As far as the banana in the trash can goes, Ri2… comedic licence, and besides Snively and Robotnik gotta eat… and do you have any idea how much Robo must eat to be that fat? ; ) Well, I must say I'm absolutely thrilled to finally be able to say I have more reviews then chapters finally. thx to everyone who has sent in a post, and please keep them coming. Oh, and just before you get started on this chapter I'm going to warn you right now, it's a pretty long one, so you might want to find some popcorn or something and get comfy…
A Visitor From Afar
Ch. 20 The Best Laid Plans
By now Tails and Slasher have reached the barren wastelands that lie between Robotropolis and the Great Forest. With lack of anything else to do, Tails' mind began wnadering back on the mission briefing. He felt curious as to why Slasher didn't mention the kind of powers those other crystals the Ancient Walkers mentioned endowed upon Slasher's own crystal when Sally had asked. But he didn't want to ask him directly and possibly offend him; Slasher might not be willing to answer any further questions after that.
"Hey Slasher, why do you call yourselves the Elite's?" he asked, trying to lead him into conversation discretely and gauge whether he might be lying or not.
Slasher glanced back at Tails, a little surprised by the question's topic. "Well, most of my friends may not have the special training that I do, but we're still a tough group of warriors. We just became known as the Elite's when word spread about us; we never gave ourselves that name." He answered a little hesitantly.
"But your friends don't have any special powers like you, do they?" Tails asked, probing farther.
"Huh… No, why do you ask?" Slasher asked, starting wonder what Tails is getting at with this.
Now Tails knew Slasher was lying, but his reasons for it just didn't seem to add up. Slasher was starting to become suspicious, so Tails figured he might as well just get out with it. "Slasher, I know you're lying to me…"
Slasher stopped dead in his tracks, stunned. "What?"
"I know you're friends have their own crystals and that they have powers too; I also know that your powers are linked somehow." He explained looking directly into Slasher's crimson eyes with conviction.
"How did you…" he stammered in shock. After a long pause he inhaled deeply letting out a long sigh of defeat. "I don't know how you could possibly know all that, but I guess it doesn't really matter... does it?"
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Tails asked; his tone and expression softening. "Just what else is that crystal capable of?"
"I… I can't tell you that." Slasher answered lowering his head to look away from Tails' face.
"Can't, or won't?" Tails continued, folding his arms across his chest.
"Look, do you go around telling everyone your secrets!" Slasher retaliated angrily.
"Friends don't keep secrets from one another…" Tails countered, his angry scowl never faultering.
"You want to know why I didn't tell you, alright fine." Slasher huffed, becoming fed up with the kit's persistence. "If everyone knew everything that me and my friends are capable of, you can figure out what we can't do. And if you figure out what we can't do, you can determine what our weakness's are and exploit them. The fewer the people that don't know what we're capable of, the less likely our enemies might learn what our weaknesses are. And as long as our enemies don't know what limits we have, we have an advantage in battle; they won't know what to expect from us and therefore we hold a crucial piece of the battle in our hands... I'm not telling you because I'm being stubborn or for some personal gain; I'm trying to protect my friends and more importantly, protect the security of my mission."
What Slasher said made sense, satisfying at least part of what Tails wanted to know at least, and judging by Slasher's expression Tails could see that the dragon was indeed sincere. "But is there anything else the crystal can do that Robotnik might be able to exploit?" he asked in a way that allowed Slasher to answer without having to reveal any specific information about the crystal if he chose to.
He let out another sigh. "We're still learning everything that the crystals can do as we go, but I sincerely doubt this Robotnik guy can use my crystal; the crystal's magic's are tied to me alone. No one else can use it's powers but me." Slasher admitted, shrugging his shoulders dismissively.
"Let's hope so; c'mon, it's not far now." Tails hoped, walking on towards the rotten city now visible off in the distance.
Back in Robotropolis…
"How much longer must we wait?" Antoine grumbled as he paced back and forth inside the stairwell.
