Under the sun's tears, the clouds' weeping, the group walked, eyes dry.
"This echidna just jumped at me from nowhere." Sonic was explaining, arms waving as if to demonstrate but having really no relevance to his words.
Tails' head darted. "An echidna?"
"Yeah. He was off his rocker."
"That must be the echidna Nicole mentioned."
"Robotnik's after him."
"No kidding," said Sonic. "I kinda guessed that much. He thought I was the bad guy. I told him it was Robotnik but I don't think he got it."
"Damnit, we missed our chance!"
Sonic looked confused.
"We could have used his help but now he's long gone."
Sonic laughed. "I don't think he would've helped us. He wouldn't even listen to me."
The sun spoke now; its tears all around were the only voices in what otherwise was silence.
They walked to the sound of the sobbing.
Sally opened up Nicole. "Nicole, how do we get back to the center base?"
The map of the island appeared again, and Nicole illuminated the place Robotnik had called the Gathering; the crew's location, too, was illuminated.
"Your position is on the right."
"Thanks, Nicole."
Suddenly a crackling sound pierced the silent noise. Everyone was startled by this and jerked around to try to find out where it had come from. Antoine had to stifle a yelp.
"Y'all there?"
They realized the crackling was not SWATbots stepping on leaves and twigs, but rather the static of the handheld radio Sally had brought with from the Tornado.
Everyone was instantly relieved. Sally took up the device in her left hand; her right held Nicole. She depressed the button, and spoke into the microphone. "Bunnie, is that—" Antoine cut her off, shouting, "Ay, you were scaring the living sheet out of myself!"
Bunnie's laugh came through the speaker, and then her voice said, still with the ring of laughter, "Yeah, it's me."
Sally said, "I presume you have news from Uncle Chuck?"
"That's right, Sally-girl. A new gen'ral that Uncle Chuck hadn't heard 'a before has just gottan echidna in custody; he's bein' taken tah the 'tropolis. They were en route to the transport when Chuck told me, but they might be to it by now."
"Nicole, did you get that?"
"Affirmative, Sally."
"Ya copy?" Bunnie's voice came again from the radio.
Sally quickly replied, "Yes, yes, we copy. Sorry about that. Thanks again. We'll probably be in touch shortly."
"Alright; out, then, sugah."
"Nicole, do you think we would be able to get to Robotropolis fast enough to do anything?"
"Insufficient data to make an assumption, Sally."
"Just try!"
A pause, after which Nicole said, "If you can get me to a terminal at the Gathering, I might be able to get the position and velocity of the transport carrying the echidna."
"Alright, let's go."
The motley crew started for the Gathering.
The so-called 'Gathering' was the sound of uniform marching, and the sight of motion of metal. Perhaps, too, the feeling of density.
"Sonic and Tails, create a distraction to draw attention away from that building." Sally pointed across the alley to a short building guarded by a pair of SWATbots. "Laine, you come with me into the building while I connect Nicole to the terminal I hope is inside. Antoine, Caero, you watch from here and jump into action if something goes wrong."
'Here' was behind a building that was a few feet taller than a SWATbot.
"Got it, Sal," said Sonic. The rest of the crew followed suit in affirming their understanding.
"Let's go!" said the princess.
Sonic nodded to Tails and Tails lifted Sonic into the air. Once away from that 'here' behind a building, once over an alley, Sonic started shouting: "Hey, boltbrains! Up here! Nyah, nyah!" Several SWATbots heard this.
"Priority One. Apprehend Sonic the Hedgehog. Forces, divert precedence."
With that, several more SWATbots turned, as if the circle of attention had simply enlarged its radius. The robots nearest to the airborne taunt-spewing hedgehog raised their weapons and fired. Tails was expecting this, and had been waiting, but with the weight of Sonic, he had limited agility and his evasion of the attacks was narrower than he would have liked. Still, he did evade them, pulling Sonic to the side as he shifted his weight in that direction. The SWATbots that were guarding the door Sally was to enter also now allowed Sonic to take their attention.
"Nyah, nyah!" The SWATbots fired again, but this time more of them at once, and Sonic nodded to Tails, who immediately released his grip upon the hedgehog; Sonic dropped to the ground and immediately went into a spin, plowing through several SWATbots since they were so densely packed. Sonic then turned and backed, increasing the distance between him and the door through slow backward steps. "That all you got?" Sonic stuck out his tongue. As Sonic backed up, the SWATbots, too, slowly moved toward him. With the guards now away from the door, and their backs turned, Sally signaled to Laine and they made a quick dash for the door. They pulled themselves inside to find a lone SWATbot their company. This caught them by surprise, but Laine quickly grasped the situation and charged into the SWATbot, knocking it to the floor before it could fire.
"Go, Sally," Laine called. "I'll take care of this guy."
Sally, heeding his words, rushed past him and found, with a sigh of relief, that there was a data terminal at the other end of the room. She quickly interfaced Nicole with the terminal.
"You know what to do, Nicole."
"Downloading, Sally."
Sonic hadn't been watching where he was going, and he stepped backwards into the grip of a SWATbot. Sonic had forgotten that the whole base was filled with SWATbots. Sonic struggled to free himself but more SWATbots were now upon him.
"Aiee!" Antoine yelped. "What are we to be doing?" Antoine looked to Caero, not knowing how to handle the situation.
"That's an easy one," said Caero. "We kick their asses."
Antoine's face filled with horror and then tentative rage. "You… you traitore! You are to be turning on Sonique?!" Antoine reached for his sword, and Caero quickly cried, "No, no – the robots!"
Antoine sighed and simply said, "oh," relaxing his hand.
