A Monarch's Corruption
Chapter 3: Arrival
It had been nearly twenty hours since Tails took off from the airport in Downunda. He had made on stop along the way for a fuel refill since it was a very long flight, but he was finally nearing New Mobotropolis. It was about four in the morning and it was still pitch black out as Tails was nearing the city. He could see a few lights in the distance that was probably the signs of life that he had been looking for and was greatly relieved to finally see coming up. Tails changes his trajectory and heads for the lights so that he could land.
When Tails though got only a few miles outside of the city there was a beep on his headset signaling that someone was trying to contact him for some reason. Tails reaches up and was about to press the button to turn the headset on so that he could respond, when someone instead hacked his headset and it came on anyway. "This is New Mobotropolis air control. You are in restricted royal airspace and do not have verification to be in this area. If you do not turn around and leave in thirty seconds, we will be forced to shoot your vessel down. Leave now, this is your only warning!" said a strong strict voice over Tails' headset that kind of started him. He didn't need to think twice about what he just heard and changes the direction he is flying to look like he is flying away from the city.
This was a problem for Tails, it seems that all air vessels weren't allowed near the capital city for some reason, which was a surprise to him, since he knew there was an airport in the city. He was going to have to find a place to land somewhere nearby to the city it seemed and was going to have to walk into the city by foot if he could. That was usually not Tails' preferred style, but if it was his only way to get to the city, he really had no other choice, since he hadn't even gotten to the city yet and already was having problems. Hopefully it wasn't a predictor of his luck to come in the future during this trip.
Tails has to scan the area very carefully with a search light on his plane, since it was still dark out, to find a place to land the plane. He did luck out and there was a clearing still only a few miles outside of the city. Tails lowers his landing gear and slowly starts to drop his altitude. As the plane starts to get closer to the ground, he pushes the control on forward to make the plane descend and his speed slowly starts to drop as he makes his approach. His lights lower down towards the ground to illuminate where he is landing and his wheels slowly touch the grass as there is a massive jerk as the plane hits the ground. Tails immediately puts on the brakes the moment he feels the wheels hit the ground. The plane starts to skid since he did hit the brakes to the plane a bit hard as it starts to scrap and tear up the grass up under his wheels, leaving and obvious mark to where he is landing, but he would rather that than make a long landing and risk running out of room. Tails immediately cuts the engines, they coming to an immediate stop as he continues to press the breaks down hard. It took only about a hundred feet before Tails had come to a complete stop, as he sits there in the plane, the land around him not totally silent, except for the small bit of humming from his engines as they start to cool on down.
Tails Takes a deep breath and unbuckles his seatbelt harness and stands on up climbing out of the cockpit of his plane. Once he was standing on the wing, he reaches in grabbing his side satchel and throws it over his shoulder and locks the front so that no one could easily slip a hand inside and take
anything. He didn't know if the people in town were like that or not, since he hadn't been there in such a long time, but he wasn't about to take a single chance and risk his stuff getting stolen if it was going to happen.
Tails was pushing the plan as hard as he could with all his strength, it actually was moving though. He didn't want to leave the plane out in the open and get spotted, since if anyone looked at the side of his plane, they would see his symbol plastered all over the side of the plane. Anyone that has ever heard of him or his inventions would immediately recognize that symbol and if anyone figured out who he was then his cover would be blow and the people in the area would then know he was there and he probably wouldn't be able to find out anything he needed to know if he was recognized. He was going to have to change himself at least a tad when he enters town so that he wasn't spotted.
Tails would deal with that issue in a moment, but right now, he needed to get his plane hidden. He grunts hard and pushes it more and more until it finally gets over to some very tall grass and some trees as well as he struggles to get the wheels and plane all the way into the grass before he just fall onto his rear and breaths hard and has to take a small break before he would be able to do anything else. That plane was heavy and it took a lot out of him to push it into some covering.
After Tails took a ten minute break to catch his breath, he immediately flies up into some of the nearby trees and starts to rip out as many branches as he can and flies on down back to his plane and starts to place sticks and branches over his plane to hide it. Doing this was going to make it near impossible to make a quick getaway if he really needed to, but staying hidden right now was what he needed to be more concerned with it. If he was later found to be in the area, then being sneaky wasn't going to be such a high priority as it was right now, but right now, it was.
