-
5 Days Later 6/14/4460
---
A loud backdrop of mechanical noise and the blaring of alarms filled the air. Buzzing faded in and out and shouting voices intruded his ears. He felt the cold chill of metal beneath him. His head pulsed tremendously and the noise multiplied it, but the lights were the killer, they were so, so painfully bright! Even through his tightly shut eyes the hideous rays pained him greatly. But the pain in his head was nothing compared to the explosions coming from his left side and his right arm. He attempted to raise his arms to shield himself from the blinding rays, only to find himself unable to move his arms the slightest and that could only mean one thing: Sonic T. Hedgehog was officially property of Robotnik's Red Army.
The noise of Sonic trying to shield himself must have gotten the doctor's attention as he wheeled his computer chair over to the hedgehog's position. The incredibly bright light must have hurt Robotnik's eyes as well; the doctor moved the jet black goggles resting on his head down to his eyes. Sonic moved his head down a little further and managed to open his eyes. He discovered himself in a strange chair, similar to a dentist's, but made of steel.
In the corner of the room, Sonic noticed a strange robot, it seemed somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn't figure out how. The robot's hull was the same shade of blue as his own except for an area on the top of his "hands" which were a bright yellow, and his feet, which were painted the exact way of his own speed shoes. His engine intake sported the same bright yellow as his hands. The strange bot stood at attention and Sonic found the bots figure strangely similar to his own... only a couple of inches taller.
Sonic T. Hedgehog moved his eyes away from the bot to Robotnik. "Where... am I?" He gasped. He must be in worse condition than he initially thought.
"Where no one will ever find you, underground of course. We're in the main control base, very close to the main control room."
Sonic blinked in confusion. "But... Robotropolis? How did I end up here? ...I was on the Floating Island... with everyone else!"
Robotnik cursed as he saw the honest confusion in Sonic's eyes. "So now they're giving their hopeless amnesiacs? Great. No matter. The amnesiac will wear off in a few days, and then you will be mine hedgehog." And Sonic turned his head away.
"I will not talk."
"I have ways of course. If you will not talk willingly, you will talk unwillingly." Robotnik moved his head slowly, hatefully closer to Sonic's and whispered ominously, "You're going to learn, very soon that everyone, EVERYONE has a certain caving point. It could be a physical fear, or an emotional fear, but it is individual and personal to each victim, and when exploited, I can get anything I want, and you'll insist that I take it just to leave you alone."
Sonic snarled, "How do you live with yourself at night?" The hedgehog looked down at himself, his legs and arms clamped to a doctor's chair, unable to do anything. At least real prisoners had their dignity left.
-
Metroc Station
---
Knuckles was always the type that was quick to anger, but this was just too much. Streeoh had refused Sonic's extraction. Of course, it was also directly his fault for following the order. First operation and they had already lost someone to Doctor Red. The General would probably kick him off the base for that alone, he should have just overridden the order and got Sonic out of there. Knuckles was overlooking the fact that the problem was a lot more complex than that, namely the fact that any tried attempts to extract Sonic would have failed due to Lieutenant Juke's lacking strength and Sonic's condition. At the time however, Knuckles wasn't feeling as controlled as normal. ---
Juke sat in her assigned bed and sighed. Sonic was probably getting the crap beat out of him and it was all her fault. Why the heck did she give him her gun anyway? Pressure. She knew it was the answer, but didn't want to face the facts. It was her fault. But then again, Knuckles was beating himself mentally over the same thing. As she thought harder about the sequence of events, she realized that it was not just her fault for giving Sonic her DFG, and not just Knuckles for obeying Streeoh's endangering command and it wasn't just Sonic being an impulsive hero wannabe, it was everything that formed a deadly chain of events, nobody was innocent in the end.
---
Five minutes later found the enraged Echidna outside the largest, most luxurious office within the whole base. Knuckles entered the office and slammed the door behind him. The General lifted his head erect at the sound of the slammed door. "What do you think you're doing Captain?"
"I'll tell you what I'm doing STREEOH! One of my men nearly died because of your bullshit protocols! We CANNOT lose people at this point, especially not in the most valuable unit of this danged army. You know THAT is true... how can four soldiers outdo a thousand? Simple. We're special ops, we're specialized. We do things your Army can't Streeoh and we can't replace a downed soldier like you can."
