4

            It had almost been grimly funny.  Since the Fall of the Island, this had been the second – perhaps the third time the emerald had been recovered, only to be taken back again.
            But what had interested her most was the new army he had described.  It had reminded her that during the Calm, Robotnik had not necessarily sat around idly, twiddling his thumbs.  He, like she, had been building.  And it was important to see what information she could gather from Uncle Chuck, their insider from within Robotropolis.
            So Sonic was dispatched to meet with his uncle.  He picked up his feet, and was off at a blindingly fast speed.

            Sonic arrived at the dump.  Looking around, he ensured that the coast was clear, and then keyed in the code on the rusty panel mounted on the heap of trash.  And then the junk shifted and a door composed of it opened upwards.  Sonic stepped inside the hideaway in the trash.
            "Hey, Unc."
            Sonic's uncle turned around.  He was a machine.  This was Robotnik's greatest power, to turn organic beings into machines.  But the roboticizer also stole free will; the machines it produces all comply to Robotnik's will.  And yet Uncle Chuck was free of Robotnik's command – this had been a mistake.  Uncle Chuck had been the first to be roboticized after the coup, and he had lost his free will.  But it had been inadvertently, and unknowingly to Robotnik, restored in an amiss experiment.  Thus, lacking his own body, but holding his volition, and his mind, he served as an insider for his nephew's cause.
            Shortly before the Battle of Titans that preceded the Calm, Sonic had broken his left leg in battle.  It had been his own friend, Caero, who had crippled him.  And not by his own volition; no, he had been roboticized, and his will had been enslaved.  So Caero had, from within the prison that was his transmuted body, witnessed his own attack on Sonic, screaming out and trying to will his body to resist and stop, but being mute, and being unable; his volition had no power; his strength, no vessel.  And he had been forced to exist and witness all that he wrought in the name of Robotnik, without any control or dominion.  And Caero had been Sonic's friend; he had once saved his life, and more than once fought alongside him.  And he had turned twice; once to Robotnik, and then against Robotnik, and his punishment for the latter was worse than death.  It was not life imprisonment, but eternal imprisonment, for machines did not die of old age, and thus it was a possibility that his enslavement could be forever; and it would, unless he was destroyed.  And having to witness his own loathsome existence from the jailing shell of his own metallic skin was worse than death, and he had longed for death.  But he had no power, no strength he could put to use in ending his own life.  And he was a paraplegic, a soul, existence, will, with no occupation but thought, and that thought was usually tormentuous.
            Sonic's leg had healed now; Caero, on the other hand, had not.
            "Good to see you, Sonny," said Chuck, his voice still human, yet synthetic.  "What can I do for you?"
            "Sal sent me to find out about 'Buttnik's new army. The echidna found the emerald, but some new army found him."
            "New army? I hadn't noticed anything about anything like that. Usually Robotnik has files in his network on something well in advance to its deployment."
            Chuck turned to his terminal and tapped at the console.
            "This beast general, labeled only as K, has posted a 'mission closed' for the objective of the return of the emerald to Robotnik. And his army…" Chuck paused, tapping at the keys.  "Now this is very odd. They look like a new make, but there's no prior information on them. Normally I'd know about a newly-commissioned army or revision or design in advance, even before they hit production."  Chuck pulled up an image on the screen, and Sonic stepped closer to look at the new robots.
            "Those ain't SWATbots."
            "No. They must have been in the works for a while. That's why I'm so confused as to why there's been no record of their development. Normally I'd have information like this for you well before it can come to fruition, so you have a chance to sabotage it."

            "Do you know what this is, Snively?"
            Snively looked at the thing his uncle held in his hand.  "The… the Chaos emerald, sir."
            "Hm. I wonder how it happened to be returned. It certainly wasn't your doing, was it Snively?"
            "N-n-no, sir. It was not my doing."
            Robotnik raised his voice.  "Then tell me what you were doing all this time!"  Robotnik's voice came forcefully, and Snively cowered back in fear.  "You mean to tell me you have been hard at work in finding this emerald, yet my general stumbles upon it without even looking? You mean to tell me your time was well spent?!"
            "N-n-n-no, sir."
            "Then you mean to tell me your time was wasted?!" Robotnik boomed; Snively took a step back from his uncle; he was a nervous wreck.
            "I-I-I…"
            "I hope that you have at least completed the artifice, the exploiter, the new power-harvester."
            "I-I-I…" Snively then proceeded to rush out his words quickly, as if he believed that by rushing his words he would be able to get them all out before incurring his uncle's wrath.  "I have not sir for I have been at work and working on the search and on the production of your design and all of these things sir and so I did not have the time to do this sir and I did not—"
            "Silence, fool! Failure! You have wasted my time and my efforts. Get out of my face, and get to work on the exploiter, now."

