The Dead Spy
By Witchwood
Chapter Two
"Guys! Come here!" Rotor shouted from outside Bookshire's hut. "I've got something you need to see!" Sonic and Sally both followed Rotor to his hut. When they got inside, Rotor sat down in front of his computer and pulled up the video. "Sonic, how long did you set the timer for on the bomb?"
"A minute."
"Exactly sixty seconds?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Watch this." Rotor played the video from when the Sonic started the timer. And on the bottom of the screen was a timer Rotor added. It counted down from sixty seconds as everyone watched what they had watched a hundred times before.
And finally, at seven seconds left, the video stopped.
"He's still alive." Sally whispered. Sonic turned around and was stopped by Sally before he could make his way to Robotropolis. "I'm coming with you!" Sonic held her fist with both hands and looked into her watery eyes.
"I am extremely grateful for you wanting to come with me, but I couldn't bear to see anything happen to you."
"How do you think I feel! It's not easy waiting here, doing nothing and wondering if I'm ever going to see you again!"
"I know, it's hard for me to ask you to do this, but this is something I really have to do on my own." Sally tried to hold her tears back, but gave up when Sonic wrapped his arms around her. "Don't do this to me," Sonic said as he held her tight. "I want you to know that I'm coming right back home with Tails."
"I just don't want you to get hurt."
"I won't. I promise." Sonic let go of Sally and ran off into the forest.
Robotnick asked Snively to stay with Tails to take more blood tests since oxygloben requires a lot of monitoring for the first forty-eight hours of being used. He used the thickest needle he could find, but was disappointed when Tails didn't react as expected due to the painkillers he was given just a few hours ago.
"Can I sit up?" Tails asked.
"I don't know. Can you?" Snively replied as he placed the vile of blood into a machine.
"I guess so." Tails grabbed onto the railing on the side of his bed and pulled himself up. His head didn't hurt as much this time, but he was still pretty sore and groggy. He rubbed his ribs as he took a couple of deep breaths, looking over his body and noticing the rest of the bandages that were wrapped over most of whatever wasn't already covered in plaster. After he looked at his tail, he turned his head and saw another one lying just on the opposite side. He grabbed one in each hand and lightly pulled at them taking a few seconds to confirm that they were actually permanently attached to him.
"What are you doing?" Snively asked.
"I think I've got two tails." Snively looked at him oddly as Tails started to tie them together in a knot.
"I see." Snively opened a drawer and began to rummage around. "You know, I don't think that's supposed to be there."
"Really?"
"Someone thought it would be funny to reprogram the docbots to add extra tails to people during operations." He pulled out a large surgical blade. "I'd be more than happy to fix it for you." Snively said as he approached Tails with a cold grin. Tails held his tails in his arms tightly.
"Um, that's okay. I like them fine where they are right now."
"I wish I could let you keep them, but there was a kid just like you who had the same thing done to him."
"What happened to him?"
"He wanted to keep his extra tail, too. So we let him, but he developed a very serious infection and died within a week."
"Really?" Tails asked, holding tighter as Snively walked closer.
"Absolutely! We wouldn't want that to happen to you, do we? I believe your docbot also told you about one of the problems with the artificial blood your using, regarding infections." Snively grabbed the gas mask by the head of his bed and turned it on. "I'll even make sure you won't feel a thing." He tried to hold the mask up to Tails' face, but he kept pushing Snively away.
"Can I wait a few days? Just to see if it doesn't get infected?"
"Snively, report to me when you finish those tests." Robotnick called over the intercom, keeping a polite tone so he wouldn't give Tails a bad impression. "We have some unfinished business to attend to."
Snively paused. He looked Tails in the eyes as the gas mask quietly hissed away. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, he calmly turned it off, sat the blade on the counter and left the room.
Tails began to breathe again after realizing he had been holding his breath before Snively left. His eyes filled with tears as he slowly laid back down and quietly cried into his pillow.
Sonic arrived just outside of the castle where the bomb had gone off. Most of the debris has been cleared away, but the blast was still very evident. He didn't stop for very long since there were a few swatbots in the general area, and he wanted to rescue Tails as soon as possible.
When he and everyone else usually raid the city, they plan on leaving with something damaged, destroyed or stolen. He did his best not to draw too much attention to himself this time since he didn't know how he was going to leave without the luxury of such distractions.
Entering the castle was easy this time since the building he blew up controlled all of the motion detectors outside the castle. Bots were used as a replacement until a more suitable replacement can be utilized. Sonic found it easiest to dodge the bots, and even easier to dodge their gunfire. And with this ability, he entered the castle unnoticed.
Normally, Sonic knew what he was looking for. But this time, he didn't know where to begin looking. Was Tails in the dungeon? Or working in the steel mill as a bot?
Or worse, in the morgue?
Tails could be anywhere. He could possibly have escaped. But regardless of where he is, Sonic's newfound hope of where he isn't is enough to make him do anything to get him back.
This castle was about a quarter of a mile wide by a third of a mile deep and one eighth of a mile tall. He is able to reach any point of this structure in less than thirty seconds, but in order for him to be able to do all this without putting Tails in any more danger is to go slow. Unfortunately for Sonic, this is one of his weak points. It's his basic instinct to go fast. Everything he does is at a hundred miles per hour. Whenever he tries to go slow, he goes nuts. This is something he would have to learn how to control today if he wants to see Tails alive again.
