(Angel Island, three hours ago)
My first sensation of returning to the world of the living was that of pain. My side still throbbed from the stunner, and it felt like I'd hit my head on the way down.
I tried to sit up, and stopped right away. Pain jarred within every inch of my skull.
When I realized that two people were talking fairly close by.
"Oh, Tails, I'm so sorry I shafted you, I should have told you –"
"That's okay, Ames. I know you didn't mean it."
"I want you to know, Tails, you're the only one in my life. I'd never let anyone else take that spot."
This phrase, of course, came from the lips that had kissed Shadow less than two weeks ago. Funny how things work out.
Amy's voice rang through my aching head again. "But I'm so sorry. If I weren't tied up, I'd show you how much I care, Tails, I'd tell you how you make me feel, I'd…"
Half-baked metaphors came streaming out, each one twice as suggestive as the last. Amy Rose was beginning to resemble a bad romance novelist. And with the migraine I now had, each lurid, sappy phrase caused a new stream of stabbing pains in my temples.
" – I feel like I'm on fire when you're around, you foxy woxy bundle of cuddlesome – "
Sweet Lord. And in all likelihood, Shadow, Roland and Rouge were all together, not talking, and recuperating nicely in silence, where as I was lying here in significant pain, having to listen to Romeo and Juliet on crack. What a nice world. What a nice fucking world.
I cleared my throat and sat up. It hurt. A lot. But the lovey-dovey drivel stopped as Tails and Amy realized I was there.
We were in a dimly lit cell, which had mould along one of the walls. Water dripped from a pipe overhead, echoing in the silence. Amy and Tails were both handcuffed to the cell doors.
"Hello, Amy," I growled.
"Uh, hi, Knuckles? Uh, I, um, hired you to find Tails, uh, but I guess I found him all by myself! Uh, thanks anyway!"
I grabbed her by the throat. I could have just snapped her neck like a twig, but I only wanted to scare her a bit. For now, at least.
"You bitch. Do you have any idea how close you've come to getting me killed over nothing at all? For what? You're not getting paid, why?"
Tails butted in. "Sir, do you know who I am?"
"Of course. You're the guy I was hired to find, Tails."
"That would be Miles Prower to you, sir, whoever you are."
That's when I saw that Tails didn't have his glasses on. The boy was as blind as a bat, blind as a drunk, blind as I had been at the start of this case.
"Tails, it's me."
"Who?"
"Knuckles, you dolt." I sighed. I was once again paired with morons.
"Lay off her, then."
"Why?"
"She didn't mean to hurt us. She loves me."
I looked at her. "So she loves you and you love her? Well, don't let there be a 'shadow' of doubt." I stressed "shadow" just a bit, and she went pale instantly. I giggled
That's when Vector came in and pegged me with the butt of his shotgun. Between gasping for breath and in pain on the floor, I heard him say I was wanted.
Wonderful.
-
Sonic sat across of the twenty-four hundred dollar Bombay Co. mahogany desk, his feet up off the floor. He had an authentic Cuban clutched between the two fingers of his right hand; smoke trailed out in snakelike patterns. He sipped from his half-glass of cognac. Everything about Sonic was a memento of the delicate life he had built around himself.
"So, Knuckles. How's life?"
I glared at him, silent to the end.
Sonic's false kindness slipped for an instant. "Vector?"
The headphoned juggernaut with the shotgun brought it down crushingly on the back of my neck.
"Life's fine, thank you."
"Good. I suppose you want to know about what's happened over the last ten years. Time's change, huh?"
"I guess so."
"Of course they do. That's because I said so."
Dimly, I realized that Sonic was nuts. Not just eccentric, but nuts. He had gone completely megalomaniac, with just a touch of an Oedipus complex thrown in to complete the picture. Sonic had lost it.
"Well, it all started with the last caper with Robotnik. You remember how he threatened to blow up Angel Island?"
I nodded.
"Guess what? There never was a bomb. That was something I made up. Eggman was actually coming to Angel because he was retiring. Can you imagine it? The Eggster retiring?"
He laughed, a tittering, unpleasant sound. "Anyway, he had a safe in Station Square. Every penny he ever made was going to be in it. Looked like he was taking a cruise to the banana republics. That's where I saw my chance.
"You remember how we fought him time and time again. And we never received anything for it. Why should the old bum get rich while the good guys got poor? So I decided I'd rob him.
"I spread the rumor of Robotnik planting a bomb at an abandoned warehouse. Angel was evacuated, panic reigned. It was so cool to see everyone pissing their pants over a complete hoax! We even teamed up with Dark, they were so scared. Great, huh?
"You remember what happened. I killed Eggman. But, you know, if you're trying to steal something, being as famous as Sonic the Hedgehog is a problem. So, after I threw Eggman's body off the cliff. I 'fell' along with him. Stealing things is great when they think you're dead.
"After I'd got the old fart's body to shore, I pulled a key, an ID card and a safe number off of him. I knew there would be a thumbprint, so I cut it off of him. But there was a problem. When I went to Station Square to open the safe, the thumbprint didn't work. The security went off. I was lucky to escape alive.
"I couldn't understand what went wrong. When it came to me. Robo-butt wouldn't have used his own thumbprint. He'd use someone else's. Someone close in his organization. Someone like Roland the Mongoose.
"Try, try though I might, I couldn't get close enough to Roland to get a thumbprint. Robco was just too protective of their CEO. So I founded Cinos. The cover was that it was a corporation that dealt with emeralds. The reality was that it was just a front for bringing Robco to its knees.
