Days passed. Sally was at sixes and sevens trying to battle Robotnik's automated machines without her primary soldier, Sonic. She relied on Bunnie for backup and ran most of the missions herself, destroying convoys that reached the Great Forest despite her best efforts.
The machines were cruelly efficient. While she was immobilizing one squad, another came in behind it and began felling timber. Half an acre had been stripped before Sally and Bunnie stopped the machines.
The day after, the cut lumber was hauled quietly back to Robotropolis while Sally was planning their attack. She pulled Antoine and Rotor in, and wished they had more Freedom Fighters. There simply weren't enough of them to hold off the convoys, and they could not fight forever. The heatwave persisted, and Sally was wearing out. Her energy was less and less each day, and she could see the growing fatigue in Bunnie's eyes. On top of that, laser cartridges were running low.
After nine days of this losing battle, Robotnik began sending convoys at night. Twenty-four hours a day, hundreds of machines and trucks rolled in, cut timber, and hauled it off. The Freedom Fighters could not stop them all, and every day there were wider fields of stumps as the machines cut into the forest.
It was cruel, it was destructive, it was brilliant. Sally had to admit that the scheme was one she would have been proud of had she been in Robotnik's place. He knew their main weakness was that they were few, and that they relied on the forest for protection. Without that protection, and without Sonic, they were all but powerless.
She wasn't even able to try to rescue Tails, although she wanted to. No one could be spared, and she still could not locate him through the computers. It was as if he had vanished upon entering Robotropolis. She hoped they had not executed him, but there was nothing she could do. She could not even plan a rescue mission without information.
She sat at the table in the Knothole cave, which had become her home as of late, and stared at a topographical map of the Great Forest. The bog outside of Knothole was outlined in yellow ink, and Robotnik's progression had been marked with red pins. His robots had formed a V, and were cutting their way steadily into the heart of the Great Forest. If they kept going the direction they were going, they would strike the bog in another week. Knothole might be safe for a while, but what about the rest of the forest? She didn't want to see it leveled. It broke her heart to see the old, majestic trees felled by mindless robots, and to see the acres of stumps where there had once been pristine forest.
They had to do something. She couldn't figure out what, though. Fire was not option with the woods drying up in the heat. They had taken to walking up to the machines and puncturing the fuel tanks with a large pike braced against the ground. But Robotnik was learning, and sometimes there were repair robots accompanying the convoy. She had to destroy those first.
Sally held her face in her hands. She was so helpless--oh, if only Sonic was still here!
***
Tails was taken for "testing", which involved being stuck with needles and having chunks gouged out of him. Tissue samples, Snively called them.
The fox felt as if he were losing his grip on reality. Had Sonic really died, or had his past life been some kind of dream? He felt like he had always lived in the cage and been treated like an animal, been peered at by humans and poked with needles. He found himself fantasizing about biting Snively and Robotnik, usually on the face or throat, and worrying them to death. His watch became his link to sanity.
He took off his ultra-watch whenever they removed him from the cage, and put it on again when they returned him. He would play for hours with the compass and the calculator, but he never used the light for fear of attracting attention. He would make up complicated math problems, solve them in his head, and check them on the calculator. He would lie and watch his compass balance, the needle swiveling to point north.
Tails never talked. Sonic had told them not to tell them anything, so he was going to do that. He wondered if not talking contributed to his slow regression into an animal. Talking used a different part of his mind than did the base instincts to attack and kill, and lately he had been concentrating on his instincts. He was going to survive if it killed him, and if he had to go wild to do it, then he would go wild.
If Robotnik and Snively noticed that Tails's eyes were developing a shifty, cunning look, they gave no sign. They spent their time commanding and directing the logging convoys, and laughing at the feeble attempts of the Freedom Fighters to deter them. It was during these periods that Tails's mind shut down, and he snarled in silence, wishing one of them would stick a hand in, just once, so he could bite it off.
Things were building to a head. The Freedom Fighters were buckling and Tails was losing his mind. And each day, the logging units neared the swamp.
***
During the two horrid weeks of the assault on the forest, Sonic lay on his bed in Petra, his pain lessening day by day. His body's healing capabilities had been accelerated by the herbal infusions Skratcher was constantly giving him, and one day he awoke to find his feet were tingling so much it felt as if they were on fire.
He knew he should not complain because the feeling was returning to his lower extremities, but it hurt like heck and he could not help it. He told Amy about it when she visited him as usual, and she cheered and acted excited.
Three days after the tingling in his feet began, he opened his eyes and discovered that the unending blackness had turned to a dull gray. When the doctors came in, he saw them as dark blurs, and was elated.
