Chapter 3: Rebel Hedgehog
Sonic could run as super-sonic speed, leap several meters in the air, wall jump up or down sheer walls, and even tare robotic limbs from their sockets, but the hardest thing he felt he would ever have to do was "take it easy." After the ancient badger of a doctor had found out about his run, he threatened to tie Sonic down to his bed until the hedgehog's wounds were fully healed. After many promises from Sonic and assurances from Sally the physician had relented, but warned he would be watching.
Unable to relive his boredom with sheer speed, Sonic had been forced to find other means of entertainment, most of which was more accurately called work. He helped harvest some of the crops, repair shelters, weed gardens, carry supplies and anything else that needed doing. It was "super lame" at first, especially when he caught glimpses of Knuckles watching him with a knowing smile on his face, What he would have given to knock that look off the smug echidna's jaw. But soon he found he was looking forward to helping the villagers, and even enjoying himself. Many of them villagers were interesting to talk to, or at least had a good sense of humor and were fun to tease.
One day as he was hauling wood into the village with an older Boar named Devin, a ball rolled into his path. Unable to see it due to the pile of wood in his arms, Sonic tripped over it, stumbled a few feet, nearly lost the wood pile, then finally got control of himself. Looking arownd to find the offender that had been so careless he saw several young Mobians come running over, at their head was a two tailed fox that Sonic recognized immediately.
"Sorry mister! The ball got away from us!" said the young cub
"That's all right." Said Sonic dropping the wood pile ware the old boar indicated. "No harm done."
"Hey your suppose to be super fast right?" said a small badger "Why don't you come play with us?"
The young fox looked bashful at this but said nothing.
"I would love to kids, but I've got a lot of work to do for Mr. Boar." Said sonic with a shrug
"Oh, go have some fun." Said the gravelly old voice of Devin Boar. "My old bones can haul my own lumber for a bit. Besides, if Doctor Gunther finds out about all the work you have been doing he will be most upset." The boar snorted involuntarily.
"Well, all right, if you're sure Mr. Boar." Replied Sonic.
The old man waved his hand. "Be gone with you young man, don't play to hard."
Sonic smiled and went off with the children. They showed him how to play their game, a slight variation on soccer. The blue hedgehog moved at a painfully slow speed to make if fair, but did take it up a notch every now and again. He looked up to notice Knuckles watching him from the side of the field once, no smug smile on his face this time, but not un-approving ether.
Sonic learned all their names but he was most interested in Miles, the two tailed fox he had saved from the M class war-bot. The young cub was an orphan, his parents taken during the rise of the nefarious Dr. Robotnik. The young fox was orange like most of his kind, with a white muzzle, tail tips and small tuffed of fur on his chest. He wore small worn out sneakers. They talked a bit as the sun went down and Miles friends were called off to supper. Sonic and Miles made their way back to the village, ball tucked under Miles's arm
"Robotnik? The guy who took over Metropolis a few years ago?" said Sonic
"Metropolis?" said the young fox confused. "Oh! You mean Robotropolis."
"Oh right he renamed it." Replied Sonic.
"Yea, they were trying to escape his army the night of the coup and they got caught by the patrols." Miles was obviously saddened by the even, but showed courage as talking about it did not even make his eyes water.
"I escaped because of my flying. They didn't expect it." He said with some pride. "Someday I'm going to be a rebel freedom fighter just like Knuckles."
"That flying sure is something." Said Sonic. "How do you do that anyway?"
"Oh it's easy!" said Miles putting the ball down. "I just wind up my tails like this…" Miles wraped his two tails around each other. "Then I spin them like this…" Miles's tails span very fast and lifted him off the ground.
"Way cool big guy!" said Sonic genuinely impressed.
"I can lift lost of wight with them too!" said Miles eager to impress and dropped down. "Grab my hands."
Sonic did so and was surprised to find himself lifted off the ground with little to no effort on the part of the fox.