            "Chuck says there was no record of the army, or the new robot design, until today. Usually there is, so he can tell us in advance."
            "Seems almost like he was hiding it from us. Does it mean he knows about Chuck?"
            "It might mean he knows we've been gaining intel through his network. I doubt he's made the jump from that to Chuck. I'm sure he'd have realigned him if he knew."
            "It is troubling, though, that Robotnik has done this; it could be a permanent change."
            "Chuck doesn't think so. After all, the mission complete was posted to the network, and even if Robotnik is aware that we have been gaining access, it's to his benefit to post information to his networks, as it keeps the SWATbots in the know much faster than if he didn't. Chuck thinks this was deliberate, but isolated."
            "Did he suggest a course of action?"
            "Not yet. He says it's up to us if we want to take the offensive or not. He says he'll be sure to let us know if he gets wind of any dangerous army movement, though."

            "Let's not have them stand idly by. Have them march south, and set up camp there. Then seek out and destroy any opposition you find in the area."
            "As you command, my liege."

            It was a pastime of mine to explore new places.  I had always been a nomad, an explorer, an adventurer.  Today she accompanied me as we explored an arid stretch of desert.
            She had packed a picnic, and I had strapped a canister of water to the sheath of my sword.  I drew the canister to take a sip, and realized it was all but empty.  Gazing ahead, I saw a pool of water a ways off in the distance.
            Turning to her, I said, "Why don't you get the picnic set up here? I'm going to go on ahead to that small oasis," I pointed, "and get some more water."
            I kissed her on the cheek and smiled.
            "Don't make me wait too long," she said with a smile.
            I turned around, and called back, "I won't!"
            And I set off.
            And it was a long walk, but I knew I was at least giving her ample time to prepare our picnic for when I returned.
            I was halfway to the oasis now, and as it drew closer I took step after step.
            And one brought the flaming night.
            With one fatal step, the world faded away and my vision was aflame.  I heard her cry out in the distance, so far away now, and I had tried to turn and run back to her, but there had been nothing to turn to.  I had not even been able to see her; she was no longer visible.
            And then everything faded away, and everything else faded in.
            I found myself on a cold steel floor, and at that moment I figured I must have blacked out and that now I was dreaming.  I had, after all, but moments before, been walking on sand; it was impossible that this steel floor was anything but a dream.  It was not possible for me to be traversing the desert one moment and the next be within some steel hall.  It could be nothing but a dream.
            An echidna appeared and gaped at me with wide eyes.  "What the hell?!" he exclaimed.
            He hurriedly approached me and then grabbed me by the throat.  "Who the hell are you? Bastard, how dare you infiltrate Haven?!"
            I reached for my sword but could not draw it.  "Tell me...where I am..." I spat.
            "You, of inferior blood. How did you find this place? Tell me or I will slay you."
            "I...don't...know how. I was in the desert one moment, and the next..."
            But I was interrupted.
            "Fool, by coming to Haven you have sacrificed your life!" he shouted at me.  "Unwittingly or not, you have stumbled upon things you cannot know!"

            "This doesn't look good," Uncle Chuck said to himself, as he scoured Robotnik's network.  "Robotnik isn't usually this aggressive. This could be a bad sign."  Chuck remembered that the last time Robotnik had actively dispatched an army to set up a semi-autonomous base camp was when he had invaded Angel Island.  Was he now, then, invading the world?  Was he going to send his army to the corners of the world, eradicating all resistance?  It didn't seem to him like something the Freedom Fighters couldn't handle.  It was just one army, after all.  Though they may be stronger than SWATbots, there were not enough of them that they could not be stopped by a combined force of Knothole, Tarahassas, and Ilus.  But, still, this was something he was not used to.  True, Robotnik had tried before dispatching armies of SWATbots, but generally they were not serious threats.  They would wander aimlessly until some rogue group destroyed them.  Somehow, this seemed more serious.  They were ordered to set up camp.  This was not something Robotnik generally did; Angel Island had been one instance.  It seemed to suggest that the army was to maintain a more enduring stay, that their mission was more complete, more thorough.  He would have to alert Sonic at once, and advise that Knothole confront this army, and enlist the aid of Tarahassas and Ilus, calling upon the pacts signed at the beginning of the Calm.
            The Calm was over.