Honor and Revenge
Part Two
A middle-aged squirrel sat in the middle of a large control console. There were multiple computer terminals with large high definition displays, each one running program algorithms and formulae functions, information streaming by so fast it would be impossible for anyone watching to read. He didn't even glance at the other screens as he focused on what was in front of him. A list of failed connections displayed in front of him, yet he continued typing commands into the terminal. One by one the list of connections turned from red to green, and when the last one changed a window popped up with a login box, and a voice echoed from the speakers.
"Flying Heaven Systems Administration Menu. Unauthorized access to protected systems is a Class V offense, punishable by exile or death."
He stared at the screen for a moment, finally chuckling. He once again began to type.
Tails sat staring at the manila folder lying in front of him on the other side of the glass. He looked up at Sonic. "I thought you said she died without saying a word."
Sonic sighed. "I don't know why, but I think she knew the end was coming, or she suspected someone would try something. She left this folder in her assistant's safe for me. I've spent the last 20 hours poring over it. And I'm scared, really scared for the first time in my life."
"Government invoices, minutes of top secret meetings of scientists, and some things I can't even begin to fathom. All of it pointing to something going on at the AI laboratory, but nothing specific. It's like all the information ends up disappearing and only a secondary trail remains. I do have enough sense to realize when something isn't right. And something here isn't adding up."
Tails looked blankly into the desk for a moment, pondering. "Sonic, what are you saying? This is all a cover for something?"
Sonic looked Tails in the eyes. "If you really are innocent, yes."
Tails felt his shoulders slouch.
"I'm sorry, Tails. I believe you. Sally believed in you. Everything in this folder was discovered under the premise that you're innocent. If that's not true…"
Tails finished for him. "…Then none of that 'evidence' leads to anything."
"Exactly. It really isn't anything more than a hastily patched together paper trail anyway. The most damning thing in here is the death of all those scientists. There's the one killed onboard the Nostromo, two were killed in train accidents, five were killed in what was deemed a terror attack, but no terrorist organization ever stepped forward. The rest were all found at their homes dead in bed. No official cause of death was ever determined."
"And no one at the lab ever said anything?"
"They kept it very, very quiet."
"Well, fuck me."
Sonic sighed and stood up. "I know that it was unfair to come in here and dump all this on your shoulders. There's nothing you can do anyway. I'm going to file an appeal for you to be released into my custody until the official investigation is finished into Sal's assassination."
As he began walking towards the door Tails called his name. "I want you to do me a favor."
Sonic nodded. "Anything I can."
"I want you to call Amy. I want you to be sure she's ok."
Sonic stared at his friend. "Tails, she's with Raine now. She's getting married." He walked back towards the glass. "Let her go, my friend."
Tails looked down sharply, trying to hide the tears from Sonic and failing. "Ok Sonic. I'll try."
With a slow nod, Sonic turned around and walked into the visitation elevator that would take him back to the surface. The doors shut, and once again Tails was left all alone.
'Like hell' Tails shoved himself away from the table. 'I just can't. She's been the only thing keeping me alive in here.' He walked over to the steel door and pounded on it.
Sonic was walking through the muddy parking lot, ready to get into the transport shuttle that brought him out here from Mobotropolis. As he was approaching, the guards standing outside the transport snapped to attention and saluted. He returned the salute and began to climb in. Shutting the door and donning a headset, he spoke to the pilot.
"Let's get out of here."
"Aye, sir. Beginning takeoff checklist." As the pilot began powering up the vehicle, Sonic noticed alert beacons flashing outside the prison bunker.
"Wait just a moment." Sonic tuned the radio to the prison's frequency. "-med and dangerous. Riot began in the third containment ward and is spreading. Visitor cells all locked down except for number 5… and we've also lost the video feed. Implement gener-"
Sonic punched the release on his harness and flung open the door. "Private, your sidearm!"
Bewildered, the young soldier unbuckled the holster that held his sidearm and silencer to Sonic. He signaled for the pilot to keep the airship warmed up and ready for liftoff, then ran full speed back into the bunker.