"Well, let's go then!"
"How are we to be getting to zee hedgehog?" said Antoine, observing that there were at least ten SWATbots between them and Sonic.
Tails gave the answer to that, arriving overhead just as this was said. "I can handle that!" Tails swooped toward the ground and grabbed Antoine, lifting him into the air. Antoine was panicked by this and started writhing from within Tails' grip, crying, "Let me goooooo!"
"Quit it or I'll drop you!"
Antoine did, without question.
Caero, meanwhile, left the cover of the building he was behind, and came across SWATbots which had their backs turned to him. Caero took quick advantage of this, heaving his fist at the first robot he came to, felling it in one blow. He did the same to the next robot he came upon before the other SWATbots just in front of him detected him, probably through the sounds his fists induced upon the robots' shells; they turned and he now faced enemies that would return his attacks. Caero ducked to the ground and dived at the feet of the nearest robot with his fists outstretched, making it lose its footing and balance as his knocked out one of its legs from under it; it fell and Caero pounced upon it. Another robot was upon Caero and he rose while concurrently uppercutting the robot that was at him, felling it through great surprise to its unreasoning brain.
Tails was over Sonic now, and now there were three other SWATbots around him, facing him, guarding him from liberty. Tails let go, shouting, "now!" and Antoine was unprepared for this, writhing in the air until he landed upon a SWATbot's head, confounding it and then felling it. The next SWATbot before Antoine was the one which held Sonic. Antoine drew his sword and impaled this SWATbot through the neck. It didn't terminate, but it loosed its grip upon Sonic enough for him to twist free. Sonic wasted no time in curling into a spin and dealing his wrath to the SWATbots that were upon him as if he was in an ant circus and being looked down upon by spectators, through the top of the small ring, built for ants.
Sally and Laine just then burst out of the door; Sonic saw this and he signaled to his friends behind him. Caero had cleared the path to Sally of robots, and the crew dashed through the clearing Caero had made and into the forest, running, all but Sonic who was keeping speed with everyone else; for him this was not running.
As the crew's positions converged and everyone was together, still running, Sally spoke. "Nicole, what did you find?"
"There was a slight delay in the transport's departure for Robotropolis. It departed ten minutes ago. Its cruising velocity is on average 250 kilometers per hour. If we reach the Tornado quickly and fly it at its maximum speed, we might not beat the transport to Robotropolis but we shouldn't be very much later in arrival."
"Lead us to the Tornado, Nicole." Sally and the crew were still running as fast as they could, and Sonic was keeping at their speed.
Nicole displayed the map as she had done so many times.
The gang was almost at the Tornado, when they saw something they had not thought to expect: SWATbots having stumbled upon the airplane. There were about six in the vicinity.
Sonic, seeing them, said, "I'll take out a few of them and distract the rest while you guys get on board and Tails starts it up."
Sally nodded, and Sonic stopped relegating himself to the others' speeds, dashing as a blur toward the SWATbots. Sally and the gang were fairly close and could hear Sonic taunting the SWATbots.
Now at the Tornado XL, Tails hurriedly opened the door and the gang started piling in. Tails tried to fire up the engine, and the SWATbots heard, turning and opening fire on the open door of the ship, as Antoine ducked in.
"Gotta juice, guys," said Sonic to the enemy, ducking into a spin and plowing through the SWATbot in front of him, then dashing into the open door that closed behind him. The Tornado XL took off and the SWATbots fired upward at it but couldn't penetrate its chassis. Without sentiency and logic, perhaps they would remain firing at the airship forever, even as it soared miles away, until they were told to do otherwise.
The radio buzzed again.
Sally picked it up and Bunnie's voice came through. "Chuck says it looks like the transport's gone an' changed courses!"
This news caught Sally by surprise. "…….to where?"
"Uncle Chuck had me write down some numbahs. Heah they ah, Sally-girl."
Sally opened up Nicole as Bunnie read off numbers.
"You get that, Nicole?"
"Affirmative, Sally."
"Got it, Bunnie."
"Mah pleasure. Ah'm out."
Static.
"The coordinates are, according to my files, those of the future site of a small Robotnik installment and factory facility."
"What direction do we need to go to get there?"
"20 degrees to the west should form the vector to those coordinates."
"Tails, west 20 degrees."
"Got it!" he called over his shoulder.
The ship could be felt slightly changing course.
It flew, its path now slightly warped.
"The site should be just ahead," said Nicole, projecting a coordinate grid.
"Tails, land under cover," said Sally.
"Yes'm!"
The plane began to descend, and rocked to the left, turning on its impaling axis, as Tails turned it so as to land under cover of trees. Through the windows, the world turned. The world turned to them; they didn't move, only their stomachs and the world; their bodies, their shells stood; the window was their eye, the eye through which they saw the world now.
A thud became an irony. A loud sound was the thing that murdered the other sounds. It left the place in silence through its booming wrath. An inanimate hypocrite.
The door slid open.
A new eye came open.
Stepping out, the world was their eye through which they saw the world. The eye grew, its boundaries the edges of the door, the window, the opening, but as they passed through these boundaries, these edges, they were no more; they saw through eyes that were infinite planes. They saw the world through the world.
They were stuck here, in this unhappy place. The gateway through which they had come was asleep. The air they breathed was unhappy and it made them unhappy. The rain was still coming down, and the sun was unhappy. The rays radiated from the unhappy sun and this made them unhappy. The place was unhappy and it made them unhappy. They didn't even know; they untook it for ungranted.