"Antoine, it's only been fifteen minutes since we got here." Rotor pointed out, covering his face in irritation.
"Oh, heh heh… pardon', ze suspense iz kelling moi." He apologized, laughing nervously, as he always did when he went on missions.
Suddenly a silent blinking light activated on Bunnie's arm. "Ya'll can relax Sugar 'Twan; that's tha signal."
"Oh, um m-maybe I should stay here, and uh, guard ze exit, no?" Antoine blabbered out nervously, those butterflies in his stomach suddenly feeling like elephants.
"No!" Bunnie and Rotor said in unison, each grabbing hold of one of Antoine's arms and dragging him out onto the roof.
"Oui, we must be brave." Antoine agreed, faking a courageous smile, oblivious to his two friends as they pulled him by the arms out onto the roof.
"Oh yes, noth'n say bravery like have'n yer friends drag ya ta trouble." Bunnie joked sarcastically as Rotor opened the door to the roof. Rotor pasued and peered out the open door way before waving his friends on. Now out in the open, Antoine stopped acting like a whimp and put his mind on the mission, his prior anxiety forgotten.
"Alright, we just gotta jump that there gap and we're halfway inside." Bunnie encouraged the small group pointing to the meter and a half gap separating their building from their target.
As a last minute check before committing the team to the task at hand, Rotor looked to his companions. "Okay, supply check: explosives…"
"Check…" Bunnie answered, patting the backpack filled with explosive charges Antoine had strapped to his back in confirmation.
"Detonator…"
"Check…" Bunnie confirmed again, this time patting a special panel Rotor had attached to Bunnie's arm specifically for this mission.
"Ropes…"
"Check…" Antoine acknowledged, pointing to the ropes hanging from his shoulder.
"Okay guys…" Rotor started, and in the time honoured tradition all three spoke the last part together. "Let's do it to it." completing the tradition with the Freedom Fighter's special handshake.
"I'll go first." Rotor announced, taking up a running start at the gap. The walrus easily cleared the jump, with surprisingly little effort. As soon as he hit the other roof and got to his feet, Rotor quickly found some cover near a massive ventilation unit.
"Right, behind ya, Sugar." Bunnie said calmly as she walked right up to the gap and extending her robotic legs, simply stepped over the wide gap. Then Antoine edged over towards the ledge of the building. As soon as he glanced down and saw how far the drop to the ground was he instantly jumped back. "Oh, come on, Antoine; we've done this sorta thing plenty before…" Bunnie gripped, folding her arms in irritation.
"Y-Y-yes… b-but no… I am now having ze double thoughts mes amies, m-m-maybe I should stand watch out here yes?" he whimpered, trying to sound like he wasn't acting out of fear. Bunnie didn't buy it however. Before Antoine could react, Bunnie stretched out her powerful mechanical arm and grabbed Antoine by his shirt collar and yanked him across the gap; releasing her grip on his shirt so that Antoine landed hard on his rump.
"Sank you Bunnie…" Antoine said, rubbing his rear end in pain.
"Anytime, Sugar…" Bunnie smiled warmly at the embarrassed coyote as he returned the gesture.
"C'mon, the skylight we're after is over here." Rotor stated, breaking up the moment.
The other two quickly snapped out of it and soon stood beside the walrus at the aforementioned skylight. "Alrighty, one rabbit hole: come'n up." Bunnie eagerly stated as she activated the small cutting laser in her arm.
"Hold up, Bunnie." Rotor warned, halting Bunnie before she could use the cutting laser. "Take a look, there's wires in this glass, and that means there's an alarm tied to it." Rotor explained in dismay.
"What? Ze reports said nothing of zis." Antoine added in annoyance and surprise.
"The intelligence must be outdated; Robotnik must have recently installed some new security here." Rotor grumbled dejectedly.
"Looky over yonder." Bunnie pointed out, directing the other two to what see was looking at. On another part of the roof sat a much larger skylight. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity the group ran over to it and took a look through a large pane of broken glass.
Rotor sighed in disappointment. "This is no good, the skylight is right over the factory floor."