"But Roland had guessed that I had taken Eggman's keys, and he started hunting for them. He looked for every friend I'd had while I was 'alive', he stalked them, and he'd burglarized them. I needed a secure place to hide the keys. I found Tails.
"And so, without telling Tails who I was, I hired Prower Enterprises to take custody of the keys in a safety deposit box. And for a while, it was good.
"Then the inevitable happened. Tails found out who I was, and threatened to turn over the keys to Robco. I couldn't have that. I 'disappeared' him. For extra security, I hired Amy to hire you to find him, knowing you never would. She's always been ready to do anything for me. Pathetic, really. To top it off, I sent Shadow to put the scare on you. Plus, I needed a new hiding place for the keys. So, on the subway, I personally slipped you the keys to the safe. Roland suspected something, so he sent the Chaotix after you, but you didn't talk. Congratulations."
I started to realize how dumb I'd been to accept this case. I should have stuck to sneaky husbands and shooting people's parents.
"And inevitably, Robco fell. I myself was waiting outside when you killed all his ground-floor security. But that meant I couldn't get close to Roland, couldn't get his prints. So, I tried to take you out. Not kill you, but take you out. Guess that didn't work, either.
"Then Shadow started getting wise. He never found out who I was, but he was just too smart. So, I had Amy fill him full of lead. The plan was to kill him, but once again, you stepped in.
"I was getting desperate. You still had the keys, Shadow and Roland were both still a problem, and you were utterly wrecking my game plan. But I got lucky.
"I got a phone call from Nack, just ten minutes after you left. Knowing the hardware you had, I planned ahead. I got you stuck in the elevator, and you were capped."
Sonic spread his arms in a "here we are, then" gesture. He then looked at his watch. "In two minutes, a strike team will hold up the bank in Station Square. They will only take one thing: a medium-sized safe. Nobody will be killed, and the cops will have nothing to go on. That safe will come to an undisclosed location. Now that I have Roland and both keys, I will soon have more money than God." He gave an annoying cat-got-the-cream smile.
"And then?' I inquired blandly.
"Oh, it gets better. You've made a lot of ruckus over the last two weeks. You burglarized an apartment, you shot up a lobby, you were involved in arson, you bought illegal weapons, and you killed several members of my staff in a drive-by. The cops need a pin-up man. They will find you, Shadow, Rouge and Roland after you killed one another in a firefight. Pretty slick, huh?"
Sonic's carefree, life-is-a-game tone really pissed me off. I tried to rise at him. Sonic snapped his fingers at Vector, who grabbed me from behind. As he drew out a ball-bearing billy club, I could hear the sounds of "Iron Man" from his headphones.
He was turned to steelIn the great magnetic field
When he traveled –I really hate that song.
Wham.
Or it would have been wham. In fact, it was, but it was against Vector's head, not mine. Sonic was out the door before either of us could react. I finished my crocodile friend off with a knee to the groin, grabbed his gun, and took off towards the cells.
The guard proved to be no problem. He took a barrel-load of shot right in the chest, his tan shirt ripping outwardly, blood spraying over the lot as the shotgun cut him in half.
Rouge was tied to the opposite wall of the cell next to mine. They'd obviously hit her around, but it looked like they'd stopped short of violation. She eyed me, sulkily.
"You know," I said, "I could just leave you here."
"I know," she said.
"Well, you are just tied up there. Very appetizing for a guy me."
"Let me go, you fuck," she growled. "Let's just get out of here."
"No can do," I replied in a chipper tone. "I'd like to finish Sonic off first. Revenge sort of thing."
I "forgot" to mention the tremendous amount of money that would be in store for me if I played my cards right. But hey, one splits a whole lot better than two. I could always kill her, if worst came to worst. "Where's Shadow?"
"Sonic took him and everyone else off somewhere. Said something about a warehouse."
"Let's go."
We reached the garage, where a number of vehicles stood idle. We were about to grab one when a loud rumbling outside caused us to duck behind a series of crates. A huge semi rolled into the garage, its black paint job shining in the lamplight.
I'd only had the shotgun, which had only had one cartridge in it. I was gunless in the face of what could have been a very tricky situation.
The truck stopped, and my heart sank as Espio climbed out of the cab. He withdrew a cigarette from his pocket, and it was then that I realized how long it had been since I'd had a smoke.
He was talking on his cell, probably to Mighty. "Yeah, nice of the S-man to give us a job, now that Roland's in the sack. Right. Right. Well, I just stole a whole lot of stuff here, so you ask him where he wants it. Oh, at the warehouse? Yeah, that's fine. Okay, see you in a minute."
It was then that I noticed a length of steel cable around one of the crates. I grabbed it moved out towards the truck…
-
On the whole, I thought I was to be congratulated for my hiding place. I was right behind Espio's seat in the semi. He can sneak around, but so can I, and I don't need no steenkin invisibility.
He was turning the truck around. I made my move, wrapping both ends of the steel wire around my hands.
"Buckle up, Espio," I said in a low voice, whipping the cable around his neck. Espio made a long series of gurgling attempts to remove the wire that was throttling him, trying to scream but failing. Eventually, he began to flail, letting out spasmodic tries to hit me, or dislodge me. But I held on, and he eventually stopped squirming.
I motioned for Rouge to get out of her hiding place. We were now in control of a truck. And I knew where to go.
There was only one warehouse that Sonic's sick little mind would consider appropriate. The sleazy waterfront warehouse where Robotnik had died.
The place where it had all began. The place where it would end.
I leveled my foot on the gas and moved on.
I'm coming for you, Sonic, I thought, grinding my teeth in silence.
And when I get there, there'll be hell to pay.
