The passageway was very narrow, the vulpine had to duck down as he moved forward, and he was about halfway through the row they had formed, because it would be impossible to walk side by side here. Sonic himself had to watch his head on some of the parts, where pipes protruded from the walls. "Are we there yet?" The hedgehog whined. "This walking is really dragging."
Sally, of course in the lead in front of the impatient blue one, was carefully examining the map. "We're almost there Sonic, be patient, alright, before you drive us all crazy."
Bunnie was walking behind Selim, she was very curious on a lot of things, like if Selim was who he was, then how come him and Sonic have been acting so weird. How he knew of the pipeline like he had been here before, when he wasn't involved in the mission when Sonic and Sally went to lower Mobius. Sonic brought Tails back about 7 years ago, he told them he had found him near a river while battling with a legion of Swatbots ready to take one of the last untouched towns they had protected for so long. This time it was a sneak attack and the hedgehog alone couldn't hold them off, he was lucky he found Tails and allowed him to come to Knothole with him. Everyone else in that establishment was robotisized. Even the kit's foster parents... not that they didn't deserve it.
She couldn't think but how lonely a life the Miles before her must have had, she knew that Sally was probably gone since he had Nicole, and that Sonic would probably be the next one to have it. Nicole was kind of the symbol of the leader, she knew this probably meant that Sonic was dead too... but how, she couldn't know. After Sonic the freedom fighters didn't really have a leader picked out, they said they'd vote on it. Even Sonic and Sally had votes, but now they were burned with the rest of Knothole because they had to have them on sheets of paper, they were like a will since they couldn't voice their vote if they were dead. She would have to make sure they wrote them down again. What she did know was somehow Tails got Nicole, and probably the leadership.
"We're here..." Sally stated looking around for another sealed service door. Selim saw it and pointed to the little hatch. The ground squirrel nodded and Sonic piped up. "You act like you've been here before Slim..." He stated.
The fox nods, "I have, I used these tunnels a lot to get from place to place. Its how I wound up in the great forest, and then I stumbled across Knothole." He stated as the hatch was popped open. They began to crawl out one by one, Bunnie giggles at the view she gets as she follows Selim. It was cruel how he had to be so cute.
-----
The convoy was standing by in the tunnels; they had reached a sudden dead end and sent one of the members of their reconnaissance team to search for a route out.
"I've through lookin' at all the exits mate, even the one we scurried through, but it look like we be trapped in here." Roy, a kangaroo Mobian stated in his Australian accent, though like Bunnie's southern one it wasn't heavy probably because of all the accentless Freedom Fighers he had fought with over the past year. He joined around the time of the Death Egg movement, a lot of Mobians from Downunda joined since the Knothole force went on location there. It appeared the huge island was where the floating island originated from. A huge lake was now located in the center. (Author's Note: The Geography information was taken from the Archie comic's website. General Geography is the only thing I have taken from the comics)
Rotor was tinkering with something on the huge metal door they faced. "Someone's overridden the control panel here..." He said looking at it.
The young Miles nodded. "It looks like the main system was shut down, maybe there's a problem?" The fox looked over his shoulder to see the trucks lined up, they turned them off so that they wouldn't waste their petroleum, because if they ran out of that they'd have to push them to Lower Mobius, and they didn't exactly have wheels to push them on. He was very worried about Sonic and Aunt Sally.
"Well we could override it and open it from here." Rotor said as he took his screwdriver out ready to open the door.
Just then a voice shot through the tunnels and caused everyone to jump. "Hey guys! Hold on a Sonic-second." The blue hedgehog's voice called out as he crawled out of the service vent door.
As Sonic moved toward the group, a two-tailed kit ran over and hugged Sonic tightly; he had thought he had lost him for good, he was very glad to see him. "Sonic, I thought you were dead..." The little vulpine said as he sniffled a little. Everyone else faced the blue one and smiled as the two tailed fox hugged him.
Sonic laughed a bit at this as he broke up the hug, his hands on Tail's shoulders. "Hey... you know ol' bolt for brains can never take down this hedgehog, right big guy?"
