Chapter 8: Shining Eyes
September 2nd, 2316 – 9:00 PM – Tneicnan Wilderness
Sonic slowly began to wake up, as the sleeping drug he'd been shot with wore off. The floor he rested on moved up and down, and he wondered why that was. More sensations came to him. Now Sonic noticed he could hear some kind of purring sound, like a motor. He guessed he was riding a car or something.
As Sonic's eyes began to drift open, the first thing he noticed was a window covered with bars. Dark tree branches flew past in the starry night sky, casting dark shadows all across Sonic's body. He turned to the left, and saw two seats facing away from him, towards a brightly lit dashboard. The dash's lights twinkled like stars in the darkness of the car. However, he was separated from the front row by another set of bars. It looked like whoever owned this truck had replaced the back seat with a cage, and Sonic was locked up inside it. The hedgehog started to move to sit up.
Hearing the sound, someone sitting in the passenger's seat up front turned around to look at him. He wore a brown cloak, which completely covered his body except for his face. However, the hood darkened his face so much that Sonic could only see glowing red eyes underneath it. Sonic instinctively moved away a bit, before he felt his back hit the rear of the cage. Meanwhile, Cloak Guy turned to face the person sitting in the driver's seat.
"Hey...our friend's awake," he said. There was a metallic edge to his voice.
The person in the driver's seat turned around to face him. This time, it was the gray fox that shot Sonic with the tranquilizer gun earlier. However, a completely different outfit covered his body. Instead of the Tneicnan armor, this time he looked like he'd just stepped straight out of a mercenary boot camp. A dark blue T-shirt covered his chest, and over the shirt was a flak vest. On his lower body he wore olive green cargoes.
That didn't catch Sonic's eye though. Instead, he felt himself glancing towards the fox's eyes. They didn't look normal for a vulpine. These eyes were an eerie yellow, and they flashed in the darkness like torches. They almost had a wolfish quality to them. He wondered why he hadn't noticed that earlier. Maybe it was because they seemed to light up more in the darkness. Before Sonic could get a better look though, the fox had already turned back to face the road.
"Have a nice rest?" he asked in a flat tone. "Sorry if the backseat of my SUV isn't too comfortable..."
Sonic was so taken aback by the way these two looked that he didn't even answer for a moment.
"Something wrong?" Wolf Eyes asked, again in the same bored tone.
Finally, Sonic managed to find his voice.
"Wh-what's going on here?"
"You'll be making us rich, that's what," Cloak Guy said, looking at him again with those creepy red eyes. "As soon as we get you to the client, that is."
Sonic narrowed his eyes.
"You mean you two are bounty hunters too?" Sonic growled.
"That's right, and we're not with that loser Nack either," Cloak Guy said. He chuckled a little. "You're worth ten million demens to our client, and we're taking it all for ourselves."
Sonic's eyes enlarged so much they looked like they'd pop out of his head.
"Ten million demens?"
"Yup, and Tails and Knuckles together are worth ten million demens too."
"Who in the world's gonna pay that much money for all of us?"
"Some guy calling himself Kenny Oviron."
Wolf Eyes' tail visibly twitched a bit in his seat. Sonic couldn't help but look at it for a moment. It was far too short and ragged for a fox's tail, going by what he remembered Tails' tails as looking like. In fact, it only looked long enough by half.
"He says he's a pig, going by his profile page on Merc Net," Cloak Guy said, continuing. "We got personally contacted by him to capture you. Didn't tell us why he needed you, although we don't really care with a reward like that."
Wolf Eyes let out a sigh.
"Do you have to tell him everything about this little job of ours?" he said, sounding extremely annoyed.
Cloak Guy shrugged. "What difference does it make? It's not like he's gonna be talking to anybody once we get him to our client. He'll probably torture him to death, or shoot him in the head."
"But why would he have us bring Sonic to him alive if he was gonna kill him anyway when we get him there?" Wolf Eyes asked.
Sonic smiled. If he had to be delivered alive, that meant they couldn't just kill him if he tried to escape. The bars and the sides of the truck looked flimsy enough to smash through...
"Sorry you two," Sonic said with a smirk, as he stood up. "But, I think I like being alive."
Sonic hunkered down and prepared to spin dash through the roof of the truck.
But before he could, Wolf Eyes pulled out a remote control and pressed a button on it. An electric charge surged through Sonic's body. The hedgehog cried out in pain, before he flopped back down onto the floor. Sonic rolled over and over again on the floor, clutching to himself and softly moaning.
"You aren't going anywhere," Wolf Eyes said. "Not as long as you're wearing that collar I put on you while you were asleep."
Upon hearing those words, Sonic felt around his neck and realized he was indeed wearing some type of metal collar. The band was about two inches thick, and he could feel the pinpricks of electrodes at intervals in the metal, sticking into his neck.
