Silver Lining
By K. M. Hollar
__________________
I didn't come lookin' for trouble
And I don't want to fight needlessly
But I'm not going to hide in a bubble
If trouble comes for me
I can feel my heart beating faster
I can tell something's going down
But if it's going to make me grow stronger, then...
BRING IT ON!
--Steven Curtis Chapman, Bring It On
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Part 3: The Battle
__________________
Knuckles watched as the derobotizer reduced a piece of biometal to flaming
cinders, and sprayed it with the fire extinguisher, teeth bared. He was ready to
tear the machine to pieces. Instead he left the tree house, glided to the ground,
and ran to a rock outcropping, where he had taken to venting his frustration. He
smashed three boulders to pieces, broke the pieces, and carried them to a pile
of broken rock he was making. He felt better when he finished, and went for a
walk among the trees.
Sonic and Sally had been gone three days. There had been no word from them, not
even a line to assure him they were looking for an emerald. During that period,
Knuckles had persuaded Zephyer to eat three times. She was wasting away before
his eyes, and the most horrible thing about it was that he could do nothing.
He had asked the Knothole doctor for help, who told him that Robotization trauma
syndrome was psychological as well as physical, and to try giving her liquids.
The last meal Knuckles had forced down her had been a milkshake, and he was
planning to do it again in a few hours.
Knuckles circled a tree bigger around than a car, debating climbing it with his
claws, and saw Tails preparing to climb the ladder to Eagle's Nest. "Why don't
you fly?" Knuckles called.
Tails jumped and looked around. "Oh, hi Knuckles! I've tried flying up there,
but I can't make it." He walked up to the echidna. "I wanted to talk to you,
actually. Do you need any help with the derobotizer?"
"No," said Knuckles, walking off.
Tails followed him. "I helped build the derobotizer. I could help reconfigure
it. You can't have much biometal left, and it's been, what, two months?"
Knuckles considered. He was at the end of his rope idea-wise, running out of
biometal, and time was running out for Zephyer. Pride was not an option. He
turned to the fox. "All right. Let's go up to the workshop."
Once inside the workshop, Tails poured over Knuckles's notes for an hour while
Knuckles thumbed through a cookbook, trying to find something that might tempt
Zephyer. At last Tails looked up with bright eyes. "Have you tried changing the
malfilibration frequency?"
"If it goes past fifty-eight hundred, the syncronite carbonium filter becomes
unstable," said Knuckles, throwing the cookbook on the control panel. "And that
makes the nanipolar beam pulse too fast."
"Maybe we need a higher pulse rate," said Tails, grabbing a pair of needle nose
pliers and prodding the machine's exposed innards. "I'm going to change the
Z-axis synchronization, you've got it misaligned."
"It's not misaligned," said Knuckles. "I moved it to unbalance the Y-axis,
because they were generating too much heat."
The conversation continued in this vein as Tails investigated every change that
Knuckles had made. Knuckles was relieved to talk out his ideas with someone who
understood them, and was amazed at some of the changes Tails proposed.
Tails decided they needed a certain kind of wire router, and retreated into a
corner with a welding torch to make one. He had made so many of his own parts
for projects that he could take a few bits of metal and wire and make anything.
Knuckles noticed Zephyer standing outside the window, and went outside. "Why
don't you come in?"
"I didn't want to disturb you," said Zephyer, hands clasped behind her back.
"Does Tails have any ideas?"
"A few," said Knuckles, watching the listless way Zephyer's eyes slid past him.
"Come have lunch with me."
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, as if eating had become a joke. "All
right."
Knuckles took her to the kitchen hut and made her sit at the tiny table while he
dumped several kinds of fruit into a blender. He poured the resulting mixture
into two cups and handed one to Zephyer, sitting down across from her.
She raised the cup to her lips, then set it down again. "I can't."
"Yes you can," Knuckles growled.
She looked at him, then gazed out the window. Knuckles watched her, the fear in
his heart gaining strength. He had never seen anyone simply quit trying. "Zeff,"
he said, leaning forward, "don't give up now."
She looked at him without expression.
"You have to keep fighting," said Knuckles. "You're a fighter. You're an
echidna! You can't let the metal win."
She rested her head on one hand. "I'm just ... so tired. I've been fighting it
for so long, you have no idea what it's like."
"One more day is all I'm asking," said Knuckles. "Please. Fight it one more
day."
She looked at him a moment, then sighed and sipped her drink. Knuckles kept an
eye on her as he drank his own. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked.
"No," said Zephyer, then paused. "Yes. Get the metal off me. I don't care how
bad it hurts me. If I die, then at least I'll die derobotized." For a second the
old flash was back in her eyes.
"All right," said Knuckles. "I'm sure Tails and I will have come up with
something by tomorrow."
"Yes." Zephyer lapsed back into her stupor and drank half of her drink without
noticing. At last she shoved her glass aside and sighed. "No more."
"Come back to the workshop with me," said Knuckles. "Tails is brilliant." He
wanted to keep an eye on her, but couldn't say it.
Zephyer nodded, got up and followed him outside, groping at the wall to support
herself. Knuckles took her arm. "Fight it, Zeff."
"I'm losing," she panted. "Why fight if I'm losing?"
"You won't lose," said Knuckles through his teeth. "Because I won't let you."
Tails looked up as they walked in, and he stared at Zephyer as Knuckles helped
her to a chair in the corner. As Knuckles walked up to Tails, the fox gave him a
horrified look. Tails had not seen Zephyer since her downward spiral began, and
the gauntness of her face shocked him.
"I've added a new calibration setup," said Tails, pointing to a series of
circuits. "Instead of deactivating the nanite swarm, it sends them a command to
break apart."
"I've tried that," said Knuckles. "Biometal nanites are bonded. They don't act
like typical ore-based nanites."
"I thought of that, so I painted this piece of biometal with lubricant," said
Tails, placing an oily metal strip inside the glass tube, under the lens. "The
nanites break up without fragmenting, so the heat won't be so extreme."
He turned on the machine, and the yellow beam illuminated the metal strip. For a
second nothing happened--then the strip shattered, bits plinking off the tube
like shrapnel. Knuckles and Tails exchanged glances.
"Well, it's progress," said Tails. He flipped off the machine and opened the
panel over its insides.
Knuckles opened the tube and picked up the shattered bits. "If we could make
them separate with less force, that might work. What lubricant did you use?"
"Vaseline," said Tails, grinning sheepishly. "It was all I could find."
In the corner, Zephyer lifted her head. "Try using an organic lubricant, like
butter."
"Butter?" said Knuckles. "Why?"
"If the bionanites liked the Vaseline, maybe they'll like something organic even
better."
Knuckles looked at Tails. "Be right back." He sprinted from the hut.
Tails looked at Zephyer. "What do you polish yourself with?"
"A bottle of polish," said Zephyer. "But I oil myself with all kinds of things,
and animal fat and vegetable oil seem to work the best."
Knuckles returned with an armful of bottles and containers from the kitchen. "I
got everything that resembles oil," said Knuckles. "Let's try this."
Together Knuckles and Tails smothered biometal fragments in everything from lard
to palm oil, and watched what happened when they were placed in the derobotizer.
The metal broke apart with varying degrees of violence, and the one with the
mildest amount of force was the metal greased with olive oil. The biometal
bonded with it and the nanites eased apart.
Knuckles looked at Zephyer, who was watching with the first sign of interest she
had shown in days. "I think this is it, Zeff."
"Good," she said. "You want to derobotize me right now?"
Knuckles had a vision of her dying before his eyes, and thought of the green chaos
emerald that he was certain he still needed. "Let me make some calls first," he
said, and sprinted from the room.
