Plans In The Making

The wave was taller than any the houses. It rolled towards the beach, throwing up a few boats, then reached the sand and the palm trees splintered like matches when they came in contact with the raging mass of water. Rolling forwards, the wave met the first line of houses and split up in many smaller parts, each of them racing into the free space between the houses. People screamed and ran as fast as they could and suddenly everything was black.

"This amateur video was taken three hours ago at Emerald Coast, when an unexpected tsunami destroyed six villages along the known to be normally peaceful beaches. The numbers of casualties are so far undetermined. Police and fire brigade still search for survivors in the ruins." The black image had been replaced by a young female rabbit. She held a microphone in her hand and stood in front of a bluish background. "It is still unknown how the tsunami could built. Experts claim Emerald Coast to be not usually in danger of such high waves."

She continued speaking after a short pause and while she did, a new video was zoomed to fill the TV screen. "Huge rainfalls during the last night have flooded a large number of Marble Zone's underground tunnels. The inhabitants are trying to pump out the caverns. The extent of the damage is likely to be fully visible in a few days when all the tunnels are accessible again."

The reporter's speech was accompanied by images of several Mobians carrying buckets full of brownish dirty water or holding long pipes into what appeared to be small lakes, but were the entrances to Marble Zone's underground parts.

The rabbit was zoomed back onto the main screen. "In our next report an intense rain like that would have been able to prevent most of the damage." Again the picture changed to show a large field, the ground covered with black dust. Remains of blackened trees occupied the landscape like weird skeletons. "Yesterday's fire in Hill Top Zone burned down nearly a third of the Zone's forest. With the help of fire-fighting planes the blaze finally could be contained. What exactly torched the forest in the first place remains a mystery." The female reporter reappeared on the TV. "Now to politics…"

Sonic switched the TV off at that point, that wasn't the least bit interesting. He dropped the remote on the sofa aside of him and wrapped his woolly blanket tighter around himself while he stared at the blank screen. Knuckles was right. It was getting worse.

"Erhm…"

Sonic looked up at the sound of Knuckles clearing his throat. He didn't even notice him coming in. "Hey Knux…"

The echidna walked up to him and looked down on the hedgehog slouched on the couch. "Here, I got you some more tea. And I really did find some dice." He put everything onto the low couch table and took a seat beside the hedgehog. He looked at Sonic again. "Having your serious five minutes?"

Sonic smiled a little. "Maybe." He paused a moment, thoughtfully looking at Knuckles. "I just happened to watch the news. The freaking Emeralds are playing with the weather. There was a tsunami at Emerald Coast, a big fire in Hill Top and flooding rains in Marble Zone." Sonic paused again. "You were right."

"I know," Knuckles said quietly. "I damn know. And I wish I wasn't." His gaze dropped. "I wish I knew something I could do. Something useful, something that'd help. Instead, I'm sitting here playing entertainer for sick hedgehogs." He froze and looked up at Sonic when he realized how that must have sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

Sonic seemed quite amused instead of angry. "I didn't ask for it." He smirked for just a second. "But I understand what you mean. I don't like being damned to wait either, but Tails said he's got a plan. And if Tails has a plan, it can't be that bad anymore."

"I was up there when I asked the Professor for any games he got. He answered with on of his cryptic sentences and I needed a minute to figure what he said. Then I asked what they were doing there, but they both refused talking to me. As if they'd forgotten I was there. So I left." Knuckles shrugged.

Sonic grinned. "Tails is not talking to you? That's a good sign. He always refuses talking to me when he makes some kind of great new invention."

"Still, I wish I could actually help…" Knuckles sighed.

Sonic put a hand on his shoulder and waited until he looked up to meet his eyes. "You know, you are helping out. A whole lot. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't know that much about this Anti-Chaos and it would be a lot harder to find a way to get rid of it."

Knuckles blinked. "I … never thought of it in those terms…"

"See? You and your sense for the Master Emerald and that thing told us what we are looking for. Tails might be our little genius, but he'd be doomed without your knowledge as starters. He wouldn't even know what he's looking for." Sonic smiled at the red echidna. "Okay?"

