"Doctor Robotnik, the hedgehog and his forces have broken through our force field."
"I know that, Snively. Do you think me blind?"
"They've inflicted damage upon the Grand Tower, sir."
"I know, Snively. How much damage?"
"They've just crippled the Anselan Ray, sir. The hull has sustained significant damage, but can be repaired."
"What of the satellite, Snively?"
"The satellite is online, sir. The Grand Tower's conduit will be functional within hours, sir. It was only damaged slightly in the explosion. The explosion damaged primarily the hull; the conduit being in the core was only slightly jarred, sir."
"Excellent, Snively. It is time to put to use that location which the defector was so kind to reveal to us. Let's remove them from the map."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir."
"I've made some new discoveries, but first, I have some questions."
"Alright."
"How did you get past the force field?"
"The echidna. He led us to some nullifying device."
"Nullifying device?"
"It was in some ancient ruins. The doors were something else. I didn't get a good look at it. Sally did; you should ask her."
"I think I will. But where were these ruins?"
"The Floating Island."
"Hm."
"I'll tell Sally to come here if ya wanna talk ta her."
"Can you have the echidna come too? I'd like to talk to him."
"Well, okay."
"Now it's my turn to spill the beans. I've identified what I believe to be a empyreal transmitter/receiver in the Grand Tower's core."
"Say again? What's it mean?"
"Why else would Robotnik have a transmitter/receiver designed for communication of such great distance? The transmissions it is capable of sending and receiving are more than five times the circumference of the planet. Why would he need to be able to send a transmission around the world five times? There exists no reason! I could only come to two conclusions: that Robotnik has redefined overkill, or that Robotnik is not intending his transmissions to stay within Mobius at all!"
"What are you getting at?"
"That Robotnik needs to communicate with something of his creation that is outside of Mobius."
"I don't get it."
"I don't get it completely myself, either, but it can't be a good thing."
It came as an avalanche. And without warning.
There were a few left here… those not strong enough to fight… mothers with children to attend to. And everything was torn away.
The roof caved in and everything was upon them. Panicking, screaming, but nothing could save them. They were trapped beneath the wreckage of their own place, and bleeding. Those that had stayed behind were beneath the crumbling structures and caving snow. The white snow was red.
"It was called the Field Nullifier… something about Project Ethermachine. The ruins were up in the north part of the island."
"Ethermachine?"
"I think so. Why? Does it mean something to you?"
"No. No, it doesn't. It just caught my attention is all. Interesting…"
"The creator's name was Gaul."
"Gaul… nope, the name doesn't strike a chord."
"The location has been desecrated, sir."
"Good, good. Let's see if they fall apart now, Snively. And send a patrol to investigate, and take any survivors for roboticization."
"I'll get right on it, sir."
The news came. It came as an avalanche. And… without warning?
"Ilus… he got Ilus! I told you, you goddamn bastards! I told you he'd attack us! You goddamned assholes! You god…damned…"
"It's gone."
"That bastard! You bastards! I told you, you goddamned idiots!"
"But… how?"
"That traitor ratted us out. I told you he would!"
"Well, I guess you're not going to fight anymore?"
"Shut up! Can't you just shut up about your little war for once?! Can't you ever talk about something else?!"
"…"
"Gah! I hate you! I want so much to throw it all back in your face, but… I'm gonna – no, I've gotta keep fighting with you. I have to pay back Robotnik and the traitor for what they've done."
"This 'Field Nullifier:' what is it, exactly?"
"It's that machine."
"Yes, but how does it work?"
"Hell if I know. I didn't build it."
"Well, those ruins… do you know who built them?"
"No."
"What do you know about the ruins? You knew how to get to them, so you must know something, correct?"
"I don't know anything."
"Then how did you know where the ruins were?"
"I didn't."
"I'm afraid you've lost me there. Say again?"
"I was told how to get there. I just followed directions."
"Ah. So who was it that told you, then?"
"I don't know."
"I'm afraid an old man like me gets lost easily. What was that?"
"I don't know who told me."
"Well, you've confused me all right."
"You and me both."
