Sally, Bunnie, and Selim ran down the tunnel. "Nicole, detonate the charges." The princess commanded the palm computer. There was a sudden rumble and shaking, in the dark depths of the tunnel a red glow could be seen, they exploded, and hopefully worked, but they couldn't be bothered with checking right now.
The three walked down the pipeline when suddenly the lights that lined the top fizzled out. A little cry could be heard as Sally tripped on something when the sudden darkness enveloped the area; she hit the floor and dropped Nicole, then a moment later the backup lights came on. "Sally are you ok?" Selim asked as he helped her off the floor.
Sally nods. "Looks like the main power to the tunnels have been shut down." She stated, and then noticed she was missing something. "Where's Nicole?"
"I got 'er Sally-girl?" The rabbot cried as she handed the palm computer back to its owner.
"Thanks Bunnie, now we have to find Sonic." She stated. "Nicole, scan for life force of Sonic."
The computer started to do its command, however it began to make a strange noise, "Warning, internal damage is causing overheat, shutting down." Sally cursed; she hoped that this wouldn't happen.
"What's the matter Sally-girl? What's wrong with Nicole?" Bunnie asked, not knowing much about computers.
"The internal cooling system is busted, probably the fan, or the panel that powers it got busted when I dropped it, and it might not be the only thing wrong with it, just the most imminent." She said sighing. "Now what are we going to do? We aren't going to be able to find our way through the pipe system until I can get Nicole fixed, and the only place we could get that done is at Lower Mobius."
"Oh my stars... that mean we all are lost?" Bunnie asked hoping that wasn't the case. Sally nodded, and everyone looked down.
Selim sighed, though he did know this area exceedingly well he knew Sally would probably need Nicole to locate the others, it would take forever to find them without the computer. Then he remembered something; he was carrying Nicole when he was on that final mission before he wound up in the Great Forest. He always kept it in his mechanical wrist, which he had a storage slot made to keep the palm computer safe from the elements. He had no choice; it was either that or they would wander the tunnels forever. "Sally," he stated, "I might be able to help."
Sally looked at the fox curiously; he moved his right hand over his left and pressed into the apparent skin. Out of his lower wrist, where the arteries would have normally flowed, a door opened up and out of it popped a little hand computer, it was smaller then Sally's model. She immediately knew it had to be Nicole though, after all, she had also transferred the data to her palm computer. The original computer was a yellow PC on wheels, and that didn't work too well for the mobility she needed, so she put it into the palm computer that she currently used. She didn't know why the older Tails would have moved the data again, maybe because her current casing decayed overtime, or he needed something even smaller. However that wasn't the most immediate question that came to mind. It was more what Tails was doing with it in the first place.
The ground squirrel nodded, "We probably should tell her anyways." She said flipping open the little gadget. It was about the size of a cell phone. "Nicole, scan the area for Sonic." She stated and the computer with the same voice stated. "Voice print unrecognizable, unable to comply."
Bunnie blinked very confusedly. Selim nodded and knew why the computer didn't respond so he repeated Sally's request. "Nicole, scan the area for Antoine." He couldn't ask for Sonic, because in this Nicole's database, Sonic was non-existent, and neither was Sally, which was why she didn't recognize the squirrel's voice print. The computer complied, "Accessing Miles."
And with those words the rabbot put a hand on her forehead and shook her head. "Oh my gosh... what the heck... this is all confusin'...you're Tails?" She asked, as she sat down on the cold metal floor.
Sally and Selim nodded, and the princess piped in. "He's from the future Bunnie, I know this is all confusing but, you can't tell Sonic or the others, it has to stay between us three... alright, we don't need to change what has happened more then it already has. I think my knowledge led to this, and I don't want anything more drastic to happen."
Selim shook his head. "It's not your fault Sally; it's mine I got careless."
Bunnie stood up, looking down. "That's why you done acted so funny when I asked ya out on a date, because... you're Tails... it makes sense now... the first time I saw ya that who I thought y'all were... geez you grow up to be cute as the dickens don't you?" She laughed trying to absorb all this without going crazy, time travel a new thing to her.
The older Tails scratches his head and laughs nervously. "If you say so, but now you understand why I can't go out with you..."
Bunnie nods, "It's too bad really, but I can see where there'd be a little ol' problem."
-----
Sonic and Antoine had their own little problem; they seemed to reach a dead end. "I know it was this way." Sonic puzzled as he looked at the closed door. He then added. "And the others must have gotten through, maybe there's a switch or something."
There was a strange, eerie noise coming from the other side, it sounded like a hollow hissing sound and it caused the pipes to creak, much to Antoine's discomfort. He was shivering and mumbling some odd French gibberish really rabidly.
"Chill out Ant, you're embarrassing me." Sonic said as he looked up and down the door, noticing a sensor in the center, but it seemed to be disabled.
"Wonder what's making that sound?" The rabbit, Lenny asked, he had stayed silent throughout much of the ordeal as Ralph had, who was standing nearby. They were still in shock of what happened. They wondered how Sonic was dealing with it so easily. Truth be told, it had hit the hedgehog hard, but he couldn't let it interfere with him now.
"No idea," the blue one said. "It's coming from the other side whatever it is..."
Sonic tapped his foot when he heard three other pairs of feet come up behind them and he looked up from his thinking session. "Hey guys... looks like we're stuck... the door won't budge."
