Well it's been a while, eh? Sorry! I've been busy (it's an awful excuse I know, but there really isn't a whole lot I can do about it...)! Still, it could have been worse. It could have been half a year!
Anyway, once more there are bits I want to change with this, but you've all been waiting long enough. This chapter has many revelations in store, so I hope you enjoy them. There have been clues throughout the story that have been building to this- I wonder if anyone spotted them...
Enjoy! I hope not to take so long with the next update- I'd hate to leave things here... ;-) As always, constructive comments are accepted and appreciated. I have to say that I won't be using any fan characters though, as I don't want to move the focus away from the main characters...
Chapter 12: Talking with Gods
"Machina will not act against us, at least not for a while yet," Sally said soothingly to her friend. "You don't need to worry- we'll get this sorted out."
Bunnie was having none of it.
"With all due respect, y' highness, I don't think there's gonna be any negotiatin' at this rate."
Sally frowned. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, I think dear 'ol Raid has got his way. It looks like that anyway- he want's somethin' outta a fight."
"To get rid of extremists in his state? That seems perfectly fair to me."
"Yeah, well, not all mechs are Mechanists. Doncha forget that, Sally-girl."
"Of course not Bunnie!" Sally said, sounding offended. She didn't know whether to believe it- the ground squirrel didn't seem able to look her in the eye, instead opting to wonder to her bedroom window and look out over the courtyard of Knothole Palace. Bunnie followed, her stomach turning at the sight of Freedom Fighters being drilled under the observance of Sonic.
The blue hedgehog was clearly expecting to go to war. Sally appeared to be in a similar state even though she would not admit it. Bunnie wondered is Sonic had had anything to do with her state of mind- she was talking about negotiating, and had even summoned Bunnie to her room to assure that they would be doing all they could.
But simply looking out of the window made her realise that no one was really expecting it to work.
She wasn't going to be able to put Sonic and Sally off much longer. The two seemed paranoid. And with fair reason, she supposed. Miles' apparent betrayal and the growing instability was a painful reminder of when Robotnik seized power from the House of Acorn years ago. Sally would not be waiting around for things to spiral away from her control- she would not allow anyone to challenge her sovereignty...
But perhaps she could still be persuaded to be patient.
Bunnie sighed, and hoped that Amy was doing better.
----------
'Bunnie has to be doing better than this,' Amy thought to herself as she and Tails were herded through the Machina government building.
Tails was taking their treatment very well, at least by his usual standards. Heck, he was doing far better than she had expected anyway, appearing to be getting used to the new outlook on life that she had offered him. He was even walking taller, his back straight, and he looked more at ease with himself. He appeared more confident, even without the Freedom Fighter uniform. In fact his only attire now were a set of boots and a standard Freedom Fighter jacket, one of the blue ones he had worn before they went off to save Sonic, Sally and Bunnie. He was, clearly, quite comfortable with himself at the moment. Which was good- she had expected something more in line of having to hold his hand through most of his 'reconstruction', but no, living in Chestnut had made him awfully robust. For lack of a better term, she was proud of him.
He still had a way to go though- no-one on Mobius could heal this fast after what he had been through, and he wouldn't be complete until he returned to Knothole and made his peace. But that could wait for now.
They had arrived about half an hour or so ago, pulling into the city through a gate in the city wall- one patrolled by armed guards who were none too pleased to see Knothole troops (well, 'troop' really, seeing as Amy was the only Freedom Fighter out of the two of them). She was however a ranking officer, and her requests to speak with the mayor of Machina were not unexpected. Bunnie had done her job she supposed, not only delaying Sally but mounting some form of negotiation too.
Still, the rabbit's help could only go so far, and it was very clear that they were now on their own. They had been escorted under armed guard to the council house, the government building of the city-state, and frankly it was anyone's guess whether the guards were there to protect her and Tails from the residents of Machina, or vice-versa.
