*fangirl screaming* OH MY CHAOS! GUESS WHAT, Y'ALL?
We have reached a monumental moment in this story. It's called: WE ARE 75% OF THE WAY THERE! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
(Actually, now that I look out the outline, I realize we cut or condensed some chapters awhile back so we are actually past that point… whoops.)
Also, I want to celebrate the fact that, as of the release of this chapter, we have 480 reviews on this story. And apparently over 100 followers! HOLY COW, THAT IS CRAZY. And speaking of reviews:
ultimateCCC: *stares at review and counts statements* Wow. Four points. I think that's a new record for you, which means we either did a good job or did a bad job. Thanks for the feedback. 1. Manic and Tails brother relationship! One of my new personal favorites. 2. Count on it. 3. Very true. 4. Yes. Yes he does.
Megaman07: I really missed sassy Tails, and Manic really wouldn't care in the long run, so it was fun. Yeah, no emeralds, plus they lost their two heavy hitters (well, other than Knuckles). So… trouble's coming.
StarlightSparks: You and me both. Tails and Manic bros forever!
MelGamingPlays: Character development! The key to a good story (or at least one of them…) What was Sonia jealous about? I can't find that… but maybe we did it subconsciously. Bye, bye emeralds!
Hawkfeather: *reads first paragraph and bursts out laughing* I- YOU- HE- CAN'T BREATH. I mean, I hate Mr. Prower, but that… that was beautiful…. Thank you. That made my day. Reading into things isn't the worst thing you can do.
SharpDragonKlaw: I don't think it would be way off if Sonia and Amy were friends either, although, I don't think we'll see them get super close here. Tails and Manic and Sonic, let's have some fun…
astoryteller: Yes, Space Truck is Star Trek. We had to do something similar, and Halo and I thought that sounded fun enough. Manic and Tails, Sonia and Amy! We have fun bonding.
juancastri11: *stares at review* Wow. Well, I can check 'make Manic likeable in this story' off the list. Sonia and Amy friendship isn't going to be a huge plot point, so don't worry too much about it. Glad you had a good trip.
Autumn: I'm not a huge fan on reality tv either, so I'm with you and Manic. Hey Manic! Let's go watch some Star Wars Rebels!
Faso: Character chapters are fun. Tails as an emo… okay, I'm going to go wash my brain out with soap and water and get that image out of my head. Snoke! WHO ARE YOU? That really was annoying. Like, severely annoying. Plus Rey's parent revel was kind of frustrating. Like, now I like it, but when I first heard I just stared at the movie screen and wanted to bang my head against a wall. "Two years of fan speculation… for that." And the Han Solo movie trailer? It looks… okay. But I don't think we're going to break new amazing ground in it. Sonic's version of Star Trek- Space Truck. Better than what Halo and I came up for an alternate name for Star Wars (Nova Conflicts… Yeah, probably could have done better). I'm so glad you enjoyed the chapter and our writing!
Zosonils: LOLOLOLOL, that was beautiful! I mean, that's me in a nutshell. "I need a break from the feels, let's go read this… oh, right." Shadow v. possessed Sonic equals bad things. Very bad things. Knuckles should be fired, but… well who else can be the Guardian. I… I don't have words. I think that was the best comment anyone could have made. Thank you! Okay quick clarification because Halo and I have been arguing about this: when you said, "bonding moments between two likeable characters who are all-too-often put at each other's' throats by fandom when they could just as easily (and much more interestingly) become a fantastic friendship duo," were you talking about Sonia and Amy or Manic and Tails? And hello from Not Australia Land!
Alright so for some reason Halo and I have kind of lost some… speed juice. We've been crawling through this chapter like a snail through molasses. So… sorry 'bout that. Hopefully we'll pick up next chapter.
Amy's POV:
"Now, Amelia, lift your hammer slightly higher."
I rolled my eyes, but complied. Of course, that slight distraction allowed Sonia to almost stun me with her brand new gun.
She laughed at my annoyed expression as I picked myself up and brushed off my skirt. "Oh, come on, Rose! Keep your head in the game."
I snorted at that. Kinda impossible thanks to someone's constant jabbering!
"It is not my fault this hedgehog outmatches you in ability."
She does not outmatch me in- "Ahh!" I flipped backwards, my hammer vanishing in thin air as Manic appeared out of nowhere and tried to tackle me to the ground.
Sonia shot at stun blast at him, fuming. "MANIC!"
The green hedgehog looked up sheepishly, "Yes?"
"We were sparring! You weren't invited!" Sonia rested her gun against her shoulder, glaring daggers at her twin-...triplet.
About two hours ago, Sonia and I had somehow gotten into an argument on who had better skills in a fight. One thing led to another, and we had headed out to Tails's backyard to spar and see who was right.
I had to give the girl some credit; she was pretty good. Tails had taken an old GUN blaster design and added some improvements to it, giving it to Sonia only last night. She had gotten some target practice in earlier today, but she seemed a natural with the new weapon. As for agility, it was ridiculous how she could dodge almost everything I had thrown at her. Meanwhile, I knew I was going to wake up tomorrow with some bruises.
Manic gave a shrug, "I'm bored and this looks fun. Pleeease?" He looked up with these pouty puppy eyes.