Tails nodded with a smile, he still held belief that his best friend was invisible; however the one behind the hedgehog knew differently. He knew that ol' bolt for brains would get lucky one day and that the little two tailed kit would be left devastated. Awakened on how vulnerable they all were, no one is invisible. With that mentality he would lead the Freedom Fighters, reminding them that they only live once, and this cause was defiantly worth their lives. It took him almost ten years to learn that. The first few he spent miserably pondering over why he was born... just to spend a lifetime not knowing what peace was?
"Sugar, are you ok?" Asked the rabbit who was just behind Selim, causing the vulpine to jump a bit. He nodded simply in response as his thoughts returned to the world before him.
All of them were out of the service system, and the convoy waited for more, they then realized that no one else was coming. "Where are the others?" Dr. Quack asked as he started to look over some of the wounds, though he couldn't do much with the tools at hand, he did put some alcohol in Selim's arm wound and Ralph's stubbed arm.
Sally looked down and a sudden gloom loomed over the group. Some were sad, other angry but they all shared the same grief over the loss of their friends. Roy looked through the group. "Where's Jerome?" He asked panicked, afraid to here the answer.
Selim looked down. "He sacrificed himself... to save us..."
Roy nodded and looked down. "Crickey." He said weakly, obviously they had been good friends. In a way Selim knew how he felt, he was a very nice person, and he didn't deserve what he had gotten.
"You guys know why we can't get through here?" Rotor asked. "We tried everything."
Sally nodded, "The pipes are flooding right now cause of all this sudden rain. We shouldn't open that door or we'll probably get washed up."
Rotor jumped a bit, good thing they arrived when they did or they would have been slammed with a wall of water. "So now what do we do?"
"We've been moving through a service hatch Rote, but I don't think the hover trucks will fit in there." Sonic stated.
"Well we all can either wait here or just carry our stuff I reckon." Bunnie stated.
Many of them looked amongst themselves.
"It's not like we're leaving this stuff for good," Selim added, "We could leave it here and then come back when it's all clear, unless of course this area floods, and if it does we don't want to be here."
Everyone agreed to that, his idea sounded like a good one. They would bring stuff they could carry, stuff of huge importance just so that if the area did flood their possessions were not lost. The Freedom Fighters moved on the trucks and picked out their stuff. Some packed really light, while others picked a moderate load. No one, besides Antoine maybe, had more then they could carry.
"We ready guys?" Sally stated as they all stood in front of the trucks, empty besides some of the really heavy equipment which was left inside. They nodded and gave positive responses. Antoine heaved as he lifted his stuff.
"Ante, Ante, Ante, this is no time for luxuries..." Sonic sighed. "Bring only what you REALLY need."
"Tis all the stuffs I be needing." He whined. "Tis not my fault they be this heavy." To this everyone sighed. Selim picked up one of the suitcases, since he was only carrying his journal which he had safely tucked away in a pouch that was sassed over his left shoulder. He wondered if the coyote had stuffed an elephant in there, but it was still manageable. He couldn't see how he could have two such suitcases. "Merci Merci!" The French accent replied to the kind gesture.
Selim sighed. "Save it, it's Grif you'll need to be thanking later for getting us out of this mess. Besides, I'm just doing this so we can get out of here."
Antoine nodded, he knew he agitated everyone, but he couldn't help it. He was raised with everything, and even during the most trying times he still was materialistic. He always wondered how the others could stand sacrificing so much, it was just so hard for him. No, he wouldn't do it, too many died today for others to be pulling his wait, it was very excruciating and difficult, but he said it. "Put it in ze truck Selim."
This had caught everyone by surprise. Especially Sonic and Sally, this had been the first selfless act they had seen the coyote commit in a long time. "Ya sure Ante?" Sonic asked.
The royal guard nodded, "Oui. Leave zit..." he stated taking the case from Selim and shoving both cases into the truck, catching everyone off guard.
After a moment of abrupt silence Sally nodded and smiled. "Alright, let's get out of here and to our new home." She said as her and Sonic moved to the service tunnel, the others followed leaving the trucks behind. Antoine felt a little uneasy, but he felt a little better then usual, like he had done something noble.