"You're the guardian, correct? Can you tell me what you know about the Floating Island, then?"
"All I know is that a Chaos Emerald is supposed to be lifting it in the sky."
"What do you mean? Are you being a cynic?"
"Nobody ever tells me anything. I don't know anything. All I know is what I'm told."
"Ah, I think I'm beginning to see."
"I envy you then. I've been blind for a long time."
Before Chuck could raise an eyebrow, Knuckles added, "Figuratively. Not literally."
Chuck managed to crack a smile at that. "Well, were there any other similar devices where the Nullifier came from?"
"There were a lot of crates. I mean a lot. I don't have the slightest clue what they are."
"Then how'd you know which one was the Nullifier?"
"I said, somebody told me. And before you ask again, I already said I don't know who they are."
"What does that mean exactly? My wheels don't turn quite like they used to, I suppose."
"They talk to me through my head. There, I said it. Now are you gonna think me loony like Espio does, huh?"
Uncle Chuck smirked. "No, I'm not going to call you 'loony.' I'm, in fact, rather intrigued. Unless, of course, you're just pulling the wool over my eyes. But if you're telling the truth, I'm inclined to believe it, crazy as it may sound, since, after all, it did pick out the Nullifier from all those crates, did it not?"
"Yeah… it did."
"Perhaps those other devices could be of use, then."
"But we don't have any idea what they are."
"But the man in your head might."
"If I ask him to tell me what they all are – well, and if he actually listens – we're gonna be here a long time waiting for him to list off what's in all those crates. And I won't even know what he's talking about. He'll be like, 'in crate 8276428, there's a neuro-quantum-electro-physio-quadra universe amplifier with a big dose of red blood cells,' and I'll be like, 'oh, so that thing can help me brush my teeth?'"
Uncle Chuck smiled, and then frowned. "Well, we've got to find some way to defeat Robotnik's tower."
"The emerald's in there, though. You have to get the emerald out first."
"I didn't even think of that," pondered Uncle Chuck, "but it probably is. If we can disable the tower from the inside instead of blowing it up, the emerald should be safe. I don't think we'll have much success in blowing it up anyway." A mischievous smirk passed over Uncle Chuck's lips. "…unless there's some really big guns in one of those crates."
Knuckles didn't catch the joking expression on Uncle Chuck's face and responded in full seriousness. "I said, we can't blow it up with the emerald in there!"
"I know. I wasn't being serious. Though if we can get the emerald out first, some big guns would really come in handy."
"I got yer big guns right here." Knuckles flexed.
Chuck ignored him. "I think our best approach is to fight it from inside. Of course, we have to figure out how to get in. Tell Sally, and tell her I'll work on getting some schematics, but I can't guarantee anything."
"So, you desire to get inside the construct, do you?"
The voice came suddenly; Knuckles, not expecting it, was taken aback. He quickly bid farewell to Uncle Chuck and stepped outside.
"What? Don't you want me to?"
"To be perfectly honest, I have little stake in the fate of Julian's war. I have much more concern with the retrieval of the jewel."
"Who the hell are you? Why do you have stake in anything? You're just a damn voice!"
"Every voice has a host. Do you want to get inside the construct or not? If I help you get inside, you must vow to make it your obligation to rescue the jewel."
"If you help me? Man, I don't care! It's those damn warrior guys – the hedgehog and them – who give a damn about this. All I ever joined them for was to help get me my friends back, and they sure as hell weren't too dedicated to that. Look, I'll try to get the emerald. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. At least the emerald is something I can relate to. So I'll do it; whatever. I don't care about your damn wagers. I don't care about saving the world. I just want my home back."
"The only way to get your home back is to restore the jewel to its place. That is the only way the City will have a landing place."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Nothing. But believe me; if you want your home back, you indeed have a stake in the jewel."
"God, I am such a puppet! Following your every whim!"
"It is your choice whether you want to listen or not. But that does not stop me from imploring you to make the choice you need to make."
"Goddamn strings. String me up by the wrists for all I care! I know nothing! All I know is what I'm told. So I have no choice. The strings are yours, faceless; hold me up, arms first."
