* * *
Sally and Rotor developed the factory photos, and Sally laid them out on a table and poured over them, Nicole lying next to them. Tails' set of photos were the most interesting, for the fox had not only been high above the floor and so photographed the widest shots, he seemed to have a natural talent for photography. His images were the ones Sally studied the longest.
Bunnie Rabbot entered and carefully climbed down the ladder, placing her metal feet with extra care on the rungs. "Hi, Sally-girl," the rabbit drawled in a Southern accent. "What'd y'all find?"
"Very interesting things," said Sally without looking up. She slid two photos over to her friend, who picked them up in her robot hand and examined them.
"I see what you mean," murmured Bunnie, looking at the huge steel vats that were surrounded by pipes. "That's where the oil is purified, right?"
"Right," said Sally. "I was more interested in the tank behind the vats. See it?" She pointed to a tall rounded tank against the wall, nearly hidden from view behind a vat. "That's where waste gas is temporarily stored as it comes off the vats. A charge placed on one of those would destroy the whole refinery."
"That's dangerous, though," said Bunnie, looking at Sally and biting her lower lip. "Y'all think you could get in and get out without getting yourselves blown up?"
Sally brushed her auburn hair out of her eyes and gazed fiercely at the photos. "I think we can do it. I could work from our outpost. Sonic and Tails could get in, and Tails could fly Sonic out..." She looked at Bunnie, a fiery glint in her blue eyes that said another mission was as good as accomplished. "All we need is to find the best time to go in."
* * *
Three days passed before the Freedom Fighters made their move. In those three days, Robotnik's factories had produced two-thirds of the required equipment to make an assault on the Great Forest. The factories and refineries may have spewed pollution enough to choke a planet, but they were efficient. Robots and machinery designed by Robotnik himself worked on regular schedules, delivering shipments of materials and transferring SWAT-bot troops to posts around the city. Once a week they were brought in for mandatory maintenance, which was carried out by the lowest creatures in the Robotropolis caste: robotized citizens.
Thousands of miserable worker bots slaved around the clock, never resting, their minds chained to their metal bodies, enslaved to Robotnik. There were as many body designs as there were Mobian species, and some looked as if they could be quite ferocious, for the robotizer enhanced teeth or claws with metal replacements. But these sad creatures never thought to use their weapons against their master, for they had no free will left.
No Freedom Fighter, on pain of death, was allowed to harm a worker bot.
Sally was not thinking of this as she hid among heaps of industrial waste on the outskirts of Robotropolis. She was focused on the mission ahead. She had a communicator in one hand and Nicole in the other, who was sending a pirate signal to a nearby relay tower. Sally had access to map and system information for fifteen or twenty minutes, which was when she would have to disconnect to avoid being traced. It was long enough.
Sonic and Tails had eight minutes to reach the target refinery, and would maintain radio silence until then. Sally sat on cracked pavement under the carcass of a broken crane, kept one eye on her watch and the other on Nicole, and waited.
She exhaled as Sonic's voice said, "We're there, Sal. Where to?"
"Wait for the shift change," said Sally, glancing at the schedule, which she had scribbled on a sheet of notebook paper. "Any minute now. Fly in, set the charge, get out."
"Gotcha, Sal. Radio you again when we're out." There was a click as Sonic turned off his communicator.
Sally hugged her knees, watching Nicole's green and black screen. She was confident in Sonic and Tails' abilities, but she was still nervous. What if ... what if ... no, she wouldn't think about that. Calculate the distance they will have to be from the refinery before you detonate the charge. She was good at trigonometry--she had gotten good grades in it from her tutor, back in the palace, before Robotnik had betrayed the king and consumed Mobitropolis in metal and smog...
She calculated the problem--two miles was the answer--and resumed waiting. Where were they now? Perched in the rafters of a refinery, waiting for a chance to slip down and stick a plastic explosive to a gas canister? She got up and began to pace, holding Nicole. So far so good--no disturbance, nothing unusual. They would need to restock on explosives after this, Sonic would enjoy robbing a high-security warehouse, and it wouldn't matter how many SWAT-bots he destroyed...