"Captain, the organization is necessary to maintain discipline among troops. You know as well as I do that we can't go having our soldiers run off to Robotnik."
"No, but we're Special Ops and we have to do things YOUR way? It's not even that much less the point that your protocols almost killed Sonic! You should at least let us run our show here. At least WE know what we're doing! Tell me how it is that your army of 1,000 is getting slaughtered everyday, while my squad of 4 WAS in perfect shape... I'll tell you why Streeoh, it's because they don't know how to fight and your tactics aren't working. It's time to turn the show over."
"Oh! You're suggesting that you could do a better job?"
"I don't know about that, but I know that your way isn't working and mine is."
"Hmph."
"You can 'hmph' all you want but that doesn't change the fact that one of my soldiers was almost killed... and no medal will change the way I feel about that."
"You know I could throw you out right now and label you as a traitor."
"But you're not going to because you know you need us."
"Exactly."
"But we are no use to you dead!"
The cheetah began to pace his office, "I know... I know. Alright, listen. From now on, I will let you use the base as a resource, you can train in the courses, at the ranges. You can eat and sleep and use our equipment here... However, I will let you get by with verbal protocols only."
Knuckles breathed, "Fine." The Captain walked out of the General's office and smirked... Too easy.
-
2 days later
---------------
Sonic lay there tilted back in the chair, waiting for Robotnik's next move. He scanned the madman's face, looking for any sign within. The evil doctor seemed fascinated with several flasks located across the room. The blue hedgehog tried not to show his fear as Robotnik walked over a drew a syringe full of the liquid from the flask.
"Do you remember the Vulcan, Sonic? Do you?" Robotnik asked, though he very well knew the answer. The blue hedgehog remained silent, as he had been for the past 48 hours. "Sonic, talk to me, if you don't, you know I have ways of making you talk." Sonic turned his head away. "So stubborn aren't you? Or was the Vulcan that painful an experience?" At this, Sonic turned his head, his face a mask of anger. "In case you are wondering what this liquid here is, it's another one of my little chemistry experiments. This one is designed to make the victim deliriously happy." Sonic looked obviously confused.
"You're probably wondering why I would bother making anyone happy correct? It's because the effect this has is calming allowing me to easily transport you, it would be a fool's mistake to leave you here to develop any break-out tactics. This will calm you, you will relive your greatest memories and accomplishments, you will see your greatest dreams come true, and then you will be given another liquid with the opposite effect, you will feel the ultimate fear, relive the worst memories and pain of your life, you will see your worst nightmares come true! And I will sit here and watch your quivering body and laugh through it all!" Robotnik was now at the shouting point, "Sonic Hedgehog! You tried to beat me, but I, the Great Robotnik, will have the final laugh!" And with that, Robotnik gave Sonic his ticket out of reality...
-
Sonic opened his eyes, the sun shone through his window, and as he looked to the side of his bed, he recognized a room he had forgotten... one he had chosen to forget. He jumped out of his bed and explored the room. Everything was in exactly the same place they had been left the last time he had seen it. He ran into the main room. And a sight before him made him gasp.
"Mom!" Sonic exclaimed running toward the female, blue hedgehog. He embraced her in the biggest hug of his life and he could FEEL himself squeezing. This was real. He began to cry, from happiness that none of anything was real. The tears wouldn't stop. It was all just a nightmare, the most realistic, painful nightmare of his life, but he was home, finally home.
"What's wrong Sonic?" Swan hedgehog asked, clearly not in understanding of what Sonic had been through.
"It was a nightmare mom... The worst nightmare ever. I dreamed that there was this Robotnik guy, and he took over the world, destroyed Casino Night and Metropolis, took prisoners and killed them or turned them into robots... and you were there too I think Dad died but I never found out, thank god. But you... you were captured, and when I found you he... killed you, right in front of me... Sonic cried more and his mom did her best to comfort him through his traumatic experience.
