Chapter Two: Fourteen Hours Earlier
Written by Yosh. Edits by Japs.
01:53 am
Robotropalis
(14 hours earlier)
It was a clear night sky. The two moons and the stars shone upon the gigantic metallic behemoth, lighting it up like a candle. Thick smoke billowed out of its many chimneys like a swarm of wasps leaving their nest. The building towered over a thousand feet tall littered with walkways leading to laboratories, distillers and storage tanks. Despite this, it was one of the smaller chemical plants on Mobius.
During the day, this place was feverish with slaves laboriously working, the place buzzing with energy from wall to steel wall. Animals would run back and forth over its bridges in a vain attempt to increase production under the watchful eye of their robotic oppressors. It was empty now, save for a dozen or so robots. It was a hollow shell of glass and metal. The building was very much dormant.
Footsteps echoed throughout the building. A cloaked figure sprinted across one of its walkways into the main research laboratory. Inside, test tubes, beakers, thermometers and other scientific equipment lay on benches ready for use. They glittered brightly in the moonlight, like a hundred tiny fireflies. One would think this room was huge, if they hadn't seen the empty halls outside.
Pausing for a moment, the unwanted guest took a look around the room until he found the small bench he was looking for, in the corner of the room. He approached it cautiously then placed a satchel on top of it, pressing a small button activating the explosives inside. If this building is dormant, then the cloaked figure is trying to kill it in its sleep.
He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a radio. Pushing down the button hard, he cleared his throat and spoke.
"Tusks this is the Blue Blur, come in tusks, over."
The radio spat out a huge crackle, before his reply came.
"Blue blur, this is Tusks, what's up? Over."
"Two down, one to go. Where do I need to place the last one? Over."
"Distillery 34, leave by the south entrance and up the flight of stairs on your left, it should be sign posted. I'm going to fly the stag beetle to the rendezvous point, I'll see you there. Over and out."
The radio spat out another cackle before an almighty BLAM echoed through the lab. The blue blur turned around to find a tall, rusting robot standing a matter of feet away from him with his gun poised and smoking. These robots were called swat bots, and were designed to be like humans, and programmed to be good at armed combat. It was a miracle that it missed.
Acting quickly, the figure ran along the wall and planted a drop kick right in what would have been it's chin, had it been human, knocking it across a near by bench, shattering all the equipment on it. Before the metallic guard had the opportunity to stand back up, a machete was driven through its head, destroying its motherboard brain and effectively killing it.
"Show off." Muttered a discontented voice from the other side of the room.
"It's O.K. Shadow, the fight's over. You can come out now." The figure replied. He dropped down his hood. A hedgehog. He had blue quills, large, thick, green eyes and a short nose. His alias, Blue Blur, was not one without justification. He was Sonic, one of the most wanted in Mobius.
His accomplice stepped out of the darkness. He too was a hedgehog, except he had black quills, gelled back and up with red steaks, red eyes and a longer nose than Sonic. His name Shadow, and he too is a wanted criminal.
"Don't ridicule me, you cocky prat!" snarled shadow in his deep voice.
"Don't worry dude," chuckled Sonic, walking towards his defeated opponent "I'm only playing with you."
"And don't use my real name either," hissed Shadow. "Suppose someone over hears us!"
"Well I don't think this guy caught your real name," quipped Sonic, yanking his machete out of the swat bots head "just relax. I hate using those stupid code names anyway."
"A mission of this importance is no time to relax! You do realise that if anything were to go wrong the resistance..."
"How many satchels have you got left?" Interrupted Sonic.
"I've done all mine." Shadow answered after rolling his eyes at being stopped mid sentence. "You?"
"I've got one left," He replied.
"Oh, looks like the fastest thing on Mobius isn't all that fast!" taunted Shadow.
"Hey, don't give me that attitude creep, or I'll..."
"Or you'll do what?"
"Gentlemen," Interrupted a third voice, "can we save the bickering 'till the mission is complete?"
The voice belonged to Rouge, a bat with snow-white fur, and large, pointy ears. Unlike a lot of her race, she possessed an unusual beauty and over her years has learnt to manipulate this so that most men would give in to her like a paper cup under a lead weight.
"I've done all I needed to do, how about you two?" she said in that ice cool voice.
"I've done all of mine, but the blue blur here needs to plant one more." Shadow replied, giving Sonic a quick smirk.
"You two go back to the stag beetle," Sonic said, giving Shadow a filthy look. "I'll be two seconds, okay?"
Before he gave them any time to reply, he was sprinting to his last destination. This shouldn't take too long, he thought to himself. I'm getting pissed off with shadow though. What the hell is his problem?
