Tails saw the Stealth Orb coming and froze.
Oh, no! I can't do anything to it!
It was flying too high to reach without Tails going airborne himself, which would be too easy to see.
He glanced around frantically for some place to hide, but nothing was in sight. This alleyway had nothing to hide behind, and no windows or doors to duck into.
He had enough presence of mind to grab Bunnie's arm. She turned to him, whispering, "What, sugar?"
Tails pointed, but it was too late. The Stealth Orb had heard, and the camera swiveled towards the Freedom Fighters.
Bunnie was airborne instantly, her legs and genes giving her great agility. She brought her metal fist down onto the Stealth Orb, crushing it and smashing it to the ground. After it landed, it resembled nothing so much as a rumpled ball of aluminum foil.
The sound of it landing snapped Tails into action. He went straight into his backpack and dug for the communicator. He handed it to Bunnie as she came back to him.
"Sally-girl," she said, "Ah think we've been spotted. Now, maybe it didn't see us, but Ah don't feel so good."
"Damn," said Sally.
Tails was thunderstruck. He came very close to falling over. He'd never heard Sally curse, nor had he ever heard of her cursing.
To his further astonishment, Bunnie simply ignored the curse. "Y'all want us to try an' get through anyway?"
A few precious seconds went by before Sally responded, "No, it's too risky. Sonic and I will try to force our way in. Get back to Knothole, and hurry! If you were spotted…"
If we were spotted, Tails thought with mounting alarm, then hordes of Swatbots are already on their way!
Bunnie nodded calmly. "Gotcha, Sally-girl." She handed the communicator back to Tails. As soon as he put it back in his backpack, she grabbed his arm and hauled him behind her.
"You know the deal, Tails?" she said over her shoulder.
"I think so," he replied, not sure what she was asking but too scared to think about it.
"We just got to get our selves outta here, an' in a hurry," she said. "Those things are like ants. Where there's one, there's a lot."
Tails shivered—the prospect of that many Swatbots swarming up like ants made his skin crawl.
So he let Bunnie pull him along through the city. She was going awfully fast, and it was wearing Tails out trying to keep up with her, but he had to admit it sure beat the alternative.
He began to think that maybe the Stealth Orb hadn't seen them, after all. Why were they overreacting like this? We coulda done it. Whenever he thought that, though, he thought of Swatbots swarming out of the ground, and felt better for withdrawing.
Tails looked around, seeing if anything was following them. It looked like they'd… oh no!
Tails sped up, trying to get up to Bunnie. He was tired already, and speeding up was almost impossible, but he managed to get almost in contact with her. He put a hand over Bunnie's shoulder, gave a mighty heave, and plowed the two of them into a trash heap on the side of the road.
Sounds of heavy blaster fire and the explosions of super-heated materials vaporizing drowned out the sounds of the animals as they fell into the heaps.
Bunnie reacted so swiftly and calmly Tails almost believed she'd expected it to happen this way. She turned back to face-up, picking Tails off of her as she rolled. She watched the unit for a while, then set Tails down and stood.
"Stay down," she said to Tails as she picked him up by the scruff of the neck. Then she tossed him—bodily—through the nearest window.
The glass that had formerly graced the window had long since shattered, so Tails had an unimpeded route to the floor. He wasn't thinking, which was fortunate, because if he'd thought, it would have overridden his instincts. As he hit the ground, he rolled as he'd been taught.
He heard the heavy blaster firing again and again as the hover unit passed up the road again. There was no way to know what it was hitting!
Bunnie was still out there!
"Bunnie!" Tails cried. Ignoring her command to stay down, he looked out.
The hover unit was strafing fire up the street. At the last moment Bunnie dodged out of the way—but too slowly!
Tails had heard stories about how events were supposed to slow down when something horrible was happening. He found no evidence to support that here. He hardly saw the blaster shot; after that, the hover unit was in the way.
But he heard the shriek of pain.
He leapt out of the window. He was beside her in a moment. She was sprawled out on the ground on her side, one leg over the other. She looked fine, except for her face—it was contorted in pain. She saw him coming, and helped him as he dragged her out of the street and into the abandoned building Tails had occupied before.
Tails heard the hover unit as it landed outside. His blood was pounding in his ears; his thinking was muddled beyond coherency. He let go of Bunnie after dragging her behind what had been a desk.
The darkness meant he still didn't know what was wrong with her, but he could faintly smell smoke. "Tails," she said through gritted teeth.
"Huh?" He was sluggish! He felt frustration welling up in him—respond, you, respond! This is danger—don't shut down!
"You'll have to fight 'em, Tails. Those things have two bots each, an' they're comin'."
Two on one?
"Stay calm, Tails."
"Why can't you help?" Tails said. His throat was so constricted it came out as a shriek.
"Ah would," she said, "Ah wish Ah could, but it's up to you. Here they come!"
Tails mechanically drew the knife from the backpack's side pocket. He hopped up and moved to the doorway.
Adrenaline coursed through his system, giving him its benefits but only muddling his thinking further. He was acting without actual conscious thought.
He was standing to the side of the doorway. The first Swatbot walked through the door. Tails lunged, knife first.
He was aiming for the armor seam in its side.
CLANG!
He'd missed!
The knife glanced off harmlessly, but it didn't stop Tails. His motion continued until he slammed into the bot.
He was facing the second bot. Its eye glowed red at him, and it raised its blaster.
Tails jumped straight up. As his arm drew parallel to its eye, he drove the knife home.
The knife penetrated straight into the optics of the Swatbot. Smoke belched from the wound, and the bot tipped backwards and fell, down for good.
However, chopping optics with a knife on an already-dead Swatbot was far different from doing the same to a live one.
