AN: ...What? I'm on time...barely. Sorry for the wait, everyone. I'm going to try and make it up to you by publishing this chapter, which also happens to be my longest yet! Woo-hoo! Also, a big ol' heap of thanks to ASHPD for looking over the story and confirming that it (vaguely) makes sense! :D
So, with that taken care of, on we go!
Mind over Matter
Chapter Five: Jungle Joyride
"What!" Robotnik spluttered into the mouthpiece of the phone that he was holding between his clenched fingers. "You had those two miserable fuzz-balls cornered, and you let them get away?"
The recipient of his ire cleared their throat nervously, before replying. "Y-yes, your bad temperedness," Scratch whimpered.
"Then," the dictator continued, "you mean to tell me that my masterful invention was destroyed?"
"Y-yes," was the reply, coming once more from Scratch's beak.
Robotnik growled ferociously. He crushed the device in his palm, the sound of the breaking plastic being drowned out by the scraping of his own grit teeth. "How?" he snarled, the punctuation of the word embedding itself within the mind of the robot like a butcher knife in a dartboard.
"It wasn't our fault, Dr. Robotnik, sir!" Grounder wailed instead. "It was all that Tails brat's fault! He was the one who-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses!" the mad doctor bellowed. "I want to know why you're not following them! I want to know why you're not blasting them with my Mind Scrambler at this very moment!"
"Yes, sir, we will!" the tank robot promised. Robotnik waited for a minute, his ears picking up the sound of metal clanking upon concrete. He could hear the phone being passed over to Scratch, who swallowed the excess oil that had pooled within his metallic gullet.
"Well?" the doctor asked. "Why aren't you doing what I said?"
The edges of the cybernetic rooster's beak clacked together from the fear of having to deliver bad news to his belligerent master. "W-w-w-we c-c-can't!"
An uncomfortable silence descended upon them for a number of seconds, though for the Badniks it felt as though it could have lasted for the remainder of their runtime. Scratch shivered: if he didn't know better, he would have sworn that the temperature around him had dropped at least ten degrees.
"What?" Robotnik asked with a deceptive calmness to his tone.
Scratch swallowed again. "I s-s-said, 'w-w-we c-c-can't'!"
The tyrant thumped his round fist into the console before him. "You can't? Well, why not?"
"Because Sonic took the pieces with him!" both Badniks cried.
Robotnik's face flushed a worrisome shade of bright puce, and steam rose slowly from his ears. His breathing came in animalistic grunts, sounding as though each breath had been strained through a bellows with a rock placed on top of it.
"Now, you listen to me you contemptible pair of constructed can openers!" he spoke with an underlining promise of danger to the delivery of his words. "My global Mind Scrambler is almost complete, and I don't want Sonic to interfere. If he was to stick his little snout into the proceedings, my deliciously dastardly scheme would be ruined! I want to know why Sonic took the prototype weapon with him, and I want to know what he plans to do with it, immediately.
"And I want to make this absolutely clear: if you two fail me again, I shall melt the both of you down into a molten paste, and use you to repair the cracks in my bathroom tiling! Do you understand me?" he finished.
The two robots nodded feverishly in reply before remembering that their creator could not see them. "Yes!" they squealed.
The rotund villain slammed the phone down into its holder with so much force that his hand plunged through the console, creating a shower of sparks and causing a small plume of smoke to rise. Robotnik leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples. How could a genius of his calibre seek to control the planet when he was too busy combating his servants' stupidity?
He grumbled in frustration and wandered over to the invention that he had spent most of that very morning constructing. Though unfinished, the weapon promised to be of formidable size: the barrel frame stretched a good 20 feet in length, similar in appearance to an observatory telescope, and it was attached to a podium that also carried a square computer bank, which would later be programmed with targeting data.
With the majority of the invention having already passed fifty percent completion, Robotnik had only now began to regret staying so close to the original design that he had established with the prototype for this one. If he had known that Sonic had intended to steal it, he would have made a few alterations. He forced such thoughts from his mind and smiled: it was too late to worry about such trivialities now. In just a matter of hours, no one would have to worry about anything ever again, except for making sure that his every whim was to be fulfilled.