"If you do anything I don't want you to do, like try to break out of your cage, or run away, I press this button. While it won't kill you, you aren't going to feel like doing much of anything for a while. I just shocked you with the minimum charge. The pain will go away in a little bit, but the higher charges will have you roiling in agony for hours. Speaking of which…"
Wolf Eyes twisted a dial on the side of the remote control.
"Next time, you won't get off so easy if you try to escape. By the way, if you try to take it off or tamper with it, it's designed to automatically shock you. And when I'm asleep, my friend here's going to be wide awake and watching you, with one finger hovering over the shock button."
Sonic gave a glare at the fox, but then he turned back to Cloak Guy.
"Heh heh, that's right," Cloak Guy said, looking at Sonic with his red eyes glowing out from under the coat hood. "I never need to sleep, literally."
"Why?" Sonic asked.
"You know when Robotnik broke out of prison about eight years ago?"
"Err yeah," Sonic said. "My dad told me about it."
"Well, I was in the same prison, and that's when I escaped. Thank goodness too. I was on death row then."
"Death row...?"
"I am, or was a serial killer. I used to be known as the Sudo Butcher, but my real name is Redrum Sehliner. Anyway, it was great to escape, but I was really just crawling out of one hole and into another."
"What do you mean?" Sonic said.
"I was one of the first test subjects for one of Robotnik's then-new inventions, the roboticizer," Cloak Guy said. "He let all the prisoners escape in his ships after we got out of the compound, but then we all got taken to the roboticizers after that."
He pulled back the coat's hood, revealing the edgy face of a roboticized dog. That explained why his eyes were glowing red. Sonic backed away from him a bit. Quite frankly, roboticized people creeped Sonic out, especially up close.
"How come you've got your free will?" Sonic asked. "I thought my old foster dad Kyle Prower was an exception."
"Cuz my pal here saved me!" Redrum said, gesturing towards the Wolf Eyes. "Anyway, early roboticized Freedomians had a design flaw: the mind control program could be destroyed by a powerful electric shock. That's how I got my free will. Foxy here wandered into one of Robotnik's bases to find weapons, and then he zapped me with a tazer when I was about to capture him."
"What's your name?" Sonic asked, looking at the Wolf Eyes.
"You can call me...Half," the vulpine said, hesitating a little before he said Half.
"Oh come on man!" Redrum said, slapping his head. "Would it really hurt to give him your real name instead of your codename? It's not like he'll be talking to anybody once we deliver him to the client."
"I don't care," Half replied. "Telling people my real name will come back and bite me in the ass, I bet. Speaking of which, I can't believe you can just give him your life story like that. You're still on the run from the law, you know. That's why we can't take you to the de-roboticizers."
"Jeez, on the battlefield you're as cool as a cucumber, but off it you're like a coward, Half..."
Redrum let out a small sigh and slumped back into his seat, and the conversation came to a stop. Sonic smirked. Despite his situation, the bickering between the two friends made him chuckle a little. Sometimes it was like this when he talked with Tails or Knuckles.
Tails and Knuckles... I bet they're worried sick about me by now. Carrie too. I wonder why they only captured me?
"I gotta ask," Sonic said. "Why'd you only catch me? Why not Tails and Knuckles?"
"Ten million demens for just you is already overkill enough," Redrum said. "Until now, we've never had a bounty worth more than five hundred thousand demens. Besides Sonic, you're a handful enough by yourself, and meanwhile Nack will waste time trying to catch Tails and Knuckles."
"Damn it man!" Half snapped, as he punched Redrum in the shoulder. "He doesn't need to know this crap! Will you just keep your mouth shut before you spill all our plans out for him?"
"I don't see how telling him this stuff is a big deal! Like you said, he isn't going anywhere as long as we've got this remote control."
"But he's Sonic the hedgehog. Robotnik should have killed him so many times before, with his army and resources, but it's never happened. We've got no idea what he's capable of."
Half cast a fearful glance at Sonic, his yellow eyes not looking so hard as before. Sonic smiled a bit. Half was afraid of him, and Sonic knew it. Problem was, he couldn't do much to take advantage of that as long as they had that remote control. He'd need to figure out some way to get it away from them before they could press that button. Once that happened, he could probably get Tails to find a way to remove the collar from his neck, if he could find Tails again…
One thing at a time, Sonic. You gotta get away from these two bozos first.
"Hey Sonic!" Redrum said, turning back to Sonic. "See them creepy yellow eyes Half here has? It's cause his daddy was a wolf! And he used to live in Cictra too! Now you'll be able to kick our asses for sure knowing that!"
"Shut up you idiot!" Half shouted, looking away from the road.
