Chapter 11: Trust

Sonic wasn't stupid. He knew that Robotnik was undoubtedly watching the news right now, looking for any signs of people yielding to his demands and of the hedgehog himself. But what was he supposed to do, stand still?

As he sprinted through the Holland Tunnel, which didn't take long to find, as fast and agilely as possible, he knew that the occupants of all the cars he was jumping over and avoiding were watching him, possibly and photographing and filming him as well. Some of those photos or videos would inevitably make it to the media, which meant Robotnik would watch them. He had to get off the road as soon as possible, running along beside it rather than directly on it. Making that a better idea was the fact that the traffic in front was getting worse.

Unfortunately for Sonic, after running out of the Tunnel, he saw there were still no adjacent grass fields or flat surfaces on which to run. The entire area was still urban. All eyes were on him. He could move fast, but not to the point where people could dismiss him passing by as a trick of the mind, at least not in this place. Especially since he had already appeared as a blue blur on TV.

Sonic leapt over a toll booth before landing and continuing without slowing down even slightly. The only good news now was that nobody knew he was heading west other than that one guy, Chris, whom he really hoped wouldn't reveal the secret. Sonic had no idea if the man even saw it as such. Hopefully he did. That way, even if Robotnik saw Sonic on the news again, he would assume the hedgehog was still lost. And that itself was unlikely due to the hostage situation grabbing all of the media's attention.

The map Sonic had seen in Chris' apartment let him know that America was a large country to traverse. He had not checked the scales, but it should be something within his abilities. Just to make sure, though…he checked his surroundings. There seemed to be a little less traffic now. More space on the road. At least for the moment.

Feeling sure that this wasn't going to happen often, or that it wouldn't last long, Sonic seized the chance, cranking his legs even harder than usual, equally dividing every iota of his attention on the road and on his movements. Three, two, one…

PAP! Cars traveling in either direction, both in front and behind, horned and swerved as a loud sound and a white halo manifested on the highway. Those with quicker perceptions saw a very brief blue blur race past. Some of them, naturally, were police officers, who immediately reported it in.

"Hey!" the Marines standing in front of the altar's steps heard someone shout. "What are you doing here!"

Everybody's rifle was raised at the red-furred newcomer the instant he made his presence clear. "Jesus! That Robotnik guy wasn't kidding!"

Knuckles had seen one of the helicopters land earlier, dropping out men with guns in front of the Emerald Altar, while another helicopter hovered over the Emerald itself and the third remaining one stood by for cover. He was only able to draw one conclusion, which was further confirmed by the man's comment. "You…you're doing this for Robotnik?" he asked angrily, fists raised while standing in a combat-ready stance.

"You're the guardian of this place that crazy fat ass was talking about?" a private asked in return, aiming his M16 nervously.

"Yes," Knuckles replied in a softer voice, before adding, "and you're only going to do his dirty work over my. Dead. Body."

The echidna and the Marines held eye contact for one more second. Both were already ready for a messy battle, but then came another loud, powerful voice that made sure to prevent it. "Hold it! Hold it! Squad, hold your fire and stand down!" It was the sergeant.

A black man noticeably taller than the rest of the team took a few steps closer towards Knuckles, holding his left hand high up to get his message clearly across. Fortunately, the other Marines complied, though they continued to aim their weapons at the echidna. His right hand held a rifle, but it was facing downwards. "Sergeant Henry Fulton, United States Marine Corps. I take it all those gemstones up there are yours?" he asked, sounding more polite or curious rather than aggressive.

Knuckles was confused for a moment. This wasn't what he expected. He did not soften his stance, though he gave his reply on a calmer note. He sighed before doing so. "Yes. I am Knuckles, the Guardian of Angel Island, the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds. No one other than myself and a select few are allowed to interact with them. Their power is too great to be simply left in anyone's hands."

"Is that why this Doctor Robotnik is demanding to have them?" Fulton inquired further.

Knuckles nodded. "Yes. And if you are really going to do what he says, I cannot let you." He made sure to emphasize the last four words.

Fulton spun his head around to check the surroundings. Then he got back into the conversation. "Hmm, you don't really have any…you haven't watched the news, have you?"