"I guess." Knuckles slowly inclined his head at the hedgehog and the smallest impression of a smile lit his features. "So, do you tell me what we will do with these things I wasted ten minutes of my life searching for?" He pointed at dice cup and dice.

Sonic snickered and sat upright. "Sure."

Half an hour later, when they started yet another round of the game and Knuckles had lost multiple times already, he silently wondered what had driven him to promise Tails this morning he'd take care of Sonic and keep him occupied to make him sit still for another day.

Maybe it had been that Tails had assured him that after another day of rest Sonic would be almost completely fine again, and that looking at the hedgehog, Knuckles had no other chance than to believe it. Sonic had looked really sick yesterday and slept most of the time, now he still was a little paler around the muzzle than usual and who knew him well - and Knuckles did - could see how his ears still drooped a little forward, always a clear sign that Sonic was either very tired or not healthy, but he had stopped sneezing every few minutes and you could actually talk to him without him sounding like a strangled frog. He really was a lot better, and in much better mood.

And maybe Knuckles just didn't want that hyperactive freak to risk that rapid recovery by trying to go for a run because he got bored sitting still. Because he knew that very likely they would need him later. In a healthy condition.

... or maybe the echidna was secretly as just bored as Sonic and they could as well be bored together.

Knuckles took the dice cup from Sonic, shook it and with little enthusiasm turned it around, looking at the mess of numbers. "Just some more useless crap. Not even a pair…", he muttered in annoyance.

"Knux? You won." Sonic pointed at the dice.

"I… won…?"

"Sure, this is a street. One, two, three, four, five. Street. You win." Sonic grinned.

Knuckles looked at the dice a little longer. "Alright," he smiled then and put them back into the cup. He started shaking it again and looked sideways at Sonic. "Now I'll show you…"

Sonic's grin broadened. "I can't wait to see you try."

"A patrol of inferior machines circles the base and returns to each entrance with a frequency of ten times an hour," Omega informed Rouge.

The bat nodded and looked at the seemingly empty space where Omega stood. "That gives us six minutes to get inside."

The two team members had spend two days spying on Eggman's underground hideout and trying to find a good way to sneak in unnoticed. The tunnel Rouge had used to enter the base the first time was out of question if she wanted to take her robot friend along; Omega was too big to fit through. It had been already small for Rouge to fit in.

Finding the admittedly very well camouflaged entrances had taken one day already, but by now Rouge and Omega knew exactly where each of the three existing ways to get inside were situated.

In the morning of the second day they had 'kidnapped' one of Eggman's patrol robos, an action that had proven just how useful Omega's temporary invisibility could be on occasions. Overriding their capitive's circuits, Omega had copied all data from the robot's databanks, what had equipped the duo with detailed plans of the base's interior.

Of course the little guard robo had not possessed any of the information Rouge was truly looking for. Those would be well locked in Eggman's central computer, likely secured with several codes and passwords.

But judging from the blank regions on the robo's maps, Rouge and Omega now knew exactly which parts of the base were level one security, parts that the normal robots were not allowed to enter, just Eggman himself.

And soon they would. Uninvited of course.

Rouge smirked at the thought. It wouldn't be the first Eggman-base she broke into, but usually she just smashed whatever robot got in her way. This time, the plan included staying completely unnoticed. She wanted to sneak in, hack into Eggman's computers, find out what he'd done to Shadow and how it could be reversed, and sneak out again. If Eggman found out she and Omega had been inside his hideout and used his computers, he would certainly be able to guess what they had wanted and maybe take countermeasures. That would make her plan more difficult, and Rouge preferred keeping things easy. Usually, the method of least resistance was the fastest, and less stressful than bothering with the mad scientist in person and his personal army of robots on top of it.

The white bat leaned back on the bed she was sitting on in the small motel room in a town a few miles away from the base. They would wait until nightfall. Inside the base, the time of day was completely unimportant, but outside darkness would give her some stealth. Not that her companion needed it…

Rouge smiled. "You know Omega, I'm starting to think it was good luck that that Chaos Emerald turned you invisible. It will make this job a lot easier."

