S2
S2 sat on his bed, thinking, he had been in Tail's Domain for two days now and always he sat and thought of his failure. Why had he been brought back? The others should have continued without him, Sonic was more important than him.
He sighed, it wasn't their fault, they couldn't get through those Juggernaut , they would have had to retreat even if he hadn't been injured.
There was a knock at the door,
"Come in" he said, raising his head to see who was coming in.
A red furred weasel with a cybernetic left eye and whom had the entirety of his left arm clad in metal, a panel open on the top, walked in, screwdriver in hand.
"Hey S, how are you feeling?" he asked as he closed the panel on his arm and looked at S2, revealing the scar across the left side of the end of his muzzle.
"Hello Zack, I'm doing fine," he replied gloomily
"Don't worry S" he said, sitting down on the bed beside him, "I know how you feel, but it'll hurt less after a while"
S2 nodded, Zack had lost his entire family to Robotnik's troops, he had had his arm blown off and had to lie there, unable to help, as his family, his entire breed, was torn apart by the Badniks.
"Sorry Zack, I know you've had to endure worse," he said to his friend, looking up to the scarred face,
Zack shrugged him off, "it's OK S, you should be entitled to some mourning, but at least there's still a chance" he told him
S2 looked at Zack, puzzled by his comment. Zack saw the look on his friend's face,
"When we defeat Robotnik, we'll be able to access the plans for the robotisiser, and if we know how to build it, we'll know how to reverse it," he said, seeing the glimmer of hope that lit S2's face,
As he got up to leave, Zack turned back to the blue hedgehog,
"Tail's says you're free to go now, just check back every day for a week so he can recalibrate your implants to suit you"
000
Mist was searching through the mainframe, retrieving relevant information and moving it to a secured file in the briefing room server.
"Ready when you are Ma'am" he told Sally as he scanned through all the collected data before closing the file
Sally turned to the black and green echidna, "Thank you Mist, if you'll set up in the briefing room I'll assemble the team" she told him, taking her communicator out of her pocket
"Aye, aye Ma'am" he said, saluting and leaving his station, the holographic display fading away as he left the circle
Sally called the people she thought best suited to this mission. It had been three weeks since Sonic had been robotisised and Sally had thrown herself entirely into her work, even having to be ordered to sleep by Jake as he suspended her command for a while.
She stepped into the briefing room and stood at the large circular table, nodding to Mist who stood on another holographic plate, accessing the computer systems in the room.
One by one the others entered; Jake first, as her second in command he also had to attend briefings to double check everything was in order.
Knuckles entered next, followed by three of his echidna commandos, and took his place as team leader on this mission.
S2 and Zack came in last, the experts being brought along to ensure the success of the mission.
"Hi everyone, Thank you for coming, here is your mission briefing" Sally began, nodding to Mist to begin, the centre of the table shimmering as a holographic image resolved itself. It was one of Robotnik's scouting outposts, a staging ground for his hunt for Mobian bases.
"This is outpost 3091/B, the nearest outpost to Knothole Base. Robotnik has moved more troops to this outpost than any others in the past week, and we believe that he is going to push directly into the Great Forest in the hopes that he'll either find us or flush us out." Sally told the assembled staff, and then Jake took over,
"We can set you down 300km from the outpost under cover of darkness, after that you're on your own as this outpost is equipped with a jamming field, none of our communications equipment will be able to reach you.
You are to sneak into the outpost and then divide into two teams; Team Delta will be S2, Knuckles and Krian, you are to sabotage the operational centre of the outpost as Team Lambda, Zack, Stieon and Jan take out the powerplant"
The two teams nodded, understanding their mission,
"When's the rendezvous? And where?" asked Knuckles, attempting to gauge their mission time
Sally answered him, "Rendezvous is 1 hour 30 after you leave the dropship, and pickup is Point Theta, here..."
She pointed to an area on the map and a Theta symbol began to glow,
"...The ship will wait for 10 minutes max, then it will return to base, if you miss it, you're walking home"
Jake signalled to Mist and the display turned red, distorting then disappearing,
"All files will be deleted prior to your leaving the base, download any information you think you'll require, the username is your team name, and your personal passwords will be sufficient."
The troops saluted and turned to leave, but Sally called out,
"S2, please stay, I have extra information for you, everyone else, mission begins in half an hour, suit up, get equipped and meet in Hanger 9 for departure" she said, S2 turning back as Jake left the room, headed for Ops.
"What can I do you for Sal?" he asked, getting a feeling that this info wasn't related to the mission
"This file was left on my computer, I've been meaning to give it to you...but..." She began, a tear forming in her eye as she held up a disk, S2 taking it and inserting it into the table, Sonic's holographic form appearing as the message began to play;
"Hey Sal, I'm recording this message because I have a bad feeling about this mission, I know it's simple, dash it, plant bomb, dash out, detonate bomb, but I still feel uneasy. So I'm going to just say this, Sal, I love you, I think the ring already shows that but I'd like you to hear it one last time.
000
S, I know Sal will show this to you as well, so I've got things to say to you as well. You're just about a brother to me and I'd like you to know life's been great with you around, you're an awesome fighter and a brilliant soldier, but more than that, you're the best bro I could have ever had, thanks man.
Sonic Hedgehog, Commando General, signing off..."
000
S2 took the disk out of the projector and slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket, closing the pocket and leaving the briefing room, his organic eye closed and stinging as he felt it grow moist at Sonic's words.
He would avenge Sonic, and he would find a way to get him back even if it killed him.