Chapter Two
It was a cool, breezy night on the river. Robotnik's enormous water skiff rode proudly on the waves. All passengers were recharging soundly. Nothing was wrong about anything. The scene was perfect, serene, and trouble-free.
Except, obviously, for Scratch and Grounder. Yes, they had snuck onto the boat just before it had launched; and now, they were prowling around at night, trying to locate their master's quarters. It was not difficult to find; the incredible snores gave them the trail they needed.
The door of the quarters slowly opened, and Scratch went in first.
"He's definitely asleep," he whispered to Grounder, who wasn't sure about the whole sneaking-around-at-night thing. "Come on in!"
"All right, fine; but if there are any noises besides that atrocity, I'm getting out of here!" he replied.
After deftly traversing the length of the bedroom, they entered a side room, where a perfect replica of Robotnik's office was laid out.
"Wow!" Grounder marveled a little too loudly, looking around. "They even got the smell dead- on!" He then cleared his head and, turning to Scratch, said, "Okay. So remind me: what's our revenge plan again? I mean, what are we supposed to do?"
Scratch mumbled a reply while peering at the many evil novels that were lined up on a bookcase. "Yeah, well… I didn't honestly think about that a lot, but I'm sure…"
"WHAT?" Grounder shouted. He immediately covered his mouth, and prayed Robotnik wouldn't wake up. He huddled in a pile with his brother as the snores ceased. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. At thirty, the ridiculous grinding noise picked back up, meaning they were, somehow, safe. "You're telling me you dragged me into this place and you don't even have the slightest idea of what we're going to do?"
"Oh, relax, it's not that hard," Scratch replied. "All we have to do at first is get him riled up; that's how revenge plans start. You see, we take something that's important to him, and then he goes crazy trying to find it. Now, what's really important to the boss?"
"Being the baddest bad guy around?"
"Well, sure, but I was thinking something physical. Like… Aha! I got it!" Scratch began combing every square inch of the office.
"Would you just tell me already what it is?" Grounder was beginning to get irritated.
"If I know the boss, he always carries a little handheld computer in his pocket, right?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So, if this office is exactly like his one at home… I'm pretty sure it's gonna be in that desk." Scratch plunged his hands into several of the drawers, finally revealing a tiny touchscreen device. (Which, ironically, was the exact size of a Sega Game Gear.) "YES! BINGO! HAHA-HA-oops."
"You idiot!" Grounder gritted his teeth as the snores stopped for a second time, which made both of them think that they were pretty much done for. They shut their eyes tight and waited for the longest time ever, with nowhere to run and nothing to do but give up if Robotnik caught them red-handed. He never came, however.
Scratch opened an eye. "Do you think he's still asleep?" he asked Grounder.
"If so, it would be a miracle," was the reply he got.
A familiar wood-sawing sound hit their ears, and both robots sighed a long, sweet sigh of relief.
"C'mon, Scratch! I don't want to spend another second in here!" Grounder said, and both of them slowly trembled back out of the room and down the boardwalk. "Do you still have that thing? What is it even for, anyway?"
"This device is the one Robotnik uses to control all his other badniks!" Scratch replied. "And even if he has a spare, the fact that we stole it gives us the power to control the robots as well!"
"Wow. That actually wasn't a- "
"Bad plan?" Robotnik said thirty feet in front of them, making them screech to a halt. He was fully dressed, and accompanied by fifteen bots. "I agree. I think it was a pitiful plan. You miserable robots can't do a thing against me, even by grabbing that little device. Guards! Get them. I'm going back to sleep."
Grounder grabbed ahold of Scratch's legs. "But… but how did he… I thought he was…"
"Hah! Doesn't matter." Scratch whipped out the device and placed his finger on the screen. "Bring it on."
Once Sonic and Tails arrived at Robotnik, Inc., Sonic quickly busted the Sonic Spin-proof gate open with a Sonic Spin.
"Talk about false advertising," he said, grinning. But his smile quickly turned into a frown when he noticed something odd was going on.
And that something was nothing.
"See? What did I tell you?" Tails said as they walked down a completely guard-free corridor. "Weird… I wonder if Robotnik was actually telling the truth?"
"If so, it would bring his number of truths told up to one." Sonic stopped walking and put his brain to work. "I just don't get it. Why would he go away suddenly and leave all his evil stuff lying around? There has to be something behind this all. And I bet I know what it is."
They zoomed upstairs to the top floor of the building, where Robotnik's office was. Expecting him, Sonic threw open the door and was just starting an insult when he noticed the person sitting in Ivo's chair was not him. It was Coconuts, kicking his feet up on his master's desk. He had one robot grooming his fleas, and another on evil standby.