"So? Let's not scrub the mission just yet." Bunnie suggested. "Some of these heah windows are busted, so Ah'm guessing they don't have any alarms working on them. We could still complete the mission by using this skylight."
"I don't know…" Rotor thought aloud as he looked over the wide open space below. "There's just too much open space for us to be spotted in, we'd be wide out in the open and an easy target."
"Yes, I am agreeing weeth Rotor, zis iz too much of ze gamble." Antoine agreed.
"Oh, c'mon, we can't just give up that easy…" Bunnie objected. "How's about Ah go in first and make sure the coast is clear. Then ya'll can join me as fast as ya can."
Rotor sighed heavily. "Alright, Bunnie, but if you have to take out any bots; be quiet or we'll have the entire guard force on our backs in no time." Rotor cautioned; praying things would work out.
"Be careful Mon Cheri." Antoine urged, feeling fearful for his friend.
Sitting on the edge of the Skylight Bunnie extended her robotic legs down to the floor. "Ah will Sugar." Bunnie replied softly before disappearing through the skylight opening.
Meanwhile in Robotnik's lab…
"Sir, data scan at forty-five percent complete." Snively reported as they watched on with great interest.
"Bah, this is taking too long Snively, increase the power!" Robotnik bellowed.
"Yes, Sir." Snively replied pushing the control lever up to increase the scanner's output. As Snively observed the readings coming through on a monitor, Snively noticed some abnormal readings. Snively looked closer and double checked that he was reading this right, but the readings were indeed correct. "Robotnik, sir, I'm getting a very strange reading here." Snively stated, drawing Robotnik's attention.
"What is it you bumbling twit?" Robotnik asked, standing behind Snively's work station.
"It would appear the scanners are detecting some sort of energy anomaly. Because the crystal is transparent, the energy from the scanners we are using passes right through, and so we detect our own energy output'." Snively explained
"Yes, yes, I already know that, get to the point!" Robotnik growled, already knowing this from the numerous times they'd scanned Chaos Emerald and the like.
"Well, sir I'm getting two different power readings… When we scanned the Chaos Emeralds in the past we received two different energy signatures, one from the scanner equipment itself, and the second from the Chaos Emerald. These readings show that all we're picking up is our own energy signature. One reading shows the normal power level of the scanning equipment, but the second reading show that the energy passing though the crystal appears to be… stronger?" Snively explained, puzzled by his own revelation "The energy signatures are the same, in both samples. It's as if the crystal were focusing the energy waves to become more concentrated."
"Hmmm… interesting, continue with the scan, I want to…" Suddenly Robotnik's words are cut off by an alarm sounding off. "What!" Robotnik shouted in fury. He waddled over to a nearby console and switched the monitor on to display a Swat-bot. "What's going on Swat-bot?" Robotnik shouted.
"We have a security breach in facility 4-6-2, oh Elliptical one." The Swat-bot reported.
"Well send a full squad there immediately and stop those Freedom Fighter Immediately!" Robotnik ordered, switching off the console. "Bah, those Freedom Fighters can't stop me now... but why would they be attacking my personal stash of socks and underwear? Bah, I have no time for this right now." Just as Robotnik made it back and began to resume studying over the odd readings , another alarm sounded off. Robotnik whirled around and switched the console back on; instantly displaying the same Swat-bot from before. "Another-break-in-sir. This time in power station 0-4." The robot reported, promptly saluting.
"Well, send a security squad there as well!" Robotnik shouted, becoming infuriated by the constant interruptions.
Meanwhile, in an air-duct just above them…
"Way ta go, Uncle Chuck." Sonic announced triumphantly as the two crouched figures finally reached their destination.
"Good thing Uncle Chuck's let us know Robotnik moved the crystal to this lab, otherwise, we'd have never found them." Agreed Sally, looking to her companion.
"It looks like we got ole' Blubber Bolts attention, Sal, so lets make our move already." Sonic insisted, watching the events below unfold through the air grill.
