A/N Hey here's another chapter. Hope everyone liked last chapter but ya that happened. Question is where will they go now? Also the idea for the railgun is a mostly from from Jhins sniper rifle in league of legends. The three parts making one the fact that I'm pretty sure it's a railgun and all that. So that's where it came from.
The group of Mobians had found a suitable place to rest for the night. None of them knew if Eggman was aware of their escape or believed they'd perished in the explosion. Either nobody wanted to take too big of a chance. The car had a packed in tarp that was made to resemble a grey rock when covered over the vehicle.
Sitting on some semi comfortable ground the only light they could afford to have without risking being seen in the night was Blaze creating a small blaze in her palm.
When their heart rates went down after the escape they all realized how screwed they were. Nobody had talked about it yet, like they wanted to pretend it didn't happen.
Fiona looked around the group. First was Tails to her right. He had been the quietest, had said literally nothing since the explosion. It was pretty obvious why. Kid had suffered a lot in his life. Lost his family when he was young, got them back only to have them die again from the same man who separated him from his folks. Now his second chance at a mom was gone as well. Only made it worse that his home for the last few years was also completely obliterated.
She knew he was more than likely hanging on by a thread, either he'd drop into such a deep depression he refuses to try and stop Eggman anymore, or worse. It was also possible his rage would flare up again even worse than before.
Only time would tell, perhaps she could help him in time.
Everyone else was better, by a small margin. Shadow hid his emotions well like always, his silence could mean many things.
Scourge had been the most talkative, he told a story in a strange attempt to lighten the mood, nobody really listened besides Nicole and Silver.
Nicole had stayed near Scourge since the escape, apparently after he ran back for her he had gone to his limit to not die and suffered his new injuries for it, most prominently was the near miss on his arm. Nicole had tended to that wound as soon as she could with the medkit in the car. He had grabbed her and waited for an opening, which came in the form of all the eggbots heading for the garage. He and Nicole used the elevator to the surface and narrowly escaped the blast.
Fiona was glad to hear that Nicole held no hard feelings about being forgotten; she understood it was a high stress time and survival was on everyone's mind. She was just glad that Scourge hadn't forgotten her.
She sat next to Scourge who was had no problem with it. She could swear Scourge was smiling more. Sadly everyone realized they had no extra power rings anymore so soon Nicole would have to stay in her PDA or at most just have her head projected. She guessed she and Scourge were savoring the time she was able to keep her full projection. Her past experience with Scourge made her wary of where that was going though, she'd keep an eye on them.
Lastly was Silver and Blaze. Blaze stayed by Silver side still as he continued to recover. He had complained that his butt was sore from driving but that complaint was ignored. Silver had tried to bring the cats spirits up with a few conversation starters but none really worked so he gave up.
As for Fiona she knew they were fucked unless they found a new place they could reliably hold up in soon. She was curious about what Tails had brought, nobody asked about it yet.
"So…. What's in the bag?"
Her voice snapped everyone from their long silence all wanting to know as well.
The younger fox sighed heavily but unzipped the bag "Everything I need to make that rail gun I mentioned, also that power core I put in the generator. I was….. I was hoping to use it to power mom when we found a new place that could handle her…." A tear was in his eye as he explained.
"So what's it gonna be for now?" Silver asked frowning at the mention of his mom again, he could relate to him as he too had lost his mom. The difference was he never got to see her.
He sighed sadly again "I guess it could power any place we can find, it's a powerful self recharging power cell, it could power just about anything almost indefinitely" he gingerly put it back in the backpack not wanting to damage it.
Shadow finally spoke "So all we need it a new base and that can solve our power problems? Seems simple"
Silver turned to Shadow "Hey know of any nearby GUN instillations that could still be intact?"
He shook his head, he had only small encounters with GUN, they had employed him but he was a freelancer to them on only a small amount of operations, never a true employee.
Silvers eyes drooped again with that option gone.
They couldn't recall or think of any plans until Fiona got a crazy idea "Why not head back to Mobotropolis and bring what's left of Freedom HQ back online one last time?"
Silvers eyes lit up "That sounds like a great idea!" he'd always wanted to visit the famed Freedom HQ as a kid.
"The city is overrun, and who's to say the power in the building even works?" Shadow was already skeptical.
"Actually we installed a separate generator for it. Unless it was destroyed we could get it working" Nicole explained.
