failure. Sonic had held the emerald in his hands. The mission had succeeded, and Robotnik had been foiled again.
Until: Failure. The emerald had been pried from his fingers. And time was running out.
Three hours. Three hours remained until Robotnik would begin to destroy the world.
If they surrendered, would it really end in any other way?
Sonic still imagined the emerald in his hand. He could not envision such miserable failure. To have come so close and have it torn away at the last moment.
His left leg was broken.
Everything hurt.
Sonic, knee enclosed in a cast, lay back and closed his eyes.
They stood again before Uncle Chuck: Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Sonic on a wooden makeshift crutch.
"We are doom-ed!" cried Antoine.
"Shhh…" Sally put her finger to her lips.
Uncle Chuck turned around from his console to face the group that stood before him.
"I've found out more about the structure of the tower," he said warmly after taking a deep breath. "Sonic said the bars were made of diamond glass. In actuality, the entire central column of the tower is made of diamond glass. The emerald is housed within the diamond glass column. The ring that encircles the emerald contains the devices needed to harness the emerald's power, as well as focus it into physical energy.
"I have also found what I believe to be a satellite outside of Mobius. I believe it is this satellite which destroyed Ilus. It is capable of sending electrical charges or heat-based laser rays to Mobius' earth, as well as acting as a positioning system and relaying commands to and from the tower.
"Diamond glass does not conduct electricity, but is an excellent – nay, the best – conductor of heat."
"What are you getting at, Unc?"
"Well, I have concluded that the security placed on the satellite is almost non-existent: Robotnik simply presumed that it would be impossible for anyone to contact the satellite from such a great distance, so security was unnecessary."
"And?"
"And… Robotnik has a backup transmitter/receiver in his west facility/factory outside of the city."
"Wat do we do when we get it?" asked Bunnie.
"We use the transmitter to command the satellite to destroy the tower."
"What about the emerald?" asked Sally.
"As I said, diamond glass does not conduct electricity. If we use the satellite's electrical charge instead of its heat laser cannon, we can fry and destroy the tower, while leaving the diamond glass column unharmed and intact, with the emerald safe inside of it."
"All right," said Sonic. "So, where is this factory, anyway?"
Uncle Chuck turned back to his terminal and tapped at the keys. Shortly, a map of the Great Forest-Robotropolis area of Mobius appeared on the display. "It's roughly here," said Uncle Chuck, standing up and pointing at the screen.
"Got it. How will we know when we've found what we're looking for?"
"The transmitter located in the tower conduit looks like this." Uncle Chuck tapped at the keys; an image appeared on the screen, a rectangular device with cylindrical ridges and an array of antennas. "The backup unit in the factory may or may not look identical, however, it will at the least most likely look similar."
"Thanks as usual, Unc." Sonic gave a thumbs-up.
"It's my pleasure, as always. Good luck."
This is our final chance. Blow it now, and it's all over.
And pray that Charles was right.
Sally stepped onto the cold soil.
She took in the environs. The bastard child of a forest and a canyon, with the forest holding the greater genetic influence. Near the forest's border, but still within its boundaries, a steep cliff rose up to the east, and the forest's trees loomed high upon the cliff as the forest continued off a ways to the east.
It was in this area, outside of Robotropolis and its blackness, that Robotnik's facility housing the transmitter/receiver was said to be.
Knuckles clambered out behind her, Espio trailing behind him.
Sonic hobbled down the platform. His knee was now enclosed in a splint, and he used wooden crutches to make his way down the platform. Sally had tried to convince him to stay back at once-Knothole, underground, so that he could heal up and get some rest, but he had insisted, taking it upon himself to accompany them on this critical mission regardless of whether he had his speed or not, and regardless of how much it hurt.
"Let's go." Sally motioned with a wave of her right arm.
She started forward; the others were still disembarking from the plane; they quickly hurried to follow as Knuckles and Espio and Sonic started off behind Sally.
Sally did not look behind her. She moved carefully forward, calculating and observing. The soil she walked appeared as if it had been walked upon before. Broken twigs littered the ground. One tree in particular had a branch torn from it. In the distance, atop a cliff to her right, she could see some kind of wooden structure. As she took step after step, nearing the structure, she could make out what it was: a logging hub for Robotnik. Felled trees and logs were stacked upon the cliffside. Below, Sally noticed another facility of Robotnik's: a mining location dug into the side of the cliff. It appeared to be deserted now. The logging station was set up above the mining location, atop the cliff that had been torn apart to make room for Robotnik's excavation.
"Sally, I am detecting two heat signatures nearby."