It took Tails several trips but he eventually did get his plane totally covered in branches, sticks and leaves. It nearly looked invisible and unless you were standing right on top of the plane, it wouldn't be able to be spotted in the least. He had done a good job, but the skid marks that were still in the grass nearby were a worry to him, since he knew if anyone walked or flew over this area, they would see the skids and know something happened here, and if they found the plane, it would most likely be taken away. Tails didn't have any equipment with him right now though to deal with the skids, and with the fact that it was still really dark out, he was just going to leave the skids and hope for the best.
Once he all done with everything he needed to do with his plane, Tails throws his satchel back over his shoulder once again and makes his way over towards a nearby road where he would walk into town like a normal person. Even though Tails didn't like it, he had a shirt he had pulled out of his plane and had slipped it on himself, and he also put a pair of sunglasses on his head and a pair of regular glasses on his eyes as well. He didn't really need the glasses, but he did use them from time to time anyway. He figured at least looking a tad bit of a change in his appearance like this might aid him in blending in and looking less like his old self.
Tails takes a deep breath now and continues to walk on down the road now towards the city. Tails hadn't been to New Mobotropolis in so many years now that he wasn't sure he was going to be able to remember how to get around the city even when he does get there. Though, there is no telling how the
city is even going to look now that it has been under Shadow's rule for so long now. It could look the same, it could be trashed, it could look better, though that one Tails doubted from the rumors he had heard about how this city looked now. He was hoping it wasn't too bad, because he wanted to know if his old home or any of his friends still lived around the city. He did have sort of low hopes on all of his expectations of the city, since many people tell you to never get your hopes up when you come to this city.
Tails was only about a mile out of the city when the lights were starting to get a bit brighter. Apparently there were still lots of lights in the city, even this early in the morning. Tails checks his watch again it nearing six in the morning already, so there was a tad of sunlight off in the distance, but it was still pretty early for most people to be up, at least in his area, no one was up this early, and especially on a Sunday, when most people were allowed to sleep mega late. It was one of Tails' favorite days since it was his lazy day where he could usually be with Mina all day long, and also usually snuggle in bed with her for awhile before having to get the kids their breakfast. Thinking of all this started to make Tails blush some thinking of some of the other Sunday mornings that he had had with Mina, he rather not mentioning those, though it does go to tell you something that in Downunda, for some reasons, kids tend to be born on this day more often than any other day of the week it seems. People never thought anything about it, but it always had fascinated Tails about that little fact.
Tails being so into his thoughts didn't almost didn't even realize that he was about to walk into town now. He did though catch this in time to look up and go wide eyed at what he saw. The old walls that had the shield generator had been totally redone since the last time he had seen it. The walls were now much higher and also tall spikes up at the top that were partly for decoration, but also to make the wall now mega hard to climb over. At the main entrance to the two were at least four guards, two standing down by the large double doors and two up in two guard houses up to the left and right above the door. it seemed security in the town was pretty tight, so that was going to make it hard for Tails to get in he thought. He had only one idea at the moment and if it didn't work, he would have to find an alternate way in, but this city having no trees around the walls also made it that more hard to be able to sneak in if he needed to. He just had to hope that his first plan was going to work.
Tails walked up towards the gate and a light was shined at him from one of the guard tower as one of the familiar dark legion soldiers walks over towards Tails now with a rifle in hand, but he not looking too aggressive at the moment. "Identification sir." he asks Tails not wasting time. Tails then puts on a confused look to the soldier, he wanting to make this look real and not fake at all. "Excuse me sir? What is this identification that I need? I'm just a wanderer and traveler and usually don't come to cities that often. I used to live here long ago and wish to come and visit my old stomping grounds." says Tails as he tries to sound legitimate in what he was telling the soldier hoping that he would buy it and maybe let him without ID confirmation. The soldier eyes Tails and sees him carrying a traveler's satchel and a survival belt, and that story did seem to fit why he would be carrying these things on him like this. "Hmmm, well that does sort of make sense. You don't have any weapons in your satchel do you?" asks the soldier, he wanting to at least uphold that part of his duty.
Tails had to make this sound right or he might be searched and the other items he found might get him in trouble, since of them yes could be considered survival gear, but he was still a little over stocked for a simple traveler. "Well, yes, but everything I have is used for pure survival. I don't use a weapon on anything unless I plan to eat it. Can you please find it in your heart to let me in sir? I will get one of those ID things you need once I get inside if I can get them there." says Tails trying to sound pitiful now to the guard. He was doing a pretty good job of this acting, and the guard seemed to be buying it. "Well, as long as any weapons you take in are not used and you get an ID as soon as you can I will let you in, but you have until tomorrow at noon to come show me that you have gotten an ID or I will get the guards inside the city to come look for you to make you leave. We can't have unregistered citizens inside this city. Don't you know who lives here?" asks the dark legion soldier, he seeming to have weakened enough to actually believe what Tails had to say to him.