Even years of military training couldn't save Tails as the door slid open and he was smacked in the side of the head with a pipe. Stars flew across his vision as he crumpled to the floor, dripping blood from his snout. He distinctly heard three people walk into the holding area, and the smash of... He looked up and saw that Timo and his flunkies had just disabled the video camera monitoring the room.
"So, we're finally by ourselves…"
Tails spit the blood and a few teeth out of his mouth. "Tell them to leave the room and we'll see who walks out of here." As he began to stand up, one of the flunkies tried to step forward, but Timo stopped him.
"Let him stand. You know, I can in here to cut out your tongue and make you eat it. You…" He paused. "You dare to disrespect me. Beat on me and my men. DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
"You're a rabid dog swimming in a pool of shit. Is that about right?"
Tails saw Timo flush, but he just smiled. "After we cut the tongue we cut other things too. I don't think…Amy? Amy would appreciate that."
Tails head was still swimming, but was getting clearer by the second. He didn't react to the glib remarks, he didn't react to the comment about Amy, all he focused on was how he was going to leap from the floor and take out the two henchmen before someone drew a gun. He knew one of them had to; it was just the way underworld types were. They wouldn't be this ballsy without one.
Tails leapt forward and grabbed Andre by his head. Grabbing onto his body with his legs, he twisted his head until he heard a snap and a slight sigh. Quickly, he rolled, grabbing the pipe he had been holding and flung it at the other henchman. It struck him between the eyes and he was out cold.
Timo had the gun out before Tails could stand. He aimed at Tails, and gunfire echoed in the small room.
"Hey you're not authorized t-"
"I am a special envoy to the Mobian Council. Don't tell me I'm not authorized."
"But-"
"Send me down to the third containment, NOW."
The guard hesitated just a moment more, then flipped the switch and entered the access code freeing the elevator.
"After your down I'm locking the elevator. We can't risk breaching containment. There is almost no security up here."
Sonic nodded. "Very well."
The elevator doors slid shut and Sonic descended back towards the third containment and the visitors ward. When the elevator reached the level, Sonic chambered the weapon and stepped to the side as the doors slid opened. Two voices echoed from the hall.
"Whadaknow, its empty!"
"Let's get the fuck out of here."
Sonic leaned around the corner and aimed carefully. He let the gun's weight rest firmly in his hand and lined his shot up on the first thug and squeezed the trigger. Immediately, he went to the second thug and dispatched him with equal prejudice.
This took him less than one second.
Pushing the button to return the elevator to the surface, Sonic made his way quickly down the hallway leading to the visitors block and the entrance to the containment facility. He could hear gunfire echoing from deeper inside the facility. Peering in the door, Sonic saw Tails at gunpoint. Pushing open the cracked door and raising the gun, he fired.
Tails had instinctively closed his eyes when he thought the end had come. The smell of gunpowder filled the small room and the fox that had survived everything, his command being stripped, his future wife being taken from him by that arrogant gasbag, his imprisonment, thought that the end had finally come.
"Sally..."
Seconds ticked by for hours. Time hung in the air.
Finally Sonic spoke up. "First we find justice."
Tails' eyes flew open and locked onto Sonic. The tension in the air began to ease.
Sonic continued. "Let's find the truth, we all deserve it. You most of all."
Tails grew solomn and nodded. Standing and stretching, he picked up the lead pipe and looked back at Sonic. "What now?"
"Elevators are locked down. You're the engineer. How do we escape?"
Tails barked out laughter and suddenly stopped. "Would you believe that this is the first time I have ever asked myself that?"
"...yes."
Tails looked around them and saw a air vent in the corner of the outer hall. Grinning he looked at Sonic. "I have an idea."
"I should have known it would be my protege that would get me killed one day!"
Tails looked on from the edge of the main section vent as it entered one of the primary air rams. This was where the hot air from deep inside the mines was exchanged for fresh air from topside. He spoke over the loud woosh of the hot air being rushed out by turbofans. "All we have to do is use your figure eight move to tread the rising currents in the air. After we get to the final section we will be moving so fast the ring wearing off won't matter. After we get launched out of the exhause vent topside I'll take over and fly us to the chopper."