"That still doesn't answer my problem with the city being overrun. Even if we cleared out the entire city somehow Eggman wouldn't take to kindly to it and take us out again"
He doesn't have to know we're there, if we can get inside the building unseen we could use special exits to get in and out from then on out. Some lead to the outskirts of the city" Nicole had the most knowledge of the building seeing as she was the only one left who'd been there until Eggman attacked and kidnapped her.
The possibility of actually using the HQ as their new base of operations hyped up Silver even more "Ok we can take a vote, we can atleast scope it out right?" he raised his hand looking around.
Fiona raised her hand, she thought of it and it seemed to be the only real option right now. Nicole was next to raise her hand, she wanted to see what happened to her home. That meant they needed one more vote.
Scourge and Blaze also agreed. Silver was right, taking a look couldn't hurt and it was the only idea that had been sent out.
Shadow sighed "Alright fine we'll check it out, I really hope this works out"
Fiona had been hoping Tails would want to go as well, he still wasn't feeling better. Not even the possibility of seeing how the HQ had aged since he last checked it out made him react. She wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't even heard the conversation.
The decision was made and the group began to slowly drift to sleep. Shadow quickly entered sleep first. Nicoles power ring finally died so now was restricted to her PDA. Scourge kept it close though. Blaze slept nearby to Silver though gave him his space. Fiona kept an eye on Tails until she was sure he was asleep and was last to rest.
The next day…
Now with a plan, everyone awake and enough gas to last them a few days they headed out to Mobotropolis.
Fiona once again drove but Tails and Blaze switched spots from the day before so he was in front. Shadow and Scourge ran just ahead of them and Nicole rested safely strapped to Scourges jacket.
During the drive Fiona looked to Tails once in awhile, she wanted to say something to him but he seemed to disinterested in everything she doubted he'd hear her. It was only harder to accept the silence since Blaze and Silver were able to talk quietly to one another with ease.
Thinking of something she hoped he'd hear her "So, I think if anyone can get HQ back up and running you can, right?"
He shrugged in a disinterested fashion not even glancing her way.
"I mean, you brought that power core with ya, if we need we can use that right?"
"Maybe…. I don't know"
Good he spoke. She sighed glad for that "I know you'll get it going, you got those magic fingers"
He just shrugged looking out to the wasteland on his side. He was silent for a long time his eyes glazed over staring into the dead plains. Fiona would look to him every so often and would be glad to see he still had his seatbelt on.
"What are we doing?" the younger fox sighed.
"Heading back to-"
"No I mean why, what's the point?" a very small hint of anger in his voice.
"We can't give up Tails, we've gone too far to give up, we have no other choice but to keep going if we don't everyone dies"
"Species come and go, extinction ends species and others rise afterwards, maybe this is our extinction event"
"Don't you dare say stuff like that Tails, don't try to justify your reasons through science. If we give up that's like saying we don't deserve to live on"
Tails growled back "What would we even do if we won by some massive miracle? There's nothing left to rebuild, it's all gone, even the plants"
"You know that's wrong, there has to be plants of some kind. Like you said we would have run out of air by now"
Tails only got more frustrated as Fiona continued to counter his points. It worried her that he'd lost his will to fight, but she could see why. She couldn't relate to his feelings though, she only had the vaguest of memories of her folks, no true memories.
"Tails…. I know it's hard and I wish I had something like I know how your feel or that things will get better, but I can't….. But what I can say is that giving up on a possible good future might be the worst thing any of us can do, especially when giving up means the end. No matter how hopeless it may seem it's worth fighting for a low chance at something than a guarantee of nothing" she hoped what she was saying made sense and was helping.
Behind her Silver and Blaze had quieted down to hear what they were saying and see how it all ended up.
They all had to wait though as Tails stayed quiet, either he ignored her or was thinking about it. His glazed eyes made it hard to tell.
Soon his ear twitched and his head slowly turned to Fiona "You're sounding awfully like Sally"
She wasn't sure if that was him trying to deflect the question or was trying to make her smile. All it really did was make her remember the chipmunk was dead along with everyone else. They hadn't been the best of friends, especially when she defected to Scourge, but did she hate her? No.
"Well…. Somebody's got to make speeches and look pretty" with that she took her guess on which direction he was heading.
"We don't need words, we need Eggmans head on a pike!" he snarled. She must have guessed wrong.