The looks the guards were giving them, and the way the odd mechanical eye would follow them independent of the other made it clear what the situation, exactly, was.
But eventually they made it to an office door with the label 'Kage'. They were herded inside, one guard with a blaster for a right arm following close behind and taking up position by the door.
"So these are the councillors from Knothole," said Mayor Kage as two mobians entered his office. "I had thought that Knothole didn't want anything to do with us."
"Some don't, Mayor Kage. But some of us do," Amy replied, sighing and looking around, trying not to stare at the dingo. Half of his body was metal. "Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Amy Rose, and I am a member of the leading council of Knothole. And this," she said, gesturing to the figure behind her, "is-"
"A mech?" Kage said with surprise, looking at the tall, lanky fox with the glowing blue bionic eye.
"...yes. His name is Miles Prower, or 'Tails'."
It felt good to her to be able to say his nickname so freely.
Kage nodded a greeting, eying the fox's twin appendages. It was funny, he thought, how he almost seemed to flinch when Miss Rose referred to them. "Of course. I apologise, Mr. Prower, I did not mean to sound rude. I am just surprised that a mech would be from... Knothole."
"I understand," Tails said simply. And he did, probably more than anyone else in the room.
"He isn't from Knothole really," Amy said, "but he is here for a reason."
"Being?" Kage asked.
"A, uh, 'personal' concern," Tails replied, taking on the semi-relaxed persona that had displayed back in the school in Knothole. "I don't want to see Mobius tear itself apart."
Kage sighed and nodded wearily, leaning on his desk. He gestured to the chairs on the other side. "I see. Please, sit."
They did so. Amy was thankful for the opportunity to relax a little- this was the first time that something so important rested entirely upon her. Well, Tails was here she supposed, but his diplomatic skills were not exactly his shining virtue. She glanced at him, and found him to appear as relaxed as she had ever seen. He looked back, his expression radiating calmness, and she realised suddenly that he had absolute faith in her. He knew that she had the ability to pull this off.
Well, maybe she did. After all, she had managed to kill off the cold-hearted mercenary, hadn't she? She was acting as his support, and had done so spectacularly well so far. She had saved him from madness and suicide. If anyone was going to trust her ability, then it was going to be him.
She really had accomplished one hell of a lot.
Suddenly, Amy Rose felt a whole lot better.
"Honestly, I'm surprised that you are here," Kage said. "It seems to me that Knothole has made up it's mind about us- I am aware of the growing military presence near our border, and I have to wonder if you two are here to distract me from it."
There was silence.
"...It's the first I've heard of it," Amy replied slowly, hiding her apparent horror as well as she could. Kage scanned her face, looking for a lie. "I assure you, we have nothing to do with it."
"Well now you know, and you should be aware, Miss Rose, that we will not let it go unnoticed. We do have a military, and it is moving to protect our land- just in case hostilities break out."
"Knothole... Knothole does not have a problem with mechs," Amy said carefully. "It is the Mechanists that concern us, and unfortunately not many people understand the difference."
"Then tell them, I cannot easily control a group of activists."
"The army won't listen to us-"
Kage abruptly leant back, and Amy fell silent.
"Then why are you here, Miss Rose?"
"We need to know something," Miles said quietly. Kage eyed him suspiciously. Clearly, he had not expected that.
"Really? Information isn't free, especially from someone who appears to be turning into your enemy."
"Listen, please," Amy said, almost desperately. She didn't really know if she was using that tone of voice willingly or not. "We need to talk to the Mechanists. We need to find their leader, and present him to Knothole. That would prove that Machina has nothing to do with them."
There was a minute of silence, time Kage spent turning the idea over in his head.
"Why do you want to do that?" he asked eventually. Amy spent a few moments thinking carefully how to answer, eventually settling on a hunch.
"Were you a Freedom Fighter once, Kage?" she asked.
"Yes, I was. And I'm glad that it's behind me."
