Chapter 3: Sonic's 11
"Welcome to Casino Night Zone." Said Tails as they gazed out of their motel room upon the neon-lit boulevard. "This area separates the chemical plants from the city. There are over 100 gambling halls and 20 massive resort casinos, with plenty of hotel rooms and underground parking. Its like a maze, built to keep people (and their money) in."
"So we're doing casinos again." Said Lien-Da as they drove into a motel parking lot." Didn't we do this in chapter 1?"
"Yeah, but this time we've got a plan." Explained Sonic. "Last time when we went to the Starlight Casino we were just there to have a fun and maybe earn some traveling cash. Of us only Bark really came through on the latter, and got chased out because of it."
"So what do you propose we do?" asked Fiona.
"This time we take them for everything they've got!"
"As awesome as that sounds," said Sally," how do you expect us to do that?"
"Remember 'Casino Royal'?"
"Every version."
"And 'Ocean's 13'?"
"Of course… oh boy. You're not seriously thinking of…"
"I am."
"No offense Sonic" said Sally, "but the last time we went to a casino you couldn't even win a single mobium. How do you expect us to break the bank."
"Oh, I've got a plan. Actually I can't take all the credit. Most of it was barks idea. He laid it all out for me last night and, uh, why is your nose bleeding, Fiona?"
"What! It is? A, uh, I mean, it's the altitude."
"But we're only a hundred meters up?"
"Shut up, fox boy."
They walked into their hotel room, which (of course) didn't have enough beds.
"Anyways where was I? Oh yeah. So we've got a big plan. It involves expensive cars, pastel suits, loaded dice, and a VCR."
"WHAT?" Said Amy.
"Yes, you heard me right. Anyways, this is a team effort. It only works if you're all in"
"well…" said ray
"I mean, if your plan works, but…" said Mighty.
"Why not!" said Fiona emphatically as she jumped off the bed she was on. "I mean why the hell not! You only live once and you might as well go all the way, right? I say we do it!"
"She's right. I'm in." Said Sally
"Me too." Said Tails.
"All in favor" said Sonic raising his hand.
"AYE"
"Hey Sonic, what gambling hall did you pick for this job" Asked Fiona.
"Well," Said Sonic" Bark wanted to hit the 'Pair-o-dice' gambling hall, but I decided on one that was much better. Bean and Bark already cased the casino."
"So that's where you two have been."
"Which gambling hall are we hitting, Sonic." Said Amy as she pulled out a Westside casino guide.
"Well, we're not hitting a gambling hall…"
"What the fuck?" Said Lien-Da. "Do you mean to say we're hitting one of the resort casinos!"
"Sonic, 4 of the worlds biggest resort casinos are here!" said Amy reading her guide book.
"Not only are we hitting one of them, but were hitting one of the big 4 themselves, the 'Grand Mobium Resort and Casino."
"Sonic are you nuts?" Yelled Fiona. "These casino's have more security than the island has cops, and the 'Grand Mobium' is the worse"
"Not only that, but they've got all the latest equipment and their own S.W.A.T. teams." Said Tails.
"Basically, it's a private army." Said Mighty.
"And you think we didn't think of all that, come on."
"Just tell me we have an escape plan." Asked Sally
"Yeah, Sonic, This plan is worthless without an escape plan" Said Mighty
"Of course we have an escape plan. We even have an emergency escape plan just in case."
"That's better, although I don't think we're all convinced." Said Fiona.
"Will 10,000,000,000 mobiums convince you*" (*$100,000,000)
"T-t-ten billion!" Stammered Lien-Da..
"Yeah, that works." Said Fiona
"Well then, lets here the plan already" Said Amy enthusiastically.
"Ok. Everyone has a role to play, and every role is important. For the most part we'll be separated while on the casino floor. To keep in contact we'll all have ear pieces. Tails, your in charge of communications, coordination, and all technical aspects. You'll be manning the computers in our hotel room at the Grand Mobium"
"We're setting up right under their noses?"
"That's right."
"Cocky and ballsy. I like it." Said Sally.
"Girls, we're renting you very expensive dresses. Feel free to attract attention to yourselves at the tables. Bet high all the time. Your going to pretend to be super-rich high rollers. You're all on craps. I'm on roulette. Bean and bark will be working on distractions for the guards. Mighty, we'll need your super strength for a little 'breaking & entering'. Ray, you'll be assisting Tails."
"Sonic, I don't mean to be rude, but how can we win that much money." Asked Tails. "The casino will never let us win it all."
"We don't have to win it all, we just have to make sure that the casino looses it all."
"But still, can the ten of us pull it off." Asked Amy.
"No. That's why I called in someone who can help with that. She'll be here any minute"
"Hey Sonic, I don't mean to sound like a killjoy, but why are we robbing a casino. We're all the good guy hero types. Well, most of us. Fiona and Lien-Da are the only anti-heroes here."