"Hold on, you guys." Sally turned around. "Nicole's detecting heat signatures."
"Where?" asked Knuckles, stepping forward.
"Over there, in that cave." She pointed.
"Who cares?" spat Sonic. "We don't have time to deal with them if they're out of the way."
"They don't appear to be SWATbots. All SWATbots have very similar heat signatures. These two are very distinctly different. They seem organic."
Without a word, Knuckles started walking toward the cave.
The blackness was discouraging in a way, for it being the first thing he saw showed him only emptiness, and if emptiness was all he would find then he was empty-handed, again forced to walk aimlessly without direction in hope that they would fall from the sky upon him.
Still, he had hope that perhaps he would finally be reunited with them.
A frightening thought crept into his mind: what if he did find them here in this cave? But what if it was their corpses which he carried out? It had been a long time. Had they survived in the wilderness? Had they given up hope?
It was of no use to worry now. Worrying could come once he came out empty-handed, or, worse, his fears were confirmed. But now he would concentrate on the task at hand: finding them alive, if fate would be so kind.
"Is anybody here? It's me, Knuckles!"
A few moments of silence passed, and then he heard a scurrying from the darkness.
And then a voice came: "Who did you say you were?"
"Knuckles," he replied hopefully.
Suddenly a figure broke out of the dark and tackled him to the ground.
"I thought I'd never see you again!"
Knuckles quickly realized that it was Vector on top of him, and that it was not an attack, but an embrace.
Time would not wait.
For years, he had been watched, observed, like an ant in an antfarm, like a specimen under the microscope. Oblivious to his observers, the hovering, invisible arbiters, the teachers who never taught, the silent judges, he had lived without meaning, without understanding of his place in the world.
But would he ever find it?
Would he ever find his place in the world, if he were not told?
But it was not questioned. This was the way things were done. For generations, it had worked this way. But change was not outlawed. Change was not outlawed; it was simply never considered. Not under this stubborn father.
Every objective he crafted had to come from himself.
He had been taught once, but his teacher vanished with his world, and he was left alone to find out the answers for himself. Unfortunately for him, his observers may have underestimated the difficulty involved in deciphering the world alone.
Sally saw Knuckles returning from the cave. And when she saw him accompanied by two others, she smiled faintly. He had finally found them.
Espio ran to meet them.
"Espio!" hailed Mighty.
"It's great to finally all be together again," returned Espio with a smile.
"Hey!" Sonic's impatient voice broke into their happy reunion. "We've got to go! You guys coming or not?" He crossed his arms.
Knuckles grunted. "I'm trying to get the emerald back," he said in an aside to his friends. "I'm hoping they can help me."
"We'll come with ya, then," affirmed Mighty.
"Hey, I dunno," smirked Vector. "It took 'im an awful long time to find us."
Knuckles turned around to scold Vector and inform him of how it wasn't his fault, but Vector was one step ahead. "I'm jus' joshin' with ya."
Turning to her left, Sally saw a felled tree, doubtlessly felled at Robotnik's hand. She shook her head faintly: it wasn't as if she was completely innocent of using trees for wood, but Robotnik had blackened Robotropolis' skies and no tree could live there; so he eked out further. Sally utilized the forest in moderation; Robotnik consumed it.
The forest bowed around her. It was at Robotnik's mercy.
A twig snapped beneath Sally's boot. A single bird fluttered from a tree nearby at the recoil of the sound.
"How long were you guys hiding out in that cave?" asked Espio as he trailed behind Sally, alongside his companions but just reunited.
"We only just got there maybe a few days ago," answered Mighty. "We'd given up on you finding us."
"Is that it, up ahead?" Bunnie called out from behind.
Indeed, in the distance was a short metallic building.
Sally unclipped Nicole from her boot. "Nicole, plot a map from here to the location Uncle Chuck gave us."
"Yes, Sally." The map appeared.
"That should be it," Sally called back, noting the location on the map.
They made their way toward their target.
The place that could end this conflict.
They came out of the woodwork.
Out of the forest surrounding the building, and perhaps from around the building itself, bodies appeared. And after a few moments, it became clear: they were moving toward Sally's group.
Antoine must have noticed them: "Zare are peoples!"
"I know," said Sally.
"Why would there be other people here?" asked Bunnie.
"Robots. They must be robots," said Sonic.
And immediately everyone believed he was right. But they didn't look like SWATbots. Each body here was different, unlike SWATbots, each one looking exactly like the others.
But the group advanced with caution, prepared to engage the enemy if this, the enemy be.
Each step brought them closer to the advancing bodies.
