~2: Robot~
"Thanks for saving my hide back there," Rang thanked after walking for some time with the jackals. "Literally. You know what guys like them do with guys like me."
"You're forgetting that we are guys like them," Anubis interjected through grit teeth. "If things were different, we could've been the ones you needed saving from."
"Yeah, but you said yourselves that you wouldn't turn on me," Rang shrugged. "You've had my back for years, and in return I've given you food, money and shelter."
"Luxuries we are no longer desperate for," Barrett smirked. "Have you seen what we've been earning lately?"
"Barrett's right," smirked Kali as she stepped dangerously close to Rang. "We don't need your pity anymore, tiger."
"I'm not a tiger," Rang corrected. "Besides, if you're all so secure, then there'd be no need for you to accept any jobs involving my capture."
"We might wanna do it for fun," Barrett countered. Rang gave him an odd stare before Striker put his arm around the brown thylacine.
"The look on your face!" the jackal with the scarred-nose laughed. "We're not that bad, dude, you know that."
"Be careful what you say, Striker," Anubis warned. "If we ever get offered an overwhelming amount of treasure then we might just have to sell our friend off." Striker just rolled his eyes in response.
"Geez, Anubis, what's next, will you start accepting jobs demanding our own capture?" he asked. Anubis shrugged his shoulders.
"Perhaps," he answered.
Kali grinned while observing the little squabble which she had just taken part in, but her yellow eyes were then drawn to Zero, who had come to a stop at the edge of a cliff. The female jackal approached him curiously, first meeting his face before following his gaze to what he was staring at below. She expected to see a village or camp site, or something else worthy of raiding, but instead she saw that her leader was staring at a forest.
"The view from here is pleasant," was what he said, not taking his eyes off the lush green trees.
Hearing such words coming from the mouth of her leader only confused Kali. He usually never commented on the environment and had little interest in it, so for him to stop and stare in some sort of awe must have meant he had his mind focused on something else.
"What are you thinking about?" Kali decided to ask him. Zero simply stood with his arms folded and kept his eyes on the forest.
"There's something down there," the squad leader replied calmly. Kali tilted her head and stared, trying to see what Zero had spotted, only then seeing what looked like a silver hedgehog made of metal. It moved swiftly out of sight, and the moment it moved was the moment Zero jumped down from his current position. Nothing would stop him from taking down something he saw as a target.
"Boss!" Kali called out, looking back at her squad and the accompanying thylacine. "Don't just stand there! The boss has gone after something, so we are to follow! Is that clear?!"
"Yes!" the other five jackals answered in unison, jumping from the cliff's edge before Kali and Rang also followed.
…
Blizzard sat alone within the small hideout. He still felt so foolish after what happened. The squad had come so close to capturing that thylacine – so close to gaining a decent sum of money – but once again Jackal Squad swooped in and crashed their victory party.
Nippy zipped over to the Arctic fox, seeing that he was deliberately avoiding any interactions with the other squad members. "You look lonely over here by yourself," he observed. "Aren't you gonna grab your share of food?"
"I don't deserve it," Blizzard responded quietly, turning his head to face further away from the swift fox.
"Oh, come on, Blizz, stop being so hard on yourself!" Nippy pouted. "Nobody here could've taken on Zero. He's just so strong, and he knows all of our moves."
"It shouldn't be that way," Blizzard snapped, clenching his fists. "We can't carry on like this, Nippy. We can't just bow down to Zero whenever he jumps in front of us. We have to get stronger so that we stand a chance against him and his squad. In fact, I think most of us just need the confidence."
"I guess…" Nippy agreed quietly. "It's pretty difficult to be confident when that guy's your enemy, though."
"See? That's what I'm talking about," Blizzard pointed out. "That's exactly how we all think. We all see Zero as a threat, but I think he's better at playing mind games. He knows that we're afraid of him and he plays with that fear."
"Well, at least he won't ever really hurt us too much…" Nippy shrugged. Blizzard frowned and stared into Nippy's light blue eyes.
"How can you be so sure?" he asked quietly, seeing Nippy suddenly lose his optimistic expression. "Jackal Squad is a group of mercenaries, Nippy, and so are we. If someone hired them and commanded them to take us out then of course they'd do it."
