CHAPTER ELEVEN - Bust Out Act II

Robotnik had grown tired of Knuckles' small talk a long time ago, and the echidna was now locked up in a cell with Sonic near the roboticizer. It was damaged though, so his bots were working to fix it.

Guess Nail was right about Robotnik bluffing. Oh well, even though the small talk didn't work, at least he won't be able to roboticize us for a while.

He sighed and gazed out the cell's small barred window. He couldn't talk to Sonic, because he was still unconscious on his cot from whatever Robotnik had put him through before he locked him up. There was nothing for him to do right now apart from wait for Nail and Tails to fly in with a stolen aircraft to rescue them, and hope that happened before the roboticizer was fixed.

"Hope you wake up soon, buddy," Knuckles said to him. "Maybe we could work out a plan in case they don't make it in time."

"I am awake...Knuckles..." Sonic said, and then he coughed horribly. He sat up from lying down.

"What! How long were you awake?" Knuckles asked.

"Just now. What you said right before woke me up." Sonic said. He then pointed at the window. "Say, why is that ship flying towards our window?"

Knuckles turned around and stood at the window, hoping that it was their rescue team. The ship drew closer and closer, and then stopped to hover outside the window. It rotated so that its right side was facing the window. A door on the side of the ship rolled open, and Knuckles saw Nail standing there.

"Hey!" he called out to them as he waved.

"Hey! You made it!" said Knuckles.

"Yeah!" Nail called back. "Stand back! We're gonna blow the wall open!"

Knuckles quickly ran to the other end of the room where Sonic was sitting up. The ship turned around so that the laser cannon on the front was aimed at the wall. A beam shot out from the cannon, and the exterior cell wall shattered to pieces like it was made of glass. The ship turned around again so the side door with Nail was facing the hall.

"Hold your hands out! Both of you!" shouted Nail.

Sonic and Knuckles both held out their handcuffed arms. Nail skillfully broke the chains with a few shots from his laser blaster.

"Come on! Get over here!" Nail yelled.

Knuckles was about to jump over, but he saw a speeding blue shape trailing black smoke hurtling towards the ship.

"Get out of the ship! NOW! Something's coming towards your ship!" Knuckles shouted.

"What!" said Nail in a surprised voice.

Nail looked out a window on the other side of the compartment, and saw the speeding thing too.

"Just jump over here fast!" shouted Knuckles.

Nail turned towards the cockpit and yelled "Come on!" Tails emerged from the cockpit. Together, they leaped from the ship and into the jail cell, just as Metal Sonic crashed into the ship in a kamikaze attack. The ship blew up into a massive fireball, and the wreckage fell to the city below.

Nail turned around from the hole in the wall, and said "Now what are we going to do?"

"You're all going to become my slaves, that's what!" a voice called out.

The four of them turned around towards the cell door and saw Robotnik standing there, with many swatbots behind him.

"I heard the explosion, and came running," continued Robotnik. "Who would have thought that there would be this mess and all four of you standing here? Even better, the roboiticizer is now repaired and ready for all of you!" said Robotnik in a cheery voice. He and his swatbots started to step into the room.

Knuckles however quickly rushed up to them and punched Robotnik in the stomach. He was sent hurtling back into the crowd of swatbots following him in. They were all knocked out of the cell. Knuckles then quickly slammed the cell door shut and stood against it to hold it shut. The swatbots on the other side of the door started pounding on the heavy door. Nail ran over to help Knuckles hold it. The door was strong, but it probably wouldn't hold for long.

"Tails!" shouted Knuckles. "Get Sonic out of here! He's wounded!"

"But-" Tails started to say.

"We'll be fine for now!" yelled Nail. "Just fly him out of here and drop him off at my dune buggy at the front door! Then, come back up and get me! Knuckles can glide out on his own after I'm gone!"

"Yeah Tails! Do it! I can't carry Nail by myself and glide at the same time!" shouted Knuckles.

Tails nodded. He quickly grabbed Sonic's arm, and flew out the hole in the wall towards the ground below. Meanwhile, the door was getting weaker. Nail hoped Tails wouldn't take too long.

Come on Tails! Hurry up!

It felt like he and Knuckles were standing there for hours. The door was getting weaker and weaker every moment. Cracks started appearing on the door's surface, and they rapidly increased in size as the pounding continued.

Nail yelled "Get back!"

The two jumped away as the door fell to the floor and the swatbots crowded inside.

Nail shouted "Knuckles! Get outta here! I'll hold them off!" he said as he raised his assault rifle.

"No...I'm staying here!" Knuckles shouted back.

The two of them fought off the crowd of swatbots together, Nail with his assault rifle, and Knuckles with his martial arts. They were successful in destroying the first units of bots, but more of them kept coming in to replace the ones they destroyed. It wasn't long before they were backed against the hole in the wall. Nail stepped back some more, and actually felt empty space beneath his foot. He wasn't ready for the empty space, and so he stumbled backwards out of the hole.

OH SHOO—

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his arm. Knuckles had grabbed Nail at the last second, and pulled him back inside. However though, this gave the bots the chance they needed to move in. Nail and Knuckles were now standing on a three-foot wide space of floor between the hole and the crowd of swatbots. Strangely though, they weren't attacking any more. The crowd of them parted, and Robotnik stepped forward through the gap.

"There is no escape now. You might as well give up," said Robotnik. "The only other alternative is to jump out of that hole to your deaths. Well...Knuckles might live, since he can glide, but there's no way out for you Nail..." He smiled at Nail.

Nail turned to look at Knuckles, and he had a look of terror on his face.

Knuckles said he can't carry me while he glides. No choice, we have to chance a flight together or I'm not getting out of here.

Nail pulled out his tazer from his hidden pocket and jabbed it at the closest swatbot. The excess electricity surged through its body, which caused it to malfunction. Because the bots were so close together, the electrical charge passed through all of them and caused them to malfunction as well.

"Jump!" Nail shouted to Knuckles.

Nail put away his tazer in his pocket and leaped out of the window with Knuckles. During the fall, Nail quickly grabbed hold of Knuckles' hands, while he tried to start a glide. Overheard, Robotnik's shouts of "Kill them!" could be heard. Lasers flew all around them. Because they had gotten a power surge before though, their aim was terrible.

Unfortunately, Nail was too heavy for Knuckles' dreadlocks to catch the air, and the two of them started plummeting down to the streets below like rocks.

"We're gonna die!" shouted Nail.

Suddenly, another hand grabbed hold of Nail's arm.

That's not Knuckles...

Nail looked up, and saw that Tails had grabbed one of Nail's arms to help Knuckles stay in flight. The two of them faced each other and nodded. They managed a shaky landing on the streets below in the midst of the laser fire, and started running for the car. Lucky for the four of them, Robotnik had sent all his forces in the command center after them at the prison cell. Thus, nobody was watching Nail's buggy. They all piled inside of it. Nail started the car, and they zoomed off into the streets of Robotropolis.