She pointed, and they followed her arm, attached to the hand that had a mind of its own – or at least its own voice, its own larynx. It spoke to them and ordered them and they heard it, for they listened and followed and obeyed it. The hand led the way; the hand set the course; the hand was the real mind, detached from the body and speaking for the body, which breathed for it.
Walking through the unhappy place, they were, walking, unhappy, the unhappy sun crying its unhappy tears and the unhappy air eating their unhappy lungs. Half-alive.
Half-expected, they would soon realize. They came upon the enemy, which turned to face them before they were even audible. They – the enemy – were told to be ready for the possibility of intruders, so they were half-expected.
They prepared to engage the waiting arms (both the arms and the arms' arms, the weapon and the thing that held it, unrespectively) of the enemy. This unplanned plan, unthought, unreasoned, was interrupted. A thud. This thud, unlike the gateway's, did not bring silence. It brought itself. It brought itself over itself over infinitum. It appeared, a Robotnik-made ship in the most traditional 'classic' sense, but attached to legs and walking on those legs as if it was Pinocchio, the inanimate boy that wanted to be real – wanted to be a real boy, alive. So it pretended it was, walking on its two legs. Pinnochio wanted so much to be a real boy; he spoke now, for this, he thought, would prove him real; for if it walks like a duck and quacks – talks – like a duck, it must be a duck.
"You've no business here." Pinocchio's voice was nasal, familiar.
"Where's the echidna, Snively?"
"He's already gone, en route to Robotropolis. The transport just stopped here to drop off some cargo. Now thank me for my mercy and be gone before I reconsider…" Pinocchio, the needle-nose, paused. "On second thought…"
All the drones at once raised their arms and with them, the arms their arms held.
"Split!"
At once the arms fired the arms, and concurrently the group under fire divorced completely, in all different directions for cover.
A phantom whirlwind tore through the lines. The wind beat at the unhappy place, and when it was done, the dust cleared and there was a hole in the enemy lines and then there was Sonic from the sky.
He pointed to Pinocchio, with a look of reckoning. "You wanna piece of me?"
His crew, now in all different places, were felling the small legion of Pinocchio they could see.
The wooden-metal boy said, "Try me, rodent." It lifted its great left leg and brought Sonic to its shadow. The wooden-metal foot crushed the ground.
"I'm too fast for you, needle-nose! Why don't you give up now and go crying back to Robuttnik?" Sonic had dashed from under the hovering foot.
"Too fast for this?" Pinocchio raised his arm and hired it, a cannon. Sonic barely dodged the huge blast, which raped the earth and brought it to its knees, begging for no more. The violated soil was now bruised; it bore a bruise visibly, a small crater left by the cannon.
"Run, Sonic!"
"You're telling me to run?" Sonic shouted to the voice behind him, the female voice of Sally.
"We don't have a plan; run!"
The walker, great puppet, fired its rape again. Sonic barely avoided it, and realized the voice of Sally was right: he didn't know off the top of his head how to defeat the metal puppet, and his luck in evading its attacks might not last, so he turned and ran, fled.
But Snively had already sent resistance in that direction to head them off. The bunch saw the robots ahead, between them and the gateway, and divided into units of one, each with its own direction, all toward the gateway but with varying degree.
The young two-tailed, flying fox went over the barrier of metals pseudoliving and landed behind them, able to knock the leg from under one as if it were a weak table; it looked away from him as he did this, and it did not see him until it looked up at him from below, back-on-the-ground. This diverted the attention of the other robots enough to allow the crew to pass unnoticed, swiftly, on either side, keeping a safe distance. Tails, once his friends had passed, escaped through the air, taking flight.
They reached the gateway and took off post-haste, now seeing the world through the small eyes of the windows once again.
"Deployment to Knothole. Deployment to Knothole." Sally was, this time, the initiator on the radio.
Static.
"Deployment to Knothole; come in, Knothole; this is the Deployment; Sally speaking; come in—"
She was cut off. "This is Knothole; we've got you. Rotor here."
"Rotor, we need you to get Bunnie. Tell her we need Uncle Chuck to tell us where the echidna's transport is headed, or where it's landed, if it has landed. She should know what we're referring to. We're en route to Robotropolis and need to know if the transport is in fact heading there, or already there, or if it was in fact at Snively's location and he lied to us. Do you copy?" Sally was speaking quickly, as if her words were in a race, looking behind them to make sure they still held the lead.
"I copy, Sally. I'll send Bunnie to Chuck's ASAP."
"We need this intel as fast as you can get it. Please don't delay."
"Roger, Sally."
"Sally out."
Everyone in the cabin waited in silence for a resolution. The silence talked and talked.
The silence talked and talked. They were nearing Robotropolis. The silence talked and talked. It talked and was then drowned in sound louder than silence, the buzz of remote communication.
Bunnie carried her voice from far away. How loud was this shout that could be heard from many miles away? From so far off that she could not even hope to be seen, she was heard clearly.
"Y'all, the transport was in fact headin' tah the 'tropolis. It jus' landed when Ah left Uncle Chuck's."
"Got it, Bunnie. We'll be landing outside Robotropolis shortly, then. If you'd like to join us now, you're more than welcome. You can meet at Uncle Chuck's, since at least one of us will be heading there before we start this mission."
"Ah'm hungarin' foh some action, sugah-Sal. Ah'll be there."
"We'll see you soon, then. Sally out."
Sally returned the radio to its place, and then spoke again, now projecting her voice into the cockpit. "Tails, land outside of Robotropolis. Keep a safe distance from the border and touch down on the side nearest Uncle Chuck's."
Tails raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up.
