Chapter 2: Shocks
With much of its terrain being desert, Mazuri wasn't exactly a cooling place, and the temperatures were made even higher by the country's proximity to the equator. The late morning sun was already up, and there were no clouds to block out its oppressive intensity.
The flat sandy area was already cooked up enough to produce optical distortions, but now another source of heat other than the sun contributed to it. The Tornado's jet engines were facing downwards for a vertical landing, and as it got closer to the surface, more dust and sand were kicked up, enough to visually obscure the whole plane from a distance.
It wasn't the best place to land in, considering how sand could easily play havoc with engines and other machine components if they got inside, not to mention how risky it was, as landing an aircraft was quite a bit harder when you couldn't see outside the cockpit. Not that Tails had much of a choice, as the only non-sandy terrain was too far away. Blind landing was perfectly within the fox's abilities anyway, and besides, he didn't want to spend too much time under the sun.
Sonic and Tails only popped open the canopy after the dust had cleared. Both of them took a drink from their water supplies before jumping off. Even with the air-conditioner on full blast earlier, they were already sweating profusely at their hands and feet where many mobians perspired, soaking up their gloves and shoes.
"You ever been under this heat?" Sonic asked his friend while panting lightly. His numerous humanitarian missions throughout Africa meant that the hedgehog was at least a bit more used to it. The hottest Tails had experienced so far was in the Mojave Desert where Edwards AFB was located.
"Not really," Tails admitted as he took another sip, "man, I better take this bottle with me just in case."
"Let's go then," the hedgehog said, pointing to the edge of the cliff nearby, "wouldn't want to get a heatstroke before we've even started."
"Yeah," the fox agreed, too overwhelmed by the temperatures to laugh, "we should be able to get a good look of the base from here." Before moving out however, he made sure to take a small object out of his wrist device, or WRID and place it into his right ear. It was a minicamera that would record down everything they saw and did here for analysis purposes much later.
They brought out their binoculars to begin reconnaissance as they reached their vantage point overlooking the target area. Nearly a kilometer away was an encampment supposedly owned by the People's Militia of Mazuri, or PMM, a local guerilla group that had been repeatedly accused of crimes such as kidnapping and human trafficking. Outside were a number of large trucks and crates, and the place was tucked into a valley to reduce the chances of it being caught in a sandstorm or scanned clearly by satellites. Some activity was clearly going on down there, with more trucks entering the camp through the only road in the area.
Despite that, however, it was clear that the real action wasn't taking place outside. On one side of the sandy valley was a tunnel entrance, a man-made one, done professionally, which the trucks were now driving into. "You think these guys could have dug out something like?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow, "seems a little out of their league."
"Unlikely, from what we know of them," Tails answered, also finding it odd, "either this place was already here before they came…"
"Or they had some help," the hedgehog said as he put his binoculars down. "Not much else we can see from out here, is there?"
"Guess not. We'll have to find a way inside. Quietly, if possible."
They continued observing the camp for any possible methods of sneaking into the tunnel. No matter where they looked, though, their eyes always fell back onto the column of large cargo trucks. "Thinking of what I'm thinking, bro?"
"Yeah," Tails replied, putting his binoculars away and spinning his namesakes up, "we better hurry before we miss the ride."
A few minutes later, the final truck in the column finally reached the tunnel entrance. The two armed guards on both sides, seeing that the vehicle wasn't any different than the bunch that had entered earlier, gestured to let it pass.
As the truck drove deeper inside, Sonic and Tails, both flattening themselves against the cargo bed's top covering, let out a silent sigh of relief that they were finally away from the burning sunlight. The cover's cloth surface was still somewhat hot, but at least they weren't riding on top of one of the trucks ahead that had metal cargo containers. Sonic briefly glanced behind to see the light from the entrance slowly shrinking, until it was almost the size of a dot. It made him wonder just how deep or big this place was.
There wasn't any sound outside of the truck's diesel engine humming. In front, the end of the tunnel was coming up, with what seemed like a cavernous chamber lying beyond. The hedgehog was hoping that the driver would stop soon, as waiting on it for minutes was getting boring.
Then, rather abruptly, his wish was granted, as the vehicle's brakes were slammed on and brought them to a halt right before the tunnel exit. The sudden motion almost caused Sonic and Tails to fall off the sides, though they were able to grab the steel frame underneath the covering in time.
The duo laid there, confused. They heard the truck's doors open, followed by footsteps and hushed voices. Sonic was beginning to think that the truck may have suffered a mechanical failure of some sort, before he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
He turned to see Tails, whose eyes were now wide with concern, as he nervously pointed at something in the tunnel ceiling just a few feet above and ahead. Sonic followed the path of his finger, and finally saw it. Attached to the ceiling's jagged rocky surface was a small device with a barely visible piece of glass on it…a camera.
Right at the exact same moment, they heard the sound of guns, of AK-47s in fact, being charged to the sides of the vehicle. It was a sound Sonic could now identify very easily due to how commonly the weapon was used by the armed groups he'd faced. Tails hadn't been around the world as much, but he'd done his own research before coming to Mazuri, and also knew what it meant.