"Do you remember what it was like? To be at war all the time, to be fighting against extinction every day?"
He nodded, understanding.
"I see. You don't want that to happen again," Kage finished for her. He sighed. "If that is true... then you have a noble cause."
"Please help us," Amy said. "Where are the Mechanists, who can we talk to?"
She could see him thinking, running through the possible outcomes of telling her. Thankfully, he decided on the right one.
Truthfully, the right one for everyone.
"I don't know of anyone particularly important... But I know where they're based. Head to Tau, well, Tau-27. Maybe you'll find someone there."
"Okay, thank you Mayor Kage," Amy said as she stood, feeling a weight fall from her shoulders that she hadn't realised was there. That had been easier than expected. She looked to Tails, and was surprised to see he was already standing.
He was looking at her, frowning in thought.
----------
Tails had been silent for a long time now, only speaking very briefly when they were preparing for their journey. She glanced back at him occasionally, and had been doing so ever since they had set off- an hour had passed, and she couldn't take it anymore.
"What's the matter, Tails?" she asked. He did not reply for a long time, and she began to think if he was having second thoughts about the name and was ignoring it. So she tried again.
"Tails-"
"It seems strange to me," he interrupted, the name apparently not being ignored. Maybe he was still getting used to it. His head was resting in his right hand, and he slowly looked forward towards Amy in the cockpit of the hover-car.
"What does?" she replied, glancing back to him.
"Mechanists being based in Tau-27. Seems a bit more than coincidence to me."
"Why's that? It's just one of the towns, isn't it?"
"Sort of. I've never been there, but I've met people who have. Y'know the Capital, Tau-01?"
"Yeah... why's it called that? Those names are kinda... creepy."
Tails 'hummed', thinking. "Well apparently a lot of Robians live there, y'know, fully robotisized Mobians? I guess it's logical to them to name towns in order like that or something. But anyway, Tau-01 wasn't the first city there. 27 was, and the only reason it's called that is because that it's built on one of Robotnik's old bunkers."
"Called Tau-27," Amy finished.
"Exactly. If that's where they're based, then it's probably where cult sprang up from in the first place. Inside one of Robotnik's... lairs."
There was a moment of silence.
"Swatbots, Cyborgs, that base where Sonic and Sally were taken..." Amy muttered, looking out of the hover-cars canopy as she guided it gracefully towards the horizon. "Even your reappearance. What do you think?"
"I think we need to get inside that bunker. I think the first mobians that went there after Robotnik's fall found something. I want to know what it is."
"Yeah, me too."
----------
Sally hadn't listened, and Bunnie hadn't been able to stand the lack of progress. So, she did the first thing to come to mind, which happened to be to eat. It was lunchtime, after all.
But, it didn't look like she was going to be relaxing just yet, for as she approached the cafeteria a mocking voice drifted to her sensitive ears.
"Walkers, I am so glad I'm not you, you're pathetic!"
Bunnie was alarmed, knowing somehow what the problem was even before the entered the room. And, lo and behold, she was right- Tom was being picked on again.
It was pointless and cruel. But that was kids mixed with a group psychology for you.
"Aww, and you can't even cry can you, Mech?"
Enraged that the kids would act in such a way to one of their own, Bunnie made her way swiftly towards where the group stood surrounding the wolf. And that was when things took one more stride towards hell.
"Maybe this thing comes off- quit squirming! There's a button-"
"No don't touch that!" she heard Tom shout, seconds before a beam of red light lanced out from the visor-construct where his eyes used to be. It clipped the bully – a racoon named Andy – across his right arm, reducing the limb to a cauterised stump.
The screams from panicked palace workers seemed to go on for hours.
----------
It looked like the entrance to a military bunker. Just like the one back on the border of Machina, minus the trenches and mechs trying to kill them of course. But the similarity was unmistakable- even the layout of the interior (or at least what they could see of it through the open doorway) was the same.
