Chapter 11
Tails yawned as he woke up. He ate one of the potatoes he had saved, and started checking his different radios to see if they had picked up any new signals. They hadn't, so he went to the viewer he had made that picked up the signals that the Robotnik used. Knothole was far from anywhere with a connection to the Robotnik's network, so he usually couldn't receive a clear connection. Today he saw a brilliantly clear, detailed picture detailing something called photosynthesis. That would mean the Robotnik had a signal node nearby…
Tails put several curses to good use as he scrambled out of his shack. He didn't bother yelling to wake them. Instead he went to plane, hooked up the main source, remembered to open the gate just in case, and then went back and climbed into the plane and turned it on.
Knuckles opened his eyes as he heard the mechanical roar. It was Tails' machine. Why was he turning it on now? He looked at the two kids curled on the ground. There went his guards. He looked up and saw the robot.
It almost looked like a human in armor, but it showed the same styling as a cop-bot. The machine was painted black, and had an enormous block on its back, with circles coming from the bottom of the pack. Its arms ended in the same large claws as a cop-bot's, but the gun was on the outside of its right hand. Knuckles flicked his gun to his shoulder and turned the safety to single-shot. He shot the head, but the robot only turned in response, showing its beaked face. It lifted its gun-arm and fired, but Knuckles was already throwing himself to the ground. The bullet missed by centimeters. The robot turned and jumped into the air, flames coming from its back.
Fire in the sky. Knuckles thought. He's sent the hunters.
Aleena had left her house because of the noise to see what was happening. She saw a black figure lift into the air. Fire in the sky. She thought. He's sent the hunters. Ivo knows I'm here.
Running, panting, crying, covering. Why? He wasn't dead, was he? Shooting didn't always kill someone. Brushen couldn't be dead. Why would Ivo do that? Crying. They kept crying. She had to hide them. The song was the only thing with her. Gunshots. They were close again, the things hunting her: a giant in the alley ways, a killer in the streets, and the fire in the sky that was always watching.
Tails saw the robot fly up and sent the plane forward and upward. There wasn't time to worry, just act. Everything in him wanted to scream this time around. The robot was already flying away as he lifted off.
"What in the blazes is all this noise about?" The Mayor stomped towards the Mounds in hastily put on clothes, not having seen Tails fly off. Knuckles walked over to him briskly.
"A robot, uncommon model." He said
"In the North? That's illegal, isn't it?" The mayor replied.
"Doesn't matter. There was one, and there are almost definitely more, seeing as it only fired one shot before running. Tails is pursuing it."
"What does the mutant think he can do?"
"I don't know. I just saw him do it."
"Well, what's your plan if there are more robots?"
"Fight. We do want to live, after all. We'll have to do it in town to have the best chances. I think they'll leave your people alone if you don't try to attack."
"What do you expect us to do?"
"The Robotnik's machines are built to withstand most small arms. The guns you have won't do you any good." The mayor nodded.
"I'll tell people to start getting to the church. We've got a radio set, so we can send a warning to someone that Robotnik's breaking the treaty."
"There's a plan for that? Impressive."
"Also, I'll have our doctor start setting up in the basement."
"Thank you. I have someone who can help him. There's going to be a lot of my people… hurt." Knuckles said bowing his head. "I'll get my freedom fighters ready." Knuckles walked back to the Mounds.
Jake's cold body was covering him. He pushed it off after the gunfire had stopped. He looked around. The rest were also dead.
Tails pulled the plane up again to follow the robot. It fired a cluster of bullets back at him. Tails forced himself to keep the plane still as the bullets flew past his head. This wasn't "fun" like the last time. What had he been thinking the last time? He could die. He could die. He began adjusting the radio to see if he could pick up anything from the robot.
"Who is this? Who is manning this machine?" The voice wasn't addressing him, but Tails decided to answer. He lowered his voice to sound older.
"This is Miles Prower. Who are you?"