"Your recovery is astonishingly quick," said Ranith, looking sidelong at Skratcher. "Your vision will probably never be as strong as it was, but at least it will return."
"I can deal with weak eyes," said Sonic. "I never read, anyway."
He was fifteen days into his treatment and recovery, and Ranith had removed the wooden splints from his head, saying that Sonic's vertebrae had healed much quicker than he had expected, but that Sonic should not move too suddenly. Sonic could now shift positions and relieve his aching legs and back. He was lying with his head turned, just because he could, when an image flashed into his head: Tails in a cage. A robotic cheetah, seeing it fly over the ground instead of running...
"Oh my gosh," he gasped, horror striking his stomach like a ton of bricks. The cheetah had knocked him over the cliff--he had lost the race! What had happened to Tails? And Sally? She must think he was dead! How long had he been here? What had happened?
Amy came in, and Sonic squinted toward her, willing his eyes to focus. They were a little stronger every day, but he still saw Amy as a pink blur with white spots for eyes. "Amy," he said, "you've got to send someone to Knothole village. It's over in the Great Forest. Tell Sally I'm here, that I'm alive."
"Oh, we guessed you must have come from there," said Amy, sitting down on her usual stool. "We tried to send someone, but he couldn't get through. The forest is being cut down over there."
"WHAT?" Sonic sat up, but had to sink down again as a wave of nausea struck him. "Cut down?" he said, wishing his arms weren't in casts. "What do you mean, cut down?"
"By robots," said Amy, as if talking about events in another country. "They take the trees back to Robotropolis."
Sonic tried to get up again and this time made it to his feet, although he had to lean against the bed for support. "I've got to stop them," he said, panting with the effort.
"Oh no you don't," said Amy, alarmed at seeing him stand when Ranith had told her that under no circumstances was he to get up. She forced him back onto the bed, and Sonic, being weak as water, could not resist her.
"I've got to stop them," he repeated, eyes dilated in panic. "Sally can't hold off robots forever, and where's Tails? Where's Tails gone? Did they kill him?"
Amy had no idea who he was talking about. "I'll go ask," she said. She trotted out of the cave and found Ranith, who was helping a gang of otters connect a pipeline to carry water to the caves. "Sonic's asking questions," she told him. "I think you should come."
Ranith was in the cave with Sonic five minutes. When he came out, Amy saw that he had caught Sonic's panic. "Run and get Skratcher," he said. "We've got to get this hedgehog on his feet."
The machines were cruelly efficient. While she was immobilizing one squad, another came in behind it and began felling timber. Half an acre had been stripped before Sally and Bunnie stopped the machines.
The day after, the cut lumber was hauled quietly back to Robotropolis while Sally was planning their attack. She pulled Antoine and Rotor in, and wished they had more Freedom Fighters. There simply weren't enough of them to hold off the convoys, and they could not fight forever. The heatwave persisted, and Sally was wearing out. Her energy was less and less each day, and she could see the growing fatigue in Bunnie's eyes. On top of that, laser cartridges were running low.
After nine days of this losing battle, Robotnik began sending convoys at night. Twenty-four hours a day, hundreds of machines and trucks rolled in, cut timber, and hauled it off. The Freedom Fighters could not stop them all, and every day there were wider fields of stumps as the machines cut into the forest.
It was cruel, it was destructive, it was brilliant. Sally had to admit that the scheme was one she would have been proud of had she been in Robotnik's place. He knew their main weakness was that they were few, and that they relied on the forest for protection. Without that protection, and without Sonic, they were all but powerless.
She wasn't even able to try to rescue Tails, although she wanted to. No one could be spared, and she still could not locate him through the computers. It was as if he had vanished upon entering Robotropolis. She hoped they had not executed him, but there was nothing she could do. She could not even plan a rescue mission without information.
She sat at the table in the Knothole cave, which had become her home as of late, and stared at a topographical map of the Great Forest. The bog outside of Knothole was outlined in yellow ink, and Robotnik's progression had been marked with red pins. His robots had formed a V, and were cutting their way steadily into the heart of the Great Forest. If they kept going the direction they were going, they would strike the bog in another week. Knothole might be safe for a while, but what about the rest of the forest? She didn't want to see it leveled. It broke her heart to see the old, majestic trees felled by mindless robots, and to see the acres of stumps where there had once been pristine forest.
They had to do something. She couldn't figure out what, though. Fire was not option with the woods drying up in the heat. They had taken to walking up to the machines and puncturing the fuel tanks with a large pike braced against the ground. But Robotnik was learning, and sometimes there were repair robots accompanying the convoy. She had to destroy those first.