"Just wait Sonic, just a few more, then I think we'll be able to make our move." Sally replied, holding Sonic back from doing anything rash. Sally pulled out Nicole and held her up. "Okay Nicole, trigger another one…"
In reply to Sally's command, yet another alarm sounded off in the room below, resulting in Robotnik storming over to the console yet again to give out orders. "Another break-in, Swat-bot?" Robotnik asked, sarcastically.
"Yes, Oh Lord of Lard. What are your orders?" the Swat-bot asked. Robotnik snarled and ground his teeth together furiously at that remark. "Bad enough the Princes managed to create a virus that halted his forces for weeks once, but to add insult to injury, she managed to corrupte all the recognition programs so that all of his robotic minions always addressed him with such offensive titles." Robotnik grumbled in his mind, he had yet to figure out how to solve that problem and it was really starting to get on his nerves.
This made about the fifth alert tonight. "This is getting ridiculous, how many places can those meddlesome Freedom Fighters hit in one night! I'll tell you what to do, send out a full squad to every security breach now, and to any future ones as well, now stop interrupting my work!" Robotnik shouted so loudly, even the Swat-bot recoiled in surprise.
Sonic smiled in self-satisfaction knowing how much of a head-ache they were causing Robotnik. But Sally's grin looked much broader then Sonic's because Robotnik had just played into the palm of her hand. "Just what I wanted him to say." She chuckled, turning to face Sonic and explain what she meant. "Robotnik's ordered the Swat-bots to respond with full strength to every break-in." She explained to Sonic as she flipped open Nicole's screen again. "Nicole, trigger the next secruity system in ten minutes, then activate at randomly set intervals after that." She ordered to the tiny computer, then turned to Sonic. "We'll wait about twenty minutes to make sure the Swat-bots have time to get nice and spread out across the city.
"I get it, with his forces spread out all over the city…"
"He won't be able to completely overwhelm us." Sally smirked, finishing Sonic's sentence for him with a devious grin.
"I love it when you're sneaky…" Sonic grinned in appreciation for Sally's brilliant plan.
"I know…" she grinned back.
Sitting inside the air vent, Sally watched as Robotnik and Snively continued to work, oblivious to what was happening outside with his Swat-bot forces. She checked her watch and glanced over to the obviously bored Sonic. "Let's do it to it! She said, pumping her fist for emphasis
"Now yer talk'n my language!" Sonic agreed as he bashed his feet into the grill and jumped through to the room below with Sally quickly following suit. "Hey iron lips, guess who?"
"What?" Robotnik shouted as he looked up in surprise to see his arch enemies standing across the lab.
"We're here for that do-hicky; now hand it over and we won't have to colour your face black and blue!" the hedgehog threatened, shaking his fist in emphasis.
"Well… Hedgehog, if you want it, come and get it…" he goads, pressing a button on the control panel. Within seconds at least half a dozen Swat-bots storm into the lab though the main door behind Sally and Sonic and begin blasting away at the intruders.
The shooting forces Sally and Sonic to dive for cover behind some columns against the sides of the room. "Sonic, take them down!" Sally yells over the hail of laser fire.
"No sooner said then done Sal." Sonic replied, dashing out from behind cover and racing towards the hoard of menacing robots. Sonic curled himself into his famous spin dash and ploughed straight through the hulk of the first robot, still carrying enough force the smash into a second one. He didn't have the force to rip though the second like the first, but the force was sufficient to knock the Swat-bot backwards into a third one standing behind it.
No time to celebrate however as all the robots turned towards Sonic, laser's whining as they reached full charge. With all the Swat-bots focusing their attention on Sonic; Sally rushed forward, delivering a hard kick to the back of the closest machine she could find. Her kick sent the unprepared robot tumbling forward into one of it's counterparts. The sudden disturbance distracted the Swat-bots long enough for Sonic to rev up again and smash through another inattentive robot.
Meanwhile, back in the air shaft…"We're getting closer…" Tails commented to no one in particular.