Tails smiles and nods to the guard. "Oh yes sir, this is where the king lives. I used to live here during the last ruler, but I still would always like to meet the new ruler one day. I've only seen him on tv screens before." says Tails now trying to act even more out of the loop and such to keep his story going that was sounding better by the minute as he told it. He almost could believe it himself, that is if he didn't know it was all a big lie to try and get into the city without being found out he was here.
The dark legion soldier waves up the guards above him hearing Tails' response to that. "Alright, I will believe you this time, but get that ID or like I said, I will send out some people to get you. The king wants his citizens all recorded so that we know who everyone is. It is just a way to keep us all in check. Now be on your way." says the guard and the doors finally open as Tails takes a sigh of relief and walks on into the city. The doors immediately shut behind him, and he is now stuck inside the city until he can find another way out really or those guards let him back out the same way he came in.
Tails looks around and is astonished at what he sees, there are still houses all around in the city, but many of them don't look as nice as they used to, it looks like none of them have had renovations in many years. The streets were literally littered with dark legion soldiers. Many were walking down the streets, while there were a few in their saucer like hovercrafts flying around the city going from place to place. It was obvious this place was not like Downunda at all from just his initial first looks. The security around here was tight, and they certainly kept the city looked after and under their control. That does probably mean that the citizens are well protected, but with all the laws that might be in acted around here, there is no telling how their ways of life are still.
Tails continues to glance around the city and he continues to see many more of the goddess Maria statues around the city, but there so many more than there are back home where there is just the one right in the center of the city. It was obvious that the king liked the goddess if she was around his capital city so much like this. These unlike some of the buildings he has passed so far, all look to be in perfect condition and polished as well. These obviously were well taken care of, and not allowed to get messed up like some of the other things around this city that are in serious need of fixing.
Tails could also see the castle off in the center of the city where it always was. The castle now instead of white though was a light black color and the flags now instead of being the symbol of the acorn were
now the black and red of Shadow in the middle of a black colored flag. There were so many lights around the towers of the castle it was well guarded so as to prevent all intruders from getting into the castle. That was probably another one of Shadow's ideas, he is well protected and looked after while the citizens may be protected, but aren't living in as good of conditions as he is up there in that castle. Tails just shakes his head to that and continues to walk on down the street.
Tails was going to head to his when there is a ding heard nearby him as he looks over near one of the maria statues and sees a large clock strike six in the morning. There were bells under the clock and then he slowly heard five other dings that went along with that first one. Tails was about to disregard all of this when he saw the guards all start to head to houses and start to knock on the doors pretty hard for some reasons that Tails didn't understand. It only took a moment before people start to exit their home and walk on down the streets towards him and then on past him. "Huh?" thought Tails and wonders where these people are going as he sees the soldiers then go and start to knock on other door and they seem to be waking up even more people as well.
Tails was about to stop and ask someone what was going on, when he gets a bump in his back and turns to come face to face with another masked dark legion soldier. "Get moving sir, no loitering at this time." says the soldier to him in a strict voice. "Can you please tell me what this is about?" asks Tails to the soldier he taking on a confused look at this moment, which really wasn't part of his act, since he literally was confused about this. "You know the rules. It's Sunday and six in the morning. It's time for all you residents to head to the Grand Church of the Goddess Maria for Sunday church. It's the law. If you don't go we will be forced to take you in." says the soldier immediately to Tails' question and sounded very serious about what he just told him.
Tails was caught in utter shock at what he had just heard. It was the law here in this city for all the people to go and worship and have church at six in the morning for the goddess, even if they didn't want to or not. If you didn't go you were apparently arrested for it. Tails just couldn't believe this, but since he was trying to blend in right now, he had to go along with it. Tails nods to the soldier and turns and just follows the other citizens towards the church since he didn't know where this church existed, since this church wasn't here when he left the city.
Tails only had to walk a few blocks before he sees a large church that had stained glass mirrors of the goddess Maria all over them, as well as empire's flag waving on the top of the church as well to show it was the official church in town. Tails just kind of shakes his head at all this and willingly walks over and up the elaborate steps of the church so that he could head inside with the others. The soldiers didn't mind him taking his goods inside the building at all. Though Tails thought it strange, even the church had exterior guards. Dark legion soldiers just literally were everywhere in this town.
