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

But I do own this story.

A Wily tale

Part 15

The crowd gasped in horror as they saw Robotnik and a squad of his bot planes coming over the forest. To be caught now and turned into mindless robots after losing their home in such a violent manner was enough to send some into a state of panic. But most managed to keep a clear heads.

Ali-Su looked at Search man, the 2 headed robot was at a terminal pressing buttons with his left hand. A small monitor blinked on, showing the face of the man with sunglasses. Ali-Su glared at the picture, feeling the anger of being tricked come back to her.

"Sir! The enemy has been sighted!" The left head reported.

"Yes I know Search man. The Botontons already showed me via remote video link." The man said, "How are things with the crowd?"

"Not well Sir. They looks like their about to scatter any second now that they've seen that round sack of blubber and his flying junk piles."

"Hmmmm...." the man chimed rubbing his chin. "Get them inside. I'll alert the other Robot masters to join you outside. Wily out." The screen went black

"At once Sir." Both heads saluted. Then turned to the crowd.

"Everyone! Inside the tower!" Search man's right head cried.

"We will destroy the intruders!" Search man's left head said brandishing the cannon on his arm.

The crowd needed no further goading, they all ran into the tower better to be in this unknown place than be captured by Robotnik. They all ran past the sentry and into the hallways. Ali-Su had scooped up Doc and ran inside with the rest of the crowd, she held onto the tiny robot like a small child. Doc however was watching his larger kin walk by, most of them smiled and waved at the little guy.

The man's voice boomed over the PA system. "Attention all Robot masters! Proceed at once to the exits and prepare to engage the enemy!" The crowd felt chills as Robots of every type burst out of the doors, down hallways and stairwells, and stepped out elevators. Some acknowledged them with a grin or a nod, but a few glared at them.

Jonny was almost a foot away from the terminal when Quick man's face appeared on the terminal screen.

"Boss! Why not use just the towers defense systems?" Quick man said, appearing over the monitor.

"They aren't operational yet." Jonny said, crossing his arms.

"I though you said Operation Sanctum was complete!" Quick man said frowning.

"Operation Sanctum only refers to the tower itself, not the defense grids." Jonny said, "Now get out there and help the others!"

Quick man sighed in protest and shook his head before turning the monitor off and heading out to aid his brethren.

Without another word Jonny then walked coldly to the elevator. He hit the up button and in a fraction of a second the doors opened.

"Where are you going?" Sally asked as he got on.

"If you want to know, get on." He said placing his arms behind him.

The Freedom fighters looked at each other, then hurriedly got on.

The doors closed, they watched the numbers move up to the roof. As the doors opened they were nearly blinded as the sun's rays slipped through the metal doors. As their eyes adjusted, they saw the roof was smoothed white marble. Suspended on five 10 foot high white pillars was the grey shingled conical peak of the tower. These pillars for some reason were not set in a symmetrical pattern, for there was a large gap in the way they were set. The view, however, was spectacular, they could see all the way to Robotroplis and see all of the green wood that had been their home. They then looked out to see that Robotnik and his small fleet of bot planes.

"So why'd yah bring us up here?" Bunnie asked, "Ah mean, It's nice and all, but..."

Jonny had paid little attention to Bunnie's question, he had moved over to a hidden panel in the nearest pillar and opened it to reveal a security panel and pressed in a code. There was a loud creaking noise like the kind chains of a drawbridge make when lowered, the whole center section of the tower above them began to lower. Sitting on the platform held a large craft, fashioned to look like a skull, of course.

"Meet the Skulker." Jonny said as the platform met the floor, "This nasty little vehicle served my grandfather less as a weapon and more as a means of escape more than anything, but I made my own modifications to this little monster."

The Mobians were a bit shocked to see such a craft. It truly looked like a cross between a skull and a hovercraft, with huge silver 'W's emblazoned on each side.

"What's your plan sugah?" Bunnie sounded a little concerned, "Ah hope yer not plannin' to face Robotnik head on"

"Heaven's no. I plan to get in his face a bit, but you'll see what's going to happen." He looked at The Freedom Fighters, "I would like someone to co-pilot this for me, any takers?"

Rotor, Bunnie and Tails volunteered, but after a short discussion, they decided that a group of them would go, and another would return to the care for the frightened populace. Sonic, Sally, and Rotor boarded the Skulker with Jonny, while Amy, Bunnie, Antione and Tails would return to the first floor via the elevator.

Once seated inside the Skulker, Sonic, Sally and Rotor found themselves surrounded by buttons and levers.

"Here's the plan, I'll take the ship up to Robotnik. Don't worry, the windows are one way mirrors, he won't see you, he'll think the ship is automated." He said. "Sonic, you see that red button to your left?"

"Yeah." He reached for it.

"NO! Stop!" Jonny cried. Thankfully, Sally stopped him before he pressed it, Jonny sighed in relief.

"Sally, would you mind switching places with Sonic?" The human asked/pleaded.

"Gladly." The squirrel said, giving Sonic a glare. Sonic only smiled weakly as he changed seats with Sally.

"Okay, when I tell you to, hit that button." Jonny instructed. "That'll activate the plasma cannon in the jaws of this thing. But don't hit it until I tell you, or I'll be fried."

"You trust me enough to put your life in my hands?" Sally asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Something in my guts tells me yes." He said. "I trust you Princess."

Sally and her friends looked at each other, either this guy was a bit on the loopy side, or he really trusted them. They shrugged and returned their eyes to the windshields that were in fact the eye sockets of the skull.