While Tails had little difficulty making his way through the air duct, Slasher, being much larger then Tails, was having a much more difficult time of it. "Frankly I'm amazed you were still able to smell your friends at all with that stench out there." Slasher grumbled; coughing slightly to try and get the foul Robotropolis air out of his lungs. Luckily, the air inside the fortress was much more livable
Tails shrugged. "I hate to admit it, but I'm probably used to it." Suddenly a loud crash ahead of them causes both creatures to look up in wonder. "What was that?" Tails asked, already having a pretty good idea what it might be.
"Let's find out…" Slasher prompted, as both moved towards the air grate where the noise came from. The pair looked through the already opened grill and immediately their eyes bulge at the sight. Down below Sonic and Sally stand triumphantly amidst a large pile of scrapped robots, much to the disbelief of a certain egg-shaped dictator.
"Looks like they have this under control after all." Tails chuckled in amusment.
"I must say, you Freedom Fighters are persistent aren't you. But, I'm afraid I'm in the middle of something rather important right now and I'll have to ask you to leave…" Robotnik chortled as the door swished open, from which several more Swat-bots poured into the room, quickly surrounding the pair.
"Or maybe we arrived just in time." Slasher said as he leaped through the open air vent head first. He landed right on top of one of the machines and quickly jammed his extended blades into the top of the domed skull before leaping off. Tails followed suit and slammed both feet on top of a second machines head.
Sally and Sonic turned in surprise to see Tails and Slasher enter the fray, but no time for pleasantries, they need to attack these Swat-bots while they're still momentarily distracted. "What are you guys doing here?" Sally scolded as she with another bot.
"We're here to help…" Tails responded defencively as he ducked a sucker punch from one of the machines.
"You should be in Knothole where it's…" Sally replied, before the robot's halted. Sally looked over to Robotnik who had raised a gloved hand to halt his metal minions a moment.
"… Where it's safe… My, such sweet sentiments, but surely you must realize there is no place that is truly safe from me." Robotnik grinned with evil malice laced in his crooked grin.
"Remember me fatso!" Slasher shouted as he stared down Robotnik, holding his battle claws out to the sides menacingly. Slasher glared at the fat man with a look that would kill.
"Well, well… the lizard returns." Robotnik chuckled, unimpressed by Slasher's harsh tone.
"That's dragon to you creep and the name is Slasher!" he shouted back.
"Yes, you would be…" Robotnik nodded, still unimpressed.
"Enough of this Robotnik, hand over the crystal now!" Sally ordered with surprising authority.
"Oh, I'm afraid that's quite out of the question my dear. You see I have plans for that little bobble, and besides, my friends standing behind you don't take very kindly to veiled threats to their master." Robotnik replied, keeping a calm, controlled composure, unlike Snively who was cowering pitifully behind his fat uncle.
The Freedom Fighters all turn to see a large squad of robots, all sharing the same harsh, lifeless stare. "I'm sure the rampant break-in's are you're doing Princess, so I'm afraid I can't give you a proper greeting until my forces return." Robotnik explain, hinting some annoyance towards Sally.
The Freedom Fighters back away from the robot horde, forming a defensive circle formation, keeping their backs to each other and out of habit, Sonic and Sally pushed Tails towards the back of the group, as the mass of machines moved further into the room, some taking up position to the left and right of the smaller group. "Attack, my metal minions!" Robotnik bellowed, pointing a large finger menacingly towards his enemies.
With that every robot raised their weapons, ready to fire. Instantly, the four reacted, striking at the nearest Swat-bot before the slower thinking machines could react. Sonic leaped forward, driving both feet into the chest of one Swat-bot; kicking off the metal body to change his momentum as he curled himself into a ball; slicing off the head of a second one in the opposite direction.
Sally grabbed hold of an outstretched robotic arm and used a Judo flip to throw the much heavier opponent to the ground. The force of the fall caused all the machine's systems to seize up and shut down. Tails meanwhile, took to the air and delivered a hard spinning kick to the side of one of the dome-shaped head's of a Swat-bot, sending it crashing into one of the firing bots standing next to it.