"Wow, that is amazing!" said Sonic
Miles put Sonic back down and landed next to him.
"My name is Miles Prower by the way." Said the small fox picking the ball back up.
"Yea, I heard the other kids saying it to you." Said sonic. "but I don't think it fits you very well. Someone as cool as you needs a nick name"
"Oh neat! What nick name should I have Sonic? How about Roater or or… orange crush or…"
"How about Tails?" said Sonic after a moment of thought.
"YEA!" yelled Miles "That perfect!"
"All right then." Sonic picked up a stick and laid it across the foxes shoulders as if knighting him. "Henceforth, you shall be known as Miles "Tails" Prower, but Tails for short."
"Awesome! I can't wait to tell everyone!" said Tails. He lunged at Sonic and hugged him. "Thanks Sonic, your super cool."
"That's what they tell me." Said Sonic hugging the youth for a moment.
"Ok, well I have to be off or Aunt Sally will scold me for being late to supper." Said Tails. "bye Sonic!"
"Catch you later big guy!" replied Sonic waving as the fox left.
Sonic smiled to himself as he walked back to the medical hut ware he had been staying. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so happy, and he hadn't even ran faster than 100mph in the last week. These people, this village it felt like…home. The though startled him. He had never had a home, not one that he remembered anyway, but that didn't make sense. Surly he had a mother, a father some ware, at some time. The thought gave him a head ach so he let the subject drop. Night fell as he reached the Medical tent. People were talking in the doorway. It sounded like Knuckles and Dr. Gunther.
"We don't have any more time Gunther. He has to be ready now." Said Knuckles.
The badger sighed."I suppose he could run, but its not one hundred percent that he won't hurt himself again. He's not back to full yet Knuckles."
"We don't have a choice, if we don't move now Heartwood is doomed. We will have to move everyone and…"
"The emerald." Finished Dr. Gunther.
"Shhh. Not so loud. Not everyone knows about that especially…"
"Hey guys, what's shaking?" said Sonic announcing himself.
They both looked startled. Dr. Gunther walked off hastily.
"Done playing with the children?" said Knuckles
Sonic opened his mouth to retort but Knuckles held up a hand
"Never mind, come with me. I need you for something."
Sonic shrugged and followed the red echidna. They walked away from the village into the woods. They were rather spooky after dark. A light fog was forming on the ground and strange night animals called to each other through the darkness.
"Not planning on murdering me in the dark are ya Knuck?" said Sonic with a small laugh.
"Not tonight." Replied Knuckles
Sonic didn't say anything else. They soon reached a large stump that looked like it had seen better days.
"Listen to me Sonic. What I'm about to show you can never be repeated to anyone outside of this village. Robotnik and his cronies would, and have, killed to learn what I'm about to show you. Unless Sally changes her mind, you are free to leave when you wish, but I implore you to leave this information behind when you do."
"Sure Knuckles, the hedgehog lips are sealed." Sonic mimicked a zipper on his lips.
"This isn't a game Sonic, I mean it. No one can hear of this."
"Oh for gods's sake Knuckles just let him in already." Said Sally from behind Sonic. She seemed to materialize out of the fog.
Knuckles made an angry sound but nodded. He reached down and lifted up the stump with some difficulty. The stump was on a hinge and sat to one side when Knuckles was finished. Under the stump was a hole in the ground with wooden steps that lead down into the ground.
"Come on then." Said Knuckles, ice in his voice.
Sonic and Sally followed him down into the hole, the stump closed behind them.
"Miles told me about your game today Sonic." Said Sally.
"Oh yea?" said Sonic
"It was very nice of you to befriend him like that. He doesn't have much for friends in Heartwood."
"Why is that? He seems like a cool enough kid."
"It has a lot to do with the deformity of his Tails." Replied Sally. "Some of the kids make fun of him, and to tell the truth he is a bit embarrassed of them, and the fact that his had no parents."