About an hour after Tails almost lost his name, he needed to get up and stretch. It was going to be hard with his broken leg and other injuries. But he needed to stand. His bed was too high for him to jump off of, but luckily there was a stepping stool at the foot of his bed. He slid over and slowly lowered himself to the stool and then to the floor.
Tails also noticed at the foot of his bed was a small closet with crutches and braces of various sizes. This was definitely going to make it easier for him to get around. He grabbed the smallest crutch there, but it was still too big for him. He then noticed that it was adjustable. He fumbled with the pin at the bottom for a few minutes and finally got it to the height that he wanted.
Unfortunately using two crutches was going to be impossible because his left forearm was also broken, so he had to do his best with just one. After walking across the room, he needed to sit down because his leg began to feel sore. He pulled up a chair that was sitting in front of a computer terminal and relieved his legs of the pressure of standing. He leaned his new crutch up by the keyboard, bumping up against the mouse taking the computer out of its power management mode.
"Snively, what is the estimated time of repair for the facility that was destroyed?" Robotnick asked from his giant mechanical chair.
"Actually, the repairs for the sensor facility have been canceled."
"I assume there is a good reason for this." Robotnick said in a calm, but an I'm-going-to-kill-you tone.
"New sensors were under development long before this attack. The time it would take for the old one to be repaired would be much longer than the estimated time of completion of the new system. I ordered all possible efforts in completing the new equipment as soon as I found this out."
"Good. But you haven't answered my question."
"Um…" Snively squealed. "What was the question?"
"When will it be completed!!!"
"It will be… I mean, it should be done in um, about uh… a hundred and thirty one days." Robotnick picked Snively up by his nose and held him up to his face, but he was saved by the bell. Network activity triggered an alarm on a console just next to them. Tails was using the computer in his room, and he was being watched.
Robotnick shifted his interest away from Snively to Tails.
"Well, well, well. Our little guest seems to be trying to communicate with someone. Perhaps with our friends in Knothole."
"I knew that little brat didn't have amnesia!" Snively laughed.
"He's a smart kid. But not smart enough. I can see everything he's doing from there… but unfortunately… he's not trying to access any outbound nodes."
"What's he doing then?"
"It looks like he's looking through our internal network."
"He's spying on us!"
"He hasn't really opened anything yet."
"Maybe he knows we're watching him."
"If he did, why would he be doing this in the first place?" Robotnick sat silent. "I say we should kill him." He still sat motionless. "Sir, he's not the innocent kid he makes himself out to be! Just look at what he's doing!" Robotnick finally stood up and quickly made his way back to Tails' room. Snively followed with his loaded gun.
Snively was going to get his wish. He was finally going to kill Tails. He followed Robotnick at his fast pace, but only stayed behind him. His adrenaline and anticipation of seeing Tails dead was making it hard for him to keep from annoying Robotnick.
Halfway there, Snively could only imagine what he could possibly have on the screen as hard evidence of this suicidal act. The suspense was killing him! Could it be detailed maps of the city? Could it be schematics of the defense matrix outside the castle? Maybe he's planting a trojan virus so his friends in Knothole can access their network from outside.
When Snively saw Tails sitting at the computer, he held his gun to his head, but dropped his jaw as his expectations of an execution was instantly disintegrated by a mere flight simulator.
"I'm sorry! Did I break something?" Tails asked, panicked by the gun in his face.
"No, young man." Robotnick grabbed the gun from Snively's hand and tossed it to the other side of the room. "He just doesn't like people getting a higher score than him." Robotnick picked Snively up and threw him out of the room. "Go and make yourself useful and report to me when you're finished."
"I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to use that. I was just looking for some games…"
"Don't worry about that. Think nothing of it."
"Really?"
"Yes. Come with me. I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes." Robotnick rolled the chair Tails was in away from the computer. Tails grabbed his crutch as he was wheeled out of the room.
Robotnick slowly pushed Tails down the hall in the computer chair and began asking him some questions.
"Tell me, do you still not recall anything about your past?"
"I think I remember Snively."
"Oh?"
"He's scary."
"How so?"
"Well, you saw him hold a gun to my face! Wouldn't you say that's scary?"
"Yeah."
"Has he always been like that?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Why do you keep him around then?"
"Oh, because he has so many uses. But enough about him, let's talk about you."
"Okay. But there's not much I can talk about. I don't know who I am."
"True. But I'd like to ask you a few questions anyway, to try to help restore your memory, if you don't mind."
"No, I don't mind."
"What made you want to play that particular game? I'm sure there were many others for you to choose from."
"I guess I like flying."
"Well, that's a start."
"What do you mean?"
"Flying, I'm sure you probably flew airplanes or something."
"I'm too young."
"You know, I think you're right. But you really look like you knew what you were doing with that game."
"I've probably played it before."
"That also could be true. Now what about your tails?"
"What about them?"
"Do you use them for anything special?"
"I tied them in a knot."
"No, I mean do you remember anything about your tails like you might have remembered about flying?"
"I thought you knew about my extra tail."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Snively said he had to remove it since it's not supposed to be there."
"Remember how we were saying that Snively was crazy and all?"
"Yeah."