Slasher ducked, barley dodging a laser blast and thrust his right arm's battle claws into the chest of the firing robot. The robot clanked and sputtered before falling with electricity sputtering out of the twin slices in its armour.
Slasher turned, slicing at yet another robot, this time across an outstretched arm that had been about to fire its laser weapon at Sally. His strike wasn't able to slice right through the arm, but it left two deep gashes that completely rendered the arm and the weapon unusable. A swift sweeping swing of his tail and the robot fell to the ground, before he used the same rolling move he used on Bunnie earlier to finish it off.
"Slasher, I thought I told you to stay in the village!" Sally shouted as she backed into Slasher's as they both fought.
"Guess I missed that part…" he shrugged with a smile.
Sally groaned, "Just like Sonic…" she Threw out a hard side kick that landed square in a Swat-bots chest, as she silently thanked the heavens that being in this colse, the Swat-bots couldn't use their lasers. "I swear Slasher, between you and Sonic, my hair's going to turn gray at thirty."
"Worry about that later Sal, Slash, make for the crystal, we'll keep these tin cans busy!" Sonic interrupted, continuing his speedy destruction of Swat-bot after Swat-bot.
"Right!" Slasher confirmed, almost having forgotten about the crystal in the heat of the battle. He made a run for the glass cylinder where the crystal floated peacefully as fast as he could with his injured leg.
"Oh no you don't…" Robotnik growled, as he noticed Slasher make a break for the crystal. "Swat-bot, stop that meddlesome creature!" he ordered. One of the machines, on the outer edge of the fighting turned and pointed it's laser at Slasher. The arm moved slightly, allowing for the target's movement. If the machine could actually think enough to worry about collateral damage it would not have fired, since now Slasher was directly lined up with the crystal.
Slasher's leg began to throb in pain as he forced himself to run. As he drew nearer, Slasher could begin to feel the crystals energy start to flow through him, already feeling the familiar energy that seemed to fill that emptiness he had felt ever since he became separated from it. The gem started to faintly glow the closer Slasher drew to it. The strange aura of the crystal made him feel re-energized and his leg started to hurt less as well, but unfortunately he would not reach the gem in time to keep this feeling long.
"Slasher, look out!" Tails shouted, spotting what was about to happen and with the twirl of his tails, he launched himself forward, using his speed to knock Slasher to the floor just in time to avoid being struck in the back by the laser.
The laser whizzed past, just narrowly missing them, but shattered the glass cylinder the crystal floated in and struck the faceted surface of the unusual ruby gem. But instead of shattering like one might have expected; the gem actually seemed to absorb the laser; glowing a bright red from within before the shot came out the other side; all this happening far too fast for anyone to actually notice. The beam that emerged from the other side of the gem appeared much larger then when it first entered the crystal and when the laser struck the wall behind the scanning equipment it caused a violent explosion, melting right trough the thick metal wall; leaving a massive hole in the wall. The crystal meanwhile remained exactly where it was, as if nothing had ever happened.
The force of the blast created a shock wave that knocked everyone to the ground. Everyone stared at the damaged wall; even the Swat-bot that had fired the shot glanced between the hole and the laser attached to his arm in puzzlement.
Robotnik was the first to make a move switching on a miniature tractor beam built in his mechanical arm to pull the crystal away from Slasher at the last minute. "Swat-bots, please attend to our guests while I secure this little trinket.!" Robotnik shouted as he activated both an emergency hail to call more Swat-bot's to the area and opened an emergency escape hatch that both he and Snively jumped into; with the hatch sealing itself shut behind them. The remaining automatons moved to carry out their masters order as more entered to join their brethren.
Sally watched helplessly as Robotnik snatched away the crystal, and realized that with the crystal now gone, the mission was over and now time for them to make their escape. All at once the Swat-bots that just entered opened fire, not even really aiming as just shooting so as to create a curtain of laser fire to cover Robotnik's escape. The ones that had been knocked over by the blast rose and also joined in creating a hail of laser fire. All Sally could do was dive for cover, praying not to be hit by a stray blast. Sally was relieved to see that everyone else had managed to make it to cover, but now it looked like everyone else seemed to be in the same boat, completely pinned down by the sheer amount of fire power.