A message flashed across her screen, and Sally felt a hot stab of fear through her heart. Intruders detected. Priority one: Hedgehog identified. Request reinforcements.
"Oh Sonic, run," she whispered, biting a fingernail. She reached for her communicator, which clicked on as she touched it. "Sal, I'm out," came Sonic's breathless voice.
"What happened?" she said, hardly able to speak over the thundering of her heart.
"Blasted cambot. By the time I noticed it it had sounded the alarm. We got the charge planted, though. Tails and I split up, he's on the roofs."
Sally watched as more red messages flickered across Nicole's screen. "Sonic, they've called out Squads 23 and 178. They're headed right for you."
"Don't worry about me, I'm cool," said Sonic. There came a second of static, broken by an indistinct noise Sally guessed was the hedgehog leveling a regiment of SWATbots. "That got 'em!" Sonic laughed. "I'm turning this off so they don't trace your transmission. See you in a few."
Sally moved out of hiding, scanning the cityline for the uproar she knew Sonic was causing. She had a sick feeling in her stomach about Tails. He was alone, roof hopping, while Sonic drew off the pursuit. Sally didn't know what she would do if something happened to Tails. She read him bedtime stories and fussed about his meals, and made him wear a scarf when it was cold. He was still so young, and if he didn't make it ... She clasped her hands. "Tails, come on, please."
Approaching footsteps made her turn and Sonic dashed into view, panting and holding a detonator in one hand. "Back, Sal! Say the word and I'll blow the joint."
"Tails isn't back yet," said Sally. "Wait a minute."
"He's not?" Sonic looked blank. "But he should be here by now, he was coming straight here." Then horror crept into his face. "Sal, you don't think..."
He was gone before he finished his sentence, running as only he could. Sally watched him go, breathing heavily as though she, too, had been running. She was panicking, she knew. Calm down, he probably got lost, Sonic will find him, maybe he had to hide--
Her communicator lit up, and Sonic said, "I don't see him anywhere. The robots are all still looking for me. Have any prisoners been taken?"
Sally checked Nicole. No, no prisoners had been taken in the past hour. "No, Sonic," she replied, voice shaking. "He's got to be hiding somewhere."
He's got to.
But Sally couldn't banish the vivid image of Tails standing inside the robotizer. She clutched her heart, trying to slow it down. This kind of terror was a thousand times worse than what she had felt while fleeing Robotnik as a child. This was a helpless, overwhelming terror, made all the greater because she could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Then Sonic screamed in fury, and Sally knew what had happened.
She leaned against the broken crane and rested her head against its cold metal. "They've got him!" Sonic was screeching over and over. Then his communicator's microphone was overwhelmed by noise of carnage as he shredded robots, fighting to reach his sidekick. There was a particularly loud buzz, and his communicator went dead.
Sally could only watch in silence as a message blinked on Nicole's screen: Hostage secured. Identified as Freedom Fighter. In transit to secure facility.
After a while a new message informed her that Tails had reached a secure facility and had been contained, awaiting sentence.
It was half an hour before Sonic returned, walking, his spines stained with oil and grime. He had the look of a warrior worn out with combat, but his eyes burned as he looked at Sally. "They put him in the west cellblocks. He was too close to the fortress, Sal. I couldn't get to him."
She looked at him, unable to speak, but her eyes asked the question.
Sonic rubbed his eyes. "I don't know how they caught him. It looked like he was hiding and one of them saw him. He was ... he was sedated..."
Before Sally could say a word, Sonic held up the detonator controls and pressed the button. One of the refinery towers exploded in a sheet of white flame, engulfing the surrounding structures in orange fire and black smoke.
Sonic and Sally were already gone, Sonic carrying Sally and running like the wind for Knothole.
