Chapter 3
Mission: Failure – Part 1
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"Okay. All set. Does everyone know their designated spots?"
Everyone nods.
"Let's juice and jam time!"
Sonic then speeds off into the dreary end of Eggman's hideaway, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Tails and Rotor head off towards the South entrance of the hideout, while Sally stays behind. She puts on a headset and opens up NICOLE.
"Nicole, can you give me a map and radar of Dr. Robotnik's lair?"
"Certainly, Ms. Sally."
A hologram projects out of NICOLE of the entire building, giving out a well-detailed image of the hallways and rooms. There were 3 blue dots, two of them paired up moving slowly while the other was quickly zooming around the map. There were also a handful of red dots as well. She tapped on a button on NICOLE, and instantly the two grouped blue dots became a highlighted purple and started blinking.
"Tails, Rotor, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Aunt Sally. We're in Hallway B facing north. What do you detect?"
"There's a couple of SWAT bots behind the door left of you, but don't go in there. Take a left at the next turn you see; go down a couple of steps until you see a vent up in the ceiling. Climb up there and keep on following the tunnel. It's the easiest way to make it inside the main system without setting an accidental alarm."
"Got it. Oh, I'm so excited!"
"Uh…Sally, do you expect me to go up there as well? Because uh…well, you know…" said Rotor with a sense of embarrassment. She gives a soft giggle.
"No, Rotor, you're part of this mission for a reason. What I need you to do is to disable the alarm system along the way so that way Tails can go up in the vent safely. He's the only one that can go through because of his tiny size. Can you do that for me?"
"Sure…why not? Remind me why you're not doing this part again?"
"Rotor, you know that Bunnie, Antoine and the others are in another team to try and gather up more Freedom Fighters, and someone has to stay behind and give everyone directions and cautions or else this mission will fail. Besides, you're a wizard when it comes to mechanisms and computers, you can do it!" She gave a thumbs-up, although there was no one in particular she was actually pointing at since she was in hiding.
"Ok then. Well, roger that Sally." He said nervously. "We're out." A click goes off.
"Oh man," he turned to the cheerful little fox. "Okay, big guy. You ready?"
"Yes sir!" he said with delight, giving a salute along with the biggest smile you've ever seen.
"Oh boy…alright. Let's go!" And they headed out, flying/running along the long hallway.
"Okay, two down, one to go." She taps another button in NICOLE, and instantly, the blue dot that was frantically moving around the map was now highlighted and blinking. But she notices that Sonic has passed his planned checkpoint and won't stop going further along the maze. She flips to Sonic's headpiece, but is then raided with sounds of mayhem, like the recurring pattern of footsteps hitting hard metal, in her headpiece, and is even forced to turn down the volume.
"Sonic, what are you doing?! You were suppose to have taken a right three hallways ago! Hey, can you even hear me?"
"Not now Sally, there's a huge SWAT tank hot on my tail. I have to divert it so that way I'll have room to fight it. These hallways are too cramped. Geez, being how fat Robuttnik is, he should've built them wider then they are, for—"
"Sonic! Then try getting back to your sp—wait, why isn't NICOLE detecting this SWAT tank then? You sure?"
"Now why would I be lying to you, Sal?" he said sarcastically, as a whooshing sound along with a crash and a boom goes off.
"Hmm, must be a prototype then. He did that on purpose so that way we wouldn't be able to detect it on our memory bases, I bet. Oh man, I hope Tails and Rotor are alright. I don't want them to face that thing, by the sound of it. Wait, no alarms have gone off yet…that must mean Rotor disabled them on time! Yes!"
"But wait, there's an open exit a little bit further. It looks like it leads outside, so I'll fight it out there. Meanwhile, make sure you're well hidden, Sal. I don't want you to accidentally get caught up in this, kay? Let Tails and Rotor know about the possibility of them facing more of these, alright?"
"Roger that. Make SURE you make it back though; I don't want this mission to go haywire as much as it is now."
"Roger. *click* "
"Who would've thought that'd be the last time we'd hear from you for a long time?"
"Actually, I think I remember all of that," said Sonic while rubbing his forehead with the fingers he was supporting himself on.
"Really? Well, mind to share what happened? Well, that's if, you remember completely to be able to explain it all. No one really found out what had really happened to you after that."
"Uhm, okay. Sorry if I can't fully explain myself."
"I don't mind."
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A burst of light suddenly lit up as they both ran outside.
"Hey robot! Bet'cha can't catch me!" he yelled while he made a burst of speed and left a trail behind him outside, creating clouds of sand as high as could be.
The tank following him was a humongous trapezoid-like mech, with a machine gun attached in the top in which a SWAT bot controlled. No matter how many rounds of ammo was shot at the blue hedgehog, he was too fast for them, and dodged each and every single bullet. He then jumped into mid-air, curled up into a fast spinning ball and teared through the tank without a sweat. Almost instantly the thing ignites into a vast explosion. Pieces of metal flew all over the abandoned field.