"Who am I? I am the Robotnik."
"Riiight."
"Why are you attacking my machine?"
"Cause you're a jerk. Oh, by the way, that last batch could have used some work." The robot had stopped shooting, and its weaving had begun to sink into a steady pattern. Tails began lining up his sight to hit it.
"I couldn't know someone had made a large-scale flying machine like yours. The power required… I couldn't do it."
"Like that's a surprise."
"What do you mean? I am one of the greatest geniuses in the world."
"That's not what your mum said."
"What? My mum? How old are you? Drop that fake voice." Tails complied willingly.
"Oh. Ten." He jammed down the firing stud, and the spray of bullets tore into the robot.
"Now." Knuckles said. "A robot was recently spotted by Tails, who is currently pursuing it. Hopefully, this can give us time to prepare for whatever is coming next. The Robotnik will go to any means to ensure that any trace of what we did is removed from history. We are an embarrassment, and he will not let us remain. I fully believe that he has sent an army to destroy us. We can stop them, however.
His full-scale military units are all off in the east, fighting other countries. The only robots he will have to send after us are cop-bots, which we can fight. Keep in cover, never fire from the same place twice. If they know where you are they can kill you. We will stay in the houses, and attack them from as many sides as possible to confuse them. Aim for the centers. Stay with the people you know and can depend on to help you. Make the Robotnik pay for every step his army takes in this town." Everybody nodded. Knuckles turned to the three.
"Sonic, Manic, Sonia. The robot that was spotted was one of a set that was used to hunt the queen. How I know this can be discussed later. If they kill you it will be a blow to everyone here, and discourage other countries from fighting." Sonic shifted uncomfortably. "You are not to join the fight.
You will remain here, hiding in the Mounds for the duration of the battle. I will be attacking the hunters to keep them away from you. Am I clear?"
"Yes." Sonia said.
"Yeah." Manic said.
"No. We should be-" Sonic began.
"Let me explain it then." Knuckles walked up to Sonic and looked him in the face. "The only things important about you are that you are the heirs to the Mobian throne, and are part of a group that resisted the Robotnik. You're position makes us have much more leverage with the leaders of other countries. We will need those other countries if we want to overthrow Robotnik. With that, the possession of three more gunners in the fight is not worth the chance of losing my only political asset. Stay here." He pointed to the ground. Turning away, Knuckles addressed the rest of the freedom fighters.
"Now, in the bags are sets of radios. I will hand these out to people I trust the most, these people will spread out…
Tails pulled hard to the left as the robot in front of him burst into flames. The plane curved around in the air, and Tails was able to see the ground. It was covered in purple domes, steadily shifting in the same direction Tails was headed: North. Tails began to regret what he said to the Robotnik, especially the part about his mum.
"How dare he?" Draggo muttered. "He was talking about your mom."
"I never liked my mother." The Robotnik said. "Selfish woman, didn't care about what happened to her own children."
"Oh. Well, your deploy-an-elite-team-of-robots strategy doesn't seem to have gone so well."
"Annihilator was designed for reconnaissance." The Robotnik said. The wolf only grinned in reply. "He did what I needed him to do. I can watch the town with the amount of Enforcers I have at my disposal."
"Pride comes before the fall."
"Pride? I am relying on facts. You should try it some time."
Everyone heard the roar as Tails came back, around when Knuckle was halfway through assigning radios. Knuckles nodded as the two-tailed fox walked over unsteadily and saluted.
"Robot intercepted and trashed. Advance report of the enemy force: maybe two hours away, and more fethers than I know how to count."
"Wash your mouth kid. Ah, you're back." Knuckles said as the mayor walked over. "Did you get everyone to the church?" The mayor nodded. "Good. What about the radio?"
"Trashed. Claw marks going straight through."
"We know why the robot was here then. The Robotnik doesn't want the king finding out." Knuckles said. "Tails, can you fix the radio?"
"I'd have to see it."