Sally felt the power drain from her like water into the ground, leaving her weak
and empty. But she had the green chaos emerald in both hands, the key to Robo
Knux's power and the cause of the field distortion. "Mission accomplished," she
thought, and was wondering how long it would take to hike back to the Cyclone
when Sonic stooped over her. "Sal, are you okay?"
"Fine," she said, sitting up and handing the emerald to him. He took it without
a second glance and helped her to her feet. He looked at her freshly cut hands
and sucked in his breath through his teeth. "Ooo Sal!"
"Robo Knux had sharp edges," said Sally, wincing.
Jazz trotted up and glanced at Sally's hands. "Scratched up, eh? Let's go down
to Windbay, they can patch you up there."
Sonic ran into the old castle and emerged a moment later, struggling into the
harness. Jazz snickered and pretended to sneeze. "Yeah, laugh it up," growled
Sonic. "Help me put this on, somebody."
"I will!" said Cream, scampering out to him.
Sonic side eyed her. "Uh, thanks Cream, but I was thinking of someone taller."
"I'll give you a hand," said Jazz, smirking and setting his gun aside. "What is
it, a parachute harness?"
"It's a saddle," said Sonic, flushing for no reason. "This strap goes around
here and connects to this--"
"Cream," said Sally, "could you get me my computer from back in the castle?"
"Sure!" said the rabbit, and skipped away to pick up the computer and tracker.
"You sure she won't hurt it?" said Eva, who had misgivings about letting her
daughter handle electronics.
"She has the chao," said Sally. "She won't hurt anything."
"That's the trouble with chaos fields," said Eva as Cream ran back to them with
Nicole. "They never do what you expect."
"Here it is!" said Cream, depositing the computer and tracker in Sally's hands.
"Thanks," said Sally, flipping on Nicole. "It works," she said as the screen lit
up, and Sally checked for any messages from home. There were two, both from
Knuckles. The first one was dated three days ago, and read, "Let me know when
you start tracking an emerald, I need to know how much time I have to tweak the
DR. Also, pick up Max on your way home. He's necessary for chaos healing."
The second one was dated an hour ago, and it read, "Zephyer's going downhill
fast, I have to derobotize her. Please tell me you've found an emerald."
Going downhill fast.
The words struck a pang of horror through Sally's heart. She had seen the signs
of RTS growing in Zephyer for two months, but had told herself that she was
mistaken. Going downhill fast. Knuckles must have been frantic. Sally looked at
the chaos emerald in Sonic's hand and wondered how soon they could get home.
She created a new message and typed, "Knuckles, we have the green chaos emerald,
but the situation is a little complicated." She stared at this sentence and
wondered if she should bother him with the details. Probably not. She went on,
"We'll be home as soon as possible, probably by the end of the week." She signed
and transmitted it, and sat staring at Nicole's screen.
"All ready, Sal?" said Sonic, walking up. The harness was buckled on lopsided,
but Sally ignored it.
"Sonic," she said, "we need to get home. Knuckles sent me a message, he needs to
derobotize Zephyer right away. She has RTS."
Sonic blanched. "She does? Oh heck." He looked at the emerald in his hand. "Sal,
this is no good without Max. I can't do chaos heal, and neither can Knux."
"Chaos heal?" said Jazz, looking at them. "What's this, now?"
"Got a friend who's dying," said Sonic. "We need to get home. Actually, I could
go and Sally could come home afterward."
Sally looked down. Sonic was faster, of course he should go. He always went by
himself. Sally was just extra baggage.
Sonic was still speaking. "I learned to chaos relocate with this thing, I should
be able to jump right to the chao gardens, then right up to Knothole." He
stepped away from the group, still wearing his harness, and squinted into the
emerald. There was a long pause as they all watched him. Then Sonic said, "Chaos
relocate!" There was a twinkle of light and he vanished.
"So much for him," said Jazz, staring at the place where Sonic had been. "Come
on Sally--it is Sally, isn't it?--we'll take you up to Windbay. It's only a
couple of miles."
Sally swallowed and hung Nicole and the tracker around her neck. Sonic was gone,
and the world had lost its charm.
The journey was instantaneous, but it was more than two thousand miles, and Sonic
arrived in the middle of the chao gardens in a state of exhaustion. He collapsed
to his hands and knees as the chao oohed and ahhed, and ran up to him.
"You got in without a pass!" said a tiny bird chao. "We should tell on you."
"No time," Sonic panted, wondering if he was going to pass out. The chao voices
sounded metallic and distant, and there was a white haze in the corners of his
vision. "Do you know where Max and Velocity and them are?"
All the chao pointed to the rear wall. "Next door."
"Thanks." Sonic dragged himself to his feet, and jogged to the wall. It was
eight feet high, but Sonic's supersonic legs had jumped higher than that. He
vaulted over it with a running jump, but as he went over it he put his hands
down on broken glass on top of the wall, and landed in the far garden with a
gash across his palm that matched Sally's. Since when did the Chao Company top
their walls with broken glass? He yanked off his glove and sucked the wound,
trying to stop the bleeding.
Velocity appeared at Sonic's ankle with shining eyes. "Sonic!" he whispered.
"You broke in! What happened to your hand?"
"Broken glass," said Sonic, showing his chao the gruesome details.
Velocity was impressed. "Oh yeah, they put that there to keep anyone from
breaking in and stealing chao, like that one time. What are you doing here,
anyway?"
"I need to kidnap Max," Sonic whispered. "Zephyer's dying and Max can chaos
heal." He held up the emerald.
Velocity's eyes widened, and he nodded and raced off like a miniature Sonic.
Sonic leaned against the wall, willing himself not to pass out. Chaos relocate
had never done that to him before.
Velocity returned with the other Knothole chao, who loved the idea that Sonic
had broken in to kidnap Max. "If he's going home, is it really kidnapping?"
asked Pilot.
"Don't tell anyone what I did," said Sonic, picking up Max. "Try and cover for
him as long as possible. I'll bring him back in a few days." He studied the
emerald and said, "Chaos relocate!"
Fifty, one hundred, one hundred fifty miles, and Sonic's strength gave out. The
teleport dropped them in the southern reaches of the Great Forest. "Oh dang,"
said Sonic as his feet hit the ground. He pitched to all fours and collapsed in
a dead faint on top of Max and the chaos emerald.
The water chao wriggled out from under the hedgehog and stood looking at him in
alarm. "Sonic, wake up! We can't stop here! We're in the forest, and there might
be predators!"
Sonic didn't respond, even when Max shook him with his flippers. Max thought of
using the chaos emerald himself, but couldn't lift Sonic enough to reach it.
Worried and frightened, Max climbed up on Sonic's back on the saddle and sat
there, partly to watch for danger, and partly to feel if Sonic was still
breathing. Sonic was, so Max settled down to wait.
Knuckles checked his computer messages and picked up Sally's reply. "The end of
the week!" he muttered. "I can't wait that long, Zephyer has to be derobotized
now." She would die if he didn't. But there was every chance she would die
during derobotization; to date only two RTS victims had survived the process.
He put his head in his hands for a few minutes and weighed his options. Zephyer
might not live another two days. If the metal was off, she might have a fighting
chance. He was pretty sure that the setup he and Tails had engineered would
strip the metal without damaging Zephyer's body. There was also the chance that
his judgment was skewed, because this was his girlfriend he was dealing with.
He had her life in his hands, and it terrified him.
Knuckles reached for his communicator and held it for a moment, knowing that
once he pressed the button, his choice was made. He had nearly killed Talon
through a hasty decision, and didn't want to make the same mistake. But he was
gambling with Zephyer's life. No, he had to chance using the derobotizer now, or
she would be too weak, even for chaos heal.