Until they were close enough to make them out.
And as soon as Sally could discern the bodies' figures, she reflexively took a step back.
"What is it, my princess?" asked Antoine, seeing Sally's step backward.
She simply raised her arm and pointed to the advancing bodies.
Antoine, following her finger, gazed upon the bodies.
And he recognized them.
"Sacre bleu!"
Sonic, too, must have recognized them, as he, but a moment later, exclaimed: "Shit!"
The advancing bodies were indeed robots.
But they were also, behind the metal shell, people whom Sonic knew.
They were the sentries that Robotnik had captured on the day Knothole burned.
Their faces had been transmuted into cold metal. But they were still recognizable… and recognized.
She remembered their names. Kenth. Vilas. Lexas. Jackson. Lyal.
"What do we do?" cried Sally.
Here she was, faced with her own people, citizens of Knothole. Before her, approaching her, were the very people that had served her many times. They had served her the night Knothole burned… they had served her one time too many.
She could not bring herself to regard them as cold enemy. These were not SWATbots. These were living creatures whom Robotnik had enslaved.
She could not kill them. She could not bring herself to do something so primal.
Within their prisons, they still lived.
So she stood, petrified. If Sonic had his speed, he could dash around them, and retrieve the transmitter himself. But, as it were, there was no obvious way to get past them without attacking them. But how could she attack them? She knew them. They were alive. They were slaves. They were not her enemy. How could she kill them?
This was the ultimate cruelty. Robotnik truly had her under his thumb. Robotnik had found a way to crush her. An army composed of roboticized Mobians would face no resistance from the princess. And no matter what the outcome of a battle staged by such an army, the result would be sickeningly ruthless. Either she would be crushed by her own people, beaten to death, bloodied by her own people, killed whilst being forced to stare them in the face as they smiled Robotnik's smile over her dying body… or she would beat her own people to death, knowing they still lived within that shell Robotnik had created for them, knowing they still lived, no matter how pathetically, and still died at her hand. And she would have to live knowing she only achieved victory, that the Freedom Fighters only continued to exist because of the painful fact that she had killed her own people. She was ready to kneel down and surrender to Robotnik at that hopeless moment. Robotnik had won.
"We've… we've got to… we've got to get past them," stuttered Sonic.
"But how?!"
"However we can… we've got to fight them. We don't have any other choice!"
"But how can we fight them?! They're one of us! Beneath that metal flesh, they're alive. They're not like SWATbots! SWATbots were never alive! This is Jackson, Kenth, and Lyal! I can't kill them!"
"But we don't have any other choice," repeated Sonic. "If we don't get that transmitter, well, you know what will happen."
But they did not have forever to decide.
Vilas had already reached them.
Against his will, his arm reached and grabbed Sally by the throat.
There was no time left.
To get to the transmitter, she would have to break through them. And probably kill them to break their pursuit.
But Sally had another idea.
With a quick turn of her hip, Sally delivered a hard side kick to Vilas, knocking him back and down.
"Follow me!" cried Sally, turning around and running the other way from her enslaved once-companions.
"We have to get the transmitter!" cried Sonic.
"Just trust me! Please, just trust me!"
Much to her relief, Sonic and the others turned around and followed her as she ran away from the nightmare, the incredible torture of being confronted with the robotic bodies of the people she knew, the people who had sacrificed their lives the day Knothole burned. Someday, she believed, they could be freed again. Someday they would persevere.
Sonic tucked his crutches under his arm and forced himself to run, even through the pain he felt in his knee every time his left foot touched the ground.
Kenth, Vilas, Lexas, Jackson, and Lyal remained in pursuit of the now-fleeing group. Hungry for the blood of those they had once served. Once loved.
"Remember the cave on the way here?" shouted Sally.
"Yeah; what about it?"
"Above it was a bunch of logs. We can knock the logs down to block the entrance. We can trap them inside. We don't have to hurt them."
"How do we get 'em ta go in theah?" shouted Bunnie.
"Hey," yelled Sonic. "Chameleon!"
"Huh?"
"You can lure 'em in there, right?"
"You got it."
"Uh, how are we gonna get up to those logs fast enough?"
There was an awkward moment of silence before Knuckles stuffed his pride and relegated himself to volunteer his abilities for once: "I can climb."
It was difficult for Knuckles to bring himself to do this… to volunteer himself to outsiders. He had done it before, but only at the command of the voice. It was not something he liked to do on his own… but he recognized the gravity of the situation, and murdered his ego to get past it.
"Great! Everybody else, hide over here!" Sally directed, moving quickly to a crevice a few feet past the cave's entrance.