She could hear the robot shift. "This unit does not plan to keep this state. Design of the E-series robots did not contain total loss of optical reference to innate mechanical make-up."

"So you mean you're not supposed not to see yourself?" Rouge giggled.

With the always snarling, metallic sound of his voice and his not changing tone it was hard to tell, but to her he had sounded grouchy. The bat tilted her head. It was difficult to say if Omega had truly crossed the line between being an extraordinary machine and becoming a true artificial intelligence. A robotic being. Metal Sonic had quite certainly done that, so Rouge knew it was possible.

In Omega's case… Sometimes he was so straightly logical, she could see nothing but the robot in him. Then again, she felt like he did have some sort of feelings. And there was still the question why he stayed with her and Shadow after his 'mission' had been finished. Was it that he liked them? Or just that maybe his mission to destroy all Eggman robots couldn't be finished, there were still new ones built? But after all, she felt he was enough a person to call him 'he' instead of 'it', right?

Rouge looked back at where she knew the robot. "Don't worry, we'll try and find a way to make you visible again." She frowned. "Although I have no idea how. But I'll go crazy if I have to talk to someone I can't see for much longer."

"Okay, what do you think?" Tails looked between Knuckles and Sonic.

"It sounds crazy." Knuckles shook his head. "You actually want to use that dangerous Anti-Chaos-thing? As a big battery?"

Tails simply nodded, though after days of working out the plan he'd wished for more enthusiasm. "Yes."

"I guess it could work," Sonic agreed with the fox. He understood if at all half of the lecture Tails and the Professor had given him and Knuckles during the last half an hour, but what he understood sounded logical. The hedgehog turned to Knuckles. "I mean, why not? Tails used a Chaos Emerald before to power his plane. Technically, you somewhat use the Master Emerald to keep your island afloat. So why shouldn't it be possible to use that Anti-Chaos stone to power a rocket?"

Knuckles grunted. "It is dangerous! Don't you see? Nobody knows how to control all that power!"

"Knuckles, listen," Tails tried again. "We do not need to control it. Not the way you are thinking we need to." He paused for a moment until Knuckles looked at him. Although being the youngest of the group, Tails could be surprisingly patient. "We know different ways of using the Chaos Emeralds and their energy. One is a direct way. That is what Sonic does when he turns super and Shadow when he uses Chaos Control or his Chaos Spears... Or how you use the Master Emerald. This direct way acquires a close bond between the being that uses the power and the source of chaos energy it draws upon. And I'm sure we all agree with you that this is a kind of contact we can and will not risk with this thing."

Knuckles had relaxed a bit during Tails' speech, his temper ebbing away and he looked almost calmly at the little fox, waiting for him to continue.

Tails did. "Then there is a second way. One that is a lot less direct. This is what I did when I used the Chaos Emeralds to power the Tornado or the rings as my usual power source, as they are also a form of chaos energy. Eggman does that with most of his robots that use rings or Emeralds." Tails stopped for a moment to give the echidna some time to think. "This version of using the Emeralds' powers fuses a bit of the energy into a machine. It's technically similar to using a battery. Just a lot lot more complicated. The Anti-Chaos stone will have enough power to lift the rocket and shoot it millions of miles into space, fast enough to reach escape velocity from our solar system, too. The whole thing won't be more than two times as heavy as the stone itself, already including it of course. The matter of energy should be a cinch."

Knuckles slowly nodded. "Okay, maybe this is not as insane as it sounds."

Sonic grinned. "Tails' plans are the best of all. And this one can't fail. No way in hell."

"Huh? Why not?" Knuckles frowned at the hedgehog.

Sonic's grin broadened. "I gave him the basic idea. And MY plans also never fail. So, success is almost guaranteed…"

Groaning, Knuckles shook his head and elbowed him, but secretly he was glad that Sonic lightened up the mood a bit. He just didn't need to show him that…

Sonic looked back at the fox. "Okay Tails, now that we all support this little idea, what do we do now?"