The world below flew in all directions upward, fleeing from the metal thing that was trying to sit upon the soil it had sat upon. It created its own wind, its own weather. It changed the weather by making it. As it touched the soil, it withdrew its weather and its noise. It was silent, and it opened its mouth, perhaps its eye.
"Alright, Sonic," said Sally as she stepped out of the silenced thing. "You meet Bunnie at Uncle Chuck's and get whatever intel you can. Then meet us back here so we can brief the mission."
"Got it, Sal." Sonic was stepping out behind her. He gave a thumbs up, and, now on the soil, he stepped from behind her. "I'll see what Unc has for us. Catch ya later."
Sonic picked up his feet and was off.
He was at the trash heap his uncle inhabited. He look around him, and seeing his surroundings clear, opened the door and stepped in. Bunnie was there already. "Hey, sugah-hog!" Uncle Chuck turned around to see his nephew. "Hey, Sonny."
"Yo, Unc; Bunnie."
"I'm assuming you want—"
"Yeah, whatever intel you can give us. We're gonna head into Robotropolis."
"Well, the echidna has been taken into Robotropolis. He's in a holding cell. As for general intel…" Uncle Chuck tapped at his console. "Well, the echidna is being held in Facility B, which is right off the back of the main complex. It's relatively well-guarded, but there's another way in through the back. It's guarded there but not very well. You shouldn't have much of a problem getting through. Alternatively, the main generator for the facility is located in Compound 4, which is a bit west of Facility B. If you get the generator offline, you should have at least 15 minutes before the backup generator kicks in. Another route you could take is through an underground tunnel that leads into Facility B's ventilation system. The tunnel starts through the big shaft in the abandoned SWATbot factory east of Facility B. The factory went offline some time ago and isn't currently in use, so it shouldn't be guarded very well.
"Also, Snively is supposedly in transit, on his way back to Robotropolis. A new general I haven't heard of before – did Bunnie mention him?"
"Yeah, Ah did."
"Alright, well, he's stationed in Facility B – that's where the echidna is – but I don't know if he's going to stay there. Robotnik himself has some itinerary regarding the echidna, but it's peculiarly high-clearance for just an itinerary record, so I have no idea what it entails."
"I say we head in the back way," said Sonic.
"Of course, Sonny, if the alarm is set, there are a lot of SWATbots in the area to respond to the alert."
"Let's see what Sally-girl an' the others think," said Bunnie.
"Yeah, that's right. We're supposed to go meet them back at the ship. We'd better get on our way, then, Unc. Thanks for everything!"
"Good luck, Sonic. Stay safe."
"Later, Uncle Chuck," smiled Bunnie, as she and Sonic went to the door.
"Good luck to you too, Bunnie. You stay safe too."
Sonic opened the door and stepped out, but then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Say, Unc, do you even know what's so important about this echidna? For Robotnik or for us?"
"Not a clue, Sonic."
Sonic and Bunnie appeared, coming toward the crew standing outside of the Tornado. Once he reached them, Sonic told them what his uncle told him.
"So, what's the plan?" he asked when he was done.
"Well, I think option three is the best," said Sally after pausing to think and gather and make sense of the many words that has just been introduced to her mind. "If we go in through the back, we risk one of the guards there sending out an alert and bringing the whole area in on us."
"That's what Unc said."
"If we cut out the generator, we create confusion, and can probably get into the facility a number of ways, but then we're making our presence obvious.
"We should be able to get into the offline factory unnoticed, and from there get into the facility without setting off any alarms, proverbial or actual or otherwise."
"But I am not liking zee dark tunnels!" cried Antoine.
"An' Ah'm not so sure we should be, y'know, puttin' all our eggs in one basket," said Bunnie. "If Robotnik finds us, we're all caught, if we're all jus' goin' down the tunnel."
"And don't you think that'd be overkill?" asked Laine rhetorically, in agreement. "Do we really need—" Laine pauses and looks around at the crew. "—seven of us in one tunnel?" He had been counting, apparently.
"Point taken," said Sally.
"We can split up!" Tails chipped in.
"Right," said Laine.
"Yeah, but where do we split up to?" asked Caero.
"Hm, well, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone," said Sonic.
"What do you mean?" asked Sally.
"Well, we can use a distraction – one that hurts Robotnik by itself – and get into the facility at the same time."
"Through the tunnel?"
"Yeah, I guess. Though if the SWATbots by the facility were distracted enough, we might even be able to do the generator or the back door."
Sally pulled out Nicole.
"Nicole, what effects would there by if the main generator for Facility B was taken offline?"
Nicole processed this, and then replied. "Most likely, the majority of the facility's security systems would be taken offline."
"Does that mean we could break into the jail cells?" asked Sonic.
"The generator going offline wouldn't unlock the cells, but it would allow you to get to the cells without setting off an alarm, and possibly without the cameras watching."
"We can't use the generator as our distraction, though," said Sally, not to Nicole but rather to Sonic. "I'm sure Robotnik would send a bunch of SWATbots to the facility once all its lights went out. It'd be kind of obvious."
"Right, so we use another distraction: maybe taking out a nearby SWATbot factory. If Robotnik sends SWATbots to the factory to investigate, hopefully they'll come from Facility B. That should give us cover to shut off the generator and then break into the facility.
"If the distraction doesn't work, at least we still shut down a SWATbot factory, and then we can still get into the facility through the tunnel."
Sally replied, "We'd still have to deal with security then."
"If ya get caught, Ah'll stick outside the facility and get 'em from behind," said Bunnie, punching the air to illustrate.
"Yeah, like we always do," laughed Sonic.
"Nicole, where's the nearest SWATbot factory?"
Nicole projected a map of part of Robotropolis.