"Fix it and send out the signal. Don't leave the shack. Troops, this means we can't count on support anytime soon. We will have to do this by ourselves." Everyone nodded. "Now, Shanks, follow the mayor back to the church. They're setting up a field hospital there, and could probably use all the help they can get. You, with the hammer and the random hugging disorder, leave it here; I can't have it weighing you down…" Knuckles finished up the last of his instructions, and then everyone dispersed.
As he stepped over to a house, the Oracle of Rock let the words play over his lips. Random hugging disorder. A crush? And Tails' machine? The fox boy did seem very abused, at least mentally. The Oracle breathed a sigh of relief as he finally remembered some of his own prophecy. They were going to win. At least they would destroy the machines. He would probably live, because he couldn't die without making a new Oracle, right?
Amy repositioned herself against the wall for the tenth time.
"Stop twitching." Yona said.
"I can't help it." Amy shot back. "I don't have my hammer."
"Why do you still have that? You've been lugging it halfway across the isle, and yet you've never used it."
"It's comforting."
"Comforting?"
"Yeah. I mean I used it when we… I started all this. I had it with me when we destroyed those cop-bots at the farm, and when we were attacked at the rocks. Do you remember what that one girl, Lisa, said? I wasn't dangerous without the hammer." Yona shook her head. She twitched herself.
"When are they going to come?" Yona yelled suddenly. "Why can't we just get it over with?"
Tails glanced at the opened up radio and all the random hunks of metal and wire. What was he supposed to do? What went where? He should know how to do this. Why couldn't he think of what to do? Why wasn't he doing anything?
Knuckles looked at the kid shivering in the corner. He knew that his presence was the only thing keeping the kid from running.
"The Robotnik's going to surround the town." Knuckles said. "He'll have his robots kill anyone trying to escape." It wasn't the right thing to say: The kid started trying to look anywhere but at Knuckles, but his eyes kept going back to Knuckles' face.
"What's your problem?" The kid said. "You're just standing there. How can you do that?" Knuckles looked away.
He kneeled down in front of the body, poking at the hole in its head. He pulled black and looked at the blood in disbelief. He shivered. They really were dead. Regoban had killed them all. All he wanted to do was scream, but he didn't.
"When you've seen your friends die you'll know how to hide everything inside of you." Knuckles said.
"Hide?"
"Yeah. Scrat, you seem to be doing fine."
"My dad taught me how to shoot." The weasel replied
"Ah." Knuckles said.
Manic drummed his hands against the mound. Sonia looked at him.
"I thought you were used to fighting?" She said angrily.
"No, I just said I had experience with it." Sonic was facing south on the top of the mound. He shook his head and slid down. He tapped his foot, waiting for the battle to pass him by.
Aleena rushed to pack the bag she had prepared in case she ever needed to run again. She hadn't expected Ivo to find her here. The mayor had told everyone to take shelter in the church, but she knew she would stick out like a sore thumb if it was searched. No, she would have to hide here. Everyone else thought more robots were coming, but she knew they were. And once again, it seemed like she would have to rely on an echidna to help her.
She stumbled to the side, against an alley wall.
Clunk
She looked behind her. There was the metal brute, ready to kill her and her children. A gun fired, but no bullets hit her. Glowing dashes rained from somewhere behind the robot as there was a whir of cracking noises. It turned to deal with the new threat, and Aleena ran off.
After a few minutes of running she stopped to catch her breath again. Her child that had been crying had gone back to sleep. Her arms were killing her, but Aleena knew she was almost there. She heard panting as an echidna walked into the alley and slumped against a wall. He looked to be an older teenager, but he was holding a tracer, and was covered with bloodstains.
"Did you…" She began to ask.
"I'll kill them." He said quietly. She glanced down and then back at him in brief panic. "I kill every one of Regoban's machines."
"Good luck." She muttered as he crept off. He would distract them. She couldn't stop him. She waited a second and then began her run again.