Disclaimer: BSD and I do not own Sonic and Co.
A/N: Well Happy Birthday Kratos lover1. I hope the 'coming to age' goes well. Now a message to Everyone! MAKE SURE YOU READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END OF THIS STORY! That's where the secret is. And you all know when there is a big gap that means a change of tense. Since theres more than 1 in this chapter. Anyway here is...
Tears of Blood: Chapter Ten
The going was slow and painful. Sally's shin had been getting more painful as the time wore on. Now she was half stepping, half dragging her left leg. The pain in her left shoulder had eased off a little. For the first time, Sally glanced over her shoulder for the first time since she left Robotropilis. She could see the hovercraft moving slowly over the wreckage, She turned back. The great wood still lay some distance away. She carried on, determined to make it back. So far, all here memories turned out that the plan worked fine. But maybe what unravelled only an hour or so ago might explain it. Concentrating on the slightest detail, she cast her mind back 2 hours ago.
Sally pressed up against the pile of junk as the hover bot came to investigate. The light passed over twice and then went as the bot continued it's patrol. Sally peeked out to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that it was, she signalled Rotor, Bunnie and Sonic to follow. Under the cover of the giant towers shadow, the group reached the old maintenance access way.
"It's welded shut." Sally reported, tugging on the old handle.
"Allow me Sally." Bunnie spoke up.
Stepping up to the door, Bunnie grasped the handle and yanked the door right off.
"Thanks Bunnie." Sally thanked as she disappeared through the hole.
"No problem Sally honey." Bunnie replied.
"You're the best Bunnie." Sonic said as he quickly followed suit.
"Your very welcome sugah hog." Bunnie called after him.
Inside was black. Taking out torches from Sonics back pack, the small group clicked them on as Bunnie returned the door to its frame. Sally took Nicole out of her pocket.
"Show me the layout and our position." Sally ordered.
A holograph display shot up showing a group of red pulsating dots.
"Security office please, Nicole." Sally asked.
A blue glowing room lit up.
"O.k. let's go." Sally said.
The small group headed out through the darkened corridors to the security office. Rotor entered the office and started to examine the computers.
"Can you get these things started?" Sonic asked Rotor.
"Sure, I can get these things up and running." Rotor said, putting a small case on the dusty desk. "Once I hack into the system, the Swat bots will be down here in a beat."
"Just leave them to me Rotor darlin'." Bunnie said.
"Come on Sonic, we've got to get where we need to be." Sally said, grabbing his wrist.
"You'll be needing these. They allow you to breath underwater like a fish." Rotor said, taking out two rebreathers from one of his many pouches on his bandolier.
"Thanks." Sonic said, taking up the two items and stuffing them in his backpack.
"C'mon Sal, let's juice." Sonic said, running out the office.
Sally lead the way to the cooling chamber. As they entered Sonics eye was drawn to the large pool in the centre. It's surface shimmered and reflected light onto the high ceiling.
"Water. Sal, you know I don't like water." Sonic protested.
Sally looked sheepish. "Sorry, I guess I forgot to tell you." Sally said, averting her eyes.
"I usually don't go near water, but for you." Sonic took Sally's chin in his hand and turned her two face him. "I'll do it." Sally smiled at the response.
Taking out the rebreathers from his backpack, Sonic passed one to Sally. Placing them in their mouths they walked up to the pool and jumped in. The maintenance corridor was about half way down the shaft. Holding each others hand they swam down the long blue tunnel, lit only occasionally by underwater lights that shone through the gloom. Pretty soon, they found the passage. Swimming through they started to rise toward the surface.
Breaking the surface, they made their way to the side and climbed out. Sally spat out the rebreather and took Nicole out of her pocket. Sonic spat out his and shook himself off. This room was different from the other one. It was brightly lit with lights and not a speck of dust could be seen.
"O.k., where's the warehouse and stockpile of parts Sal?" Sonic asked.
Sally consulted Nicole. "It's close. Just down the main corridor and third door on the left." Sally reported.
"Let's go then." Sonic said, scooping up Sally in his arms and running out of the cooling room.
Rotor had done a good job of messing up the security system and they reached the main warehouse and stockpile in no time. There didn't seem to be any guards stationed near the warehouse which seemed to be very odd, but they didn't have time to worry about that. Entering the warehouse, they looked on in amazement at the sight before them. Row upon row, stack upon stack of Mk2 Swat bots were lined up all along the warehouse on one side, while crates and the such were stored on the other. Sally pulled Nicole out of her pocket.