Everyone scampered to join Sally in hiding.
Espio stood just outside the cave's entrance, looking from side to side hurriedly. Turning around, he saw Vilas' group rapidly approaching.
Knuckles pounded his fists into the side of the cliff, and, crawling upwards, lifted his feet from the ground as he scaled the cliffside.
"Oh no, they found us!" cried Espio, ducking into the cave.
Kenth and Vilas led their group of zombies into the cave as Espio faded into the darkness. One of them quickly turned on a light in their arm to illuminate the cave. Their target couldn't have gone far.
"Now, Knuckles!"
The logs were kept in place by two stops held up by ropes. Knuckles tore through the rope nearest the cliff's edge, and as it slumped away, the gate fell to the ground and the logs tumbled out. They plummeted off the cliff and crashed to the ground in front of the cave below. And before the machines could react, the logs had crashed to the ground and blocked the exit. The chameleon whom they had followed into the cave had paraded out behind their backs.
Espio, now unsheathed of the shroud, signaled to the others hiding in the crevice.
They hustled from their asylum to see the work that had been done.
It had been done.
Those enslaved in bodies not their own were encaged in yet another prison. Yet it was to protect them. To stop them from wreaking others' havoc, to stop them from acting upon the tugs of the puppet strings that held them.
The strings that held their arms and dragged them across the ground, the strings that dug into their skin like needles, woven under their artificial skin like veins. And when their master sent a tug down one of the strings from the cloud above, or hundreds of miles away, they could feel the itch. The unbearable itch. And as they are set into action, driven by forces they cannot touch, they convulse. Twitching and convulsing, they are dragged by the strings that hold them. They throw themselves at the logs. For it is all they know: their mission: to destroy those that could not bring themselves to destroy in return. Mindlessly they try to break free of the one prison so that the other prison can carry out its charge.
"It looks like we did it."
The echidna bounded from the cliff, letting the air on his wings break his fall, landing, crouching upon the dirt before stretching out his legs and unbending his knees to stand.
And he knew not even what his purpose was anymore. He, like the zombies he had just shut in the cave, had one mission; his was to recover the emerald. Like the zombies, there was no why. It was his destiny. As guardian, it was all he knew. The voice had rationalized it before, but he could not remember. So now he was following these strangers, with the absurd hope that their mission and his would entwine, that by serving them he could serve his own designs. Designs that might as well have been etched into the sand by a child in play. To escape from the mindless meander, he had to keep safe this mission which had been passed down to him by his father, who had walked into the wall of flames and vanished forever. He would honor the role that had been destined for him by the civilization whose remnants were locked away behind the Doors. He would, to have a purpose. For it was his only purpose.
"I'm the breath you breathe, the steps you make."
He closed his eyes.
Took a deep breath.
Exhaled.
He felt something touch his shoulder; opening his eyes hastily to find Sally there.
"We're going; are you coming with us or staying here? Your friends volunteered to watch the cave and radio me if our roboticized comrades find a way out of the cave."
Knuckles turned his head to find Vector and Mighty, radio in hand, standing aside the avalanche of logs.
"Your other friend is coming along; his abilities might prove of great help in infiltrating the facility."
Knuckles sighed. "I guess I'll come along. Mighty and Vec'll still be here after this is done."
Tilting his head back to the sky, Knuckles spoke softly: "And after this is done, we can all go home."
Sonic's crutches darted forward into the dirt as his weight fell upon his good leg.
The dirt parted like sand falling through the pores of a sieve.
"This is the Final mission," she said, taking command and assertion. "Or we're hoping it is. I think the best course of action is for Espio – that's your name, right?—"
Espio nodded.
"—for Espio to enter the facility. Our mission might be blown if Robotnik knows we're here and figures out why… presuming he hasn't already."
"And what exactly am I doing once I'm inside?" Espio asked. The inquiry, as it left his lips, brought back in a rush the memory of Knuckles' assault on the enemy's camp back on the Floating Island. He half-expected Knuckles to tell him, "I'll figure it out once I get inside."
Yet Knuckles did not interrupt. Espio wondered if the memory had been triggered in his mind, too; if it had, would he have recreated the scene out of humor?
"Find the transmitter. It looks something like this." Sally's reply cut into Espio's train of thought, derailing it. She held Nicole in the palm of her hand, and Nicole was projecting a holographic image of the device which Uncle Chuck had shown them.
"And what if I can't find it? Do we have a backup plan?"
