice in the desert, on a point where Grandpa, he was so excited, found a magma chamber under the bottom! The place was very warm by that! It was one of the best days in my life, no trouble, no sorrows, only me and Grandpa!"
Nicole frowns. " Magma chamber? In the notes of Walker are coordinates of a magma chamber, some miles south of the Dark Gaia fragment! Some hills lie between both places!" Sally looks at her. " Could it be...?" Sneak ends the phrase. " ...that he tricked them? Yes, that could be my Grandpa, he´s really smart! You guys should never play cards with him!" Perky smirks. " You see? There's still hope!"
Bunnie´s com rustles. " Hey guys, it´s me!" Tails sound concerned. " Are you alright? There was an explosion, a lot of smoke!" Bunnie laughed. " We are alright Lil bro, but the bad guys escaped with the scientist we tried to get outta here! But we know where they go!" " Alright, I´m on my way, the Tornado is ready!" The fox answers.
Then they approached the Speedstar, Sally turned around. " I know, this was a mess, but we get through other hard times! We get Sneak´s grandpa out there and take care of the fragment!" She looks over to Bunnie. " And we kick those guys´ butts as hard as we can! LETS GO!" Bunnie activates her thrusters and starts, followed by Rouge spreading her wings. The others entered the Speedstar, Amy pulls up the camouflage net and activated the flight mode, then they followed the others.
Thanks to Sofia2017 planning as my Beta reader and thanks to fp05596 for some tips, especially Halfbake´s name.
Tell me what you think about my story, guys! C ya!