"Contact." Jonny said, taking the steering wheel and flipped a few switches.

The ship's engines powered up and rose off the ground slightly. Jonny piloted the Skulker forward, not wanting to damage his tower so soon after raising it.

"Okay, here we go!"

Dr.Robotnik saw the tower and frowned. "It's even uglier in person." He muttered.

A voice came on his repaired egg pod's speakers. "Attention! You are entering the territory of Skull Tower, please halt your position. Mr. Wily will be with you shortly." It was the monotone voice of Jonny's computer.

The bloated man snickered, "Why not? I'd like to meet the one who could build a tower like this in so short a time." He signaled his robotic planes to hover.

It was not long before Robotnik noticed a skull shaped aircraft approaching his own, which came to a halt hovering in front of the tyrant.

'What interesting technology.' Robotnik thought. 'I must have it.'

The skull shaped craft slowly opened its jaw. The evil doctor saw a young man wearing a lab coat and sunglasses, the kind that the blind wore. The man smirked as the high winds blowing his lab coat about like a cape. He was holding onto an unseen bar that was attached to the roof of the mouth for safety.

"Who are you?" Robotnik said, interested that an Overlander this young would be a scientist, or that's what he guessed from the young man's lab coat.

"My name is Jonathan Wily. I'm the proprietor of this tower." Jonny said, pointing to Skull tower.

"Your mechanical skills are obviously great. Why not work for me? I could use a new assistant." Of course, Robotnik didn't mean this, he just wanted to lure Jonny back to Robotropilis to roboticize him.

"No thanks. I don't like ties to people of... Your stature." Jonny chuckled, "I have lots of work to do, so why don't you go back to that dank hole you crawled out of and build yourself a weight loss machine."

Robotnik's face was as red as his suit. "All ships! Lock on and fire! Blow him out of the sky!" He screamed.

No sooner had Robotnik started to yell his orders, Jonny had quickly slipped back up into the Skulker and closed the unseen hatch. "Now Sal!"

A large cannon poked its way out the mouth of the Skulker and released a large burst of plasma, taking out a large number of Robotnik's ships. It had however, only singed the paint on Robotnik's egg pod.

Lasers began to shoot by the Skulker, some grazing the hull.

"The cannon's out of power! Prepare for evasive maneuvers!" The human cried as he grabbed d the wheel.

The Mobians were tossed out of their seats by the sharp movements the ship made to avoid the oncoming laser fire.

"Where are the seat belts?" Rotor asked, getting up.

"I knew I forgot something!" Jonny gave them a sheepish smile, which was met with glares. Then picked up the intercom. His voice boomed over the PA system of the tower. "Attention all Robot masters! Destroy all of Robotnik's aircraft!

Every robot master began to assault the armada with what ever they had, balls of fire cooked the wiring of the ships, bolts of electricity shorted out the programming of the planes, sending them crashing to the ground, Ice clogged the engine's intake valves and they plummeted, huge gusts of wind blew planes into other planes, the stronger robots, that had no weapons that could reach, simply heaved boulders or whatever they could lift at the planes.

Inside, Amy and the others had located the crowd of Mobians, most were admiring the tower, they felt more secure inside the tower than outside. That was, until they heard all the ruckus outside.

Tails turned to the terminal and tried to work it, but was having problems.

Doc, still held by Ali-Su, wiggled out of her arms and hurried out over to the terminal Tails was at. Ali-su had chased after him, not looking where she was going and ran into Bunnie.

"Ow..." She said, "Oh! Sorry Bunnie."

"Oh, hi Ali-girl!" the Rabbot said, She then noticed the hard hatted robot, "How cute, you know this lil guy Ali?"

"Yeah his name is Doc." The echidna said, watching the tiny robot look at Tails and then at the terminal.

A wire came out of Doc's open 'mouth' and stuck it into a hole in the terminal. The terminal's monitor showed the fight outside, everyone saw how the robots were actually attacking Robotnik's now extremely small amount of airborne planes.

"Look at that! Jonny's robots are destroying all the bot planes!" Tails exclaimed. The crowd gathered around the monitor, seeing for themselves the havoc that was befalling Robotniks forces with grins and cheers.

Ali-Su had heard the name Jonny, and had looked up. But she only grew more enraged, 'Jonny must've had a lot more designs than Red. This Overlander is a thief AND a charlatan!' she thought.

"This isn't the end! You've made a dangerous enemy today boy! I'll be back!" Robotnik cursed as he few off, his bravado was gone with out his army to back him up.

"Hey Sonic, was I just now being threatened by a talking blimp?" Jonny joked.

They all laughed. Jonny set the Skulker down on the ground, admits his celebrating 'bots.

"You can address your people through the intercom. The green switch by your right Sonic." He explained, stepping out to congratulate his 'men'. "Great work guys! That was some high class destruction!"

His robots cheered and raised their fists. "As a reward, all the plasma you can drink at the cafeteria!" His robots let out a 'YEAH!' as they raced to the tower, all wanting to super charge their power cells.

Sally smiled, this guy was kind to his creations, something Robotnik certainly wasn't. "Sonic?"

"On it Sal." Sonic hit the switch and turned on the intercom. Her voice came over came over the PA system and her face appeared on every monitor.

"My former citizens of Knothole," Sally addressed her people in a serious tone. "This young man has offered us a home in his tower. He assures us that his robots are here only as residents, not as enforcers of law of any kind and that they will not harm you as long as you treat them with the same respect you give each other. Freedom Fighters, welcome to Skull Tower."

To be continued....