Sonia seemed unaffected. "No."
Manic glanced over in my direction, giving me the most pitiful, over dramatic look I've ever seen. It was kind of adorable. I shrugged, "Hey, I'm not getting involved in this." I summoned a hammer and threw it at Sonia. She easily dodged it, before smiling at me, a challenge in her eyes.
"That all you got?"
"You wish!" I abandoned the hammer approach and launched myself at her, attempting to wrestle the gun out of her hands. Manic picked a blade of grass and twirled it in his fingers.
After a long struggle, I finally managed to throw the gun away and we began to exchange punches and kicks (of course, we were holding back our full strength. Mostly.) Manic placed the grass in his mouth and blew, making it whistle.
Sonia and I faced off a while longer with little progress; I think I hit her once, when she wasn't looking and already winded. Eventually, with both of us out of breath, we made a non-verbal agreement to take a break.
Manic looked up from his makeshift whistle and grinned. "I play the winner!"
Sonia rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Fine. It's your funeral, bro. Just… gimme a minute," She slumped down on the grass, breathing heavily. Hey, I might not have gotten in a lot of hits, but I definitely wore her down. I consider that a success.
Sonia was taking a bit longer to recover, so I summoned a hammer and got up to face Manic, who was already stretching. He seemed antsy; ready for a fight. I was too. We nodded to each other and, without a word, lunged forward to start the fight.
At first it seemed like Manic had a similar fighting style to Sonia's; lots of dodging and a parkour-style use of the wall and fence, with a few quick hits thrown in here and there. But as the fight progressed, I started noticing little differences: Sonia used lots of judo holds that she'd use to throw or disable her opponent, with perfect form. Manic couldn't seem to care less. His moves were wild, yet very, very precise. It seemed he knew by heart which vulnerable spots to hit, and I had to sidestep three times to keep him from headbutting me in the nose. In my head, I wondered when in the world he had the time to learn to fight like this.
Another large difference was he didn't use a gun.
"Come on, Amy! Bring the fire, I can take it!" he shouted, grinning. Rather than being tired, the fight seemed to force out his energy. Okay, why not? Sonia had told me that she always suspected he was ADHD or something, so him being this hyper couldn't be too out of the ordinary.
"If you insist!" I shouted back, swinging my hammer at him and landing a blow to his lower back.
"Ouch! Heh, good one!" he laughed as he got back on his feet. "But you're gonna regret that!"
"So far, I'm not regretting any of it."
"This hedgehog seems to rely too much on talk than actual actions," Rin commented. "It would be exceedingly simple to take him down."
Well, this hedgehog is also Sonic's brother. So let's try and keep him in one piece, 'kay?
I didn't have time to hear Rin's response, due to Manic thrusting his fist forward and punching me in the stomach before jumping back into his fighting stance, his wide grin never leaving his face despite the thin trickle of blood now running down his forehead. He wiped it out of his eyes without a second glance; it may as well have just been sweat.
"How often do you fight?" I wondered out loud, stepping back to avoid a well-placed kick in the shins.
"Not enough! Since Sonia dragged me out of the city, I ain't had much opportunity to blow off steam like this. It feels great!"
Uh…
"...Are you sure he is Sonic's brother?"
Thank you, Rin, for stating the exact question I had been asking myself since the big reveal.
Manic put his fists up. "Oh, we're brothers alright. You wanna a blood test or something?"
I kept forgetting he could read minds.
"This witchcraft is very disconcerting," said Rin. "I'll have you know that I disapprove of you fraternizing with these heathens, Amelia. There is no telling what sort of demonic abilities they possess."
Manic frowned, "Hey lady, this ain't witchcraft, so watch it!" He paused in a punch and thought for a moment, "But I guess I can understand why someone would call it that… Especially if you've got some extra years on ya'."
I bit my lip to keep from crying out in surprise, flinging my hammer at him out of instinct. Holy Chaos. Rin was having a conversation with someone who wasn't me. I mean, this wasn't normal in any sense of the word.
"...Could you kindly tell your beloved's brother to 'keep his foot out of other's business'?" Rin asked tentatively, a touch of annoyance in her tone.
Before I could correct her, Manic burst out laughing. He grabbed his sides and almost fell to the ground from the sheer shaking.
On the side, Sonia looked very confused. "Manic, what's wrong?"
He couldn't breathe enough to speak at first, but did manage to choke out something after a minute or so of laughter. "Beloved…? Foot…? Holy Chaos! This is rich!"
Rin… it's nose. The term is 'keep your nose out of other people's business'. Please stop with the modern sayings if you can't use them right.
"Oh," Rin's voice had gotten softer, "My apologies. I will remain silent for the remainder of the spar."
Forget it. Manic wasn't going to get up anytime soon.
Sonia looked at me, her face clearly showing confusion. I closed my eyes and pinched my nose. So much for a good impression.
Alright, maybe I had known the two of them for several weeks now, but that didn't mean they knew me. And maybe I was jumping the gun a little by wanting to make a good impression with my crush's siblings, but in my defense, there wasn't much else I could do while I waited around for Rouge and Knuckles to return from GUN.