"This is Facility B," said Nicole, illuminating a structure on the map. "This is the compound that contains Facility B's main generator," she said, illuminating another object on the map, "and this is the nearest SWATbot factory." It illuminated.
Nicole continued, "All three of these are in the same designation zone, Zone B1. Given this, it is a reasonable assumption to make that units in this zone would respond to an alert originating from the factory."
"Come again, Nicole?"
"There's a good chance that SWATbots from and around the facility would go to the factory when you 'screw up the factory,' Sonic."
"Awesome."
"Thanks, Nicole," said Sally. "Alright, then, guys. Here's the plan:
"We're going to head to Zone B. First, we're taking out the SWATbot factory Nicole designated. Bunnie, that's your job. Laine, you go with Bunnie."
They nodded. Sally continued, "Once you take down the factory, radio me. Tails, you come with me. We'll be waiting outside the generator compound for Bunnie's signal. We should be able to see the facility from there. We'll watch and see if the SWATbots are taking the bait. If they are, we'll go in and shut off the generator.
Sonic and Antoine, you'll wait at the abandoned factory for my signal. If the SWATbots took the bait, I'll shut the generator off and you can get into the facility however you want. Tails and I will meet you inside the facility. If they didn't take the bait, you'll have to use the tunnel—"
"Non, my princess! Not zee tunnel!"
"—and remember that we don't want them to know you're there. Caero will be outside the facility in case they see you. Hopefully, they'll take the bait."
Sally tossed Sonic a radio. "Everybody know what they're doing?"
They all did.
Sally stuck out her hand, balled into a fist. Bunnie, Sonic, Antoine, and Tails stuck out their hands too. Caero and Laine looked at each other and then did too.
"Freedom!"
A crackling voice came: "Bunnie, are you in position yet?"
"Yeah, sugah, me an' Laine are ready. Is sugah-hog and Ant ready?"
"Yeah, Bunnie, they're in position. Go when you're ready."
"Gotcha. We'll let ya know when we're done!"
"Okay; we'll hear from you then. Sally out."
The radio shut up.
"You ready, Laine?" Bunnie asked, turning to Laine.
"I am. You'll have to tell me how we're supposed to shut down the factory once we get to that part."
Bunnie smiled. "That's mostly mah job but Ah'll tell ya when we get there."
"I'm ready as ever, then." Laine smiled.
"Let's go!"
Bunnie jumped around the corner and Laine followed. They were now on the front side of the factory, and there were three SWATbots guarding the huge front entrance. Bunnie and Laine had advanced a few yards before the guards detected them.
"Freeze in the name of Lord Robotnik!" said one of the SWATbots.
Bunnie and Laine did not freeze.
"Freeze now or be fired upon."
"Y'all better watch your mouths!" Bunnie was now all but upon the SWATbots.
"Prepare to be terminated."
The SWATbots raised their weapons. Bunnie clobbered one of them; she was half-organic, half-machine; the roboticization process had affected her legs, and one arm before Sonic had saved her. The half of her that had been roboticized was super-strong, and when her metal arm hit the SWATbot it didn't just fall; it was breached. Laine knocked the second SWATbot into the third one.
"We're goin' in!" shouted Bunnie, now turning to run into the factory, beneath the huge beam that defined the top of the gigantic empty door. "The thing we wanna take out should be up the stairs, an' in the back." Bunnie darted up the stairwell that was immediately to the right of the great opening. Laine knew nothing but what she told him, and what she did, following her up the stairs.
They were up the stairs, on a catwalk that hovered above the factory, the mechanical arms and the welding guns and the noise. A SWATbot came from an invisible door, onto the catwalk some ways ahead of the two. Bunnie saw it. "Laine, can you take the SWATbot? I'll take care of the factory."
"I sure can."
Bunnie ran for the SWATbot, then used her mechanical legs to leap into the air over it. It turned and fired at her, and Laine ran toward it. Bunnie turned to see a flash: the shot coming for her. She protracted her legs and the shot went under her. Laine grabbed the SWATbot's arm; it faced away from him. He twisted its arm and pushed it to the left. It made a clang as it hit the railing of the catwalk. The SWATbot's other arm swung at Laine, but Laine quickly reacted, pushing the SWATbot upward by its arm in his grip, and its other arm went over Laine's head. Laine pushed the SWATbot, upper body first, over the railing and it tumbled headfirst onto a conveyor belt below. Laine turned, hearing a sound behind him, to face another SWATbot, coming out of a door that was not invisible from this angle. Laine heard a sound that was behind him in the other direction; it was the sound of the SWATbot he had sent off the catwalk meeting its end in the machinery. Laine ducked to avoid the inevitable blow of the new SWATbot, and while he was down he grabbed the robot's leg, and pushed it to the right, knocking it from its footing. It fell onto its side on the catwalk. Laine rose and then pushed his foot against the robot's side, pushing it with his foot under the railing and hearing it crash upon the floor of the factory below. Laine turned around and around and saw no more SWATbots after him, and so he dashed in the direction Bunnie had gone. He came upon her just in time to see her fire her pulse cannon, which she had protracted from the socket which her mechanical hand had before been, upon a large terminal in front of a big humming machine. The machine exploded and Bunnie turned around. She was took aghast seeing Laine, forgetting that had been at this place, but then recovered and was dashing in his direction; as she came to him, she said, "Mission accomplished! Let's get outta here!"
