PART 2 - The black desert
CHAPTER 11 - Reality bytes
"I've gotta admit I'm getting pretty tired of sleeping and passing out" said Tails as Nicole bent down to hand him a hot bowl of soup. He propped himself up on his elbow and leaned over to eat. "It seems like all I do these days"
"Pretty tired eh? Doctor recommends more sleep" Nicole responded with a wry smile, she sat on the concrete floor next to Tails and leaned back on her hands.
"It just makes me feel bad to have you doing everything for me. It's not your fault I'm here. It's my own damn fault! If I hadn't been such a moron, this never would have happened, I never would have gotten into this state in the first place!" said Tails motioning down at his foot which was wrapped in a bandage.
Nicole rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, just think of all the important stuff I could be doing right now if you hadn't showed up. You think you're good at space racers? Try playing it every day for the last seven years."
Tails smiled at her then looked down with an inward frown. "I'm sorry Nicole, you're right, I'm glad I found you. I just feel so useless, I wish I could help out in some way."
Nicole thought for a second. "Well, you know, you've been here two days now and I still don't know why. Maybe you could start there?"
"Oh gosh, The chaos emerald! I almost forgot!"
Nicole cocked her head with a raised eyebrow.
Tails explained "The chaos emerald; it's the reason I'm here. I've been searching for one for the last two years. Finally, after all that time, I had Knuckles follow up a lead and he told me it was here. I didn't want to wait any longer so I left that night, right in the middle of the storm. Pretty stupid huh? I almost died."
"I still can't believe Knuckles is alive too" Mused Nicole happily "Maybe there's others out there we don't even know about!", she looked at Tails hopefully.
Tails frowned and looked away noncommittally "I hope so Nicole... I hope so"
"So why do you need an emerald?" Nicole asked "Why have you been looking for so long?".
"Well I told you about the storm and the plane crash right? But what I haven't told you is that the storm wasn't exactly a surprise and it definitely wasn't a one off thing. Ever since that day seven years ago things have been getting worse and worse on the surface. Storms are getting more frequent and more violent, these days they can last for weeks; crops are failing and people are starving. There's something wrong with the planet... I don't know what it is but It's getting worse."
"That's awful, I had no Idea..." said Nicole, deep concern outlined in her face. Tails nodded solemnly.
"I wasted years trying to fix things but nothing ever worked. Eventually I just gave up. Ironically that was when I realised there was still hope. The emerald is for an escape, a way out. I was studying the warp technology that we had during the wars and I worked out a way to open a portal to another zone. I've already started building some parts of it back on Cocoa Island but the problem is I need a chaos emerald, it's the only thing I've found that has enough power to sustain a gateway."
"Well we have to find it then!" Nicole said forcefully, "Tails, if there's still survivors out there then we may be the only ones who can save them! Are you sure it's here?"
Tails shrugged his shoulders with his palms up. "Honestly, I don't know. Knuckles was pretty certain and he seems to be able to sense emeralds but there's a detector in the Tornado and it didn't detecting anything. Actually, the closer I got to Mobotropolis the more the readings stopped making sense, after a while all I could pick up was random interference."
"Hmm" Nicole thought carefully "That doesn't rule it out. In fact it might just explain something else..." she looked pointedly at tails "The detector you use. I assume it's a standard flux measuring induction device?"
"Yeah that's right" replied Tails.
"Well one thing that can cause interference is strongly ionising radiation..."
"Of course!" Tails face lit up "Maybe the source of radiation that burned me is the same as the location of the emerald, that would hide the chaos energy signal no matter where I was."
"Exactly" said Nicole, excitedly "So if we use a radiation detector we might find our source. Only problem is I don't have one."
"I'm pretty sure I have one! Back in the tornado, and I have a hunch about where it might point us!" Eagerly Tails pulled himself up and hobbled forward quickly towards the slide, making it about five paces before the aching pain in his muscles overcame him. "Arrggh" he groaned, cringing and wobbling precariously, fighting to keep his balance on one unbound foot.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going mister!?" yelled Nicole, hurrying over to grab Tails around the shoulders; helping him back to his makeshift bed she gently lowered him down. "You can barely stand up Tails, let alone go searching for the emerald, it hasn't even stopped raining yet! Give it two more days, please? Just two. I'm not really a doctor but your sprain should be much better by then and you're not going to be doing anyone any favours if you get into trouble out there."