The two had gone to check on Shadow's condition- again- and also to pick up Sonic's file. We were hoping there would be some answers about… well, anything. Sonic's family, his history, if there was any mention of him ever coming across something 'Dark'... we were desperate. And at this point, after almost two weeks since Sonic transformed into that thing, finding reliable information was getting frustrating. Even Tikal wasn't responding anymore, not even to Knuckles.
I snapped back into the present when Sonia flipped her brother over her shoulder and onto his back. He looked up, annoyed, "Hey, no fair!"
Sonia smirked down at him, "You said you wanted to fight. I'm just taking advantage of your sudden insanity. Think fast!" Sonia grabbed Manic and lifted him after her head like it was nothing, only giggling when he started to protest. Manic pried himself out of her grip and leapt down behind her, grinning darkly.
"So you wanna play hardball, huh, sis?" he said amiably, cracking his knuckles. "Game on."
If I had thought fighting these two was a bizarre experience, it was nothing compared to seeing them fight each other. Manic was obviously aware that he couldn't get in close without her dodging, so he stuck to jumping off the fence and cartwheeling around the yard, calling out taunts and forcing her to run after him if she wanted to get in any kind of hit. Luckily, Sonia had her blaster and had decided to start breaking it in.
"Woah! Simmer down, tiger!" shouted Manic as he narrowly dodged a stun blast. "You mad 'cuz I'm winning?"
Sonia smirked, aiming her gun at his feet. "You wish!"
I couldn't help but laugh at how funny the whole thing looked; Sonia was grinning wider than I'd ever seen before, and from a distance, it seemed like Manic was doing a very fast, frantic jig as he avoided the shots.
"Ready to call it quits?" Sonia shouted over the din.
"Only in your dreams, princess!"
The second Sonia had to stop and reload, Manic bolted for the fence, jumping top for a moment before plunging off, apparently attempting to tackle Sonia from above. Predictably, she dodged, and Manic landed face-first in the dirt.
"Oooh, smart!" she jeered as Manic dusted himself off. "Didn't see that coming- oh wait! I did!"
Manic opened his mouth to respond, but I didn't hear him due to the sudden shriek in my ear. I had completely forgotten about the com I had put in this morning. I quickly adjusted the volume and turned on my end.
"Knuckles? Rouge? What's going on?" I couldn't make out much over the deafening crashes and screams in the background. It was clear that someone was trying to talk, but clips of static were scattered throughout, cutting them off over and over again.
Finally, the static paused just long enough for me to understand who was speaking. "Amy!" rasped Knuckles above the din. "GUN's under attack! Bring as much backup as you ca- Duck and cover!" An ear-splitting explosion rang out through the communicator before it cut to static.
Whatever was attacking GUN, it wasn't playing nice. I jumped to my feet and ran inside the house.
"Tails!" I shouted. "Tails, where are you? Knuckles just sent a distress message- GUN's under attack! Tails!"
Manic poked his head in the back door, "Uh… Tails is out in the shop."
"Oh," I gave an awkward smile before sprinting past him. Sonia stopped me halfway in between the house and the shop.
"Need a hand at GUN?"
"Um…" I hesitated. Pros of bringing Sonia and Manic: both were efficient fighters and could take care of themselves. Their special abilities may come in handy- who knew what was attacking? Cons: if they died, Sonic would never forgive me and Knuckles probably wouldn't either, seeing as one of them was his ex. And who knew what Rouge would think.
"What if your beloved is the attacker?"
Rin, he's not my 'beloved'. I don't even know if he likes me back. And why would Sonic attack GUN?
"Need I remind you of the... incident?"
Too soon, Rin.
"Sonic the Hedgehog is not necessarily himself at the present. Ergo, we are unaware of what he is capable of anymore."
Of course you had to bring that up. And no-longer-dead siblings may snap him out of it, if it is him.
I gave a short nod to Sonia, "Just don't die. I don't need to get on Knuckles' bad side right now."
XXX
Good news: It wasn't Sonic.
Bad news: It was Robotnik.
With all the drama surrounding Sonic these days, I had almost forgotten about him. Maybe that had been his plan: to take us by surprise and attack when we were most vulnerable. I didn't know for sure, but I had the feeling that somehow, Robotnik knew that Shadow wasn't available to help fight him off.
I turned to Sonia, Manic, and Tails, who were standing behind me, stricken with shock. The scene in front of us was devastating; terrified screams of civilians pierced me like a knife as they ran away from the approaching destruction. Just like his last attack, Robotnik had sent out swarms of badniks out to target the citizens.
"Protect the innocent!" Rin yelled in my head, making me wince slightly. Although, that was probably what I needed to jump into action. I pulled my hammer out and threw it at the nearest bot, sending pieces of scrap metal flying.
The bee fell to the ground with a metallic crunch, sparking slightly. My hammer magically appeared in my hand and I pointed towards the GUN facility.
"Knuckles and Rouge are somewhere inside. They can hold the building while we clear the people from the area. Manic and Sonia, keep the bots from following; Tails, you're with me. Let's move!" I jumped straight into the chaos, Tails following close behind.
"Wonderful speech, Amelia. I personally believe you make an excellent leader."
Rin, I'm a little busy. We'll talk later.