His outburst was quite violent for the kitsune, enough o make Fiona reconsider her reply twice "…. And that's where you shine Tails. Not only have you done amazing things befre Eggman took over but since we started this adventure you've been invaluable to the team. We're all right behind you and ready to go into fire with you. Because we believe in you. Losing you means leaving us all to die, or lose hope ourselves"
As she finished Blazes voice came up from behind them "She's right, I can't speak for Scourge or Shadow but I know Silver and Nicole see you as a leader. We need you or we'll never be able to defeat Eggman" Silver didn't protest to her speaking for him so he probably felt that way.
Tails just huffed "I don't know why, I wasn't the leader. I've never been in charge. I always followed Sonic and when I wasn't I was following someone else or giving ideas when they asked me. After that I stayed alone, I led nobody and followed nobody. Why do you believe I'm the leader of this group? Shadow would do better than me"
Blaze sighed but continued to try "Yes he could, I could be in charge, even Scourge has leadership qualities…. That atleast need some heavy refinement. But you have made the plans, you have chosen what we do, and it has been you who has directly led us during the missions. You have been the leader since we started can't you see?"
Tails just sighed looking out to the waste again and looked like he wasn't gonna talk again any time soon. The two females took that as a sign to leave him be and let him think for the rest of the ride. Blaze and Silver got back to their old conversation and Fiona focused on driving.
Had they not needed the car they could have reached mobotropolis in less than an hour, but like yesterday Silver wasn't ready to use his powers so they still needed it, besides that it was the only thing left from Tails' base. At the very least it could be turned into other stuff if needed.
When they did arrive it was late in the afternoon and the sun was starting to set, maybe two hours left before darkness enveloped the city.
The car had a tarp inside that was the same grey as the ash covered waste. If anything flew by it would look like just a rock.
Sadly the shadows couldn't hide what had happened to it. Many buildings stood, it had only been two years. The fighting that took place after Eggmans initial attack did more to the city then the last two years. A few structures in specific had fallen, one was even leaning into the side of another keeping it just barely standing.
It was the old palace that caught their eyes the most. Unlike last time most saw it, the palace had lost the special glow it always had. The structure was damaged all around and chunks of roof were missing. The gem of the city was now simply another depressing husk in a run down city that used to be a shining symbol of hope.
None of those structured mattered right now, they weighed on all of their hearts but were important besides one specific building. Freedom HQ.
Shadow stared out at the city and ducked down a bit behind their cover suddenly "The city is being patrolled I saw some Eggbots"
"Well of course there's more of those things, this couldn't possibly be easy right?" Scourge groaned.
Blaze hummed in thought "It seems to dangerous to all go at once with light still in the sky. Plus we have no reassurance the place is usable"
Everyone knew where she was going as they looked to Tails. He was the only one who would know if the place could be restored or not next to Nicole, but without a power ring she wasn't gonna be able to even see anything.
Tails sighed obviously still not wanting to stay out of all this "I doubt it will work at all, last time I was in there the place had been ransacked, it's been two years since then"
"Whatever is wrong with it, you can fix it, and if not you then Nicole can help as well. You said that power core you have is self-renewing and could power your base if we needed it to, we don't need all of HQ to be running just necessities. I know you could get it to all work" Fiona pleaded to him.
Everyone else looked to the fox and the overwhelming amount of eyes pretty much forced him to do as they said.
He sighed angrily "Fine… I'll look"
With that the younger fox disappeared and headed for the city. Hopefully he could get inside and look at the state of the HQ before it got dark. That way he could open one of the secret tunnels from the inside while Nicole directed everyone to it with some light still in the sky.
Sadly all they could do was wait now, nobody felt safe nearby the occupied city.
They kept a look out during this time, Shadow volunteered; his dark colours and keen senses made him the best choice.
"So pipsqueak doesn't seem like his normal self?" Scourge suddenly spoke.
Everyone was surprised he was first to speak but Fiona replied first "Of course he isn't, he lost his mom"
Scourge looked like he had something else to say to that but stopped himself. With a brief moment he thought of something else "Ya well he better do his job is all I'm saying" he leaned back on his elbows.
"We must believe in him and support him. In times of great hardship friends and encouragement is what any needs" Blaze said confidently, she sat with a straight back and cross legged.
Silver agreed with the cat "He knows we're his friends right?"
Fiona just sighed and looked away "I can't say for sure"
"And why not? You seem to be the closest to him?" Scourge asked.
Fiona looked away and tried to think of a good comeback to that, they didn't need to know about what Rosemary had said or what she read in his journal.