Sonic gasped. He was thankful everything was real again... But he felt as if he were still attached to the world in his nightmare... It felt real too, and he had most definitely experienced the excruciating electrical shocks on Mount Marble. But as he accidentally banged his arm on one of the walls near his room, he realized that that was real too... so then, what was real anymore? He didn't know, he was still scared, and the blue hedgehog honestly didn't know why... it was OVER, DONE WITH. It was a DREAM (or a nightmare, rather).
As he walked to his door, he felt strange, as if he were being lifted, as if gravity were disappearing. And he found himself...
-
The first thing Sonic became aware of was his being bound in a chair being tilted up. His head ached and the room spun in circles, the uplifting of the chair only added to the nauseating effect. He bent over the chair and threw up all over the floor of wherever he was... which he wasn't quite sure of. Looking around the room, he discovered his nightmare was far, far from over. He struggled to remember where he was and how he got there. Although as he squirmed around in the chair, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible in his bound state, his wounded left side scraped the chair's side, resulting in the hedgehog letting out a high-pitched gasp of pain.
Dr. Robotnik smiled, and walked into the room, several worker bots behind him. "Shame, shame, messing up my beautiful floor like that, but it is of no problem, as my worker bots shall fix that right away."
How did you enjoy that first test? As you can see, you are not in the same place, and through making you happy, I have hurt you worse than ever."
And Sonic knew it too, it was one thing to see his mom killed, to physically believe that it was reversed and to find out that it was all fake was a completely different game.
"You were easily transported here, I was surprised, except for the sickening grin and giggling from you, you were completely still, unknowing of your existence. But now the second part comes, it will provoke your worst nightmares and fears, oh and by the way, you might die, which would make me very happy indeed."
Sonic spat, he had had enough of this crap. Knuckles had told him to remain silent, but he was through with that. "You won't Robotnik, I won't die until I completely kill you, drop by drop of your blood if needed, and even then that won't be enough to take back every little thing you've done to make my life suck. Killing you won't do anything except free the world, there is no satisfaction for me except knowing that when you're dead no one else will ever again have to go through what I went through. I don't care, I'll still kill you Robotnik! Nothing ever lasts forever and your empire is no exception!"
"Hah! I'll have that as my laugh of the day. Really though, you yourself would likely notice that there is little to stop me, you're the only one that dares oppose me, you and that traitor friend of yours! And in your current state, I HIGHLY doubt you could kill me." Sonic smiled, if Robotnik only knew how many people were out for his neck. "That matters not now, because your worst nightmare shall begin! And I hope it has a most tragic ending!"
And as Sonic was injected with the nightmare substance and as his mind spiraled, The never ending deep, dark laugh of Robotnik faded in and out of his head, repeating itself in various distorted forms. Robotnik was loving this too much, and it was making Sonic angry. "Now Sonic! It is time to probe your worst nightmare! I hope you have a bad day"
--------------------------------------------
Sonic opened his eyes to the roar of the most incredibly deafening jet engines he had ever heard. The floor beneath him was cold steel and above him were blinding floodlights. All around him were the sounds of chaos, robots being trampled, fighter ships collapsing to the ground, fuel explosions and an explosion too near him caused the hedgehog to be thrown into the air and to the ground like a stuffed dog. Sonic rolled to his side and climbed to his feet, his ears thumping to a drummers beat from the deafening explosion.
Robotnik stood a hundred yards away, but Sonic hadn't noticed the overlord's entrance.
"Good final day is it not? Good day for me, but not you!"
"Whatever 'Botnik." Everything confused Sonic... where was he and how did he get there?
"You see hedgehog, this Battlestation may be done for... but that is of no worry because it will still do damage and has more than served its purpose. There is one task unaccounted for, and I think we both know what that is."
Sonic smirked, fists up, "Oh yeah,"
Robotnik strapped on several pieces of armor to his head and body while Sonic instinctively reached around to his backside and pulled his metal gloves from their holding place. "So 'Botnik, why you need armor? Ain't your fat cushion the blow?"
The doctor smirked as he equipped a pair of his own metal gloves--and said, "It hurts you more than it helps me,"
Sonic could have ended the encounter in less than two seconds simply by using his speed. This was not the time for that however, as some slow and painful torture was the punishment that was called for. Blue hedgehog met fat human in the middle and Sonic threw the first punch. It hit Robotnik but his armor shrugged it off without any effect. Robotnik then drew back his leg and kicked Sonic's stomach in. Sonic fell backwards and Robotnik was instantly magnetized to the hedgehog, tearing him apart like a bird's prey.