XXX
Manic's POV:
I'm not an idiot. I knew Robotnik was one scraptastic fella, if only from watching the news every now and then. But I was really starting to understand why Maurice hated him- besides the fact that the dude killed our parents; He was so annoying.
I mean, come on, would it kill him to attack with something other than laser bees and ugly robots? Where was the passion? The creativity? I knew if I ever became a mad scientist, I'd at least try to take over the world in style.
(Although, I had to admit, that mustache was fabulous.)
"Manic! Get your head out of the clouds and focus!" shouted Sonia as she kicked a SWATbot in the head. "Try to mess with their circuits or whatever! Just do your thing!"
"Uh… right!" I shouted back, sprinting over to one of the bees and whacking it with a piece of pipe I found in a dumpster. I expected it to short out or deactivate, but I think I just made it mad. I had to smack it around about four more time before it would stop shooting lasers at me; and based on the smoking black marks on the places it did hit, I knew that these things weren't really the cute and cuddly type. I just felt lucky that they hadn't already blown my head off-
-Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea.
Like a flash, Our Hero springs into action, gallantly apprehending yet another bee-robot-thingie. He wrestles it to the ground until it's in his total control- Maniac is truly living up to his name as he blasts away SWATbots with the bee thing's laser! Never has he felt more ALIVE!
Soon, all the robots swarming in front of the GUN building had been taken out. Good thing, too; I wasn't sure if I could keep hold of this stupid bot for much longer. I let it out of my grasp then quickly banged its side with my pipe, continuing to hit it until it stopped shooting at me. Good riddance.
Sonia ambled over to me, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Good… good work, Manic," she panted, trying to catch her breath.
"You too," I replied. "Hey, you need a break? You look tired."
"No… I'm fine," she insisted. "Robots are just harder to fight than people. Anyway, we don't have time for that. Amy said that she and Tails were rescuing civilians from inside- they'll need us to clear them a safe path out of the building."
"That it?" I asked, cracking my knuckles and grinning. "Cool. We'll have an easy job, then. With all the rust buckets out of the way, all we have to do is-"
I was interrupted by a deafening crash behind me; the vibrations shook me to my core. Slowly, I turned around to face the biggest, most lethal looking robot I had ever seen.
Sonia narrowed her eyes at me, scowling. "You just had to jinx it, didn't you?"
XXX
Since when had I become the hero type?
Seriously. I almost missed the days of gang fights and evading the cops. I had figured back then that I'd stick with that lifestyle forever, which honestly suited me just fine. Yet, here I was, risking my frikkin life to help take down some ridiculously terrifying kill-bot for the "greater good". That term was apparently supposed to motivate me, but I still didn't feel any better about the prospect of getting blown away by a storm of laser fire.
Robotnik was cackling like the mad man he was as he watched all of us scramble for cover. The lasers blasted the area and I heard one of the GUN soldiers scream in pain. I lost sight of Sonia and the others, but I wasn't too concerned. I grabbed a random piece of rubble and chucked it in the general direction of Robotnik. It fell several yards short and I felt almost grateful that he didn't take any notice of it.
"And what exactly was that supposed to do?"
I ducked down and looked to my right. General Towers was huddled next to me, gun at the ready. His bi-colored eyes were looking at me with an almost dismissive tint.
"Well, pardon me, General, but I don't have super speed like my brother," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
Towers frowned before his eyes grew wide, "You're Manic."
It wasn't a question. "That's my name, don't wear it out."
He smirked. "Nice to meet you. Although, I regret the… unpleasant circumstances."
"Uh huh. Cool. And you know me how?"
"Maurice spoke highly of you," he said, loading his gun.
Wait, hold up. "You're telling me that Maurice told you about me, but didn't tell his adopted brother?"
"It was a legally binding agreement. Don't take it personally."
Of course it was. Stupid bureaucrats. I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind but was interrupted but the large explosion that suddenly bursted directly in front of us. General Towers and I sprinted to the left just as the giant robot smashed our hiding spot with its foot. We managed to avoid any laser fire and hid down behind some rubble. General Towers stood up and took a few shots at Robotnik but they went wide.
I looked at him, eyes slightly narrowed, "Now what, General Know-it-All?"
"Do not get snippy with me, hedgehog. I get enough of that from Shadow."
"Well, if ya haven't noticed by now, your Ultimate Weapon is a teensy bit occupied at the moment, so you're stuck with me. Lucky you."
General Towers rolled his eyes before firing off another few shots at a bee. I picked up a nearby pipe that must have fallen off the facility or something and got ready to hit something.
The more I studied him, the more I realized that General Towers was really strange. His focus was mainly on the battle, obviously, but when I mentioned Shadow his emotions spiked slightly. He seemed to care about Shadow, but it looked like it was more out of a sense of duty than anything.
Oh yeah, and there was some cute blonde girl involved. Blondie saved Shadow's life or something and… died? I sensed guilt. Maybe Towers killed her?… nah, that wasn't it. He just felt responsible. If anything, he was annoyed that his best operative was in a coma when GUN was under attack. Some of Shadow's Chaos abilities could really come in handy about now, especially against Robotnik's Egg Beater… he hadn't pulled out this model in nearly two years, plus it was clear that he had upgraded its already advanced weapons system. It would be all the front lines could do to hold it off, and even then, they'd only be able to stall it for a limited time...