"...all we have to do?" Sonic rolled his eyes and grabbed the ring out of Tails' hand. Jumping into the air, he revved up the figure eight, grabbed Tails, and launched them out into the hot air currents from the mine. He moved deftly between the giant circulation fans. Initially droping down, Sonic was able to begin running through the rising heat. As the ring faded, they were pushed into a narrower tube that ended in a small opening barely big enough to fit through. Pushing them up to 100 feet, Tails grabbed onto Sonic and coasted them next to the chopper.
Sonic laughed. "Not bad, not bad at all."
Tails grinned ear to ear. Standing here, next to his childhood hero and friend, he was now realizing how lonely he had been. "So now what?"
Sonic lost his smile. "Now we go find the log recorder for the Nostromo."
Tails looked shocked. "Why?"
Sonic looked at the ground. "We have to find some way to prove your innocent."
"There isn't! I reviewed the log hundreds of times...it almost had me convienced I was guilty."
Sonic looked at him. "C'mon Tails. There has got to be a way to prove your innocence. We will find it."
Tails just stared at Sonic. Finally he got in the aircraft. Sonic sighed and closed the door.
Amy
Amy woke up alone in her bed. Unfortunately, this was a theme that repeated all too often. She understood that Raine was a busy man (he was personally in charge of the security at the Alexis Station) but sometimes...
She sat up and ran her hand through her quills. Her face was veiled. "Sometimes your here but you're not..."
She walked across the sparsely decorated bedroom to the bath, where she got in the shower. Soaking in the hot water, she let her mind drift.
It wasn't as though she wasn't invested in her work. She was currently project manager on a project for the Mobian government, but she still tried to have time for a personal life. But Raine...he barely came home anymore. And she suspected that had to do with Tails. Raine didn't want her to visit him anymore...and she had agreed, and she had lied. He found out and immediately came to her laboratory once she returned from Mobius.
"I feel deceieved Amy. I've spent a good part of my life studying people, studying deception. I never thought you would bring that sensation out in me. Ever since we met while Tails was still on assignment, you have never been deceptive. Why now?" Raine stared blankly, using his training to get the answer he didn't really want.
Amy wasn't ready to be that submissive. She slowly pulled the pippet out of the flask and set it down, picking up her tablet computer. "What makes you think that you can tell me who my friends can be? No offence, but we are just dating, not married. And for the record, I still think he is innocent. That court martial was shameful." She entered data and talked at the same time.
"Amy, it isn't even about that. Tails is a convicted criminal, period. You have a high level security clearance and I am the one responsible for making sure-"
Amy lost her temper and threw the computer tablet onto her workspace. "You think I'm a subversive cause I'm going to see my ex-boyfriend? I hold a double doctorate in genetic engineering and molecular biology, I have let our government full access to my work, taken their funding, and allowed them to hold rights on my work, when there were literally hundreds of other offers on the table!" She couldn't stop herself, even though her colleagues were turning to look. "I INVENTED HALF OF THE SCIENCE IN THIS ROOM, SO IF YOU HAVE A REAL REASON TO QUESTION MY CREDIBILITY, WHY DONT YOU COME BACK WHEN YOU CAN PRESENT IT TO ME LOGICALLY, NOT WRAPPED UP IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL EMOTIONS. YOU WANT MY CLEARANCE, JUST TRY TO GET IT! GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY!" She turned, grabbed her computer and stormed off into her office, slamming the door behind her...
Amy rinsed the soap out of her fur. She could have handled that better, but he had attacked her in public, in front of her colleagues and her subordinates. They had made up afterwards, but ever since then there had been something unspoken between them. He had been spending less time with her, and she really did want things to work with Raine. He had even reserved them some sort of special vacation coming up. She shook her head and sighed.
"And it doesn't really help that I'm still in love with Tails..."