------
They were in the cramped service tunnel again, but luckily they didn't have far to go. Sally led them all once again, the line stretched pretty far this time, so they had to play a little relay game when she stated something important. The map showed that they were pretty much at the village, and reports showed that the rain had stopped and flooding was starting to die down. The drainage system was activated and the tunnels would be safe within ten minutes. This was a relief to those that didn't like such tight spaces. They would be at the village shortly.
"It should be safe to exit here Sal." Sonic said pointed toward one of the hatches. "This one leads to a suspension bridge; we can wait on there until the water clears out and the main pipe opens back up. From there Lower Mobius is but seconds away." The ground squirrel nodded at the suggestion. She pulled it open and crawled through, stating everyone to follow. By the time the last one came up the water would probably be drained.
She stepped out into the cold air; the water was about five feet below the suspended cable bridge, which was obviously used for changing the lighting, or some other roof maintenance. Sonic was quick to follow, then Selim, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, Dr. Quack, and they all lined up on the suspension bridge.
The ground squirrel shouted back to the group as three more Freedom Fighters made their way onto it. "Alright we should stop and wait, this bridge can probably only hold so much weight."
With that the line stopped and all was quiet. They looked down as they saw the water level steadily decrease, but there was something in the air. Something wasn't right, and Selim knew it, he had one of those sixth senses. He felt like holes were being peered in the back of his head, then movement could be heard, it was a very strange clanking. It echoed in the pipe and off the water. "Anyone else hear that?" Selim asked.
Suddenly a whip like snap could be heard, a glowing metallic tail slashed down at those occupying the suspension bridge. The tail moved lengthwise down the bridge, knocking off some of the Freedom Fighters into the water below. The older vulpine ran down the line to stop the tail from knocking anyone else off. He quickly smacked the tail away as it just passed Dr. Quack, who dodged, however he moved too much causing himself to fall off the edge of the platform and into the water below joining the other three Mobians.
The young Tails was right at the hatch when this was occurring. "Sonic! Aunt Sally!" the kit cried, worried they might be hurt.
"Stay back Tails!" Sonic cried he recognized this rat; it was the mutant that they had encountered with Grif the one time. The robot seemed to be able to cling to the rooftop somehow, hanging upside down. This was not good, they were stuck up here with it and there was no escape, however, Selim seemed to be holding his own.
Holding the tail dominantly with his left hand the vulpine was able to charge up his wrist laser which came out of its compartment. A beam fired up at the huge robotic rat creature causing it to lose its grip on the ceiling abruptly. A shrill squeak filled the air as the titanic robot fell onto the suspension bridge where the four Mobians had fallen off. The bridge seemed unable to support such a great amount of weight. Everyone on the bridge held on to what they could as it shook tremendously, and some of the cables snapped. Suddenly the segment with the rat on it simply collapsed causing the sound of twisting metal to echo through the pipe.
Dr. Quack had just made it to the surface of the water with a sudden gasp of surprise, he had to catch his bearings, he wondered why it was so dark, he knew he was in water, and being a duck a good swimmer. He looked up to see if he could fly up to the suspension bridge, however he was just in time to see the massive metal contraption come falling down upon him, and then everything was dark.
The water cackled and fizzled, some screams could be heard as the dim room flashed with light. Everything following was silent, as smell started to lift into the room, a ghastly, nauseating smell of burnt flesh and fur. The suspension bridge's swaying died down, it's movement halted with those in the water below. Selim looked down, as the water was draining its final two feet, the rat mutant's body could be seen on the bottom, while four other, much smaller bodies, rose to the top. Dr. Quack, someone who had not died during the older vulpine's time frame, was amongst the casualties. All he could think was, it was his entire fault... every last death, was his own doing...
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Another one down, like always I'll put the next one up in two week.... lets see.... Nov. 12th is our next update, wow... this year's going fast. Wouldn't have it any other way, as Sonic would say, anyway, I'll stop ryhming away and tell you to please review. Constructive Critisim is always appreciated.