Yes, the doors were wide open, inviting them in. Even more disturbing was the shantytown that was built up around the place- a town that was completely empty. It was a ghost town, where the only sound was of the wind blowing through its streets.
So this was Tau-27. There was even a 'welcome' sign on the edge of town.
Amy didn't like it at all. Neither did Tails.
"What do you think?" she asked, standing near to the bunker doorway. Tails was closer to it, looking inside, squinting into the darkness. She had tried earlier but really couldn't see much- she guessed that his bionic eye gave him some kind of advantage, so she was content to watch the town for movement. The hover-car was shut down and locked up a couple of metres away.
"I think we have to go in there," he said simply. He looked back at her. "But not unarmed. You got a weapon?"
"Yeah, I brought along my uniform. It's in the car." She paused, thinking for a moment. "You should probably put yours back on, too."
He frowned, looking back into the gloom, then back to her.
"Do I have to?" he asked, a tint of whining in his tone. She couldn't help but grin, having expected his response to be a bit... harsher. Well, she hadn't known what to expect really, but something considerably less positive.
"You should. It might save your life. And it has a radio if we get separated."
He sighed and nodded, walking towards her as she opened up the hover-car.
It did not take long to change, and they were soon ready, clad in their uniforms. Tails and Amy stood before the open doors of the bunker in the middle of Tau-27. The suits were fully charged and equipped, Amy sporting her combat knife, blaster rifle and her favourite modified pistol holstered at her side. A couple of fragmentation and smoke grenades completed the offensive weaponry list, and Tails' armour mirrored it for the most part, replacing the blaster for a more standard model and forgoing the rifle altogether.
They had even quickly got around the awkward moment when they both noticed the three cuts in the front of Tails' suit, which matched up with three scars on his chest.
"Ready?" he said, not taking his eyes from the darkness.
"Yeah," she replied, fiddling with something above the armour plate over her left breast. There was a click, and a small torch lit up, revealing more of the inside.
"Then let's go," Tails said, walking first through the doorway. She followed, and before they had walked even five meters the lights lit up in sequence, illustrating a path that headed down the flight of stairs before them and off to the right at the first T junction.
Neither moved for about half a minute.
"Well that was unexpected," Tails muttered.
"I don't like this," Amy said. "It looks like we're being led somewhere."
"If the Mechanists wanted us dead, they would have attacked us already," he said simply.
"Maybe they're leading us into an ambush or something?" she offered.
"Maybe. But it's kind of obvious if they are."
"But what else would they want us to find?"
He was silent once more, for a while.
"The same thing that they found when they first came here."
"This can't be good," she said, bringing her rifle up to her shoulder so that the barrel was pointing down the corridor.
"No, it can't. But there's only one way to find out exactly what it is."
She jumped at the sudden and violent ring of metal against metal, expecting something to leap out at her. But no, she reminded herself, looking at Tails. She had been forgetting about those claws of his.
"Come on. Let's find out what's going on," he said, and made his way down the stairs whilst drawing his pistol. She went with him, and they worked together as they followed the lit corridors, each taking turns in covering the other as they moved deeper into the building.
Eventually they reached a lift, looking like something that would not be out of place in a mine. It was carved into solid rock, as though the construction of this area had not been completed for some reason. That wasn't hard to imagine- the bunker was, like outside, completely deserted.
Yet still, every place they had needed to go to get here had been lit, every door had been open.
This was far too strange.
Something was wrong.
"I guess we go down here now," Amy said, looking at the lift. "Any second thoughts?"
"We've come too far to back out now," Tails replied. She nodded, stepping into the elevator. Tails followed, and with the press of a button they began to descend once more.
They went down for about half a minute before emerging into a large underground cavern. The area was empty, except of course for the lift... and a huge set of doors.
The doors were carved from wood, huge and clearly heavy. The Walkers knew how they had been brought down here in the first place, but they certainly had the desired effect.