"Don't believe what he said about your tails."
"I've always had both of them?"
"Yes. As far as I know."
"That's kinda cool."
"Do you think you would have any kind of special use for an extra tail?"
"I can probably swim faster."
"Perhaps. Do you think you can fly with them?"
"Fly? No way. I couldn't flap them fast enough."
"Do you think you can spin them?"
"I don't know. They're kinda sore."
"Oh, I don't want you to hurt yourself. I was just curious. Besides, how does the rest of you feel?"
"It still hurts."
"You know, it's going to take a long to heal. Especially your leg."
"I know."
"Would you consider something that might speed up your recovery time?"
"Like what?"
"How would you like to have metal bones?"
"Um, I don't know."
"It's not as bad as it sounds. You'd be completely healed within just a few seconds."
"I'm just a kid. Wouldn't I stop growing?"
"No, that can be adjusted as needed."
"Oh. I guess that sounds ok. I do like that idea, but I'd like to wait until I can remember anything first."
"Fair enough."
Snively was in the middle of working on some new repair time estimates when he finally realized that he didn't have his gun. He made his way back to the room Tails was in and was relieved to see that Robotnick was nowhere to be found. He entered the room and found that his gun was no longer there.
Suddenly, the lights went out and the door slammed closed, making the room completely pitch black.
"Hello?" Snively called. He bent over to grab a flashlight he saw a moment before. When he turned it on, Sonic's face was the first thing he saw. He squealed like a little baby as he dropped the flashlight.
The room remained dimly lit as the flashlight rested on the floor. Sonic held Snively's gun up to his head.
"Where's Tails?" Sonic calmly asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Snively replied as he began to sweat.
"Like hell you don't." Sonic walked up closer to him, making Snively trip and fall.
"No! I swear! I haven't seen him!" Snively tried backing away to the door, but bumped into the desk that the computer was sitting on, taking it of its power management mode. The screen faded on to the same flight simulator Sonic had given Tails earlier that week. When Sonic looked back down at Snively, he set the gun down and grabbed the surgical blade that was left on the table. "Um, well, now that you mention it, I think I did see him around here somewhere."
Sonic didn't stop approaching him. He remained silent as Snively kept trying to slip out of the room.
"He's probably outside getting some fresh air, or playing with some computers…" Sonic grabbed Snively's hand and stood on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" The razor sharp blade slid effortlessly under Snively's thumbnail as he screamed as loud as he can.
Sonic still said nothing as Snively's thumbnail landed on the floor. He let go of his hand as Snively laid screaming and grabbing his thumb. Sonic only watched as he kept his silent rage from getting himself captured by a bot. He was going to kill him soon if he didn't tell him exactly where Tails was. Even if he truly didn't know, Sonic felt he deserved to die anyway. But there was a small demand for torture first.
"You know, young man, I have something you might like to see." Robotnick said as he continued to push the chair down a hallway.
"What is it?" Robotnick opened a door leading to a large room. It was filled with many different machines and computer consoles. It also contained the dreaded roboticizer.
"This is my laboratory. I've made many things in here, including that docbot that operated on you."
"Cool." They entered into the room on the second floor on a wide catwalk that circled the room and led to the top of the roboticizer, which Tails couldn't take his eyes off of. Robotnick noticed the fox's fearful stare from the time he set foot in the room.
"I see you're interested in this machine over here."
"Well, it's just big."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No."
"It's what makes your bones turn into metal."
"Oh."
"You look scared. Is there something for you to be afraid of?"
"I don't think so."
"Good, because there isn't any reason to be. I've used it on a lot of people and none of them complained about anything after they used it. Well, all except for one. She never finished the process. But they're all able to perform tasks that would normally take ten people to do, now that they've been healed. Are you sure you want to wait before you use it?"
"Uh, yeah." Tails said in a shaky voice. "I'm sure."
"That's too bad. You're missing out on a wonderful opportunity."
Sonic left the room with blood coating the bottom of his shoes, quietly continuing his search through the castle for Tails. He was now equipped with a gun, but didn't think he was going to need it since this gun alone was no match for his worst enemy.
After another few minutes of walking through the castle, inspecting all of the rooms for signs of Tails, Sonic came across one of the primary control rooms. He was very familiar with this place. This is where he and Robotnick met many times. The wall was lined with fifty displays, which almost all of them were powered down because of the attack. But one of them was still on. He walked up to it and browsed through what was available. He saw some general random files lying around, but there was one file that stood out. It was a large video file, and it was the last thing accessed from that terminal. He opened it up and was stunned when he saw Tails in tremendous pain. His heart pounded in his chest faster than it had ever beaten in his life.
He couldn't stand to watch anymore, but he had to see if Tails was still living by the end of the video. He fell to the ground with his head in his hands as he listened to Tails gasping and choking as Sonic sat helpless in front of the display.
The video wasn't very long, but it was long enough for him. He sat silent as he cried, listening to his racing heartbeat pound in his head as tears fell from his eyes. It was a major relief knowing that Tails was still alive, but there was another possibility that he may be dead again.
He wasn't going to let that happen. Sonic wiped his eyes one last time and stood up to face the monitor again. Tails looked so helpless and in so much misery in the still frame. But he wasn't going to give up this time.