The hedgehog resisted... Oh he tried, but Robotnik's weight upon him was too hard to move against. Robotnik seized Sonic's legs and with metallic gloves, crushed the bones in them. Sonic shrieked and went to grab them, but soon found his wrists in the hands of a grinning Robotnik who proceeded in crushing the hedgehog's wrists.
And Sonic screamed with all the air he could find, which wasn't much considering the three-hundred plus pounds sitting on his stomach. His hands useless, Sonic tried to kick, and found his feet in the mitts of Robotnik, who drew back his hands and threw Sonic as far across the room as he could. An immediate cracking sound was drowned out by the roar of rocket engines.
And Sonic thought, "Thank God Tails was not here to see this" His body broken, Sonic laid still as Robotnik paced towards him.
"Hedgehog... so it comes to this. So was it worth it? Why have you come to this Sonic? Two people died, boo hoo. Now your family's toll increases to three. Would your parents have wanted you to die this way? In such pain and suffering and for a worthless cause? I think not, they would have wanted you to be happy living under my rule. But no, defiant as always Sonic, you went against mine and your parents wishes and committed countless atrocities against my empire.
The hedgehog managed a small gasp, "Lies! Lies!" before laying back down. As his head slowly touched the floor, he gasped from the chill created by the battlestation's metallic surface. Sonic shivered and did nothing but curl up as Robotnik spat on him and turned his back.
"Burn hedgehog, burn."
"NEVER!" Sonic shouted as loudly as he could, but the shriek was hollow and full of weakness.
-----------------
Gasping, Sonic's eyes snapped open and his body shook with shock. To his surprise the new room he was incredibly chilly. He shivered, but found the cold helped to numb his wounds. Sonic would not make the mistake of making Robotnik aware of it. He turned his head and found Robotnik furiously pounding away at a computer keyboard. Beats punched his chest and he struggled to catch his breath. Pain came in violent stabs everywhere. Blue bruises, barely visible, formed on Sonic's arms; he had been thrashing violently.
Doctor Robotnik turned his head and wheeled backwards to Sonic's position, "Dang, you're still alive. You just won't die will you? The screaming and grunting was a nice treat, but not satisfactory. Then, from inside of his desk, Robotnik retrieved a smooth, silver pistol. "Ah ha! This is the standard issue for my Lieutenants. In fact, Juke herself carried one of these... I believe you were shot with it? Sonic's glazed eyes blinked in acknowledgment as Robotnik went on spitting random specifications such as the size and speed of it's laser. The doctor then proceeded to turn it on to the welcome of a series of beeps and clicks.
"You see, Sonic, the thing here is that you're just a big pain in my butt."
"Are you sure you don't mean pain in your big butt?" Sonic corrected after a few seconds of pause by Robotnik.
"SHUT UP, HEDGEHOG!" Robotnik took a few seconds to compose himself. "If you were not so meddling, you wouldn't be in this position." Robotnik wheeled his chair over to Sonic and coolly pressed the pistol to Sonic's temple.
The blue hedgehog, despite the pain, reacted immediately, his hazel eyes widening in terror and his breathing coming in rapid pulses. His heart beat in deep, throbbing punches.
"Well well, Sonic finally realizes that someone in the world has a little more power than he has." Robotnik sneered.
The hedgehog's mind raced... should he leak? NEVER. How about beg? That might get him a little ways.
"Do... Don... Don't!" Came Sonic's terrified scream, "Oh god..." His sides ached terribly, but the crying in his mind blurred it out. If only he were free... he could outrun it! No he couldn't, the hallways and turns and rooms disallowed it. He could only run on wide-open terrain.
Robotnik grinned sadistically, "Well well, hedgehog. I never thought you would beg. You've surprised me." Robotnik lowered the pistol. Obviously the hedgehog hadn't been tortured well enough. He placed it into a drawer. and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and a magnifying glass. The doctor edged toward Sonic and using a remote, rotated the chair to a 180 degree angle. Robotnik unwrapped the bandage carelessly wrapped around Sonic's midsection and watched the blood drip. Robotnik had no intention of reapplying it. "Mecha!"