Oh well, Sonic thought with a mental shrug, so much for stealth!
They each leapt off the side of the truck they were closest to just before the guns started firing and ripping the cargo cover apart. On the left side, Sonic landed on two militiamen with each foot squarely in their faces, while on the right, Tails dropped down behind two others and struck their legs with a tailswipe, causing them to fall over.
After dispatching the shooters, both of them rushed forwards, knowing that there were going to be quite a lot more coming their way. "Great, I knew we should have ridden under the truck instead!" Sonic said, sounding in disbelief at the way they were discovered.
"It was moving too fast for us to grab its underside without getting run over or chopped up by the moving parts," Tails quickly answered, "that said, that camera's a pretty big hint as to who's running this place."
"Got that right," Sonic said as they approached the entrance to the large chamber ahead where many militiamen were already alerted to their presence, and were armed and ready. At least, as ready as they could possibly be to take on people like Sonic and Tails.
Somehow, the fact that they had been detected didn't bother Sonic much. "You know what, I'm done sneaking around," the hedgehog stated, a hint of a grin right there on his muzzle, "less hiding, more running!"
The chamber was roughly cylindrical in shape, filled with various trucks and boxes that the men had been carrying around until they heard the gunshots. Now, they were carrying assault rifles instead and firing them madly at the duo, or rather, their afterimages as they raced around in blue and orange blurs respectively, leaping over obstacles and decking people in the gut or face. So far, it was going pretty typically.
They had just knocked down the last few gunmen in the chamber when more entered from another doorway, apparently a bathroom judging from the sign above it, across the room. Sonic revved up to approach them from the side, planning on doing the same thing to them as he did to those here, when he quickly noticed that one of them was aiming at him a weapon he hadn't seen before.
Just as he made that observation, the wielder fired, or perhaps more accurately, activated the weapon, and in an instant, Sonic was unexpectedly knocked off his feet. He found himself being picked up into the air, slammed into the rocky wall behind him, which would have hurt him badly if he didn't have his quills to cushion the impact, before getting pinned there. Around him, the wooden crates were also picked up and thrown against the wall, and even one of the large trucks nearby was shoved aside by the invisible force several meters as if it were a toy.
The hedgehog struggled in an attempt to get back onto the ground, but the pressure was constant and overwhelming. Already his vision was starting to blur as he felt his eyes being pushed deeper into his head than they were supposed to. What the hell is this thing?
The next thing he felt was his chest feeling like it was being compressed from the front as well, being crushed. It was growing more and more painful, and Sonic knew it was only a matter of time before his ribs got cracked. His pulse was racing madly, not only at the idea of an imminent and painful death, but at the realization that he was completely helpless. Only a minute ago, he had thought he was invincible and had the upper hand on these guys…
Then, just as abruptly as it had come, the force vanished, and Sonic, along with the boxes, immediately fell off the wall and collapsed onto the dusty ground face-first. He groggily lay like that for a few seconds before pushing himself up and shaking his head.
Sonic looked up to see a fuzzy, orange shape before him, and blinked several times to clear up his vision. Once he'd done so, Tails had come up closer to him, clearly worried. "Sonic, you okay?" the boy asked as he helped the hedgehog get up.
"Yeah, more or less," Sonic answered in relief while dusting himself, "just kinda, you know, creeped out. Thanks for taking care of those guys."
"No problem, I'm just glad I didn't also get caught in…whatever that was. Let's go check what it is!" Tails then turned around and flew over to the fallen militiamen he had tailsmacked a few seconds ago to save Sonic, intent on examining the strange weapon one of them had been using.
The weapon was long and bulky, and its business end looked more like a jet nozzle than a standard firearm barrel, making it clear that it didn't fire bullets. It appeared to be of the same size of a medium machine gun, and when Tails tried to pick it up, he realized that it had the weight of one too. "What's powering this thing?" the fox asked out of the blue with a frown, "Chaos energy?"
"You tell me," Sonic responded, sounding just as curious, "first the camera, now this…yeah, we better find Robotnik fast."
"Too bad it's so heavy," Tails remarked as they both proceeded into the doorway, "could have been useful."
"Yeah, but it's not really my style anyway. Come on."
The two walked up to the large steel door opposite of where they had entered, its dark red surface dusty but smooth, free of scratches, rust and other signs of decay that signified age. "Looks like this door was installed not too long ago," Tails said, examining it curiously, "I'm guessing it opens up vertically. Sonic, you see the switch there?"
The hedgehog noticed the switch to the door's right, which was currently displaying a red light. "Yeah."
"Alright, you go there while I take the left side. Hit the switch when I count to three. They must have more surprises for us in store behind this thing."
Sonic complied and took his position."Heh, I'd be disappointed if they didn't. Though if there're any more of those push-force thingies, we better be careful. I don't want both of us to be caught at the same time."
The fox nodded, feeling a bit unsettled by that possibility. "OK…three, two, one, go!"
One press of the switch caused its light to change colors from red to green, and with a hiss, the twenty-foot-wide door began sliding upwards, with nary a creak or rumble, and rather quickly too, as if it were much smaller. As it did so, both of them could see its underside, and therefore its thickness.
