Should update things faster. Anyway, I think I should have explained the things that had happened last chapter, but never mind. Patience is not a virtue of mine.
Chapter 10- Inner Conflict
As the robotic green chair took its pre-programmed path to the maintenance area, the evil genius was busy looking at his monitor screen, now showing 2 humanoid figures, one furiously and impulsively trying to hit the other. It attacked using a series of energy balls and spindashes, among many other things. However, the targeted simply dodged them gracefully and easily, with astonishing agility… like a quick rabbit would do… hopping around.
"Hmmm…" Robotnik thought. "The nanobot in Tails may not have in-built attacks; it only provided the memories and personality changes to make him think of his own 'creative' attacks and for him to execute them. Therefore, there would be no way to have an in-built defense against them. But his evasive maneuvers were in-built, and therefore the moves strictly followed a simple pattern…"
Left, right, left, right… Alternate movements. No matter what happens.
He modified the first figure's attack moves, such that the energy balls could actually fire repeatedly at one direction… instead of following the enemy closely and firing at them directly. This should give that meddling fox a surprise…
Running the simulation again, he grinned. The second figure may have dodged the first two, but soon became caught up in the bolts of electricity, beginning to stumble and lose rhythm, like an ungraceful giant would… Huge blasts of energy emerged from each ball that came in contact, and just a handful caused the computer stick figure to give up and fall. It was lifeless, and therefore the energy blast should have enough to put an end to this overlap once and for all.
He then went on to other changes, such as the attack style of the spindash, the plasma cannon…, among many other things… Finally reaching the repair bay's door, Dr. Robotnik followed the mere clone copy once more.
He looked around, seeing countless robotosized victims; slave robots, being serviced by the machines. They were of different shapes and sizes, most of them small-sized and weak, unable to do work, damaged because of overstraining their body working as slaves, some to the extent that their bodies became contorted and bent completely…
Amid the noise caused by drills and other maintenance equipment, there were hidden screams and whispers of hatred inside the cold steel of these robots, even though they were only robots; deep inside there was still something left behind by the victims. Some had become fearful of their master, seeing that their only hope had become one of them, some were still optimistic, standing by their belief that the good would always win. Some yearned for violence, promising to attack their master once the chance arrived…
Dr.Robotnik, however, didn't pay attention to them.
He merely scoffed at them, touting them as useless pieces of scrap metal, not even bothering to take a glance. To him, they were uninteresting, mere, mindless, worker bots, nothing compared to his newest inventions such as the stealth bots and lifesuckers, which were far more unique, powerful and useful.
Useful…
The servant robot finally stopped at the end of the room, beeping continuously, signaling that this was the repair bay. He went inside, and…
"Are you sure this is X-1?" he said angrily to the servant robot, tinged with a little sense of shock.
"Affirmative."
The evil genius looked blankly at the heap of metal and wires on the metal table. He had only expected a scratch or two, and this was far from what he had thought, even when the phrase 'heavily damaged' was beeped…
Robot X-1 was far from being scratched; he was in fact…, almost sliced apart, as there were cracks all over its body, probably with a sharp object. It was noted that the blows inflicted to him were completely random, savage, and fast with much power, as if they were driven by pure hate… Also, one of his arm had somehow been yanked off.
Rare bolts of electricity still jumped up and down its damaged areas as the maintenance machine lowered down on the fallen robot, beginning the 'filling' process.
He then lowered his head down and shook his head. At first, he had thought that once Sonic had fell into his hands, that irritating, disturbing, hedgehog which always seemed to get in his way, he would have immediately won the battle.
He had reasoned that Tails was too weak and young, and that all the others did not have any special abilities that could actually be used on the field… and therefore would be useless and easily beaten, given that Sonic could travel at the speed of sound, and that they wouldn't expect anything until he would come… By that time, it would be too late.
But now… this Tails, he was becoming a stalwart in his new plans. The more he thought of that, the more he felt mocked that his own plans were canceling out each other, that indecisiveness was not a virtue. He was beginning to become more and more frustrated over this.
With his face red, angry frown retained, and head steaming hot, he stormed out of the room, and asked the servant bot louder than usual…
"What will be the time taken for X-1 to become fully functional?"
"4 hours sir," the robot beeped.
A silent pause.
"Order the maintenance robots to manufacture a new hull for it, one that is hard and light. I do not want it easily scratched, and I want it to be ready by the time it is repaired." Robotnik said.
"Yes, Master."
As his green chair began to travel up back into the Control Room, he was still being haunted by the pitiful image of his new robot, and by the fact that… his plan had failed temporarily, because of the two, Tails had been more perfect. What was he thinking…, sending his new robot into the fray without making proper preparation for him, believing, hoping that Tails had taken longer than usual for his sleep state?