Electricity coursed back up through the knife and blew Tails backwards—straight into the other Swatbot. The fox and the bot went down together. Tails rolled off, and the Swatbot stood.
Both were highly unsettled—Swatbots as a rule had poor balance, and Tails' muscles were spasming from the electrical shock. But Tails' survival instinct was stronger.
Before the Swatbot could recover, Tails went for its right arm—the one with the blaster. One paw went to the inner forearm. The other went outside. With all the strength the kit could muster he slammed the elbow joint.
The two forces in conflicting directions shattered the joint.
With a sickening crunch, the arm completely detached. Tails stumbled forward, the severed arm in his paws.
The Swatbot reacted appropriately—it felt no pain, so the loss of its arm meant little. It swung its left arm.
Tails fell backwards, colors exploding in his vision. The blow had knocked him all but unconscious—he couldn't muster the control to move his limbs. He landed and hovered on the edge of consciousness for a moment. Then the Swatbot picked him off the ground.
Tails found it hard to breathe with a metal gauntlet constricting his throat.
Panic. Total PANIC!
Breathe can't BREATHE struggle squirm…
His body writhed, all his energy focused on his neck.
Breathe breathe BREATHE can't breathe…
All his limbs flailed, furiously searching for support. He had to get this pressure off his neck!
Breathe BREATHE!
The death grip tightened. Tails' eyes were wide, his tongue lolling about as he tried to twist out of the grasp.
BREATHE! Can't BREATH!
Bang! A thought entered his head like a lightning bolt. Yes! Tails seized it and acted upon it.
Drawing all the self-control he could he wrapped his paw around the Swatbot's severed hand. The bot's hand was still wrapped around the trigger, and now, so was Tails' paw.
The first shot, all but unaimed, still managed to hit the Swatbot's chest. The Swatbot staggered back and dropped Tails.
OXYGEN!
Air flooded into his lungs so quickly he almost passed out. He coughed, purging the stale air from his lungs. Even Robotropolis air smelled sweet, and it was almost as toxic as the air his lungs were exhuming.
The Swatbot all but fell forward towards Tails. The kit was in no hurry to let the Swatbot reach him again. Even as he sucked in air, he raised the severed Swatbot blaster arm.
From his position, Tails fired twice more, gouging a deep hole in the Swatbot's chest. It fell backwards, dropping to the ground with a clunk. Tails hopped up and ran to its body. He had to make sure it never got up so he fired and he fired and he fired again again againagain…
"Sugar!"
Bunnie's voice snapped him out of it. He dropped the Swatbot's arm, still clutching its blaster, and ran back to Bunnie.
Before he could collapse, crying, into her side, she said to him, "Now c'mon, we all need to get our furry butts outta here before more pop up."
He gathered his composure, nodded, and helped get her to her feet. Now, at last, he saw what was wrong with her.
The heavy blaster of the hover unit had hit her leg. Now, between her hip and her knee was mostly slag.
And if her expression were any indication, then Roboticisation hadn't affected her ability to feel pain.
"Ah'll guide you out, Tails," she said through clenched teeth. "Follah mah directions. We're gonna go through the trash heaps—smells worse than a skunk eatin' onions, but there's nothin' else to do right now."
Tails nodded numbly. Honestly, he couldn't see the trash heaps proving worse a chore than taking two Swatbots by himself.
Two Swatbots! He thought about it for a moment. He'd taken both down at once, and without any help at all. It gave him a modest feeling of elation.
But all he had to do to erase that elation was look at Bunnie's leg.
Or touch his neck to make sure no other hand was grasping it.
Sonic gave a wild shake, trying to get the hay out of his quills. Sally did a similar thing next to him, though of course she was far more dignified about it.
"How 'bout it, Sal? Are we cool or what?"
"What do you mean, Sonic?"
"We toasted that generator by ourselves! Blowin' through Swatbots left an' right! Power-Ring supercharged an' everything! Now tell me that hasn't gotcha jazzed!"
"It hasn't."
Sonic suddenly felt that something bad was up. "Sal, what's the deal?"
"Remember how Bunnie and Tails said they were spotted? I haven't heard back from them since then."
Sonic smiled. "Well, you're gonna hear back now. Here comes Tails."
His smile faded quickly when he saw the kit's expression. "Sonic, Aunt Sally, it's Bunnie!"
No other words were necessary. They followed Tails at a run.
They found her stretched out on Rotor's work bench, all but shredding his oil rags in pain. "Rotor!" screamed Sally. "Why's she in pain?"
"I guess I misunderstood Roboticisation," he said, bewildered.
"How CAN she be in pain?" asked Sonic.
"A Roboticised Mobian isn't the same as a normal robot," said Rotor, continuing to inspect the wound. "I guess… when Uncle Chuck designed the Roboticiser, he designed analogous circuits for everything in the Mobian's body, even the nerves that sense pain."
"It wouldn't do a robot any good," said Sally, understanding, "but he wasn't designing a robot. He wanted the animal to be as little different as possible. Feeling pain helps us remember that we're animals."
"Fat lotta good that does me!" cried Bunnie, writhing.
"Rotor?"
"Bunnie… I—I can try to shut down the pain circuits, but it would take time, and I wouldn't be accurate. It might take a while, and I'd shut down other things along the way. Or… well, I have to do it anyway…"
"Do what?" said Sonic and Sally together.
Bunnie knew. "Do it, Rotor."
"Bunnie, are you sure?"
"Rotor, honey, do it! Now!"
He didn't hesitate any more. He grabbed a tool from his bench and bent over Bunnie's body. Sonic couldn't see anything, but he heard some noises, and finally a hiss.
Rotor stepped back, holding Bunnie's leg.