Chapter 7: Tonight's plans
The red haired echidna walked crossed the street. She was on her way to work, like the hundreds of other citizens of the city. She was the joint owner of a salon, and carried an armful of paper bags that contained a various assortment of cosmetics. She did not leave the beauty products in the salon any longer, ever since that break-in six weeks ago. While crossing a road opposite to 'her' salon, the unexpected happened. In about one tenth of a second, some tremendous rush of wind threw her off balance. All of the cosmetics scattered across the road. She sat abruptly on the road surface to get a hold of herself. What had just happened?
"Oops! I have to watch myself when I'm running like that."
Confused more than ever, she looked up. He was a blue hedgehog with green hair, wearing a jacket and a pizza delivery service cap, but no pizza. He was holding a gloved hand toward her, and grinning. She took it and he pulled her upright.
"Excuse me? Who are you?" she asked, trying to fix her mussed up hair.
"Sorry about this mess. Be with you in a sec."
Before she knew what was happening, the bags were back in her arms, with all of their contents.
"I have to go now. I hope I didn't hurt you back there."
"Uh, that's okay, and thanks."
He smiled at her. She noticed that his eyes were particularly bright.
"No prob. See ya."
In that same blast of wind, he rocketed off, but this time she held the packages. Then, she realized why his eyes were so bright. He was in love with someone.
She then crossed the road quickly, as cars were honking their horns at her.
"Sonic! You have a message."
"Excuse me, Sir? A message?"
Sonic had just arrived at his workplace, three seconds after the incident on the road and with the same smile beaming on his face. The place was still under construction, as Sonic brought in a hefty income and its owner was adding new sections to it.
"Yes. From a Mr. Parazzi."
Sonic took the slip of paper. It had the phone number of the restaurant owner, along with the words, "Please call: Urgent!" What did he want? It did not matter. He'd get this over with, finish work, and go back to Knothole to prepare. He smiled as broadly as ever.
"Sure, Sir. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"OK, Sonic."
As Sonic left, the boss rubbed his chin thoughtfully. A boy could only be that happy (and smile as if he were injecting something) when he was in love. After all, the boss had experience in such things. Extensive experience.
Outside on the sidewalk, in a public phone booth, Sonic unhooked the phone and punched in the numbers. He had no clue why Parazzi would want to contact him. Surely, something had not come up? Some moments later the phone was answered.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Parazzi?"
"Sonic! Thank God it's you."
Sonic felt an inkling of trouble.
"What message do you have for me?"
"Sonic, is anyone around you at the moment?"
Sonic was now positive that something was wrong. He darted his eyes about his surroundings. No one was close enough to hear him.
"No."
"Sonic, it's about those VIP passes. You can no longer come to Cliff Dome."
"WHAT! NO WAY!" Sonic yelled into the receiver. What in the name of all that was sacred did he want to cancel the passes for?
"Sonic, please, Robotnik called me yesterday with the warning that if I allowed you to come to the Cliff Dome, he would do something terrible."
A thundercloud darkened Sonic's face. Not him again!
"Robotnik! Of all the bastards…"
"Sonic, you must understand! He is capable of many horrid things! You of all people should know that, if the stories I heard about you are true!"
"No. HELL NO! I'm not allowing Buttnik to stop my date with Sally!"
"Sonic!" the ferret was frantic now, "I have my wife and daughters to think about! He didn't say what the consequences would be, but I'm pretty sure he'll go after them!"
"I'm not canceling the date," he said with finality.
"Sonic! You don't understand!"
"I DO understand! He just wants revenge for what the Freedom Fighters did to him years ago. I won't give in to his threats! And neither will you!"
"Me?" the voice whimpered.
"Yes, you! You can't be serious about letting Buttnik have his own way!"
"But, my family…"
"Would be ashamed of you right now! You can't play the helpless coward here! Arrange for them to leave the country! Anything! Just get them away from wherever you live! He doesn't have the power to come after you if you move from the country."
Parazzi understood what Sonic was trying to tell him. He could not let Robotnik threaten him like this without losing every last shred of his pride.
