Chapter 19: Old Faces
March 21st, 2314 – 3:05 PM – Robotnik's Base
Sonic shakily moved backwards, as Robotnik edged his ship closer. The mad doctor laughed all the while, greatly enjoying the fact that Sonic was totally helpless. Meanwhile, Sonic's mind was racing as he tried to think of a way he could get out of this situation. Tails often did this part of the job, where he figured ways they could get out of bad situations. But without him, Sonic was dead in the water.
A loud booming sound echoed through the sky, like a cannon shot. Robotnik screamed as a gigantic hole appeared in the side of his ship. The machine tilted wildly out of control. Sonic covered his ears to block out the thunderous sound. He wasn't sure, but the sound of that gun was familiar…
"Zack's gun?" Sonic realized. "He's here?"
Sonic glanced in the direction of the gunshot, and saw a figure on top of the hill. The person up there was clearly holding Zack's anti-tank rifle, judging from the silhouette's outline. Robotnik screamed in rage again, and Sonic looked back to see what new damage there was. The lightning gun on the bottom of the ship was sparking all over the place, and it looked like it was about to fall off. The engine was coughing black smoke all over the place, as the vehicle drifted closer to the ground.
"Goddamn it! Fly you worthless piece of junk!"
Sonic realized that the ship was low enough for him to hit with a spinball attack. He let out a small smile, and he dashed over across the rocks towards the damaged craft. Leaping off of the rocks, he curled into a spiky ball and flew straight towards the vehicle. Sonic took off the left stabilizing wing as he crashed into the egg ship. After stopping himself, the hedgehog leaped back up again and knocked the lightning cannon loose. It crumpled on the ground as it hit the hard rocks.
"Damn you, hedgehog!" Robotnik screamed as he looked down at Sonic. "Stop it!"
On the contrary, those words made Sonic want to smash up Robotnik's ship even more. The hedgehog grinned and laughed crazily as he continued to crash into the thing over and over again. Before long, the ship looked like it had passed through a rock crusher, and it was flying so low it was hardly floating above the ground now. Robotnik turned his ship face Sonic. The doctor had an expression of rage upon his face.
"You should just give up now Robotnik," Sonic said, folding his arms. "Just face it; it's all over. Your ship isn't going to fly anymore, and you've lost your lightning cannon."
"No way Sonic," Robotnik said, suddenly getting a smirk on his face. "This is only the beginning."
Sonic was about to ask Robotnik why he said that, when they both heard the sound of a jet engine in the distance. The hedgehog looked up to see what was making the sound. A sleek black plane was headed straight towards Robotnik, as it fired a green tractor beam from the bottom.
"No!" Sonic yelled as he ran towards Robotnik. "You're not getting away!"
"Farewell, son of Swift Hedgehog," Robotnik said, waving goodbye.
Just as Sonic was about to reach Robotnik, the tractor beam moved over the doctor and the egg ship. It easily carried the fat human and his ship up into the aircraft. As the doors slammed shut, the plane zoomed off away from the base. In just a few seconds, it was already nearly too small to see.
"Dammit," Sonic said. "I was this close to killing him and ending this stupid war!"
"Oh, don't let it get you down," a friendly voice behind Sonic said. "You did great."
That voice… It sounded familiar. But it couldn't be who Sonic thought it was. When he whirled around to look though, his eyes confirmed that he hadn't heard the speaker wrong. It was Tex Randalph, the wolf from the gas station, back from the dead.
"How ya doin', kid?" he said with a smile on his face.
At his side Tex held Zack's anti-tank rifle. He looked terrible and scruffy, like he hadn't bathed for days, not to mention the blood on his shirt. However, despite Tex's looks, he had a very warm smile on his face, and he looked completely different from the wolf Sonic had seen back at the gas station days ago. The hedgehog was speechless for a moment.
"H-h-how...?" Sonic mumbled.
"How'd I survive?" Tex said, finishing for him. He cleared his throat. ""It's a bit of a long story. I was wrong about my gas station being a safe place to hide. After you left a Robotnik air patrol flew over the place, and they must have picked me up on infrared. They blew up the station to flush me out. I was able to get out, but I lost everything in there.