"This casino has a lot of illegal activity associated with it. Enough so where it will be better if we break them."
"So its a combination of a heist flick and a cop movie?" Said Mighty.
"Less 'cop flick' and more 'cold war espionage' show." Said Sonic.
"Wha…"
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
"And there's our 11th." Said Sonic as he moved for the door.
Sonic opened the door to find a purple and yellow mongoose standing outside.
"Mina!" Said Amy happily.
"Hey everyone, its Mina the mongoose" Said Sally.
"I don't mean to sound… mean," said Fiona, "but how is a lounge singer going to help us on the larges heist of the century?"
"This 'lounge sing' is going to be headlining at the Grand Mobium and has access to parts of the casino that you don't." Said Mina emphatically.
"But why do you want to destroy the casino you work for." Asked Ray.
"Work isn't the right word. Slave is."
"What do you mean?"
"The 'management' at the GM is crooked beyond all believe. They have a fake contract that says I work for them for the next ten years, and if I back out I'll be blacklisted. Not only that but they're blackmailing me for good measure."
"Blackmail? But you're the cleanest of us all." Said Lien-Da.
"Well, I hide the fact that my manager, Ash, is also my boyfriend, which you all already know. They have embarrassing pictures of us together that they threaten to send to the tabloids. I'd rather avoid that."
"So we have to retrieve the evidence?" Asked Fiona.
"Retrieve and destroy!" Said Mina as she clenched her fist.
"I think I can handle that job." Said Fiona.
"Then it's yours." Said Sonic.
"Its almost impossible to get to the manager's office without being seen. You'll have to crawl through air vents."
"Wouldn't be the first time."
"Here are the blueprints for the casino." She said as she threw down a several large photos on the bed.." I had to hide a camera on me when I went to the building department. I got these at great personal risk."
"You'll get an equal share, don't worry" Reassured Sonic.
"Perfect. In that case here are several 'high access' keycards. I made copies of mine."
"Nice." Said Tails. "Will they grant us complete access?"
"Everything except the most secure areas."
"Oh, There's one other thing." Mina went on. "There's something 'weird' about that casino. I don't know what it is but it feels dangerous… yet familiar. Watch yourselves."
"Interesting." Said sonic to himself. Out loud he said "Where will you be when this all goes down?"
"I'll be on stage. It's my alibi. But if I spot an 'opportunity' I'll take it."
"What kind of opportunity?" Asked Tails.
"I Don't know, but I will when I see it. Now then, shall we head on over to the GM. I have the high roller suite. It's a perfect base."
"Hell yeah." Said Fiona.
Half an hour later everyone was at Mina's suite.
"Tails," said Sonic, "this room has a computer with access to the rest of the hotel. Normally its used to order room service and watch pay-per-view TV. Today, however, you'll used to hack into the security system and all other systems in the hotel. Can you do it?"
"Well, if I hook it up to my ILL laptop I can definitely do it."
"Good. Hook up and start recording all the security cameras. We need at least an hour of footage to loop."
Tails, to himself, said "So that's where the 'VCR' comes into play."
"Sonic," asked Lien-Da, "Won't they notice the loop if they see everything that happened earlier happen again."
"We'll run the loop right after the security guards change shifts. They'll never notice."
Ding Dong
Sonic answered the door. It was a rather large delivery.
"Here's your outfit rentals" Said a dingo delivery boy. "Please sign here."
Sonic signed and accepted the package.
"I got all our outfits. Bean and I get suits. Amy, Sally, and Lien-Da get dresses. Mina already has all her clothes here. Fi, since you've got to crawl through air vents, you get to wear your normal thief outfit." Tails and Ray will stay here. Mighty will work outside with Bark. Got it?"
"Um, Sonic? What's our emergency escape plan?" asked Amy.
"Well, after we leave the penthouse, Tails will barricade the door behind us. In case of an emergency Tails will fly out the window and up to the VIP helipad. There's a Maverick Helicopter up there. He'll jack it and pick us all up. Then we escape."
"That should work." Agreed Amy.
"Tails," said Sonic as he handed him a CD, "At exactly 10:03 access the slot machine database and run the program on this MO disk."
Fiona had left the room a few minutes ago, and now appeared in a skintight 1- piece pale purple bodysuit with a green scarf tied around her waist.
"I'm headed into the vents. It'll take me a few hours to get through to the manager's office."
"Here, take this." Said Sonic as he handed her an earpiece." Everyone gets one."
He gave everyone a small radio unit and an almost invisible earpiece.
"Fiona," said Mina," Once you find the contract and negatives, destroy them. Then get out fast."
"Right. Where's our meeting place?"
"Tail's old hideout in Emerald Hill." Said Sonic.