"What the hell...?" Tails wondered out loud. He holstered his gun and retracted his claws, slowly walking towards the massive portal.
"Tails, wait-" Amy began, when suddenly with an echoing creek, the doors opened.
The room behind was bathed in darkness, a stark contrast from the well-lit cavern. But, as they walked through the threshold, the light appeared before them as it had done ever since they had entered the bunker.
And they laid their eyes on the Golden Throne of the Machine God.
"Ah…"
The voice boomed around the chamber, and Tails found his eyes rising from the huge, golden metal construct that appeared to fill half the room. A dome shaped panel seemed to pull away from the front of it, revealing a glass bubble filled with the naked, bloated form of an all-too familiar human.
"Walkers save us..." he heard Amy whisper from beside him.
Tails nodded his head absentmindedly in agreement.
"How nice it is when one's child comes home," Dr. Ivo Robotnik continued. But he did not move- in fact he looked to all the world to be dead, but the voice and the tone was unmistakable.
Tails thought he was going to be sick. The last time he had seen the madman...
"J- just what do you mean by that...?" he managed, trying to get his head around this new development, putting on his best glare as he did so. It made no difference.
"I must admit that I was starting to think that you'd never get here, Miles. I have waited a long time for you my son. Too long, but that is over now. Finally, it can begin."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Tails suddenly roared, a reflex, "I'm no son of yours!"
The fact that this man was supposed to be dead didn't seem to register. The shock factor on the two mobians was too great.
"Oh but you are. I fed and raised you, though I doubt you remember it, thanks to that interfering hedgehog. I gave you everything you need to survive in the outside world."
"You turned me into a monster!"
"No. I made you into a god."
"How can you say that!" Amy snapped. "You tortured him, you nearly killed him!"
"Silence!" the Machine God roared, shaking the very walls of the cavern. "Of course, I knew that mobians would never understand. They would never comprehend the magnitude of my task, and indeed the task of my son. King Acorn ignored my pleas, and that my dear is why I took Mobotropolis, and this world, for my own. To save it, from yourselves.
"Your petty differences make you squabble and scheme against each other. I saw it in Acorn's court, and I still see it now. Mobians were, and still are, on the path to destroy each other," Robotnik growled.
"I don't believe that," Amy said firmly. "I won't."
"My dear, I do not care what you think. I have proof, and that it enough for me; legends, ones which you no doubt read of in your childhood, state that a mobian, chosen by the Ancient Walkers, would come when needed to face the evils of the world. Tell me Miles, when was the last time you were ill? Truly ill?"
Amy looked at Tails, but he did not reply. He was searching, trying to remember- but he soon found that he could not.
"I... I don't know."
And Robotnik began to recite the saying that they had both heard some times before, in school textbooks and even at church. A few paid no attention to it, but to most it was a saying of hope and respect.
"He, the greatest of his kin, He, who is quick of mind and keen of senses. He who is untouched by disease or plague, from whom sickness flees, He, whose image is distorted and yet is great, shall stand before the darkness. He shall wield the finest weapons with the greatest skill, He shall have strategy and tactics so that none can best Him. He shall possess the might of titans...
"He shall be the Chosen One, and He shall know no fear."
There was silence. Slowly, Amy turned to look at Tails, wide eyed. He seemed remarkably calm.
"What?" the fox whispered.
"It fits you, does it not? I knew even before you were born. I heard your father Artemis, and even his brother Merlin talking of the possibility of you being a Chosen One. I knew the crisis over race was approaching, and when King Acorn chose to ignore my pleas I took it upon myself to see to it that you would fulfil your role. And I would do all I could to help you."
"But... I'm just a mutant, that's all..." Tails said shakily, denying.
"No. Your image is distorted- your second tail is the mark. You see visions and hear voices, only when you allow yourself to of course. Dead people- friends, family, talking to you, but no one else knows that they are there. Don't you?"
Amy waited for Tails to deny it once more. But, to her surprise and even shock, he didn't.