"Anyway, I tried to fight them off with my shotgun, but there was just too many of them and only one of me. I got hit by a stun gun and captured in no time. Several hours later, I woke up in that prison and I was in there for a while. Hey, do you think you could you tell me what day it is?"
"Th-the twenty-first, I think."
"Damn...I was locked up in there only a week? It felt like ages. Anyway, when you and those cops did that jailbreak and let us all out, I was in that crowd. I saw you helping out the cops, and I couldn't believe you had those ass-kicking skills! Why didn't you show off any of that stuff like the super speed while I was with you?"
"I was shot in the leg, remember? Speaking of that time, why are you being so friendly to me all of a sudden?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I feel like a real asshole for how I treated you and your fox friend. But, I guess saving you from Robotnik just now should be enough to make up for it."
Sonic found himself relaxing, and smiled at Tex. It was still so freaky seeing him be so friendly though.
"Heh, thanks," he said.
Tex smiled back too.
"You know, I'm real sorry I said I hoped Robotnik would catch you two. Who knew you'd end up giving him a run for his money like this?"
Sonic was once again stunned by how friendly Tex was.
"Well, I'm sorry for saying I hoped you burn in hell," Sonic said with a chuckle.
Both of them broke out into laughter.
"I guess we both have a lot to be sorry for," Tex said, between laughs. "Like me hoarding all that food for myself when there was no way I'd be able to eat it anyway."
"We told you that you wouldn't need that much!" Sonic said.
"Yeah I know. Heh heh, fat lot of good hoarding all that food in there did me, what with how it all got blown to hell. That's what I get for being greedy, I guess. Oh, by the way, what happened after you got broken out of prison?"
"After you zoomed out of there, I asked the dingo cop what was going on. He said you'd gone to face Robotnik all by yourself with your friend, so that the prisoners would have a distraction to use to escape. Well, since I remembered how I treated you when we first met, I figured I owed you. So I picked up that huge rifle from that bobcat commander of yours, and then I started chasing after you. I only just made it to the top floor of the elevators and outside when I saw you getting attacked by Robotnik out here. It looked like you needed a hand, what with how you couldn't reach Robotnik, so I put this gun here to good use."
"Well thanks a lot!" Sonic said. "That was just what I needed."
"Heh, it's no problem at all."
Suddenly, a loud whirring noise interrupted their talk, which was followed by the sound of hundreds of jets. Robotnik's planes flew out of the hangar bays dotted across the mountain. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them were pouring out of the base. As they left the base, they took off in the direction Robotnik's jet had gone.
"What's going on?" Sonic asked.
"It looks like they're retreating...leaving the base," Tex said. "Why are they doing that?"
"Attention! Attention!" a computerized voice droned, echoing across the mountain via a loudspeaker system. "The self-destruct sequence for this base has been initiated! Explosives will detonate in five minutes! Evacuate the area!"
Alarms began blaring all around them.
"That's why!" Sonic shouted. "Robotnik's going to blow up his entire base just to kill all of us? He's crazy! "
"Looks like it!" Tex yelled back. "No time to waste! We need to get out of here!"
"But how are we gonna climb down this mountain in time? I'm fast, but speed only works when there's not a ton of rocks in the way!"
"We can take the elevator back down and escape through the base," Tex said, as he pointed at a building near where the tower was before. "Do you know a floor we can stop at that will let us out?"
"Yeah, we can stop at Floor 10 and leave through the garbage dump, but that could take a while!"
"We don't have much of a choice! It's the only way out of this base that you know about, and it'll take too long to find another way."
"Dammit! If only Tails were still awake he could just fly us down to the bottom!"
"No use whining about it. That isn't going to make him wake up. Now let's go get him and get moving!"
"Right!"
Sonic zipped over to the small cave where he had left Tails before, and picked up the fox in his arms. He was a bit heavy, although fear coursing through his body had lent him extra strength he didn't know he had. He climbed out of the cave as fast as he could. Tex was waiting outside for him.
"Let me take Tails," Tex said. "I'm good at holding heavy loads."