"I was first to find him, so I guess he just finds it easier to talk to me" she shrugged.
"You betrayed him, of all of us you'd be the last person he'd care to speak to, next to Scourge" Silver inquired, he was glad to see Scourge was unfazed by his comment.
He's different than he was before, maybe that's got to do with it?" she continued to dodge the real answer.
Blaze had to agree with this though and nodded "Tails has experienced things no child should experience. He has experienced, war and loss at a young impressionable age. Anyone would be changed from all that. Whatever is making him speak to Fiona the most I can't say, but thankfully it's talking and not violence anymore"
"I can agree with that, I'd much rather have my head on my neck" Fiona chuckled.
Blazes comment was enough to keep off any other questions for now.
As the sun went down Scourge looked to Nicoles PDA and began typing having a small conversation with her. For awhile that was all they other three heard until Silver decided to ask a dangerous question.
"So what you and your girlfriend talking about?" the two girls could tell he was joking but wondered if he would.
Scourges eyes drifted to the white hedgehog slowly before growling "She's not my girlfriend"
Silver chuckled now nervous and scratched his head "I didn't mean it seriously, but what's going on with her?"
"She wants to know what's going on so I'm explaining" he said hitting more keys at a surprisingly fast rate.
"Alright good, let her know we're all waiting and we hope to see her in her body again" Silver smiled kindly.
Scourge didn't respond but he continued to type, then pause for her response then type again. Blaze and Fiona shot quick glances to one another, it looked like they were thinking the same thing. Scourge definitely was saying more than what Silver requested.
So Fiona thought getting out a kind of probing question "So now that Nicole actually can't hear us, tell me. You probably don't like Nicole pestering you so much right?"
Scourge looked up past his glasses and took a good moment to think of his answer "You know I like people paying attention to me"
The fox smirked hearing that dodge "No but it's different, she talks to you and seems to enjoy being around you?"
"I'd like to be around myself too"
Stubborn hedgehog "Come on, you didn't even let me annoy you that much"
"Who said she was annoying me?" he looked up questioningly.
Fiona just smirked more, got him.
"So you do enjoy her being around?" her tail flicked as she said this.
"Ya and what of it?"
"Just not used to you finding someone company so nice, especially when most of the time she's doing the talking and taking care of you when you were hurt" she recounted her observations.
"So you're saying it's wrong to like having a servant?" he raised an eyebrow.
He was lucky that Nicole couldn't hear when like this unless she projected her head. Because it made Fiona growl.
"If I find out you're using er or hurt her I'll…"
"Don't threaten me, you know I can run circles around you" he threatened back. She had expected him to do this but something about his overly aggressive tone surprised her, he was…. offended?
"That still doesn't answer my question"
Scourge refused to answer "Piss off"
"I'm watching you, she's lost a lot in a short time" she'd have threatened him again but she was sure it was implied enough.
"…. I know" after that he decided to go and take a nap while waiting for Tails to return.
Fiona watched him as he moved away all the way until he layed down and realized it would be best she did the same thing.
With the two asleep and Shadow on watch Blaze looked to Silver "Are you comfortable?"
"Ya, I'm feeling better, I still got those pain meds Rosemary gave me, so at most I'm a little numb and stiff" he shrugged trying his best to not look like a goof.
"That is good to hear, I'm sure your med supply will last until the pain is manageable" the cat smiled. Then she paused.
"I know it may seem very far away and may not feel like it's worth your time to think about this, but, what do you plan to do when this is all over?" Blaze asked, she kept quiet so nobody else would hear.
He shrugged yet again "I thought I'd just stick with Shadow I guess. Maybe go find all the people from our town and get together again"
"That sounds like a reasonable goal, what if Shadow prefers to go back to solitude?"
The idea made Silver frown and look down, he even had a small air of worry now that she mentioned it "He wouldn't do that, we're partners… we're friends…. Right?" he suddenly started to doubt if Shadow actually cared for him, he'd probably never thought of this possibility.
"I'm sure he considers you a friend, he considered most of us friends. Especially Rouge and Omega, yet he still kept to himself most of the time" Blaze explained "But when we saw him he was always there for a reason, I believe once or twice he came to see us more than for an important reason. Not to mention, he never had a mentor before, you are something to him nobody else has been before. I'm sure he'd make a exception" her smile was warm and encouraging.
Silver smiled back glad to hear what she had to say "Maybe… I hope so"
They were quiet and Blaze spoke once more "Perhaps when this is all over, I could show you my home?"