They peeked into the room once the door had risen high enough. It was completely dark inside, having not even the meager amount of lighting like the rocky chamber they were in now. Nothing was visible beyond the first few feet of the entrance, which was a smooth metal-plated floor.
Hesitant at first, the two traded nods before taking a few cautious steps inside, hearing low winds blowing ominously after they passed under the door. At the same time, Tails had turned on the flashlight on his WRID, making a mental note to add some sort of nightvision to it later…hopefully when, rather than if, he could.
The fox aimed the light in several directions to obtain more information about the room, discovering that the chamber was noticeably smaller than the one behind them in every dimension, especially the ceiling. More interestingly, however, the surfaces were metal panels rather than cave rock, a sign of increasing sophistication the deeper they went into this base, and with that, potentially increased defenses – increased danger.
As if to punctuate that, the steel door suddenly and loudly slid shut behind them, causing both of them to jump and shrouding them in total darkness. Their instincts made them react differently after that – while Sonic turned around to look at the door that he couldn't even see now, Tails kept looking forward, light pointed in the same direction, worried that something bad was about to follow.
He frantically scanned for any sign of danger ahead, before noticing something that seemed nearer to them than the distant wall behind it, something metallic and light brown. Nervously, he moved the light upwards, noting that it seemed to have wheels…armor plates…and finally, a cannon aimed straight at them.
"Sonic, dive!" As Tails jumped to the side, Sonic looked in front again just in time to see why, before doing the same, right as an explosive shell struck and blew up the floor where they had been standing a mere second ago.
The armored fighting vehicle continued firing rapidly at Sonic, who wasted no time running along the side of the wall despite the darkness, avoiding the shells that continued to explode behind him. His only source of illumination at the moment came from the muzzle flashes of the AFV's cannon when it fired, which gave away its position but didn't help him see what else was in the room, or even how far the wall opposite the entrance was.
Not wanting to risk crashing into said wall, Sonic decided to circle the vehicle instead, and started to turn. It took him a few seconds to make one round, after which he discovered that the tight turning radius made it hard for him to run at full speed, allowing the AFV's turret to follow him easily.
As he began his second round, Sonic started feeling what seemed like a really strong perpendicular wind following behind him, threatening to blow him off course. He immediately realized that this was the same force weapon as the one that nearly crushed him in the previous room. With the main cannon still firing nonstop, he gulped at what would happen if he got pinned against the wall this time. "Hey, Tails!" he called out loudly, feeling the dangerous force tugging at his quills, "this tank has the same weird weapon like outside! You gotta help me out!"
Tails was hovering in the air as high as the room would allow, shining his light onto the vehicle's turret. Drawing on his knowledge of military equipment, the fox guessed that the AFV's main weapon was at least 30mm in diameter. "I got it!" he yelled back, understanding that the AFV's crew planned to do a lethal one-two punch on Sonic, which meant that his first task was to find and disable the same wind force weapon on this vehicle.
His attempt to do so, however, was interrupted by a second set of weapon noises filling up the room –automatic gunfire. Tails felt bullets whizz by around him, and immediately could tell they were coming from the sides. They had, of course, planned to be able to target more than just Sonic here.
Thankful that he was already flying in the first place, Tails began acrobatically dodging the shots, looping and whirling around as much as possible in the limited space he had. He knew he could not keep this up for long – the chances of getting hit were too high, and he still needed to help Sonic before the AFV's crewmembers got creative and changed tactics. "Sonic, just hold on!"
It took at least three seconds of very quick glances and blocking out the deafening bang and booms that flooded the acoustically reflective room, but Tails was able to determine the exact locations of the sources of gunfire – there were only two, one on each side near the ceiling, which made things easier. As with the AFV, the only lights that gave them away were the muzzle flashes, and if their shots were landing so closely, they had to be using nightvision. Remembering that his light was still on, the perfect plan occurred to him at once.
Tails rose to the same height as the machine gunners and, aiming his light forwards, he spun around in the quickest 360 he could manage, the 500-lumen beam of the xenon flashlight passing each window within less than a second. Already bright enough to disorient human vision in ordinary situations, shining a light with such intensity at someone wearing nightvision goggles was almost like stabbing him in the eyes.
Sure enough, the gunfire ceased, and despite the disruption of his auditory senses Tails thought that he could hear cries of pain coming from around him. That was his chance. Examining the AFV's roof once more, he saw his target: a wind force gun placed on top of the vehicle as a secondary, independently-moving turret, though for now it was spinning along with the main turret in line with the main gun, still trying to hit Sonic. And currently, the hedgehog just so happened to be on the opposite side of the AFV.
Sonic continued circling the thing. Without Tails' light he was doing so in complete darkness that was interrupted every half-second by the cannon's muzzle flash always coming from his left like a stroboscope. It was disorienting enough, worsened by the constant assault on his eardrums. None of this helped his running performance, which was decreasing slowly but surely, and the only thing that wind weapon needed was just a few inches to close the gap, and if it did, so would the main cannon.