Sonic did think that he'd probably have a hard time hauling Tails in his hands and running at the same time, so he let the wolf have him. They started scaling the rocks. It was a good thirty feet up, but they scrambled up it easily. As fast as Sonic could, he sprinted inside the building with the elevator. The glass-walled staircase had gone down with the tower, leaving a doorway where it used to connect to the stairs. Within a second, he had moved over to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened up, and Sonic stepped inside. He looked back outside and saw that Tex was just entering the hallway. He was carrying Tails on his back.
"Come on!" Sonic yelled, waving for the wolf to hurry up. "Hurry up!"
As Tex jumped inside the elevator and Sonic pressed the "10" button, the computerized voice spoke again over the alarms.
"Four minutes until self-destruct."
The elevator doors slammed closed. While the elevator whooshed down the ninety floors to Level 10 in less than thirty seconds, it felt like an eternity for Sonic. He barely even registered his stomach bouncing around in his body as the elevator stopped. He was totally focused on the doors. The moment they opened, Sonic started barreling down the hallway.
"Hey!" Tex shouted. "Don't leave me behind! I won't be able to find my way out without you!"
Sonic screeched to a halt and turned back to face him.
"Sorry!"
"Don't worry about it now!" Tex screamed as he caught up to Sonic. "Let's just get the hell out of here before we're fried!"
"All right," Sonic said, jogging at a pace slow enough for Tex to keep up with.
"Three minutes until self-destruct," the computer voice warned.
A jolt of panic ran through Sonic's body. He could easily get out of the base running as hard as he could, with Tails hanging from his arm, but then he'd have to leave Tex behind. He really didn't want to that. There was the possibility he could haul two people behind him as he ran, but it sounded too risky. Sonic wasn't sure if he could run with that much weight.
In the end, he chose to shut up and just jog while Tex ran beside him. Sonic tried to remember as hard as he could which halls he was supposed to take. He wasn't sure if he was going the right way or not, which quite frankly scared the hell out of him. If they were headed in the wrong direction, they would all die.
Up ahead, Sonic and Tex could hear yelling and screaming, plus the sounds of thousands of footsteps. Running around the next corner, they saw that it was the prisoners fleeing the jail Sonic and Tails had been at before. While it wasn't exactly a big crowd, there were still quite a few left.
"There are still people leaving the jail?" Sonic said. "They're going to get caught in the blast!"
"Sonic! There's no time to rescue all of them!" Tex said, jumping into the horde of people running towards the exit. "We just gotta do what we can!"
"Two minutes until self-destruct."
"Oh dammit," Sonic said, jumping into the crowd.
Tex and Sonic dashed with the crowd as fast as they could. However, there was one positive consequence for finding the crowd. The cops had probably laid out the path to the exit, and the people were just following it. They didn't have to worry anymore if they were going the wrong way. To Sonic, that was a great relief.
Finally, the line of people led them to the refuse room that Sonic and Tails had used to enter the base. The hedgehog surprised they'd made it back here this fast. As he thought about it though, he realized that the last time he'd been going this way he'd had to sneak through slowly and carefully. This time though, all the robot soldiers had evacuated and there was no longer a need to be careful. Sonic felt somewhat encouraged now. It actually seemed possible that they could get out in time.
"One minute until self-destruct."
A chorus of terrified cries rose up from the line of people dashing across the room. They ran even harder towards the refuse truck tunnel, which was the closest exit out of the base.
And with that, Sonic's moment of encouragement was blown away. Time was ticking away, and fast. Sonic deeply wished he could just dash ahead of Tex and sprint out of the base, but he didn't want to leave him or Tails behind. It felt like hours, but they finally got to the tunnel. A truck rested near the entrance, apparently stopped due to the self-destruct. Sonic paid no mind to that though, as he jogged into the tunnel behind Tex.
"Thirty seconds until self-destruct."
Sonic looked as far down the tunnel as he could, but he couldn't see any light. There was no way Tex would be able to run fast enough to get out. Sonic ran up alongside him, looking at his face. Tex looked quite panicked as well.
"Sonic, I don't think I can make it!" the wolf said. "Maybe you should just take Tails and leave me behind..."
"But I don't want to do that!" Sonic shouted.
"Sonic, it's too late for me. Just go!"
Tex brought Tails off of his shoulders and held him out to Sonic as he ran.
"No! I don't want you to die!"