I shook my head, snapped out of it by the stinging pulse of my right hand. Since when did I read that deep into people?
"Head towards the base. Team Sonic will meet you there." Towers ordered, snapping me back into the present.
"What about you?" I raised an eyebrow.
"No time for questions, boy! I told you to get going, so go!"
Uh, rude much?... Whatever, he's the General. I sprinted towards the building, ignoring the screams of the injured. Better to focus on that after the danger was gone.
When I got to the facility, Sonia was the one who dragged me inside before hugging me tightly. Then she punched me in the stomach and began to rant about how I was supposed to stay near her and how I almost gave her a heart attack and to never, ever scare her like that again, do you understand, Manic- and you get the idea.
Everyone else was already inside. Knuckles and Rouge were staring at the video cameras at the giant robot and its small army; One camera just focused on Robotnik and his "Egg Beater". Just the sight of that maniac made me want to both hide and kill him with my bare hands. Amy was tending to any wounded from inside the building and Tails was fixing any broken weapons as fast as he could.
"The main shields are holding, but once that thing gets here, we'll be in trouble." Knuckles pointed at the rampaging metal titan on the video screen.
I raised an eyebrow, "This place has shields, doesn't it?"
Tails gave me a grim smile, "Well, yeah. I designed them. They run off the energy of Chaos Emeralds. Right now, we're using the one we found to make sure this place doesn't crumble to dust."
"So…" I folded my arms and narrowing my eyes. "No weapons system?"
"No," Tails shrugged, "I had some early schematics drawn up for one, but the General didn't think it necessary."
"I'm beginning to rethink that," said General Towers, seeming to have appeared out of thin air. Any soldiers in the room came to attention and Rouge managed an all-too casual salute. None of Team Sonic even bothered so neither did I. He motioned for his men to relax before turning to one in particular. "Lieutenant. Report."
"Yes sir," said the lieutenant. "We have at least a dozen casualties and over fifty men injured and receiving medical attention. The enemy is coming from all sides, but we managed to evacuate approximately ninety-five percent of the surrounding population. The remaining five percent is currently hiding in our basement with three of our best acting as guards."
"How many can continue to fight?" asked Towers, clutching the bridge of his nose in despondence.
"I estimate around one hundred."
"And the enemy?" General Towers turned towards Rouge.
Rouge motioned at the screens, "I'd say about hundred and fifty buzz-bombers and seventy five SWATbots, give or take. Not to mention the mothership over there."
Knuckles nodded grimly, "And it's a big one. I don't think I've ever seen one that was so… massive."
"It's big, we get it!" Tails called from his workbench. "Move on!"
Knuckles began to talk again, but the sound didn't seem to reach my ears. I blinked and shook my head, trying to focus. Knuckles' mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear any of it; I frowned. What the...
The world felt like it dropped out from under me, but I knew I hadn't moved. Random thoughts and images seemed to rush my brain from everyone, but they were too jumbled to understand.
Come on, man, keep it together! I thought, trying to slow down my breathing. You're in the middle of a warzone! Read people later. You can't afford to get distracted right now!
I rubbed my eyes and blinked repeatedly. Knuckles was still talking. I tried to make out the words, but another sudden backlash threw me back into the whirlwind of confusion.
Knuckles was scared. Like, really scared. But... it wasn't 'cuz of Robotnik. In fact, he was hardly concerned about this battle, despite the fact that it wasn't going well at all. He thought, no he knew that this was just a warm up for what was coming.
Sonic. Maurice. That was the danger. He knew this without a doubt. He'd seen dark energy before. He had seen what happened to people who were infected. It was what had taken his mom. It was what had driven him and Locke further apart than they ever should have been. The darkness was the real enemy. Robotnik was just the opening act.
I gasped and almost fell backwards, biting my lip to prevent myself from crying out in shock as everything suddenly came back into focus. I suddenly realized how bad my right hand was hurting, like someone had dipped it in a tub of boiling oil.
"-let's move, people!" General Towers clapped his hands together. The soldiers grabbed their weapons and marched out the front door, following their leader out into the danger zone. Tails and Amy sprinted down the hall and vanished through a door for no apparent reason while Knuckles and Rouge remained at the cameras, each slipping on a set of headphones.
Sonia gripped my shoulder, squeezing it a little. She was nervous. "Ready?"
I jumped a few feet in the air, "Sonia! Don't do that!"
"Geez, Manic, calm down." She gave me a comforting smile, "Come on. Tails needs us for this."
"Okay…" I shook my head clear and began to follow her into the building. "So, uh… what's the plan again?"
She sighed. "Do you ever pay attention?"
I didn't answer.
XXX
Tails yelled something at me that I couldn't hear over the wind. Or my internal screaming.
Remember how the twelve-year-old could fly a biplane? I thought he was just able to pilot the thing, but nooo...The kid was doing tricks like a crazy person while I was hanging on for dear life. 'Course, Sonia was pretty chill about all this, just shooting at whatever bees got in our way. Amy must have been used to fighting in this style, 'cause she didn't even flinch when we did a tailspin straight down, pulling up only a few feet from the ground.