/
Sonic the 'fox' panted as he saw his young friend run ahead of him. "Slow down, Tails! Wait for me!" he gasped.
The phrase didn't so much roll off of the tongue as be forced to jump at gunpoint. No matter how many times he had said those words since the accident: in the order that he had been saying them, they just felt wrong.
Sonic mentally ran down a list of all that had happened to the two of them that morning. Taking the big guy out for a run? Check. Taking a break before being interrupted by Scratch and Grounder? Check. Being blasted with some experimental weapon which had swapped their minds over into the other's body? Big old check.
Once the two of them had finished collecting their bearings, the heroes had then dashed into a nearby store and bought a cheap burlap sack. Gathering together as many pieces of the broken invention that they could find, they placed them in the sack and began their journey to the house of Professor Von Schlemmer, located within the deeper Mobius Jungle. The professor had relocated to a more remote part of the world in order to continue his scientific experiments, which often yielded explosive conclusions, without disturbing the peace.
No doubt the trip would have been made easier if his young partner hadn't chosen this moment to dart back and forth between the trees at top speed. Sonic winced again as he saw the fox that had involuntarily assumed command over his body in another near head-on collision, changing direction at the last possible second to avoid slamming into the thick tree trunk that stood tall before him.
"Tails, could you please not do that?" Sonic asked again. "You're going to hurt yourself!" He paused for a second. "And me!"
"Sorry, Sonic, but this is just too cool!" the high-speed former fox replied, weaving between a thicket of redwoods. "I've waited for so long to be fast like you, and now I am for real!"
"Bro, you may have my speed, but that doesn't mean you can control it like I can!" the now-fox argued. "I may make it look easy, but that's because I've had more practice!"
Tails turned to face Sonic with a big grin on his face. "Aw, don't sweat it 'little buddy'," he chuckled, making the hedgehog frown. "I can handle it! You know, it's not actually that haaaaa-!"
The young mobian's words were cut off as one of his fleet feet hooked itself under an exposed tree root and threw him through the air. Sonic watched with wide eyes as the 'hedgehog' soared through the air like a blue scud missile and landed with a loud 'THUMP' upon his nose. The 'fox' quickly ran to his friend as fast as his short legs could carry him, skidding to a kneeling position upon reaching him.
"Tails! Buddy, are you okay?" he asked hurriedly.
The hero in training opened his eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting his vision. "Ugh," he grunted his voice hazy. "I think so, Sonic."
"Oh yeah?" the hero of Mobius contested, a doubtful frown on his brow. He lifted his right hand and held the index and middle fingers up in front of the dizzy kit's face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
Tails stared at the extended digits for a couple of seconds. "Six?" he answered hopefully.
"I thought so," Sonic replied. "And with that, what say we take a break for a sec? I don't know about you, but my feet are killing me."
He took a seat next to his friend upon the dirt and removed the shoe from his right foot, massaging the swollen sole. Aside from losing his own speed, the hedgehog had also unwittingly inherited the aches and pains that Tails had been keeping secret from him during their extended training sessions. For lack of a better term, he was beat.
The 'hedgehog' rubbed his snout and pushed himself upright to a more comfortable position with the help of the 'fox'. He noticed the attention that Sonic was giving to his feet, feeling a little bit guilty for keeping the discomfort hidden from his friend.
"Do they hurt much?" Tails asked, hoping that he hadn't caused a problem for the hero.
"Nothing too bad: I can take it," Sonic replied, focusing his efforts now upon the left. "Though, these pains feel like they've been going on for a little while. I wish you would have told me if I was pushing you too hard, dude."
"I'm sorry, Sonic," Tails replied, and he meant it. "I just didn't want you to be disappointed in me."
"Where'd you get a funny idea like that?" the former hedgehog questioned. "I'm not going to be disappointed so long as you try your best. You were doing your best, right?"