"Hm." Sally was flustered as she realized that they had done very little planning given the enormous importance of this mission. They hadn't had any time to prepare: it had been thrown upon them and they had had to act immediately. "If you have any problems," she said, "then radio us." Sally gripped a radio unit in her left hand, and went into the motions in anticipation of tossing it underhand to Espio. But she caught herself: "Er." Her motion stopped abruptly before the radio could become airborne. "That'd give you away, wouldn't it?" Sally began to pace. "It wouldn't be invisible, would it? It'd give you away."
"That's right."
"If you run into trouble," offered Sonic, "we'll be standing by."
"Yes, but how will we know if he's in trouble?" Sally turned to Sonic. But suddenly another subject came to the forefront of her mind: "Wait. How will he get out with the transmitter? If the radio would be a floating radio, the same goes for the transmitter."
That's what happens when I try to work out a plan this quickly on the fly, Sally thought. "How stupid of me to not realize that sooner," sighed Sally, hitting her forehead with the palm of her right hand. "My planning was too rushed. If I had just taken it more carefully, I wouldn't have proposed such idiocy."
"Calm down, Sally-girl. Don't fret over it."
Sally massaged her temples with her index fingers. With a sigh: "Well, we might as well be as well-prepared as we can anyway. I think the best course of action is still for Espio to go in first and scout out the area. If there are no SWATbots – and given that we already know this factory wasn't empty, I doubt that will be the case – go ahead and bring the transmitter out. If there are, locate the transmitter first, and then meet back up with us and we'll do this in the usual way. Hopefully it will be swift, given a straight course to our destination."
"There we go. Now it's sounding more like a mission plan. It's not as if we don't cast scouts in a lot of our Robotropolis missions."
"But this isn't like those missions, Sonic. We don't know what we're doing."
"So we're making it up as we go along. That's basically my mission plan all the time anyway."
"But I just thought that we could send Espio in and then like a fairy tale we could all live happily ever after. The idea just popped into my head and it seemed so easy. He'd be invisible, just walk in and take the transmitter, and nobody would be the wiser. But of course that would be too easy. What if Robotnik catches on to what we're doing? He's bound to see us. This mission—"
"Mah stars, Sally-girl, you ain't the Sally-girl I know. She's alwahs calm and cool, the mos' rational one of us. She ain't one to go worrying about things that ain't even happened yet! Well, 'least not unless it's just planning ahead for every outcome." Bunnie crossed her arms.
But Sally had been crushed under the weight of leadership. She had stood strong for so long against Robotnik's reign, determined to one day defeat him. But now things seemed more hopeless than ever, and even if she could surmount the present, the future was still bleak. Rebuilding Knothole… the idea seemed so far away. She had promised a new Knothole, but yet the promise seemed almost forgotten. It had all been put on hold to combat Robotnik and Sally felt as if it would never resume. This conflict would be drawn out, and—
"There might not even be SWATbots in there. For all we know, we might just be able to walk in and take it."
"There will be."
"Yeah, and if there are, then we'll walk in there and take it anyway. I'll just get a bit more exercise tearin' those 'bots apart. And I don't mind." Sonic smirked.
"But Robotnik will know what we're up to…"
"And if he does, then we'll deal with that after we get the transmitter."
"My princess, I am not used to seeing you so afraid. Is that not to be my job?" Antoine laughed. It was perhaps the first time he had laughed at himself, as far as the memories of anyone present could recall.
And as Bunnie and Sonic joined in the laughter, a smile was brought to Sally's lips. "You're right," she said simply.
"Let's do this."
"Let's do it to it."
Espio peered around the corner instinctively before remembering that he had no need to exhibit such visual stealth when he was camouflaged. All that was necessary was that he remain silent.
Casually moving down the hall, he could see nothing but the hall itself. Was this place empty now? It certainly would make the girl happy.
Knuckles had been reluctant to offer his help.
Espio, on the other hand, was rather indifferent. If he could help the girl and her friends, he had nothing better to do.
A sound.
Espio focused his senses and scanned the air for noise but it was already gone.
But he had heard something. It could be anything. Just move on.
Down the hallway. Anyone but him would probably feel naked, exposed. Even he had not grown fully accustomed to the consequences of being so hidden and unseen in the broad open, but he had over time modified his perceptions and had grown to realize that he could be in the middle of the broad blue sky and be invisible to stargazers. Yet in this brooding place he found it harder to trust his cloak. He took each step cautiously, perhaps even in paranoia.
His ear piqued. There was another sound. A metal clank.
He latched onto that sound, took it in his hand as if it were the end of the string.
And he pulled himself along the string.
And the string led him; the thin hallway opened up into a larger chamber.
And the sounds were clear.