"By now we know where the comet will impact in exactly…" he turned over his shoulder to one of the lab's screens "… 29 hours and 15 minutes." Tails turned back to the others. "On one of the biggest glaciers of Ice Paradise Zone. Which brings up a new problem."

"So? What problem?" Sonic quirked an eye ridge at his adopted brother.

"We cannot land there. The Zone's glaciers are known to be full of gaps you can't see from above. Besides, I wouldn't want to get close to the landed Anti-Chaos with any kind of sensitive machinery. It's highly likely to cause great interference."

"Meaning what exactly?" Sonic still frowned.

"It means we have to land in one of the less snowed-in valleys and walk all the way up the mountains to the glaciers and search for the meteoroid," Tails explained.

"Wait…" Knuckles looked at him. "I thought you said we needed to take all the material you need to build this... rocket along."

"Knux is right; carrying it will be stupid." Sonic rubbed his left ear.

"I didn't plan to carry all the material," Tails smiled. "We'll fly over the glacier on our way there and I'll throw it down. With a parachute of course, so it'll safely land in the snow."

"Okay, I get it. What about accommodation? Sonic said he's been there and even without his storytelling I wouldn't say this place sounds good for camping," Knuckles noticed.

Tails nodded. "I already checked that out." He turned to Sonic. "As you know, Ice Paradise is a popular location for all-year winter sports. Most of them take place in the lower regions of the mountains, closer to the valleys and the villages there, but some people like doing sports in the glacier area. Skiing sometimes and glacier climbing."

Sonic nodded. "I know."

"There are huts up there you can rent for holidays," Tails continued, "We should be able to find one that's close enough to the impact spot so we can pass the nights there without freezing to death."

"Good. Then what?" Sonic looked around.

Tails grinned. "What are you waiting for? Start packing! And don't forget your hankies, Sonic!"

The blue hedgehog grimaced. "Very funny. But it's a lot better already, honest!"

"He's right. I guess we can risk taking him along…" Knuckles smirked, feeling suddenly a lot better now that some kind of action was actually in reach. Good enough to make fun of Sonic.

"I think so. But Sonic, you really have to think of a nice warm scarf and woolly gloves and socks." Tails giggled, adding some more teasing to Knuckles' words.

"Of course. I recommend you do the same," Sonic grinned, fully able to ignore their needling. "None of us has a winter fur and I don't plan to stay there long enough to start growing it."

Tails shook himself. "Good idea. I don't need to be there and itch all over for a week and then come back home where it's warmer and itch again when it grows back! I'll put on the warm pullover I got in the Tornado."

"I'm fine without that stuff," Sonic declared.

Knuckles looked him up and down. "You would bust a pullover anyway; those things you got on your back aren't exactly good for clothes." He grinned.

Sonic shrugged and softly ran a hand through his blue quills. "Admit it, you just envy me for having such nice sharp spikes."

Knuckles grunted. "As if…"

"I'm a hedgehog. And hedgehogs have sharp spikes. This is how we are supposed to be." Sonic stopped brushing down his quills, arms folding on his chest as he glanced sideways at the red echidna.

"I can kinda see that point." Knuckles nodded, but there was a small smirk on his face. "You would look stupid without them though. Not that you look a lot more intelligent with them, but they sure suit you…"

"Knux?"

"Yes…?"

"You know you should be fast now….?"

"Sure…" Knuckles spun on his heels and rushed over to the door and into the staircase, Sonic directly on his heels. "Sonic?! Didn't Tails say you should rest today?!"

"I don't care what Tails says! I'm the older one!", Sonic called back as they raced down floor after floor of the staircase.

Tails stood in the lab, looking after his two friends, still hearing them shouting. The fox looked at Archibald. "Sometimes I wonder if that truly is the case."

He giggled and the raccoon laughed, and both walked after them, just like the hedgehog and the echidna paying no attention to the small robot drone that hovered near the top of the round roof, the Eggman logo on its side blinking and its camera and microphone still focused on the now empty room.