The lights in the room dimmed slightly as the sound of power generators can be heard off in the distance.
"There's only one thing that takes that much power…"
"See? There isn't much to be afraid of." Robotnick said as he powered on the roboticizer. "It just lights up and makes noise. Why don't you step inside? Just to see what it's like. I promise I won't do anything."
"Robotnick!" Sonic yelled as he entered the room from the ground level. Tails stood up and looked to see the blue hedgehog standing at the other end of the room. "Tails!" Tails hid behind Robotnick, peeking around his leg. "What have you done to him!"
"Me? You blew him up!"
"Why did you have to come here?" Tails whispered, panicking at Sonic's presence.
"Give him back, Robotnick." Sonic yelled, determined to rescue Tails.
"Or what? Or you'll kill me? Or blow up another one of your friends?" Sonic drew his gun. He knew it was useless, but did it anyway. "Oh, what are you going to do? Shoot me?" Robotnick reached behind him and grabbed Tails by the throat with his robotic hand, holding his hand-cannon of a gun to the fox's head. "Tell me, do you think you're really going to win?" Tails grabbed onto his arm, kicking and pulling as he tried to breathe. "He almost died before, and he may just die right now! But you can keep that from happening. Just step up to the machine, it's all ready to go." Sonic only stood with his gun drawn, aiming it at Robotnick. "I don't think he can last like this much longer. I can feel him getting weaker and weaker as I speak."
Without notice, Robotnick heard the sound of a Benelli XM1014 12-gauge shotgun cocking behind him. Before he could react, his arm was blown off by Princess Sally who was standing right behind him. He and Tails fell from the second level to the ground below as Sally also fell back from the recoil of the large gun.
As Robotnick landed, he pointed his gun back up at the catwalk. But before he could fire, the gun was destroyed in his hand, along with most of his fingers by Sonic's gunfire.
Sally looked over the edge as she held her bruised shoulder with her broken hand, watching Robotnick run out of the room. "Sonic! Get Tails!" Sonic ran across the room and found Tails bleeding and unconscious. He pried Robotnick's dead metal fingers from around his neck and picked him up.
"What are you doing here!" Sonic yelled as he ran up to get Sally.
"Less talk, more running!" She grabbed onto him and Sonic carried Sally and Tails out of the room.
Sonic ran through the hallways, but stopped when he saw blood pouring out of the bottom of the cast on Tails' leg.
"I can't take him like this!" Sally cried, "He's going to bleed to death before we get him back home!" Sonic entered the room where he had his encounter with Snively, but only found a pool of blood with no body. "What the hell happened here?" Sally asked as she helped Sonic place Tails on the bed.
"I had some fun with Snotley."
"Did you kill him?"
"I thought I did. Forget about it, we gotta help Tails." Sally tended to his bloody face while Sonic tried to get his leg to stop bleeding. The cast was already cracked along the side as a result of the fall, but Sonic stopped when he saw what looked like circuitry in the broken plaster. "What the hell?"
"What?"
"Look!" Sally looked at the cast and was just as puzzled as Sonic. She grabbed Nichole from her boot and opened it up.
"Nichole, can you identify the electronics in this cast?"
"Scanning…" Tails began to move.
"He's waking up!" Sally yelled. "Tails! Don't move!" He tried to get up, but he was too weak to even lift his arms. He began to groan, but was now becoming more aware of his surroundings.
"Go away!" Tails said with much effort.
"Tails, don't talk!"
"He's going to find me!"
"Scanning complete. Electronic components within the cast cannot be identified because of excessive damage, but similar electronics have been identified as radio transmitters in six different parts of the body."
"Oh my God! Tracking devices!" Sally cried. "Nichole, can you disable them?"
"Negative."
"Can you jam them?"
"Negative. Each device is using a frequency that is randomly changing fifty times per second. My current transmitter is unable to replicate such a pattern."
"Are they woven into his bandages or something?"
"Three of them are just under his skin, one is located in his chest cavity, one is located just above his stomach and one is located next to his kidney."
"We can't take him back to Knothole!" Sonic said as he finally pulled the broken cast off.
"We can't leave him here either, Sonic!" Tails was beginning to regain his strength, but was going to make his serious injuries even worse if he continued to struggle.
"Tails! Please don't move! Sonic, do something!" Sonic began looking around in the shelves and cabinets and soon found some surgical blades.
"No! You are NOT cutting him open!" Sally protested. Sonic took a scalpel out of the drawer and approached Tails. "Sonic! Don't you dare do this!" Sally placed herself between them and grabbed his arm.
"Move."
"You're going to kill him!"
"Please, Sally. Move."
"No! Please, don't!" Tails began to cry as he regained consciousness. "He's waking up! Don't do it!" Sally was crying as tried to keep Sonic away from Tails, and Sonic began to cry as well. He took the blade and threw it into the wall in a fit of rage. He continued to look around the room for some medicine and came across some syrettes of morphine.
"Go away! Leave me here!" Tails began to scream from the pain of his injuries.
"Don't worry, Tails. You're going to be okay." Sonic stuck the needle in Tails' leg and emptied the morphine into his bloodstream. Tails continued to cry after a few seconds, so Sonic injected him with the last of the drug, hoping that this was all he was going to need. Tails began to calm down again and finally lost consciousness.
