Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, blah, blah, blah. You've heard this sh before.

But I do own this story.

A Wily tale

Part 13

The Freedom fighters followed the man cautiously down the hallway past many doors and other hallways. Some of the robots that had helped them during the attack on Knothole were walking up or down the hall past them. Some greeted them with a friendly smile or wave, others ignored them. One however glared at them, it looked like it was a robot designed to look like a skeleton. It was leaning against the wall, giving them a death glare, each Mobian got shivers from it's blood red eyes as it stared at them. The man had paid him no mind however, and stopped and opened a door not far from the mean looking robot. Inside was a long wooden table with many chairs of varying type, the room itself was the same as the hallway, clean white walls and ceiling with black ammonium floors that shone like polished glass...

"This is the conference room." He said, taking a seat in the swivel chair at the head of the table, putting his torn up shoes on the table. "Make yourselves at home."

Sonic and the gang slowly followed him in, Overlanders weren't especially known for hospitality or acts or generosity. So none of them were very sure of what to make of this guy. Nate Morgan was by far the only exception to the rule. They sat down at the table... All good so far...

"I will answer all questions you ask. But first, would anyone feel like any refreshments?"

"I wouldn't mind a glass of water, please." Amy asked, remembering her manners.

The man turned to the robot the freedom fighters had known as Red, "Quick man would you mind?"

"Not at all sir." The red robot sped over to the door and disappeared out the door and in a matter of seconds returned with a glass of water for Amy, as requested.

"Here you are Amy." Quick man smiled kindly and handed Amy the glass.

"Thanks." Amy took a sip and set the glass down.

Red er... Quick man turned to the chair to the Overlander's side and say in it. Putting his feet up on the table as well.

Sally and the others weren't thirsty and declined, they were more interested in answers.

"So who are you?"

"Just a guy who wants to help stop Robotnik." He said calmly.

"I think Sal means is, what's your name?" Sonic explained.

"Jonny."

"Don't mess with us young man!" Sally snapped, standing up. "Jonny was the name of the robot fox you made!"

"Yeah. It's my name too."

"What?" Sally said, not sure what to say to that.

"I absolutely hate lying to potential allies. So I used my name in placed of the robot's serial code. Which by the way was GF-MMM1."

"Does that stand for somethin?" Bunnie asked.

"GF-MM1 means Grey fox, Mad Machine Model 1" Jonny said.

"Mad Machine?" Tails raised an eyebrow.

"Just a name I assure you. I thought it sounded cool."

"How did you coordinate so well with the android?" Rotor asked, " I mean, you would've had to use some sort of bug or something..."

"I used M.I.S." The young man pulled out a mechanical headband out of his lab coat and set it on the table. "Mental Interface System. In a nutshell, It allowed my mind to be in two places. Here, overseeing the construction of this tower, and in Knothole learning everything I could. About you, Robotnik, the way things were, how they are now, everything."

"You and the android fox are the same person?" Sonic said, "That explains why you were so interested on learning and also why you never ate with us."

"So... What about those Swatbots that were chasing you? They see your droid and almost break your toy?" Rotor asked in a half mocking tone.

"No." He said, reaching inside his coat again. Everyone tensed up as they saw him take out a device all too similar to a gun. Antoine placed his hand on his sword, and underneath the table Bunnie readied her robotic arm to go cannon mode if need be. Amy however didn't think this guy was the kind of guy who'd shoot them in this manner, but kept her eyes open for anything.

The man seemed to notice their glaring stares, and laughed. "What? I couldn't shoot you with this, take a closer look." he tossed the gun to Sonic, who caught it when it landed in his lap.

"Nice shot." Bunnie said. The man smirked and nodded in her direction.

"There's no hole for a bullet or even a laser beam..." Sonic said, examining it, then handed it to Sally. The man watching them from his reclined position.

'He certainly is relaxed... Kinda reminds me of Sonic. Kinda.' Amy thought.

Sally took out Nicole, "Nicole, scan this device please." She held the 'gun' up to Nicole.

The hand held computer slowly scanned the device, all eyes were now on Nicole.

