The next day found the assassin sniper in an interrogation room, sitting handcuffed beneath the glare of a spotlight. The newspapers told all: a war veteran, one of the many who had turned to crime after Robotnik's war had ended, for it was difficult to stop killing after being trained to do just that. He once belonged to a small Freedom Fighter faction that had disbanded three years earlier, after its leaders were roboticized. Overall, he disagreed with the mayor's idea to reclaim Robotropolis. Sympathizers to his cause were protesting outside the police station. He could hear their angry voices.
"They want me to be released. They all want the mayor dead," he said with satisfaction.
The police chief looked at him with disgust. The sniper was a black canine, pointy eared and snub-nosed. He sat there, grinning, dressed in a prisoner's black and white. His yellow eyes were filled with self-assurance.
"Tell me who you work for, and the sentence will be more lenient."
"No," said Reyes, for that was his name, "I do not betray my employer."
The police chief slammed his paws on the desk and asked in a louder voice, including a threat. Reyes was silent, grinning.
"It's no bloody use," the chief said over his shoulder. Reyes, sitting in the midst of blinding white light, could not see who else was in the room.
"I will try."
A red hedgehog took a seat opposite to Reyes.
"You caught me."
"I did," said Lazer.
"It did you no good. They all want my freedom."
Reyes smiled. Lazer mimicked him. For several very long, drawn out minutes the sniper and bodyguard grinned at each other. The police chief wondered what sort of interrogation this was.
Reyes was scowling inwardly. What the hell's wrong with him, he thought, why;s he smiling like that?
Lazer's thoughts were of Rebecca. His smile held no deceit, no sarcasm; it held love. It was incredibly unnerving to Reyes.
"What do you want?" Reyes yelled at the top of his voice, causing the police chief to fall off the chair in the corner.
"Oh, good. You're in the mood for talking now," said Lazer as the chief muttered an oath and resumed his seat.
Did he just trick me? Reyes thought, and said, "No, I am not talking."
Lazer pointed a finger at Reyes's head and calmly set the hair aflame.
"Hey!" the dog screamed. Lazer watched the hair burn. It reminded him of the final day of Xadra, a country reduced to radioactive dust, ashes and endless flames. There was a cup of cold coffee left on the table; the chief had not finished drinking it. Lazer tossed its contents across the table. The now bald and soggy dog expressed his displeasure in the most lurid language possible.
"Do you want to talk now?" Lazer interrupted in a soft voice.
"Go to hell."
"Hell?" Lazer echoed in trembling voice, remembering that terrible day in the past. He lifted his hand: a red flame danced before Reyes's eyes, evaporating the coffee off his head and singing his nose.
"Alright!" Reyes screamed, "Justin, the jeweler on 67th street, he paid me!"
He took a breath that smelt of roasted coffee.
"I have connections. I have a lawyer! I'll sue for police brutality!"
"I am not an officer. I do not have any money. Furthermore," Lazer continued in that calm, soft voice, "No lawyer will defend you. The mayor will see to that."
The red hedgehog pushed back his chair and turned away from the hating face of Reyes.
"I'm done. I know the way out, thank you."
The door opened, closed, and he was gone.
"I demand that you provide medical attention," Reyes said afterward. His scalp and face were blistering with raw pain.
"Sure. There's plenty of cold coffee in this station," the chief quipped while he grabbed the convict's arms and led him away.
***
Demolitionists had razed half of Robotropolis since its abandonment. Each took deep satisfaction in his or her job, never complaining about the cold, dank conditions or the lousy pay.
Fifty workers were assigned to an underground bunker. Inside were several hundred inactive units, ranging from SwatBots to hulking army tanks. Standard procedure dictated that these units were to be dismantled for spare parts. As the first engineer began her work, the bunker's entrance began to shudder close. Only eight escaped before the massive doors swung closed. The forty-two remaining watched with horror as the bunker came to life.
***
The blue wonder was seated beside Sally, reading a magazine. It was Sally's idea to establish a habit of reading together every Sunday evening.
"Sonic!"
Tails almost collided with his buddy. Startled from their quiet time, Sonic and Sally looked up. Tails was making frantic gestures with his arms.
"They're trapped, in the bunker! Need help now! Robots in there!"
"Stop. Rewind. Say it slowly," said Sonic.
Tails shook his head, eyes wide and fearful.
"No time. Sector 15J, bunker T-13, they're dying in there!"
His tails whirring behind him, Tails sped off to Robotropolis. Sonic leaned over, pecked Sally on the cheek (his eyes communicated his regret; she understood) and then chased his pal to the dark citadel.
***
The bunker doors dented on the first spin attack, crumpled on the second and crashed inward on the third. Blue and orange lightning made themselves known to the robots.