"The Colossus Cannon III should be able to breach the side of the construct. Return to the Doors of Fallacy and I will identify it for you. This time, in fact, there should be little enemy presence, as Julian's loss at the construct had to solicit replacements from the Island."
"Back and forth. Why don't you tell me this stuff all at once? You seem to know all the important shit over there; why don'tchu come on down here and fire this cannon yourself?"
The voice sounded briefly as if perhaps muffling a chuckle. Whatever this sound was, it was brief and soon the speech resumed. "If only it were that easy. I am not a god, Kouken-san."
"Then what are you?"
"Not now."
"Then when, you damn ass?!"
"In time. That is all."
So Knuckles told Sally what Uncle Chuck had told him.
Then he had Tails fly him to the ruins.
And now, Tails at his side, he again stood before the Doors of Fallacy. Their many intricate weaving designs were stunning, and the doors' towering size was daunting. Knuckles found himself frozen in place before their marvel.
Tails broke the awe-struck silence: "Are we just gonna stand here?"
Knuckles shook his head violently, and walked over to the panel behind the penultimate column, placing his palm on it as he had done before. The Doors came open.
"B-W-four-six. Fifth aisle on the right, about halfway down, toward the bottom."
Knuckles strode slowly down the hall, Tails tagging behind him.
"So, what is this place anyway, Knuckles?"
"Hmph. Wish I knew." Knuckles rolled his eyes, in his mind pointing the gesture at the host of the puppeteer voice.
"Whaddayamean? You must know this place. You're the only one who knew it was here."
Knuckles stopped walking. "Look, kid, I told you the last time we were here that I didn't know! I've been in the dark all my life. I really have no idea about anything. I know nothing, kid; alright? I wish I did, kid; I really do; I really wish I could tell you where the hell we are but I just don't know. I'm sorry."
He resumed his advance down the hall.
Suddenly, the voice came again:
"The place you're standing in is the Grand Conservatory, Kouken-san."
"So you're actually filling me in for once?"
"This is the ruins of the technology of the echidna civilization. When the echidnas abandoned their technology after the fall of the dark tower atop the madman, they buried it here. They couldn't bring themselves to destroy it, so they sealed it away, vowing never to use it again. This Conservatory is a dark tribute to the technology that was their bane. Their fallacy."
"I think I'm missing the big picture. What's the fall of the dark tower?"
"So you want to be taught some history?"
"Not really."
"Isn't that what you just asked for? Didn't you want me not to keep you in the dark? I'm offering a history lesson; will you take it or not?"
"Alright, alright; I'm interested."
"Do you remember the story of the echidna scientists, Edmund and Dimitri? They put forth a proposal that would lower the Floating Island back to the earth by means of gradually absorbing the Chaos Emeralds' powers into a siphon. Their proposal was shot down by the council of the scientific elite, but Dimitri would not accept the decision. He went ahead with it anyway, absorbed the emeralds' power too fast, and thus caused all but one of the emeralds to explode; all this energy was absorbed into him, not the siphon as planned. You must remember thus far, no? Mad with power, he turned against those who had attempted to stifle his 'genius,' and proclaimed that he would either control the world or destroy it. He erected a black tower to stand as a symbol of his might, but when the tower collapsed, he was crushed beneath it. After that, the echidnas vowed to abandon technology, after witnessing this dark example of technology as their bane, and buried Relics of their technology here in the Grand Conservatory, which they sealed behind the Doors of Fallacy."
Knuckles felt a tugging on his arm. Tails, of course, looking at him curiously like he was from another planet. "What are you doing?" Tails cocked his head at Knuckles, as if Knuckles had a lampshade on his head.
Knuckles chuckled. "I'm thinking. Hey, you wanted to know what this place was, right? Well, it's called the Grand Conservatory."
"I thought you said you didn't know."
"Never mind that. I didn't. But I do now. Just hold yer horses, alright?"
Knuckles spoke to the voice now: "Why could I open the Doors of Fallacy?"
Tails replied "I don't know," with a shrug of the shoulders, thinking Knuckles was talking to him.
"For you are Koukennin. The Doors were designed as such."