"They might do…" Nippy agreed quietly. "But… would we do that to them?" The following silence suggested that Blizzard couldn't say yes to that query, and thus Nippy's optimism returned. "You saw how they saved that thylacine. I bet that guy's a friend of theirs. If they'd save one person like that then I'm sure they'd decline any jobs requiring us being taken out."
"Perhaps," Blizzard admitted in agreement, looking away again. "I hope you're right about that, Nip. I like to think those jackals have some room in their hearts to let us live if given the chance to destroy us, considering we've helped them in the past and practically given them bounty."
"Well, the bounty we "give" to them is usually stolen from us," Nippy laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "But sometimes we take what they see as theirs, too."
"We're no longer evenly matched," Blizzard added. "That's why River's worrying about a food shortage. Twelve mouths to feed is a lot, and without a stable amount of money then we're doomed to run out of supplies. It's not like we can just give up and look for other jobs, either; I'm pretty sure we're wanted dead or alive at this point."
"Not all of us," Nippy corrected.
"Not you, perhaps," Blizzard countered. "You're never hired to do solo tasks. River's been doing jobs like this for years and is an infamous criminal. Crimson, Rock and Thorn are both well-trained assassins, with Mini and Silk being equally as tough as they are. Then, of course, there's me. I've been with River since I was a kit, and I've learned a lot from him."
"Sandy's been part of the squad for a long time, too," Nippy reminded the older fox. "He's not as…"
"Scary?" Blizzard finished for him, laughing quietly in amusement. "No. He was trained to be more like you and the other scouts." The Arctic fox frowned and glanced towards the floor, rubbing his chin. "Perhaps we should've been harsher. That way you little guys would've all become more like us."
"Hey, don't call us little," Nippy pouted. "Anyway, I'm heading back to the others. You should really come join us for some food."
"I'm good," Blizzard responded, sitting down with his arms folded. "I'll grab whatever's left later."
"Suit yourself," Nippy sighed, shrugging his shoulders before leaving the Arctic fox to his own devices.
…
"There!" Barrett called out, pointing in a particular direction ahead of him. "It went that way!" Zero wasted no time and simply bounced from tree to tree, moving as fast as he could. The silver robot was in his line of sight.
"You're mine," he murmured to himself as his eyes squinted, preparing to leap down and apprehend the machine.
The robotic hedgehog was running on foot, with its footsteps almost impossible to hear. Its silent steps were not going to save it, however, as Zero was dangerously close.
Zero pounced and landed on the robots back, easily knocking it down and pinning it on its front, holding it down by its back with one hand and its head with the other. Now he was able to examine it properly, and maybe figure out its purpose. Maybe he'd even find out how much the thing was worth.
"Hey! Paws off the spines, squishy!" the machine exclaimed, squirming in a feeble attempt to free itself. For a robot, it definitely had a lot of personality.
"Move and I'll rip out your wires," Zero threatened through his teeth as the other members of his squad approached.
"Whoa, is that Metal Sonic?" Striker asked, crouching down to look at the machine.
"No," Zero answered, keeping his target down. Now that he had it in his grasp, he could get a better look at it. It did indeed resemble Metal Sonic, with the most notable changes being to the body and the colour. Its ears, while yellow on the inside like Metal's, seemed to have much more articulation so they could move. The eyes of the robot were orange and not red, with the rest of its body being a light silver in colour. The body itself had a gold lightning bolt symbol replacing the chest hole Metal Sonic famously had, and instead of a back engine the robot had actual spines and even an articulated tail. It also wore a brown belt around the waist area where there was likely more articulation, but the most interesting feature was the machine's mouth. No robot built by Eggman, the infamous killer robot builder, had ever before been given a functioning mouth with full articulation, but this one had that. To Zero, that was something which suggested that the robotic hedgehog was new and expensive. He wasn't too knowledgeable when it came to technology, but he knew an advanced machine when he saw one.
"It looks new," the squad leader observed. "It's probably made from expensive materials. We could sell it for parts."
"Wait, what?!" the robot exclaimed. "C'mon, that's so unfair!"
"Aw, it's kinda cute," Striker mused.