By Witchwood
Chapter Two
"Guys! Come here!" Rotor shouted from outside Bookshire's hut. "I've got something you need to see!" Sonic and Sally both followed Rotor to his hut. When they got inside, Rotor sat down in front of his computer and pulled up the video. "Sonic, how long did you set the timer for on the bomb?"
"A minute."
"Exactly sixty seconds?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Watch this." Rotor played the video from when the Sonic started the timer. And on the bottom of the screen was a timer Rotor added. It counted down from sixty seconds as everyone watched what they had watched a hundred times before.
And finally, at seven seconds left, the video stopped.
"He's still alive." Sally whispered. Sonic turned around and was stopped by Sally before he could make his way to Robotropolis. "I'm coming with you!" Sonic held her fist with both hands and looked into her watery eyes.
"I am extremely grateful for you wanting to come with me, but I couldn't bear to see anything happen to you."
"How do you think I feel! It's not easy waiting here, doing nothing and wondering if I'm ever going to see you again!"
"I know, it's hard for me to ask you to do this, but this is something I really have to do on my own." Sally tried to hold her tears back, but gave up when Sonic wrapped his arms around her. "Don't do this to me," Sonic said as he held her tight. "I want you to know that I'm coming right back home with Tails."
"I just don't want you to get hurt."
"I won't. I promise." Sonic let go of Sally and ran off into the forest.
Robotnick asked Snively to stay with Tails to take more blood tests since oxygloben requires a lot of monitoring for the first forty-eight hours of being used. He used the thickest needle he could find, but was disappointed when Tails didn't react as expected due to the painkillers he was given just a few hours ago.
"Can I sit up?" Tails asked.
"I don't know. Can you?" Snively replied as he placed the vile of blood into a machine.
"I guess so." Tails grabbed onto the railing on the side of his bed and pulled himself up. His head didn't hurt as much this time, but he was still pretty sore and groggy. He rubbed his ribs as he took a couple of deep breaths, looking over his body and noticing the rest of the bandages that were wrapped over most of whatever wasn't already covered in plaster. After he looked at his tail, he turned his head and saw another one lying just on the opposite side. He grabbed one in each hand and lightly pulled at them taking a few seconds to confirm that they were actually permanently attached to him.
"What are you doing?" Snively asked.
"I think I've got two tails." Snively looked at him oddly as Tails started to tie them together in a knot.
"I see." Snively opened a drawer and began to rummage around. "You know, I don't think that's supposed to be there."
"Really?"
"Someone thought it would be funny to reprogram the docbots to add extra tails to people during operations." He pulled out a large surgical blade. "I'd be more than happy to fix it for you." Snively said as he approached Tails with a cold grin. Tails held his tails in his arms tightly.
"Um, that's okay. I like them fine where they are right now."
"I wish I could let you keep them, but there was a kid just like you who had the same thing done to him."
"What happened to him?"
"He wanted to keep his extra tail, too. So we let him, but he developed a very serious infection and died within a week."
"Really?" Tails asked, holding tighter as Snively walked closer.
"Absolutely! We wouldn't want that to happen to you, do we? I believe your docbot also told you about one of the problems with the artificial blood your using, regarding infections." Snively grabbed the gas mask by the head of his bed and turned it on. "I'll even make sure you won't feel a thing." He tried to hold the mask up to Tails' face, but he kept pushing Snively away.
"Can I wait a few days? Just to see if it doesn't get infected?"
"Snively, report to me when you finish those tests." Robotnick called over the intercom, keeping a polite tone so he wouldn't give Tails a bad impression. "We have some unfinished business to attend to."
Snively paused. He looked Tails in the eyes as the gas mask quietly hissed away. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, he calmly turned it off, sat the blade on the counter and left the room.
Tails began to breathe again after realizing he had been holding his breath before Snively left. His eyes filled with tears as he slowly laid back down and quietly cried into his pillow.
Sonic arrived just outside of the castle where the bomb had gone off. Most of the debris has been cleared away, but the blast was still very evident. He didn't stop for very long since there were a few swatbots in the general area, and he wanted to rescue Tails as soon as possible.
When he and everyone else usually raid the city, they plan on leaving with something damaged, destroyed or stolen. He did his best not to draw too much attention to himself this time since he didn't know how he was going to leave without the luxury of such distractions.
Entering the castle was easy this time since the building he blew up controlled all of the motion detectors outside the castle. Bots were used as a replacement until a more suitable replacement can be utilized. Sonic found it easiest to dodge the bots, and even easier to dodge their gunfire. And with this ability, he entered the castle unnoticed.
Normally, Sonic knew what he was looking for. But this time, he didn't know where to begin looking. Was Tails in the dungeon? Or working in the steel mill as a bot?
Or worse, in the morgue?
Tails could be anywhere. He could possibly have escaped. But regardless of where he is, Sonic's newfound hope of where he isn't is enough to make him do anything to get him back.
This castle was about a quarter of a mile wide by a third of a mile deep and one eighth of a mile tall. He is able to reach any point of this structure in less than thirty seconds, but in order for him to be able to do all this without putting Tails in any more danger is to go slow. Unfortunately for Sonic, this is one of his weak points. It's his basic instinct to go fast. Everything he does is at a hundred miles per hour. Whenever he tries to go slow, he goes nuts. This is something he would have to learn how to control today if he wants to see Tails alive again.
