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 24
Jonny sat up in his bed with a look of absolute terror on his face and fear in his mind. He was covered in a cold sweat, he was unable to remember what ever he had dreamed had frightened him so badly. He groaned in frustration and got dressed. This been the pattern for the past three mornings, and Jonny was getting very sick of it. But the things the voice had been preaching every night was even worse. It would go on and on about no matter what he did he would always cause nothing but strife, misery, and death. The worst part was that the voice seemed to get louder and more depressing every night.
He arrived in the lab to find Rotor and Tails there, once again looking through the video files in the computer.
"You okay Jonny?" Tails said, seeing how pale Jonny's face was. "You've been sleeping in late for the last three days, and everyday you come in like you've seen a ghost."
"I'm okay, just... having trouble sleeping." Jonny lied. He didn't think anyone would believe him about hearing voices, or at worst think him insane.
Rotor turned off the video screen and they all began to walk (or roll in Jonny's case) towards the roboticizer when the elevator door opened and princess Sally stepped into the lab.
"Hi Jonny, Tails, Rotor. How are things going?" Sally said to her friends.
"We were just about to start testing this thing." Jonny said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was mentally tired, having to listen to that voice all night and now the dreamless nightmares where taking their toll on the human's mind. The strain was really wearing him out, and to think he used to love to sleep...
Sally cocked her head. "And how, pray tell, are you planning to do test the roboticizer?"
"I have a few test subjects." Jonny said looking over his shoulder where Tails and Rotor where standing. Both the walrus and fox gulped.
Jonny rolled over, past the two Mobians and took out a small jar like container and looked at tails and Rotor's nervous looks and raised an eyebrow at them. "What?"
"You aren't... planning on roboticizing us... are ya?" Tails slowly asked.
Jonny took a moment to assess what Tails had said. He looked at the can, then at his friends, then back at the can, then burst out laughing.
Tails and Rotor looked at each other with looks of confusion. Not getting the joke.
"What's so funny?" Rotor asked, frowning at the human.
The reason why Jonny was laughing at them was quickly revealed as he opened the jar.
"Worms?" The three Mobians said in unison. Sally and the others turned with looks of surprise on their faces.
"Yeah. You really think I'd use one of you as a guinea pig for my experiments? HA!" Jonny smiled. "You guys are too easy."
Jonny instantly shut up as he saw that they were all giving him death glares. 'I hope they aren't getting any ideas...' he gulped.
Jonny frowned as he watched them snicker, then cracked up at his reaction.
"So..." Sally said, wiping a tear from her eye, "Why are you using worms?"
"Would you prefer I use one of them?" Jonny said rolling his eyes. "Seriously, I want to start small, and I would prefer to use non sentient life. And don't worry, I plan on restoring all my test subjects to their original states."
"I have your promise on that?" Sally said, taking another look at the earthworms in the jar. Each one writhed inside their metal prison, Sally never really liked looking at such things and quickly turned back to Jonny.
"Of course princess. I promise." Jonny said. "So what brings you down here?"
Sally tried to relax, 'Well here it goes.' she took a breath to calm her nerves. "Jonny, my father is going to be here in a few hours. Is everything ready?"
Tails and Rotor spun around to look at Sally.
Jonny sighed. This was the third time she had asked him that. "Dust man informed me that things were done last night. Don't worry. I mean it's not like you didn't report everything to him earlier."
"How did you know I did that?" Sally asked.
Jonny smiled, "There's one bad trait that Shadow man has, he tends to take his job as a security officer WAY too far."
Sally frowned, "You mean he's been spying on me?"
"No. Pretty much on everyone." Jonny shrugged. "But we all have bad habits."
Sally sighed, she supervised as Jonny began his tests, he turned the worms into mechanical ones. He then changed them back, all the while taking notes.
Amy was sitting with Ali-Su in the cafeteria, chatting about this and that.
"Amy, Jonny told me you've been taking self defense lessons from Shadow man?"
"Yes, he's a great teacher." Amy beamed, "It's nice to know that not all robots are bad. I like it here."
"Yeah. I like it here too." Ali-Su said.
Both of them sat in silence for a short time.
"So have you told him yet?" Amy asked suddenly, grinning evilly and leaning on her elbows.
The echidna gulped. "Told who what yet?"