Tails nodded. Sonic grinned and opened his arms wide to express his point. "Then what are you worrying about? What, you really think I'd ditch the one guy on Mobius who can keep up with me? No way!"
The now-hedgehog laughed as his older brother wrapped an arm around his neck and gave him a noogie with his free hand. "Hey! Quit it!" Tails giggled, fighting against the grip. Surprisingly, he broke free straight away. He looked down at his hands, and sighed internally. "I really hope we can get our own bodies back soon, Sonic."
Sonic decided not to point out how eager Tails had been to have his body earlier and nodded. "Me too. Let's get going: I think we've rested for long enough."
Tails smiled as he watched his friend stand and stretch, already raring to go. It was true: Sonic by name, Sonic by nature.
"Okay, Sonic. And hey, maybe I could teach you how to fly using your - I mean, my tails too," the former kit suggested.
Sonic had a sudden premonition, involving two very tangled tails and much time spent on a hospital drip. "Maybe later," he said.
/
Scratch trained his beady eyes upon the stretch of dusty road that cut a path through the Mobius Jungle, anxiously awaiting the telltale cloud of dust that would often signify the arrival of Sonic.
"Aren't you finished yet?" he asked irritably of his cyber sibling. "They're going to come through here any second!"
Grounder poked his head above the lip of the pit that he was currently digging, wiping thick clumps of soil from the end of his nose cone, which had a large drill piece attached to it.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" he argued. "It's not easy to drill using just your nose, you know!"
Scratch growled and left his brother to continue with his job. After Dr. Robotnik had given them their orders, the two robots had immediately set to work picking up upon the heroes' trail. After a good hour of searching, they had struck lucky and found two sets of footprints leading into a thick rainforest. Then all they had to do was set up a trap for them a short distance ahead, and bring them back to their master's fortress.
The rooster jumped slightly as Grounder trundled up beside him with a loud laugh. "Pit-trap all set!" he said with a grin.
"Did you put the right amount of explosives inside?" Scratch asked.
"Yep. As soon as I press this button-"
He withdrew a small metallic box with a solitary red button placed in the centre of one surface from his chest compartment, glinting slightly in the sunlight.
"-We'll be seeing 'Hedgehog Fricassee'!"
"Good!" Scratch agreed, smirking. "Now, do you remember the plan?"
The rotund tank-bot thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No."
Sighing, the elder of the two by a few minutes slapped a hand to his face. "Grounder, you big boob, it's so simple! Sonic runs into this tripwire here."
He pointed to a thin stretch of cable that had been wound between two heavy rocks. Further on from the cable lay a not-so-carefully hidden net, rigged to snap up whatever landed in it after the wire had been tripped.
"Then, he lands in that net. The net lifts Sonic up into the air, and slams him down into that pit. Once he's inside, you activate the bomb and blow him sky-high!" The rooster clucked with laughter. "Then we take him back to Dr. Robotnik, and I get a medal for my services!"
"Huh. The only way you could win a medal is if you entered a 'Stupid Competition'," Grounder retorted with spite.
"Well, I wouldn't win first prize because you would have already won it!"
"You take that back!"
"Actually, I do take that back. You're so stupid you wouldn't know how to collect the prize in the first place!"
/
Sonic stopped in his tracks and held an arm out in front of Tails, indicating him to do the same.
"What is it, Sonic?" the 'hedgehog' asked.
The hero of Mobius trained his ears forward, cupping a hand around the left one to block out any excess noise. "I thought I heard voices," he said with a frown, keeping his voice quiet. "I don't like it. Stay here for a sec while I scout it out."
Tails nodded and watched as Sonic carefully picked his way through a spinney of bushes that lay before them. Seconds later he returned, and appeared to be deep in thought.
"So, what's wrong?" the former fox tried again, making sure to keep his own voice low too.
"Scratch and Grounder," Sonic replied. "It looks like they've set up some sort of welcome wagon for us."
"How did they know we were here?" Tails wondered. "Do you think they know we're going to see the professor?"