He took one hand off the wheel to punch at Redrum. The roboticized dog easily blocked his first punch with one hand, and then wrapped his own arm around the fox's neck.
Sonic grinned a little at that...until he saw that they were about to head off the dirt road, and over a cliff. The lush forest valley beyond looked to have a steep drop, and they'd probably fall for thousands of feet before they hit the ground below.
"Guys! In front of us!" Sonic shouted, pointing to it.
The two stopped their fighting and looked out through the windshield. The truck was smashing through the brush on the side of the road, and headed for the edge of the cliff fast.
"Oh shit!" Half screamed, as Redrum released his grip on the fox.
Half grabbed the wheel again with his free hand and slammed down on the brakes. The vehicle came to a sudden, violent stop, sending Sonic crashing into the bars on the front of his cage. Meanwhile, the other two only lurched forward, due to their seatbelts. Sonic looked through the window again, and saw that the truck had stopped just short from the edge.
"Phew..." Half sighed. "We gotta stop arguing so much."
"Agreed," Redrum said.
Half turned back to look at Sonic and smiled.
"Thanks for watching out for us," he said.
"Yeah, you owe me one," Sonic said, returning the smile. "What do you say you let me go, since I saved your lives?"
Half and Redrum appeared to be contemplating it for a few seconds. They silently stared at each other, and then looked back at Sonic.
"Terribly sorry Sonic, but I'm afraid this isn't going to change anything," Half said hesitantly. "It's definitely not worth giving up ten million demens. We're still taking you to our client as we planned."
Sonic blinked, his mouth slipping open a little. Were they really this greedy?
"What?" Sonic said. "But we'd all be dead right now if I hadn't said something!"
"We know, but this still isn't gonna get us to let you go," Redrum said. "You're worth too much."
"You two are the most selfish bastards I've ever seen!" Sonic shouted. "Do you know that? You'd even make Robotnik green with envy!"
"It's not like your opinion really matters Sonic," Half said. "You're in no position to order us around, as long as we've got this thing."
He held up the remote control for the electric collar, and placed a thumb over the shock button.
"Now unless you want me to zap you again, you'll shut up. Got it?"
Sonic cast him an angry glare at the fox, then he looked away and slumped against the back of the cage.
"I'll take that as a yes," Half said, looking back to the car's controls.
He pulled the truck out of the underbrush and back onto the dirt road.
"How much further till we reach the client's coordinates?" Redrum asked, turning to Half.
"We'll probably be there in a few days or so." Half looked back at Sonic, who was glaring at him through the bars of the backseat cage.
"Do you really think it'll be that easy to get to the drop off point?" Sonic asked, with a smirk. "Tails and Knuckles are still out there, and they'll be looking for you."
"While your friends can make mincemeat out of Robotnik's army, it's no good if they don't have any target to attack," Half countered. "For them to find us out here in this big country would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"You just wait, Half. Knuckles is an excellent treasure hunter and tracker. If anyone can find a needle in a haystack, it's him."
Redrum chuckled a bit up front.
"One problem is that your friends probably think Nack kidnapped you," he said. "They'll be looking for him, and not us. We deliberately captured you at the same time Nack made a capture attempt of his own. Everyone saw him at the stadium, so they'll all assume it was him who kidnapped you. Meanwhile, nobody has seen us, so we'll get away scott free."
Sonic growled a bit. "Just wait. I bet something will happen to stop you, and soon."
"Heh, whatever," Half said, giving a lopsided grin. "I'm a little curious though. Why'd you pick that crappy hotel in the middle of the city? I'd think someone like you could get much better. I mean, those rooms didn't look too nice when I was checking them out in my soldier disguise."
"It is not a crappy hotel," Sonic retorted. "Besides, we got to stay there for free."
"Free? How's that work?" Redrum asked.
"We stayed with one of the maids. She's a friend of ours. Her name is Carrie Strafer."
All of a sudden, Half slammed his foot down on the brake and the car came to a sliding halt. Once again, Sonic was hurled against the bars of his cage.
Damn...this is getting old.
When he looked up, Half was staring him full in the face, his look totally serious.
"Carrie...Strafer?" he asked, curiously.
Sonic wondered why in the world Half was so interested in Carrie all of a sudden. Regardless, Sonic decided to shut down the conversation now.
"I'm not saying anything more about her," Sonic said, folding her arms. "I don't know what you want with her, but I bet it's not good."
Half pulled up the remote control and once again put his thumb over the button. It seemed like he went for that remote every time he didn't get his way.
"You will tell me Sonic. That is, unless you want me to shock you a few mor--"
A fiery explosion ripped apart the road in front of the truck, sending flames, smoke, and debris flying in every direction, completely clouding the view from the inside of the vehicle.