"All that means to me is a lot of nothing."
"Do you feel more 'at ease' now? Now that I've answered some questions for you?"
"But you haven't answered the ones I want answered most. Like, 'Who are you?' and 'Why are you talking to me?'"
"I've already told you why I'm talking to you. You just haven't been listening."
"Whatever. I still have a lot of questions for you to answer."
"They can come another time. Now, the Cannon. B-W-four-six."
Knuckles did, in fact, feel a bit less tense about listening to the voice now that it had opened up a bit. It was a start. He could at least repay it. So he did as it said. He made his way to the fourth hallway on the right, halfway down, and read the labels on the crates at the bottom."
AF27. V7. BW46. That was it. Knuckles tried to take it all in. All these crates contained relics of his ancestors' technology? All these crates.
Knuckles slid the BW46 crate to the floor, and bashed it open with his fist. He found a small steel plate similar to the aluminum plate on the Nullifier. It read, "BW46, charge beam weaponry, formal device name: The Colossus Beam Cannon III (prototype 2), created under: Zakke". This was it.
"Is there anything else I need here before I go?"
"Are you asking me to predict the future? I know not what you will need in the coming times."
Knuckles gritted his teeth angrily at this response, but said nothing.
Knuckles lifted the crate and signaled to Tails. Tails preceded him back to the plane; Knuckles set the crate down outside for a moment as he went to reseal the doors.
"Alright, so we'll blast a hole in the side of the tower."
"And then I'll go in."
"Alone?"
"I can outrun those guns 'Buttnik's got on the tower."
"But…"
"C'mon, Sal. You know it's the best way…"
"I guess…"
"Alright; well, what am I doing once I get inside?"
"If you can find the emerald, get it out. If not, just try to destroy the tower."
"Destroy the tower? And how am I supposed to do that?"
"I don't know."
"Well, if you don't know, I wouldn't count on me knowin'."
"Well, find the emerald if you can, then. If we figure out how to disable or destroy the tower from inside, we'll radio you."
Tails returned. Knuckles came in behind him.
"So, did you get it?"
Knuckles didn't realize it was he that was being addressed, and neither said anything nor made eye contact.
"Knuckles?"
His gaze snapped back. "Huh?"
"Did you get it? The thing that's supposed to be able to blow a hole in the tower?"
"Oh, yeah. I got it." The crate was on the surface.
"Then we're set to go. Knuckles, you blow a hole in the side of the tower, and then Sonic will go in. Hopefully he'll find the emerald, since we don't have a plan B to destroy the tower from the inside."
"What about all the others?"
"They should do whatever they can to hassle the SWATbots while Sonic enters the tower alone."
"I'm ready."
Knuckles stood outside of the tower, crouched on the ground with the Colossus Cannon before him. As before, he had been instructed in how to use it. He clicked it on, and set to work in aligning it with the tower. This kind of work, which required concentration and patience, was not his kind of thing. He was a man of action, and never would have chosen this task if he had been given a choice. Of course, instructing someone else on its usage would take just as much time as just using it himself, and would waste time. So here he was. He peered into the crosshairs, and tried to center the slab of wall at the base of the tower which he wanted to eradicate. The unfortunate part of this device was that it required hours to charge the massive amount energy required to discharge a beam charge, and the fact that the discharge let off tons of heat as a byproduct. If he had some way to feed it the power it needed, it would still need to cool off, and refusing it this necessity and firing anyway would cause it to overheat and die. So, he had only one shot. Its powerful capacitors had managed to retain about half their energy for all that time in storage, which was incredible; he had been required to turn the device on for it to recharge the other half of the energy it had lost over years and years and years.
There we go. He had the slab in the crosshairs. He nodded to Sonic.
Sonic caught the gesture, and remarked, "I'm ready to zoom on in there 'soon as you clear the way."
Knuckles nodded again, and rechecked the knobs he had been told to adjust. Finding them all in their places, he ordered the discharge.
A fiery-red beam shot out from the front of the bulky cannon's muzzle, which was of great diameter – perhaps two feet in breadth. Several SWATbots amassed around its base, working to repair the damage caused by the previous attack, were caught in the beam as it struck its target.
