The Day After Chapter 17: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

THE DAY AFTER

17. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[TAILS, David Macintyre]

I put the phone down, frowning. I'm not up to Amy's bitching and moaning right now.

Thirst.

I get a bottle of coke out of the kitchen, drinking it as I walk across the apartment to the TV. I sit on the couch.

As I reach for the remote on the ground, watching the news slowly sifts out of my mind when I see the bloodstained patch of carpet near the emptied, faulty gun. It still lies where he dropped it after being knocked in the face. A smaller blotch of nosebleed decorates the floor where I hooked Kays in the nose, upon hearing the miraculous sound of the gun's trigger seizing up. Experimental indeed.

I return to the kitchen, all desire to watch TV dissolved. On the way I see the still open linen closet, where I found a sheet suitable for tying up Kays after the gun went off.

I open the door under the sink. At the bottom of the trash can I see the reddened bullet I had hurriedly removed from Kays' forearm the night before. I drop the empty bottle in and close it with a prominent thudding noise.

I glance suspiciously around the room and exit into the hall to check on Kays.

I open the janitor's closet which is across and a little to the left of Kays' apartment door. He's still sitting there where I stashed him, if only for a short time, with the same gag over his mouth. I hate to trust him.

Even with the silver strip covering his mouth, I can tell he's frowning. His brow furrows in contempt.

I smile, trying to look trustworthy or innocent. Something like that.

"I'll get you some more dressing for that today," I say, nodding at his wounded right forearm. The bandage is still soaked with red, hiding the hole where the bullet went after being discharged from the impact of the gun's fall. Long story of firearm physics.

He nods slowly and wordlessly. His face doesn't show a sign of pain.

My attempt to establish trust or innocence is short lived. He retains a hard frown as I close the door and return to the room.

I slide the door open quietly, looking around as if expecting something dangerous to jump out and bite me at any moment. I turn to shut the door, and lock it. Then I turn around again, toward the couch.

Fuck.

It's already inside.

The glass lies in a shattered heap in its wake, and it looks around menacingly. Shortly the second one follows.

FUCK.

My throat catches up before I can scream.

A red line appears from the eye of the first one. This is the bulky red one I hear so much about. He has one huge left arm, a thinner right armed with a couple of very mean looking spikes, and a head decorated with white metal to look like a skull. Blades hang from the sides of his head, resembling dreadlocks.

By the time I've registered all this in my mind, I'm already cowering like a bitch behind the kitchen counter. I leapt to safety as the two of them immediately started raising hell.

FUCK.

I pant heavily in fear, almost hyperventilating. I feel like I have asthma. I look around for anything that might help me, but I see nothing capable of taking down two murderous robots.

The same ones that killed my family, and Amy's girlfriend, and Kays' brother. No doubt. Now they're here for me.

I wait for the gruesome death to come.

My family. My friends. And now me.

…

Nothing

Happens

Just

The

Whirring

Clicking

Of metal

I tune my selective hearing at noticing a high pitched whine among the short silences between smashing sounds. They're taking this place to pieces, I'll bet. The whine comes in short bursts.

It's electronic, like the kind of noise you hear if you mute a TV or turn on a power socket in a quiet room. If your hearing's that good, anyway.

They're communicating. That's all it can be, seeing as they've taken out the TV.

I get up, almost pissing myself in the process, and fumble around for the portable radio sitting on the kitchen counter. I pull it down by the headphones and quickly put them on, tuning the dial back and forth until I pick up something I will assume to be them.

Two voices talking. Sounding very automated, but still laced with their own individuality that is hauntingly familiar.

KAYS_PROWER\ says a deep, hardened voice. I get static and tune the radio a little more. The voice reminds me of…

HE.S_NOT_HERE\ says another, raspy and cold. It reminds me of...

LOOK_HARDER\ says the first. I assume it belongs to the big red one. Crash sound.

I_WILL_CHECK_THIS_ROOM\ says the other, presumably the wiry black one. YOU_GO_DOWN_THAT_SIDE\

There are lots of clicks, whirs and stomps as the red one hurries off down the side hallway to the bedroom and bathroom.