"I am your target!" Sonic yelled. A swatbot, throwing a bloody engineer aside like a discarded toy, aimed its blaster toward Sonic. While the speedy blue hedgehog distracted the robots, Tails darted to all corners of the room to remove surviving engineers.
"Is that all you got?" Sonic shouted. A hail of laser beams followed him as he ran along the walls.
"You okay?" Tails was asking a brown feline. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth.
"Ben… take care of Ben," she whimpered. Tails looked in the direction of her outstretched paw, and cringed. Ben's head was scattered about the floor, gray flecks of brain matter mixed with splashes of red.
"Take care of him," she repeated. Tails slung her arm over his shoulders, tears stinging his eyes.
"I'll take your best shot!" he heard Sonic yell, followed by a loud boom.
"Destroy them all," Tails urged quietly.
Six minutes passed like that. A heavy cloud of smoke blanketed the place. Spare parts were strewn everywhere. Twelve cadavers were lined up outside the bunker to be carried away and buried.
"I got out as many as I could," Tails said with a shrug. The survivors were being carted away. More than a few of them would be classified as 'Dead On Arrival'.
Sonic's eyes were shut. His teeth were clenched, his fists also.
"I wasn't fast enough. I saw all of them, every person who died because I wasn't fast enough."
The words of the dark sorceress Hannah Nyress rang in his mind like a taunt from hell: How many parents needlessly lost their children because you could not run fast enough to save them? How many allies became roboticized due to your stupid mistakes? Pathetic!
"Not fast… enough," he groaned. He felt Tails's paw on his shoulder but shrugged it off. Suddenly, the orange fox plunged into the bunker, his twin tails disappearing into the smoke. Sonic waited, disinterested in what Tails had seen. Voices and memories echoed in his head.
"Sonic! A computer down here still works."
"Whoop-te-fricken'-doo," he replied.
"Get in here. Look at this."
With a ragged sigh Sonic stepped inside. Acrid smoke stung his eyes and lungs. He should have held his breath.
"Look, there's Robotropolis, the Freedom Fighter city, and another place."
Sonic saw the dully-glowing monitor, wreathed with smoke.
"What other place?" he asked, and coughed.
"I don't know, but I got its coordinates. I'll try to find out about it."
"Damn this place needs an air filter," Sonic said between coughing fits. Why wasn't Tails affected? Oh yeah: he was a mechanic; he breathed smoke from his crazy machines.
"All it has is this error message, nothing…"
That was when Robotnik talked to them.
"My nemesis. I am waiting. If you refuse, you will not enjoy that wife of yours for much longer. Come to me."
"Him again!" Tails exclaimed, "He's up to his old trick of 'step-into-my-lair-so-I-can-kill-you'? Sonic?"
Nobody else was there.
"Sonic? Where'd he go?"
***
Sally.
Her name was bouncing back and forth in his mind faster than his legs were moving. Sonic did not take threats to Sally's life lightly. Sure, Robotnik could promise hellfire and brimstone to him, but not to Sally, oh, no.
"Be there," Sonic prayed, "Be safe. Be home. Be there."
He was an almost invisible blue blur trailing a dust cloud, pressing the laws of nature in his mad dash. He had broken the sound barrier 1.3 seconds after Robotnik had threatened his wife.
"Be there, please, Sal!"
The Great Forest rushed up to meet him. He spared a glance upward, past the trees and to the morning sky.
Smoke, twisting like a snake, came from the forest. For a moment Sonic could not breathe.
Knothole
is on fire!
The horrific thought
spurred him to greater speed. He could see the flames now, dancing between the
trees in a macabre victory dance.
"Sally!" he screamed, and crashed into Rotor, who in turn fell onto Antoine, who flailed his arms and struck Bunnie. She lost balance and hit the barbecue pit, which fell to one side and sprayed hot coals over the grass.
"Hey!" Rotor said.
"What eez this!" Antoine said.
"Mah stars!" said Bunnie.
"Huh?" said Sonic.
The three of them got up and glared at him.
"We were trying to start a barbecue! I didn't even put the steak on yet."
"Infidel! Vigilante! I should arrest you!"
"Heavens! Thuh grass is on fire!"
"Huh?" Sonic said again. He stood there stupidly, while the rest of them tried to beat down the fire with Rotor's apron (Kiss the Cook). Before they had a chance to yell at him again, Sonic slinked away toward his house.
He opened the door and there she was, reading the same book by the same desk with the same lamp. It was nice to have things that did not change.
"Sonic! You look like yesterday's road kill."
He did, his fur was black with soot and crude oil from the robots.
"Sally. You're safe."
His voice did not sound too good, either.
"Don't speak. Go take a really long bath. You stink."
***
"Your ax kick is flawed."
"It is not."
Lazer grinned at the twin infernos that were Rebecca's eyes. She was standing before a section of tree trunk that was balanced on top two concrete bricks. Cridon's greenhouse loomed over them.