At Knuckles' end, he could appreciate the beam's size, but as he saw it against the tower, it made him appreciate how large the tower really was. The beam was but a small spot on the tower's monolithic figure. Knuckles had, perhaps naïvely, imagined the cannon tearing off a whole side of the tower's base, creating a hole he could walk through. But he underestimated the tower's size, even after standing up against it just before. The tower was indeed enormous, not only in height, but in base diameter as well. Yet its width at the base, at about fifty-five meters, about 180 feet, in diameter, was dwarfed when compared to its height, giving the tower the illusion of being thin. It was not. It was simply a matter of proportions.
The beam maintained, a long red line of burning.
When it finally subsided, there was a small hole on the side of the tower. It looked so tiny from this distance. But it should be big enough for Sonic to crawl through.
"Good job, Knux. Well, guess it's my turn now." Sonic dashed off with blinding speed. A blur streaked across the arid terrain. It was at the base of the tower within seconds.
Sonic ducked into the hole, and, reaching his arms through to the other side, gripping them against the wall, pulled himself through.
He tumbled into a dark chamber. Turning around, he saw the bright white imperfect circle that was the hole he had come into. Here, there was no lighting. What he could see of the place he had fallen into was illuminated only by the light that came in through the unnatural hole. Sonic acknowledged that the hole was an anomaly, and wondered if it was normally pitch black in here.
Sonic could, though only barely, see the far wall. It was far away.
Sonic gazed to his right and, much to his surprise, noticed a stairwell.
Why was there a stairwell if nobody ever came in here? Perhaps there was a way in somewhere further up, but then why would there be no light in here? Maybe there was lighting, but it was only turned on when needed.
Sonic took off at blazing speed towards, and then up, the stairwell. He stopped on the next floor. It was darker here, but, gazing up, Sonic caught sight of a slight white glow up above, in a corner of the blackness that Sonic couldn't discern as being floor or ceiling or wall or emptiness. It was incredibly hard to see his surroundings here, so Sonic for once decided to move slowly. His eyes slowly began to adjust, and his surroundings became clearer. In the center of the tower, rising vertically was a thick glass column. There was a railing several feet from Sonic, an overhang to look down upon the lower floor. The dull walls were blackened by the ubiquitous shadows. Naked chains dangled from the ceiling; perhaps they were once used in construction, and now abandoned. Yet it seemed that the construction took place from the outside. Perhaps this was not always the case. Sonic was never one to take in the environs, however; he spotted another stairwell and immediately ceased his search, dashing without hesitation toward and upward.
On the next level, there was substantially more light. Had Sonic leisurely strolled up the stairwell, he would have seen the ceiling yield the light, as its gap through which the stairwell reached opened up and revealed the light above. Yet, with his blinding speed, there simply was the dark of the previous floor followed instantly by the light of this floor. Sonic looked up, and saw the source of the light: the sun. The floor he now stood on spanned most of the tower's lateral space. Above, the floors and ceilings were thinner and more scattered, smaller and more numerous. And there was more emptiness between them. And through this emptiness, Sonic saw the open head of the tower, the incomplete stump of the neck, the neck that was encircled by the necklace that delimited the tower's present construct. Through this open ceiling, ascribed to the extent of the construction hitherto, the sun's light came in. It was far away, though, and it was filtered through many crossed catwalks and rafters. So the light that suffused Sonic's level was sparse and dodgy. It was a substantial difference from the darkness below, though, where Sonic could only barely make out the gray objects on the black backdrop, through focusing.
But now there was enough light to see clearly. Sonic wasted no time in dashing up the next stairwell, across the catwalk, and up the next stairwell. The blue blur flashed across another catwalk, and another, and up another stairwell. Sonic was wasting no time in scaling the tower as quickly as possible. He wasn't one for taking anything slowly.
Sonic climbed higher and higher, and as he did, the light became more and more pervasive, less and less filtered, and the sky above became more and more clear as the sky-obscuring catwalks and rafters dropped below Sonic's locus.