"Tails! Buddy!" I shouted over the wind. "Could we POSSIBLY slow down a little?"
"WHAT?" he shouted back. I opened my mouth to reply, but noticed that we were starting to land.
Robotnik's Egg Beater wasn't any less terrifying up close. At the moment, it was busy knocking over a row of office buildings, then blasting them to pieces with its laser. Hoo boy.
"You ready?" shouted Amy, summoning a hammer. Sonia nodded and grabbed my hand, yanking us out of the plane before I had time to ask what she doing. I felt my stomach fly up to my throat as we dropped, the wind whipping through my hair and forcing me to shut my eyes. Goodbye, cruel world…
Suddenly, my chest hurt and I could feel myself rolling over something metallic. It was a minute before I realized that we had landed right on top of the robot.
I scrambled to my feet just in time to grab hold of a chink in the bot's armor, right before it began to aggressively shake me, Amy, and Sonia off. Amy didn't even flinch, but started hacking at the top of the cockpit with her hammer. Sonia fired shot after shot at the glass, and I could see it beginning to crack. Sure enough, one more hard whack of Amy's hammer was all it took for the glass to shatter in a million pieces.
"Manic!" shouted Sonia. "Get inside and try to hack into its mainframe! Shut it down!"
Oh, so that was the plan… Well, it stunk. I was a half-decent hacker, but there was no guarantee I could understand the coding language Robotnik was using. Knowing him, he'd probably have invented his own just to make sure no one could mess with it. Tails would've been better at this; he was the tech genius around here. I was just a thief. I was going to voice my opinion when a bot almost as big as the one we were targeting showed up and started getting all trigger happy with its lasers.
On second thought, maybe it would be safer in the robot.
I slipped in between the shards of broken glass, careful not to skewer myself on the way down. The inside of the control area was surprisingly roomy, with panels of keyboards and dangerous-looking buttons lining every corner. A few holographic screens had popped up in front of the windshield, showing off line after line of indecipherable code.
Alright man, don't panic. Be cool. Everyone's counting on you. Do not blow this.
I stepped up to the keyboard with no clue where to even start, but figuring if I entered enough nonsense into the code, the bot would malfunction and go into emergency shutdown. Frantically, I began typing in commands at random, hoping that something, anything, would work.
"What in Chaos do you think you're doing?"
I whirled around to find Robotnik entering through a panel on the back, looking less than pleased to see me. There must be some machinery or something that he had been fixing before coming back to his post... Which must be what I was messing with right now.
Crud.
My mind was racing with excuses, none of which made sense or would save from the horribly painful death Robotnik had in store for anyone trespassing on his property. Thinking fast, I formulated a plan to escape back up where I came from with minimal injuries when suddenly, I felt an overload of information metaphorically smack me in the face. Loads of Robotnik trivia rushed into my brain, nearly too much for me to handle. Too much, too fast… I had to concentrate with all my energy to cut off the flow of readings.
Holy Chaos… What was going on with my powers? It was like someone threw them into overdrive. Thoughts and memories that weren't mine flooded my senses, and I knew that I'd never be able to look at Robotnik the same way again.
On the bright side, I knew what to do with him now.
I turned around and began to type again, a little calmer than before.
"I asked you a question, rat!" he snarled. "Speak when you're spoken to!... Or are you so paralyzed with fear that you can't talk?"
I ignored him, and began to hum a little song, "Typing, typing, la-dee-da-dee-da... Oh!" I leaned over, "Gee-golly-gosh-glory-oskins, that's a big button! Whatever does it do?"
"What the- Don't touch that!" Robotnik hissed. He lunged for my arm, but I dodged just in time. I pushed the button and something in the back made a loud crash. I looked over my shoulder a bit sheepishly. "Well, that didn't sound very good… How about this one?" The second button turned on the radio to fusion jazz.
Robotnik listened to jazz. Okay, why not? But I certainly didn't. I fiddled with a knob changing the station to some good old punk rock. "Much better."
"I said, don't touch my robot, you filthy animal!" Robotnik made some noise behind me and I chanced a quick glance back. He was loosely holding a blaster in one hand.
Well, kriff. That was a problem.
At the same time, Sonia's voice crackled onto the com, "Manic! Have you got this thing under control yet?"
"Working on it," I said.
"Don't move, hedgehog." said Robotnik, his voice low and dangerous. I heard him cock his blaster and felt the sweat drip down my forehead. Don't lose your cool now, Manic.
I could hear Sonia stiffen. "Did I just hear-"
"A fly? Why, yes!" I continued to fiddle with the levers and knobs of the control panel, and had to repress my steadily growing panic as the rejection screen kept popping up over and over again. "I have an insignificant fly up here with me and it is extremely annoying! However did you guess?"
"Not a fly, moron! Robotnik!"
"Who's Robotnik? The only thing here besides me is this insignificant fly."
I heard a choking sound from behind me, but I ignored it. Sonia yelled something at Amy that sounded a lot like, "He's finally lost his mind," but I ignored that too. Suddenly, a small explosion landed to the side of me, barely missing my foot.
"I told you, step away from the keyboard, rodent!" Robotnik shouted. "The next shot will be to kill!"