"It's a robot," came Null's voice. "May as well start saying your dagger's cute, Striker."
"She is," Striker grinned, admiring his jagged dagger. Null rolled his eyes.
"It has personality," Kali pointed out, eyeing the machine. "It might be worth a lot on its own. Some crazy scientist might want it."
"Or the doctor himself might want it back," Anubis added, repeatedly throwing one of his knives into the air and catching it casually. "You know, the one who's always trying to take over the world?"
"Of course I know who he is," Zero spat. "I doubt he cares much about his machines." He looked towards Blank with his mismatched eyes. "Blank. You know enough about technology. Shut this thing down for me so we can take it back to Rang's."
"Hey, I don't want that thing in my home," Rang interrupted, earning himself a glare from Zero.
"We'll bring what we like back as long as our deal is in place," he corrected. "Unless you no longer want our protection, that is." Rang's ears flopped and he sighed, frowning slightly.
"Fine, just don't let it damage anything," he exhaled.
"Where's the off switch on this thing…?" Blank asked, mainly to himself.
"I don't have one!" the robot grinned smugly. "So you guys can't switch me off! Ha!"
"Blank, how good are you at repairing headless robots?" Zero growled, raising his red sword and preparing to bring it down. The machine beneath him beeped a less-natural sound, trying to shield himself with his arms.
"I'm decent," Blank shrugged, "but this one's pretty different from most other robots. I wouldn't risk damaging it in case it decreases its value; it looks like it hasn't even battled anything yet. It's got no scratches or anything."
Zero growled. "Fine," he mumbled. "Any idea on what we should do with it, then?"
"Consider us lucky," Blank replied, pulling something from the pouch attached to his belt. "I invented this little gadget for Metal Sonic or other robots built by the doctor. It's a collar which disables their combat function, since that in itself is its own programming. I'm sure we can use it on this thing."
"It's worth a shot," Zero told his associate, giving him the all-clear to put the collar on the robot. Blank did just that, and Zero cautiously got to his feet, stepping away from his prey. The hedgehog robot jumped up quickly and grinned.
"Fools!" it laughed. "I told you I was advanced! I don't feel different at all!" He pointed his arms and looked like he was waiting for some kind of arm laser to activate, but nothing happened. "…Um…" Thinking it would be wise to flee, the robot turned and started sprinting, but it was significantly slower. Anubis was the one to grab it, holding it firmly and easily.
"Nice going, Blank," Striker smirked, nodding towards his friend. "This makes it easier for us to deal with this thing without damaging it."
"This is so unfair!" the robot pouted. "I'll tell Eggman about this!"
"It's unfortunate we have no muzzle for it," Zero growled under his breath.
"Eggman is its master," Barrett observed. "At least that's already been confirmed.
"Oh, come on!" the robot snapped, almost embarrassed that it had let information slip so easily.
"It seems that not all wires are connected," Blank mocked. "And we don't need to worry about this thing contacting anything; that collar also disables its signals." The robot groaned in response.
"Let's get going," Kali spoke up. "It's getting dark and no doubt we're all getting hungry."
"I'll lead the way back from here," Rang said. "Follow me." The thylacine started walking and the other jackals followed, with the two lagging behind being Zero and Kali. Zero passed Kali and gave her a passive but unamused glance.
"I give the orders around here, not you," he reminded firmly, but Kali only smirked and walked after him.
"Sorry, boss," she responded sarcastically and playfully. Zero didn't like this attitude and glared at her once again, but he said nothing. Instead he just decided to continue walking.
…
Blizzard lay on his bed, now that night had fallen, but unlike the other foxes he was wide awake and staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. He had indeed eaten some leftovers as he said he would, but he was still hungry. Hunger wasn't what was keeping him awake, though. Instead he was thinking about Jackal Squad. All of his worries were still on his mind, but instead of feeling fear he felt determination and the need to challenge. The only true reason behind his discomfort was the fact that recently Fox Squad had been losing fights with the jackals, so all the foxes had to do was train. Everyone just had to get better at fighting. Everyone needed a boost in confidence.
Despite his worries and his rising urge to get up now and train, Blizzard knew that he needed to sleep to regain his energy. Tomorrow would be a new day.
~End of Chapter~