A shake of the head. "Never have. Why?"

"Alright, in that case, did you see what happened out there just now? Certainly you got to observe Robotnik's spaceship and what it did if you stood at the island's edge."

Knuckles thought back and talked about what he saw. Large numbers of missiles being launched at the fortress from the ships below, but never reaching it due to some advanced defense mechanism. A ship being obliterated by Robotnik's vaporizer, which was in turn blown off itself by missiles that finally hit it. Then two smaller craft deployed from the fortress which headed into some part of the city which he couldn't really tell. "Wait, did something happen down there?" he asked, honestly curious, his initially hostile attitude all but dropped.

The sergeant nodded grimly. "You bet. Those two crafts smashed into two airport terminals, deployed a bunch of buggy robots and took everyone hostage. Robotnik wants the Emeralds in less than three hours; otherwise he'll kill them all."

Knuckles was taken aback by the answer. "Yeah, sounds like him, alright." Then he shook his head. "But I still can't let you take them. Trust me, what Robotnik plans to do with them will be far, far worse than that. The Master Emerald is what keeps this island flying, and I'm pretty sure Robotnik is using extracted Emerald power to keep his fortress flying. If he has them, he can make new weapons like that laser beam that can put the whole world in danger."

Fulton was silent for a while before he continued. "Look, I'm just following orders, and even then we weren't actually ordered to take those Emeralds, at least not yet. We're not supposed to negotiate with terrorists. And now that you've told us about the power those things have, it looks like an even worse idea now."

"But then what do we do, sir?" a private asked.

The guardian of Angel Island could only think of one idea. He dropped his combat stance for the first time. "Take me down there. Let me see how the situation in the airport looks like. I've handled robots before," he said, holding up his large fists as assurance.

The Marines looked at each other after hearing the suggestion. Finally, the sergeant spoke into his radio. "Sierra Six, this is Sierra Two-One Actual. We may have another way to solve this problem, sir."

It was dark over the countryside in Brandenburg, as the moon wasn't there. This suited Tails just fine as he flew across the grass fields, headed west. At least for now, the black dust and dirt that covered his body came in useful as camouflage. He really didn't want people seeing him up here, and fortunately for him this place was hardly populated unlike Berlin, though it wasn't just because he was afraid of the attention.

The fox checked his wrist device again, looking worried. Just after he exited the city, he got an alert from the device saying that the Tornado was moving, albeit not under its own power. That meant it was being carried or lifted already, most likely by the military. He was going to have to see how exactly they were doing it before he could make his next move, but he was pretty sure it would involve sneaking.

Tails was getting closer. The signal was only two and a half kilometers ahead. Urgency kicked in again, causing him to spin his tails even harder to cover the remaining distance. He reminded himself to find a method of flight even faster than this that didn't involve the Tornado some day, perhaps one that could even break the sound barrier. He was sure it was possible.

Then he finally saw something thanks to his night-adjusted eyes, though it would have been visible even without those. There were two white lights in the sky, part of a larger silhouette that was flying just like him. Tails also noticed that it was emitting an engine noise, and it sounded like a much more mechanical version of the sound his own tails made as they spun.

He got his confirmation as he approached the shape. It was a helicopter, a very large one too, dwarfing most planes he'd seen on Mobius. Below it was some long cables, at the bottom of which dangled the Tornado itself. Finally!

Tails flew lower to get to his plane when he realized the noise was very loud indeed, even for this huge chopper. When he looked up, the reason became clear to him. There was a second, identical helicopter flying roughly fifty feet ahead of the one behind it, with cables stretching down to hold up the front of the Tornado. Both of them flew relatively slowly, however, allowing Tails to catch up with little effort.

Now he had to create a plan to get himself and the plane out of here. He couldn't just get in it now and fly it, not without dragging the helicopters along and likely destroying them. He didn't want to hurt the pilots who were simply doing their jobs. Even putting morality aside, these huge aircraft would definitely weigh him down, and he was in a hurry.

