CHAPTER FIVE - Retribution
Nail stood on the edge of the cliff, breathing heavily. He had done it; his target was dead and he still had his perfect operation record. His perfect accuracy streak had been ruined though.
In any case, there's no way anything could survive a fall that long, Nail thought emotionlessly.
He saw Sonic fall through the trees, so it was unlikely he was still alive after he saw him vanish through the leaves.
Suddenly, he came to his senses from his rage, as if he had just awoken from a trance. It took him a moment to realize what he had just done. Sonic was dead now...and it was his fault! He switched off the camera on his shoulder, so that Robotnik would not hear what he was about to say in a moment.
"Oh Sonic! I'm so sorry...I lost control...I was blinded by my rage! How can I ever live with myself for doing this?"
Nail sat on the edge of that cliff for an hour, just staring into the starry night sky while thinking about what he had done. Suddenly, he had an idea on how to get rid of his guilt.
I'll go back to Robotnik, and get my payment. Instead of spending it all on myself, I'll use it to hold a funeral for Sonic where all of his freedom fighter friends will attend. There, I will show the recording of what I did tonight, and admit what I did to the crowd. Assuming they don't kill me first, I will donate the rest of my money to their cause.
Nail thought it sounded like a good plan. He walked back over to his dune buggy, jumped inside, and sped back towards Robotropolis as fast as he could.
At the same time that Nail realized what he had done to Sonic, Tails and Knuckles laid Sonic down to rest on a soft patch of grass after they caught him from his fall. He had a few injuries from scraping along the cliff and falling through the tree branches, but nothing too serious. He was very lucky, indeed. They agreed to not go back to camp yet, because the shooter could still be lurking around and waiting for them to go back there. While they waited down at the bottom of the cliff, they asked Sonic about who his attacker was.
"Was it a new, advanced model of one of Robotnik's swatbots or something?" asked Knuckles.
"No, I saw him, he was flesh and blood and not metal. I only caught a quick glance of him, but I do remember that he was a grey fox wearing sunglasses and some kind of a combat suit," replied Sonic.
"I wonder why he wanted to kill you so much, Sonic," said Tails.
"I don't know, little bud..." said Sonic. He paused for a moment and then said "Hey! I've got an idea. If he's still up there, maybe we could follow him after he leaves and see where he goes. Maybe we could learn more about him by doing that."
"That sounds like a good plan to me," replied Knuckles. "Let's get back up there and see if he's still around."
Tails flew Sonic up the side of the cliff, while Knuckles climbed up the wall. Soon, the three of them were at the top. As they started walking back towards the camp, they heard the sound of a motor nearby.
"That's the same noise I heard from the shooter's buggy. It has to be him," said Sonic. "Tails! Fly above the trees and try to spot him!"
Tails nodded and took off into the sky. A few minutes later, he came back down again.
"It looks like he's heading that way," Tails said as he pointed south.
"Isn't that the way to Robotropolis?" Knuckles asked.
"Well, it's too early to tell if he's going there, because Robotropolis is hours from here," said Sonic. "Let's just tail him and see where he goes."
The three of them packed up some supplies from their camp into their backpacks, and took off running after the shooter's buggy.