Once Tails got into the church he was finally able to look around the inside. Inside there were rows and rows of long pews all over the church. There was even a second floor that had more pews on it as well. The place had to accommodate for the entire city, so there needed to be plenty of space. It even looked like they might be about to add a third level of pews as well, since there was more wood and metal just laying around inside the church and a new staircase being put in. The pastors' podium was up on a small
elevated stage, so it would be visible for people on all levels of the church. There was also a microphone and speakers all around the church as well so that everyone could hear what he had to say to everyone. That was at least helpful and it seemed that this church actually did care about the members actually being able to hear the sermon, whatever that was going to be on, but still, you were forced to come here at this early hour on the day Tails usually thought of as his day of rest. He really didn't think this was right at all.
Tails takes a seat in one of the ground level pews of the church, near the front and just sits there as more and more people start to pour into the church. He does turn his head to look and see if he sees any familiar faces in the crowd, but strangely he doesn't see a single person that remotely looks like any of his close friends or family, and that had him worried and wondering what has happened to everyone. He hoped they were all still alive, but if they weren't here in this church, that might could mean that either they have moved somewhere else or at the other end of the spectrum, they could all be gone for good. He didn't want to think about that though at all since he wanted to see them all again.
Tails continues to sit there as the church continued to fill up when he saw someone head up onto the podium up front, this obviously the preacher about to start the sermon. Tails had heard a few sermons before on this religion, though even though he knew some of the things in it are false, he just went along with it as to not get in trouble. The preacher was wearing a long black robe that looked like the ones that the dark legion all wear, but this guy had his food down to show that he was another echidna, just like most or the entire dark legion were anyway, so it was no surprise this preacher was one as well.
"Good to see you all here as usual everyone. We might as well get started with my sermon since that is what you all came here for." says the preacher echidna as he pulls out a small book from his deep pockets. Tails saw one of the same books sitting in a little pocket in the back of the pew in front of him and grabs it just like everyone else was doing in the church. "Alright, today we will be talking about the new coming of our goddess. You all know about how all of it began when the overlanders killed the original vessel of our great and wonderful goddess when she was still young. They didn't want her to grow up and potentially help us all in our world. They thought by killing her they would hurt our world greatly and maybe make there's a better place. As you can see, our land is not as pretty as it once was, but we have all been out working to try and make our homes a better place, just like our wonderful king has done in his searches to try and bring back our goddess to us all. On the day of her returning, the land will all be bright green as far as you can see, and all people opposed to her will be punished for their disbelief. She will go and join our wonderful king and bring him and the rest of us into a new golden age, where we will all prosper and live in joy for the rest of our days."
Tails couldn't really believe what he was hearing here. He knew the story about Maria and what happened to her back on the Ark so long ago, and yes she was killed by GUN, this was a complete twist on the story it sounded like to him. Tails just continues to listen though, since he couldn't interrupt without getting in trouble. "With the goddess help, our king will help bring our entire great world into one nation with no wars or strife ever again. Everyone will be happy and have plenty of happiness every day of their lives. There will be no more suffering and no more fighting. We will all life together in happiness and bliss forever more. Our land will be safe for all eternity and our lives will change forever."
says the preacher in a happy sounding voice to everyone. Most of the people also seem to be smiling as well and a few even looking near tears.
Tails could see from the look on these people's face that they all believed all of this. He just simply shook his head and looked down. He couldn't believe all of what he was hearing, but there was nothing he could do for these people. They had been told what they wanted to hear, so they loved the goddess and the king even more just by coming to this sermon. That's when the preacher motions to someone and a young female echidna walks on up onto the stage with the preacher and goes over to a piano that was nearby and sat on down. "Now everyone, we will sing a song to our lovely goddess as the collection plates go around for you all to place a contribution to your goddess." says the preacher turns to the female echidna and nods to her as she then starts to play a pretty nice sounding song. Right after she started to play, a couple of dark legion soldiers walk in with collection plates and start to pass them around. People were mainly just sticking one or two coins into the trays, which Tails did himself just to go along with the others and places a single coin into the tray as he listened to the rest of the song.
Once the song was over and the plates were fully collected, they were brought to the front of the church and placed there near the preacher. The plates were all pretty full from the looks of it. So many contributions were bound to be why this church was still in such great shape and so nice inside and out while other things in town aren't as nice as this now. After that song, the preacher started to talk once again for at least another twenty minutes about the return of the goddess before he held up both of his hands with a serious look on his face. "Everyone, I am pleased you all came to this service, but before we go, we must say the prayer of the goddess Maria. So please stand up and get ready to recite the grand prayer." says the preacher as everyone in the church starts to get to their feet.