Without that secondary weapon the main cannon wouldn't even be a problem, as Sonic had already noticed the pause between each shot, which was short, but still long enough. It would allow him to slip behind the cannon's rotation and strike at it. Already he was getting worried and impatient. All he needed to carry out that plan was for Tails to-
SMASH! Out of the corner of Sonic's eye, a golden disk illuminated by the muzzle flash smashed into the top of the AFV, and the unsettling 'woo' noise of the wind force weapon that had been following him for the last thirty seconds immediately stopped.
Oh, finally! Grinning again, Sonic quickly hit the brakes, doing so at just the right time so that the cannon would swing over him fire its next shot ahead of him rather than straight at him. Before the crewmembers could stop to readjust their aim, Sonic took the chance to jump and spindash into the main cannon's barrel, with just enough force to dent it but not sever it, as the latter could still allow the weapon to fire.
The next few seconds were spent cleaning up the fight as Tails flew back to the shooting windows and tailwhipped each shooter into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the AFV began to move for the first time, lurching forward in a desperate attempt to squish Sonic, but by then, the hedgehog wasn't even on the floor anymore. He had jumped onto the roof and opened up its entry hatch to drop himself inside.
After a few muffled shouts and punches, the room was finally quiet, save for the vehicle's low engine hums and the whir from Tails' spinning namesakes, which stopped as he landed on the ruined floor, now mangled and torn up by the 30mm explosive shells, with debris of metallic panels all over the place.
Sonic climbed back out of the vehicle and jumped, landing next to Tails. "Nice job, bud," he said with a great sigh of relief as he held his hands up to his ears, "damn, that noise was driving me crazy."
"You said it." Tails nodded before he did the same gesture. His ears were still ringing like there had been a marching band right there in his auditory canals. "No problem though. You had a pretty good plan yourself."
The hedgehog started walking towards the other side of the room. "Let's keep going. Boy, am I going to give Robotnik an earful when I find him, if you know what I mean."
That earned him a chuckle. "Let me join in?"
A smirk. "Sure thing."
Before they could continue their walk or joke any further, however, the door ahead slid up by itself, allowing light as well as a bunch of armed goons in. Seeing their silhouettes already prompted Sonic and Tails to leap into the air to avoid the gunfire that started almost right away.
The gunmen had attempted to send as much lead into as big an area as quickly as possible using automatic shotguns, but it still wasn't enough. They let out a total of eight shots before two blue and golden balls spun into them at the same time, knocking the whole group backwards several meters.
In an instant they had uncurled themselves and were back on their feet again. "Man, when will they ever learn that just showering us with bullets isn't going to work?" Sonic couldn't help but ask, "they could at least try water, or fire, or maybe burning water or some-"
"Don't give them ideas," Tails replied, laughing lightly, both out of nervousness and humor, "and technically they kinda just did, so we can give them that much at least."
"True."
They then heard more gunshots again, causing them to tense up in preparation to dodge or strike, only to realize it wasn't aimed at them – it had come from another room, down the bland metallic hallway they were now in, behind the only door there.
After a few more shots, both of them ran up to the door, confused and worried. It slid upwards, revealing several more men facing away, frantically firing their guns, not even noticing or caring about the entry of the duo, who proceeded to swiftly whack them down before even checking what else was in the room.
Only after the shooters were unconscious did they look back up to see what they had been shooting at, and the answer caused them to gasp in shock.
In the corner of the room were several men, a group of five, lying on the floor, bleeding profusely from their gunshot wounds. One of them was still moving, his hand clutching his chest while moaning weakly. As they got closer to the bloody scene, they saw that his face, especially his eyes, gave away not just signs of pain, but that of surprise as well. It seemed like they did not expect to get massacred like this.
"Hey, you're gonna be alright!" Sonic blurted out without even thinking as he knelt down against the dying man. At the same time, he and Tails noticed something else. The slain group that lay before them didn't seem to be locals like everyone else in this base, having black hair, a considerably lighter skin tone, and Asian facial features. Aside from that, they had numerous tattoos over their bare arms – through the blood, they were able to make them out to be dragons. Who were these people? What were they doing here?
Sonic chucked those questions aside for the time being. One of them was still alive, likely not for long, and they had to do what they could to accompany this man in his final moments. They should say something to him…but what? Asking 'are you okay?' wouldn't exactly be appropriate now.
As cold as it seemed, Sonic decided it was best to see what he could tell him before he kicked it. "Can you…speak?" he asked quietly, eyes locked onto his. He'd almost asked if the man could speak English before changing his mind.
The dying man moved his head up and down slowly, just barely enough to be perceived as a nod.
"Could you tell me anything? It's okay, don't rush. It's okay."
His lips seemed to be trembling as he struggled to say something. Tails knelt down as well, putting his right ear up close, hoping the man could get it out. His eyes told them that he was desperately trying. "Wong…Wong Heng…" he finally muttered.
"What was that?" Sonic turned to face Tails.
"Wong Heng. That's Chinese…I don't know what it means," the fox replied, shaking his head, "I have a feeling it could be a name though."
Sonic turned back to the Asian, hoping to ask more. But it was not to be, as his progressively weaker breaths abruptly ceased, as if staved off by some invisible force that decided it was time. He was gone.
