Chapter 11: Second Chance
March 21st, 2314 – 12:20 PM – Carlboron Police Department, Carlboron, Zeraw
After Sonic had gotten his injury treated, he and Tails spent the next several days resting inside the police station with the other refugees. They mostly spent it inside the makeshift medical ward in the break room, since Dr. Skeleck had given Sonic strict orders that he need,ed to rest and let the leg heal up. The problem was Sonic absolutely hated being in one place for a long time and sparks flew all over the place from that order. Every chance he got, Sonic complained about it to him and the nurses, and today was no different.
As Joy came by with his lunch for today, Sonic moaned, "When am I gonna be allowed to walk around again? I'm gonna die if I don't get out of this bed!"
Joy rolled her eyes as he set down the lunch tray on a cardboard box next to Sonic's cot, which right now was serving as his bedside tray.
"Come on! Tell me!" he said.
She rolled her shoulders a bit, and then said with a smile, "Well, if you really wanna know, the doctor said you could start walking around today if you liked. The leg should be fine now and you can lose the crutches."
Sonic blinked, and then he gasped.
"Are you serious?" he said.
"Yep yep!" she said with a bright smile. "Go on, walk. Give it a try."
Sonic pushed the cover up off of his bed, and slid his legs down to the floor. As his bad leg landed on the floor and he stood up, he realized the pain from standing on it was now virtually gone. He tried taking a few steps, and he didn't feel pain then either. Then he tried running in place. Nope...no pain. Although with how fast Sonic moved his feet when he ran in place, he was in danger of destroying the tiling.
"Yeesh!" Joy hissed. "Stop it before we have to buy a new floor!"
"Sorry!" Sonic said, stopping his running.
He stepped to the side, looking down. He saw that it looked like someone had taken a jackhammer to where he had been running in place. The tiled floor was covered in cracks and there was a small impression where his feet had been running.
"Oops!" Sonic said. "Really sorry about that!"
"Heh heh," someone with a deep voice said.
Sonic looked up to see that it was Zack. He had a smile on his face. Even in the midst of this survival situation, that bobcat always seemed to try his best to remain cheerful and humorous. It was an endearing trait.
"Looks like your legs are fine now."
"Yeah, but I messed up the floor," Sonic said, in an embarrassed voice.
"Don't worry about it," Zack said. "We've got bigger problems to worry about than this old floor anyway. Hey though, maybe when this is all over, that'll give them an excuse to replace the tiling!"
He laughed.
"That will be great. I've been here for twenty years and not once have they gotten a new floor for this room. Thanks for that trick kid!"
Sonic nervously laughed, "Heh heh...no problem."
"Anyway..." Zack said, suddenly becoming businesslike as he turned to Joy. "I need Dr. Skeleck again."
This wasn't unusual. Zack had done this several times over the past few days, with how he'd been calling the doctor out. Sonic guessed it was because he was planning an attack on Robotnik's base, since Skeleck knew where it was. Now though, he could finally check to see for sure.
"Ready when you are, Mr. Marlborosso," the bat said as he was taken out of the room.
"I'll see you two later," Joy said, walking off. "I got other patients to take care of. Bye!"
"Bye," Tails said, and then he looked back at Sonic. "So what are we gonna do now Sonic? Your leg's all healed up, and we've got lots of food."
"The first thing I wanna do is go see what Zack has been doing with Dr. Skeleck all this time."
"Why would you wanna do that?"
Sonic was about to say he was planning to go after Robotnik, but then he stopped before he said the first word. He didn't want to get Tails worried. About a second later, he began speaking.
"Well, it's getting boring hanging out in this room, and that's the only thing I can think of right now to check out."
Sonic slid off of his cot, and zipped over to the door. He opened it up, and a moment later he was gone. Down the hall, Zack and Skeleck were rounding a corner. Sonic ducked behind a vending machine so he could watch them and stay out of sight. As they walked around the corner, Sonic zipped down the hall and stopped there at the corner where they were before. Down the hall, the cop and the doctor had entered a room with a sign over it that said "Briefing Room". Sonic dashed over to the door and tried to open it. However, it wouldn't open for him, and the door rattled quite noisily. It looked like Zack had locked the door behind him. Sonic turned away from the door to look around for an alternate way to get in.