And he was not alone. They were here.
And in this brooding place, the first sight of them for a second gave him a shock, causing him to lurch back in recoil. But he quickly reminded himself that he was a specter. And as he moved across the room, he observed. There were only about three of them. He suspected that the three in this room were probably the only ones in the entire facility. For if this place was sufficiently populated, it would not be so quiet as it was. Only a presumption, of course, he reminded himself, and nothing more.
Yet in that moment it was not quiet any more.
The atmosphere of this place had obscured his senses.
The sound came flooding in.
The grinding of a conveyer belt rushed into his head, and he turned to find the conveyer belt in action in the right side of the room. One of the robots was attending the belt as chunks of metal rode it and a huge press came down from the ceiling upon each chunk of metal as it passed beneath it.
Another robot was at a panel in the wall. Perhaps it was operating the conveyer belt. Perhaps even directing the rise and fall of the press in the ceiling.
The third, he could not discern what it was doing. It was moving across his field of vision, towards the left wall of the room.
Every few seconds, he could hear the sound of some kind of gas escaping from a machine, and the clinking and cranking of gears was pervasive.
And within a few seconds, he had reached the far side of the room.
A tower that resembled a bookshelf – except with more depth in its shelves – covered this section of the wall.
What struck Espio first was the striking emptiness of this array of shelves. There were only maybe 3 or 4 things here; the rest was empty space.
As he looked over the things so sparsely spread out across these vacant shelves, he immediately recognized the device he had been sent to find.
And then his mind was clouded. Forgetting his orders, he reached for his objective.
And in a few seconds, the transmitter was suspended in the air as it drifted away from the shelf upon which it had sat.
"ALERT. ALERT. ABNORMALITY DETECTED. MOVE TO INVESTIGATE IMMEDIATELY."
"AFFIRMATIVE."
Knocked from his daze, unblinded of his illusion, Espio, startled, dropped the transmitter to the floor. It met it with a light thud.
They were converging on his position. For a moment, he forgot again that they could not see him. They were converging on the floating transmitter, now dropped to the ground, not on him. And he ran.
"So, you found it?"
"Yes, but they saw me!"
"What do you mean, they saw you? I thought nobody could see you!"
"I picked up the machine."
"What?"
"I don't know why exactly; I just – something took hold of me and I forgot everything else…"
Suddenly an explosion of laughter was detonated.
"What??"
Knuckles caught his breath, quelling his laughter. "Now you know how I feel!"
"That was different! I just wasn't thinking straight. You'd gone insane!"
"Enough. We don't have time for this. We need to get that device."
"How many were there?"
"What? How many what? Devices? Three or four, I think, but only—"
"No, robots. How many robots?"
"Three that I could see. There could be more in other parts of the building."
"Three we can handle."
"Whattaya mean?" quipped Sonic. "I can handle ten easy!"
Sally rolled her eyes, and then her gaze shifted down to his crutches. "Not now, you can't."
"Let's just hope Robotnik doesn't catch wind of this."
"Don't remind me."
"Sorry."
"Alright. Let's move."
He retraced his steps to the room where the ghost had been exposed by itself.
The device was still on the ground, they could see from their place outside of the sphere, calculating their entry.
"We need to take care of the SWATbots as quickly as possible."
"Doan' worry. Ah'll take care of 'em."
"Despite your talent, I don't think you can take them out all in rapid succession from such distance. Your pulse cannon takes a bit of time to charge. If possible, we should get them out of the way ever more immediately. Of course normally Sonic could take care of that, but we don't have that option right now."
"I'm right here! Why are ya talkin' about me as if I'm not? An' as if I'm bedridden?"
"Because I know that if I let you, you'll try to take out the SWATbots and hurt yourself even more."
"Well, I can. Just 'cause I can't run so fast doesn't mean I can't unload the hurt."
"I am sure you can, but so can Bunnie, and much more reliably. But let's get all three as fast as possible."
"If all you're asking," Knuckles spoke up, "is for me to kill one of the robots in there, I'm game."
"Good," Sally affirmed. "Antoine, you take the third one."
Unfortunately, Knuckles wasn't fully grasping the idea of the plan. He had gotten the order to attack, and so he carried it out.
Sally turned to see that Knuckles had already walked into the open room. "Wait!" she called with an outstretched hand, before realizing that if Knuckles could hear her call, so could the SWATbots. "Antoine and Bunnie, go now!"
"But I—" Antoine protested, only to find Sally pushing him into the room.
Knuckles was already at full speed as he rushed toward the first SWATbot.
