Chapter 8 – No Time to Mourn – by RedFox
"How?" Sonic sobbed over and over. After the incident at the meeting, he was being far more free with his emotions. "How? How did it happen?"
"The robots got to her," Knuckles said sadly when Sonic had finally calmed down enough to listen. "I didn't see it, but Charmy did… he said that it was just awful. You know that you wouldn't want details."
"I'll make him pay," Sonic snarled, looking up. "I'll make that dirty bastard pay for all of what he's done. If I ever get my hands on him… no, death would be too good of an end. I want to see him suffer, I want – "
"Sonic," Bunnie said softly, and he fell silent. Tails had never heard Bunnie speak so gently to Sonic before; she could have bean a mother placating a small child instead of a good friend nearly her age. "Sonic, what has happened is horrible and you have every right to feel the way that you do. But listen to me: Store that anger. Put it somewhere in the back of your mind and be rational… for now. You'll need that rage later; there's no point in using it now.
"A great danger now threatens us," she continued, now addressing everyone standing in the middle of the village in an authoritative voice. Somehow her terrible wounds gave her the appearance of a hardened general speaking to troops. In a way, she was. "As much as we wish that we could express our grief, it is implausible at the present time. Our planet asks for action, and action now. We must act and act quickly. For now let us list our current problems, and then we can bring forth suggestions.
"Item one: Robotnik has the Master Emerald and certainly means no good with it. Item two: That infernal foursome is loose again. Item three: Sally has been captured, and heaven knows where and in what condition she is right now. Item four…" she broke off. "Is there an item four?"
Nobody spoke. The real item four had no solution.
"Well, then. Are there any suggestions on how to remedy even one of those?
"Yes," said Rotor. He had now recovered enough to talk. "Yes," he repeated, then hesitated. "I am about to reveal a secret that has been kept from you for a long time now. When Sally's current vest was first designed, three years ago, a high-tech miniature tracker was sewn into it. Nobody was ever told besides the King, the tailor, Sally and I – I only because I had designed the gadget. It would have been all to easy for Robotnik to capture the signals from the tracker if he ever knew that it existed, and with that information he could have found Knothole with no effort whatsoever. But now the situation is desperate. If Sally still has her vest, then I can locate her."
"Before we take any further steps," noted Tails, "we may want to appoint a new leader of the group for the duration of Sally's absence. Personally, I nominate Bunnie."
Bunnie blushed. "Well, ah -"
"I second that," chimed in Antoine, and there was a general consensus amongst the assemblage. Bunnie would lead the Freedom Fighters in this mission.
She quickly assumed her new role. "Rotor, if we head over to your lab can you pull up some type of screen to show us Sally's location?" After receiving an affirmative nod from the walrus, she beckoned to the rest of the group and walked in the direction of Rotor's laboratory, wincing the entire way. The sooner that Sally was located, the sooner that they all could handle the far larger problem ahead. Maybe, just maybe, Sally would have some information; hopefully Robotnik wouldn't succeed in getting information from her.
A map of Mobius popped up on Rotor's large screen. Rotor stabbed a button a couple of times, and the map zoomed in. Sally was most definitely in Robotropolis, which was no surprise. Where in the city was unclear from the current view. Rotor zoomed in on the little flashing dot some more. When the screen cleared, the red dot was in the center of a large black figure that appeared to be a building of some sort. Rotor pressed a few more buttons, and an aerial view of the building came up, photographed by the current Royal Surveyor. Tails wanted to have that position someday.
"What is zat place?" inquired Antoine.
Another push of a button: "It's an abandoned… hospital. I suppose that we shouldn't have expected something conspicuous. Nobody would suspect evil lurking in a hospital. Probably the usual: some robot guards and about a hundred ways to get killed. Not too fun."
"I'm going," Sonic said unassailably. Nobody had expected anything less.