About an hour after Tails almost lost his name, he needed to get up and stretch. It was going to be hard with his broken leg and other injuries. But he needed to stand. His bed was too high for him to jump off of, but luckily there was a stepping stool at the foot of his bed. He slid over and slowly lowered himself to the stool and then to the floor.
Tails also noticed at the foot of his bed was a small closet with crutches and braces of various sizes. This was definitely going to make it easier for him to get around. He grabbed the smallest crutch there, but it was still too big for him. He then noticed that it was adjustable. He fumbled with the pin at the bottom for a few minutes and finally got it to the height that he wanted.
Unfortunately using two crutches was going to be impossible because his left forearm was also broken, so he had to do his best with just one. After walking across the room, he needed to sit down because his leg began to feel sore. He pulled up a chair that was sitting in front of a computer terminal and relieved his legs of the pressure of standing. He leaned his new crutch up by the keyboard, bumping up against the mouse taking the computer out of its power management mode.
"Snively, what is the estimated time of repair for the facility that was destroyed?" Robotnick asked from his giant mechanical chair.
"Actually, the repairs for the sensor facility have been canceled."
"I assume there is a good reason for this." Robotnick said in a calm, but an I'm-going-to-kill-you tone.
"New sensors were under development long before this attack. The time it would take for the old one to be repaired would be much longer than the estimated time of completion of the new system. I ordered all possible efforts in completing the new equipment as soon as I found this out."
"Good. But you haven't answered my question."
"Um…" Snively squealed. "What was the question?"
"When will it be completed!!!"
"It will be… I mean, it should be done in um, about uh… a hundred and thirty one days." Robotnick picked Snively up by his nose and held him up to his face, but he was saved by the bell. Network activity triggered an alarm on a console just next to them. Tails was using the computer in his room, and he was being watched.
Robotnick shifted his interest away from Snively to Tails.
"Well, well, well. Our little guest seems to be trying to communicate with someone. Perhaps with our friends in Knothole."
"I knew that little brat didn't have amnesia!" Snively laughed.
"He's a smart kid. But not smart enough. I can see everything he's doing from there… but unfortunately… he's not trying to access any outbound nodes."
"What's he doing then?"
"It looks like he's looking through our internal network."
"He's spying on us!"
"He hasn't really opened anything yet."
"Maybe he knows we're watching him."
"If he did, why would he be doing this in the first place?" Robotnick sat silent. "I say we should kill him." He still sat motionless. "Sir, he's not the innocent kid he makes himself out to be! Just look at what he's doing!" Robotnick finally stood up and quickly made his way back to Tails' room. Snively followed with his loaded gun.
Snively was going to get his wish. He was finally going to kill Tails. He followed Robotnick at his fast pace, but only stayed behind him. His adrenaline and anticipation of seeing Tails dead was making it hard for him to keep from annoying Robotnick.
Halfway there, Snively could only imagine what he could possibly have on the screen as hard evidence of this suicidal act. The suspense was killing him! Could it be detailed maps of the city? Could it be schematics of the defense matrix outside the castle? Maybe he's planting a trojan virus so his friends in Knothole can access their network from outside.
When Snively saw Tails sitting at the computer, he held his gun to his head, but dropped his jaw as his expectations of an execution was instantly disintegrated by a mere flight simulator.
"I'm sorry! Did I break something?" Tails asked, panicked by the gun in his face.
"No, young man." Robotnick grabbed the gun from Snively's hand and tossed it to the other side of the room. "He just doesn't like people getting a higher score than him." Robotnick picked Snively up and threw him out of the room. "Go and make yourself useful and report to me when you're finished."
"I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to use that. I was just looking for some games…"
"Don't worry about that. Think nothing of it."
"Really?"
"Yes. Come with me. I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes." Robotnick rolled the chair Tails was in away from the computer. Tails grabbed his crutch as he was wheeled out of the room.
Robotnick slowly pushed Tails down the hall in the computer chair and began asking him some questions.
"Tell me, do you still not recall anything about your past?"
"I think I remember Snively."
"Oh?"
"He's scary."
"How so?"
"Well, you saw him hold a gun to my face! Wouldn't you say that's scary?"
"Yeah."
"Has he always been like that?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Why do you keep him around then?"
"Oh, because he has so many uses. But enough about him, let's talk about you."
"Okay. But there's not much I can talk about. I don't know who I am."
"True. But I'd like to ask you a few questions anyway, to try to help restore your memory, if you don't mind."
"No, I don't mind."
"What made you want to play that particular game? I'm sure there were many others for you to choose from."
"I guess I like flying."
"Well, that's a start."
"What do you mean?"
"Flying, I'm sure you probably flew airplanes or something."
"I'm too young."
"You know, I think you're right. But you really look like you knew what you were doing with that game."
"I've probably played it before."
"That also could be true. Now what about your tails?"
"What about them?"
"Do you use them for anything special?"
"I tied them in a knot."
"No, I mean do you remember anything about your tails like you might have remembered about flying?"
"I thought you knew about my extra tail."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Snively said he had to remove it since it's not supposed to be there."
"Remember how we were saying that Snively was crazy and all?"
"Yeah."