"Told Jonny that you like him."
Ali-Su frowned and looked away, but said nothing.
"Sorry, I was just teasing." Amy apologized.
Ali shook her head. "I... just don't think he'd... I don't know."
'Looks like you hit the wrong nerve Amy.' The female hedgehog thought. "Look, I didn't mean to upset you Ali-Su. You're really torn on this huh?"
"Yeah, he's kind, sweet, and great to be around..." Ali-Su sighed deeply. "But I don't know how to tell him how I feel, or if he feels the same way about me."
Amy thought for a second, she had to tell her friend something to cheer her up. "Ali, what if I told you that Jonny DOES feel the same way?"
That seemed to perk the echidna up. "He does? How do you know Amy?"
"Before he was beaten up, he told me a few times how he felt about you." Amy knew she was kinda snitching on her friend, but she felt Ali-Su deserved to hear the truth.
Ali-Su smiled. "He really likes me? But why hasn't he told me before?"
"He may not be completely sure you like him." Amy said, "He has a low opinion of himself if you ask me. I also don't think he has the self esteem to tell you how he feels, although he does hide it pretty well."
Ali-Su raised an eyebrow. "How would you know?"
"Woman's intuition." Amy grinned.
Ali-Su sighed. "I can understand why he would. He's been put down all his life, and he feels so lonely-..." Ali-Su stopped when she saw Amy grinning widely at her.
"How would you know how he feels?" Amy asked.
"Jonny... Showed me how his parents died. He used the M.I.S. thing to show me every gruesome detail." Ali-Su grimaced at the memory of the sight of horrible incident. "But, I could also somehow felt what was feeling, Amy. Jonny feels like he's got no one, even though he's got friends now."
Amy gave her friend a smirk. "You DO love him."
Ali-Su gulped. Then said very weakly. "I think I do..."
"Just tell him. I told Sonic how I felt about him."
Ali-Su rolled her eyes. "Yeah. And look where you are now."
Amy frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Hey!"
"I was just kidding Amy." Ali-Su said, laughing a little. "I'll tell him how I feel someday. But until then I'll try to get him to admit it first." She winked at Amy, and both shared a giggle.
Ali-Su got up to leave, but before she left she turned back to Amy.
"Amy?" She asked, "Promise me you won't tell anyone I told you all this."
"I promise." The pink hedgehog said.
Ali-Su wasn't totally sure if what Amy said was true or she was just trying to cheer her up. But, either way she appreciated what her friend had told her.
As soon as Ali-Su was out of sight, Amy sighed heavily. "She's hopeless."
A few hours later, Shade man, as usual was sitting up on the very tip of the tower, glaring down like a fanged gargoyle at everything happening below him. He stretched his wings and looked around, "Kinda boring out today." He hissed, he was kinda annoyed that the sun was out, as he considered himself a Goth and preferred the dreariness of an overcast day. He did however see an air craft approaching the tower at a relatively slow rate.
"I better report this." Shade man spread his wings and glided down effortlessly to the ground beside Search man.
"It appears we have visitors approaching from the south east. You better contact the boss." He rasped, hanging from the roof of the open skull's mouth like a vampire.
Both of Search man's head shuddered at the violet gothic robot's rasping tone. They both agreed that Shade man made them both very nervous, the reason was they knew he was rumored to drain the energy out of other robots when he was hungry.
Search man's left head kept an eye on the robotic vampire as the right made the call.
King Acorn shook his head in disgust as he saw the tower that loomed over the Great forest. "This is the place my people now live? Hard to believe anyone would live in such a foreboding place."
"Indeed majesty, it's also hard to believe this tower could have sprang out the ground in a month, or so the Princess said in her report." Geoffrey St. John said.
"I wish to meet this young man, Geoffrey." King Acorn said. "He sounds to be a reasonable and intelligent young lad with the technical skills to match even Rotor's own."
As the King's private air craft landed and everyone disembarked, the first thing they noticed was Sally and the other Freedom fighters, standing outside the front door. All of them wearing happy smiles on their faces to see their monarch again. King Acorn's brow narrowed however when his eyes came to rest on the two headed sentry robot guarding the doors.
"What's he looking at?" Search man's Right head spat.
"Us sir." The left said calmly. "Remember: The boss said we have to act nice to this king sir."