The hedgehog got up to his feet slowly, feeling cold inside. "Damn…what the heck just happened here?"
"Hmm…my guess is that they got shot so that they couldn't tell us anything." With a frown, Tails turned around to face the room, now more curious than ever. "That's why we better look for something here that could."
Sonic and Tails stepped away from the corpses to explore the large room, which looked very much like the workshop they'd seen in the photos on Alan's computer. In the center, sitting on slightly raised metal platforms were inactive AFVs much like the one they had dealt with earlier, with several tools and parts scattered nearby. "Sonic, I'm going to check out this vehicle right here and take a few photos. You go check the other rooms."
"Right."
As Tails began examining the military vehicle, Sonic went up to a pair of double doors behind it. Unlike the others, these weren't electronically powered and were manually opened. He grabbed the handles and pushed it inwards, his legs ready to leap in case of an ambush.
Fortunately, that didn't happen as he found himself in an empty, smaller, office-like room, with tidy white floor tiles and walls. In the opposite corner was a computer console set of some sort with many monitor screens, with a typical office chair in front of it. When Sonic approached it, he realized that it was, of course, a security camera system. The first screen from the left, he saw, had an illuminated view of the base's entrance tunnel. So that's how they saw us.
Sonic also noticed that this room had no other doors – this was apparently the deepest part of the base already. Not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. Robotnik was not in this facility after all. At least they'd found more than enough to indicate that he had been here, and that the information was accurate on that front.
Putting Robotnik aside for a moment, Sonic scanned the other screens from left to right, seeing that all of them were looking over the rooms they had already been in…except the last few ones. What he saw on them was arguably more shocking than the dead Chinese guys – this one actually froze him completely into one place. "Tails…" Sonic managed to get out, "you better come and see this!"
Tails stumbled into the room, hastened by how urgent Sonic had sounded. "What is it?"
The speechless hedgehog pointed stiffly at the last two monitor screens on the right hand side of the console, and when the fox realized what he was looking at, he gulped in terror.
The room in the two screens appeared to have several rows of cages, the kind meant to keep small animals – except they were currently quite clearly having human prisoners. Child prisoners.
"We-we gotta get them out of there!" Sonic said loudly, almost in panic, "but where are they? There aren't any other doors back-hey, wait," he continued, pointing at the desk surface in front of the screens, "there's a switch here. Maybe it opens the door up?"
"I'll go back there and see if anything happens," Tails said as he headed to the door, "go ahead and flip it."
Sonic did so without hesitation after Tails had gone out, pulling the lever from one side to the other before checking the screens again. One of them, to his relief, showed a door sliding open vertically. "Tails!" he called out, "anything?"
"Yeah, looks like a secret door here just opened!" the fox replied from outside, "Sonic, come on!"
Immediately the hedgehog raced out the double doors, past the workshop, the unconscious gunmen and the massacre victims, back into the dark room where they'd fought the AFV. There, a second door to the side which hadn't been noticeable earlier had opened up, revealing the prison inside.
The room was sparsely lit with a few light bulbs, not as dark as the adjacent one, but enough to make Tails turn on his light. Unlike the other rooms, the place was dirty and decrepit, and had a bad smell. The floor and walls were plain uneven rock with no tiles or panels over them. Only the cages had a hint of any modernity here, with crisscrossing metal bars that would have been shining if not for the unsanitary substances on them.
The real horror for the duo was behind the bars. Children looking no older than twelve were crammed inside each cage with not much room to move around, and it was clear all of them were badly malnourished. They barely showed signs of being alive – a few of them probably weren't anymore – as they were curled up in fetal positions on the floor, eyes closed, not acknowledging or even noticing Sonic and Tails entering. From the looks of it, there were at least fifty kids here, with space for another fifty.
Already Sonic was starting to relive a not-so-pleasant memory. "My god," he whispered, remembering the base Alan had infiltrated back on Mobius and the prison there, "Robotnik's remaking his mobian prison right here, except with humans."
"Either that, or it's the PMM doing it," Tails replied, "and Robotnik doesn't care what they're up to." The authorities had found it difficult to get evidence of the militia engaging in human trafficking for years, but here it was now, right in front of them. Cold, hard proof, in the flesh.
"Whoever's doing it, let's just get these kids out of here first," Sonic said, hurriedly going up to a cage in the corner and examining the keyhole over the lock, "guess we need to find the key."
Before they could do or say anything more, however, a loud, sudden noise swarmed their ears, making them jump. It was an alarm, a klaxon blaring urgently every two seconds, and when the duo stepped outside to check, they saw that the dark room was now filled with spinning red lights near the ceiling, as was the workshop down the walkway. "Wait, so only now does someone know we're here?" Sonic asked, with a would-be tone of amusement that was wiped away by the shocking discoveries he'd made here.
"Doesn't make sense," a mystified Tails commented, "why would they only sound the alarm now? And who? It looks like we've knocked out everyone here." The fox turned to face Sonic directly. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Then, Sonic had an idea. "Wait, let me check the security thing again," he said before speeding back down the hallway and into the security room, trying not to see the corpses against the wall in the process. There was indeed something new here that wasn't around earlier, and it wasn't anything good.