"Score one Freedom Fighters, score none for Eggbutt," he exclaimed. But something didn't feel right. Something was…missing. "Oh no…my headpiece! Where is it?"
As he looked over his shoulder, he then realized that it was nearly impossible to find the tiny device, not with all of this scrap metal decorating the vast desert. A sinking feeling overcame him. But what was the use worrying about it? No point spending precious minutes looking for some stupid thing he didn't need. He can find that spot himself. Yeah, why does he have to rely on THAT? He then shrugs off the entire situation, nothing to worry about, and dashes back inside. But only seconds after he did so, there was an echo of some sort of static in the far distance.
zzz….zzzzz…zzzzzzzzpfft—Sonic…can you hear me? I just heard an explosion, are you alright? Sonic, stop joking around and answer me! Sonic?…SONIC!……oh no……—zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzpfft…………
He zooms past the somewhat familiar hallways trying to recall where he was before he was seen and chased.
"It was here…no wait, uh…maybe over here…yeah it was! Ok, well…maybe it wasn't that, dead end. Alright, well this awfully looks familiar…Damn it why the hell did they all have to look the same?!"
As he takes a hallway down, he notices that there were three SWAT bots headed his way around the corner. He then tries to find a hiding spot so that way he won't alert any more trouble. But by doing so, he leans on a chute, which accidentally makes him fall over and sends him in a slide. The slide must've lasted for about 8 seconds in pure darkness until he landed outside the entire lair by the walls.
Completely blinded by sunlight, he struggled to balance
himself, only noticing that he was also about 10 stories above ground. He got instantly nervous, but then notices
that if he could balance himself against the walls and the little leverage of
trim, he could stealth-walk to the other side of the building. So slowly (which he hated), he slid himself
along the walls. Making it successfully,
he then notices that a little bit further, there was a large balcony along with
what seemed like an opening. The only
way he would make it there without jumping or freefalling is if he span so
quickly he would actually follow the curve of this balcony and make it up. Anything was worth a shot.
"Oh well. Here goes nothing."
He kneels on the ground and starts spinning in place quicker and quicker, until finally, he releases himself and spins right along the curved balcony. Success! Going mid-air for only a split second and then lands a perfect Matrix-like pose inside the balcony, he regains his eyesight in where he was at.
"Weird. I've never seen this part of his fortress before. What's he up to this time?"
Looking to his right, he then notices a humongous entrance to who-knows-where a little further down. As he gets up, he ponders quickly about whether or not he should risk the entire mission and go in. Well for one thing, this was definitely not where he was suppose to go. He was suppose to meet Tails off in the other end of the vent and take him down to the main control system, and while there attach a chip that would fry all of Eggman's database and security systems. But then again, there's no way in hell he would be able to even find his spot without going INSIDE the lair, so what the hell? Go in. And he does…
"And then, all of a sudden, an entire army of SWAT bots surround me, and there, standing in front of me, is none other than Dr. Eggman!" he says while showing emphasis in hand gestures.
"Sonic, when the hell did you get so wrapped up in story telling? You've never been THAT descriptive in anything!" Tails points out with an observant face.
"What? I 'come back to life' and you're objecting about how I tell my side of the story? Why the hell did you ask me in the first place then, huh?"
"I WAS KIDDING! It's just that it was usually Aunt Sally doing all of the story telling. OOH! Do the spooky witch voice!" he says while leaning on his chair and two tails wailing around.
"Ahe he he, no." Sonic says while crossing his arms.
"Really, I'm dead serious. Do the spooky witch voice like Auntie Sally. Or is it possible that you don't KNOW it, hmm? If I could detect the fake Sally, I can surely detect the fake Sonic, you FAKER!" He says while pointing a finger at him.
"Hey, I'm not the faker, you are!" he says while pointing a finger at him. Tails then looks at him with a skeptical look.
"Oh really? Well the REAL Sonic would know how Aunt Sally's witch voice was like, and what she said too!" He looked at Sonic dead in the eye with a smirk in his face, waiting for a response.
"What the fu—Tails! Quit acting like that!"
"I'm waiting." He then crosses his arm and continues to stare at him.
He then glares at him with an I-hate-you look, but then positions himself in his bed with his fingertips touching his chest. And with the scratchiest, most horrible voice you've ever heard come out from Sonic's mouth, he says with one eye closed "That it issss, my prettyyyyy! Yoooooou can't escape!"
And almost in an instant Tails bursts out with laughter, almost pivoting himself off of his chair. Sonic can't help but feel so embarrassed and blushes.
"Did that come out from ME?" he asks himself with a sense of shock.
But then it hit him. Where was Sally anyway? But it was a bit interesting (and entertaining) seeing this young fox dying of laughter, and in seconds, caught himself laughing at his own impression too. And they both laughed for what seemed as countless minutes.