He pressed the button and spoke to the Knothole switchboard operator. "Get me
Doctor Shepherd, please."
There was a click, then Shepherd's voice said, "Dr. Shepherd, how may I help
you?"
"This is Knuckles, up at Eagle's Nest," said Knuckles, the words coming slow and
heavy. "I'm going to derobotize Zephyer."
"You got the machine working, eh?" said the doctor. "Give me an hour, I'll bring
everybody up there."
"She has RTS."
There was a brief pause. "Oh. I'll be there in half an hour."
Knuckles turned off the communicator and sat looking at it. There was no turning
back now.
He got up and walked out of his hut, and stood looking across the treetops. At
this moment he missed his island so badly that it was a physical ache. But ever
since Zephyer had sneaked out there, he had sworn not to go back without her.
He strode along the walkway to the derobotizer room and pushed open the door.
Tails was screwing together the machine housing, and didn't look up. Zephyer was
slumped in her chair with her feet on a box, dozing. Knuckles pulled up a roll
of wire and sat beside her. "The doctor's on his way. Half an hour."
She nodded. Her eyes were sunk in their sockets, and her jawbone jutted like a
knife blade. His fear rose to new heights and formed a knot in his throat. He
wanted to touch her, comfort her, but knew she would draw away. Well, so what?
In half an hour she might be dead. He put his arms around her and kissed the top
of her head, then laid his cheek against it. She sighed and clasped one of his
hands, and did not pull away. He rocked her slightly, shocked at how light she
had become.
She was letting him hold her. She had surrendered--she didn't care anymore--and
it scared him. "Zeff, you have to fight," he whispered. "We're so close. Hang in
there, I'm with you all the way." She gave his hand a weak squeeze.
He held her until the doctor arrived, then reluctantly released her and went to
warm up the machinery.
Dr. Shepherd was a collie who had come to Knothole when the robians were being
derobotized and had all kinds of weird injuries, from broken bones to brain
damage. After the robians were taken care of, Shepherd saw that Knothole lacked
a proper doctor, and settled in to fill the niche. He had been in Knothole two
years and had built up a respectable clientele, and was familiar with
derobotization injuries. He had followed Zephyer's case since his arrival, and
like everyone else in the village, he knew the story of Knuckles and Zephyer's
rocky engagement.
When he entered the room, he strode to Zephyer and helped her to her feet. "Mm,
RTS all right," he said, peering into her eyes. "Not as bad as some, though.
You've a good chance of recovery."
"You think so?" said Zephyer, a little hope creeping into her face.
"Yes," said Shepherd. "How's the machine, Knuckles? Tails?"
"Good to go," said Tails, giving a thumbs up. "We had the frame collapsed for
easier access, so I'm expanding it."
"The scanning equipment works all right," said Knuckles, watching the three
monitor screens that managed X-rays, bioscan and nanite control. He turned and
looked at Zephyer. "Ready when you are."
Without a word Zephyer stepped onto the stand, stood while Tails poured olive
oil all over her metal, and waited as the plexiglass shield was lowered around
her.
Knuckles wished Sally were there to work the controls. "Tails," he said, "do you
know how to do this?"
"Duh," said the fox. "Are you really nervous?"
"Just correct me if I do the wrong thing," said Knuckles. His hands were
sweating through his gloves, and his fur stood up and lay down in waves. He
started the preliminary scans. Everything was normal. He glanced at Zephyer, and
saw her eyes were fixed on him. Dr. Shepherd and two nurses were standing beside
the tube with a stretcher, ready for anything.
Knuckles inhaled and selected the 'derobotizer activate' button on screen. In
the tube, the unfiltered lens flicked on and began beaming instructions to the
nanites. Knuckles turned to watch, his stomach curled in an anxious knot.
When the derobotizer worked on a regular patient, it stripped the metal from the
feet up, an inch at a time. With the biometal fragments, they broke into smaller
pieces. But Zephyer's biometal was a prototype with a slightly different
chemical makeup, and it didn't break up. It splintered.
The metal exploded off her, ripping chunks out of her skin, coming off too fast,
too fast, she would go into shock. But there was nothing Knuckles could do;
stopping the program was more dangerous than letting it finish. The metal tore
off at random all over her body, leaving bloody holes and cuts. Zephyer
screamed, but the pain instantly exceeded her pain tolerance level, and she
fainted as the derobotizer finished its ruthless work. "I've killed her," said
Knuckles over and over, biting his knuclaws as he watched. "I've killed her,
I've killed her."
At last it was over, and the tube lifted. The doctor and nurses pounced on the
limp echidna, wrapped her in towels that were instantly soaked with blood, threw
her on the stretcher and whisked her next door for emergency treatment. Knuckles
raced after them, only to have Shepherd slam the door in his face and yell,
"I'll save her if I can!"
Knuckles was tempted to break the door down, but decided against it and sat on
the doorstep, straining his ears for any sound from inside the medical ward. For
a while there was an anxious murmur of voices, which faded to silence with an
occasional word spoken. They must be sewing her up. "I've killed her," Knuckles
whispered again, cradling his head in his hands.
When there was no sign of the doctor emerging, Knuckles got up and went back in
the workshop. He thought he was saving Zephyer, and he had hurt her more. There
was no way he could have known her metal was so lethal, but he kicked himself
anyway. He had known her metal was a prototype--why hadn't he tested it to find
out what it was made of? How could he have overlooked that one little fact?
Tails had pulled out the box under the derobotizer where all the nanites
gravitated, and was picking through them with a pencil when Knuckles entered. He
looked up, and his eyes were glassy with tears. He blinked furiously and said,
"Hi Knuckles. Um, you know, this metal--it's not like anything I've ever seen."
Knuckles glanced in the box, saw the bloodstained metal, and turned away. "I
don't want to look at it."
"I cleaned off this piece, here." Tails handed it to Knuckles. The outside was
smooth and polished, but the inside was covered in tiny gray spikes, like
icicles.
"What the heck?" said Knuckles.
"It's all like that," said Tails. "Some of the spikes are two inches long. It's
like it was feeding off her."
Knuckles sucked in his breath. "You mean her biometal was ... parasitic?"
"It was a prototype," said Tails soberly. "Who knows what it was doing?"
Knuckles felt bile rising in his throat, and swallowed hard several times. No
wonder the Robotization trauma had hit so fast and so hard. The metal was eating
her alive. He flung the fragment back in the box and wiped off his hand as if he
was touching something foul. "Wait until I tell her."
"I don't think the wounds were that deep," said Tails. "It's just that she lost
a lot of blood." He pointed at the reddened platform inside the machine.
Knuckles turned white. "Right. I'm ... I'm going for a walk." He bolted from the
room.
Tails stood gazing at the parasitic biometal for a long moment. Then he, too,
dashed from the room.
Destro plodded along the footpath behind Jazz, Cream, Eva and Sally, weary and
discouraged. The robot had escaped. "Was this what you wanted?" he thought to
the Lightgiver. "That thing will cause havoc wherever it goes. I had a chance to
stop it, and I failed. What do I do now?"
The Lightgiver did not reply.
Destro looked down at his armor, which had taken on a grayish tint to match his
weariness. Maybe he should rephrase the question. "Should I go with them to
Windbay?"
The answer came at once. "Yes." The Lightgiver wanted specific questions that
required specific answers.
Cream dropped behind the others to join him. "Hi Destro! That robot was mean,
but we beat him, didn't we?"