"Sonic, I will take your advice, but what about you and your date? Surely if you go to the Cliff Dome something terrible…"
"I have no worries about that," cut in Sonic determinedly, "I'll take care of the date myself. All I want from you is assurance that the restaurant be open tonight, and after that you and your family can leave forever."
Parazzi considered this.
"You have a deal. The restaurant will be open tonight, and ONLY tonight. After that I will announce my retirement and leave the country with my family."
He sure made up his mind fast, Sonic thought.
"Excellent. I'll be there before nine PM tonight. Don't worry about what Robotnik will do; I have people who can make sure NOTHING goes wrong tonight. I'll see you later."
He hung up. On the other line, Parazzi mopped his brow and picked up the phone again. He proceeded to call each client who had a reservation after nine PM, and cancel it with one simple reason: the restaurant was going to be closed indefinitely.
Damn Robotnik! Sonic thought, as he furiously kicked to phone booth, causing some heads to turn. Why did he have to come into this? Sonic did not know how the old madman had found out about his date, but he was three hundred percent sure that Robotnik would do something to mess it up. Frustrated, he ran his hand through his already messed up hair. Why include Sally in his diabolical plans? He was sickened that Robotnik would also harm Sally just to get to him. Sonic left for work with his mood permanently ruined. He would have to devise a plan that would make the date progress without a hitch. After he delivered his last pizza, with the customer wondering why Sonic had closed the door for him, he had the Plan laid out neatly in his head. It was simple enough, and did not involve too many people. He left for Knothole in a state of trepidation for what was to come.
He did not believe, for one microsecond, that Robotnik would win a victory tonight.
Back in Knothole…
"Tails!"
"Yeah Sonic?"
The young fox turned from his game of chess with Rotor. He was winning, of course. As he turned his attention to Sonic, he was immediately certain that something had happened to cause him to have that expression on his face. His pal's face was a mask of anger. His eyes burned with a familiar flame.
"Come with me. I have something I want you to help me with."
"Sure, Sonic."
He turned to Rotor as Sonic walked off.
"I guess we'll finish later?"
"Yeah. I've never seen Sonic angry like that for a long time now."
Tails hurried after Sonic.
"Antoine!"
The blue uniformed coyote hastily stuffed a piece of pink paper into a pocket.
"What do you want, you blue menace?" he sniffed at Sonic. His orange fox friend was following him. Whatever Sonic and Tails wanted, he did not want to be involved. He was busy pacing the perimeter of Knothole, doing his guard duty.
"If you don't come with me NOW, Sally will be extremely angry at you."
The guard caught himself before uttering a snide remark. If the Princess so desired, who was he to argue? He was in her and her father's service.
"Fine. But if you play ze practical joke on me, you'll have my sword to answer to!"
"It is not a joke."
Judging from the expression on Sonic's face, Antoine assumed it was not.
The trio was walking toward the Lake of Rings. The trees overhead cast their shadowy gloom over them as they treaded across dead leaves and twigs.
"So, Sonic, what's up?"
"Yes, what eez so important that I have to leave my guard duties?"
Sonic's mood had not changed for the better. After that conversation earlier on, he knew that he could not, would not play games with Robotnik this time.
"You'll both find out. It's something so important that if anyone else knew, the Plan would be jeopardized."
"Whoa. Sounds serious."
Sonic's frown deepened.
"It is."
They tramped forward in silence for several minutes. Eventually they came to the clearing that held the Lake of Rings. Lazer's hut was nearby.
"We'll have the meeting in there."
"I thought you said that no one else could know?" Tails questioned.
"He's going to be in on it too."
They entered the hut.
The premises of the red hedgehog were as humble as they came. He did not care much for material possessions after joining the Freedom Fighters. A bed against one wall, four shuttered windows (one to a wall), a fridge in one corner and a wooden desk with a lamp on it. Both the lamp and fridge used electricity from rechargeable batteries buried under the earth (in tough casings, of course, the batteries were designed not to leak and poison the forest floor). Lazer's samurai sword hung against the wall opposite to his bed. The red hedgehog himself was nowhere in sight.
"Where did he go?"
"I'm up here."
The skylight opened (he had a skylight, due to his flight ability) and the red hedgehog floated down, arms folded.