Sonic then spotted a ventilation duct on the floor next to the door. However, it was blocked by a cover. That didn't stop the hedgehog for long though. He pulled a quill out of his back, and sliced it across the corners of the cover, where screws were holding it closed. The cover, now loose, fell down. Sonic caught it though before it could hit the ground, preventing there from being any more noise. After that, he dropped his quill and took a look inside the duct.
The inside was almost pitch black. Sonic did not like the idea of going in there at all, being he wasn't exactly someone who enjoyed crawling into small dark places. However, he really wanted to know what Zack was up to, and went inside. It didn't really matter though that he couldn't see where he was going. There appeared to be only one way to go in the ducts anyway, so there was no chance of getting lost. However, it did feel quite claustrophobic. The hedgehog wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.
He felt the duct slope upward. It was tricky trying to get up, with how the duct was totally made up of slick metal with nothing to grab onto. Sonic had to press his body against the sides to keep going up. Further up ahead, he could hear the faint sounds of voices, but he was too far away to make anything out. As he got closer though, the voices became more distinct. Sonic also saw that there was some light up ahead. There was a place where he could look down into the room and see what was going on. Right now, the only thing that Sonic could see from in here was Zack and Dr. Skeleck standing next to a table.
"We've nearly finished preparations," he heard Zack's voice say. "With your help, that is."
"I still can't believe you're serious about this," Dr. Skeleck's voice answered back. "Ten of you are going to sneak into Robotnik's base, which is probably packed to the gills with robots of all sorts? The odds would have to be a million to one!"
"Don't worry…we're not going in there to kill all of them. We're just going in to rescue any captured civilians. We slip in and out, just like that. No fuss, no muss. You're sure about where the prison is, aren't you?"
"I…suppose. My memory could be rusty though...after all the last time I was in there was over a week ago."
"Great time to bring that up! Ten of my best men are counting on you to have the correct information."
"Damn it…I'm doing my best! Even as ridiculous as I think this plan of yours is."
"And you call yourself a doctor..."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I thought doctors were supposed to save lives."
"Well we are but—"
"This plan is going to save who knows how many people from the roboticizer! You should be right behind it!"
"Hey, this isn't exactly the same thing as medicine, you know."
"Regardless, it's my job to preserve life as well, and I'm not going to just sit back like you are!"
There was the click of a door unlocking, and then it opened. Another voice joined the conversation.
"Uh...sir?"
Sonic recognized the voice as that of the chameleon cop in the truck. Zack quickly stopped to answer him.
"Yes?"
"We're all here and ready to start the meeting."
"Good good…everyone have a seat."
There was a sound of shuffling feet and the legs of chairs scratching across the tiled floor.
"Well, since you're all here, you'll be happy to know that we're about ready to carry out our operation, with the help of our good friend Dr. John Skeleck here."
Dr. Skeleck merely grunted in confirmation.
"Let's go over the plan one more time, and then we'll set it in motion in about half an hour."
Zack stepped over towards an easel with a blank sheet of paper displayed on it
"As we've said before, the goal of this operation is to break into Robotnik's prison where Dr. Skeleck was held before, and rescue all civilians in there who still haven't been roboticized yet. Now, we don't know exactly what's in this base, but we've already seen firsthand evidence of what resources Robotnik has with how he's destroyed our city. Therefore, this is to be a stealth operation. If a full-out battle starts, we'll be crushed in no time."
Zack pulled up the sheet of paper, to reveal a collection of photographs that appeared to show an area of Robotnik's base. He couldn't get a good look at any of the pictures though, because he was too far away.
"We think we may have a potential entry point into the base though, that will allow us to gain ingress without detection. I've scouted out the base myself, and I've noticed the refuse dump on the western side of the base. Robotnik dumps all of his garbage out there in large trucks, and the area is lightly guarded. Maybe if we steal aboard one of these trucks, we can slip in unnoticed."