"Scan complete." Nicole stated.

"What is this thing Nicole?" Sally asked her computer.

"It is a reprogramming device. The design is of unknown origin." Nicole chirped.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Jonny said.

"So what does this prove?" Sally asked.

"Remember all those robot's that disappeared in the last month?" He paused, waiting for a response, which came in a few nods, "I used this little leftover from my grandfather's days of conquest to reprogram Swatbots and Combots to follow my orders. I used them to steal equipment from Robotnik."

"If that's so, why don't we see any?"

"I took them apart to use as parts to build my army of Robot masters and other things." Jonny explained.

"If yah were here... what did yah do for food? You had to have had to forage for some time..." Bunnie asked.

"I had a hole dug from Knothole to the hut you gave the android so I could relay food to myself and supplies to my robots." the man explained, "I hope you can forgive my subterfuge Princess. But when you don't know whose side to be on, it's wise to learn as much as possible about both sides before helping one of those fore mentioned sides."

Sally grumbled. "You have a point."

The Overlander turned to Sonic "One thing Sonic, You need to improve your dietary needs. I'm sick of those chili dogs you kept giving me."

"Still, you did lie to uz." Antoine spoke up.

"Give him a little slack Ant. What do you think would've happened if he just burst into Knothole? He'd be in the Jail or worse." Amy said.

"In actuality, when I spoke through the robot I barely lied at all. Just the times I said I was a Mobian and a fox where lies. My parents died when I was four, I have had no real home until I was fourteen I moved in with my Grandpa. He taught me all I know about robotics."

"That's good. I mean, ten years of not having a home? That's rough." Amy said, feeling a tad sorry for the guy.

"It was sorta not a good thing, I hate my grandpa." Jonny straightened up and pushed his shades back, "In some ways he was worse than Robotnik. I don't feel like going into that now I you don't mind... Too many bad memories..."

"Who eez your grandpa?" Antoine asked.

"A madman." He sighed, "Everything in this tower is based on his original designs. The tower itself, the robots, everything. I of course made my own modifications."

"Like what?" Amy asked.

"I gave MY robots much more freedom in their programming, they originally were programmed only to destroy things and obey my grandfather. I, however, wanted more than an army of drone like robots. So I gave them the ability to choose, to learn, to feel. My robots are much more 'alive' than either my grandfather's or Robotnik's robots."

Meanwhile outside, another robot came out the Tower and stood outside the doorway. The former residents of Knothole gawked at this robot. It was just under 7 feet tall, had a desert camo paint scheme, it's right arm was attached to the barrel of a large cannon at the elbow. But the thing that stuck out the most was that it had 2 heads! Its heads both wore an army style helmet with the same paint scheme as the rest of it, and both did not have a mouth. The left head had more rounded covering over where the mouth would've been, the right's was more square like. The right head looked at the Mobians with a gentle look in its eyes than the other, who glared at them. The same silver 'W' adorned their helmet like heads.

"Knight man, I'm here to take your post on guard duty." the 2-headed robot said.

With out a word, the blue robot turned back into the tower's hallway, its footsteps fading into nothingness.

Ali-Su walked up to the new robot. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Search man." Said the right head in a kind tone, "Okay?" the left head spat.

"What's with you?" Ali-Su retorted to the left head.

"It's our turn on guard duty." the sour head said, glaring down at the yellow echidna.

"He's just a crank, ignore him."

"What did you call me?"

"I called you a crank, you crank." The nice head turned to look his brother in the eye.

The sour head's eyes burned for a second and then, unexpectedly slugged the nice head. The right head retorted by knocking the left in the face with the gun barrel. There was a sound of the left head shutting down as its eyes closed.

"Sorry, he was originally designed to be a drill instructor robot. Before we were rebuilt into one body."

"Must be tough having to put up with him." Ali said.

"At times, he just wants to do his best, but even I can't stand him all the time." Search man's right head said.

Search man noticed a few scared faces in the crowd looking at him, he didn't mind them as much as the glares. That he didn't like at all, he was the nice one. He was disturbed from his thoughts by a giggle. Search man looked down to see a young raccoon of about 6.