Sally held her face in her hands. She was so helpless--oh, if only Sonic was still here!
***
Tails was taken for "testing", which involved being stuck with needles and having chunks gouged out of him. Tissue samples, Snively called them.
The fox felt as if he were losing his grip on reality. Had Sonic really died, or had his past life been some kind of dream? He felt like he had always lived in the cage and been treated like an animal, been peered at by humans and poked with needles. He found himself fantasizing about biting Snively and Robotnik, usually on the face or throat, and worrying them to death. His watch became his link to sanity.
He took off his ultra-watch whenever they removed him from the cage, and put it on again when they returned him. He would play for hours with the compass and the calculator, but he never used the light for fear of attracting attention. He would make up complicated math problems, solve them in his head, and check them on the calculator. He would lie and watch his compass balance, the needle swiveling to point north.
Tails never talked. Sonic had told them not to tell them anything, so he was going to do that. He wondered if not talking contributed to his slow regression into an animal. Talking used a different part of his mind than did the base instincts to attack and kill, and lately he had been concentrating on his instincts. He was going to survive if it killed him, and if he had to go wild to do it, then he would go wild.
If Robotnik and Snively noticed that Tails's eyes were developing a shifty, cunning look, they gave no sign. They spent their time commanding and directing the logging convoys, and laughing at the feeble attempts of the Freedom Fighters to deter them. It was during these periods that Tails's mind shut down, and he snarled in silence, wishing one of them would stick a hand in, just once, so he could bite it off.
Things were building to a head. The Freedom Fighters were buckling and Tails was losing his mind. And each day, the logging units neared the swamp.
***
During the two horrid weeks of the assault on the forest, Sonic lay on his bed in Petra, his pain lessening day by day. His body's healing capabilities had been accelerated by the herbal infusions Skratcher was constantly giving him, and one day he awoke to find his feet were tingling so much it felt as if they were on fire.
He knew he should not complain because the feeling was returning to his lower extremities, but it hurt like heck and he could not help it. He told Amy about it when she visited him as usual, and she cheered and acted excited.
Three days after the tingling in his feet began, he opened his eyes and discovered that the unending blackness had turned to a dull gray. When the doctors came in, he saw them as dark blurs, and was elated.
"Your recovery is astonishingly quick," said Ranith, looking sidelong at Skratcher. "Your vision will probably never be as strong as it was, but at least it will return."
"I can deal with weak eyes," said Sonic. "I never read, anyway."
He was fifteen days into his treatment and recovery, and Ranith had removed the wooden splints from his head, saying that Sonic's vertebrae had healed much quicker than he had expected, but that Sonic should not move too suddenly. Sonic could now shift positions and relieve his aching legs and back. He was lying with his head turned, just because he could, when an image flashed into his head: Tails in a cage. A robotic cheetah, seeing it fly over the ground instead of running...
"Oh my gosh," he gasped, horror striking his stomach like a ton of bricks. The cheetah had knocked him over the cliff--he had lost the race! What had happened to Tails? And Sally? She must think he was dead! How long had he been here? What had happened?
Amy came in, and Sonic squinted toward her, willing his eyes to focus. They were a little stronger every day, but he still saw Amy as a pink blur with white spots for eyes. "Amy," he said, "you've got to send someone to Knothole village. It's over in the Great Forest. Tell Sally I'm here, that I'm alive."
"Oh, we guessed you must have come from there," said Amy, sitting down on her usual stool. "We tried to send someone, but he couldn't get through. The forest is being cut down over there."
"WHAT?" Sonic sat up, but had to sink down again as a wave of nausea struck him. "Cut down?" he said, wishing his arms weren't in casts. "What do you mean, cut down?"
"By robots," said Amy, as if talking about events in another country. "They take the trees back to Robotropolis."
Sonic tried to get up again and this time made it to his feet, although he had to lean against the bed for support. "I've got to stop them," he said, panting with the effort.
"Oh no you don't," said Amy, alarmed at seeing him stand when Ranith had told her that under no circumstances was he to get up. She forced him back onto the bed, and Sonic, being weak as water, could not resist her.
"I've got to stop them," he repeated, eyes dilated in panic. "Sally can't hold off robots forever, and where's Tails? Where's Tails gone? Did they kill him?"
Amy had no idea who he was talking about. "I'll go ask," she said. She trotted out of the cave and found Ranith, who was helping a gang of otters connect a pipeline to carry water to the caves. "Sonic's asking questions," she told him. "I think you should come."
Ranith was in the cave with Sonic five minutes. When he came out, Amy saw that he had caught Sonic's panic. "Run and get Skratcher," he said. "We've got to get this hedgehog on his feet."