"Yes." Cream again with her infernal questions. Why in the world had the
Lightgiver put her in his path? But under his irritation was a faint pleasure
that she had sought him out of her own accord--no other creature had ever tried
to befriend him. His armor absorbed wisps of her chaos field, and his tiredness
ebbed. "I didn't know your father was Jazz Jackrabbit," said Destro.
"That's him!" said Cream, setting Monty on the ground. He bounced behind them on
his short legs. "He says he's going to start taking me to the shooting range
when we get home. That way if that robot comes back, I can help fight him. Won't
that be great?"
"Yes." There was a few seconds of silence, then Destro added, "Maybe you could
learn to control your chaos field."
"Can you do that?" said Cream in astonishment.
"I do," said Destro.
"You do? How?"
Destro was silent a moment, then said, "It requires concentration."
"I can concentrate!" said Cream, skipping for a few steps. "I'm a great
concentrator! I drink concentrate orange juice every morning!"
A ticklish feeling welled up in Destro's chest, and it took him a second to
recognize it. Laughter. Cream was making him laugh! He had not laughed in years,
although he did have a cynical laugh he used in battles. He kept a straight
face. "You have to keep all the power inside you and only let it out when you
need it."
"Ooo, power," said Cream. "So I could hold a light bulb and turn it on if I
wanted?"
"No," said Destro. A smile attacked his face, but he beat it off. "You know how
chaos feels when you're upset. If you concentrate it inside you--"
"--I could put it in a can, like orange juice!" Cream exclaimed. "Then I could
pour some out whenever I needed it, couldn't I?"
The smile attacked harder this time, and Destro's face disobeyed him and smiled.
"No, that's the wrong kind of concentrate."
Cream skipped in circles and chanted, "Concentrated chaos, concentrated chaos!"
Bits of dust flew around her feet, disturbed by her chaos field.
Up ahead, Eva looked over her shoulder at her frolicking daughter and the
armored fox. "Cream, why don't you come up here?"
Cream skipped up to her. "I was talking to Destro. He said I can concentrate my
chaos, just like orange juice!"
"Oh really," said Eva, glancing at her husband.
Jazz walked back to Destro, and Sally and Eva slowed until they caught up with
them. Jazz was asking questions, and Destro's walls were up.
"Can you control your chaos field?"
"Yes."
"Could you teach Cream to?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Too young."
"Is it difficult?"
"Yes."
"What can you do with your field?"
Destro didn't answer. Jazz gave Eva an exasperated look, and Eva shrugged.
Sally had been watching Destro. She saw the mask was in place, and yet Cream
kept going out of her way to be near him. Destro did not look like the kind of
person a parent wanted their child to hang around, with his armor, battle scars
and fierce expression. But how much of it was his mask? From what Sally had
gathered, Destro had saved Cream from Robo Knux at great inconvenience to
himself.
Jazz quizzed Destro all the way to Windbay, and the fox's answers only became
more cryptic. Sally watched the way Destro carried himself and the patient way
he put up with Jazz's prodding. For a warrior, Destro had a long fuse. He was
Freedom Fighter material. Sally had adopted many angry vigilantes over the years
and knew the signs of one: the silence, the walls, and the fondness for
fighting. But they were not her favorite of people.
Sally had a limit--after so many days in the company of angry vigilantes, she
became either crazy or depressed and had to retreat from public view for a
while. This was when she turned to Sonic. Although Sonic had his bad days, he
was usually open and optimistic, even in the face of overwhelming odds. Sally
relied on him for moral support, and without him she would have lost her mind
long ago. And here she was, staying with strangers and the type of person who
drove her nuts, and Sonic was gone.
Windbay was a little down built in tiers on the hills overlooking the ocean. It
boasted a wide, natural bay full of fishing boats. A constant wind blew off the
ocean, and the trees only grew leaves on one side.
Jazz made a beeline for the doctor's office (he knew where every medical
facility was located in Central Mobius), and led Sally inside. Half an hour
later she emerged with her hands wrapped in neat white bandages, and the doctor
followed her out. "No stitches needed," he said. "The ones on her palms were
clean, but the back of her right hand took some patching. Come see me in
twenty-four hours and we'll see how they're healing."
"All right, thanks," said Jazz.
"Oh good, all taken care of," said Eva, examining Sally's bandages with relief.
"How about lunch?"
Sally's hands stung from the antiseptic, but the reassuring pressure of the
bandages helped detract from the pain, and she was able to think about other
things. Like where Sonic had gone. If he could teleport the way he said, he
should have come back by now. Maybe he had trouble in the chao garden, or maybe
the derobotization had gone wrong.
Sally slipped open Nicole's screen with the three fingers protruding from the
bandage and checked for messages. Nothing.
"What's the matter?" said Eva. "Are you expecting a letter?"
"Sonic should have come back by now," said Sally. "He never delays doing
anything."
Eva patted her shoulder. "He's probably all right. He's just so busy he can't
get back right away."
"I'm also worried about our friend," said Sally. "I hope she's all right."
They came to an outdoor restaurant and ordered sandwiches. Sally sat at a table
and set up the chaos tracker. She would track down Sonic and see where he was.
If he were in Eagle's Nest, she would know he was with Zephyer.
>From the satellite, Sally targeted West Mobius and zoomed in. Sonic's blip and
the emerald's blip were together, and were south of Knothole, in the woods.
Sally zoomed in and watched the circle of light. It did not move. She watched it
the whole time she was eating her sandwich, oblivious to the conversation around
her. Sonic was sitting in one spot with the emerald. What was he doing? He
wasn't hurt, or his field would send out random flashes.
Sally wiped off her hands and typed a message to Knuckles. "Knux--Sonic
chs-teleported to mnland with C.E., stoppd in sth great forest, smthing wrong.
Is Zef OK? Sal."
Typing with three fingers was a lot of work. She closed Nicole, turned off the
tracker, and sat staring at the ocean, feeling cut off and alone.
Every thirty minutes Knuckles returned to the door of the medical hut and
listened to changes. When none were forthcoming, he jumped off the railing and
glided around Eagle's Nest until he lost enough altitude to land. Then he
climbed up the trunk of one of the giant trees with his knuclaws, arrived on the
walkway, and checked for any word from the doctor.
At two o'clock, three hours after the derobotizer incident, Dr. Shepherd opened
the door to find Knuckles sitting on the doorstep with his chin in one hand.
Knuckles jumped up. "Hey! How is she? Is she all right?"
Shepherd shook his head. "It's bad, Knuckles. Come in." He stood aside, and
Knuckles bounded inside.
The odor of antiseptics hit him as he walked to the bed and looked at the figure
crumpled on it. Zephyer was swathed in bandages, and blood still oozed from
under some of them. An IV was fed into her left hand, and an oxygen mask was
clamped over her nose and mouth. "Does she need that?" Knuckles asked, pointing
at it.
"Yes," said the doctor. "One of her lungs collapsed. She's bleeding internally,
and she's lost a lot of blood. Frankly, I've never seen a derobotization like
this."
"No," said Knuckles hollowly. He was shocked at how different she looked without
the metal--her head looked too big for her body, and her arms and legs were thin
and frail. He took her right hand and found he could encircle her wrist with his
thumb and forefinger. "What else?" he asked quietly.
Shepherd looked at Zephyer and shook his head. "Lots, but let me put it this
way. I give her three days."
Knuckles could believe it. A voice in the back of his mind said, "You knew she
wouldn't survive. You knew that somehow, something would go wrong. You should
have waited." But the metal would have eaten her even more, and she might have
died in the derobotizer.
"Could I stay with her a while?" he asked. "She might wake up."
"She's under some heavy painkillers, but okay," said Shepherd, pulling up a
chair.