"Are there any security arrangements in this room?" Sally asked.
Nicole replied. "There are cameras and gun emplacements at regular intervals all running from a separate power supply. It can be reached from the catwalk that we are currently on."
"Thanks Nicole." Sally said, putting Nicole back into her pocket.
Making their way over to it, they discovered the generator inside. And generating the electricity inside was….
"A chaos emerald." Sally breathed. It shone with a bright light. "Now how do we…"
"Got it." Sonic said. Sally looked to her side to see Sonic holding the emerald in his hand. Sally took it and shoved it in her pocket.
Re-entering the warehouse they found the entire ware house bathed in the red of the emergency lights.
"O.k. Let's get to work." Sally said.
Making their way to the warehouse floor, Sonic and Sally then started to set the explosives, with a ten minute delay. Once the last bomb had been set, Sally got Nicole to activate the bombs.
"O.k. We've got ten minutes to escape before we get blown to bits." Sally called to Sonic. Sonic nodded in reply and they both bolted out of the warehouse.
Outside, shutters had sealed off the corridor both ways only straight ahead was clear. Not waiting for anything, they took the door regardless. It turned out to be a lift. Pressing the basement button they both waited. To their amazement, they found themselves going up instead of going down. The lift soon stopped and opened. Sonic and Sally stepped out to survey the room they were now in. The room was covered in tubes and pipes, bleeping computers and darkness seemed to swallow every corner of the room.
"Well, glad to see you made it." A gravely voice boomed.
The lights went up and porcine figure was illuminated. Sally gasped. Sonic wrapped his arms around her to protect her and offer a little bit of comfort. Floating in a tank with light green liquid, was Robotnik.
"Robotnik?" Sonic questioned.
"Yes, it's me."
"What have you done?"
"I am achieving the ultimate in power. A power you can't beat."
"Well, how are you going to achieve it when we blow this place to bit's?" Sonic added rather cockily.
"With my help." came another voice. From out of the shadows stepped a bald figure with a weasel like moustache and a brilliant red jacket with black trousers and leather boots.
"Robotnik?" Sally asked, somewhat puzzled.
"No, I am called….Dr Eggman." The figure spoke.
"But how…..?" Sonic started when he was broken off by Robotnik.
"Seeing as I was having trouble with you, I decided to look into the other dimensions to find help and I found him. The marvellous Dr Eggman." Robotnik said from his liquid prison.
"And when my other dimensional self has reached his full potential, we will fuse to become the ultimate genius." Eggman ended.
Sonic and Sally looked on in horror, if one Robotnik was bad enough two was awful.
"You are probably wondering how you're little operations were rumbled so easily?" Eggman said.
"It was simple. We found out you were setting up a network of Comms dishes to communicate with your other friends. So all we did was put a wire tap on your dish." Robotnik gloated.
"And made it look like a weather accident. We had a little interference on the line that was the only give away that our wiretap was there. And for two months, you fools never noticed." Eggman chortled.
That was it. Sally had found it. Sally's eyes widened. The dish had been tapped from the beginning. All of this had been going wrong from the start. She stopped dead in her tracks. Eggman and Robotnik planned it all. Sally swayed as she realised that she had found the answer. Looking up at Knothole, Sally realised that if Eggman and Robotnik did bug the dish then they knew the location of Knothole. Sally had to get back. Taking a step, Sally felt pain shot up her right leg. She collapsed onto her side, gritting her teeth. She waited for the pain to subside before she got, shakily, back to her feet. When she tried to move her right leg, a small twinge of pain shot the length of her leg, so she ended up dragging it. Sonic had been quick to act in that situation, he always did. She recalled the last few moments that they spent together.
"Face it, you've lost." Robotnik howled. "We know the location of Knothole and once our bots are finished disarming your bombs nothing will stop us."
Sally held Sonic closer, but Sonic stood firm. She felt his arm caress her lower back and she calmed down a bit.
"No Doc, I think you've lost." Sonic said. And with that he pointed Nicole at the glass encased Robotnik and fired Nicole's laser. The laser smashed the glass, piercing Robotnik's blubbery form.