I cower more as they search. Nothing more is said.

Crash sounds, moving noises, the like.

Before long.

"Oh, shit…"

That's all I can say.

No arrgh, no aaaagh, no squee, just 'Oh, shit'.

The black one sidles into the kitchen, throwing open drawers like a moron. As if he's hiding in there.

I see that besides its silver muzzle-thing and gold fittings adorning its body, and the flame patterns that highlight the five bent spikes radiating from its head, it is pitch black. Piercing red eyes lay in their appropriate places, that drive all courage from my body.

Its head snaps to the right to meet my eyes, staring right at me.

Damn it.

A red laser extends from its eye and into mine. I don't move at all. More voice crackles in my ears.

FOUND\:IDENTIFYING\:

Wait. Sweat. Wait. Sweat. Wait. Sweat. Wait. Sweat.

NEGATIVE\:THIS_IS_NOT_THE_TARGET\

THE_PROWER_IS_NOT_HERE\ says big red, causing black wire to leave the kitchen. HE_ESCAPED\:

REPORT_TO_BASE\ says black wire. WE.LL_COME_BACK_LATER\

AFFIRMATIVE\

IF_YOU_HADN.T_MADE_SO_MUCH_NOISE_COMING_IN_HE_WOULDN.T_HAVE_GOTTEN_AWAY\

FUCK_YOUSHADE\

They're… arguing.

This is conversation. Like people. Not like a couple of automated messages or answering machines. This is conversation. No machine can fake this.

These are people. Roboticized people.

I get up and run to the window, watching as they leap out in single file. The red one assumes a gliding position and is boosted by leg jets to a nearby rooftop. The other one appears to land on the ground and run up the same building. They leave.

Fucking

Way

Are

They

Getting

Away

FROM

!!!!

________________________

Vroom.

It only took a minute or two to get outside and grab my bike from the parking lot. Morning traffic is on my side, not a car in sight. I pull out on to the road, making sure the big gun I strapped to my side is secure.

Vroom again.

I cut loose down the alley between the buildings they went to, setting up my computer system as I go. I love this bike sometimes.

I keep driving until I come out into a more open area, and look up. I look forward as I try to keep my eyes on the wide road in front of me, and try to spot them.

There. There's one.

I make sure my radio is tuned to the right signal.

Then, very carefully, I pull the gun out and tuck it under my arm. I aim it upwards in the general direction of the red one, and pull the trigger. A the recoil causes the bike to veer.

\/\/3|23_UNDER_AT74(K\ says the red one. He speeds up in midair. I see the black one following him across the rooftops.

I fire again.

#4STER\ it says, the signal weak.

This isn't going to work.

But I'm not giving up.

I think carefully for about half a second, then veer hard to my right and into the lobby of a business building of some kind. People scatter, things get thrown at me. I aim for the stairs on the far left of the room, none of the elevators open.

I head up the stairs in a constant circular pattern until I reach an open elevator, then drive into it, bumping against the wall. The people inside have already evacuated. It's heading down. Fuck.

I hit emergency stop, then the floor for the roof. I wait, 20 seconds of agonizing still.

I drive out on to the roof, hardly believing I've even gotten this far.

You know what I'm doing, don't you?

Trust me, it'll work. I saw it in True Lies.

And that guy didn't have the Whirlwind.

I push a button by my leg, and the bike rocks a bit. The back panels open, a pair of boosters I put in becoming active.

Think this is a little too far fetched, do you?

Well, screw you, because I can do things you can't even imagine.

I rev the bike again, boosters ready, and my finger on the 'jump trigger' that now protrudes from the handle. I drive very hard towards the edge of the building, and push.

Sproing.

The bike leaps off the edge of the building, the boosters propelling it to the next rooftop with relative ease. Don't you wish you were me.

I look around for the bots, going from roof to roof madly.

There. I see them.

I get out the gun and fire again, almost missing my cue for jump trigger. I REALLY need to get this thing cruise control, or something.

Bang.

HE.S_57|11_AFTER_US\ says the black one. I see him two buildings across from me, leaping from roof to roof with ease. I have NO idea where they're going, but I don't care.