Not for the first time, Sonic stood in shock as he saw a countdown timer on a digital readout on the console, showing 2:50, 2:49, 2:48…he quickly realized what it meant.
The alarmed hedgehog rushed out of there and back to Tails so fast that he didn't even see the dead bodies on the way there. "Tails, this place is gonna self-destruct in less than three minutes! We gotta get them out now!"
The fox's eyes widened. "What? Then we gotta find the key fast!"
"You know what? Screw the key! I'm trying something else," Sonic stated loudly, actually sounding angry now. All of the nasty surprises he'd had today were finally taking their toll on his mood. "Tails, you see if that big red door can still open," he told his friend before stepping into the prison again.
A nod. "Got it!" Tails had no idea what Sonic planned to do to free the children, but this wasn't the time to question him. He did not immediately head for the sliding door that led to the entrance, but instead went for the security room first. If there had been a switch for the prison door, there had to be one for the exit, right?
"Alright, kids, stay back from your cage door!" Sonic said to the trapped children inside the cages as he walked around, gesturing to them with his hands at the same time, aware that it was unlikely that all or even most of these kids knew English. "I'm gonna try something to get you all out, okay?"
The kids, who were now standing up thanks to the alarm noise, seemed to understand for the most part, as they did their best to stay well back, regardless of the lack of space. Some of them probably did it out of fear of Sonic rather than believing he would help, but he didn't exactly care as long as they performed the same instruction.
Finally, Sonic backed up against a wall, placing a foot against it and looking down the aisle between the cages to check its width. Good, it's just right.
Then he let loose, pushing himself forwards towards the opposite wall. Just two seconds later, he'd planted his feet on it, and bounced off to head back in the other direction. As he did so, he curled into a spinning disk, quills made as sharp as possible, hurling himself down the aisle at a level near the top of the cage doors. When he reached the wall he'd started from, he bounced back in the same spindash state, except now he was moving nearer to the floor.
Hitting the second wall, Sonic uncurled himself and stood up as he saw the results of his work. After a short pause, the sliced metal bars on every cage slid off and fell to the ground with a cacophony of clangs. Seeing this, the kids – the ones who had enough energy, at least – let out a series of amazed cries.
Sonic repeated his horizontal slicing trick with the second aisle before speaking again. "Alright, everyone follow me! Come on!"
They probably only had two minutes left, but despite this, Sonic still patiently coaxed the kids to stand in line. Some of them, he saw, were unconscious or too weak to stand up, requiring others to hold or carry them.
The group was slowly led out of the prison into the dark room. Sonic looked back at the red door, which was still not open, to his dismay. Tails was right there, working on something next to it on the floor. "Tails! How's the door?" Sonic asked without masking his fear for the children's safety.
"I tried seeing if I could open it in the security room just now, but there's no switch, believe it or not," Tails answered, speaking as fast as he could while his fingers worked on the electronic panel that he'd pried off the wall, "I'm just resetting the code on this keypad lock to 1111. The good news is it's not very different from the kind I've seen on Mobius."
"How long more?"
"Fifteen seconds."
"Right…" Fifteen seconds seemed like forever to Sonic right this moment, as it meant standing there with an entire bunch of half-dead kids who would soon be fully dead if they weren't constantly on the move.
He turned back to look at them closely. None of them were even healthy enough to walk at human speeds, much less run. And there was a long tunnel up ahead that might as well have stretched on to infinity in their current state. The self-destruct sequence was unlikely to only affect the parts of this place made of metal. He needed a faster way to move them…and it occurred to him that there just might be one right here.
"Hey guys, wait here," Sonic told them before running back into the workshop. In there, he was able to quickly find two flatbed trolleys next to one of the AFVs, knowing that Tails commonly kept a few of them around in his own workshops too. Before leaving, he checked the security room again, seeing that the countdown was at two minutes. Gulp!
The hedgehog rolled the trolleys out into the hallway, the handle of one in each hand, glancing at the group of dead Chinese men one last time. That was a mystery he and Tails would have to crack later – for now, saving the kids was the priority.
"Okay, kids, get on board!" Sonic said, stopping the trolleys and helping the children onto them. He wasn't sure if there was going to be enough space for all of them, but goddamn if he wasn't going to try to make them fit.
Tails had managed to reconfigure the electronic keypad in the way he desired, punching in the new code 1111 without even putting the panel back into the wall. The red door slid open as swiftly as before. "Sonic, we can get out now! You ready?"
"Uh, not exactly…" Tails turned around, and saw why. In a somewhat morbid fashion, the children's malnourishment was a good thing, as it meant more of them could fit onto a trolley at once. Most of them – thirty to be exact – on the trollies now were the ones who couldn't walk, but this still left twenty kids that could to be forced to move on foot. Sonic himself could probably piggyback a few, but not all.
It was Tails' turn to have an idea as he looked at the tunnel ahead. The truck they had rode on to come in here was still there, and as far as he could remember, its engine was still on. "Sonic, I got it! Get those kids onto the truck there!"
The hedgehog immediately complied, recognizing what the plan was as gestured for the group to follow him into the stony chamber and towards the tunnel, dragging the trollies along at the same time. "You can drive that thing?"