Tails lay his head back gently, wincing at the pain in his neck before hitting the pillow with a sigh. "Yeah you're right, sorry that was stupid" He flashed Nicole a crooked grin "If I went out there now I'd probably fall down another tree slide and end up with an even bossier AI."
"mhm" Nicole pretended not to hear as she bent down to take Tail's empty bowl. Tails met her eyes with a sincere look of thanks and despite the coldness of the room she suddenly felt very warm.
"What about you Nicole, can you go back up? You said you'd lost connection to the surface but what about the nanites? If there's still some on the surface maybe we could use them to repair your holo grid. What about your portable handheld could you use that?"
"It's possible that some nanites survived on the surface but I've lost contact with them if they did. The command broadcaster arrays were very fragile. As for the handheld... Sally was holding it when..." Nicole trailed off and looked away.
"oh... right" muttered Tails, frowning uncomfortably at the awkward silence he had created. "How about the nanites down here?" he offered, "If we could collect enough maybe we could carry some back to the surface, we could even build a replacement array"
"Of course!" Nicole looked up, suddenly very animated. "Tails, now that you're here that might just work!"
The young lynx jumped up and flung open the doors of a cabinet, her head disappearing as she fossicked around in the dark, reappearing triumphantly moments later with a huge smile, a screwdriver in one hand and what looked like a small wire antennae in the other.
"Sorry to steal your thunder Tails but I actually did think of that idea already, If it makes you feel any better though I had a seven year head start". Nicole walked over to the opposite wall and bent down to where she was in line with a large metal panel. "You see this panel?" she pointed, a slightly manic glint in her eye. "This panel is my worst enemy, it's the devil, it's Robotnik's evil twin; this panel is every bad thing that has ever happened to anyone ever, concentrated and formed into a thin sheet of metal. Do you know why Tails? Do you know why!?"
Tails looked on with puzzled amusement "Err, well me and the panel haven't really been introduced yet, I'd prefer not to make a judgement"
"I'll tell you why!" Nicole shouted "It's because behind this panel is the only way to connect to the power mains in the whole lab! It's the only place I can attach something like, oh I don't know... this nanite controller array! It's the only thing stopping me from getting out of this horrible room, and guess what?" Nicole held up the screwdriver and proceeded to try to unscrew the first screw of the panel. She put her whole body into the motion, her face turning red with effort, her white teeth bared against the strain. She let out a fierce roar of frustration and collapsed forward onto her hands, exhausted.
"Wow" managed Tails as he looked on at his pretty friend, panting against the wall, "and I thought I was messed up."
Nicole slumped her back against the wall and pointedly extended her arm out while holding the screwdriver. She stared daggers at Tails.
"I'm kind of scared now" said Tails.
"Get over here bio boy" growled Nicole "before I decide to take out my super-human strength on you!"
Tails gingerly made it to his feet and slowly hobbled over to where Nicole was sitting, joining her on the floor and grabbing the screwdriver she plonked unceremoniously in his outstretched hand. He tried the screw. It was in tight alright but nothing out of the ordinary, at least not for an aircraft mechanic. He tried to hide his satisfaction as he pulled the first dislodged screw out of the hole. "I think you loosened it for me..." he offered unconvincingly. Nicole crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
Ten screws later, Tails shuffled back and with a quick tug the panel came cleanly off the wall exposing a jumble of heavy power cables and fuses, the main power outlet that Nicole had predicted.
Tails turned to Nicole and was about to say something when suddenly he stopped; she was crying. Silently, Nicole took the flimsy antennae she had built and handed it to Tails, pointing at a small box in the corner of the exposed wires where some outlet plugs were visible. Dutifully Tails inserted the cables of the antennae into the plug and a small LED lit up at its base.
"I can feel them" said Nicole, her face still wet with tears, "Tails they're still here, I can feel them, I can... control them." She closed her eyes and concentrated deeply and suddenly, as if by magic, a tiny spot in mid air started to glow. There, right before Tails' eyes an object was gradually forming, a silvery metal rectangle that rotated slowly in the air. It hovered for a moment, glowing, and then Nicole opened her eyes and reached out, plucking it from space; she extended her arm and opened her fingers, offering it to Tails.
"Th-thank you Nicole" said Tails as he picked up the small token from her hand and examined it between his fingers. He looked up at the lynx, meeting her eyes with an expression of humbled gratitude. "What is it meant to be?".
Nicole tears had stopped now and a sly smirk had returned to her face. "Oh that, that's just a souvenir for you, It's a scale replica of that damn panel. Maybe if you carry it around with you all the time you'll learn to love it as much as I did!"