The white hedgehog looked at her surprised "You'd do that? I'd have thought you'd lean more on the side of people staying in their respective universes?"
Blaze actually chuckled "Well I do, but there's nothing wrong with visiting with good intentions"
"I guess that makes sense" he smiled "Maybe, maybe I can meet that Marine girl you mentioned?"
"Of course" the cat smiled "She enjoys meeting new people, but I warn you is…. Talkative"
"No problem, I knew a kid or two who had a problem being quiet back at the orphanage"
Blaze nodded to this but frowned "But we will have to make it through all this first"
Silver nodded frowning, he knew that would take a lot of effort and time before that would all be possible. Sorry thinking about that wouldn't really worth their time.
"Blaze…. I feel terrible that we had to leave Rosemary behind… I've…. Never had to do something like that before" he was inexperienced, he wasn't afraid to admit that. He'd seen a lot of action but never had he been in a situation where there was no choise but to leave someone behind. He felt wrong doing it, but knew Rosemary wanted them to run and survive. He didn't even know Rosemary that well and now he felt guilty, had he been at full strength things could have been different.
"It was very unfortunate we had to leave her, but the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. Rosemary knew this and made sure to save all of us. It wasn't your fault"
"Yes it was! I was hurt, I'm one of the strongest on the team; imagine if I could have fought. I could have stalled for more time, destroyed more eggbots, things could have gone so much better" he threw his face into his hands.
"It wasn't your fault Silver, nobody could have predicted that happening, and even if we successfully defended the place he'd know where we are anyway and we'd face another attack" Blaze watched as Silver slowly revealed his face again.
"Tht doesn't make me feel any better" he sighed.
"Well for now just rest, you'll need your strength if anything bad happens" the cat said quietly.
He hated that he had to rest so much, felt like being the orphanage again and needing to stay in bed for days when sick. Not to mention that disgusting medicine.
He was about to lay back when Blaze gently pulled him close. He leaned as far as he could until he couldn't balance anymore and slowly began to lay on his back. He soon found his head in her lap and looking up at the cat who began petting his quills.
"Uhh…. Blaze?" he asked.
"Just be quiet an rest" she said somewhat sternly.
"Yes ma'am" he blushed hard adjusted a bit to get comfortable and closed is eyes. He still felt her petting his head until sleep caught up to him.
Shadow had quickly comeback to check on everyone and saw the scene and a smile crept up his muzzle. He soon left to continue keeping a watch.
Elsewhere…
Slowly walking through the now ruined city Tails could only be reminded how doomed they were with each step. He remembered years ago walking these streets and people were everywhere. They'd be going through their daily lives completely unaware of the coming apocalypse. He had walked down thee streets thinking the same thing, it never crossed his mind something so catastrophic could happen.
Even with all the destruction the way to HQ was still the same, by simple muscle memory alone he could find his way back to his former home without even looking.
That was exactly what he was doing…
Ever since he walked away from the group his mind had been somewhere else. All his mind could think about was his mom and dad. Both were now permanently gone, and he'd never get them back now matter how much he tried.
He hated Eggman t his very core now, but he resented the Mobians he called friends. Why couldn't thy leave him alone? He and his mom had been fine and safe until they all came together…. Now she was gone.
All of it was gone, the last remnants of his life were now gone. Now they just wanted to move on and find a new play to get destroyed.
Their goal was impossible, why fight for a lost cause? He had been contemplating just leaving, find a moment to escape from these people who had to come around and ruin his life. Leave them behind and watch as they all died in their useless task.
What could they do for this world anyway if they miraculously won? How could things go back to normal after all this? There was nothing to work with, nothing to grow, nothing to rebuild, atleast to him it seemed that way.
Whatever patrols went through the streets hadn't seen him, not surprising as his cloak was constantly on. None of them would know he was here unless he bumped into them.
Soon he was in front of his old home and looked around the building. From what he could tell the last two years had been fairly kind to it. The walls held together and after flying up top he found the roof was in good order. There didn't seem to be any patrols nearby so they could possibly stay here if they kept a low profile.
What truly got his attention was at the back of the building. A large hole had been blasted out. He could tell it was explosives and not just the wall falling apart. Not only was the entire rest of the building looking fine, but there were the obvious scorch marks.
Remembering back to when he came here for supplies and to possibly find anyone alive he couldn't remember that hole being there. Something happened here after he left.