Quickly, the robot ran into the room. "Mecha Sonic, reporting in, sir!"
"Mecha..." Robotnik wheeled over to Mecha and stroked his pet. He backed over to Sonic's table. "Why look at this artwork! You've done me well."
"As always, sir."
Sonic breathed heavily, gritting his teeth. He was hurt worse than he had thought as he stared down at the monstrosity that was his midsection. There were three holes, but they were barely distinguishable as the blood had covered the area. To any onlooker he would look like a train wreck, and he was. Maybe it was mostly psychological, he hadn't felt it as bad earlier. The hedgehog tried to shift in his seat, but was held too tight by the steel bonds. The hedgehog wondered what time it was. There weren't any windows to be found anywhere inside the steel walls of the control room he was in. Apparently, Robotnik had a very small digital readout on his monitor, far too small for Sonic to see.
As a prisoner, time is your ally, it keeps your senses in check and is almost along the lines of activity. Its like pain in that it lets you know your alive. Even in a small cell, with an even smaller window, witnessing the passage of time can be the one thing keeping you from losing your mind. Stripping a prisoner of his natural clock is worse than stripping them of their food. Better to die than live in insanity.
To keep his mind off time, Sonic counted the tiles on the floor. 55... 56... 57... 57... 58... His mind drifted to Knuckles and the rest of the squad at Metroc. He had failed them so bad... He had lost track of the tiled floor. Game Over. Whenever the tiled floor failed, he estimated the amount of keystrokes Robotnik took in a word and added it to the total amount of strokes from whatever document the Doctor had been creating. Sonic often wondered what odd activity he would be doing when he died in Robotropolis. Probably counting the scars and bruises on his fragile body. This was, without a doubt, the worst thing in the world.
-
Metroc Station
---
Knuckles was riding the elevator to the barracks. He was wearing an all-black uniform that covered every inch of his body. Ironically, he was about to do what he had tried to prevent. Everyone on the floor knew what was going down. In fact, the floor was absolutely deserted. Room I-01100101 was his intended destination after he picked up his cargo. The room, also known as "Interrogation, 101" was a legend among base occupants. It was said to be the worst kept secret of the base--a place where commanders sent their unruly and unready soldiers for the worst training course available.
Pistol in hand, Knuckles hit the doors keypad with it... right on the + key, which was specially designed to open at a certain impact. The door slid open and the echidna lowered his pistol, the Laser Aiming Module (LAM) centered on Miles Prower's heart. Tails' jaw dropped, along with the screwdriver in his hand.
"Come with me," Knuckles' coldly commanded, his voice changed electronically. Miles Prower froze in his tracks. He couldn't go with the echidna, yet couldn't do nothing. Too late. Knuckles made the decision. He lunged for Tails, who dodged the blow with great agility and thrust his shoulder into the Echidna. Knuckles recovered and reached out with his gun, striking the fox's arm. Knuckles pushed Tails away with his elbow to get away for a seconds recovery before once again diving for Tails. As the fox attempted to move away, Knuckles gripped his arm and swung his pistol into the fox's head. Whack! The fox slumped forward into Knuckles, dizzied. Too easy. Knuckles roughly grabbed the fox and shoved the pistol into the side of his head.
Knuckles ran with the fox over to I-II and opened the door. He threw Tails away and the dizzy fox hit the floor with a thud. With half-open eyes, Tails looked at the disguised Knuckles and uttered a slurred mess of, "Whateheckigonah?"
"Welcome to my room, punk." The guardian went toward the fox and grabbed him, before forcefully throwing him over to a wooden chair in the corner of the room. The Guardian Echidna secured the fox into the chair with rope. "What have we here. A little fox! With two tails none the less," The fox appeared to be semi-conscious, seemingly staring at a black hole. Not like the Captain cared. "So tell me, what's your name?" No response. "I SAID WHATS YOUR NAME?" None at all. "I KNOW YOU DID NOT JUST IGNORE ME, FOX!" Knuckles roughly kicked the fox in the stomach, loudly sending the chair backwards to the ground. "You wanna try that again? You can at least tell me your name."