"Ok."
Fiona climbed into the floor vent and they closed it up behind her.
"One more thing, Fiona," said Sonic" Wait until 10:04 to enter the office. That way if you trip the alarm the guards won't notice."
At this point the girls were ready. They were all wearing floor-length dresses with low cuts, spaghetti straps, and sequins. Sally's was blue, Amy's was red, and Lien-Da's was black. Mina came out wearing a silk yukata that was red with black trim. Her hair was up in back and held in place by chop sticks.
"Synchronize your watches for 10:00 everyone." Said Sonic." That's when the action starts. Tails, that's when you'll activate the MO disk. Activate the security feed loop 5 minutes earlier. Girls, feel free to win as much money as you can. Here's 100,000 mobiums. Its counterfeit, but they won't notice until it's too late. Don't ask where I got it. Good luck. Oh, and if you feel the floor shake or see smoke, don't panic."
The 4 girls left. Now it was just the guys. Bark motioned to mighty and he and Ray left. Sonic and Bean changed into their suits. Bean's was a black tux with a red bowtie. Sonic's was a light blue pastel suit. They left and walked down to the elevator and took it to the casino on the ground floor. Sonic looked up at a security camera and smiled.
They mingled in the crowd for about 20 minutes. The girls were betting high and winning. Sonic had sat down at a roulette table and was constantly betting on red or black, and was winning 80% of the time.
Fiona was crawling through the air vents. She had gone up 4 stories and across to the other side of the building. She finally made it to a floor vent conveniently located behind the managers' desk.
Mina had been preparing for her concert and was consulting with her band. At 5 minutes to ten they all stepped out on stage.
Bean's job was the easiest. All he had to do was get a package as close to the cashiers as possible. Fortunately baggage check was located right next to the cashiers, which is where he decided was the best place for it.
Bark and Mighty made their way to the underground parking garage. They drove a 'borrowed' security van over to a cement wall. On the other side of the wall was the vault. Bark opened his backpack to reveal several blocks of C4.
"If we're blowing the vault, then how come everyone is upstairs gambling anyways?" Asked Mighty.
"All will be revealed shortly" Answered Bark.
They planted the explosives and took cover
Suddenly Tails could be heard over their earpieces.
"This is Tails. Do you all copy? Over."
"This is Fiona. I'm in the offices. Over"
"This is Mighty. Bark and I are in the parking garage on the other side of the vault. We're all set here."
"This is Sally. The girls and I are at three different craps tables. We're waiting on you."
"This is Bean. I'm over by the cashiers' box. The item is in place."
"This is Sonic. I'm all ready"
"Its 2 minutes to 10:00. places everybody." Said Tails.
Suddenly the curtains on the large stage opened and Mina mongoose stepped out.
"Welcome everyone to the Grand Mobium resort casino, where the odds of you winning are better than anywhere else. Now sit back and enjoy tonight's jazzy tunes. And a one and a two and a 1 2 3 4!"
The saxophones started playing as Mina grabbed her mike.
"I think its time we blow this scene
Get everyone and their stuff together
Ok 3, 2, 1, lets jam."
(Insert 'Tank' theme from 'Cowboy bebop' here)
At that the clock struck 10:00. The security guards in the monitor station switched shifts, and as they did Tails played the tapes and put them on loop.
15 seconds later the girls switched out the craps dice for loaded ones and started betting as much as they could. Sonic managed to switch out the roulette ball with a rigged one, and slapped down 100,000 mobiums on 07. he, of course, won.
The dealers and floorwalkers were instantly suspicious of all this sudden winning. Tails cut off all telephone communications in the building so that the pit bosses couldn't contact security. Exactly 3 minutes later tails implemented the MO disk. Suddenly all the slot machines were paying out, and I mean all of them, even unmanned ones. Their sirens were yelping and all their lights were flashing. The crowds were going crazy as thousands of coins flowed out onto the floor. Sonic and the girls took this opportunity to cash in their chips, which totaled at over 20 million mobiums. Then 1 minute later Bean pressed a button on a remote that detonated the package he had checked, which was a smoke bomb. It filled the cashiers office with smoke, causing even more confusion. Seconds later Bark and Mighty set off the explosives and blew their way into the vault. Ray backed up their van and they shoveled all the money into it. They closed up the van and drove off.
"This is Mighty. We're out of here."
"Cool'" said Sonic, "Bark knows what to do with it."
It was now safe for Fiona to search the office. It didn't take her long to find the evidence since there was only one filing cabinet with a combination lock. The evidence was in it and filed under 'M'. She threw it in a trash can and set it all on fire
"This is Fi. I just destroyed the evidence. Your free, Mina. I'm going to take the elevator down. It should be clear now."
Mina put down her sax, turned to her band and said, "We're free, boys. Lets get while the getting good."