"Now, what's your business with me?"
"Lazer, we're here for your help."
"With?"
Sonic looked fiercely at him. Lazer peered at him through half closed eyes. Sonic was angry, he could tell, since he was not comfortable with such indifferent treatment. However, Lazer was far more experienced in anger than the younger hedgehog. The obvious annoyance of his 'guest' left him unperturbed.
"From this moment, our meeting is officially a Council of Action," Sonic stated. They all regarded him questioningly.
"Sonic! Don't you think the others should know about this? Councils of Action are pretty serious, you know…" Tails began. Then Sonic shot him a glance that would have turned Medusa to stone. Tails was painfully aware that his friend was deadly serious about his actions today. He did not like it one bit.
"Well, whatever eet eez, can we get eet over weeth?" Antoine muttered.
"Tails, you brought the chalk and blackboard, I hope?"
"They're right here."
He placed the materials on the desk.
"Alright, everyone, here's the deal. Robotnik is planning to disrupt my date with Sally tonight."
"What…" Antoine started to speak.
"Quiet. No questions until I'm done explaining things. Now, here's what we'll do."
They crowded at the sides of Sonic. From a 60-degree angle, he chalked line drawings of the cliff, the Cliff Dome and the beach below.
"Tails, you have to get some fireworks, Okay? I think we saved some after last year's Christmas."
"Got it," Tails responded.
"Right. Take the Tornado with the
fireworks and park it here," he wrote a "T" on the beach, directly beneath the
Dome, "Then, you get out on the beach and set up the fireworks behind some rock
or the other so they don't get wet. You got that?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Okay! Now, Lazer: You have to keep yourself out of sight somewhere above the Cliff Dome and watch for any Buttnik scum. Now, when you have to use those fireworks of yours, contact Tails so that he will set off his fireworks, to distract Sally while you atomize whatever sneaks up on the Dome."
"I won't fail," he declared softly.
"Excellent! Now, Antoine, you'll be going with Tails on the Tornado. There's a path somewhere along here,"
He drew a curvy line leading from the foot of the cliff to the east wing of the Dome, away from the entrance that he marked with an arrow pointing inward from the north side.
"Alright, you GOTTA stay out of sight. Sally and the guards can't see you, okay, Ant?"
"I weel follow ze orders implicitly. I weel be ze shadow that no one can notice."
"Right… Anyway, in the case that something bad happens, you gotta lead Sal away to safety. You can use the same car that we will go in. I plan to tell the driver that we expect something crazy to occur, and that he must carry you and Sally to the outskirts of the Great Forest, no questions asked. From there, you can arrange a transport to get her back to Knothole. Understand?"
Antoine was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. It made sense.
"Perfectly."
"Then, while you get Sal the heck outta there, the rest of us will do what we can to repay Buttnik. But, I don't think that'll happen, right, Lazer?"
"No."
Lazer was only too pleased to help eradicate Robotnik's forces. He would ensure that the work be done swiftly and as discreetly as possible, since royalty would be involved.
"Okay, so what will we be communicating with?"
"I have some walkie-talkies. All of us except you, of course, can have one," Tails offered.
"That's fine. I'll be watching out for any sign of disturbance so that Sally won't notice. By the way, Lazer will need some binoculars."
"Also got that covered. They'll magnify as well as any telescope, except with broad range."
"Tails, you're the man."
Tails smiled appreciatively. He was beginning to get excited with the new mission. So much hung in the balance, and everything had to be calculated perfectly. He liked it.
"Okay, men, are our posts absolutely confirmed? Do I need to explain any further?"
There were negative replies.
"This will work out if it's done carefully. I just hope Robotnik won't go with an attack from all sides."
"Sonic, you know that whatever he throws at us, I can throw back harder," the red hedgehog reminded him, forming a small flare in his open palm to emphasize his point.
"I like that attitude. Now, we'll all be at our positions at 8 PM sharp. I'm supposed to arrive at the Dome with Sally before nine. If we don't come at that time, report back to Knothole."
"Understood," they all said. After the Council was dismissed, each went their separate ways to formulate strategies for the grand date.