Sonic felt a twinge of guilt. "If he is so embarrassed of them why did he let me give him the nick name Tails?"
"All he talked about over supper was how you weren't put off by his tails. To him, I think it legitimizes him. It makes his uniqueness something to be proud of." She said
"I don't understand." Said Sonic
"To children, adults are the truth, by you telling him his tails are not 'weird' but they are 'cool', tells him in a way that the children who make fun of him are wrong. He's not literally thinking that of course, but it means something to him."
Sonic thought about this while they walked along the tunnel. It was cold and a bit damp. It smelled heavily of earth and tickled his nose. Soon they entered a room with several other's huddled around a holo table. A large computer sad against one wall, another tunnel next to it lead off some ware else.
"Welcome to the headquarters of the Freedom Fighters of Mobius Sonic Hedgehog." Said Sally.
Knuckles went to stand next to the table. Sally did the same and Sonic followed her.
"All right everyone, Knuckles and I called this emergency meeting because what we feared has come to pass." Started Sally instantly shifting to seriousness. Several people shifted nervously.
"Robotnik has dispatched new patrol units to Power plant Gamma 1. We fear this means that they are going to sweep the forest soon." An image of a massive steel structure appeared on the holo table before them.
"This shows the most recent in tell we have on Power plant Gamma." Said Sally
Around the building were numerous robots and floating vehicles zipping around like bees.
"What about the scanner disruptors?" said a large Tiger with a blaster riffle on his back. "They should keep us from detection when they start there sweeps."
"They only work on long range scanners Ruffus." Said Knuckles shaking his head. "If they move close enough with short range scanners we will light up like a city. The cat frowned.
"Well if we attack the Plant won't that tip our hand? Won't they know they are getting close?" said another freedom fighter.
"We don't think so. We hit targets all the time seemingly at random, this will just look like another strike." Said Sally
"That's all well and good." Said Ruffus, "but how are we suppose to hit the plant we can't get through the force field."
"We don't," said Knuckles and pointed to Sonic. "He does."
"What? I didn't agree to this. What makes you think I can get past a force field?" said the hedgehog taken aback.
Sally pushed a few buttons and the image zoomed out to show a silver flickering dome over the structure.
"Because the shield that the Power plant has is called an oscillating force field." She said pushing a few more buttons. The image slowed down significantly. The dome became less solid and finally showed four lead lines turning slowly on a central axis.
"It works like a high speed fan." Sad Knuckles. "If you try to go through one of the 'fins" will knock you back and out, but if someone were fast enough…"
"They could zip through without getting touched." Finished Sonic looking more interested.
"Exactly" said Knuckles.
"We will give you pack full of explosives. You will set them here, here and here." Said Sally pointing to several places on the image that lit up red. "This will disrupt power output enough that the power plant won't be able to support the additional units, forcing them to fall back while it is repaired"
"and that will take months." Said Knuckles with pride.
"Ok, sounds like fun!" said Sonic
"Wait wait," said a porcupine with a grenade belt strapped to her chest. Sonic recognized her from when he had helped her harvest some of the fruit. "I know Sonic is fast, but no one can out run that patrol forever. They will detect and nail him eventually.
"That's where we come in." said Knuckles. Sally manipulated the holo table to zoom out then back in on another structure. "This is a chemical plant ten miles from power plant Gamma 1. If we strike it before Sonic is to infiltrate the power plant, the majority of the defensive forces will be siphoned off to defend it."
"So we're going to be a distraction for the hedgehog?" said Rufus with some contempt.
"It's either that or we start packing up and find a new place to live, and a hundred living targets on the move are a lot easier to spot and shoot than a secure, secret base." Said Sally.
Rufus shifted his riffle uneasily. "All right, I'm in, but I'm going on record as saying I don't like it."
"Noted." Said Knuckles. "Sonic, are you willing to help us in this?"