"Maybe," the fox replied while opening the driver's entry hatch on the same surface, "it's worth trying!"
After reaching the truck, Sonic picked up a few kids at a time to place them into its cargo area at the back, while Tails climbed into the driver's seat. His short height meant that he had to adjust the seat all the way to the front first, and even then, he could still barely see over the dashboard. Not that it mattered, since he had to drive the vehicle backwards anyway – there was not enough space or time to turn around. "Sonic, you ready?" he asked as he placed the shifter into reverse.
"Yeah!" After helping the last kid up, Sonic quickly went back to the trolleys. "Let's go! Now!"
"Okay!" Tails placed the emergency brake down and mashed the accelerator, and with a loud grunt, the truck began rolling backwards. Behind (or rather, in front of) him, Sonic went first, pushing the trolleys as fast as he could towards the distant light without making the kids fall off, which was not very fast, to say the least, but he hoped it was at least fast enough to clear the explosions.
Oddly enough, it seemed that the trek out of the tunnel wasn't as long the trek into it like it felt earlier. The glowing, sunlit exit that seemed unreachable in time just now was getting closer and closer, and for the first time, Sonic felt genuinely hopeful. These kids are going to make it! he confidently proclaimed to himself, they're gonna live!
But hope had a nasty habit of being crushed when you got carried away with it. The hole was now meters ahead, with the sunlight that had been oppressively hot when the duo had first arrived now looking very welcoming indeed. Too bad it wasn't the only thing waiting for them.
Before they could reach it, several men suddenly popped out from the sides, armed with AKs and rocket launchers, and opened fire immediately. Sonic, preoccupied with the kids in front of him and thoughts of what to do with them later, was caught off-guard, and quickly jumped over the trollies of kids to tackle the gunmen. Unfortunately, even he could not prevent the dozens of bullets from coming in and the rocket from surging by and slamming into the back of the truck.
Tails had already caught the gunmen appearing in the rearview mirror, but could scarcely get a word out before they pulled their triggers. The incoming rocket stopped his breath cold, and he instinctively opened the door to bail out as the explosive warhead blew up, barely escaping the resultant flames that consumed the cargo and cabin compartments completely.
Out front, Sonic was viciously punching, kicking, spindashing, whacking, and otherwise attacking every human adult-shaped thing he saw. He was furious at himself for having forgotten about the security outside. As if they would have allowed the kids, their 'property', to simply be escorted out of here like that. If they couldn't have the kids, nobody could. That's how these people operate!
Tails avoided the fires of the burning truck as he stumbled out. Something at the back of his mind told him that the kids inside were now gone, but he did his best not to let that thought assert itself – he could not believe it. He wouldn't. At the same time, however, a more rational side of him told him that the place behind him was still going to explode, and that he had to tend to the kids on the trolleys first while Sonic was busy.
The fox heeded the instruction he gave himself and pushed the trolleys forward. After pushing several feet, it finally happened.
There was a noticeable quake in the ground, and the dark hole they'd just exited was suddenly filled with a bright, powerful flame, like a supernova filling up an empty void in space. The fire was coming up very fast, something Tails was well aware of after a short glance, and pushed the trollies with all of his might.
The instant he knew sunlight was over them rather than stone ceiling, he pushed them to one side while jumping to the other. The flames roared out of the hole in the mountain as if coming from an angry dragon. Tails was able to avoid it, although the sheer heat and his proximity to it meant his fur still got singed. The fox collapsed on the ground, more out of surprise than pain, though it meant he couldn't get back up immediately to help Sonic. He only hoped that the kids on the trollies fared better than the ones on the truck.
"Tails!" Sonic shouted after kicking the last goon he could see in the chin, and rushed over to his friend, "Tails!"
"I'm…I'm okay!" Tails said as pushed himself up with his hands, his torso hurting as he did so, "check the kids quick!"
Eyes widening, Sonic ran over to the two trollies to check over the kids, desperately hoping that the gunmen just now had missed. But cruelly, they hadn't. Many of them had obviously been hit, with blood oozing out of some of their gunshot wounds. The heat that came separately from the exploding truck and exploding tunnel didn't help their chances either. The horror was instantaneous. The absolute worst possible outcome had occurred. "No…" Then, as if he hadn't taken a big enough punch to the gut, he turned to look at the burning truck that wasn't even visible anymore, obscured completely by fire in the tunnel. "No…"
Not finding Robotnik was one thing, but this?
There were then more gunfire and shouts coming from afar, but that didn't interrupt Sonic's sorrow or shock – for that to happen would now take a lot more. Tails, also horrified by the deaths but still aware enough of his surroundings, realized it was now on him to get Sonic and himself to safety – without any of the children. He knew what to do, even if he sure as hell didn't like it.
Grabbing a still frozen Sonic, Tails twisted his namesakes and lifted off with his friend, gloved hands joined together. He then began to move forwards in the air rather than upwards, and after a reaching a quick enough velocity, he began performing the trick he'd learned a year ago that would work just as well here. His tails stopped spinning and instead bent stiffly to his sides, and with enough concentration, they were now flying much faster away from the PMM reinforcements below.