"I doubt it. This trap seems just as lame as all the others," the not-blue blur answered. He turned to gaze back at the direction that he had just ventured into. "All we'd have to do is spring it on them, and we'll be good to go. The question right now is: how can we do that?"
Normally, Sonic could have used his awesome speed to lead the Badniks into their own trap, or he would have simply been quick enough to avoid it altogether. Now though, his options had been drastically reduced and the old tricks just wouldn't cut it anymore. He certainly didn't want Tails to attempt any of them at any rate.
Tails sighed loudly. "I wish I still had my tails. Then we could just fly over them."
Sonic brought one of said furry appendages before his stomach and ran the smooth fur between the fingertips of his gloved hands. The mind swap must have overheated his brain: why didn't he think of it earlier?
He smiled and turned to his younger friend. "So, about those flying lessons..."
The robotic troublemakers waited. They waited, and waited, and waited some more. Scratch for one had never been so bored before in his entire existence. So used was he to the constant chasing of the hedgehog, that he had never had much time to spend just waiting for things to happen.
Grounder yawned some feet away from him behind the tree that served as his hiding place. "Where are they?" he asked, checking his internal timekeeping mechanism. "Shouldn't they be here by now?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Scratch retorted. "Are you sure you followed those tracks right?"
Grounder scratched his domed head. "Yeah...I think."
Scratch groaned with frustration and placed his hands on his hips. "Nice going, you overweight meat grinder. You went the wrong way!"
"Nope," Sonic interrupted. "I'd say that this way was just right!"
Scratch screeched and squawked as the former hedgehog suddenly swooped down from the air and clasped his fingers around the robotic rooster's arms, lifting him from the ground ten feet into the air. Sonic struggled against the weight of the cyber fowl, forcing his eyes shut in concentration.
Man – this guy's heavier than he looks! He thought, feeling the strain that the metallic chassis was placing upon 'his' as yet underdeveloped muscles. Just which part of this seemed like a good idea again?
Tails had given him a brief crash-course in how to fly, instructing him on how to twirl his tails at a speed that would generate sufficient lift and thrust. At first Sonic had only managed to succeed in painfully twisting the two extensions together, creating a knot that Tails had to assist him in untying. Upon his third try, he had just about managed it, lifting two feet from the ground before landing back upon his feet. In typical Sonic style, that development had been good enough, and he had then charged headlong in to meet the Badniks.
Sonic lifted Scratch higher and higher, sweat beginning to bead upon his forehead. He didn't want to put Tails' body through an unnecessary risk or hurt him, but they had both agreed that their chosen solution to the problem was the best (or at least, the only one available at the time). His mind remained focused on keeping the tails spinning; he really didn't want to take the express journey back down to terra firma. He could feel Scratch's involuntary shaking coursing up through the robot's arms into his own, making his concentration all the more difficult. It wouldn't be long before the robot would fall, dragging him back down as well.
"Put me down, put me down!" the rooster whimpered repeatedly, watching in terror as the land below him became further and further away. Of all the things that Robotnik had programmed him to feel, why was 'fear' one of them?
Grounder waved his conical arms above his head rapidly, trailing after the ascending mobian and his partner. "Drop him, drop him!" he yelled to the 'fox'
Sonic shrugged. "Okay," he replied. "I'll drop him."
"No!" Scratch shrieked.
Sonic released his grip on the fowl, who plummeted down to earth with an ear-splitting cry. Scratch landed in his own net, which then closed around him and sprung up into the air, walloping him back and forth between the hard ground and thick trees that created the jungle. Grounder rushed forward to assist and received a blow to the face for his troubles, which toppled him into the pit that he had dug. The rope that had tied the net finally snapped, launching the entangled Scratch into the hole alongside him.
Sonic landed somewhat clumsily, falling to his face from the overexertion. Tails ran forward to help him up.
"Sonic, you did it!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"Not yet, bro," Sonic replied, breathing heavily. "Give it another few seconds."