The Right head just grumbled and stood at attention.
"What's this?" Elias said, walking up to Search man, with Hersey the cat of the royal secret service right behind him.
"I'm Search man. I'm on guard duty until Yamato man relives us in a few hours." The Right head barked.
"I apologize for him Sir." The left head said, its voice much calmer than his 'brother'. "He was originally programmed to be a drill instructor, so he's always a bit rough like this."
"If he was meant to be a drill instructor, what were you supposed to be?" Elias asked, he felt kinda silly talking to just one of the heads.
"A security guard. Sir." The Left head said. "Master Wily told us to treat you like guests. Like all of the residents of Knothole."
"How many times have I told you guys, I don't like being called 'master'." Said a voice from the shadows. "I prefer 'boss' or 'chief'. It doesn't make me sound like a military leader or something."
King Acorn's face became one of surprise as Jonny came out of the shadows. Jonny was being pushed by Knight man, who had his mace's chain reeled back into his arm, so the ball was where his fist would have been. At Jonny's side was Centaur man, who towered above Knight man by a good foot and a half. Centaur man had his arms folded and was giving the royal guards a warning stare.
"An Overlander?" St. John muttered as he readied his crossbow, just in case of any trouble. Every one of the King's bodyguards gave a defensive stance.
Jonny noticed the skunk's crossbow. And decided not to take chances with this one. He motioned to one of the Robot masters in the hallway behind them to step forward. "Flash man, disarm him."
St. John raised his crossbow at the dark blue bot as Flash man emitted a flash of light from his arm cannon. St. John looked at his arm and quickly saw that his cross bow was gone. Well, not gone per say, the crossbow was now in Flash man's hand. The visored robot smirked as he gripped the skunk's weapon in his metal hand.
"No weapon on your world can compare to my Time Stopper." Flash man said, his voice was disciplined and had a slight British accent.
Jonny took the crossbow from Flash man and tossed it at the skunk's feet. St. John gave the human an odd look.
"I give it back in good faith that you won't shoot me in the back with it." Jonny said.
Geoffrey St. John cautiously picked up the crossbow, never taking his eyes off the human or his robots.
'Impressive...' The skunk thought. 'But I'm keeping an eye on him.'
Sally gave her father and brother a hug. "Elias, daddy, this is Jonny. He's the one I told you about."
Jonny was kinda nervous, he had never known any royalty other than the princess. He shook his head of this feeling, and decided to treat the other members of her family like he treated her. Whether or not that was a good idea, he didn't know. "I'd bow, but as you can see, it's kinda hard for me to do that at the time being." He was doomed.
"Well, this is... interesting." King Acorn said aloud, not quite sure why an Overlander would be helping his people so much, even more surprised that he would have a cast on his arm and leg and in a wheel chair like him.
"Your majesty, what are your orders?" Geoffrey whispered.
King Acorn turned to the Skunk. "We'll wait and see. If he tries anything-"
"Uh sir." Hersey interrupted, gesturing over to the human in the wheelchair.
King Acorn looked over to see his son Elias and the 'Overlander' shaking hands.
Jonny introduced himself to Elias "I'm Jonathan Alvis Wily, and you're... Elias, yes?"
"Yes. I take it my sister told me about you?" Sally's brother asked in a friendly tone.
"Yeah, Sally told me a little about ya and your dad." Jonny said smiling, adjusting his shades.
"And who are these guys?" Elias asked, looking over the robots beside the owner of Skull tower.
Jonny gave Elias a small grin, and told the Robot masters to introduce themselves.
"I am Knight man, I am head of security here in Skull tower. My Knight crush attack is nigh impossible to defendeth against. I am a Knight first and foremost sir. I cannot disobey my code of honor." Knight man ended his little introduction by swinging his flail once above his head and then retracted it into his arm.
"I am Centaur man," The tall green equine robot said proudly. "My Centaur Flash stops everyone for a short period of time. Although, I prefer not to use it since it stops enemy and friend alike."
"I'm Flash man. You've seen what my Time stopper can do." Flash man turned and headed back into the tower. "I'm going to the shooting range to blow something up."
Jonny Sighed. "He's not much for manners I'm afraid, sorry."
They heard a snort come form the hallway. Jonny couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Well... Shall we retire to the conference room?" he asked, " I can answer all questions there, without any crowds."