Investigating further he walked through the hole. The hole was large and led to two rooms, despite the blast he could tell which ones. One was simply a hallway and the other was a bedroom. Down the hall would be a few others but they were spared from the blast. The room he was looking at was Sonics room.
Nothing had really survived. Among the few things he could even recognize was a burned bed, destroyed desk and a old book that was previously on the desk.
The fox continued on his way ignoring the memories of the past. He didn't bother looking through the rest of the bedrooms either.
He navigated further, careful of any traps or eggbots that might be hiding inside. Everything looked a lot like the last time he'd been here, except for extra cobwebs.
Eventually though he made it to the control room and sat in the decaying chair. He tapped at a few keys and found the place was out of power, like he suspected. He bent over to begin installing his power core when he noticed something.
A large wire ran from under the console and into another room.
That definitely hadn't been there before so he slowly followed it.
As he entered the next room he found yet another new addition. Inside the wires he followed led to a Mobian sized hamster wheel made of metal.
"Who made this?" he spoke to himself, it felt oddly familiar.
He looked around and found a small desk with a blueprint on it. The large paper had several small tears on the edges and looked crumpled, two small rocks kept it from rolling back up.
Tails took off his helmet and then blew away the dust, coughing as it sprayed in his face a bit. When the dust cleared his was shocked at what he saw.
Looking over the blueprint the memories around it came flooding back, it had been one of the first ideas he'd ever come up with. The hamster wheel had been an idea he thought of for any possible power problems. Someone could run in the wheel and generate power. It was so primitive because his mind hadn't figured out just how much his potential truly could be. So it worked off a simple generator that was hooked up to the wheel like a turbine of sorts. Then it had a storage kind of battery that could store energy for use so constantly running wasn't needed.
"All of this wasn't here before?" he spoke to himself confused. Someone had been here after he left with Nicoles PDA. Could they have made that huge hole? If so where were they?
The thought made Tails put his helmet back on and cloak immediately, he could be in serious danger. He was no fully aware of all of his surroundings and activated a local scan with his suits systems. His suit fired out a low resonating echo hoping to find who it might be.
He got a few pings from the echoes bouncing back but with investigation it was just random objects that could deflect the sound.
With the place apparently cleared he went back to the wheel and got on. He began to run as fast he could and within five minutes he felt he had enough power for what he needed.
He went back to the control computer and was able to bring it online, he didn't bother brining anything else on so as not to waste energy.
He quickly went to see when the computer had last been used and it had been nearly a year and a half.
Tails sighed, whoever had been here definitely hadn't been here in a long time.
Tapping away at the keyboard he brought door controls online and looked at the new passages ways using the map built into the computer. He was surprised by how much had been changed since he left, atleast ten tunnels that led under the city that either branched into more tunnels or led directly to the outside of the city. All of them eventually reached the surface in hard to find places.
He quickly figured out where his friends were and opened a single door. He downloaded the map into his suit incase he forgot which way to go and turned everything off to save power.
He waslked through the old halls and wondered who could have possibly been here. Who could built his wheel and where did they go?
It was enough of a mystery to make him ignore the decaying building, and more importantly, kept him from remembering.
Once he reached the entrance to the tunnel system he checked the map and headed where he needed to go. Halfway to the exit he called Fiona.
"Hey…. Anyone there?" he said annoyed, they were waiting for him and then didn't answer?
After a small wait he could hear faint snoring and sighed and took a breath "HEY WAKE UP!"
"GAH!?... what…. Huh?"
"It's me Tails. And hey don't fall asleep when you're waiting for me" he growled, it vibrated off the walls of the old tunnel.
"Oh… sorry, must have slept longer than I wanted to, so what's going on, you ok?" she sounded concerned despite the rude tone Tails gave.
"Found a way in, there's been some new additions to the headquarters, someone was here sometime after I visited until about a year and a half ago. Whoever it was they left behind a way to keep the base semi powered as long as we pay attention" Tails explained.
"Any idea where this person may have gone?"
"Don't know don't care, I'll take what I can get" he rolled his eyes.
Fiona was silent at his cold reply so he continued.
"Anyway I opened up one of the exits Nicole mentioned, I'm almost to the exit, head south-ish, I'll see you guys and lead to the tunnel"
"Alright, I'll tell everyone, see ya soon"
He just grunted and continued on his way seeing light ahead. No need to cover his eyes from the glare, his helmets lenses adjusted to compensate.