Scrap, scrap, scrap, scrap, scrap… Okay. First thing's first, get that stupid blaster away from him.
I jumped to my feet and purposely fell backwards, landing on top of Robotnik's stomach, which felt kind of like a big, mean marshmallow. As I scrambled to my feet, I quickly grabbed his blaster and pointed it at his face.
"Sorry, insignificant fly, but you've distracted me for way too long. Sayonara, sucker!"
Shaking, I pulled the trigger and was knocked back for real this time by the recoil, skidding to the ground and banging against the metal console. When I gathered enough nerve to look up, I saw that I had missed, leaving nothing but a scorched and smoking patch on the wall behind Robotnik.
"Well, I'll be! That gosh darn insignificant fly got away! Well, try, try again!" I clumsily reloaded the blaster and shot again; I think I almost got him that time.
I took the opportunity to stand up and enter a few more ridiculous commands into the system, only for the rejection screen to pop up once more. Okay, so the button mashing wasn't working. Time to go old school.
"Hey, Tails?" I called on the com, bending down to pry the metal panel off the bottom of the console. "Is hotwiring a robot anything like hotwiring a car?"
"Um… I've never actually hotwired anything, but I assume the process is similar-"
"Awesome. That's all I needed to hear." I shot behind me again, unsure of what I hit (but whatever it was, it sure made a loud noise).
"Woah, wait a minute, you're not-"
I cut him off before he had a chance to finish. After all, it had been a while since I last hotwired a car and I needed to concentrate- which, I realized would be pretty difficult to do, seeing as Robotnik was still here. I wished Sonia had come with me; she was way better with a gun.
"Don't you dare touch a single one of those wires, rodent!" Robotnik bellowed, swooping down to grab back the blaster. I fumbled it in my hand and almost dropped it, but managed to pull back on the trigger just as Robotnik grabbed hold of it. A laser blast shot him square in the chest, slamming him unconscious against the wall. Weird… the settings said that it was only set to 'stun'. Just how powerful were these things?
That gave me an idea. I took a step back and reloaded the blaster, aiming point-blank for the inside of the console. I readied myself to fire, but just before my finger pressed down on the trigger, I stopped; there was something pulsing, glimmering in the back of the console. My curiosity got the better of me- whatever was back there, it was probably really important.
I stretched my right arm through the panel, grasping for the shiny thing. Dozens of wires streamed through into it, leading my fingers to my prize. Almost without thinking, I grabbed hold of the shiny thing; it felt almost like… a jewel.
Suddenly, I felt an excruciating pain that felt like it was creeping up past my wrist to my forearm, and I had no time to repress my scream. The jewel clattered out of my hand and onto the floor, still pulsing from its time as a battery.
What the heck was wrong with me? The only times my hand had hurt before was when I was reading people, and even then it had never felt this bad. And it wasn't like the burn ointment Sonia had given me was doing any good.
Whatever. I had a mission to complete. I picked the blaster with my left hand this time and clumsily fired point-blank into the console, grinning at the sparking wires that looked ready to ignite.
"Hey guys!" I said into the com, "You should be on the safe side and look for cover, I think this thing might explode or something. I dunno. I didn't exactly get this down to a science."
I heard a grunting noise from behind me; Robotnik was waking up, mumbling something about sprocket wrenches. "What in the…" he muttered groggily, rubbing his forehead. He jerked awake at the sight of the quickly burning control panel. "H-hedgehog! This… this is all your fault!"
I figured that now was as good a time as any to run for the hills. Shoving the jewel into my vest, darted over to my first entrance before Robotnik could get at me. "S'long, insignificant fly! Have fun burning in Hades!" I called as I shimmied back up the hatch of shattered glass. I could hear pops of small explosions following behind me and decided to hurry, suppressing my wince as I accidentally slashed my right calf on one of the stray shards. Man up, Maniac!
I leapt out of the bot and skidded down the side, tearing the sleeve of my flannel shirt and praying I wouldn't fall and kill myself. Behind me, the robot was malfunctioning just the way I hoped it would; sparks were flying and the way the bot was moving reminded me of a drunk hobo wandering into traffic. The bot's headlights flickered and went out just before the whole thing came crashing down. I sprinted over to Team Sonic, who were still busy getting rid of the last few badniks.
"Manic!" called Sonia, grinning in relief when she saw me. "Oh, thank Chaos… I thought that… nevermind. Where's Robotnik?"
"Still inside the bot," I answered, leaning down to catch my breath. "Hopefully, he'll have died in the wreckage, the lousy son of a-"
I spoke too soon. Just as I was about to unleash a choice string of curse words, a pod erupted from a hatch on the side of the Egg Beater, shooting off into the sky. Of course he had an escape plan. He was too frikkin' smart not to, wasn't he? And just in time, too; the hatch he escaped from burst into flames only minutes after he went flying.
"There he goes!" shouted Knuckles, running forward, his fist clenched. "General, we have to-"
"No, Knuckles. Another day, perhaps," Towers said gloomily.
"But General-"
"Knuckles, after an attack of that magnitude, GUN has neither the time nor resources to go on a wild goose chase after a mad man!" he snapped. "My soldiers are exhausted and what remains of our weapons arsenal can only dream of matching Robotnik's. Now that he has fled the scene, our number one priority is reconstruction of the facility. Have I made myself clear?"