"You can exert more force than that."
"I am strong! I hold back since extra force is unnecessary."
Lazer was reminded of the Princess's words (What's her name again… Oh, yeah, Sally), admonishing him for the excessive force he used to 'discipline' a rookie Freedom Fighter.
"Will you hold back when that extra force is necessary?"
"When will it become necessary?" she huffily replied. Watching her angry eyes made his heart ache.
"Now. If you don't break this with a single kick, I'm going to taunt you for the rest of the afternoon."
She turned toward the offending tree trunk. Why did she have to prove herself to him? She would rain some vicious blows on his head if he wanted a real demonstration of power.
"Becky."
That most hated of all nicknames seared her brain. Without thought, her leg rose to a nearly vertical angle and lashed downward in a blur of speed.
"That's better. Now try the log."
He released the hold on her leg.
If that blow had connected, not even the Emeralds would have saved me.
He looked on as she concentrated.
Calm yourself, girl. Focus completely on that weak point.
Her advanced training under Kazuo proved effective. The single burst of strength, coupled with perfect precision and style, took Lazer's breath away. The log lay in two pieces on the ground.
"Good," he blurted when her triumphant gaze rested on him.
"Hah. You were holding your breath. You know it was perfect."
She ran her fingers through her orange hair.
"If you will excuse me, Lazer, my father requested that I teach him some self defense."
"Can I…"
"No, you can't come along. Farewell, my husband to be."
She brushed past him with a toss of her head.
"Damn," he muttered when she was out of earshot. She had exuded every last drop of conceit in those haughty words. 'Husband to be', what the hell? If she referred to him like that again…
"Lazer-san."
Kazuo had appeared around the corner of the greenhouse, donned in gray kimono, silent katana at his side.
"Hello. Rebecca just ax kicked this tree trunk as if it were a chopstick."
Kazuo eyed the two-foot thick pieces.
"Small. Her fist would have been enough break it."
"I doubt it. She's not that strong a puncher."
Kazuo's eyes were like bits of amber glass, as he drew the blue-white blade and walked forward.
"Do you belittle her? Then you belittle me."
Try as he might, Lazer's sixth sense of feeling another's state of mind did not work on Kazuo. What kind of mental defenses did Kazuo have, that Chaos Emeralds could not penetrate?
"I meant no offense to either of you," he replied, completely unsure if the purple rabbit was irked or merely testing him. Kazuo held out the katana, its point almost touching between Lazer's eyes.
"I have not seen your skill, Lazer-san, but you are unarmed."
"I am."
The blade lowered, Kazuo walked away. The forward thrust came at near-invisible speed, aimed for a fatal blow.
"You have proven some worth," remarked Kazuo. The blade was sandwiched between Lazer's paws, restrained one inch from the centre of his chest. Coal black eyes bored into slits of amber.
"Considering the speed, it was as if you never turned around. Do not try it again."
He pushed the blade away. Without another word the purple rabbit turned around, sliding the burnished steel into its scabbard. His soft footsteps led him into the darkness of the forest.
***
The coordinates of the area indicated on Robotnik's computer were valid, Tails discovered. Nicole confirmed the point to be between the Great Forest and the ocean. Mapmakers had written off the area as desert, an infertile location that the Great Forest could not seed.
Just like Robotnik to choose a desert for a home.
"Got what you wanted, Miles?"
"Aw, Aunty!"
Scowling, he shoved Nicole into her paws. Sonic was still showering in the next room; he could hear the splashing water and overtones of noisy scrubbing.
"Can't you forget my real name? Ever?"
"No. I don't want to. I need it when you're acting too seriously."
"But I gotta take this seriously!"
Slumped into the deep cushions of her couch, Sally thought he looked thinner than usual. His ribs were poking against his fur.
"Do you eat three meals a day?"
"What?" he asked and screwed up his face. What a ridiculous thing to ask!
"I know you work sixteen hours a day, but do you eat?"
"Sally, has it occurred to you that I'm not a kid anymore?
That caused a sharp pain in her chest.
"But you are," she said, half-believing her own words. It was true that Tails had hit puberty over the past few years. When had that cruel entity, Time, grabbed her little nephew and stolen him from her? When had that other specter, Experience, given him such an adult view of things?
Tails registered the dismay on Sally's face. His mind clicked and whirred and output the appropriate solution.
"It's okay, Aunty, I'm sorry."
He held her close. She sat there, looking at her coffee table, not knowing what to do. Would reality checks like this always happen, would nothing remain the same in her life?
"Sonic," she murmured. Tails heard her, and remembered that Sonic (who was rigorously drying off with a heavy towel and muttering to himself) would want to know of Robotnik's new hideout. He took another glance at his 'aunty', however, and chose to remain with her a while longer. She looked stranded.