"What is that guys problem?" complained Shadow. He and Rouge were in a lift heading towards the ground floor. Shadow was leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette while Rouge had her gaze fixed on the glowing floor numbers. Smoke weaved its way like a snake from the cigarette up to the air vent.
"His problem?" She replied. "From what I heard it was you who was giving him attitude."
"Yeah, well you didn't hear what was said before that," Shadow muttered defiantly. "He just really gets to me sometimes."
"Knowing Sonic he was probably only fooling around." She said. "You need to learn how to take a joke."
"I can't take a joke when that joke's meant to be our leader." He said fiercely.
Before she could answer, the lift opened with a fierce ping and the stag beetle stood in front awaiting them.
The stag beetle was a transport ship, similar to that which the military on Mobius used. Like the others, its body was a round shape, with four boosters in each corner. Like the others, it had strong titanium armour, with a bottle green finish. However, when the Rebellion stole it, Tails couldn't resist giving it a couple of customisations. It now had heavy weaponry and Rotor's complex computer system on board.
The door on its underbelly lowered with a hiss, and Rotor stood there. Rotor, who had been called Tusks over the radio, was a walrus, so naturally he was pretty big compared to the other races on Mobius. He had a big, bushy moustache, from which his long ivory tusks came. He tended to dress scruffily, tonight being no exception dressing in a green bomber jacket and tattered baseball cap. His main purpose in the resistance was computers, and he oversaw everything in the Rebellion to do with them.
"Hey guys," he said in his naturally cheery way, "where's Sonic?"
"He's just planting his last satchel." Answered Rouge. "I doubt he'll take long. I got the information you wanted." She handed over to him a metallic green disk.
"Thanks." He said, putting it into his pocket. "I'll take a look at it as soon as Sonic comes back."
They all went up the walkway and into the ship. Inside, the stag beetle was a cluttered mess, with wires stretched across the walls and doorways like vines in a jungle, and discarded drinks cans lay on the floor, leaking the last few drops of what was left in them. Rotor sat down in the cockpit, which had keyboards, a radio and other gadgets. He put on a headset, pushed a red button and spoke into his microphone.
"Blue Blur, this is Tusks, come in Blue Blur, over."
Rouge peered over Rotors back, trying to listen for a reply. Shadow however, had crashed out onto a seat in the far corner, clearly uninterested, and sucked heavily on his cigarette.
"Tusks, this is Blue Blur, I've placed the last parcel, initiate countdown, over."
On his command, Rotor started typing manically. In the background, Shadow gave a heavy exhale, producing a thick cloud over his head. A look of panic spread across Rotors face, as he desperately hammered on one button.
"What's wrong?" Asked Rouge. Rotor replied to her and told Sonic at the same time:
"Something's gone wrong with the countdown," he started rapidly "I set it for a ten minute countdown, but for some reason its changed to just one minute. The whole things gonna blow in one minute!"
Rouge gasped. Shadow couldn't care less. Sonic replied almost instantaneously.
"Okay. just stay calm, I have an idea. Tusks, fly the stag beetle over to the east window, and leave the door open. Hurry!"
"He isn't going to do what I think he's going to do, is he?" enquired Rouge. Rotor didn't answer. He was too busy flying the ship around to where Sonic had asked him to, but in his mind he agreed. He looked over to the monitor, which indicated there was forty five seconds left.
They had reached the east wall. Both Rotor and Rouge peered out of windows desperately searching for any sign of Sonic. Shadow however was still in his own world, blowing little smoke rings and catching them with his hands before they disappeared like ghosts.
The monitor flashed thirty seconds.
"Come on, where is he?" muttered Rotor to himself. Twenty seconds. Still no sign of him.
Fifteen seconds and they heard a window smash from high above. Rotor and Rouge looked up quickly, and sure enough, they spotted the blue hedgehog falling quickly. Ten seconds and a pair of hands grabbed hold of the very edge of the walkway. Rouge ran to Sonics assistance.
"GO, GO, GO!" Screamed Sonic, "If we're caught in that explosion, we're history!"
Rotor scrambled into the cockpit.
Five seconds.
Rouge pulled up Sonic.
Four seconds.
Rotor guided the stag beetle swiftly around the corner of the east wall.
Three seconds.
Shadow lost count of how many rings he had caught.
Two seconds.
The door hissed shut.
One second.
The stag beetle zipped away from the chemical plant, just in time. From inside They all heard a muffled explosion. Peeking his head out of the window, Sonic caught sight of the inferno that was where the silver behemoth used to stand. He smiled to himself, and turned around to his comrades.
"Well done team," he said, beaming with pride and joy, "we did it!"