"Don't believe what he said about your tails."
"I've always had both of them?"
"Yes. As far as I know."
"That's kinda cool."
"Do you think you would have any kind of special use for an extra tail?"
"I can probably swim faster."
"Perhaps. Do you think you can fly with them?"
"Fly? No way. I couldn't flap them fast enough."
"Do you think you can spin them?"
"I don't know. They're kinda sore."
"Oh, I don't want you to hurt yourself. I was just curious. Besides, how does the rest of you feel?"
"It still hurts."
"You know, it's going to take a long to heal. Especially your leg."
"I know."
"Would you consider something that might speed up your recovery time?"
"Like what?"
"How would you like to have metal bones?"
"Um, I don't know."
"It's not as bad as it sounds. You'd be completely healed within just a few seconds."
"I'm just a kid. Wouldn't I stop growing?"
"No, that can be adjusted as needed."
"Oh. I guess that sounds ok. I do like that idea, but I'd like to wait until I can remember anything first."
"Fair enough."
Snively was in the middle of working on some new repair time estimates when he finally realized that he didn't have his gun. He made his way back to the room Tails was in and was relieved to see that Robotnick was nowhere to be found. He entered the room and found that his gun was no longer there.
Suddenly, the lights went out and the door slammed closed, making the room completely pitch black.
"Hello?" Snively called. He bent over to grab a flashlight he saw a moment before. When he turned it on, Sonic's face was the first thing he saw. He squealed like a little baby as he dropped the flashlight.
The room remained dimly lit as the flashlight rested on the floor. Sonic held Snively's gun up to his head.
"Where's Tails?" Sonic calmly asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Snively replied as he began to sweat.
"Like hell you don't." Sonic walked up closer to him, making Snively trip and fall.
"No! I swear! I haven't seen him!" Snively tried backing away to the door, but bumped into the desk that the computer was sitting on, taking it of its power management mode. The screen faded on to the same flight simulator Sonic had given Tails earlier that week. When Sonic looked back down at Snively, he set the gun down and grabbed the surgical blade that was left on the table. "Um, well, now that you mention it, I think I did see him around here somewhere."
Sonic didn't stop approaching him. He remained silent as Snively kept trying to slip out of the room.
"He's probably outside getting some fresh air, or playing with some computers…" Sonic grabbed Snively's hand and stood on his shoulder. "What are you doing?" The razor sharp blade slid effortlessly under Snively's thumbnail as he screamed as loud as he can.
Sonic still said nothing as Snively's thumbnail landed on the floor. He let go of his hand as Snively laid screaming and grabbing his thumb. Sonic only watched as he kept his silent rage from getting himself captured by a bot. He was going to kill him soon if he didn't tell him exactly where Tails was. Even if he truly didn't know, Sonic felt he deserved to die anyway. But there was a small demand for torture first.
"You know, young man, I have something you might like to see." Robotnick said as he continued to push the chair down a hallway.
"What is it?" Robotnick opened a door leading to a large room. It was filled with many different machines and computer consoles. It also contained the dreaded roboticizer.
"This is my laboratory. I've made many things in here, including that docbot that operated on you."
"Cool." They entered into the room on the second floor on a wide catwalk that circled the room and led to the top of the roboticizer, which Tails couldn't take his eyes off of. Robotnick noticed the fox's fearful stare from the time he set foot in the room.
"I see you're interested in this machine over here."
"Well, it's just big."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No."
"It's what makes your bones turn into metal."
"Oh."
"You look scared. Is there something for you to be afraid of?"
"I don't think so."
"Good, because there isn't any reason to be. I've used it on a lot of people and none of them complained about anything after they used it. Well, all except for one. She never finished the process. But they're all able to perform tasks that would normally take ten people to do, now that they've been healed. Are you sure you want to wait before you use it?"
"Uh, yeah." Tails said in a shaky voice. "I'm sure."
"That's too bad. You're missing out on a wonderful opportunity."
Sonic left the room with blood coating the bottom of his shoes, quietly continuing his search through the castle for Tails. He was now equipped with a gun, but didn't think he was going to need it since this gun alone was no match for his worst enemy.
After another few minutes of walking through the castle, inspecting all of the rooms for signs of Tails, Sonic came across one of the primary control rooms. He was very familiar with this place. This is where he and Robotnick met many times. The wall was lined with fifty displays, which almost all of them were powered down because of the attack. But one of them was still on. He walked up to it and browsed through what was available. He saw some general random files lying around, but there was one file that stood out. It was a large video file, and it was the last thing accessed from that terminal. He opened it up and was stunned when he saw Tails in tremendous pain. His heart pounded in his chest faster than it had ever beaten in his life.
He couldn't stand to watch anymore, but he had to see if Tails was still living by the end of the video. He fell to the ground with his head in his hands as he listened to Tails gasping and choking as Sonic sat helpless in front of the display.
The video wasn't very long, but it was long enough for him. He sat silent as he cried, listening to his racing heartbeat pound in his head as tears fell from his eyes. It was a major relief knowing that Tails was still alive, but there was another possibility that he may be dead again.
He wasn't going to let that happen. Sonic wiped his eyes one last time and stood up to face the monitor again. Tails looked so helpless and in so much misery in the still frame. But he wasn't going to give up this time.