Knuckles sat down and watched Zephyer breathe. He could hear the soft throb of
the respirator, and remembered the time he had to use one before his lungs had
shut down after inhaling terbium spores. He wondered if he had ever told Zephyer
about it, then wondered if he'd ever get the chance.
He held one of her little bandaged hands and wished he could pump some of his
own vitality into her. Give her enough of his fight to make her, in turn, fight
for her life. She had stopped wanting to live before the metal came off. Now she
faced horrid amounts of pain, and lacked the willpower to see it through.
Knuckles stroked her hair and talked to her, telling her he was there and would
stick by her, that she had everything to live for, and that he loved her. The
derobotizer had worked, and she still had a chance. Please, please, wouldn't she
try to live?
The churning emotions inside him were driving him toward tears--love for her,
fear for her, and an overpowering homesickness for his island. He wondered if
she felt the same homesickness, and if so, maybe he could remind her of it.
Knuckles had been sitting there a long time when her eyes opened. They gazed at
each other, Zephyer's eyes glazed with painkillers. She squeezed his hand, and
he squeezed back, smiling.
"Hi," she murmured under the oxygen mask.
"Hi," he whispered back. "How do you feel?"
"Bad," she whispered.
"You're going to be all right," Knuckles told her.
She closed her eyes a moment. "I'm not ... afraid ... to die."
He swallowed. "Who said anything about dying?"
Her eyes narrowed with a faint shadow of her former self. "I can ... read you
... like a book ... Knuckles Echidna."
He frowned. "You're not going to die, because if you do, I'll kill you."
She smiled and clasped his hand. "You would. Is there ... a plan B?"
"Yes," said Knuckles. "Two days from now."
"I can ... last that long," she murmured. She began to drift to sleep again, and
Knuckles sat with her, feeling the feeble pulse in her wrist. Two days seemed
like a long time, but at least she was in good spirits.
He sat with her all afternoon, talking to her when she awoke and playing with
her hair when she was asleep. The doctor shooed him out at six, and Knuckles
stretched his stiff muscles and went for a walk.
He wound up in the workshop with the computer to check his messages. Tails was
busily rebuilding the derobotizer with its original configuration. The box of
biometal scraps was nowhere in sight, and Knuckles was thankful.
"How is she?" asked Tails.
"She wakes up now and then," said Knuckles, typing a few commands. "She's in bad
shape."
"I hope she makes it."
"Me too."
Sally's cryptic message about Sonic came up, and Knuckles read it four times,
feeling the urge to leap up and cheer. If Sonic was in the Great Forest, maybe
Knuckles could find him before Zephyer had slipped any further. He dashed off a
reply to Sally and said, "Tails, leave the machine for a bit. Sonic overreached
himself and teleported into the woods south of here."
"All the way from Central Mobius?" said Tails in disbelief. "You can really
teleport that far?"
"Sonic tried it and burned out," said Knuckles. "Go get your short-range emerald
tracker, we'll need it to find him."
Max the chao paced around the fallen Sonic as the minutes stretched into hours,
and the shadows under the trees began to lengthen. "Oh Sonic, why won't you wake
up?" he begged. It was chilly under the trees, and although birds chirped in the
canopy, it was silent on the forest floor.
Sonic's breathing was slow and heavy, as if he was in a deep sleep. His left
hand, cut by glass, had bled through his glove and dried, and Max hated to think
of what would happen when Sonic pulled his glove off. Sonic's other hand was
tucked under him, clutching the chaos emerald. Max tried over and over to lift
Sonic enough to reach it, but he wasn't strong enough.
As evening approached, the chill began to penetrate Max's chubby body, and he
snuggled up to Sonic for warmth. He listened to the hedgehog's rhythmic
breathing and hoped he wouldn't sleep all night.
Sonic's breathing sped up and became shallow, and Max lifted his head. Either
Sonic was dreaming, or he was waking up. He crawled up to peer into Sonic's
face. Sonic groaned, prying his eyes open. "Ugh," he said, lifting his head.
"Dang, my arm's asleep." He sat up and his arm flopped at his side, dropping the
chaos emerald. Max pounced on it and held it lovingly in his flippers.
"Hi Max," said Sonic, massaging his dead arm, then squinting at his bloodied
glove. "Man, what happened to me?"
"We did a chaos teleport, but we didn't go far enough," said Max. "You sort of
fainted on top of me."
"Sorry about that," said Sonic, rubbing his chest where he had been lying on the
emerald. "I feel like one of those dried fly husks in a spider web."
"Could you teleport us to Knothole?"
"Max, I don't have enough energy to stand up," said Sonic. "If you use that
emerald to turn into your large form, maybe you could carry me."
Max eyed him. "I'm an amphibian. I could carry you in the water, but not on
land."
Sonic groaned and pulled himself to his feet. "I guess I can walk."
"Let me help you," said Max, biting the emerald. The emerald's power flowed into
him, and he swelled to a four-foot tall creature with a sea turtle head, a wide,
flat body, and powerful frog-like hind legs. The emerald embedded itself in the
roof of his mouth, and his mouth glowed green when he spoke. "Lean on me,
Sonic."
Sonic braced a hand on Max's back, and walked into the woods with the giant chao
hopping beside him.
On Central Mobius the sun was two hours from setting, and the Jackrabbits had
located a hotel to stay in for the night. It overlooked the beach, and the
Jackrabbits decided to take a walk and let Cream and Monty play in the water.
Sally stayed in the hotel room. She felt as if she had encroached on their
hospitality long enough, and besides, she was tired.
Destro had taken the room next door, although it was clear he would rather be
elsewhere. He seemed determined to stay with them, however, and Sally wondered
at him. One thing she had learned about his type, however, was that one did not
question them.
She opened the sliding door and stepped onto the room's balcony. She was on the
second floor, and looked out across a wide lawn studded with trees. Sally sat
for a while, absorbing the quiet. Undemanding solitude was something she had
lacked in recent months, and it was like balm to her soul.
She heard the shower turn on in Destro's room, and smiled. He may not like other
people, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying a few luxuries, like hot
water. Suddenly she missed Knothole, and Tails, and Sonic. Especially Sonic. She
got up, fetched Nicole and the tracker, and turned them on.
A message from Knuckles awaited her. "Sounds like Sonic tried to use more power
than was good for him. I'll bet he fainted in mid-teleport and didn't make it
here. I'm going out to find him with Tails. Zephyer's bad off. De-ro. worked,
but it hurt her bad. Details later.--K."
Fainted in mid-teleport? It sounded dangerous to Sally, but Knuckles didn't
sound worried. And Zephyer was bad off ... she hoped Knuckles could find Sonic.
She tuned the tracker for home, located Sonic, and zoomed in. Thank goodness, he
was moving at last. She pulled out to scan for Knuckles. Knuckles was harder to
locate because his signature was more controlled, but Sally spotted him moving
south from the vicinity of Eagle's Nest. If she watched, she would see when
Knuckles found Sonic, and maybe even when they used the emerald on Zephyer. It
made her feel close to them to see them, and yet more homesick than ever.
Sally watched their movements for a while, then panned out to refresh her view.
Then she froze, heart leaping into her mouth.
A chaos-object like a hurricane was moving across the ocean toward West Mobius
with incredible speed. Headed toward Knothole. But she had taken his emerald!
Where had he found another one? Sally reached for Nicole, typed a futile
warning, and sent it. Knuckles and Sonic were far from any computers, and Sally
was an observer only. She clenched her fists. Not this time.
Sally estimated Robo Knux's arrival time at twenty minutes, set aside the
tracker, and peered toward the ocean, thinking of Jazz and his family, but they
were nowhere in sight. She went out in the hall and knocked on Destro's door.