Tails had to cut the cables between the Tornado and the helicopters. He could accomplish that easily enough by flying in with his namesakes sharpened at the tips, and then quickly getting in to start the engines, but after observing the ground below, it was clear there wasn't enough height. The plane would fall onto the field a second time. Even if it didn't disintegrate, the damage would render it unable to fly. The image of it was enough to make Tails wince.

Then he thought of something. The ground here wasn't even, and was actually quite hilly. He raised his own altitude slightly and looked straight ahead and downwards, scanning for any changes in the surface. Up, down, up, down, and…way down. A cliff was coming up ahead.

As they passed over it, Tails saw that the cliff was very tall. Certainly tall enough. In front of the cliff was a wide open plain with no other mountains or obstructions. He sighed in a mixture of relief and happiness. There was a way out after all.

But then he noticed the helicopters were starting to lower themselves. Uh-oh. His window of opportunity was short, and he had to act now.

Tails hurried over to the Tornado and around it, giving it a quick examination. There were some scratches on its underside, but that was all. Everything else thankfully looked fine. Especially the engines. He was also glad to see that his goggles were inside the cockpit on the seat, visible through the canopy.

It was finally time to act. Tails entered the number code on the digital keypad, whose buttons were arranged in a horizontal line, hidden near the base of the canopy. Due to the helicopters' descent, he almost pressed the wrong key a few times while keeping pace, but in the end he got it right on the first try.

The canopy slid open, but Tails wasn't going to sit inside yet. Still in flight mode, the fox held one hand to the dashboard and pushed a button. The Tornado's engines roared the life, the noise it made competing rather fairly with that of the helicopters. The pilots and crew were definitely going to hear it, but that wasn't going to matter soon.

"What the hell?" the pilot in the rear helicopter spoke. "What's that noise?"

"It's coming from the jet below," the copilot answered, glancing down from the cockpit with his night vision goggles on. "Huh? I see something…flying? It's not the plane, some small helicopter-what the hell is it doing?"

Looping around the cables, he got behind the plane, facing the same direction as all three aircraft, and shot all the way forwards, his spinning tails now in slicing mode. He planned to cut the rear cable first, so that the plane would be falling while facing upwards, allowing a relatively safer takeoff.

Shing! Shing! With the cables gone, the Tornado was now in free-fall, nose faced upwards at a thirty-degree angle from the horizontal. Tails rushed downwards, adrenaline already pumping, and his namesakes still spinning to allow him to catch up with it quicker.

"The plane is falling! That helicopter cut the cables!" the copilot shouted in alarm as he looked downwards with a shocked expression, which only grew even more shocked as he noticed something else. "Wait, that's not a-it must be that flying creature from the news!"

Tails had already climbed into the cockpit and rammed the lever up to its maximum thrust. The engines were roaring loudly and working hard, but the plane still wasn't rising yet. The fox compared the remaining height he had to the thrust his engines were capable of and did a quick calculation. He concluded that it had to work, but it didn't make him feel any less nervous.

One hand continued to push the thrust lever, even though it couldn't be pushed any further, while the other tightly gripped a control stick, adjusting the wing flaps to hopefully overcome gravity faster. He didn't dare to look outside. "Come on, come on!" he begged while gritting his teeth. If he had judged the height wrongly and it didn't work-

But it did. As it hit just twenty feet above the ground, the Tornado began shooting forwards and upwards, and it continued to go faster. He opened his eyes again. "Whew!"

Closing the canopy and putting on his goggles for night vision, Tails assumed a much more confident stance in his seat. It felt great to be in it again. He checked his wrist device. Two hours and fifty minutes left. For the first time since he arrived on this planet, the fox smiled. "Alright, Sonic," he said in a determined tone before putting on his oxygen mask, "here I come!"

"Oh, verdammt doch mal…" the pilot in the front Sea Stallion helicopter said in disbelief as he saw the jet launch itself from below him towards the horizon. Only a minute ago that thing was dormant, safe and secure. And now this.

Suddenly it dawned on him that the plane, or whoever was now controlling it, could pose a great danger to national security. He activated his radio. "This is Schatten Two-Two! The fighter jet has activated and is headed west, destination unknown! We need the Air Force now!"