"So, Chosen One, I took it upon myself to help you in your task. Thus; robotisization. If all Mobians were machine, then there would be no differences. Everyone would live in unity of purpose. But it could never succeed perfectly were you not at my side to hunt down all who remained. I knew that my presence would unite them for a time but, as you have undoubtedly seen, afterwards the problems return.
"You were the key. You had to be with me. So, to make sure there were no... Complications, I removed you, Miles, from your mother's womb before you were born and placed you within an incubation chamber. Just to be certain. You grew quickly, and I must say you appeared to love it in there.
"And it was all going perfectly, until that blasted hedgehog showed up and 'liberated' you," Robotnik spat.
It clicked then in Amy's mind. Sonic's story, of Tails being made, it all fitted perfectly with what Robotnik saying. And if it was true – which certainly looked to be the case – then Tails was, willingly or not, the whole reason for why the war against Robotnik had started, and indeed why it was in it's current state.
She looked at him once more, and realised she had never seen anyone look quite so betrayed and horrified as he did right then. He was looking right back at her, begging for some kind of reassurance.
But she had none.
He had been doing so well.
One corner of her mind wondered how many more lies Tails could take.
"Sonic's intervention," Robotnik continued, "forced me to take extreme action. He and that princess filled your head which half-truths, the story of Acorn's fall from their point of view. Naturally, it is a biased one, and simply assumes that I did what I did for power alone. I knew that you would not believe me if I told you the truth, so I was forced into luring you out. Hence your DNA clone that murdered one of your accomplices, exiling you and granting the perfect opportunity to catch and complete your growth. Many have made the mistake in assuming you were and are incomplete. This is not so; you are all I wanted you to be. I knew that it would be impossible to control you in the manner of other Cyborgs. Your mind is too strong, and because of that you are, in fact, above and beyond all other Cyborgs. Though you do not yet know it or understand how to use them, you have no doubt granted skills by the powers of the Walkers themselves. You are my, and their, greatest creation. My Spyder, the Chosen One."
Tails was shaking his head slowly, not wanting to believe.
"Some form of control would still be needed, however. Thus, after your unexpected escape and the Freedom Fighter attack that destroyed my home and left me crippled, I had to look for alternate means. My machines brought me here, and installed me into this creation, my Golden Throne, a machine which will allow me to live forever. Time I have in abundance- so I looked for how I could manipulate you to do my bidding, one day bringing you here. So, I created the Guyde.
"The Guyde was Artemis, you biological father. It had to be him due to his almost... spiritual connection with you. After his upgrades, he was capable of suggesting ideas, or triggering emotions within you. The perfect tool for the perfect warrior. All that was necessary was to use him in combination with my Snyper, and a few swatbots or Mechanists, and you would do exactly what I wanted you to do, Miles. It had to be done, for the good of Mobius."
"Wait," Amy interrupted, "that... that means... you are the one starting this war... It was your followers who attacked Knothole, who were in that base near Machina..."
"Correct," the Machine God rumbled. "It is inevitable that a war over race is going to break out. The two sides will destroy each other, and the remains of my Grand Army, after what the damned hedgehog did to it, will have no trouble finishing off the survivors. The world would then be united with one glorious race; the machine. I merely accelerated the coming of the war so that Miles would be at the right stage to lead my army to victory and, should it be required, have the skill to kill the hedgehog."
"Kill... Sonic?" Tails muttered. Amy dared to look at him once more. He was still shaking his head.
"Of course, my son. He took you from your loving home, filled your head with lies, cast you out alone into the world and now brands you as a traitor. It is your duty and right to rid the world of him, and it is an honour that I will grant you- if you pledge your service and loyalty to me."
There was silence for a moment, but then Robotnik spoke with a note of finality in his voice.