The shower had stopped some time ago, and now the door opened and Destro looked
out at her. His helmet was off, and for a second Sally was struck by how
nice-looking he was. Then he clamped it on his head and said, "What do you
want?"
"Come here, quick," said Sally, leading him into her room. She handed him the
tracker and pointed to the hurricane. "Robo Knux has grown stronger, and he's
headed for my village on West Mobius. That's Sonic right there."
Destro frowned as he studied the images. "Can you warn them?"
"They don't have their computers or anything, and communicators don't have a
range that long." Sally couldn't keep the panic out of her voice. "He's going to
ambush them. What can we do?"
Destro held up a hand. "I'll ask." He closed his eyes for a moment, and Sally
watched him pray. That was something she hadn't expected. He sat quietly for a
few minutes, then opened his eyes. "We need to find Cream, Jazz and Eva." He
bolted from the room, and Sally followed.
They collided with the Jackrabbits on the terrace, where they were trooping back
to the hotel. Sally explained things in a hushed voice, and the three rabbits
and chao listened attentively.
"I should have planted a mine on that robot's head," growled Jazz. "The only way
to warn Sonic is to beat Robo Knux there, and a teleport would just about kill
one of us. Even if we could teleport."
"It takes enormous power," said Destro.
Everyone looked at him.
"You asked what I could do with my chaos field," said Destro to Jazz. "The
answer is, many things. But I need your permission to charge my armor off your
daughter's aura."
Jazz and Eva exchanged glances. "What do you have to do?"
"Touch her hand," said Destro. "Until I have absorbed as much power as my armor
can hold."
Jazz thought for two seconds. "Do it."
Destro held out a hand to Cream. She fearlessly placed her little hand in his
metal-link glove, and looked at him. Of the group, only Monty the chao could see
what was happening. Chaos radiated from Cream like smoke from a fire, and was
vacuumed up by Destro's armor. Chaos rippled over Destro's body as he compressed
it inside himself, directing it into his armor's reserves. Minutes passed, and
Destro began to sweat with the effort of containing the extra power.
"Is it working?" said Cream, who could feel nothing.
"Yes, and how," said Monty, watching in fascination. "He can't hold much more."
Destro released Cream's hand and backed away, trembling with the effort of
holding the power. He moved to a safe distance, then closed his eyes. There was
a flash of light, and a clap as air rushed to fill the place where he had been.
Sally ran to her room, followed by the Jackrabbits, and grabbed the tracker. A
new blip had appeared on the map, between Sonic and Knuckles. As they watched,
Destro's blip moved toward Robo Knux's oncoming storm.
"They're going to fight!" exclaimed Sally.
The teleport sucked the stored power from Destro, and he appeared in the Great
Forest panting for breath, the energy level in his armor bouncing from extremely
high to extremely low. He stood a minute until he knew how much damage he had
done. He had burned all the energy had gathered from Cream, but his reserve
batteries were oozing with overcharge. He was in good shape, thanks to Cream.
He ignited his jetpack and shot up through the trees, dodging branches until he
could peer into the west. Here the sun had set, and the horizon was a band of
red and orange. Far out over the ocean, a patch of sky was rippling as if in a
heat wave. There was the robot. Destro considered his options. He could fly out
to meet Robo Knux, burning energy, and clash over the ocean. If he lost too much
power, he would drop into the water. Or he could wait for the robot to reach
land and battle here, endangering lives, but with full energy reserves.
Destro decided to fly to the shore and wait there. He was uncertain of
Knothole's location, and wanted to have the most distance possible between
himself and it. He rocketed west, over the trees, conscious that the Lightgiver
had guided him to this point, for this purpose. All the times Destro had had the
chance to attack the robot and the Lightgiver had held him back ... something
good had come out of each time. Cream had come into Destro's life. Sonic had
seen and pursued the robot. Sonic and Jazz had joined forces. And all of this
would not have happened if Destro had not been in the right place at the right
time.
This was also the right place at the right time. Destro felt the Lightgiver
beside him, flying on point and leading him into the approaching chaos storm.
Destro bared his teeth in a ferocious grin.
Bring it on.
"Whoa!" Tails yelled as something roared overhead. He and Knuckles peered up
through the trees, but could only see a fading smoke trail.
"What was that?" said Knuckles.
"That was a jetpack," said Tails, ears pricked as he listened to the diminishing
roar. "A human-made 3800, four-cylinder, solid-state fuel."
"Who around here has a jetpack?" said Knuckles.
"Nobody I know," said Tails. He looked at his short-range tracker's screen. "No
signal from Sonic yet. Let's hurry up and find him."
Sonic heard the jetpack, too, and he and Max peered at the treetops. "What in
the world?" said Sonic. "That sounded just like Destro's jetpack!"
"Who's Destro?" asked Max.
"This guy I met," said Sonic. "But there's no way he could have got here so
fast--it's a two day flight."
He and Max walked on, throwing glances at the evening sky. Sonic's strength was
trickling back, but he still wanted to lie down and sleep. In the gathering
darkness he stumbled over roots and stones, and only Max's shoulder saved him
from a fall.
A silent blast of chaos energy struck the Great Forest, rattling leaves, shaking
dust from the bark, and knocking Sonic flat. Max fell onto all fours. "Good
grief, what was that?"
"That was chaos energy!" said Sonic, clawing to his feet. "Robo Knux! He must be
here somewhere! But you've got his emerald, how...?" Sonic paused, wheels
turning. He looked at Max. "Oh no. I'll bet they reverse-engineered the ARK
technology. We've got to get home, quick!"
Robo Knux was the eye of a mile-wide chaos distortion like a vast, swirling
hurricane. The air inside the field broke down into separate gases, and as
Destro flew into the field he found himself breathing nitrogen. His jetpack died
and he dropped into a patch of pure oxygen. His jetpack roared and spurted blue
flames, rocketing Destro into ordinary atmosphere as heat levels jumped into the
red.
There were places where the world was black as ink, and other places where it
was so bright he couldn't open his eyes. Below him the shockwave rolled on
toward the Great Forest, and every Mobian in its path felt the disturbance and
panicked.
Destro drew his sword and flew with it held before him like a spear. Electricity
played along the steel blade and rippled over his gloves and armor. His fur
crackled with static. He had to be nearing the robot, he was in the center of
the chaos storm--
Diamond-tipped claws slashed through his helmet, tearing off the left side of
the face guard. Destro spun around and slashed, but Robo Knux dodged away and
circled, his eyes leaving blue streaks against a sudden onset of darkness.
Destro felt blood trickling down the side of his head, but he didn't care. He
flew at his enemy, who blocked the blow with claws crossed. Sparks showered into
the dark, changing colors as they fell. The battle had begun.
Knuckles and Tails were hit by the shockwave, and Knuckles helped Tails to his
feet. "That was chaos energy," said Knuckles, his eyes wild. "I've never felt
anything like that in my life!"
"Is it a flux?" Tails asked, his fur standing on end.
"I don't know what it is. What's the tracker say?"
"It's gone dead. You sure it was chaos and not a magnetic pulse?"
"It was chaos," said Knuckles. "I guess we do this the old-fashioned way." He
cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hey Sonic!"
Tails joined in. "Son-ic!"
"Hey!" came a distant shout, and the pair hurried toward it, groping in the
darkness under the trees. Knuckles called again, and Sonic replied, and a few
minutes later they found each other. "What's going on?" asked Knuckles. "Did you
feel the chaos wave?"
"That's Robo Knux," said Sonic. "He had this emerald--" He slapped Max on the
back "--and made a field distortion with it. We got the emerald, but he still
has the distortion."