Tails suddenly started having horrible thoughts. Robotnik was not above any form of evil, and that included torture. Sally was tough – one of the toughest people Tails had ever met – but there were some very effective means of getting information out of someone. What if Robotnik decided that Sally was of no use to him alive? The dot indicated her vest, but nothing else. No, Tails couldn't believe that! Sally would have great value to Robotnik as a hostage. She had to be alive. "I'm going too," he said.
Knuckles also voiced his participation, but when Amy tried to volunteer, Sonic pleaded with her not to come. "It's too dangerous," he said. Amy still protested, but Bunnie also put in her word and Amy backed down.
"Rotor and I are in far too bad of a shape to commit to this one, too," Bunnie said, "as much as we would like to. That leaves Sonic, Tails, Antoine, and Knuckles. So we'll be sending the four -" In midword, she collapsed on the floor of the lab. Blood from a newly opened wound began to pool.
"Bunnie!" Antoine cried out, rushing to his girlfriend's aid. Sonic dashed off and returned a half minute later with some cold water. The shock of the cool and pain from the water in her cuts woke Bunnie with a start. Then she groaned and lay back down on the tile.
"Ant," Knuckles said suddenly, "we're not letting you go on this. You've got to stay here with her. She's really in a bad way." The three sentences were almost entirely monosyllabic, but they conveyed a world of understanding. Slowly, Antoine nodded. Though he had once been an arrant coward, everyone knew that it was love, and no spinelessness, that denied him participation here. He helped Bunnie to her robotic feet, and they walked off together towards the village infirmary. Slowly, everyone else departed, only agreeing to meet in that small hospital in two hours. The trio was left alone.
Sonic groaned. "Well, this mission will be a little bit different, hmm? Robotnik knows that we're coming now. He's probably got a zillion different defenses set up. We are going to get pounded with lead, gas, steel, poison, fire, and whatever the hell else that piece of crap can throw at us. Then, even if we somehow survive this, then there's the matter of the Master Emerald. I don't even want to think about that."
"Do we have a game plan?" asked Knuckles. "I mean, what do we do? Just take off right now? They kinda just left us, didn't they? What if we got some help? What about the Secret Service? They're around, aren't they?" Which question he wanted answered first was unclear.
Sonic grunted in distaste; he didn't care for that organization much. "No, they're not around. They're supposed to be taking care of something in Downunda, but there hasn't been word from them in six months. This is not the time to be worrying about those guys. We're alone on this one."
"I guess we're just the top heroes," noted Tails. "If they give the job to us, it's bound to come out okay." Sarcasm tinged the second sentence.
"All right," said Sonic. "Do either of you mind if I take control here?" He didn't wait for a reply. "Good. Here's what I'm thinking. Knux, you and I are going to run ground duty. Tails, you're in the air as usual – in your plane – looking out for us. We'll be wired so that you can warn us of anything that you see.
"Then," he continued, "once we're past the outer defenses, you're going to clear a path for us. Get all of the explosives that you can possibly find. Bombs, dynamite, C4, whatever. Drop it all and clear the way to the destination. We'll come tearing through behind your bombs. But for God's sake Tails, don't hit the hospital."
It was a plan made on the spur of the moment. It had no authority behind it. However, they had to do something. They couldn't just wait for the endless bickering of the king's advisors that would inevitably happen to finally come to some conclusion. As Bunnie had said, the planet called for action, and action now – Tails wondered if that was original – and the ones to carry out that action were the trio who now stood alone in the forest clearing. Silently, they dispersed to prepare for the seemingly suicidal mission.
Tails would be flying alone above the most dangerous, evil place on Mobius. Robotnik knew that they were coming and would have rockets and missiles galore pointed at the sky. He, Tails, would be carrying an enormous load of explosives that, besides ensuring his pyrotechnic destruction with even the slightest hit, would weigh down the plane a very sizable amount. He could accidentally hit Sonic, Knuckles, or Sally. Anyone could be easily killed.
On the other hand, Mina was dead.
I'm gonna be needing a hell of a lot of explosives.