The sun was already going down. Most of World Way, the street on which each LAX terminal had their entrance, was already blocked off by the police, airport security and FBI personnel. Numerous police officers and SWAT members took positions behind police cars outside of Terminals 2 and 3, both on the street and on the runway tarmac, but they simply could not go in. Nobody here at all was trained to handle killer robots.

The Osprey helicopter approached the top of the parking lot building opposite Terminal 2 and managed to find a spot to land despite the large number of cars. Knuckles and several Marines including Sergeant Fulton jumped out if the already open rear door.

Other than the usual radio chatter, the ride here from Angel Island had been silent and awkward. Sierra Six had reluctantly agreed to the offer on the condition that the Marines kept watch on the echidna, and most of them were worried of his large fists. Similarly, Knuckles almost changed his mind about helping out when he learned that the other two helicopters would stay, but went along after being told they had no interest in taking the Emerald and letting the island fall on and crush the houses and buildings below it.

Knuckles was about to approach the northern barrier overlooking the street and the terminal when Fulton stopped him. "Wait, hold on. Better not to show yourself to the police so fast first."

There was a scoff. "If they're going to reject my help because of how I look, too bad for them."

"No, not that. Just let me talk to them first. It won't be long," the sergeant assured. He went up to the barrier. Talking to the police was pretty much the extent of help he could give, as otherwise it would be a violation of Posse Comitatus, the law that prevents the use of the military as a police force. "Excuse me?" he called out to the assembled SWAT officers below. "Sergeant Fulton, Marine Corps. Who's in charge here?"

One of the men turned around to face him. "Sergeant Watts, LAPD SWAT. Did you really bring in that guy from the flying island?" he asked skeptically. The police had been informed of the echidna's arrival in advance via radio.

"He's right here," Fulton confirmed. Knuckles stood up on the barrier for all to see before falling three stories onto the pavement, though the way he landed made it look as if it was only three feet, startling everyone somewhat. The SWAT members all pointed their guns away from the terminal entrance and towards him.

"Okay, I'll keep this short," he spoke, ignoring the threatening and worried looks he was getting. "My name is Knuckles. I know how to deal with robots, and I need to know how the situation inside is like so I can deal with them. If you don't believe me or want me here, I'll just go away. Simple as that."

Watts didn't know what to do for a moment. This was supposed to be a police responsibility. But given the nature of the hostiles today… "Stand down, everyone. What…what do you plan to do?" he asked.

"Do you have any way of seeing inside?" Knuckles took another look at the smashed glass entrance. One robot could be seen ominously guarding the entry point behind it, but no more. Behind it was a long walkway that led to the main part of the terminal, which is where the other robots certainly were.

"We do, actually. We managed to get the feed of the security cameras right here. Guess it'll be more useful to you than to us. Craig, show it to him," Watts ordered an officer, who was standing in front of a computer on a trolley near a SWAT van.

Knuckles went over to the computer that Craig swiveled towards him. The screen showed the viewpoints of various security cameras inside. He examined them as he crossed his arms. It took him a moment to determine which ones overlapped and looked over the same spot. After that, he counted at least eight robots, which, excluding the one near the entrance, were all quite near to each other, machine guns pointed straight at the terrified hostages gathered around.

"Good, looks like there's not much distance between them…" the echidna muttered to himself. He felt his confidence rising, knowing that he could very easily tackle one robot before moving on to the other, and then the next one, and the next…

But only then did he remember something that almost made him slap his own forehead in disbelief. He couldn't believe he forgot about it. "Wait, they took over two terminals, not one, right?"

"Yeah, Terminal 3, all the way over there," Watts replied, pointing down the road. He sounded a bit dejected. "Just what I was thinking. You can't handle two terminals at a time, not when they're so far apart, can you?"

Knuckles looked at the ground and shook his head. "No. I can save the people in this terminal, but the ones in the other one will get killed," he said with a sigh.

"Can't you tell us something about these robots so we could act?" the SWAT sergeant asked with a hint of desperation.

"Can't. Sorry. I just smash robots, not examine them, and anyway I've never seen these before."

"Then what the hell can we do?" He didn't bother hiding his frustration now.