Having no mouth, Search man couldn't smile, so he looked at the raccoon with as much kindness as he could show. Then reached for her.

"Suzie! Get away from that robot!" the raccoon's mother shouted in fear. Her fears were put to rest as she saw Search man simply place her daughter his right shoulder.

"Watch this." Search man said, and then made his head spin like a top.

"Your funny." The child giggled.

Search man stopped spinning his head, "Always a pleasure to bring a smile to the young." he said, letting her down, she then ran to her mother.

"Um... Thank you..." Her mother said, she had never seen such a playful robot, or even a robot with anything close to humor.

"Always ready to serve a pedestrian madam." Search man said saluting her, and returning to his post.

The left head then opened its eyes and looked around. "What happened private?" He asked.

"Nothing Sir." the right lied.

The left mentally shrugged and resumed its post.

Ali-Su, who had simply observed the whole thing chuckled, and walked back to the rest of the crowd. 'That was nice of him...' she thought.

Back in the conference room, the questions continued.

"Okay, why make Red... err... Quick man? I'd think that would've jeopardized your plans." Sally asked.

"The answer: curiosity. I wanted to know how you would react to my technology. All my Robots have dreams, desires, and minds of their own. I've promised them upon the defeat of Robotnik, they will be free to fulfill those dreams."

"Like what?" Tails asked.

"Well, Sword man wants to set up a training center for anyone wanting to learn how to fence. Bubble man and Wave man want to explore the oceans of Mobius. And Quick man wants to break the sound barrier and beat Sonic in a race."

The Freedom fighters fell silent. This was unlike anything they had ever expected. It was a lot to take in one day. Their home destroyed only an hour or so ago and now this strange Overlander was offering them a place to stay.

"Well, what do you say? Will you accept my offer of asylum? I assure you, I mean no harm to you and your own."

Amy was the first to speak, "I will."

The man smiled, "Any other takers?"

"It would be nice to examine this technology... I'm in." Rotor said.

"If Rotor's in I'm in too!" Tails said.

"Same goes for me with Tails." Sonic said. Antione and Bunnie agreed too.

"I guess we're all in." Sally said.

"Good." the man said.

With a snap of his fingers another monitor screen rotated out of the wall, displaying a map of the Tower, Jonny explained the floors and their functions, "First floor is the recreation area, which has the gym, the arcade, dojo, my personal favorite; the battle area, the cafeteria, I'll show that later, and a few other things. Second and third floor are your rooms, fourth floor is my Robot master's rooms, fifth is my floor, it's not all that big. The sixth and seventh floor are empty as of yet, I leave you to decide on how to use them. The eighth floor is the main control room and lastly the top of the tower is the residence of Cloud man, since he hates being indoors so much."

"Everyone of you is welcome to stay here. You don't have to, even though I personally redesigned this tower to accommodate myself, my robots, and everyone in Knothole."

"Okay... What about the basement?"

"Off limits. Along with the 5th and 8th floor. I can give you special clearance to access them though."

Why are we not allowed in there?

"The 8th floor will be open to you seven, but no one else. The 5th floor is where I go to be alone, and the basement is my laboratory, I don't want anyone down there for safety reasons. However Rotor, Tails, Sonic and of course princess are hereby given access." Jonny took out some laminated cards and instructed Quick man to hand them out, which he did in under 5 seconds. One other thing."

The screen showed 3 robots, one of them was the scary robot that was out side the doors when they came in. "These Robots are to be treated with care. They are Skull man, Napalm man, and Grenade man."

"Why?" Bunnie asked.

"Skull man was designed and programmed only to know how to fight, I tried to change that, but my attempts have proved fruitless. Same goes for Napalm man's borderline psychosis, and Grenade man's love for explosions." Jonny explained, "I promise you this; if they harm anyone, I will deactivate them, put them in a stasis tube."

"Cool. Hey, what's your name? You're full name." Sonic asked.

The man turned and said, "Jonathan Alvis Wily."

To be continued...