The lights in the room dimmed slightly as the sound of power generators can be heard off in the distance.
"There's only one thing that takes that much power…"
"See? There isn't much to be afraid of." Robotnick said as he powered on the roboticizer. "It just lights up and makes noise. Why don't you step inside? Just to see what it's like. I promise I won't do anything."
"Robotnick!" Sonic yelled as he entered the room from the ground level. Tails stood up and looked to see the blue hedgehog standing at the other end of the room. "Tails!" Tails hid behind Robotnick, peeking around his leg. "What have you done to him!"
"Me? You blew him up!"
"Why did you have to come here?" Tails whispered, panicking at Sonic's presence.
"Give him back, Robotnick." Sonic yelled, determined to rescue Tails.
"Or what? Or you'll kill me? Or blow up another one of your friends?" Sonic drew his gun. He knew it was useless, but did it anyway. "Oh, what are you going to do? Shoot me?" Robotnick reached behind him and grabbed Tails by the throat with his robotic hand, holding his hand-cannon of a gun to the fox's head. "Tell me, do you think you're really going to win?" Tails grabbed onto his arm, kicking and pulling as he tried to breathe. "He almost died before, and he may just die right now! But you can keep that from happening. Just step up to the machine, it's all ready to go." Sonic only stood with his gun drawn, aiming it at Robotnick. "I don't think he can last like this much longer. I can feel him getting weaker and weaker as I speak."
Without notice, Robotnick heard the sound of a Benelli XM1014 12-gauge shotgun cocking behind him. Before he could react, his arm was blown off by Princess Sally who was standing right behind him. He and Tails fell from the second level to the ground below as Sally also fell back from the recoil of the large gun.
As Robotnick landed, he pointed his gun back up at the catwalk. But before he could fire, the gun was destroyed in his hand, along with most of his fingers by Sonic's gunfire.
Sally looked over the edge as she held her bruised shoulder with her broken hand, watching Robotnick run out of the room. "Sonic! Get Tails!" Sonic ran across the room and found Tails bleeding and unconscious. He pried Robotnick's dead metal fingers from around his neck and picked him up.
"What are you doing here!" Sonic yelled as he ran up to get Sally.
"Less talk, more running!" She grabbed onto him and Sonic carried Sally and Tails out of the room.
Sonic ran through the hallways, but stopped when he saw blood pouring out of the bottom of the cast on Tails' leg.
"I can't take him like this!" Sally cried, "He's going to bleed to death before we get him back home!" Sonic entered the room where he had his encounter with Snively, but only found a pool of blood with no body. "What the hell happened here?" Sally asked as she helped Sonic place Tails on the bed.
"I had some fun with Snotley."
"Did you kill him?"
"I thought I did. Forget about it, we gotta help Tails." Sally tended to his bloody face while Sonic tried to get his leg to stop bleeding. The cast was already cracked along the side as a result of the fall, but Sonic stopped when he saw what looked like circuitry in the broken plaster. "What the hell?"
"What?"
"Look!" Sally looked at the cast and was just as puzzled as Sonic. She grabbed Nichole from her boot and opened it up.
"Nichole, can you identify the electronics in this cast?"
"Scanning…" Tails began to move.
"He's waking up!" Sally yelled. "Tails! Don't move!" He tried to get up, but he was too weak to even lift his arms. He began to groan, but was now becoming more aware of his surroundings.
"Go away!" Tails said with much effort.
"Tails, don't talk!"
"He's going to find me!"
"Scanning complete. Electronic components within the cast cannot be identified because of excessive damage, but similar electronics have been identified as radio transmitters in six different parts of the body."
"Oh my God! Tracking devices!" Sally cried. "Nichole, can you disable them?"
"Negative."
"Can you jam them?"
"Negative. Each device is using a frequency that is randomly changing fifty times per second. My current transmitter is unable to replicate such a pattern."
"Are they woven into his bandages or something?"
"Three of them are just under his skin, one is located in his chest cavity, one is located just above his stomach and one is located next to his kidney."
"We can't take him back to Knothole!" Sonic said as he finally pulled the broken cast off.
"We can't leave him here either, Sonic!" Tails was beginning to regain his strength, but was going to make his serious injuries even worse if he continued to struggle.
"Tails! Please don't move! Sonic, do something!" Sonic began looking around in the shelves and cabinets and soon found some surgical blades.
"No! You are NOT cutting him open!" Sally protested. Sonic took a scalpel out of the drawer and approached Tails. "Sonic! Don't you dare do this!" Sally placed herself between them and grabbed his arm.
"Move."
"You're going to kill him!"
"Please, Sally. Move."
"No! Please, don't!" Tails began to cry as he regained consciousness. "He's waking up! Don't do it!" Sally was crying as tried to keep Sonic away from Tails, and Sonic began to cry as well. He took the blade and threw it into the wall in a fit of rage. He continued to look around the room for some medicine and came across some syrettes of morphine.
"Go away! Leave me here!" Tails began to scream from the pain of his injuries.
"Don't worry, Tails. You're going to be okay." Sonic stuck the needle in Tails' leg and emptied the morphine into his bloodstream. Tails continued to cry after a few seconds, so Sonic injected him with the last of the drug, hoping that this was all he was going to need. Tails began to calm down again and finally lost consciousness.