But no, it did not. Instead he had fought like a true warrior and stopped X-1 in his tracks, thrashing him without even getting much help, while it did not even scratch him.
Because he was better.
Because he had been made better by him.
By himself, Dr. Ivo. Robotnik.
Therefore, he had control over him.
If he was walking, he would have stopped in his tracks.
A bulb lighted in Robotnik's brain. Both plans could actually still work together! Tails had not actually been brought over to the good side yet, for the moment, he still belonged to him! All his memories would still point out to himself as the hero, and would point torture by the other Freedom Fighters, Princess Sally, Bunny Rabbot, Antonie, and others. Tails was still evil, in fact, if he was lucky, Tails could very well take care of the Knothole problem for him…
He was surprised that he had not noticed this obvious thing before, and chided himself for instead, sulking about some overlap, when there had been minimum of that, if not at all. The only complication was that Sonic and Tails, once a dangerous duo, could never work together, with Tails' state of memory. Never mind of that, he still could get rid of one of them…
So all his worries were actually unfounded all along… One plan was a backup to the other, not really the reason of its downfall… He had that happy thought as he went back to the control room, continuing his research without much care, conscious that today…, everything was going for him.
Dream
The shipyard was deserted, devoid of any sound or activity, full of the metallic scent that came with the still boats that floated on the black water. The room in itself was dark, only a few small beams of light shone through the small opening at the top of the wall. They revealed the silhouettes of a spiky hedgehog, holding a jar of some sort, standing in front of the young two-tailed fox. The 3-year old was chained to the ground, face-up, helpless.
"No… Please stop… I will do anything…, just stop it… Stop doing that." He said it fearfully and suddenly as he saw the flask of bubbling, light green liquid in the hedgehog's hands. He was approaching closer, and closer, letting out an evil snigger, staring at the little fox… Cuts and burns of various shapes and sizes were all over his body, and the hedgehog seemed to pleasure in making another one of them… With each passing moment, the vulpine's eyes grew bigger and bigger, flowing out more and more tears…
"Please…"
The plea fell on deaf ears as the heartless hedgehog began to tilt the flask clockwise, 90 degrees. A drop started to flow out of it, and slowly…, it began to obey the laws of gravity. Tails began to shiver, eyes following the drip closely. As it went lower and lower, he began to scream and shout… moving his whole body vigorously, trying to escape. But the rattling of the chains reminded him that it was a futile effort…
The hedgehog started to grin as the drip touched the belly of the vulpine. The scream seemed to mute out the sizzle…
The acid dried up, and in its place was another mark of his body. He closed his eyes, quivering, whimpering, as he felt a finger touch the wound, making him scream again. As the pain subsided, he opened his eyes again, and saw the blue hedgehog pop the finger into his mouth, a grin forming his face. His mouth opened…
"Do you know why I keep doing this to you, Tails?"
He put up a painful look as he shook his head, facing away from him.
"Oh, it's nothing complicated… It is somewhat simple… Come on, you know…"
Tails stuttered…, "Is… is it because… you hate me?"
The blue being shook his head. "No, it's because I love to hear you scream."
Tails whimpered yet again…, crying, shaking his head. When he opened his eyes, he was just in time to see the flask being turned upside down. The acid flowed freely… freely onto Tails. To him, it was as if he had been set on fire…, and as if a thousand fire ants were biting into him right now. It was piercing…, it hurt so badly…
The pain was unbearable.
He screamed…
Bunnie was now waiting outside the clinic, leaning on the wall, holding a wrapped gift of some sort, eyes on the present…
The perfect thing for Tails to remember
She had found this on the woodcraft table in Sonic's house. Probably was a present for Tails, so she figured that it would be good taking it to him…
Tails… with his memories wiped out with the wind.
A lot of shocking, unexpected surprises had happened today, and they weren't good…
Sonic had become robotisized, the greatest hero on Mobius who had evaded Robotnik, from his reign to his fall, shockingly got into his grasp, today, and got turned into one of them… This, alone was already bad news.
But, there's more…
Tara, the seemingly cute little fox, turned out to be the reluctant spy for Dr. Robotnik. She is now in the clinic…, ol' Robotnik invented something that allowed for another quick robotisization process, now flowing through the little vixen's veins and rapidly turning skin cells into metal.
Tails, once the shy little guy who had idolized Sonic, had become a changed person, fighting like some kind of skilled warrior, attacking the Sonic without even any hesitation. She didn't know exactly what happened to him, he was also now in the clinic, awaiting examination. One thing's for sure, however; the mad doctor had done this to him. But if it was true, why did Tails actually try and fight Sonic, not them?