"SUBJECT 882 HOSTILE IDENTIFIED. ELIMINATE."
Now nearing his target, he leapt into the air, fists clenched and outstretched, knuckles brandished.
The sound of Bunnie's pulse cannon went off, and the second SWATbot went down.
Knuckles plowed into the first.
Antoine hastened his step, only halfway to the third.
And as the third broadcasted the alert, Robotnik turned his attention to another one of his panels on his wall of eyes, and saw it impaled on Antoine's sword, and knew.
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
The transmitter sat at their feet, aboard the plane en route to Uncle Chuck's.
"Well, once we dealt with the roboticized guys, at least…" Sonic broke his own awkward pause when he continued: "Since when has disposing of three SWATbots been a hard mission?"
"Maybe I worried too much."
"Nah, Sally-girl. We all've a lot on our shoulders."
"So once we get this thing back to Uncle Chuck…" The group exchanged many words about what would come next.
Knuckles and his comrades sat in the back of the plane, detached from the conversation. He tried to remember why he was even on this plane. Why he had even involved himself in these peoples' affairs. The Chaotix was reunited again. What was stopping him from returning home and living his life again?
The emerald? But he could live on the Island whether it was suspended in space or in the ocean. Why did it matter? His duty, but what did his duty matter anymore? Ah, yes. The Voice had told him to get the emerald, had told him of its grave importance, yet despite all its elaborate words he was still clueless as to the real meaning of anything.
Forget it, he said to himself. Just finish this out and then we can go from there. It's not as if you're going to jump out of the plane. Just sit tight for now.
"They've spat upon my great benevolence! I give them a chance to live under my hegemony, and they ask me to efface them from the soil, to expunge them. They've answered my offer, and their answer is 'Please kill us, for we want so much to die!'"
Robotnik stroked his chin. "Well, Snively, shall we fulfill their request? Accept their bold sacrifice to my once and future reign? Blot them from the map? They have made their wish for as much quite clear, I do believe."
Robotnik glared at his nephew thoughtfully, yet with deviance and anger in his eyes. But suddenly Snively had an epiphany of how severe this really was. Not until now had he really grasped the idea that his uncle was really about to completely annul the Great Forest, stripping the Freedom Fighters naked, either leaving them with no place to hide, or driving them far away from the Capital. The frequent raids on the city, either way, would almost assuredly cease or diminish to the point of invisibility.
For a split second, he feared what might happen. He questioned his uncle's sanity, questioned his willingness to erase any and all humanity once he was no longer under any threat to his power.
But that reservation was forgotten as Robotnik narrowed his eyebrows and uttered with irritation: "Well, Snively?"
"Y-y-y-yes, sir. They have ignored your goodwill and deserve no more of your great m-mercy, sir. Given a chance, s-s-sir, and they disregarded it."
"Then today is the day when their little world is absorbed into mine."
"How much time remains?"
"Enough."
"Not much."
"But enough. Bring the transmitter outside. We need a clear view of the sky."
"A clear view? Can we get that here in Robotropolis?"
"If the tower's transmitter can make contact through the smog, then so should this one be able to. But the ceiling might be another matter. Let's go."
The transmitter was lifted from the ground, and the hopeful souls emerged from the refuse heap.
As they set it down on the cracked earth, they were grateful that there were no SWATbots around to impede their last stand.
"Let's get this started," affirmed Uncle Chuck, plugging a small apparatus into an interface on the transmitter.
Before anyone could speak another word, the sky lit up, magnificent. The gray sky turned green in an instant.
"What was that?!"
"I don't know," stammered Uncle Chuck. "Let me go check." He hustled back to his place in the refuse. Sally followed.
He quickly scuttled to his terminal; tapping at the keyboard, he cycled through several cameras on his multiple displays. And then they saw it.
On the center monitor, the tower appeared. Its glowing halo was spinning.
"No." Sally cupped her mouth in her hands. "No. He said three hours. It hasn't been three hours yet."
But Sally did not have time to brood. A loud thunderous roar sounded behind her. Without a word, she rushed out the door to see what it was.
For a moment she could not believe what she saw. Over her head, a green line cut the sky in two. And as she followed it across the firmament, she saw where it met the ground. The Great Forest.
Uncle Chuck rushed out the door behind her. He saw her standing, frozen in awe, and then he saw what she saw.
"Quick. We have no time to lose!" he shouted. He dashed back to the transmitter, leaving Sally petrified where she was.
Where the smiting hand of Chaos met the Great Forest, the trees disintegrated, and the soil was sucked into nothing.