They grabbed their instruments, ran to the parking lot, and proved that a 20-ton bus can do burnouts.
"Time to bug out, Tails." Said Sonic over his radio.
He walked over to the exit where he found the girls waiting for him
"Hey there, stranger," She said with a sexy grin, "ready to bounce?"
"I've got one last thing to do. Here, take my cash. I wouldn't want to drop it."
"Will you be long?"
"Not likely."
Sonic walked through the rioting gamblers over to a roped-off elevator. He went under the ropes and into the elevator. It was an express elevator, and only went to the penthouse. As he traveled up he pulled out a gun, slicked back his hair, and put on a fresh pair of gloves. The whole gang had already left the casino, but there was one part of the plan he hadn't told them. The real reason he chose this particular Casino.
The elevator doors opened into a large room. The focal point was a white crescent-shaped desk, with a wall of monitors behind it along with a rather oval looking white chair. As he stepped out 2 ding guards pointed Automatics. at him. He emptied the gun into both of them. They both dropped and started to leak oil.
"Having trouble with your security feed, Doctor?"
The chair turned to reveal none other than Dr. Eggman himself.
"Hedgehog. I wondered If you were the one behind this. What's with the gun? Its not your style."
"I thought the Walther PPK made me seem more suave. Besides I only brought one clip."
Sonic threw away the empty Walther.
"Sonic, How did you know that my guards…"
"…were androids? Their good, but no mecha can fool me. All the guards in this Casino are androids. And the Casino itself is a front. All so you can make money to spend on world conquest, isn't it?"
"H-how did you know?"
"I knew you still had a casino from when you took over the whole island. You were shrewd keeping it looking like a legit casino. It took me months of investigating to find the right casino. Fortunately I love playing detective."
"What's going on in the casino? What did you do to my computers?"
"The casino? Everyone down there is rioting. Seems someone used a computer program that caused all the slot machines to dump their payload. Said program also sent a heinous bug to your computers just for extra measure.
"Oh and there's one more thing I know about this casino." Sonic went on. "According to gambling laws, a casino must have enough cash in its vault to cover every chip on the floor. For this casino that would equal 10 billion mobiums. Except you spent it all on robots. The cash in the vault was all fake to fool the gambling commission. You probably only kept about 10 million on hand."
"Why are you talking in the past tense? You couldn't have…"
"Oh but we did. We cheated and won 10 million on the floor. We also blew open your vault and stole all your fake cash. Right now Bark and Mighty are burning it. Your casino is done for."
"Well, Sonic, it looks like you've won this round…" Said Eggman. He pressed a button and his hovercraft suddenly popped out of the floor.
"Running, doc?"
"The money I got from this casino helped me to finish the most deadly robots you'll ever see. You should come on over to my secret underground base in Metropolis. That is, if you can find it! Bwa ha ha!"
And with that Eggman flew out, blowing a huge hole in the wall.
"Well that was anticlimactic."
Suddenly an ear-piercing alarm sounded. All the monitors on the wall suddenly glowed red with the number '30' on it. As it started counting down a computerized voice sounded over the PA.
"Self destruct in 29, 28,27…"
"Now that's a climax."
Sonic jumped out the hole in the wall and jumped off the many rooftops as he made his way to the ground.
All the people made it out in time before the casino imploded. Fortunately Eggman has a flair for the thematic, so as the casino collapsed fireworks flew out the top and lit up the night sky.
Sonic stood on a rooftop across the street, watching the show
"Metropolis city, eh. That's one battle I'm looking forward to. I can't wait to find out if 10 billion builds a robot worthy of fighting me."
END
Time for more totally obscure pop culture references
ILL Laptop - When ACROSS started their city conquest in Excel Saga they started by opening an electronics store selling superior equipment at bargain prices. You really have to read it to understand it.
Maverick Helicopter - Most common chopper in the Grand Theft Auto games
A thief's outfit of a pale purple Bodysuit and Green Scarf - This was Fujiko's standard thief outfit in the 3rd Lupin III TV series, the pink jacket series.(now THAT'S an obscure pop culture reference if I've ever seen one)
MO Discs - In Resident Evil 1 you needed three of these to rescue one of the S.T.A.R.S. members.
Walther PPK - James bond's gun. It does make sonic seem more suave and works well with the suit.
Author's Notes
Anyways this is the third chapter of South island shenanigans. I didn't have that many gags and toilet humor this time around, but when I realized that they had to go through the Casino Night Zone, my mind suddenly flashed on every heist movie I've ever seen, and I realized that this would be so cool to do with Sonic characters. Chapter 4 will end this story arc, but my zany stories will continue with different cast members in different settings. I originally meant for this series to be made up of one-off stories, but now it looks like every arch will span several chapters. Kind of like 'Sonic Universe' but more entertaining.