* * *
"Well well, this is a sick twist of fate," said Robotnik as he strolled through the West Cellblock. It was a narrow prison built of cement and iron bars, each cell exactly six feet square. It stank of excrement and unwashed bodies, and roaches and other vermin crawled away from the light Robotnik carried in one hand. But he did not care. No prisoner was held longer than a few days before being robotized, and he saw no reason to include sanitation in a prison.
The cells in row 3B were empty, but for one at the far end. Robotnik stopped and shone his light through the bars. Lying on the floor within was a young fox with two tails, his eyes half-open and unseeing. He did not flinch as Robotnik beamed the light in his eyes. "Tranquilized, I see," he thought. "How convenient. They destroy two oil refineries, and in exchange I take a hostage."
He gazed at Tails a moment longer, then looked up and down the cellblock. If the Freedom Fighters could sneak into a high-security refinery, they could break into a prison. He pressed a few buttons on his robotized wrist, and a moment later two SWAT-bots clanked down the hall toward him.
"Bring the prisoner," he said, motioning to the silent fox.
The SWAT-bots obeyed with mechanical precision, opening the bars and picking up the pitifully small lump of fur, who hung limp in their cold hands.
Robotnik led them up to the fortress, and into the control room, where he and Snively spent most of their time. Robotnik took a key from a ring at his belt and opened a compartment in the floor, a few feet from his throne-like chair. Within was a dark storage compartment about five feet square. The SWAT-bots dropped Tails inside this, and Robotnik closed and locked the cover. It blended with the floor so perfectly that one would have never known it existed.
Snively, who was working as usual, said nothing until the SWAT-bots had gone and his prodigious uncle had settled himself in his chair. Then Snively turned and looked toward the closed compartment. "What will we do with him, sir?"
"Not the robotizer," muttered Robotnik, resting his chin on one fist. "A Knothole hostage is too precious to waste on such trivialities. I will think about it."
There was a moment of silence, and Snively resumed working. He jumped as Robotnik spoke his name. Snively turned, not knowing what to expect.
His uncle was smiling. "Take the day off."
Sally and Rotor developed the factory photos, and Sally laid them out on a table and poured over them, Nicole lying next to them. Tails' set of photos were the most interesting, for the fox had not only been high above the floor and so photographed the widest shots, he seemed to have a natural talent for photography. His images were the ones Sally studied the longest.
Bunnie Rabbot entered and carefully climbed down the ladder, placing her metal feet with extra care on the rungs. "Hi, Sally-girl," the rabbit drawled in a Southern accent. "What'd y'all find?"
"Very interesting things," said Sally without looking up. She slid two photos over to her friend, who picked them up in her robot hand and examined them.
"I see what you mean," murmured Bunnie, looking at the huge steel vats that were surrounded by pipes. "That's where the oil is purified, right?"
"Right," said Sally. "I was more interested in the tank behind the vats. See it?" She pointed to a tall rounded tank against the wall, nearly hidden from view behind a vat. "That's where waste gas is temporarily stored as it comes off the vats. A charge placed on one of those would destroy the whole refinery."
"That's dangerous, though," said Bunnie, looking at Sally and biting her lower lip. "Y'all think you could get in and get out without getting yourselves blown up?"
Sally brushed her auburn hair out of her eyes and gazed fiercely at the photos. "I think we can do it. I could work from our outpost. Sonic and Tails could get in, and Tails could fly Sonic out..." She looked at Bunnie, a fiery glint in her blue eyes that said another mission was as good as accomplished. "All we need is to find the best time to go in."
* * *
Three days passed before the Freedom Fighters made their move. In those three days, Robotnik's factories had produced two-thirds of the required equipment to make an assault on the Great Forest. The factories and refineries may have spewed pollution enough to choke a planet, but they were efficient. Robots and machinery designed by Robotnik himself worked on regular schedules, delivering shipments of materials and transferring SWAT-bot troops to posts around the city. Once a week they were brought in for mandatory maintenance, which was carried out by the lowest creatures in the Robotropolis caste: robotized citizens.