"I don't know Knuckles" said Sonic, the prospect of running again having lost his luster after the mention of getting shot at. "I never signed on to this little band of rebels, and no one asked me before I was made the key to this little plan."
"Sonic…we need you to do this." Said Sally "Everyone in this village is counting on you."
Sonic closed his eyes in thought for a few moments. He tried to think about running away, he ran away from everything. Nothing could catch him, he could leave and never come back. but no matter how fast he ran, he would never outrun the face of Dr. Gunther that saved his life, all the people who had taken him in and made him feel at home, or the young fox that looked up to him. For the first time Sonic had found something he could not outrun; Guilt.
"Alright I'll do it." He said
The group cheered, causing tinny bits of earth to fall in on them.
"Then its settled." Said Sally. "Rufus, take Sonic over to the armory and get him set up with a pack of d7 explosive charges."
Rufus bowed. "As you wish."
"Knuckles get the team ready to move to the chemical plant. Penny, you are on dispatch duty."
The porcupine saluted. "Of course Sally."
"Let's move everyone, I want to be off the ground by 2300 hours."
The next few moments moved very fast, just the way Sonic liked it. Before he knew it he had a bag full of explosives on his back and was flying in a hover ship over the pitch black florist. He was the only one in the transport accept the pilot, a goose with an aviator's jacket and goggles. The ship lurched a few times dropping them a few feet out of the air.
"Sorry about that new guy. The old hover ships have seen better days they will stay in the air."
Sonic tried to keep his diner down.
It wasn't too long before they touched down and Sonic happily put his feet back on the ground.
"I'll meet you back here at 0200 Sonic Hedgehog." Said the goose. "Stay frosty." The engine sputtered and he the ship rose back into the air.
"Not hard in this weather." Said the Hedgehog to himself. The night was indeed frosty, and Sonic soon found himself doing stretches in an attempt to keep the heat in his blood.
A garbled voice came over the ear piece he had been given.
"This is bee hive, repeat this is bee hive all units call in, over."
"This is red dog, all units in position and ready to move on your order bee hive. over." Said Knuckles
"This is hot foot, ready to put the pedal to the metal. over." Said Sonic.
"Bee hive confirms Red dog and hot foot. Operation Thunder Storm is a go, repeat operation is a go."
"About time…" said Sonic and he was off like a shot.
Sonic boom trailing behind him Sonic pushed himself as hard as he could to test his boundaries. He still wasn't able to get to top speed, but he was over the sound barrier. The cold wind in his face was suddenly a blessing as he relished the sheer joy of his speed.
The structure soon came into sight. It was much more massive than the tinny holo table had made it look. It was nestled in a dug out crater, the building sat on large metal stilts that anchored it to the ground. Numerous cords ten feet in diameter emerged from all sides of the building, diving into the earth to come out miles away to power various other buildings, the chemical plant being one of them. The cables had flat metal tops attached to them, seemingly to protect them from falling objects, perfect for running on. Sonic observed the structure, and soon had a path in mind to get him to it once he was past the shield.
Robots were every ware, they hadn't noticed the little hedgehog in their midst yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time.
"Red dog, this is hot foot. I'm in position and ready to make my run. Over." Said Sonic in a whisper
"Hot foot this is red dog, we are commencing the attack now. Move when you are clear to do so. Over."
Sonic waited for several moments. Suddenly a loud buzzing alarm began to sound. Sonic thought he had been caught at first, but then the hover ships filled with robotic soldiers formed up and took off to the west ware Knuckle's force was attacking.
"Time to rock" said Sonic and bolted out of cover.
He could see the shield coming up. Watching carefully he could see the lead lines just like in the image, the energy trailing behind them. He would have to catch up to the lead line get past. He poured on the speed, kicking up a large trail of dirt behind him the sonic boom causing the shield to ripple like water. He caught up to the lead line, passed it then cut hard in front of it, clearing it by mere feet.
"No problem." Said Sonic "Red dog, this is hot foot. I'm in. If you have time I can do it a few more times."