Knuckles seemed like he wanted to keep arguing, but kept his mouth shut, looking like he was swallowing a lemon. I thought I heard him grumble something vulgar under his breath, but otherwise, he didn't say a word.
I looked back over to the blazing remains of the Egg Beater; a squadron of GUN firefighters had doused the bot with flame retardant, leaving a trail of ink-black smoke spiraling into the sky.
XXX
An hour later, I was stuck in the GUN infirmary, getting the gash in my leg checked out. I'd need a couple of stitches, but other than that I'd be okay. Wish I could say better for the rest of the team; Amy had fractured her wrist pretty badly, and Rouge had gotten some serious-looking burns from a badnik's missile; Tails had a minor concussion, and Sonia looked like she had dislocated her shoulder. Knuckles was the only one who seemed mostly unscathed, but he's always been a pretty tough dude. He can handle situations like this just fine, even when the team's two heavy hitters were both out of the picture.
I was just thanking my lucky stars that I'd made it out of this funhouse of death without more scars. Unlike these guys, I still didn't consider myself much of a hero. I mean, these guys did this for a living. I was just some dumb kid who was good at getting in and out of trouble.
I felt something in my pocket and suddenly remembered what I had in there. As quickly as possible, I tore off my my vest, throwing it to the ground. "I am never touching that thing again."
"Your vest?" Sonia frowned, picking the tattered red thing up. "But you love this thing!"
"Not the vest, the thing inside the vest."
Sonia frowned and dug through the pockets before pulling out the red jewel. "What the-"
"You found a Chaos Emerald?" Knuckles almost sounded impressed. "How did you- Where was it?"
"Inside the robot. It was acting as the battery for the whole thing. Makes sense now why it was so hard to take down from the outside," I stretched my arms out and let out a large yawn. "Well, I dunno about you doofuses, but I'm gonna take a nap. I'm bushed." I got to my feet and began to walk out of the room when someone grabbed my still stinging arm; I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. I whipped around to face the General, staring at me with his bi-colored eyes. It felt like he was peering into my soul, the way he was looking at me.
"Not so fast, Manic. We still need to go over the file for this incident, and I have several other debriefings I need you present for-"
I yanked my arm away, glaring fiercely at him. "Later, man."
"The debriefing is now?"
"Look dude, I dunno if you can tell," I started, feeling my temper beginning to rise, "but I ain't exactly in the best mood right now. And I ain't one of your agents, either, so don't think you can go ordering me around, capishe?"
The General pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "At least tell us what happened in the robot."
"Later."
Sonia stepped forward, "Manic, come on. It'll only take-"
I whirled around and glared at her, gritting my teeth, "I said no!"
She took a slight step back, her eyes wide with surprise.
I took a deep breath and forced a weak smile; What was the matter with me? "Sorry, I… I'm just tired. Bad night's sleep and long winded battles don't mix well. I'll tell you what happened after I get some sleep, 'kay?"
The General looked over at Sonia who nodded a few times, "Okay… I hope you feel better."
I smiled and gave a little wave before walking out of the room. I found an empty room before I allowed myself to relax.
And by relax, I meant finally acknowledging the excruciating pain in my right arm. I dropped to my knees and grabbed my wrist; It felt like it had been stung by a scorpion and set on fire at the same time, and the pain seemed to be spreading upward. This burn was not normal, that much was obvious, but seriously? I had touched that stupid gem like two months ago. You'd think that the pain would have faded by now, not gotten worse.
I began to gently pull my right glove. Maybe I just need some stronger burn crea-
I froze and stared at my skin for a second before pulling the rest of the glove off. I could feel the sweat dripping down my forehead; this was bad. This was really bad. I reached up and unbuttoned the flannel I had been wearing, pulling it off to expose my injured arm.
... Holy Chaos.
My hand had turned from its regular peach hue to this dulled gray color, reaching up past my wrist and to my forearm. The color got healthier as you traveled up my arm, with my elbow and upper arm looking the same as they always did
My fingers and veins were black. Like I had taken a black sharpie and drawn over them. As you traveled upward they turned more gray then back to normal by the time it reached my shoulder.
Another flare of pain shot up my arm and I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out. I was no doctor, but I could tell that this wasn't okay. I knew what an infection looked like and figured that this was something like that, but it felt… wrong. Different.
I had to tell Sonia.
"Woah, hang on a second, genius; we're in the middle of a war zone, if you haven't forgotten! You really think that's a good idea? Sonia's got her own issues!"
I paused. Sonia was already stretched thin emotionally. I could tell that from standing next to her for two seconds. The last thing she needed was my problems to deal with on top of her own. Maybe I could tell Tails...
"Oh yeah, sure, go info dump the kid you just met and who was your brother's adopted brother, that's not weird at all. Go right ahead. I'm sure this'll end just peachy."
...Or not. No, I'd figure this out myself. This was my fault and my problem. Maybe it was time I listened to Sonia and took some responsibility for myself. I pulled back on my gloves and shirt, trying my best to ignore the sting. Whatever was wrong with me… I could handle it.
I had no other choice.
Well… that happened.
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