Sonic stood petrified like Sally. Like the day he witnessed the Flame devour his home, he stood enthralled by the sight he beheld. But he had been jaded. The hand of Chaos was so far from him; it felt almost unreal. He simply could not come to terms with what was happening. This was not Knothole. Knothole had burned around him. He had felt the heat of the flames. He had smelled the inferno. But this… this he observed from a distance. It was almost as if he were watching a film, a story about his world being destroyed, a tale about the rebellion led by the hero Sonic finally being crushed by Robotnik. But only a story. It was not really happening.
The green line that streaked the dirty heavens and descended upon the Great Forest moved. As it crept across the horizon, everything it touched evaporated. It simply faded away. There was a hole in the Great Forest, and soon the hunger of Chaos would devour the Forest completely. All it needed was time enough. Given time to quench its appetite, the Forest would cease to exist.
"I've got power!"
But if we can stop it, we can stop it at this. The Great Forest can escape with a battlescar. The Forest can bear Robotnik's mark, bear a gaping hole borne from Robotnik's blade; it can be a jaded veteran of Robotnik's war and tell its war tales some day… it can exist – scarred, but not destroyed.
And Sonic could stand here and watch the Forest slowly be consumed by the infinite power of Chaos – or is it the infinite power of Robotnik? He could stand here and watch it from a distance, unable to do anything.
Nobody was calm; they were watching before their eyes everything they had tried to stop. Robotnik was destroying the world.
But Chuck remained composed enough to make their last stand, to minimize damages.
Hope remained. Sonic could not feel it, for it was outside of him. Having not come to terms with what was really happening, he could see no need to have hope.
But it was there. "I've got uplink!"
"Uplink?" Bunnie queried.
"We're connected to the satellite," Chuck said in explanation, hurriedly tapping at the device he had connected to the transmitter.
The line in the sky ebbed and pulsed, creating flashes in the air as the level of intensity of the green oscillated.
"I've already got the coordinates of the tower calculated; just gotta feed 'em in."
"Isn't this marvelous, Snively? Isn't it beautiful? The Great Forest is being erased. Just like that, Snively. In an instant! What a spectacular sight."
Snively fidgeted nervously. "Indeed, sir. Only your genius could do such a thing, sir."
"I can't help but pity them. Only slightly, but nonetheless. It must be heartbreaking for them to lose everything they have ever worked for so quickly." Robotnik's sympathy was betrayed by his laughter. "But I did warn them. I gave them a chance. I even proved my power, proved to them that my threats were not idle. Yet they wanted so much to die."
"But who can blame them?" Snively remarked softly.
"What was that, Snively?" Robotnik scowled. "Are you inferring that life in a world run by me would be anything less than perfect?"
"N-n-n-no, sir. I was—"
"Are you inferring that my generosity does not overflow at the brim? That my offer for them to surrender and live their lives in acceptance of the world as it should be was anything less than ideal?!"
"N-n-n-n-"
"Good." Robotnik's lips curled. "I wouldn't want you to be disappointed in the world I have in store. The world as it was always intended to be. The world ruled by I and I alone."
Did he just say alone? Snively shuddered reflexively. No, no, he didn't mean without me; he but meant that I never ruled.
"Got it. I'm ordering an electrical discharge upon the tower now."
Chuck tapped at the device, his last tap with finality. "Bingo."
The sky flashed again. Blue this time. A blue line streaked across the smog, crossing the green hand of Chaos.
The tower braced itself for the impact, and the blue ray descended thunderously upon it.
The tower was the nexus of the blue and green.
Cataclysmic, a battle of Titans.
Both beams endured, wavering and pulsating, but sustaining. The two forces were entwined.
But the blue light, descended from the heavens, was not stopping the world from being swallowed up. The mouth of Chaos swallowed another piece of the Forest as it crept across the horizon.
The hole in the Forest was cancerous. Perhaps a quarter of the entire Forest was fuel for the mouth now, ceasing to exist.
The blue and green rays collided at the tower; a battle of Titans.
And then it happened. The electrical surge rippled down the body of the tower like a shockwave.
And as the shock cascaded down the tower, it shorted; the gaping mouth of Chaos closed.
What a strange way to fight a war. The battles may have been fought by armies, but in the final stand, the combatants were one man's instance of Chaos, and the same man's machine in space turned against him. In its final day, this war was a spectator sport. The once-combatants watched others sustain injuries, watched casualties fall from afar. And neither side had escaped unscathed. The tower was disabled. The Great Forest had a craterous hole in it.
Yet it is presumptuous to speak of it with finality. It is presumptuous and rash to believe the war was over.
So much lay ahead.