"Stop kidding around Sonic, the faster you get done the faster we can fall back." Replied Knuckles, blaster fire could be heard in the transition.
Sonic blasted back to where he had seen his way in. He leaped off the cliff onto the cable top maintaining his speed. Behind him the cable was snapping up like a whip, or a wave. In no time sonic had reached the main structure. With a mighty leap he landed on one of the stilts that held the structure up, leaping again to another stilt he was able to make his way up to the main floor. Hanging from a bar of metal, he was able to locate a hatch and flip himself up and in. The air stank of exhaust and ozone.
Sonic removed the schematic Sally gave him from his pack and located his position. Plotting a coarse to the nearest drop point, he put the schematic away and took off.
The halls were wide, and went on for a long way, making it easy for sonic to blast down them. He soon found himself in the main distributer room, where the power was sent off to its various destinations. He pulled out one of the explosives that looked like a cylinder with a key pad on it. Remembering what Rufus had taught him about setting them, he punched in 3 minutes, checked his watch, and got up to speed off to the next drop point, but was stopped by the sound of blaster fire.
Sonic back flipped just in time to doge a bolt of energy that scorched ware he had just been standing. Above him on the catwalks were several humanoid bots with blasters attached to their arms pointed at him. They were black in color with domed heads and red lines for eyes that glowed menacingly.
They fired several more times at the hedgehog who dodged and flipped out of the way. Remembering that the catwalk might be the best path to the next drop point he touched his power rings to activate them, having been charged up from his previous run.
"Sorry guys, I'd love to stay and play, but I have places to be." He leaped into the air in a summersault focusing on one particular bot, then found himself flying strait at it. Bits of metal and robotic innards flew every ware as his attack hit home. Sonic located another, and another bouncing off of the targets like he was made of rubber, the blue energy ripping them to pieces. With path cleared Sonic bolted down the open doorway at the end of the catwalk, the force and sonic boom causing the rest of the cat walk to collapse behind him blaster bolts flew widely as the bots fell with it.
The base was on high alert now, but it didn't matter, the war-bots could not respond fast enough to the super-sonic hedgehog. By the time they responded to his attacks the was already two drops sites ahead of them.
After the final drop he had about one minute left before the first explosive detonated.
"Time to blow this chillie dog stand." Sonic said to himself. He stopped a moment to pull out the schematic of the facility. He found himself in a small control room of some kind. Outside the observation glass he could see a massive molten fireball of some type not unlike the sun. Looking it up on the schematic he realized this was the power core. Sonic smiled to himself.
"Why should I mess with explosives when I can just detonate the entire power core?" shaking his head at Knuckles and Sally's oversight he started to look over the console. Finding the controls for the cooling system he shut them down. Within seconds, red lights filled the room and alarms were blaring all over the building.
"Hot foot this is red dog, we just got alarms for evacuation what's going on over there. Over?"
"Chill red dog, I just set the core to overload, I'll be long gone before it can go nova. Over."
"You IDIOT!" screamed Knuckles. "There are robotisized workers in that facility and my team can't get out in time! "
"Allright allright calm down Red dog I'll just set the cooling back…" but he was cut off by a loud thump behind him.
Turning around he found a cannon pointed strait at him. Sonic ducked and slid just in time to have a rail gun shot miss his head and slam into the control console.
"I'll call you back red dog I've got a problem." He said as he slid under the bot's legs.
"Sonic! SONIC!" called Knuckles, but the earpiece had slid off.
The war-bot turned to face Sonic with alarming speed. It was an M Class bot like the one he had saved Tails from.
"Oh hey I think I know your brother." Said Sonic. The war-bot's gatling gun spun up and fired, sonic out ran it, but soon found he could not get up to top speed, the room was simply to small, but that didn't stop his arrogant quips.
"No really, I know him! Tall really ugly, made of scrap?" the war bot lunged with its fist smashing a hole in the armored metal walls.