Sonic briefly had the thought of trying to haul out Tex and Tails at the same time, but he didn't like that idea. Tex would have to keep a firm grip on Sonic's hands while keeping a firm grip on Tails. At this point though, it looked like the only way all three of them were going to survive.
"Tex!" Sonic yelled. "Give me your hand, and hold on tight to Tails!"
"You mean you're gonna—"
"Yeah... I'm going to have to drag you and Tails. I'm not sure if I can do it, but it's the only way we're gonna make it."
"All right Sonic!" Tex shouted, as he wrapped his arm around Sonic's arm. "I'm ready!"
"Here we go!" Sonic yelled.
The hedgehog poured on the speed as much as he could, Sonic was a bit slower because of the extra weight, but he was going faster than expected. The hedgehog dashed down the corridor as fast as he could, while dodging the people who were trying to get out as well.
"Fifteen seconds until self-destruct..."
Sonic growled out in frustration as he ran harder than he ever had in his life, trying to compensate for the extra weight. The light at the end of the tunnel shined just ahead, but could they make it? Sonic's feet felt like they were dragging through mud with how much the seconds seemed to stretch.
"Five seconds until self-destruct... Four, three, two, one..."
At the sound of the word "one", Sonic jumped up into the air, trying to gain just a few more precious feet with the leap.
"Zero."
A fireball erupted from the tunnel behind them. Time seemed to go into slow motion as Sonic began to feel the heat of the explosion. The force of the explosion tossed him like a piece of paper in the wind. Rather than having his feet stretched out in preparation for landing, Sonic felt himself being hurled for a loop. The world became nothing but a mass of whirling colors as he tumbled in midair. Sonic didn't know what was happening to Tex or Tails either. The world was just blurring so much he couldn't tell what was happening at all.
Finally, Sonic came to a crashing halt as he hit the dirt. The hedgehog must have rolled across the ground a good dozen feet before he came to a halt. Flames from the explosion blasted past him, singing his body. Sonic screamed out as he covered his head with his arms, trying to block out the pain.
But, then the pain ended just as fast as it started. The air around him rapidly cooled down. Sonic risked a glance up, and saw that he was a good hundred feet away from the truck tunnel. Flames covered the entrance, and black smoke spewed upwards into the sky. There were also several miscellaneous fires here and there around the yard. Apparently he'd just barely made it out of the blast radius.
Sonic remembered that Tex and Tails had been with him when the explosion hit, and looked around to find them. While he was looking, he realized just how awful the scene was around him. There were people running around and screaming, some of them covered with flames. Others tried to help them, but it was difficult to calm the flaming people down. Others roiled around on the ground in pain. More explosions sounded in the distance, probably from other areas of the base. Amidst the confusion though, the wolf and the fox were nowhere to be seen.
"Tex!" Sonic yelled over the screams. "Where are you?"
Then he turned around and noticed that Tex was slumped next to the wheel of a refuse truck. Tails was slumped on the ground beside him. The explosion must have thrown them towards it. Sonic sped over to them, ignoring the scorches on his body. However, even as he approached, Tex looked up.
"I'm okay Sonic..." Tex muttered. "I just hit my head on this thing. That's all."
"Good, but what about Tails?"
"Tails I think will be okay too. He was in my arm when we hit, so my body took most of the blow. Anyway, don't worry about us. See if you can help those people over there."
Tex weakly pointed a finger at the wounded and the dead, who weren't lucky enough to escape the tunnel in time.
"Got it," Sonic said.
He dashed over to a tan female coyote who was screaming in pain. Her blue jeans were on fire, and the blaze was creeping up towards her white T-shirt. She tried as hard as she could to put out the fire by patting it down with her hands, but it was no good. Sonic dashed over and used both of his hands to put out the blaze quickly. Fortunately though, with his gloves it was quite easy.
"Thanks..." she mumbled.
Sonic was about to say 'No problem' when there was a thunderous roar from above. He looked up, and saw that the mountain base above them collapse in on itself. Massive boulders fell down from above, a few heading straight towards the dump. Sonic looked down at the coyote, and grabbed her arms. Running backwards as fast as he could, Sonic hauled her to safety.