The echidna's feelings about the situation were similar, though he kept them in. There was no way to save everyone here.

Not unless…Another idea came to him, probably the only feasible one, as much as he hated to admit it. "We might have to wait for a…an associate of mine."

"What?" The officers looked at him incredulously. "Who?"

"Someone like me, sort of," Knuckles tried to explain. "I don't know if you've seen him or not, but I have a feeling he's on his way here now."

Across the ocean, Tails had already exceeded the speed of sound in the Tornado shortly after getting the plane back, and was now moving three times faster than it. Which was a good thing as there were plenty of other jets now actively pursuing him.

It was clear that none of them could keep up with him, but he still had to be mindful of the ones coming from in front. He really wished he could communicate with them to clear up his intentions, but the communications technology and software between his and their planes were just too different. Multiple warnings of incoming air-to-air missiles flashed up on the dashboard, but the ECM was able to intercept them and render them harmless.

For the most part, anyway. One of the missiles suddenly exploded prematurely at least twenty meters away, and a piece of shrapnel ended up penetrating the Tornado's nose. Tails winced as his screens immediately lit up in red and informed him of the damage and where it was located. Fortunately, a quick glance showed none of it affected his present flight ability, but he would need to do a more thorough checkup later.

It took more violent swerves and raising altitude to above the clouds before the German Luftwaffe jets were finally completely out of sight. Tails, however, had not let go of his breath. Still going at Mach 3, he pressed a few buttons to run a full system diagnostic.

About ten seconds later, the results appeared, thankfully showing that the plane did not sustain any real damage, except to one part: the autopilot. Tails sighed, both out of disappointment and relief. Could have been worse, I guess. It would take a simple repair job, but until he got the chance to do so, he would need to stay in the cockpit to fly the aircraft.

At the very least, the radar-absorbent coating was unaffected barring the one chink on the nose, which, coupled with the plane's other stealth characteristics meant he could still evade the Dutch, Belgian and British Air Forces. It was more or less a smooth flight from here to America.

Now though, Tails turned his attention onto a new issue. He remembered how Sonic most likely still had the earpiece with him, and it was imperative that he talk to the hedgehog about something else that came to his mind now. But first he still had to get within the maximum range the earpiece could reach up to.

"Are you sure?" Sergeant Watts asked into his radio. "Very well. Thanks for informing." He turned to face Knuckles, looking calmer now. "Okay, looks like you could be right."

"What is it?"

"Our boys back at the station are monitoring what seems like an increase in reports of a blue blur racing through Pennsylvania and Ohio on the interstate, according to random folks on Twitter that live there and local highway patrol units. Apparently he broke the sound barrier. Fits what you've given and what they'd seen in New York." Knuckles had described Sonic to the police earlier before being told about Sonic appearing in Times Square earlier.

The echidna, of course, having no idea about the geography or technology of this planet, didn't understand. "What, so, he's coming here?"

"Hard to say, but it does appear to be heading west. We'll watch out for further reports. Either he knows what's happening, or he's just lost." Watts frowned. "You really believe he can help?"

"If he gets here, yes," Knuckles replied before sighing. "But who knows what he's doing now." He walked over to the smooth wall of the parking lot. "Guess I better tell those guys up there too," he said before jumping up and bouncing off another perpendicular wall, and then off the first one again, reaching and climbing over the top of the three-storey structure in just five seconds, to the amazement of everyone present.

What was Knuckles doing? Robotnik had been surprised to see the echidna appear and talk to the police, which was mostly caught on camera by many of the local news channel, causing the reporters to make wild speculations. He frowned, having expected a big fight between Knuckles and the authorities, but cooler heads had prevailed, it seemed.

But continued observance yielded interesting results. Instead of recklessly charging into one of the terminals, however, he ended up backing off instead and jumped back up to the roof of the parking garage, leaving the news camera's view. Good. Looks like even he wasn't that stupid.

The doctor checked his timer. Two hours, fifteen minutes remaining. The plan would proceed unchanged…unless he was convinced that Sonic was somehow aware of the situation and was going to LA to deal with it.