"Whoa! Nice try but close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades pal."
Robots were supposed to have no emotions, but Sonic could swear he was getting on its nerves.
The fist slam left the machine open to attack, Sonic taped into the power rings and bashed the bot with a homing attack. The machine stumbled back, but was mostly undamaged by the attack.
The dance played out for a while, bullets unable to find there mark but close enough for Sonic to feel the heat, the occasional rail gun shot punching its way through the armored walls, but missing anything organic and squishy, and frustrated fist slams leaving large gashes in the nothing more than steel.
The fourth homing attack found a good mark as it shattered the war-bots "eye". It still functioned but barely.
"No, I lied," said sonic. "You're much uglier than your brother." Sonic realized with the last attack that he had depleted the last of the stored energy in the power rings. He would have to work up some speed to power them up again, but there was simply no room in here to do so.
The war-bot flailed wildly trying in vain to strike the infuriating little hedgehog. Then Sonic realized how he would take this thing down. He jumped onto its head.
"Yo tin grin up here!" he yelled.
The bot moved to swat him off but sonic leaped off at the last second. The blow stopped short of striking the machine but it spun around to find Sonic standing on the destroyed control panel just in front of the shattered observation glass a massive smirk on his face.
"I'm waaaiiiiting." Said Sonic
The bot lunged at him with its fist, yet again missing its mark as Sonic slid under the several ton machine. The blow carried the bot to far forward, leaving it leaning out of the window. Sonic rolled to his feet, cut back and leaped onto the bot, pushing it with his feet and sending it off balance into the massive molten spear. The bot was liquid metal before it had even realized it had been beaten.
Sonic found his earpiece and put it back on.
"All units this is red dog! Emergency retreat! Move move move!" Knuckles was yelling
Sonic looked around quickly, he could see another control panel on the other side of the core. He couldn't go through the core if he wanted to stay in one piece. He located a path on the schematic and was in the room within seconds. He pushed the cooling controls to maximum. The alarms continued, but the indicators showed the core temperature was coming down.
"Few that was a…" but he was cut off again as the entire building was shook by the first of the explosives.
"Oh nut bunnies!" said Sonic. He only had 20 seconds between each explosion. He started running accidently dropping the schematic.
Sonic could not for the life of him find a good escape route on his own. He finally found himself on a cat walk overlooking a massive pool of some kind of chemical. The room was full of its foul smell and great amounts of heat. Looking up he could see the stars and realized he must be in the cooling tower. For a moment he thought he might be saved, but realized there was no room to build up speed to run up the tower, and it was too wide to wall jump up.
"Oh boy, this might be it blue boy." He told himself as another explosion went off some ware in the structure. The cooling tower lurched to one side, nearly spilling Sonic into the cooling vat.
"Sonic!" cried a voice over the noise.
Sonic looked up to see a fox over the cooling tower opening and diving to him.
"Tails? What are you?"
"No time! Grab on!"
Sonic didn't hesitate and leaped to the fox who grabbed his hands. Flying as fast as he could Tails sped them out of the tower as if fell apart around them. He didn't stop climbing until they were a good hundred feet over the structure. Fires were every ware, fire crews were far too busy trying to contain them to notice the flying fox and blue hedgehog.
"Whooo…" Sonic let out a long sigh. "Thanks little buddy, you really saved by bacon."
"Anytime Sonic." Replied the Fox with a proud smile.
"How did you get here from Heartwood? Not that I'm ungrateful but you shouldn't be here." Said Sonic
"Well I…stowed away in your ship. I wanted to see how fast you really were. I jumped out after the pilot dropped you off and was in the air again." Said Tails shyly
"Well I'm sure glad you came." Said Sonic after a few moments to let his nerves calm down he spoke again. "So how fast was I?"
"Oh wow you were amazing! Seeing you run through the shield and then along the power cable…you were like shoooom! And the cable was all..." and it continued all the way back to the pickup point.