"That shouldn't happen," said Knuckles, horrified. "He's just a robot!"
"He might have a chaos drive in him, or something like that," said Sonic. "You
know Robotnik stripped the ARK of all the technology he didn't have. And there's
a guy with a jetpack, that's Destro, he's on our side."
"Destro?" said Tails. "Destro the fox? That Destro?"
"Yeah," said Sonic, but Knuckles interrupted, "We can explain later. I've got to
get Max and the emerald back to Eagle's Nest. Zephyer doesn't have much time."
The four set off at a near run, dodging trees and tripping over unseen things.
"What do you mean, she doesn't have much time?" said Sonic.
"We derobotized her," said Knuckles, "and the biometal..."
"It was eating her alive," Tails finished. "When it came off, it tore her full
of holes."
Sonic winced. "Poor Zeff!"
A series of flashes illuminated the horizon. Knuckles looked toward it. "This is
impossible," he muttered. "Robo Knux has control of the chaos field."
"I'd help if I could," said Sonic, "but I'm wiped out. And I tried to fight him
as Hyper and it ... didn't work."
"I have to stay with Zephyer," said Knuckles.
Tails said nothing.
Sonic found the fox's hand in the darkness and shoved a crumpled wad into it.
"Plan B," Sonic whispered. Tails tried to hand it back, but Sonic had withdrawn.
Tails unfolded it, identifying it by touch.
It was Sonic's emerald belt.
The eye of the chaos storm swirled around Robo Knux like a pillar of red and
violet lightning, moving where he moved. Destro dove into it, sword raised, and
felt his armor absorb power like a sponge. He slashed at the robot, who parried
the blow with his claws, then twisted and nearly yanked the blade from Destro's
hands. Destro broke out of the storm center and circled around through light and
darkness, as stars appeared and vanished in all directions, as if the fabric of
time and space was tearing.
A beam of energy struck him and sent him reeling, his jetpack smoking. Robo Knux
was there, his eyes dancing with madness. Destro scrambled in midair, willing
his jet to ignite and carry him clear, but his jet refused to respond. As he
fell Robo Knux flew after him, claws extended, and Destro slashed at him. The
force of his swing sent him into a wild spin, and he felt the deadly claws
connect with his armored torso. Hot pain spread down his side.
His jet ignited! Destro righted himself and flew straight up at the
still-descending robot, and his blade struck the body. There was a ringing snap,
and Destro dropped his broken sword, hands numbed from the shock. Robo Knux
laughed, the sound echoing through the silent storm. "You're dead, fox."
Eagle's Nest in the darkness looked like a floating city, with lights beginning
suddenly thirty feet from the ground. Sonic had never been so glad to see it. He
stood aside and waited as Knuckles made Max take the emerald out of his mouth
and shrink to small form, then climb the ladder like a monkey.
Sonic turned to Tails. "If Robo Knux gets this far, you're our last defense."
Tails looked at the emerald belt. "He's really strong, Sonic. You said it didn't
work when you fought him as Hyper, so why should I be any different?"
Sonic said quietly, "Remember who you beat in a fight the last time you used the
super emeralds?"
"Knuckles ... and you," said Tails, and stared at the belt.
"Right," said Sonic. "You're a match for a dumb robot. Now I need to go to bed."
He started up the ladder and said over his shoulder, "You know I'm tired when I
have to leave an awesome fight to you."
Tails gazed at the belt again, weighed down by the enormity of what Sonic had
asked him to do. Sonic had placed the safety of Knothole and New Mobitropolis in
his hands. Tails thought of the times he had battled Robotnik's machines, and
Robotnik himself, and won. Robo Knux was nothing compared to that.
He buckled on the belt.
Destro flew in a spiral, flying higher and higher in the storm. Robo Knux
pursued him, the center of the storm, radiating chaotic power and insanity in
brilliant shades of red and purple. Destro was hurting. His head and chest were
bleeding from claw scratches, and the halves of his sword were lost in the
darkness far below. But he still had the chaos inside of himself, which he could
fight with if he had to. He was worried that using it, however, would make the
robot stronger.
"Think!" he told himself as he flew. "You've got to outsmart him! What's his
weakness?" Robo Knux's weakness was the machinery that composed his body.
Somehow he had found a way to keep the chaos energy from cooking him like a
potato in a microwave. Perhaps he was using a converter of some kind. In which
case, if Destro could damage it, Robo Knux's power buildup would fry his
circuits.
Destro switched off his jet and dropped, steel boots first onto Robo Knux's
upturned face. The impact sent Robo Knux and Destro flying apart, and Destro
caught himself with his jet and spun to see if he had done any damage. The robot
was still pursuing. His eyes were green now, and wavering like water. Destro
gazed at his eyes a second too long and dodged too late, and Robo Knux slammed
into him claws first. Destro clung to the robot's arms, fired his jet and
pitched the two of them into a wild, mid-air spin. Robo Knux's hover jets were
cancelled out, and they began to fall.
Knuckles stepped into the medical hut and walked to Zephyer's bed. The doctor
was sitting on a stool beside her bed, and looked up as Knuckles entered. "Did
you get it?"
"Yes," said Knuckles breathlessly, setting Max on the bed and handing him the
emerald. "The chao is the only one who can work the healing power."
Max crawled up beside Zephyer's head and examined her face. She was asleep, and
her face had taken on a grayish hue. After a few minutes he announced, "She's
very, very sick."
"Can you help her?" asked Knuckles.
Max looked at her. "Yeeess ... but it won't be easy. Velocity was hurt bad, but
he had more life in him than she does."
Knuckles closed his eyes a minute. "Do you mean you'll have to give her some of
yours?"
"That's how I did it for another chao," said Max. "She's an echidna. It might
not work the same."
"Could you use me?" said Knuckles.
"Let me see," said Max. He bit the emerald and slid off the bed as he grew to
his large form, and placed a broad flipper on her forehead. The emerald in his
mouth glowed a bright, steady green for a few seconds.
"This will take some work," said Max, looking at Knuckles. "Hold my other
flipper, I'll see if I can borrow from you to help her."
Knuckles grasped the chao's wide, warm flipper and watched Zephyer for any
change. Max fixed his eyes on her and drew on the emerald's power, sorting
through its abilities until he settled on one of the few Order powers left to
the emeralds--healing. He collected strength from Knuckles, pushing the power
from one echidna, through himself, and into the other. In the back of his mind
he wished Talon was there, but he reassured himself that by healing Zephyer, he
was making Talon happy.
Knuckles felt weariness creep through him, but he kept his eyes on Zephyer. He
imagined her wounds sealing from the inside, and wondered if he could actually
see color creeping into her face. As the minutes ticked by the sense of
weariness increased until Knuckles felt as if he had run a marathon. Still Max
stayed focused and the emerald illuminated his half-open mouth with neon green
light. In the distance, Knuckles heard a rumble of thunder. Then he realized it
was not thunder as another surge of chaos washed over him. He wavered, but
stayed standing.
Tails ran by outside, his feet pounding on the wooden catwalk. Knuckles noted it
with the back of his mind. Dr. Shepherd was watching the healing, and Knuckles
didn't want to faint in front of him.
As his strength was funneled away, Knuckles began to wonder in a loopy sort of
way if Zephyer could pick up his thoughts and emotions along with his energy. He
called up his consuming homesickness for his island. He thought about his love
for her, and his fury at her for giving up, all mixed up until he wanted to cry,
which Knuckles seldom ever did. Zephyer had made him feel these things, and she
was his greatest strength and greatest weakness. He needed her. He held these
things in his mind, mentally forcing them at the still figure on the bed,
willing her to feel what he was feeling as long as it made her well, as long as
she got well, as long as she got well, as long as...