Thousands of miserable worker bots slaved around the clock, never resting, their minds chained to their metal bodies, enslaved to Robotnik. There were as many body designs as there were Mobian species, and some looked as if they could be quite ferocious, for the robotizer enhanced teeth or claws with metal replacements. But these sad creatures never thought to use their weapons against their master, for they had no free will left.
No Freedom Fighter, on pain of death, was allowed to harm a worker bot.
Sally was not thinking of this as she hid among heaps of industrial waste on the outskirts of Robotropolis. She was focused on the mission ahead. She had a communicator in one hand and Nicole in the other, who was sending a pirate signal to a nearby relay tower. Sally had access to map and system information for fifteen or twenty minutes, which was when she would have to disconnect to avoid being traced. It was long enough.
Sonic and Tails had eight minutes to reach the target refinery, and would maintain radio silence until then. Sally sat on cracked pavement under the carcass of a broken crane, kept one eye on her watch and the other on Nicole, and waited.
She exhaled as Sonic's voice said, "We're there, Sal. Where to?"
"Wait for the shift change," said Sally, glancing at the schedule, which she had scribbled on a sheet of notebook paper. "Any minute now. Fly in, set the charge, get out."
"Gotcha, Sal. Radio you again when we're out." There was a click as Sonic turned off his communicator.
Sally hugged her knees, watching Nicole's green and black screen. She was confident in Sonic and Tails' abilities, but she was still nervous. What if ... what if ... no, she wouldn't think about that. Calculate the distance they will have to be from the refinery before you detonate the charge. She was good at trigonometry--she had gotten good grades in it from her tutor, back in the palace, before Robotnik had betrayed the king and consumed Mobitropolis in metal and smog...
She calculated the problem--two miles was the answer--and resumed waiting. Where were they now? Perched in the rafters of a refinery, waiting for a chance to slip down and stick a plastic explosive to a gas canister? She got up and began to pace, holding Nicole. So far so good--no disturbance, nothing unusual. They would need to restock on explosives after this, Sonic would enjoy robbing a high-security warehouse, and it wouldn't matter how many SWAT-bots he destroyed...
A message flashed across her screen, and Sally felt a hot stab of fear through her heart. Intruders detected. Priority one: Hedgehog identified. Request reinforcements.
"Oh Sonic, run," she whispered, biting a fingernail. She reached for her communicator, which clicked on as she touched it. "Sal, I'm out," came Sonic's breathless voice.
"What happened?" she said, hardly able to speak over the thundering of her heart.
"Blasted cambot. By the time I noticed it it had sounded the alarm. We got the charge planted, though. Tails and I split up, he's on the roofs."
Sally watched as more red messages flickered across Nicole's screen. "Sonic, they've called out Squads 23 and 178. They're headed right for you."
"Don't worry about me, I'm cool," said Sonic. There came a second of static, broken by an indistinct noise Sally guessed was the hedgehog leveling a regiment of SWATbots. "That got 'em!" Sonic laughed. "I'm turning this off so they don't trace your transmission. See you in a few."
Sally moved out of hiding, scanning the cityline for the uproar she knew Sonic was causing. She had a sick feeling in her stomach about Tails. He was alone, roof hopping, while Sonic drew off the pursuit. Sally didn't know what she would do if something happened to Tails. She read him bedtime stories and fussed about his meals, and made him wear a scarf when it was cold. He was still so young, and if he didn't make it ... She clasped her hands. "Tails, come on, please."
Approaching footsteps made her turn and Sonic dashed into view, panting and holding a detonator in one hand. "Back, Sal! Say the word and I'll blow the joint."
"Tails isn't back yet," said Sally. "Wait a minute."
"He's not?" Sonic looked blank. "But he should be here by now, he was coming straight here." Then horror crept into his face. "Sal, you don't think..."