"Nooooo!" Yelled Eggman as Robotnik slumped to the floor.
"Nicole, detonate the bombs!" Sonic yelled.
There was a series of muffled explosions from far below. Sonic backed back into the lift and slammed a button. Eggman turned to them both, rage burning. Pulling a pistol from a holster on his hip, he fired. The lift started and went down, just as the bullet ricocheted off a computer. Once the lift stopped, Sonic raced out looking for an exit. The whole place was coming down. Sirens were going off, red lights were flashing and an evacuation announcement was being broadcast. Sonic raced over a sky bridge hoping to find a way out. Suddenly an explosion in front of them started a raging fire. A low groan could be heard as a pole came free of it's moorings and crashed against the sky bridge. Thinking quickly, Sonic placed Sally on the pole, thrust Nicole into her hands and pushed her down the pole before Sally could say anything. As Sally shot down the pole an explosion rocked it viscously. As Sally was about to look back to see what happened to Sonic another explosion rocked the pipe and she found herself falling, then everything went silent and black.
When Sally woke up she found herself lying face down. She tried to get up but a pain in her left shoulder stopped any further progress. She slowly got up, trying to rest her shoulder. As she got to her left knee a pain shot through her right leg when she placed it on the ground, causing her to land back onto her right side. Once the pain had subsided, Sally tried again. Getting to her feet she felt something get in her eyes, wiping it away, she found it was blood. Looking down at where she had lain, she found Nicole poking out of a piece of concrete. Pushing off the piece of concrete, Sally saw that Nicole was beyond functional operation. Her CPU had been crushed by the concrete block and her screen had been smashed. Putting Nicole in her pocket, Sally looked back up at the Sky bridge. It had been broken completely in half, both ends swinging in space. There was no way Sonic could've got away. She was about to look for the others when she noticed a hoverbot surveying the wreckage. She quickly left. It pained her to do so but in her weakened condition she would be easy prey for the swat bots, and so with a heavy heart, she made her way back to Knothole, alone.
Sally blinked tears out of her eyes. She cursed. But she realised that there was nothing she or anyone else could do. As she was wondering how best to explain to Bernadette and Jules as to why their only son would not be coming home, Sally heard a crunch on the road behind her. Suddenly she was filled with panic and dread. The swat bots had caught up to her. She quickened her pace, dragging her right leg behind her. Sally didn't get very far when her left knee buckled under her.
"Leave me alone." Sally cried out as she closed her eyes and raised her arm to protect herself.
The swat bot grabbed her wrist, but instead of feeling cold, hard steel. She felt a soft grip. Of a person not a robot. Sally opened her eyes. She saw a dirty white gloved hand with the knuckles missing grabbing her wrist. And behind that a grubby, bruised, smiling face of Sonic.
Sally couldn't believe it. He had survived.
"Hey, Sal." Sonic said, kneeling down next to her. Sally said nothing and threw her arms round him, crying uncontrollably.
"I thought I had lost you." Sally sobbed.
"It will take more then a few explosions to get rid of me." Sonic said as he cuddled Sally.
"How did you survive?"
"Well after I put you on the pole, I followed suit."
"But I saw a hover craft, They're going to find us." Sally said from her position on Sonics shoulder.
"That's just the Northerners. They got wind of what happened and sent a captured hover craft to see what they could do. And don't worry, everyone is alright. They're all going to be taken to the northern base for medical treatment. I stayed behind to find you."
At these words, Sally pulled him closer. She never felt so glad to hold Sonic, to have him her with her.
"Well, we might as well get back to Knothole and get these wounds sorted out." Sonic said as he scooped Sally up in his arms.
"I'm so glad to see you again. I thought I had lost you." Sally said to him.
"Well, I'm here know so there's no need to worry." He said as he took off on a slow walk.
Sally snuggled up against his shoulder and wrapped her arms tight around his neck. She closed her eyes. Sonic rested his cheek on Sally's head.
"I love you, Sal." Sonic said in a low voice. "And I love you too Sonic." Sally replied.
The End! For Now...
A/N: Hoped you liked that Story, but heres the Secret... Theres gonna be a Sequel! Yep, watch out for the Sequel called Hands Of Wrath, even more Romance, even more Action Adventure, even more Drama, keep an eye out for Hands of Wrath, coming to on the 22nd of December. But until then, review. Goodbye!