Another sheet of paper was revealed, and underneath that it displayed a rough sketch of a floor plan, but it appeared rough and incomplete. Since it was probably a floor plan of Robotnik's base, Sonic looked at it hard and tried to memorize it as quickly as he could, before Zack changed the sheet again. Fortunately, since it was much bigger than the photographs, it was easier to see.
"Beyond that though, the operation is going to get much trickier. Even with Mr. Skeleck providing us with what he knows of the floorplan, we don't know where in the base these trucks are going to drop us off. We'll just have to play it by ear until we find a corridor that's on this map I'm showing you. Once we do get on track though, we make a beeline for the prison where Dr. Skeleck was held when he wasn't treating Robotnik, and rescue everyone we can find in there. Then we get out the same way we came in."
Zack put a hand down upon the table next to him.
"Now remember...Robotnik's forces outnumber us thousands to one. We need to avoid combat at all costs, so no Rambo shit. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" all the policemen said in unison.
Zack pulled all the sheets back so that the blank sheet of paper was on display on the easel again.
"Good then...we leave in an half an hour. Gear up and report to the parking garage at one o' clock."
Again, there was a scraping of chairs on the floor, as people got up and started to walk out of the room. Zack walked back into view, next to the table. Dr. Skeleck began talking to him again.
"What's in that big metal box you have there? It's got "Property of Freedomian Army" written on the side of it."
Zack was silent, at least until the last footsteps had left the room. He brought the box in question into view of the vent cover, and dropped it on top of the table with a loud clank.
"Heh…this old thing? It's a souvenir from my time in Robotnik War I."
He flipped open the latch and the box opened. Inside was a large black gun that looked kind of like a gigantic rifle. There was a large stock on the back, in addition to a magazine sticking into a receiver in the top of the gun. The loose bullets in the case looked like they were at least six inches long, and the barrel was ridiculously long.
"Dear God!" the doctor shouted. "I thought you said you weren't doing any Rambo stuff!"
"I know I know…but don't worry. This is only in case we are discovered. You should have seen what happened before when we tried to fight them as they attacked the city. Everything except our rifle ammunition bounced right off of their metal hulls, and even then it didn't do a very good job. But this baby here can go through a foot of steel like a brick through plate glass! Don't tell anyone about it though, okay? I don't want any of my fellow officers to know I have this till it's too late for them to do anything about it."
"You are one insane and reckless man, you know that? First you're planning on trying to slip right under the nose of Robotnik's army, and now you're bringing that thing along."
"You'll love what I'm about to tell you what else I'm planning."
"Oh?"
"You're coming with us."
"What? You can't be serious!"
"Yes, I'm very serious. You're the only one here who's actually seen the inside of the base, so we're going to need your help in finding our way through."
"But I'm just a doctor, not a soldier! I've never even fired a water pistol before!"
"Don't worry... You won't have to fight. All you gotta do is guide us to the prison. That's it."
"I'm not going!"
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not!"
Sonic muffled a giggle. It was funny seeing adults like them argue like they were little five-year-olds. He did really like Zack's style though, mostly because he seemed willing to go headfirst into danger just like Sonic.
Now that Sonic knew what Zack was planning, he was already getting ideas for how he could steal along on the truck. Then he could break off from the group when they got inside, and go after Robotnik. This would be great. He started to crawl back down the tunnel, when he bumped into something. Something fuzzy...and with big ears.
"Ow!" it gasped.
Sonic jumped back a bit, but then he realized that it was Tails' voice. The kid must have followed him into the vent to see what he was doing.
"Tails, don't scare me like that," Sonic said.
"Sorry Sonic," the fox said.
They crawled out of the vent, and then sat against the wall next to the open cover.
"I guess you heard what they're talking about, right?"
"Yeah…they're really gonna go to that base to save the people?"
"Uh huh…I think I may tag along. Now that I'm healed, taking down Robotnik'll be a breeze."
"What! You still want to go after him?"
"Yep!"
"Don't do it! You'll die!"
"I'm going after him Tails, with or without you. You can't do anything to stop me."
Sonic sat up, and sped down the hall towards the garage. It was time.