Knight man pushed Jonny to the conference room, only stopping after opening the door.
"Thank you Knight man." Jonny said to the robot, then checked his watch. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to take Search man's post, his shift will be ending shortly."
"At once mi lord." Knight man saluted and walked off. His metal footfalls could be heard long after he left their line of sight.
Jonny sighed and rubbed his temple in annoyance. "I wish he didn't talk like that, it gets so annoying."
They all found their seats and Jonny gave the new arrivals a lengthy explanation of his past and what had gone on after arriving on Mobius. He told them of his world and explained how he was different from the Overanders. He also told them how his maniacal grandfather ruined his life and ended the lives oh his parents.
"I am not one of your subjects. And I have no interest in ruling anyone or anything. Especially ruling over you, and your people. And I have no plans on doing so." Jonny felt like he was beginning to rant, so wanted to end this as fast as possible. "I am the leader and creator of the Robot masters and the one who built this tower. However, I do not seek power or wealth. I seek only contentment, peace, and most all, the one thing denied to me all my life."
King Maximillion raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"
"Friends." Jonny said solemnly.
"Pretty words. However, you and your tower are in his majesty's land." Geoffrey snorted.
"This land will never be truly be yours as long as Robotnik is around." Jonny said flatly.
"He has a point father." Elias said. Jonny, personally, was glad that Sally's brother was so much easier to get along with.
"He's defended all of us from Robotnik's bot's on three separate occasions." Sally told her father. "He's never given any real orders to anyone in fact."
"I don't even have any real control what we're having for supper, Wind man usually chooses that." Jonny said, "Just be glad I told Heat man never to make that atomic chili ever again."
Sally flinched. "Yeah, you missed out on the only food on Mobius that sears your tongue even when it's stone cold."
"Well, if he and his army is so strong, why hasn't he defeated Robotnik already?" Geoffrey didn't even bother saying this to Jonny, the skunk still didn't trust, or even like, this 'human'.
"A simple reason. The Robians." Jonny said calmly, ignoring the fact that the skunk wasn't really talking to him. "The roboticized Mobians are the reason I hold back and dare not risk a full frontal assault."
"How so?" The king said, drumming his fingers.
"First of all. A number of the Robot masters are a bit... reckless in combat, and some are just plain maniacal." Jonny was referring to Napalm man and Grenade man, "With weapons that can decimate entire buildings, I dare not risk taking innocent lives. That, and most of the Robot master's sensors have a difficult time distinguishing Robians from robots like Swatbots."
"I see. So... Where may we be staying?" Elias asked, smiling.
Jonny smiled. He kinda liked this Elias guy, he seemed the least stuck up of this crowd. "Third floor. I had some of the Robot masters prepare your rooms."
"One last thing. How did you end up like that? That broken leg and arm I mean." Elias asked politely.
"Plus cracked and broken ribs." Jonny added. "Some confused members of Knothole heard of me building a roboticizer in my lab and planned on lynching me. Thank goodness Skull man was there, although I don't condone what he did."
"Sally told me why you want the roboticizer, and this is the only way I will allow it to be built." The monarch said. "After you are done with it, I want it dismantled and never used again. But tell me, what happened to your assailant?"
"The one who tried to stab me is in the medical center. He's messed up pretty bad. All from a single punch from the three most unstable bots within these walls. He may have saved my life, but the only violence I permit here is a friendly brawl in the arena."
"Yeah, you took Turbo man's wheels off him after he tried to run me over in that race we had!" Sonic laughed.
Jonny snapped his fingers. "Thanks for reminding me, his probation is over today, and I still have to repair this tire you slashed."
Jonny barely finished that sentence when his cell phone rang.
"Excuse me." Jonny pulled out the black cell phone from his coat and turned it on. "Hello?"
"Hey Bossss..." It was Snake man. "Another arena fight isssss going on, why not take our guesssssts to ssssee it?"
"An excellent idea Snake man. I'll ask them." Jonny turned to the king and his family. "Hey guys, an arena battle is going on, care to go watch?"
"Who's fighting?" Sonic asked, his excitement shone in his voice.
"Not sure, Snake man didn't say."
"Why not? I could use some excitement." King acorn said.
To be continued....