They waited for three of the appointed seconds. A large column of fire erupted from the pit that contained the Badniks, scattering the wild birds from the treetops with its tremendous 'BOOM', raining shards of metal and clods of earth across a five mile radius.
Sonic smirked. "Now, I've done it."
Tails chuckled slightly and walked around the back of his friend, investigating the condition of the two tails. "How do they feel? Are you hurt?"
"They're not gonna come off, if that's what you're wondering," the hero deadpanned. "But it will sure take some getting used to. Anyway, I think we've wasted enough time. We should go to the professor's house before it's too late."
Scratch poked his head out of the smoking crater that the two robots had been dumped into and wiped the thick soot from his eyes, watching as Sonic and Tails yet again escaped their clutches.
"Oh, rats! They're getting away!" he cried.
"Dr. Robotnik is not going to like to this!" Grounder whimpered.
/
"Can't you rotten robots do anything right?" the oval oppressor thundered down the mouthpiece of his already damaged telephone. Both of the robots experienced a worrying sensation of déjà vu over the familiarity of the situation.
"Aw, we tried our best! Honest!" Grounder explained, trying to appeal to his creator's humility. What a pity that he had none to spare.
"Silence!" Robotnik ordered, stripping the colour from the plastic phone with the ferocity of his delivery. "You two useless numbskulls have had all the chances that you are going to get! From now on, both of you are demoted to laundry duty!"
"Oh, sir! Please, be reasonable!" the duo pleaded. They had been unfortunate enough to have such a task assigned to them before, and knew how taxing the workload was. Both of them had suffered serious metal fatigue from the underwear pile alone.
"Quiet!" Robotnik bellowed, reducing the phone to its bare components. He picked up the small microphone that made up the mouthpiece and held it before his lips. "I want you to report back here this very instant to carry out your new orders!"
"But, what about the hedgehog?" Scratch asked nervously. "Don't you want us to stop him?"
"You've done enough!" the doctor roared. "This time, I'll intercept those two bothersome twerps myself!"
Without waiting for acknowledgement, Robotnik threw the destroyed phone with great force upon his desk and stomped over to another control console, scattered with numerous coloured buttons. He pressed one particularly large red one, which opened a split in the floor of his lab. A few seconds later, another Egg-O-Matic device - identical to the one that Scratch and Grounder had used - rose from an underground garage to rest before him. It was a good thing that he had opted to keep spares in case of an emergency.
Robotnik hurled his impressive bulk into the vehicle and wrenched a lever on the dashboard. The Egg-O-Matic spluttered into life and the engine hummed in protest as the single back-loaded thrusters activated with a burst of blue flame. He pressed another button, this time upon the dashboard of his craft, which opened a hatch in the roof of the room. Wasting no further time he proceeded to fly the vehicle through it.
The call from Grounder pinpointed their location as being in the Mobius Jungle, he thought to himself. That must mean that Sonic is going to visit that scientific reject, Professor Von Schlemmer.
The overweight madman grumbled loudly as he recalled some of the previous encounters between the professor and himself. Though he considered it unlikely that the bumbling inventor would ever be able to unravel the intricacies of his invention, Robotnik still thought it prudent to prevent Sonic and Tails from doing whatever it was that they were planning to do.
He sighed as he plotted in his destination on the craft's GPS. Things were so much simpler when the hedgehog just used to run and smash things.
END CHAPTER.
AN: And there we go! I want to offer many thanks to ASHPD, the Cinderninja, Gamenoise, Scyphi, sonicxjones, 9string, Gryffindor-Sword, Samantha27, Koololly, Epsilon Team Captain Hande, Vampire Tails, SilverShadow471 and Imaginator11 for adding/faving/reading/doing something with my story. Thank you so much! Sorry if I missed anyone out.
Oh yeah. I'm going to be busy over pretty much all of June, so it's doubtful that I will be able to update. However, I am going to be working on the chapters when I have some free time, so I will guarantee that there will be another ready by July.
Thanks, everyone. Seeyall next time!