He was gone before he finished his sentence, running as only he could. Sally watched him go, breathing heavily as though she, too, had been running. She was panicking, she knew. Calm down, he probably got lost, Sonic will find him, maybe he had to hide--
Her communicator lit up, and Sonic said, "I don't see him anywhere. The robots are all still looking for me. Have any prisoners been taken?"
Sally checked Nicole. No, no prisoners had been taken in the past hour. "No, Sonic," she replied, voice shaking. "He's got to be hiding somewhere."
He's got to.
But Sally couldn't banish the vivid image of Tails standing inside the robotizer. She clutched her heart, trying to slow it down. This kind of terror was a thousand times worse than what she had felt while fleeing Robotnik as a child. This was a helpless, overwhelming terror, made all the greater because she could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Then Sonic screamed in fury, and Sally knew what had happened.
She leaned against the broken crane and rested her head against its cold metal. "They've got him!" Sonic was screeching over and over. Then his communicator's microphone was overwhelmed by noise of carnage as he shredded robots, fighting to reach his sidekick. There was a particularly loud buzz, and his communicator went dead.
Sally could only watch in silence as a message blinked on Nicole's screen: Hostage secured. Identified as Freedom Fighter. In transit to secure facility.
After a while a new message informed her that Tails had reached a secure facility and had been contained, awaiting sentence.
It was half an hour before Sonic returned, walking, his spines stained with oil and grime. He had the look of a warrior worn out with combat, but his eyes burned as he looked at Sally. "They put him in the west cellblocks. He was too close to the fortress, Sal. I couldn't get to him."
She looked at him, unable to speak, but her eyes asked the question.
Sonic rubbed his eyes. "I don't know how they caught him. It looked like he was hiding and one of them saw him. He was ... he was sedated..."
Before Sally could say a word, Sonic held up the detonator controls and pressed the button. One of the refinery towers exploded in a sheet of white flame, engulfing the surrounding structures in orange fire and black smoke.
Sonic and Sally were already gone, Sonic carrying Sally and running like the wind for Knothole.
* * *
"Well well, this is a sick twist of fate," said Robotnik as he strolled through the West Cellblock. It was a narrow prison built of cement and iron bars, each cell exactly six feet square. It stank of excrement and unwashed bodies, and roaches and other vermin crawled away from the light Robotnik carried in one hand. But he did not care. No prisoner was held longer than a few days before being robotized, and he saw no reason to include sanitation in a prison.
The cells in row 3B were empty, but for one at the far end. Robotnik stopped and shone his light through the bars. Lying on the floor within was a young fox with two tails, his eyes half-open and unseeing. He did not flinch as Robotnik beamed the light in his eyes. "Tranquilized, I see," he thought. "How convenient. They destroy two oil refineries, and in exchange I take a hostage."
He gazed at Tails a moment longer, then looked up and down the cellblock. If the Freedom Fighters could sneak into a high-security refinery, they could break into a prison. He pressed a few buttons on his robotized wrist, and a moment later two SWAT-bots clanked down the hall toward him.
"Bring the prisoner," he said, motioning to the silent fox.
The SWAT-bots obeyed with mechanical precision, opening the bars and picking up the pitifully small lump of fur, who hung limp in their cold hands.
Robotnik led them up to the fortress, and into the control room, where he and Snively spent most of their time. Robotnik took a key from a ring at his belt and opened a compartment in the floor, a few feet from his throne-like chair. Within was a dark storage compartment about five feet square. The SWAT-bots dropped Tails inside this, and Robotnik closed and locked the cover. It blended with the floor so perfectly that one would have never known it existed.
Snively, who was working as usual, said nothing until the SWAT-bots had gone and his prodigious uncle had settled himself in his chair. Then Snively turned and looked toward the closed compartment. "What will we do with him, sir?"
"Not the robotizer," muttered Robotnik, resting his chin on one fist. "A Knothole hostage is too precious to waste on such trivialities. I will think about it."
There was a moment of silence, and Snively resumed working. He jumped as Robotnik spoke his name. Snively turned, not knowing what to expect.
His uncle was smiling. "Take the day off."