Laine was cognitive and turned face again. When they reached the stairwell, the factory stopped its methodic work, and all its parts froze, wherever they were, whatever they were doing. They dashed down the stairs and out the thing that was the door. Two of the SWATbots they had encountered were still on the floor. One was up, and another, unencountered SWATbot had joined it. Bunnie fired her pulse cannon at one, dismantling it entirely, but her pulse cannon took time to recharge after discharging, so she could not fire at the other standing SWATbot. She and Laine both rushed at it, and together knocked it to the ground beneath them. They crushed it and then rose, running, away from the factory.
Bunnie spoke to the radio. "Ah give the signal. The factory's down. Let's see if those bots take the bait!"
"Alright, Tails; Bunnie's given the signal. Go out and see if the SWATbots are moving."
She could see the facility and its guards from where she was, but Tails, the flying scout, could see the things the structures obscured.
"Aye-aye!" Tails paused for a second. "Now?"
"You can wait a few minutes if you'd like."
"No, I'm ready!"
"Then now."
Tails leaped into the air, his two tails, from which his nickname was derived, spinning like orange furry blades of a helicopter, and he was up. His real name was Miles, but he hated that name, and was irked whenever someone called him by it; he was called Tails.
His blades ate the wind, and his body stole and threw aside the wind and air. He took the space and threw it over his shoulder. Took the space; threw it over his shoulder. He was over the facility; the drones below appeared to be hearing something; he feared it was him so he silenced his silence. His breathing was unstifled; did they hear it? They heard something; they listened to something. Tails feared; was it him?
Then they, or half of them, or more, marched. It was a signal which they had heard.
He turned and went back the way he came, taking the air he had taken before and throwing it back over his shoulder, back to where he had first found it.
"They're moving! Not all of them, but a lot. Over half."
"Excellent. Let's wait a bit and then you drop me on the roof." Sally looked up as she said those last words.
The great dictator gazed through his windows in the cold wall. Windows that lied, they were; they showed not what was behind them, but what was beyond them.
The door opened. "Master, I have returned."
Robotnik turned. "Ah, yes, Snively. Have you come to inform me of your failure?" This last word came out booming, exploding, pounding, and lashing at Snively's countenance. Snively cowered backward as Robotnik's voice stung his face. "N-n-n-no, master. I've ret-t-turned to t-t-tell you that your g-g-general is r-r-ready with the echidna."
Robotnik's anger forged a smile. "Ah, yes, have him bring the echidna to me." Robotnik turned back. "Y-y-yessir," said Snively. Under his breath, he added, "you fat bastard."
Robotnik spun around. "WHAT?" he thundered.
Snively shrieked. "I s-s-s-said, you… g-g-great … master … sir."
Sally was on the roof. She was looking at Nicole's screen, which she was using to find the way into the building. She found the grate and pushed it aside, revealing an opening which Sally hopped through, her feet abrasively hitting the floor of the complex, sending a recoil back up her body.
Sally looked around. There was, on her right, a hallway which was lined on one side with generators. To her left was another hallway which was lined on both sides and between with darkness. "Nicole, which one of these generators is the one we want?"
"The third and fourth generators are actually one generator, which powers Facility B. There should be a terminal nearby which controls the generators. I should be able to shut them down from there."
"If it's that easy, why don't we shut them all down while we're at it?"
"I planned to. It might even be beneficial strategically if there are three different structures that go down. Robotnik wouldn't be able to narrow the motive down to just Facility B, if he even suspects such a specific motive."
"Let's find this terminal, then."
Sally strode down the hallway, counting the generators. There appeared to be seven, but she knew from Nicole that more than one of these machines composed a single generator. She strode to the end of the hallway, and then turned around. She spotted the terminal, on the inside wall, right of the arch beam that held the hall's ceiling, next to where she had come in. She hurried back to the other end and connected Nicole to the small terminal which appeared to be fully housed in a small box mounted on the wall.
"I'm going to have the generators all shut down in two minutes. We'll want to be out of this building when they go down. Robotnik probably has cameras in here and we don't want him to see us when the power cuts out. I've issued the command now. We should leave this building immediately. The generators will go down in one minute, forty-nine seconds."
"Good job, Nicole," said Sally, disconnecting Nicole from the console and strapping her to her boot. Sally stepped back under the access she had made in the ceiling. She raised her head to see the small square of sky the hole revealed. "Tails, pull me out!" she shouted up through the hole, at the square of blue.
The fox appeared, extending an arm, a hand, which Sally clasped. The fox elevated himself into the air enough to pull Sally out of the hole and back onto the roof, where she let go of his arm. She turned to face him and said, "The generators will shut down in about a minute. We should get out of here; we don't want to be caught at the scene of the crime." Tails nodded, and they both jumped from the roof to the ground below, and darted together away.
To Tails, she asked, while still running, "Did you look again at how many SWATbots were left?"
Tails nodded. "Yeah, I flew above the roof and looked from the sky there. There's still some SWATbots left in the area; maybe seven."
Sally pulled out the radio. "Sonic, the generators should go down in under a minute. There's still some SWATbots around, but many less. It's still wisest to not be spotted, so I'd still recommend taking the tunnel and coming out inside the facility."
"It's our turn now, Ant. Sally says we should take the tunnel; c'mon."
Sonic had become bored and impatient waiting at the abandoned factory. He had already, some time ago, found the entrance to the tunnel, and was itching to get started. He couldn't stand staying in one place for very long.
"Ay, why must my princess be making me go into zee dark tunnel?"
"Would you rather a bunch of SWATbots come after you? Sally says there's still some on the surface. If you don't want to take the tunnel, I'd be more than happy to let them see us. I love making fun of SWATbots, y'know."
"Aye, très bien, Sonique. We can be taking zee tunnel."