Sonic didn't see the shadows descending beneath him, nor did he see the dark clouds drift into the air over the unintentional skylight. He only saw a blur, and the path up.
And finally, he reached the halo. Sonic stopped. The tower had grown narrower as it climbed higher into the sky. Yet, at this one point, it seemed to shoot outward again, if only for a brief moment. The walls had closed in as they rose up, but here, for the height of one story, it bulged out again like an inverse torus, as if there was a great invisible ring that Sonic stood in, and it was pushing at the walls of the tower, trying to get out. This was the tower's halo; he had seen it from the outside. Sonic recalled the images in his head, which he had captured of the tower when first confronted with it futilely. He remembered now, though he had to struggle to recall, that the tower had indeed bulged out at the point where the halo was. But this bulge was not the ring itself. The ring was disconnected from the tower – doubtlessly connected by some steel conduits which Sonic couldn't see from the base, looking up – but not of the same structure, distinctly apart from the tower. This bulge Sonic was, in a sense, inside of, was not the halo itself. The halo encircled this bulge in the tower's walls.
Sonic took a breath from this recollecting assessment, and snapped his head over to the tower's center. Sonic was still at the head of the stairwell. At the center of the tower was the glass column. However, on this level, the glass column ran through a rounded-yet-square steel hub, which was well large enough to perhaps be a control room of sorts; it was definitely big enough to house faculty. From the stairwell's head, a catwalk lead to a tunnel; the tunnel connected, in a sense, the catwalk to the hub, like an airport boarding passage, connecting the terminal gate to the aircraft. The glass column ran right through the hub, spanning out from the bottom of the hub, and continuing out of the top. Sonic suspected the hub was built around the glass column, and that the column would be visible at the center of the hub. Perhaps the hub was built to enclose the column… no, that couldn't be it; why, after all, would this one section of the column, on this one level, be enclosed and the rest not?
Sonic thought little of it, but decided to check inside. After all, the hub could be a control center, in which case perhaps Sally had come up with a way for him to disable – or destroy – the tower from it. Sonic darted down the catwalk and into the tunnel. The tunnel was somewhat cramped; Sonic's breathing echoed off its walls. Sonic slowed his pace and continued ahead. As he neared the end of the tunnel, he saw that there was no door at the end of the tunnel; it connected directly into the hub. Sonic peered ahead. He saw the glass column, as he had expected, running through the center of the hub.
Sonic stepped forward. Within a few feet of the end of the tunnel's hall, he noticed something foreign within the white-saturated glass. Sonic took another step forward to try and see what it was.
The doorway without a door yielded a snap.
Glass bars came down asudden.
Sonic hastily closed the short gap remaining to the hub, and felt the glass bars that had appeared in the doorway. He gripped his hands around the vertical bars, and then he saw: the object he had seen in the glass column: it was the Chaos Emerald.
Sonic wasted no time. He didn't even stop to assess the event which had just occurred. He simply ducked into a ball and spun at the bars.
Sonic found himself on the floor. He could not understand what had happened. He stood up, to realize that the bars were still there.
What was going on?
Why had he not cut through the feeble glass bars with his spin? It had never failed him before.
He ducked into a ball again, and again spun at the bars.
Again he found himself on the ground, the bars still standing, and realized that he was not seeing things.
He was still behind the bars.
Suddenly, laughter pervaded the hall, echoing off its narrow walls. Sonic heard another snap behind him, turning around to find another set of bars behind him.
"Having fun, hedgehog?"
The voice was unmistakably Robotnik's. Robotnik's laughter continued, amplifying itself as it bounced back and forth off the close walls of the tunnel.
Sonic, infuriated – and panicked – spun again at the bars ahead of him. Again he fell back to the floor and the bars remained.
"Diamond glass. I've been expecting you, hedgehog."
Doctor Robotnik's figure appeared from within the core, slowly moving into the frame behind bars.
"Did you enjoy gawking at my emerald, hedgehog? I'm afraid, however, that this is not a museum. Trespassers must be punished justly."
"Robuttnik, you're gonna have to open these bars sooner or later, and then I'll kick your ass!"