"Great the crystals gone, there's no way to follow Robotnik, and no way we can fight our way out…" Sally quickly contemplated in her mind. She dared a glance around her piece of cover and quickly noticed that Tails and Slasher had been forced to take cover behind the cylinder shaped scanning system, very close to the hole in the wall. More importantly the blast had melted through the entire wall, leaving clear access to the adjoining room. She ducked her head back around as several shots zinged past where her head had just been and quickly spotted Sonic, pinned behind a nearby console.
"Sonic, we need a distraction!" She shouted over the laser fire. Sonic nodded in silent acknowledgement and quickly bolted from his hiding place to a spot in the room where the bots weren't focusing their fire power.
"Yo, rust bukets!" he shouted, attempting to draw their attention. It worked like a charm, the Swat-bots turned their fire power on to him, rather then where Slasher, Tails and Sally were hiding behind. Using the opportunity Sally leaped out from her cover and slide across the smooth metal floor to where Slasher and Tails were hiding.
Slasher noticed the lack of laser fire heading their way and started to rise up to charge when Sally came sliding in behind them and tugged at his arm to pull him back behind cover. "What are you doing, get back here!" She yelled sternly.
"Taking advantage of their distraction!" he replied simply, trying again to leave his cover and attack.
Again Sally pulled him back. "Are you nuts, you charge at them, and you won't last five seconds!"
"We can't just give up…"
"We have no choice. Slasher, listen to me, the mission's over, your crystal is gone and we can't fight an army of robots to get to it. We have to go, NOW!" she yelled back.
Shortly after Sally ran across to reach Tails and Slasher Sonic jumped back behind cover; no sense leaving yourself a target for no reason. From his hiding place he could see what the others were doing, and by the looks of it, Slasher looked like he was still intending to fight! Now Sonic could relate to how he felt, but even he knew it was time to make tracks.
"I'm not leaving without my crystal…!" He replied, glaring angrily at Sally.
"Oh yes you are…" She cut him off, looking past him to Tails. "Make a break for the hole in the wall, and try to find an escape route in there!" She told the young kit.
"I'm on it Sally." Tails answered back obediently; leaving Slasher with Sally.
"Fine you stay, I'll stay here and…"
"And what, get killed? There's no way you can fight through this mess, and even if you could, how would you find out where Robotnik has your crystal?" Sally interrupted, becoming frustrated with Slasher's stubborn attitude.
Slasher looked down at the floor he was lying on, at odds with his warriors pride and the sense Sally made. "We'll be back for it, I promise you." Sally reassured him, placing a hand gently on his shoulder.
Suddenly Tails reappeared at the edge of the hole in the wall. "Sally, the next room has some large air shafts across the ceiling that I think we can use to get out of here."
Sally nodded in Tails' direction. "Okay Slasher go, me and Sonic will be right behind you."
Slasher nodded, then reached into his pouch and pulled out several smoke bombs and placed them in Sally's hand. "You might need these." He explained, before leaving Sally to follow Tails to the next room.
Sally instantly caught onto Slasher's idea. She looked over to Sonic, and with a nod from both she rose into a kneeling position behind her piece of cover and slammed the smoke bombs to the floor. Within seconds the room was filled with thick grey smoke, obscuring the Swat-bots optics for a few precious seconds until they could automatically switch to their thermal sensors. But when they did, the targets were gone…
End Ch. 20…
Whew, that was exciting! Man, sorry for taking so long to update but that's life. Oh, and sorry about making this chapter so much bigger then most of the others, I figured you were getting tired of being left on those annoying cliff-hangers by now. Next chapter we'll find out how the other mission turned out, and then this story takes a serious turn, and it may be for the worse… Secrets will be revealed questions will be answered, on both sides of the fight…