"My name's Miles Prower, your boss ruined my life and I think you should die... oh and your not getting anything else outta me."
"Oh really?" Knuckles bent over and proceeded to give Tails a bloody nose. The fox swallowed the thick blood and breathed. He simply shook his head. "You know your parents? They looked just like you... the holes were so pretty when they died."
Tails recited pi in his head, pretended to be in a different world... anything. He would not acknowledged what the mysterious figure had just said. He did not exist within Tails' perfect world.
Knuckles stood the fox up and shoved him into another corner. "You're so weak, fox, not even good enough for roboticization. You will be terminated unless you give us something... anything... even your name." Terminated. How formal. "You can end this abuse! You can end it now, go to sleep, take a shower... anything you want." Tails shut his eyes defiantly. "Fine, your call." Knuckles noisily drew the pistol from his holster. "Beautiful ain't it?"
Suddenly, the door burst open and Lieutenant Juke flew through it, pistol carefully aimed in Knuckles' direction. "DROP THE GUN! ...NOW!"
Knuckles laughed, a big grin on his face. "HA! You drop yours or the fox gets it!"
"Your call jerk!" She fired and the light turn into camouflaged blood on Knuckles' right arm. An incapacitated Knuckles lay on the ground, teeth grit in pain. Juke ran through the room, grabbed Tails and carried him out as fast as she could, running into the main hall and into the elevator. She slammed the button to close the door and quickly pressed the button for their barracks. She detached a portable radio from her back. "Room india one-zero-one, Tango down!" After the lengthy elevator ride, the Lieutenant quickly ran into the squad's specially assigned room. Lieutenant Juke laid the beaten fox on one of the bunk bottom's, a soft groan the only audible sound in the room.
"Look kid, I'm gonna leave you here to sleep, I have some business to take care of."
The hedgehog left the room and it clicked shut with a series of digital beeps. She arrived to a Red Echidna, black uniform in hand. "This wasn't right, Knuckles"
Knuckles' grunted, "Hmph, the only thing that wasn't right was you ending it prematurely."
"Aw boohoo Knux, you know it made the breach more realistic."
"True, but your lucky my arm was turned the right way for your laser to melt the balloon."
"Yeah, but that also made it more realistic too... So what's your interpretation of the kid?"
"Well, he's a LOT tougher than he looks, takes things personally, but he's very intelligent, could probably outsmart Robotnik at his own game."
"Just what I thought... see? The torture was absolutely not needed, you just ruined the kid, don't ya feel proud?"
"Shut up, better to ruin him than to have him talk."
-
2 days later - 6/16/4460 0100
-------------
Knuckles sat in his bunk reading a book on tactics. With two beeps and a grinding noise, the door opened and the Lieutenant walked in.
"Figured any potential ways in yet?"
"Negative, Juke. We don't even know where Sonic is... he could be anywhere within Robotropolis, and that's trouble. I'm trying to get the Chaotix to get us some recon on the situation, but we figure out where he is and then we navigate the sewers to get to him... we go in hard and fast like a valley tornado.
Instantly, the overhead alarms began to scream in its deep, dark roar. Red lights flooded and a voice stormed from above "Storm the front! We will be victorious this time! You will not outnumber them, but out think them! Go my soldier's! Bring me victory!" The distinctive tones of brass instruments played in the background.
"WHAT the heck is going on?" Knuckles asked himself aloud.
A quick peek outside the door showed a mess of fully-geared-up soldiers running down the corridor. "Good god, Knuckles! Looks like they got the whole dang blue army out there!"
Knuckles smirked, "Dang it Streeoh! He's trying to out best me..."
Juke's eyebrow shot up, "What?"
"He's angry that we're so elite and he has numbers on us... so he's out to prove something, which is really dangerous to us. This fool could cost us the war..."
"For a grudge?"
"Ironic. And then that'd be put into future tactical books. 'Never act on a grudge... it could cost you not just several soldiers, but a whole war.' Ha!"
"This might not be that bad Knux. Robotropolis is gonna be Red-Hot shortly... It will be the perfect cover to get in, because with that number, Robotnik's likely to employ a forward defense..."