It hadn't taken long for Robotnik to catch up with the latest technology on Earth, and was already monitoring Twitter comments closely, especially the ones coming out of the Midwest. There had been a few reports of a blue blur moving across that area, although it was difficult to determine if the hedgehog even knew where to go. Meanwhile there had been no sign of that two-tailed fox after he flew off into the night in Berlin.

If either of them showed any sign of approaching LA, though, Robotnik planned to simply move up the timetable just to mess with them. He knew it was more efficient to simply shorten the time given to the military and police right now, but assuming they really knew about the crisis, he wanted to give them, but especially the speedster, false hope. It was just more satisfying that way, wasn't it?

No, wait, he thought as he sternly reminded himself of the other, and possibly the main, reason he'd held the airport hostage: to buy himself time. By pulling that stunt, he'd narrowly avoided getting pummeled by more missiles launched by the Navy cruisers, which so far held their fire, though they remained in the same positions below. With the chunks the ADS had lost to the missile impacts, it was a wonder the thing still functioned even partially. Other than that, there was also the matter of the fortress' slowly dwindling emerald power reserves, which meant he had to get out of here sooner or later.

Robotnik briefly considered contacting the cruisers again and demanding them to move away, but decided against it as they would likely and correctly interpret it as a sign of weakness on his part. No, it was best to keep up with the bravado, the image that he was in control.

He wasn't overly concerned, though, since even if it failed, he had another escape plan. It's just that he would much rather be able to get away with this entire fortress, even if he didn't get the Emeralds. Who wouldn't? Yes, I have everything planned out, he decided, putting on another grin, although this one was smaller than usual. Definitely.

"Sonic? Sonic? Are you there?" a familiar young voice unexpectedly called out in the hedgehog's ear, and it startled him almost to the point of him tripping over at the speed of sound. He did not want to imagine that happening.

Fortunately he was able to keep his footing as he slowed down slightly and answered. "Tails?" he asked incredulously. He had forgotten about the earpiece that was still with him.

"Sonic! You're there!" Tails said, sounding very relieved. "I'm so glad! I thought something happened to you!"

"I'm even gladder!" Sonic responded, and Tails knew it was certainly true, judging from his voice. "You okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm on the other side of the ocean, but don't worry, I've gotten back the Tornado and coming to you now. Sonic, have you heard about what Robotnik did?"

"Sure have. Broadcasted it on TV, didn't he? I'm gonna save those people right now!"

"Sonic, wait, hold on!" Tails added quickly. "Where are you?"

"I'm on the, uh, interstate, going west through some city. I managed to get some directions, I'll tell you how later, but I'm on the right track. Trust me."

"Interstate? You mean the highway?" Tails hadn't read or heard anything about America's Interstate Highway System, but he could deduce that a country that large would have something like it.

"Yeah. Pretty convenient, as long as you don't mind the traffic. Or the potholes."

"Wait, traffic? That means a lot of people are seeing where you're going!"

"I don't know about that, but even if they know where I'm going, I can't just wait around. Besides, this seems like a great place to run through so far."

"I know, Sonic, but what about Robotnik? He's definitely looking out for reports of your presence too. His fortress must have the technology to connect to any news satellite within range, not to mention the internet. Sonic…" he trailed off on a worried note.

"Yeah?"

"Sonic, if Robotnik finds out you're coming, he might move the deadline up or even just kill them outright."

"But then…what am I supposed to do? I have to keep running, right? There has to be more empty spots."

"Sonic, they'd only build a highway system like that to connect densely populated areas like cities together. You're not going to able to avoid civilization and detection by running on it. I mean, you're already running between lots of cars, right? And I don't think the geography will let you travel in a straight line directly to LA, even if you knew the exact direction. And people would still spot you."

Sonic sighed inwardly. It was true. He was fast, but not to the point where he could be invisible. Sure, if anyone blinked, they'd miss him, but there were a lot of anyones around, and they weren't blinking. He wished he had a compass or something…then he remembered Tails had one. "Wait, Tails, you're coming to me in the Tornado, right?"

"Yeah, I can track your location, remember?"