He wasn't a moment too soon. The huge rocks, some of them the size of cars, began crashing down all around them. People screamed as they ran. Sonic spotted a few getting flattened here and there, and fought back tears as he continued to drag the coyote out. Finally though, he pulled her back next to where Tex and Tails were, which seemed to be out of the range of the falling rocks.
After Sonic finished, he looked back to see a horrible scene. If the people weren't already burning to death, they were now getting crushed underneath the boulders. Sonic couldn't bear to watch, and turned away. He closed his eyes and started crying, moaning out his sadness.
I failed... Robotnik escaped, and people are dead now. I'm sorry Kyle, Natalie, and Dad... I wasn't able to do it. What am I gonna do now? I feel so miserable that I want to kill myself.
Sonic turned around, and he saw something strange. Tex and the coyote were staring at each other with intensity in their eyes. Why were they doing that? Suddenly, the pair embraced each other, hugging each other intensely. Even kisses were exchanged. Sonic arched an eyebrow and looked at the two of them.
"Huh?" he mumbled.
What's all this about?
The pair continued to hug for a little while, with their eyes closed, until suddenly Tex saw Sonic out of the corner of his eye. He straightened up and walked over towards Sonic with a smile on his face.
"Sonic, I'd like for you to meet my wife," Tex said, gesturing towards the coyote.
The hedgehog's eyes widened open in surprise. The coyote Sonic had just rescued stepped over to Tex's side. She wrapped one arm around the back of the wolf's neck.
"Hey Sonic!" the coyote said. "My name's Mary."
"You just saved my wife, and got us back together again," Tex said. "You've got no idea how happy I am right now. Until now, I thought she was dead."
"How did that happen?" Sonic asked.
"Well, you see, Mary and I were working at the gas station a while back, when we heard the news about Robotnik going after Carlboron. So, we packed up everything we had in our car, and started driving to get out. The problem was, Robotnik's army found us before we could find shelter."
"Yeah, that's right," Mary said, joining in. "Robotnik attacked while we were driving down the highway, and we crashed when they dropped a bomb on the road in right front of us. We started running, but I got shot with a stun gun."
"I tried to stop to help her after that, but there were just too many robots. I had to run away, and I felt terrible about leaving her behind."
"After that, I woke up in that jail."
"You were in there too?" Tex asked, turning to Mary. "I never knew."
"Yeah, it was probably because our cells were far apart. I was up on like the top floor."
"I was down on the bottom, so yeah there's no way we would have been able to tell if both of us were there."
"But anyway Sonic, thanks a lot! I owe you big time!" Tex said, extending his hand out to Sonic.
Sonic smiled, and shook his hand back, but then his smile faded. He turned back to face the destroyed base behind them. The mountain was now nothing but a field of large boulders and twisted metal. Flames rose into the air from all the fires left by the explosions, making a gigantic black cloud in the sky. Everything felt still and quiet now. Even the screaming had died down.
"What do we do now?" Sonic asked.
"Well it's basically over now Sonic," Mary said with a sigh. "There isn't much left to do now, except help those that are still alive..."
Sonic looked back at the rubble.
"We failed," he said, closing his eyes. "Me and Tails couldn't save all the people. There were still a ton of them in there."
"Sonic," Tex started. "Don't let it get you down."
"But way not? There's gotta be a lot of dead people in there!"
"But you and Tails were just two people. I don't care how strong you are, because two people can't do everything and save everybody." His voice took on a cheerful tone. "But hey, for two people, I think you and Tails here did just fine. You forced Robotnik to leave and helped make a distraction for the jail heist. That's a lot more than I think me and Mary could do if we were in your position."
"Tex!" Mary said, punching the wolf in the arm with a grin. "I don't think I'm that helpless!"
"Heh, naw honey. Anyway Sonic, be proud of what you and Tails did. I sure am. Anyway, let's get started on helping to dig the people in there out."
Sonic nodded. He started to step towards the rubble ahead of him. There were people in that mess somewhere, and some were definitely still alive. He could hear yelling underneath the rocks and metal. Other people were already beginning to uncover the rubble as well, and Sonic joined right on in. The three of them reached the rubble. After giving a brief smile to each other, they started on digging the trapped people out.