"And that means 'Botnik's gonna be short on the inside. ...Or at least he'd try to make it seem that way. It's worth a chance though... Aside from getting Sonic out, I'd like to investigate what in the heck was going on with that lightning... It doesn't storm out there usually."
"Right. ...Now one thing... got a REAL plan?"
Knuckles grinned defiantly.
-
-7, Equipment Cage- 0118
-----
Knuckles and Juke emerged from their respective dressing rooms wearing the standard jackets and pants... all nighttime green. Black seemed the obvious choice, but was in reality darker than the night, so a dark green pattern was developed to blend into the night.
"Okay, we're going subs on this one, assault rifles are too heavy and pistols too light, so the submachine guns should be perfect, but we'll have our frags and disruptors. Since your not as strong, you'll be taking your DFG for a backup. We'll also be taking some breaching charges for blowing doors and walls quickly. ...And for entry, we got hooked ropes we'll be taking that can be fired from your pistol. And lets see... " Knuckles turned around and grinned at a small, metallic bronze, squarish object that was dotted with lights, "Electronic lock-picker." Juke nodded.
Knuckles took one of the submachine guns off the rack and after attaching a sling to it, gave it to Juke, who put it over her head and let it rest on her back. Her DFG was already sitting firmly in its holster on her left side. Knuckles also got himself a Sub-gun from the rack and put it on. Next we're the grenades and tools... They both got two frags, two disrupters and a lock-picker, which both stuffed into their chest pouches. The rope was folded and compacted, and the grappling hooks were folded before being stuffed into their own lower pockets.
As a final check, boots were tightened, helmets were checked, mics were bumped to the grimace of the recipient, and night vision goggles were calibrated. Juke and Knuckles raced out of the Equipment Room and quickly into the elevator to be taken all the way up to -11, also known as the hovercruiser landing. The echidna ran all the way to his HPC in landing 0031, jumped in and started the vehicle.
-
Outside Metroc Station
---
Once out of the base, Knuckles gunned the vehicle in an attempt to catch up to the massive fleet. Catching up was no problem since the fleet wasn't moving anywhere near top speed as the disused-roads to Robotropolis were jammed with HPCs and other armored vehicles. Above choppers raged and shot missiles toward the Robotropolis boundary, where guards were sure to be placed. As the five-mile marker approached, many drivers decided to get out and run the rest of the way to the boundary, which uncluttered the roads quite a bit. But that was only the boundary, the other end of the city was a good 100 miles away. As the front-end of the vehicles reached the border, the outermost vehicles pulled off the road, allowing the second lines to step up to the front to take their place. Dozens of soldiers stormed out of the vehicles as hordes of SWATbots poured from the cracks of Robotropolis.
Inside the Captain's vehicle, he saw nothing but an endless fleet of vehicles. The ground rocked with explosive vibrations and missiles screamed overhead. Ahead, the missile's deafening explosions combined with the loud shrieks of laser-fire fell back toward Knuckles. "Dang it! What's going on up there Juke?"
"How am I supposed to know any better than you do Knux?" The Lieutenant shouted. Knuckles pulled up his radar.
"There's so many of our dang HPC's that I cant see the enemy!"
"Ok, listen, I'm gonna climb onto the roof, see if I can see what this chaos is all about." Juke pulled the manual door-override and her side door hissed open. Juke went around the back of the vehicle and climbed to the top. With the aid of her binocs, she saw the problem immediately: "My God, Knuckles! I've never seen this many 'bots in my life!"
"How many, Juke?" "I can't tell! There's too many of them!"
"How far to the border, Juke?"
"About 2 miles!"
"Okay, this is what's up, we're going to get out of this mess, and go around the city."
"Roger Knuckles!" Lieutenant Juke jumped off of the HPC, got back inside quickly and shut the door. The Echidna drove off the side of the road and landed smoothly three feet below, supported by the vehicle's hover engines. Knuckles pushed the throttle lever forward and the HPC rocketed forward around the city. This was going to be a long, long morning for everyone. For the entry team of Juke and Knuckles, for Robotnik, and for Sonic. Today they would all do more work by six A.M, than most people do all day.