Fire.

RUN\

The signal gets stronger.

I veer hard to my right when I come to a wider roof, and leap the two buildings it takes to be aligned with them. I veer to the left and continue chasing.

SCRAMBLE\

I wonder if they have any idea I'm listening.

I fire the gun, but the black one veers to the left, and I miss. I am forced to follow, taking a very long, diagonal jump between the two. I only just make it.

HE.S_CATCHING_UP\

I fire again, clipping the black one across the side. I grit my teeth.

"Fucker."

I go as fast as possible, catching up to the black one slowly but surely.

I fire the gun at it, nailing him through the circular engine running through his torso. Sparks fly. He slows.

DON.T_LET_HIM_FIND_THE_BASE\: GET_\: |3AC|{ TO DR. EG6/\/\4|\| 01011100101000111000\\\\\\\\

C:ERROR

His speech dies completely.

I brake as quickly as I can, jumping to the next building and then coming to a complete stop.

The bot doesn't catch up with me, and instead plummets to the ground between the two buildings.

________________________

It took about an hour to retrieve him, get some tools out of my workshop, and then haul him back to Kays' house. It wouldn't have taken as long if I'd had my laptop.

But I guess we can't all have what we want.

"Kays, look at this," I say, dragging his bound form into the apartment. He doesn't struggle. He remains unfazed when I showed him the heap of black metal lying on his floor.

"They came here for you," I say. He rolls his eyes. "Kays, these are the guys that attacked my sister. And Amy's lesbian. THIS guy is the one who killed your brother, not me. I swear."

Another eye roll.

"Dammit, Kays, stop being so fucking stubborn."

I drag the bot into the back room, along with Kays, so he can be sure I'm not faking this.

If there's anything Kays will believe, it's this.

I unscrew a plate on the top of the robot's head and pulled a long cord from it, which I clip. I take the loose wire ends and attach them to one that I had taken from my workshop, which I plug into the back of Kays' PC. You wouldn't even comprehend how difficult it was to figure all this out while driving a motorcycle. But that's what I'm here for.

I open a program on Kays' PC and am faced with a constantly changing page of binary code, but with the digits 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to make things more difficult. Robotnik and his fucking codes. Luckily I've dealt with this before, and it doesn't seem to be much different than the last time. Kays is much better at this than me, though.

I hear a distinct laugh come from Kays through his tape.

"Shut up, Kays."

I take awhile decoding the page. It's incredibly boring to describe. I had to get about four bottles of coke, and it was getting dark by the time I was finished. I only cracked the part of the code that I wanted—the hit list.

I push print as soon as what I wanted appeared.

"Look, look at this," I say, shoving a piece of paper in Kays' face. I circle what I want him to see with a pen. He looks it over.

"Look, here's your brother, number four. Complete," I said. "And this is my sister, complete, and here's Amy's girlfriend, complete. You're right here, incomplete. But look—" I point. "I'M here too, incomplete. I'm number fifteen. They're going to come for me as well."

I am incredibly surprised at how relieved I sound and feel saying that. He thinks it over. Then he nods.

"Mmph."

"What?"

"Mmph mm."

"The tape?"

"Mmph."

I breathe a gigantic sigh of relief as I pull it off, and he DOESN'T scream 'murderer'.

He stares at me hard.

"Okay, Tails, I believe you," he said. I sigh heavily.

"Thank GOD."

"But I'm going to crack the rest of the code. You're not out of the fire yet."

"Okay. You're better at it than me anyhow."

"Just fucking untie me, or I'll bite you."

I do so.

________________________

I sit in the living room, going in to check on Kays' progress every few minutes due to boredom. At the moment he's got about 45% of it decoded, which is mostly just hardware information, but it's still downloading the file.

"So what are you planning to do about all this, Tails?"

Eh?

"Come again?"

"You know what I mean. That," he says, motioning at the crumpled heap of black metal on the floor. "What are you going to do to stop all this?"

"Uhh…" I don't want to tell him about Sonic, for fear of how it might come off. My image is at stake.

"You WERE planning to do something, right?"