Sonic rolled aside the large, 5-foot-tall circular cover that was over the entry to the tunnel. The tunnel was large, at least at this point, and Sonic had no trouble walking right into the tunnel. Sonic grabbed Antoine by the wrist, and without warning sprinted ahead, with Antoine in tow. Sonic ran into the darkness, hoping the path would stay straight enough that he wouldn't crash into an invisible wall, concealed by the darkness. Antoine was shouting as Sonic pulled him along at a speed the French fox was doubtlessly not accustomed to. "Shut up, Ant. Don't make too much noise. Who knows if there's SWATbots above us?" The word "SWATbots" was said with a hint of teasing; Antoine quieted.
The two now saw a very dim light somewhere ahead. It came closer and closer until Sonic screeched to a halt. The dim light illuminated the path ahead enough to reveal to Sonic that the path narrowed ahead. "Stay quiet and crouch down, on your hands and knees. The tunnel isn't big enough ahead to walk through." Antoine did, and Sonic too heeded his own words. They crawled forward, toward the light, when Sonic suddenly stopped. He was in the tunnel ahead of Antoine, and his abrupt halt stopped Antoine, behind him, as well.
"What ees it?" whispered Antoine.
"Sshhhhhhh…" After a second, Sonic whispered, "I think I hear something."
Antoine now listened to see if he could figure out what it was Sonic heard, or thought he heard.
Antoine heard it too. The sound of footsteps, or at least the sound of bodies above.
Some words could be made out from voices that now arose from the indistinct generic sounds that signified bodies. "Are…ready?"
Sonic pulled out his radio, and whispered to it; it was the dove and he was writing the note on the little paper for it to hold in its clawed feet and take to its recipient; the messenger. "Shhh, speak quietly," he told the dove-radio, his voice a whisper. "There's someone here, above us, in the facility. I think it's the facility, anyway. End of the tunnel. What should we do?"
Sally wrote to the dove and sent it back to Sonic. "Do they know you're there?"
"No."
"Hold on."
From above them, above the ceiling-floor that encroached upon their heads, more words: "Lord" … "will see you now."
The ceiling-floor spoke again, but its speech, as murmur, was unintelligible, except for scattered words that could be understood: "What happened?" "…lights…" "…don't know."
Sally spoke again: "Tails just looked and he says there's a small airship there that wasn't there before."
The murmur above: "…friends…" "…safe…after…demands…"
Sonic replied in a whisper: "Well, should we go up there and get the drop on them, or stay hidden here?"
"Just wait."
"…taking you…" A metallic sound. A creaking metal. A metallic clash.
Footsteps came and went, distancing.
Sonic spoke to the radio: "I think they're leaving. I'm going up."
Sonic pocketed the radio and pushed a small ventilation grate aside in the ceiling-floor, then jumped up through the vent. Antoine came behind him, though not immediately. Sonic looked and saw nothing, but for an empty jail cell to his right. Sonic hurried forward to the corner and turned. A SWATbot was there; it had been there, behind the corner, probably waiting for him; it probably knew he was there. It knocked him to the floor. Antoine saw and shrieked. Antoine stood rigid still for a second, then amassed his courage and moved forward, drawing his sword and impaling the SWATbot that had felled Sonic. Sonic brought his palm to his forehead and sat up, closing his eyes for a second, and then opening them again. He lowered his hand and used it to stand up. He had taken a blow but pain was the only wound.
Sonic stood still for a second and then turned and said, "Let's go! After them!" as he rushed down the hallway the corner led into. Antoine, once grasping Sonic's words, followed.
Caero was standing, back-against-the-wall, at the side of the facility, outside. He had heard the sounds arrive and was waiting for them to return. He peeked around the corner, at the facility's front door, which was positioned closer to his wall than the opposite one.
Then he heard the sounds come back. A SWATbot came out of the door. Caero rushed at it and blew it apart with his tough fist. He turned from the SWATbot to the door, ready to attack another, but was met not by a SWATbot, but instead by a beast, well-built, with a great mane. Caero expected a SWATbot but was quick to recover from his unexpectancy, swinging his fist at the beast. The beast at once swung its own arm, and its grip fell upon Caero's wrist. Caero's swinging arm was frozen at once by the beast's grip. The beast looked Caero in the eye with a deep glare, and then flung his arm outward, taking Caero with it. His grip released and Caero fell from it, stumbling backward and then falling onto the ground. The beast hurried forward and around the corner where Caero had previously been waiting back-to-the-wall. In the other arm of the beast was now revealed the echidna's wrist; the echidna had been standing behind the beast as they walked through the door and as the beast stepped out, his form was visible. Two more SWATbots followed behind the beast, and once out of the facility, one of them rushed ahead of the general, so that the general was guarded both in front and behind.
Shortly following the two SWATbots was Sonic, rushing out the door.
The airship was just behind the facility. The beast and echidna and two SWATbots were hurrying toward it. Sonic glanced to his right and his left, and the beast, already around the corner, was not seen, though Sonic heard him: he knew he was there. Sonic did catch sight of Caero, however, who was now sitting up, and now rising to his feet.
"They went that way," said Caero weakly, pointing in the direction the beast had gone.