Robotnik laughed. "Don't worry, hedgehog; I'll be raising these bars soon… to lift out your corpse!" Robotnik's gaze shifted off of Sonic and onto the space to his right. He signaled.
Within moments, another familiar figure appeared within the barred frame.
Caero.
"Kill him."
Caero raised a gun. As if to demonstrate that he was capable of shooting Sonic, he angled the barrel slightly upward, and fired a bullet through the gaps between the bars. It hit the ceiling above Sonic's head.
Caero leveled the barrel. "I'm sorry, Sonic…" Caero was visibly shaken. His lips quivered as he uttered these words.
"Is this what you want? To work for Robuttnik? To let him destroy the world?"
Robotnik laughed from behind Sonic. "I'm flattered, hedgehog." He turned to Caero. "Now kill him!"
"Do you really want this, Caero? I know you! You're a good person. You can't let Robotnik get to you! He doesn't care about you! He doesn't care!"
"I'm afraid," smiled Robotnik, "that your friend here is a bit more intelligent than you. He knows when to give up. He knows the winners from the losers. You never could learn, that; could you, hedgehog? You just never knew when you were beaten; did you, hedgehog? Well, now it's too late. I've won now, hedgehog. You were an admirable adversary, but all things must come to an end." Robotnik barked at Caero again: "Now kill him! Kill him now!"
Caero's hand was shaking as he moved his finger to the trigger.
And turned.
"No."
Caero's shaking hand fidgeted with the gun.
It was now aimed at Robotnik.
Robotnik's arm came quickly, clubbing Caero, knocking the gun from his hand.
Caero was panicked now, nervously looking for an escape. But there was none.
Robotnik clubbed Caero again, and this time, he was sent to the ground. Panicked, Caero scampered backward, and, looking up, found the lever on the wall. Quickly, he reached and pulled it. Sonic heard the bars snap back up behind him. But he couldn't go. "Caero!" Sonic gripped the bars in front of him.
"Go, Sonic. 'Fore 'Botnik closes 'em again!"
Robotnik reached down and grabbed Caero by the throat.
"I won't forget!" yelled Sonic.
Robotnik threw Caero to the ground, and Caero winced, but was too panicked to feel any pain.
Robotnik pushed the lever, gruff. But Sonic was already gone.
Angry, Robotnik kicked Caero in the gut as he lay on the floor. "How dare you, insolent fool? I almost thought for a while that you had an ounce of brains! It appears I was wrong. You could have kept your wretched life."
"'Fya wanna kill Sonic, yer gonna hafta do it yerself, ya dirty bastard."
Robotnik laughed. "Ah, but you see, the most beautiful part of this whole occasion is that I'll have you fight Sonic, whether you want to or not. Stupid fool. I gave you a future, and you threw it away! That's the problem with living, organic beings: they simply can't be trusted like machines can."
"No damned robot can replace a person."
"Perhaps not, but it can come close enough. And robots never betray me."
"What are ya gonna do when ya finally win?! There ain't gonna be anyone left! You'll be all alone! Who are ya gonna brag to? Yourself?"
Robotnik scoffed, and then kicked Caero in the gut again. "Insolent fool, once I enlighten everyone on this planet… and once I destroy life… I can create life anew! And they will all owe their lives to me! I will rule over them all, and all life will be my child. They will bow down to me, and the previous generation will enforce my supreme word. You simply lack the boldness to envision as I do! You can't think big like I can; you have a single-track mind… I have resolution! I have the scope of vision that everyone else lacked. And that is why I rose above them!"
"All ya've got is a god complex."
"I have visions of greatness. One of such feeble mind can hardly hope to grasp their splendor or their genius. It is a pity you won't be truly sentient enough to appreciate my vision when it comes to full fruition. I had use for you before that, pitiful peon, and you have betrayed my trust."
"Ya don't deserve it. Sonic was right."
"I care not about your sentiments, or your respect anymore, for I will soon have it in spades, my friend. You will be roboticized before the sun's next setting. How will it feel, to be trapped inside a shell with no way out, with no way to control your own body?" Robotnik laughed maniacally.
No way out.