Finally outside again the wind caught his tail and shoulder cape a little. His ears twitched from the dry air and he looked around for his friends. When he didn't see anyone he stayed cloaked and waited, somewhat annoyed.
Even though it took only a few minutes to see them his foot was already tapping impatiently.
He ran over and decloaked "Come on, follow me" he ignored pleasantries or even smiling back.
He led them back and through the tunnels keeping quiet.
Scourge tailed behind and quickly typed to Nicole that they were inside letting her know what was going on.
Fiona just watched Tails wondering if she should speak to him. She looked back and thought it better to speak to him in private.
The only person who spoke up was Silver.
"This is actually kinda exciting, I always wanted to see inside Freedom HQ"
"I doubt it will in pristine condition" Blaze replied. She'd kept an eye on the hedgehog incase his pain got too intense or he fell.
The ivory hedgehog sighed frowning "I know, but maybe I can use my imagination?"
"Perhaps" Blaze smiled at his optimism.
They all entered the HQ soon after and looked around. There was a mix of relief and disappointment among the group. It was nice to have a place they potentially call home but the depressing state the base was in didn't help moral too much.
"This will have to do" Shadow said looking around.
"As soon as Tails has his power cell working we'll have the base partially powered constantly" Fiona smiled. Beside her Tails rolled his eyes, to him it was just more useless work.
Fiona continued "Once that's done we can hook Nicole up to the computer, we don't want the power going out hen she's half in two things"
"Good idea" Scourge nodded typing this out to Nicole.
"As for the rest of us, look around and maybe find anything we can use, Silver, just rest"
"No problem" he sighed sitting in the chair at the computer.
Everyone scattered and Tails got to work connecting his power cell to the power grid.
It didn't take long, it was able to power a decent amount of the base, most importantly would be the console. Besides that everything else was a bonus.
When Scourge came back he plugged Nicole, who appeared on the screen and Scourge smiled "Good to see ya" he said quietly.
The lynx just smiled and pointed at him then put up to fingers. She apparently couldn't speak to him so used sign language.
With her no going through the database and files everyone just started to relax. Tails found his way back to his old workshop. The place had been cleared out, either by his friends when he left or potentially looters. He'd have to do scavenging missions to get useful supplies again. Just more useless work he knew his 'teammates' would make him do.
He heard the door open and close hind him, he didn't turn. He hoped that'd be enough to tell whomever it was to piss off.
Instead he heard he heard a female voice belonging to Fiona "So this is the new place you moved to. Eh?"
"Nothing like my base" he closed his eyes trying to avoid the recent memories.
Fiona frowned behind him and approached "Tails if you need to ta-"
"I'm fine"
"I know you aren't"
"Ya well piss off anyway!" he turned rage in his eyes again. Her slight flinch showed she was afraid.
The door opened again and Scourge said "Hey pipsqueak, Nicole found something, she wants you to see"
The two tailed fox quickly shoved past Fiona and left leaving to sighed sadly and slowly follow.
Back at the console Tails sat at the chair and looked up at the screen where Nicoles avatar stood frowning sadly.
A speech bubble appeared next to her saying.
"First I want to apologize, the speakers seem to be broken so I must speak this way"
She visibly gulped "But…. I found some videos, more specifically video logs. I will ad subtitles so you can understand…. Also, the first videos time stamp is two weeks after the failed attack on Eggmans fortress, so after Tails visited" Her avatar slid off screen and a new screen opened and loaded the videos.
The opening image appeared and every went wide eyed, wide mouthed and completely astounded.
Shadow whispered "Impossible"
On screen sitting in the chair was someone they all thought had died during the attack.
Looking, defeated, sad and bandaged up from two heavy gun shot wounds, one to the leg and another to the lower stomach. The figure slowly lifted his head and revealed tired green eyes.
It was none other than Sonic, he had survived the attack…
Ok so sorry about the long wait. Usual reasons and such, but you can add Dark souls 3 to that list of things distracting me. I've never played a dark souls(or demon souls or bloodborne) before and I decided to finally try and I'm hooked. Anyway besides I was kinda lazy, so ya.
Anyway the story GASP it's Sonic, but how, he died, Shadow said so. But where's he been this whole time. Find out next chapter.
I'd also like to give a shout out to a new reviewer named Reaver17 and his very helpful review, gave m the confidence I needed and the spur to get to work, so thank you.
And as always live long and prosper
Admiralkirk