A few spirals and a sonic boom in the air later, the flying fox slowed down and transformed back from jet mode into helicopter mode. The pain on his torso, combined with the stress that came from the events they'd just experienced made it hard to land properly, and so they'd simply crashed into the hot sand, right where they'd started out – the Tornado.
And then it was over. The duo lay there under the burning sunlight on the burning desert surface in despair, knowing that their mission had changed abruptly and failed utterly. The sun simply continued shining, showing no sympathy for their situation. Sonic did not get up, tears flowing now, thinking that he should perhaps just let himself die of a heatstroke here.
"Sonic…" Tails called out to him softly as he appeared over the hedgehog, his blue eyes sad, empathetic and wet too, "I know it's…bad…but…we gotta get out of here. We gotta get home."
Sonic did not reply, simply thinking that if the children couldn't go back to their own homes, he himself didn't deserve to either. But it was a bit too late for that, as Tails had already hauled him into the backseat of the Tornado and started its engines.
Thirty-six hours later, Sonic and Tails were back in the Doherty house. They hadn't said much of anything to anyone after returning from Mazuri, and the fox had simply glumly given his photos as well as the videos from the WRID's minicamera to Alan for analysis.
They were sitting in the living room, idling, trying to relax, and failing. Tails' torso and namesakes were neatly bandaged, though it wasn't the pain from them that kept him from resting. The TV was not on – their most recent work wasn't going to be revealed to the news, at least not anytime soon, and that wasn't exactly a bad thing considering how it had gone.
Alan Doherty entered the house at his usual scheduled time. "We've learned quite a lot at the Bureau today," he started quietly but matter-of-factly, "not sure if you guys are in the mood to hear it out?"
A few minutes later they were in Alan's bedroom, as Sonic and Tails had decided not to delay hearing any new important info – their feelings were irrelevant to this. "Courtesy of my colleagues specializing in China and Chinese affairs," Alan said as he opened up his laptop, "Wong Heng is allegedly a high-ranking member of the Wing Seng Triad in Hong Kong." The photo on the laptop was of a plump Chinese male in his fifties eating a meal at a table. "The tattoos from the dead Chinese guys in the photos are an exact match with the kind their members usually have." The next photo showed said dragon tattoos on some living, intimidating-looking young men with cleavers. "And the place Wong is normally said to hang out at, also confirmed by our friends in the Hong Kong Police Force to be Wing Seng turf, is a bar or restaurant called 'The Heart of Asia' in Tsim Sha Tsui." He then showed a photo of said restaurant's colorful, elaborate entrance.
"I just can't stop wondering, why were they in Mazuri in the first place?" Tails asked.
"Our preliminary guess is that they were trafficking weapons, or even kids-" Sonic tensed up noticeably as Alan mentioned the last one, "-though to my knowledge the Triads have never traveled as far as Africa to do stuff like this. But if the dying guy was right, Wong has to know something about this.
"And actually, speaking of Hong Kong, I've heard reports over the last few months about increasing gun violence between Triads there, even though it's always been a relatively gun-free place. The kicker is that these reports seemed to have started shortly after Robotnik disappeared from Adabat." A pause. "I don't know…I'm just trained not to believe in coincidences, that's all."
"When do we go?" Sonic spoke up for the first time, emotionlessly.
"Well, anytime you like, really, though obviously the sooner the better. Perhaps after your wounds are healed…both your outer and inner ones," he replied before coming up close to the two, who were sitting on his bed, and knelt down to their eye level. "Look, I saw the raw footage of what you were both doing in Mazuri. It's horrible and tragic, but it's not your fault – you were doing what you could."
Sonic begged to differ, but didn't say it out loud. Tails was simply downcast, his head and ears following suit.
Alan knew how personally they took such things, and couldn't blame them for that. Realizing that words weren't enough, he simply grabbed both of them into a hug. As they stayed that way in one spot, Alan could feel his chest turning wet as the two buried their faces into it.
"And if nothing else," he added as he gently held their heads back up, "you've got incontrovertible proof of the PMM's atrocities. The world will never view them the same way again after this. It's a pretty big blow to them, whether or not Robotnik's supporting them - even he needs to choose groups that have at least some popularity to ally with.
"Anyway, I understand if you need time for this. You can come talk to me anytime, okay?"
"Thanks," Sonic replied, wiping a tear away, "but it's fine. We're gonna go as soon as possible," he then proclaimed as he stood up slowly but determinedly, "we still have to find out who was helping them other than Robotnik, and find out what was up with that wind weapon there. And most of all, we're not letting those kids die for nothing."
"Yeah," Tails agreed, "and actually, since I've already stated on my blog that we could be going to Asia after traveling around Europe, we can head there as tourists without arousing suspicion from whoever's responsible there. It'll just happen to be part of our trip. Cheryl said I should be okay in a week," he added, looking at his bandages, "so I can start booking tickets now."
"Glad to hear that," Alan responded, "so I guess that settles it. Go get some sleep. You're both still messed up in more ways than one."
Author's Note: Wooh! Finally managed to update. Took me long enough, even if I did have an exam earlier. Thank you for your patience with me.