Sally saw that only the hedgehog, coyote, bear, and rabbit were present. "Where are the others?" She asked hoping for the best.
The blue one shook his head. "Sorry Sal, haven't seen 'em, my best guess is that they are ahead of us, though how they got through-"
"Oh my stars!" Bunny gasped.
Sally looked to Sonic and shook her head. "We just got word from Grif that they're shutting down the pipe system, because of flooding..."
They all stood in stunned silence, thinking of what could have happened to the others, or what would happen to them. Sonic was the first one to speak. "Shit, Tails is with them..."
The ground squirrel nodded, "Rotor, Dr.Quack, and the convoy trucks... they're very vulnerable, we need to get to them, we can't just wait until everything is clear, by then it could be to late."
Selim nodded, he never thought that he'd have to worry of his younger self. Until now all of his concern was dealt to ensuring the survival of Sonic and Aunt Sally, but what would the point be if he himself perished. If he knew himself and how he thought back then, he knew that the convoy was in trouble. The Tails with them was very inexperienced, and might not even be called upon for help, being a kid. The vulpine and hedgehog knew though, that the young fox was a good swimmer, and a little water wouldn't kill him. What worried them was what if they were caught in a section that filled up to the brim and they all drowned.
The older Miles, having lived down here sometime knew a lot about the piping system, maybe even in more detail then the map Nicole had. He studied it for a long time, knowing every crack and crevice so that Robotnik would never have an advantage on their home front. He had given Sally Nicole in order for her to help, even though they probably wouldn't have gotten lost, the computer could probably tell them what gates are shut and maybe where there are reported floods, all they had to do was find a system they could tap into.
The fox looked over Sonic's shoulder to see a panel on the sealed door, he turns to Sally, "Have Nicole see if she can find out any additional information..." he states pointing to the panel. Luckily he enabled the princess's voice recognition once again, it was kind of strange giving up the little palm computer after this whole time, but it was Sally's not his.
She moved up to the terminal and told Nicole to access the emergency data. The hedgehog was quick to catch the change in the computer's appearance. "Sal... what's up with the ol' gizmo?"
Sally realized that she had forgotten about Nicole's new look. "I broke the old casing during our escape... I always carried a spare in case I'd have to replace it..."
Meanwhile Selim looked around the pipe; he knew there was a hatch somewhere where they could crawl through to move ahead. Nicole piped up and displayed a map of the tunnels, many of the segments taking on blue colors for reported flooding, they were usually surrounded in red doors to indicate doors blocking off the paths. It looked like a mess. "I put a tracker in one of the trucks; let's see if I can't put it on the map..." Sally stated.
A light blinked, and to everyone's relief it wasn't in a blue section, however it was one that seemed to be surrounded by other flooded sections, the convoy would be stuck there, Sally wondered if there was any additional info about the section of tunnel.
"Accessing Sally..." The computer said searching through the data, the vulpine meanwhile found the service vent and popped it open, though everyone else was busy watching Nicole, worried about the others...
"While I'm still young Nicole..." Sonic injected placing his hands across his chest and tapping his foot.
Nicole chirped out a response. "Structural integrity is holding. It is a 74.5 percent chance of water penetration into the indicated section." Sally shook her head... "We have to get to them; there must be a way to get them out of there."
Just then there was a clang causing everyone to turn around, and they saw Selim who had just taken off the service hatch and placed it on the ground. "Wonder where this one leads..." He stated smiling.
-----
Snively growled as he looked at the monitor. Knothole was his, but the victory was not as sweet as he had hoped, the pesky blue rodent, the princess, and many of his primary targets were nowhere to be seen. Even with these set backs, there was a lot of celebrating to be done. Knothole was his, a lot of the pesky freedom fighters were destroyed and those that survived would be going through the robotization process.
He looked to the computer and scratched his head... looking at the video footage. That two-tailed fox that got away plagued his mind. He was just getting the data back, and it was convincing... it was the little brat... but he wasn't so little. He tried to find the young one on the video, he couldn't. That means the brat escaped with the princess or something had caused him to age much more swiftly. He wished he had further proof.
The DNA was a perfect match... he got some blood from a mosquito he tracked that had bitten him during the fight. Poor fools probably had no clue, he was much smarter then his uncle. He knew how to use nature against them, though he probably destroyed every other living creature in that forest. Not only for vengeance but to remove their little hiding places.
He wished he paid more attention; he would have hunted them down. They left no trace of their escape; they probably spotted them and were prepared to flee. They weren't dumb, that much was obvious. It didn't matter, they had lost their precious base, and they would have to reorganize, he had time to complete his project.
They had found it in the ancient creator where they dug up the remains of the Death Egg before. He had missed a gold mine, because there was a piece of something that was on board the longed downed air station. A chip, with a lot of information, but not just any information... the ability to acquire all forms of weaponry based on super science technology... a process which apparently has no limitations and continues to loop indefinitely. Unfortunately, the body was lost, but that was just a minor setback, he just needed to replace a robot's circuits, and he had a perfect one picked out.
There on a far off video screen, a robot could be seen. The metal hedgehog was restrained heavily. Snively had thought they were rid of their little mole problem, this time he would be sure they were, and at the same time stop Sonic in his tracks. He laughed with a hellish glee as he watched everything fall into place.
----
This chapter is a bit short, but it was a good place to stop for now, the next one will be up on October 28th.