"You thinking of what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah. Where are you now? Can you find an isolated area, somewhere? A really big one, too?"

Sonic quickly glanced around, having just left the city limits. "There're plenty of grass fields and hills here, and it's pretty dark…yeah, should be no problem. You sure you can make it here in time with no one detecting you?"

"Don't worry, I can. I know it's tempting to run there, Sonic, but this way's safer. Trust me."

"You know I always do, bro," he replied before jumping off the interstate and onto the grass field, racing off towards the hills. It would be the last glimpse anyone would have of Sonic the Hedgehog for now.

Special Agent in Charge McLaughlin was in the conference room, watching the screens of the cameras carried by the FBI personnel on-site at LAX as well as the news. Like everyone else, he'd been mystified by the sudden appearance of the echidna coming in from the flying island, and more still by its claims. He didn't know whether to trust it or not, but it had jumped away and was with the Marines now, so there wasn't anything he could do about it.

His cell phone suddenly rang. He answered immediately, having expected a call after making one earlier. "Special Agent in Charge McLaughlin, FBI, Los Angeles field office," he announced in a rehearsed fashion.

"Sir? It's me," the voice of Alan Doherty spoke up.

"Doherty? Jesus, how and where are you now?" Everyone else in the room turned to look at the SAIC, some looking confused, others relieved.

"Bit of a problem with my stomach, but otherwise I'm alright, sir. I'm at the embassy now, getting a ride to the airport to catch a flight back home."

McLaughlin was surprised. "Didn't expect the director to act that fast."

"The ambassador came over to the police station immediately after he got the call from the director, or so he said. There was an argument, but then they saw what was happening on the news and decided to let me go. Thanks for calling the director for me, sir."

"No problem. Speaking of which, you faced any down there?"

"Not really, nothing much happened here. They even had a doctor see me. Though looking at their faces when I left, I bet they're not happy they couldn't charge me with anything."

"Well, at least that's over. When are you getting here?"

"Flight should take maybe four hours…but given what's happening at LAX, I'm not so sure it'll happen."

"Right." McLaughlin frowned. "You'd probably want to know one of your, uh, friends was just talking to the police there. The red-colored one."

Now it was Alan's turn to be surprised. "Really? About what?"

"Apparently he wants to help smash the robots and save the hostages, but that he needs to wait for someone else to come first, a hedgehog, he says."

"He's taken hostages in two separate terminals, right?"

"That is correct, yes."

"What kind of robots are there?"

"They look like…buggies, sort of. About the same size, four off-road wheels, noisy, machine gun on top, don't know if they have any other weapons."

That sounded very familiar to Alan. "Jesus. I've encountered that thing where they came from, believe it or not."

"Seriously?" McLaughlin asked. "What do you know about them?"

"The red guy, his name is Knuckles, he's right. We'll have to rely on them to take the bots out, all he's waiting for is Sonic, that's the name of the hedgehog, maybe even Tails too, that's his friend."

The SAIC's eyes almost bugged out. "My God, you really know all these aliens?"

"It's a long story, sir, but trust me, if they want to help, they're sincere about it. Also, I have some tactical advice for our guys, so we're not totally helpless."

"What is it?"

"If you shoot the robots in the head, the front part with eyes, enough times, at least ten shots, they will be disabled. Make sure the SWAT and HRT guys' rifles are loaded with the usual Federal 62-grain Tactical Bonded ammo. It will work. I did it myself."

McLaughlin had to pause for a moment. "Sounds like you've had quite an adventure."

"I'll tell you and the Bureau all about it when I get back. Oh yeah, one more thing. I think one of them, maybe Sonic, might ask one of our boys for me by name. Make sure everyone knows so they don't panic. Let them stay at the field office, at least until I get back."

"Uh…very well. Thanks for this information."

"It's the least I could do after you helped me out. I need to get to the car now. See you when I return."

Only after the call ended did McLaughlin realize just how much info he had received, and that he should waste no time sharing it now, if only to relieve the weight of it. "Alright, listen up, people!" he announced, turning to the other agents and analysts. "Alan Doherty just called, and you all need to know everything he just told me. It is directly related to our situation."