"Er…"

"You're Tails fucking Prower, for Crissakes. I thought you were always the hero."

"But…"

"Tails, I heard you yelling at your friend on the phone. Amy, is it?"

"…yeah."

"I think you're going about this totally the wrong way."

Oh, god.

"But."

Hm?

"It's not your fault. You're having a psychological issue right now, that I think you may want to know about."

"God. You're saying I'm some kind of psychopath?"

"You were ALWAYS a psycho. But right now… Sonic's raped the girl and gotten himself into prison, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, all your life, at least as far as I can tell, you've been following Sonic like he was some kind of messiah to you. He was your idol, am I right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, now that he's gone and done something totally against what he's been teaching you, you're worried that if you keep following his example, you'll end up like that too. So as a result, you're subconsciously rebelling against everything he's taught you. Namely, help others. That's why you're being such a prick, Tails, not just because it's you."

Oh, thanks.

"….and you know this how?"

"I'm into things you can't even imagine."

I leave it at that.

"So, were you planning to try and stop this?"

"Yeah, of course!"

"How?"

"….well… Sonic."

"Hm?"

"Sonic wants me to help bust him out of jail."

"Really."

"Yeah. We… um… we were supposed to pull it off tonight, but I can't, because I haven't got my laptop. I can't crack the comp system AND have a driver there for him at the same time."

"…Tails, I'll help you."

"Oh my god. Really?"

"If there's anybody you NEED on this job, it's me. You couldn't hack apart a pot plant, let alone a prison security system."

Oh, thanks again.

"Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kays."

"Just doing my job."

"So does that mean we can do it tonight?"

"….no."

"Why not?"

"My internet system is down right now. And even if I had that, there's some complications to getting in that I can only do if I'm on the actual site. So we're gonna have to get your laptop back. I can probably do that."

"…Okay."

It's left at that.

I wait there in the room, drinking my coke and reading a manual of some kind. I'm not really paying attention to it; I'm too busy fabricating Kays and his skills into the plan. He can drive, and teach me how to get into the system. It's all perfect.

Now, how to break it to Sonic that we can't do it tonight…

…

"Tails, do you know someone called Shadow?"

"What?" The name rings more bells than Quasimodo in the 'zone'. My heart pounds.

"Who is Shadow?"

I look at the computer screen.

Kays has cracked a huge amount of the code, bringing up a full hardware report. He seems uninterested in the hit list, as it has only one more name on it—Sonic's, at the very bottom, incomplete. He scrolls down.

"Look here. Model is Roboticized specimen R-601 S, codenamed 'Shade'. Formerly known as 'Shadow'."

Oh god.

A thousand thoughts course through my mind. I feel a headache coming on.

Shadow.

Shadow. Shadow. Shadowshadowshadowshadow.

Howdidhelivewheredidhecomefromwhatisthiswhatisheuptowhydoeshewantusdeadhowdidhesurvivedidhesurviveatallwheredideggmanfindhimwhatdoeshewantwithusdidheknowhewouldbedoingthishowmanyofushashekilledwhatmoredoeshewant

"Shadow the hedgehog…" I say.

"You know him?"

Before anything else can be said, a metal hand clamps around my throat, keeping air out of my lungs.

'Shade' gets back up. My eyes widen in fear.

He strangles me. Kays hits it, yelling loudly, but it has no effect.

I hear that piercing radio noise again just as I feel a sharp object press against my throat.

SHADEREPORT_BACK_TO_BASE\NOW///

He drops me. I gasp for air.

He leaps into the air and crashes through the room's window, leaving and leaping to safety as he had before. He disappears from sight. Sparks fly from his torso.

Kays wraps something around my neck, probably some kind of bandage, soaking up what little bleeding I have. It comes from the side of my neck just to the right of my Adam's apple.

"Vampire," I choke out. "Vampire, look. The fucking Vampire was in our house. I told you Eggman was behind this."

He frowns deeply. Then he turns to look at the window.

"Fucking oats, now I have to get that one fixed as well…."

To be continued. Reviews are appreciated. Oh, and visit our site: http://tdaproject.tripod.com.