Sally was almost strangled to death by the robot's cold grasp. She had a few fractures here and there, but they weren't very serious. Bunnie was confident that she would recover soon…
And all these happened when yesterday, everything was fine and dandy… and when Dr.Robotnik was supposed to be dead.
She looked up into the starless night sky, and wondered, if Knothole would actually survive the catastrophe yet to come. If Sonic had came here, the evil doctor would have already known the location of Knothole…
"Oh my stars!" she said to herself.
Sooner or later, thousands of Swatbots would come swarming into the village, meaning that most of the Freedom Fighters would be gone, and Mobius would be most likely to lose once again…
They had to think up of a plan fast… but first, she had to wait for Sally…
She heard the sound of the clinic door click open… Out came one of the doctors, and he didn't exactly look optimistic…
"Good or bad news?" he plainly said.
"Um… the bad news?" Bunnie answered back.
"It's about Tara. Come on in."
The doctor seemed to walk in a solemn manner through the corridor, catching her attention. So it wasn't just something like her robotic arm?
They finally reached the door. The doctor opened it , going inside with Bunnie… just in time to see some kind of green liquid injected onto her shoulder, a few centimeters from where the metal had reached now…
"The scratch also actually acted as some kind of injection, other causing physical harm. It is a mixture of mercury and some nanobot technology, and slowly…, but steadily, it has been carried around in the blood flow, and…"
"Does it have something to do with robotosization?" Bunnie asked.
"In a way, yes…" said the doctor, somewhat irritated by her rude interruption, "it has. This is not like your robotic arm, it doesn't stop at your arm, it carries on to your whole body. But that doesn't mean that she is slowly becoming a robot…"
"What do you mean."
"We examined the nanobot through a blood test, and discovered that all it does is to turn organic cells into metal. There is no programming input whatsoever. If it reaches the vital organs such as the heart or the brain, this would be fatal… They would stop working and therefore Tara would die…"
"Oh my stars…" she whispered. "So, is there a'way to fix that, doc?"
"We have done thorough research on this, but sadly…, there is only one. A painful…, traumatic kind of method. The injection has only stopped the nanobots temporarily, but it will flow again sooner or later… So amputation is our only option."
Bunnie was in disbelief.
"What?"
"It's the only way we can stop the flowing of the liquid, Bunnie. I know this might cause some misery, but this is the only way she might live. Don't worry, we'll make sure this will be made as quickly and painlessly as possible."
She winced a little as she saw the vixen, now unconscious, and noted her now steel arm, right next to the set of operating knives…
She looked down as she went out of the room, and called the doctor. "Um, can ya delay this for a'while? I… we need to think…"
The doctor sighed. "30 minutes is all we can give…"
She shed a tear, as she went along further through the corridor… They stopped at a room.
"This is Tails' room," he said. "The burns are easily treated and nothing major has happened so far… so he should have a quick recovery. Do you want to go in?"
She nodded, now as solemn as the doctor was. Opening the door quietly, she slowly walked to the bedside, eyes on the fox all the time in the process. With a tight smile, she rubbed the muzzle of the young vulpine, reminding herself of the times where the little two-tailed fox would call out for her when he couldn't sleep, and come to her door and ask her innocently, to read a story, when Sally was busy… a long time ago when Tails was himself, before the green gas incident. She remembered how her imitations would surprise Tails and even herself, as they would laugh and giggle the night away…
She gave Tails a kiss on the forehead, and made his hands hold the little wrapped present. She wished she could stay longer but…, no, she had to go. Slowly she walked out of the room, into the corridor again.
"How bout' Sally. Is she alright?" Bunnie said.
"She has already been discharged. The injuries were almost non-existent. In fact, she's waiting for you right now, at the lobby…" the doctor said.
"Thanks."
How unaware she was, that in Tails' mind, a seed was somewhat breeding…
Dream
"No…." he whimpered.
Electricity flowed through his body like water, electrocuting him. He yelped again. Yet another instrument of torture.
"Please stop… I can't… take it anymore." He said again, very tired, about to black out.
"You want me to stop?" Sonic asked. "Ok… I will. In a while."
As the blue hedgehog was about to clip him again, there was a sudden blash of dust at the opposite side of the wall, accompanying the rocking sound. Tails turned back with teary eyes, and saw…, his hero.
Dr.Robotnik.
Sonic ran away promptly from the building, and the kind doctor came to save him. Before he blacked out, he knew this. That his nightmare was finally over, and the time for revenge has come…
Sigh… After rereading everything, I found out a lot of plot holes in the story, and for that, I feel stupid. From now on, I'll try to update this until it is finished, as fast as I can, for the sake of completing this… Oh, and in the last part, I rushed (as it is 2 AM in the morning…). As usual, plz tell me my mistakes.