Tails got to his feet as well and would at least pretend he knew the prayer, but to be honest he never had heard this prayer before so he was just going to listen in. That's about when the prayer started now. "Dear oh great goddess Maria, we give our thanks to you for bring us all into this life and allowing us to live under your rule. You have the purest heart of all, and even though many of us sin often, you bring it into your heart to forgive us even when we take your great love for granted. We pray for you future return to us all and that it will be one day soon as we all miss you greatly. Bring us food and ever lasting peace as we pray to you oh great goddess Maria. We give thanks to you and all those who are loyal to you, amen." says the preacher and everyone else in the entire church as they said the prayer with the preacher.
"Alright everyone, that is all for church at this time. Be sure and come back this evening at six for the evening service and dinner so that we may honor our wonderful Maria once again." says the preacher as he turns to start to leave the stage as the others in the church are getting up to start leave now as well. Tails immediately stands up and exits the church along with everyone else in the town that was in there. Once they got all outside, the other furs all start to head on back towards their homes right away. Most of them all still looking tired, so Tails figured it was time for most of them to now go back and get back to sleep, since they had been awake for so long already this early.
Tails looks and saw he was pretty close to the castle when he was in this church, though he had some other place he wanted to go. He wasn't interested in the castle right now. Right now, Tails wanted to find his old home and see if he could find any clues there about what might have happened while he was gone. He remembers exactly where he used to live and heads right towards it. It was about six or so blocks away from the church, which was a good thing for him, since he didn't have to walk that far.
Once Tails got to the street he was thinking up, he could see that the house he used to live in with his parents was still there, but it looked abandoned though. That though was what Tails kind of wanted, because if there were any clues left there, they would still be intact and not moved around from someone else living there. Tails heads over to the front door and pushes on the door finding that the door wasn't locked, but was in fact still open. Tails turns the handle and walks into his old house.
Tails walks into the house and looks seeing there a lot of dust inside the place, but not very many items inside it still. One look at this and Tails could tell that his parents had most likely moved out, which could mean they were still alive somewhere and he wanted to find them the most of all, since it had been so long since he had seen them. That's when he looked over to his right and saw that an old table that used to be there was still there, yet had a piece of paper tacked onto the table though as if it was there on purpose. He couldn't help it and blew on it to blow the dust off it, and there was writing all on this paper and it was in his parents' handwriting. Tails immediately grabs the piece of paper to read what it had to say.
"Hi son, I'm sure this is you reading this, since we made it so that no one else would be able to get into this house but you if you ever did return home. I'm sorry we are both not still here in this house, but we felt it time to move to a better place. We were told that moving to angel island was a better place to live than the capital city here since yes there is heavy occupation there too, but the crime rates and rules there aren't as bad as they were at the time we left. If we are still alive and you are still alive, you should come find us. Please try and not get in trouble son, we love you and look forward to seeing you again one day if you're reading this. This next part would be a bit hard for you to handle but if you can I would like you to look into it. You remember how your friend Sonic and Rotor were thrown into jail all those years ago. There are rumors that they are still down there in the dungeon of the castle being tortured even to this day. If there is ever some way you can get in there and at least make contact with them that would be mega helpful to us all. There has to be a reason at least why the king put Rotor down there as well. He must know something that we don't know, and if you can find out what that was, you might be able to help us all. We never could confirm it, and we tried a few times when were invited to the castle, but each time we failed and had to make up an excuse as to why we had wondered off. If you do or don't find anything, please come to New Echindaopolis as soon as possible. We would love to speak with you. As well many of your old friends moved there as well. It seemed the best we could do since we couldn't go as far away as you could to get away from the tyrant. We hope to see you again our son. Love Mr. and Mrs. Prower."
Tails hearing that, looks out the window right next to where he is standing holding the note and can see the tall black castle outside of it in the distance. Even though it looked near impossible from all the guards that were around it and such, that was where he was going to have to go next. The only problem
he could see that he was going to have was getting in. There had to be a way to get in there. If he was spotted, he would be caught and everything he has come to do will have been for nothing. Tails had to get into that castle and find the truth, one way or another he was going to get in there. He just had to think up a plan on how he was going to do that. One thing about Tails though, he never gave up, he would find a way in there.