Antoine came through the door now. Sonic was already in motion. Antoine saw him, and then Caero, and didn't know who to follow. He quickly made up his mind, however, and followed Sonic as he disappeared around the corner. Sonic's eyes found the beast, and saw the echidna. Sonic rushed for him, and the SWATbot at the beast's tail turned to greet the hedgehog. The first SWATbot reached the airship, and stepped in. The second SWATbot, which had turned to face Sonic, was firing on Sonic. Sonic spun at it and tore through it. The beast now boarded the airship. From the doorway, it turned. It shouted: "This meeting is far too important for you to crash." The door slid closed, and Sonic dashed at the airship, meeting the door all-but-closed. Sonic went into a spin and flung himself at the door. He was unable to breach it, but he flung himself at it again as he heard the engines fire up. The door showed damage from Sonic's attack, but was not breached. Sonic flung himself at it again. The airship hovered slightly off the ground. This time, Sonic breached the door. A hole was made in the door. The ship lifted from the ground. Sonic grabbed the edge of the hole he had made and tried to pull himself through it. The face of the beast appeared in the window made by the hole. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to interfere with this meeting," said the beast gruffly. The beast paused, as Sonic pulled one leg into the ship, and then it smiled. It clubbed Sonic in the gut, and sent him reeling out of the hole he had made, back onto the ground below. The airship escaped.
Antoine was hurriedly moving to Sonic, who was on his back, staring weakly.
"Are you being all zee right, Sonique?"
"I… don't… know…"
Antoine helped Sonic to his feet. Sonic managed to utter, "shit… that echidna…"
Antoine grabbed Sonic's radio, and spoke into it: "My princess! We are behind zee facility. Please be coming here!"
"We're already on our way, Antoine. We saw the airship lift off. Bunnie should be on her way too, with Laine."
Antoine looked up from the radio, and from Sonic, to see with horror that SWATbots were coming at him. They must have been the SWATbots that were left in the area after the others took the bait at the factory. There were three of them. Alone, Antoine knew he could not stand against three SWATbots. Sonic and Caero were in no condition to fight. Antoine drew his sword and braced himself with great fear. He couldn't run, either, for he had to protect Sonic.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Antoine saw Bunnie and Laine. Antoine was relieved.
"Together! Mes amis!" he blurted out with a shout of relief.
And together they fought.
Sally and Tails arrived, to find Bunnie, Laine, Antoine, and three fallen, unmoving SWATbots. Caero had gotten up and was with them now. Sonic was sitting, clenching his stomach with one hand and his forehead with the other.
"What happened?" cried Sally, slowing her run and then coming to a stop, now kneeling at Sonic, with the others around and together.
Sonic looked up and weakly answered: "They escaped…"
"Who escaped?"
"The echidna… a big… beast took him… in the airship…"
Antoine spoke: "What is being so much important of zis echidna anyway?"
"I really don't know," answer Sally truthfully, "but I think that it's clear now that he is very important to Robotnik, and perhaps likewise to us."
"What does Robotnik want with him anyway?" asked Laine.
Sally pulled out Nicole.
"Nicole, do you have any data that might explain why this echidna is so important to Robotnik?"
"I, as before, don't have any readable data from Robotnik that offers an explanation. However, I have since then been looking through my archives, and have found some files that may be pertinent, though I cannot answer for this specific echidna."
Sally looked around, and then said: "Sonic; Caero; are you good enough to walk back to the Tornado?"
They both nodded and stood. The crew walked together.
"Nicole, please continue."
The crew continued walking back toward the place where they had left the Tornado XL as Nicole recalled an account.
"As you probably know, the Floating Island was once home to many civilizations. It once was an island, in the ocean, on Mobius, before the power of the Chaos Emeralds was used to raise the island into the sky.
"According to my archives, the Floating Island was once home to a number of civilizations. Most prominent of these civilizations was that of the echidna. It was the echidnas who conceived the idea of using the emeralds to lift the island and allow it to escape from the otherwise-certain doom of an impending meteorite that threatened to destroy the island and its peoples. The plan worked and the island, with the power of the emeralds, ascended into the sky, and the meteorite did come, but it hit the ocean, and the island was saved.
"Eventually, however, there were people who wanted to return the Floating Island to the sea, now that there was no longer the threat of a meteorite. One plan was proposed by two brothers, echidna scientists, Edmund and Dimitri. Simply removing the emeralds would cause the island to drop like a stone, so they proposed siphoning the power of the emeralds gradually, thus draining their power progressively, and slowly lowering the island back into the sea. They presented this proposal, but the magistrate refused their proposal, for it was too risky and there were no guarantees the proposal would go as planned; additionally, the chamber did not wish to tamper with the emeralds' power, for things one does not understand should not be reckoned with. Edmund accepted the magistrate's decision, but his brother Dimitri did not, despite Edmund's attempts to persuade him to calm down. Dimitri went to the Chaos Chamber, disregarding the council's forbiddance, and attempted to siphon the power from the emeralds himself, disgruntled with the refusal of his proposal. He absorbed the energy too fast, however, destroying all but one emerald. The resulting explosion caused Dimitri to absorb the energy that was supposed to be absorbed by his siphon. With the limitless power of all but one of the emeralds, Dimitri became obsessed with this power and attempted to unleash his power on the scientists in the council who had denounced his proposal, and destroy the echidna civilization that had failed to appreciate his genius. He erected a great tower, but was crushed beneath it as it collapsed under his power.
"Vowing not to repeat history, the echidnas abandoned science and technology, and appointed Edmund to preside as the first Guardian of the remaining Chaos Emerald. This task of guardian was passed from generation to generation, and each of Edmund's descendants was preordained guardian.
"The great civilizations, including the echidna city of Echidnapolis, however, have since disappeared and there is no explanation for their disappearance in my archives. The Floating Island is now scarcely populated, and there are very few echidnas still known to be there."
"That's a nice story and all," said Sonic, less weakly than before, "but I still don't know why that echidna is so important to Robotnik."
"What Ah wanna know's what happened to tha city," said Bunnie.
"Hm," said Sally.
"I have a feeling Robotnik's got a good reason," said Laine.
Everybody could agree on that much.