"You have a choice to make now, Chosen One. It will decide the fate of your culture, and your species. Your decision is your duty and your destiny, and it is one you will live with for the rest of your life, so choose wisely. Your first option; you can join me, and together we would save Mobius from itself. We would unite the world under one rule, and create a glorious and lasting empire. It would be one that would stand the test of time under the perfect and benevolent rule of the Machine.
"Your second option; you go back to Knothole to those who set you on the road to suffering. To those who destroyed your hopes and cast you out into the world alone. To the ones who now look for you only to kill you. And, even should you make some peace with them, you would help to temporarily halt the coming war until another time, and make no mistake Chosen One- it would be sooner than you think.
"So. Choose."
Tails was silent, thinking carefully. Amy couldn't have spoken if she had wanted to.
No matter what his decision she knew that this was something he needed to do alone.
"You know," he said eventually, "for all of your intelligence... you really are a fool. I've learnt a lot recently," he said, now looking at Amy, "and now I think I understand it. No- I know I understand." He nodded his head to her.
"Thank you," he said softly, then looked back to the madman.
"Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, even Amy... they all looked after me as best they could in Knothole. They did not judge me. They never have. Sonic, even if..." he swallowed, "even if he knew that I came from Robotropolis, he still looked after me. He raised me as best he could. They all did. The only reason they turned on me was because of you.
"You stole my parents. You were the reason I was exiled. You've been manipulating me for years. You put all of this... This metal, these weapons into me- you never asked me if I wanted it! You caused me to," he paused, swallowing, "to- to kill my dad... and, and to attack and betray the closest thing I have ever had to a family! You've killed and destroyed the lives of thousands, millions... and now you're trying to start a war... And for what? Your own twisted view of perfection? You actually think that you're saving people, that you're doing this for them?!"
There was silence.
"I hate you," Tails said.
"Your decision?" the Machine God said, sounding as though it already knew the answer but needed it to be said anyway."
"I'm going back to Knothole," Tails hissed. "But I'm going to take a gift with me." There was a sharp metallic ring as his claws snapped out from his fists once more, and he began to advance on the Machine God. "You've some guts, Robotnik," he growled darkly. "Let's see what they look like."
And with that, the Spyder leapt towards the bubble that held the madman in the blink of an eye. And he almost made it too, when a bolt of blue light shot out from one of the bizarre and arcane contraptions from around Robotnik. Tails let out a yelp and was thrown back, flying through the chamber door with the force of a freight train. He landed roughly, almost thirty metres away.
Amy reacted by shouting the fox's name, aiming her blaster rifle and opening fire on the bubble. The bolts flew straight and true, but dissipated before Robotnik into a hazy force field.
"Insolent wretches!" The Machine God thundered as the armoured shell snapped down over the bubble. "You fools! Did you really think it would be so easy? And already you make your mistakes! You cannot win here. And understand this Prower, if you will not aid me in my quest, then there is another who will!
Tails staggered to his feet, running to the doorway. "What?" he gasped.
"And another choice for the so-called Chosen One! Perhaps I was wrong about you after all!" Robotnik continued, sounding almost entertained. "What will you do? Stand and fight, and try to kill me, or flee to save those who tried to kill you? They are already under threat and soon will be dead!"
Tails looked at Amy. She looked right back, and they both knew that they thought alike. They were the only ones who knew that their comrades were in immediate danger. They did not have time to stay here.
"Did you really think that I would not compensate for the possibility of the hedgehog's lies turning you?" Robotnik mocked. "And what is a warrior in the face of a God?"
They fled the chamber, accompanied by the echoing laughter of the Machine God and the wailing of the alarms throughout Tau-27.
Author's note: Yes, my spin on the Archie 'Chosen One' theme! Did anyone suspect this way back in chapter 6? Don't worry, Tails isn't going to become a Jedi or Neo with mind powers or anything like that... Speaking of Neo, I think Tails has a bit too much of that in him at the moment anyway. Sooner or later the fights will be altered to be a lot more brutal and, well, 'realistic'...
Please, your thoughts!