"EEK- Oh, it's just you two. For a second there, I thought I was dead!" Coconuts wiped his brow and whistled, then motioned for the two to come join him.
"'Just us'?" Tails inquired. "You're not terrified?"
"This isn't a trap? Where's Butt-nik?" Sonic snapped.
"Like that note said- didn't you get the note? It said he was going for a trip down the river. So I'm here supervising the place while he's gone. And as long as I don't accidentally blow up his machines, I can get away with anything Scott free!"
"So… hold on. Robotnik's on vacation, you're in his office chair, and you're not terrified to see us?" For the slightest moment, Sonic thought his world might be coming apart.
"Well, let's just say if you-know-who came along, these scuff marks on his desk would earn me a free ticket to the disassembling room; forget about the rest."
"So, that would explain the coastal plague!" Tails realized. "Robotnik's boat must- "
"Yacht," Coconuts corrected, stretching his arms as far as capable. "A huge yacht."
"Wouldn't expect anything less," Sonic remarked.
"Okay…" Tails continued. "As I was saying, Robotnik's huge yacht must be the thing that's polluting the rivers and making everyone sick! We've got to stop him! C'mon Sonic, lets bruise and- "
"One more thing, kiddo." Sonic grabbed one of his buddy's tails, sending him sprawling into an ironic face plant. "Say Coconuts, any idea where those two maggoty muttonheads are? You know…" Sonic waited for him to fill in the blank, but the only one Coconuts filled was a blank stare. He sighed, and relented, "…Scratch and Grounder?"
"Oh!" The robot monkey seemed taken aback. "Well, I, umm… gee. I can't recall seeing them lately, now that I think about it. I have no idea where they could- wait! Robotnik's yacht! Of course! They must have snuck on! WHY DIDN'T I THINK ABOUT DOING THAT?!"
"No idea. Slip and rip time," Sonic said quickly, and the two of them flew off to avoid the primate rampage.
After he had settled down, Coconuts grabbed the intercom mic that Robotnik so loved to use and attempted to hail him with it. On the third try, he managed to make a connection, and was greeted pleasantly with, "WHAT IS IT?"
"Boss! I have urgent news! I think Scratch and Grounder stowed away on your ship! I can't find them anywhere in the factory, and- "
"Old news, old news," Robotnik grunted as his slave stopped talking and asked, "What?"
"I said, old news. I already sent those two twiddling twerps packing in a leaking dingey! If you had reported this a few hours ago, it might not have cost me eight guards who chicken-danced their way off the yacht!"
"What?" Coconuts repeated, dumbstruck.
"If you had been less tardy with your report, I would be having a more relaxing vacation."
"Oh, well… wait. What?" This time, Robotnik gave up explaining and ended the transmission. The ignorant monkey shrugged his shoulders, slipped back into the chair, and muttered, "Huh. Well, at least he's having a relaxing vacation."
Scratch and Grounder were glaring at each other with wide eyes as their little boat sprung another leak with no land in sight.
"It's all your fault," Scratch said, breaking the silence. "If you hadn't grabbed the computer out of my hand and tried to do everything yourself, I would have been able to turn those robots against the boss."
"I say, it's all your fault!" Grounder retorted, spitting oil into the sea. "If you had actually known what all those buttons on the control pad did, I wouldn't have relieved it from you to try and fix your mistakes!"
The boat sprang another leak, and began submerging.
"Well, if I made the mistakes, you certainly made them worse. Those robots relieved us of that stupid device when you told them to trample us!"
"I didn't tell them to do that! It's just because my retractable pen is the only one of my tools that's touchscreen-safe; and it's a little hard to control!"
The boat sank completely, forcing both robots to swim.
"And because of that, now we have an overabundance of water, an overabundance of annoying things, and no land in sight!"
"Yeah? How about that land?" Grounder turned one of his hands into a giant arrow, and pointed at a strip just visible on the coastline.
It took Scratch a second to realize what he was seeing. Then, he started doggie-paddling joyously towards the shore. "Yes! Land, finally! Last one there is Grounder!" Then, to himself, he said, "And when I step foot on shore, I hope Robotnik can hear it; cause it means we're back!"
One hour later, he had washed up on the shore, rusty and tired beyond belief. He looked up to inspect where he was, but the only thing he saw was Grounder, holding two propeller hands in front of him.
"Looks like you're me," he said, laughing.
"Cheater," the defeated rooster replied before passing out from sheer exhaustion.