Zephyer's eyes opened just as Knuckles collapsed.
Tails stood on the highest walkway in Eagle's Nest and peered into the
approaching chaos distortion. It was rolling in like a thunderstorm, but lit
with weird patches of light that swirled, vanished and reappeared like images in
a nightmare. Once in a while a flash illuminated the core of the storm, like a
tall funnel that arched and moved as Robo Knux flew around. It was nearing the
outskirts of New Mobitropolis, and in the deepening darkness, imagination ran
wild with what the rest of the storm looked like.
Tails looked down at Sonic's belt and touched the smooth faces of the super
emerald miniatures. When he had used them last time, four flicky birds appeared
from their home dimension to share his power and help him fight. But they had
sacrificed themselves to save him, and he had sworn to never touch the emeralds
again. He looked up at the chaos distortion. Sonic was depending on him. The
last time Sonic had depended on him, Tails had let him down, and Tails was
afraid to try again. But there was no one else who could use the super emeralds.
Sonic was exhausted and Knuckles was with Zephyer.
Zephyer. For a second Tails thought of her horrendous derobotization, and of the
way she looked hurt and bandaged. What if Robo Knux found her? The thought sent
chills down his spine. Tails would have to defend everyone himself, because
there was no one else.
He fumbled with the emeralds for a moment, trying to remember how Sonic
activated them. It was kind of like striking a match, because there was friction
involved ... Tails's hands slipped over the belt and the emeralds flashed to
life. His orange fur became molten gold, and he felt as light as a feather. He
stood poised on the walkway for an instant, then leaped into space and flew
toward the storm, powered by chaos and horribly afraid of what would happen
next.
Destro and Robo Knux hit the ground, and Destro lay stunned, still clinging to
the robot. The diamond-tipped claws had pierced his stomach and right shoulder,
but Robo Knux radiated such power that Destro's armor healed his body even as
the claws were withdrawn.
Robo Knux snarled. "What must I do to kill you, fox?" He stabbed Destro over
and over, but the wounds healed instantly. Destro reached up and grabbed Robo
Knux by the hole in his chest, and threw him over backward.
"I know what you're doing," spat the robot. "You know my weakness. And I know
yours. Your armor." He leaped to his feet and tried to tear off Destro's
breastplate.
"No!" Destro growled, and released chaos energy in the form of an electric surge
that knocked the robot head over heels. Destro ran after him, knowing that his
only chance was to stay close to Robo Knux, so there would be enough chaos in
the vicinity for his armor to repair the holes in itself.
But Robo Knux was crafty. He lay on the ground, feigning unconsciousness until
Destro was within striking distance, then sprang up and slashed the helmet free
of Destro's head. He flung it skyward and planted three laser blasts in it as it
fell, then laughed at Destro's expression of horror. Without his helmet,
Destro's jetpack controls were gone.
"Not so cocky now, are we?" sneered Robo Knux. "I can use chaos just like you,
and I have more weapons than a puny sword."
"But I have backup," said Destro.
"Where?" said Robo Knux. "Who in the world would come help an outcast freak like
you?"
Destro pointed, and Robo Knux half-turned just as Super Tails struck him in a
midair spin, his tails whirling like helicopter blades.
"I'm Tails," said Tails to Destro as Robo Knux picked himself up. The young
fox's teeth were chattering in excitement and terror. "What do we do?"
"He has a chaos converter of some kind," said Destro. "We must disable it."
"I have an idea," whispered Tails. "Find a big rock." He leaped into the air and
flew in wide circles. "Hey Robo Knux! Sonic sent me because he had better things
to do than fight a dumb robot!"
Robo Knux sprang after him, hover jets roaring.
Destro watched from the ground, where he had located a rock with a sharp edge.
He didn't dare use his jetpack now, but was thankful for the rest. His remaining
armor had time to repair and recharge itself, and he had time for a word with
the Lightgiver. "Thank you for giving me victory thus far. I've felt your
protection throughout the battle. But what do I do now?"
"Wait for Tails," came the Lightgiver's quiet voice. "He knows what he's
doing."
Destro watched the dark robot and the glowing fox circle and dance high above
him, and found himself worried about this newcomer. What was the matter with
him? He had never worried about anyone before--Cream had taught him how to care
about other people. He puzzled over this while the chaos distortion destroyed
the atmosphere inside it and scorched the grass and rock beneath it. Beside
Destro stood the Lightgiver with sword drawn, and around him the chaos field was
stilled. Destro was in a little oasis of peace.
Up in the air, Super Tails was throwing every taunt at his enemy that he could
think of. Some of them he made note of to tell Sonic later, like, "Your mother
was a 386 PC and your father was a shovel!" He was trying to infuriate the
robot, and was succeeding. Robo Knux began firing lasers and rockets at him, and
Tails dodged or deflected all of them, the super emeralds protecting him from
all harm.
"Come on, use your chaos gun on me!" Tails shouted. "I know you have one or you
wouldn't have charge up like this! What's the matter? Chicken?"
"That was a fowl insult," snarled the robot. "I'm not wasting my death ray on
the likes of you."
"Death ray?" said Tails, doing a flip. "Don't make me laugh! Besides, even a
death ray couldn't hurt me." He dove earthward, and Robo Knux, maddened beyond
reason, followed him.
Tails and Robo Knux landed near Destro at the same time. "Let's fight on the
ground, like civilized people," said Tails. "Go ahead, take your best shot!" He
held up his arms to make himself a better target.
Robo Knux couldn't resist. His entire torso opened up to reveal his hot yellow
fusion core and a baseball-sized lens. Embedded in the wires and machinery under
the lens was a fiery green chaos drive.
As the lens powered up, Tails pointed and yelled, "Smash the chaos drive!"
Destro ran up, ducked under the lens and crushed the fragile glass tube with the
rock in his fist.
Robo Knux screamed. Destro scrambled away on all fours, and Tails threw himself
flat. The death ray backfired, and the robot caught fire from the inside. As if
that weren't enough, the entire chaos storm poured down out of the sky, through
Robo Knux, and into the earth like grounded lightning. It looked like a mass of
smoke and chaotic colors and images, and Robo Knux sparked and smoked, finally
collapsing. Still the storm came down on his head, and the ground became hot
underfoot.
Suddenly it was over. The night was silent, the stars were clear and bright, and
Robo Knux was offline and flaming in the center of a blackened ring. Tails and
Destro stood staring at their fallen enemy for a long time. Then Destro turned
to Tails and held out his hand. "Thanks."
Tails shook his hand, smiling. "Thank you, sir. For letting me fight along with
you. It was an honor."
"An honor?" Destro looked blank. "Why an honor?"
"You're famous in the robotics community," said Tails, looking down. "Your armor
and weapons are thirty years ahead of their time, and everyone knows how you go
around fighting for the underdog. I've always wanted to meet you."
Destro didn't know what to say. He stammered, "It--it wasn't me, it was the
Lightgiver. He sent me here." He turned away and mumbled something about finding
his helmet.
"I'll help!" said Tails. "I'm glowing, and I'm the only light we have."
The foxes searched the scorched area where the chaos distortion had been, and
located Destro's helmet, burned and full of holes. Destro clamped it on his head
anyway, and it immediately began to repair itself. "I need to go," he said to
Tails. "I have another mission."
"Oh, sure," said Tails awkwardly. "Um, see you around."
Destro ignited his jetpack and flew away into the night, and Super Tails watched
him go. Then he spun his two tails and flew back toward the forest, planning to
wake up Sonic and tell him everything.