A/N: New formatting style for dividing viewpoints. Should make uploading easier.
Chapter 17
Sleet nodded, said "yes" several times with decreasing enthusiasm, and finally put the radio set back in his pocket.
"What's happening?" Dingo asked.
"There was a complete clearing of cop-bots from a port in Thran's north-east. We missed the rebels."
"So, what we gonna' do now?"
"Catch them." Sleet said, carefully refraining from killing his partner.
=--------=
Sonic grumbled a he marched through the Thran countryside. Everyone was moving slowly again, and the Neworlder leading them through the country was so… stuck up. He kept feeling the need to talk about his "cool" and "dangerous" boarding. Sonic stomped the ground angrily. People had died in this war. This worst part was really that people actually listened to him. Eagerly, every day, and then endlessly repeated whatever he said, because the bird was just so exotic. And he was definitely laying the accent on thick.
"Hey man, you're gonna' get left behind." Sonic frowned. The cat was just stupid. And obsessed with fishing. Though Sonic had managed to get some of the fish he cooked once, and it was good. Compared to the Northern rations they had been eating recently it was the most perfect food ever made, so Knuckles let the cat fish, but only when they had finished marching for a day.
They had been marching for maybe a week when they reached another city, with a squadron of cop-bots circling its outskirts. Five shots quickly disabled them, but the damage was already done.
"He knows where we're headed." Knuckles said simply. "Jet, I thought you said we'd avoid any cities." The bird twisted and maneuvered his maps hurriedly, eventually responding.
"I don't think it's on here."
"Now we'll have to fight through this city. Split up, and remember what to do. Keep track of where you've cleaned and don't forget the factory guards. Shanks, you know what to do. Everyone clear?" There was a mass of nodding heads. "Good. Jet, Big, you and those three we'll stay with me and try to secure the city's control unit for the cop-bots. It's the safest place, so don't complain." The bird nodded, while the cat just stared at him blankly. Everyone was quiet for a few minutes.
"Let's move." Sonic shouted abruptly. Everyone turned and ran towards the city.
=--------=
Sonic ran behind a trash bin and waited for the rest of his group to catch up.
"Clear." Manic said, and Sonic ran until he could duck into an alley, letting the rest file after him. There was a crashing noise at the trash bin, and Sonic frowned. Did they really need the cat? As Manic reached the alley he took another look behind him.
"Cop-bots the way we came." Knuckles was nodding. Obviously he was beginning to tolerate the three doing anything. Sonic poked his head out the other side.
"We're trapped then." Sonia said. "We'll need to go inside a house."
"That one." Knuckles said, pointing at a side door in the alley. They went in and found no one inside, and reached the other side of the house. "No door to the other one. We'll have to go out." Manic went to a window and checked.
"Cop-bots are past us. We're clear." Sonic took the lead again as the group left the house, making its way down the street as far as it could. The sound of distant gunshots confirmed that the other freedom fighters had begun fighting, drawing attention away from his group. Another squadron of cop-bots made them duck inside a nearby alley, but by then they had already been seen.
"*BZZZT*POSSESSION OF WEAPONRY *BZZZT* FIREARMS *BZZZT* FREE-" The lead machine was silenced by a burst of rounds from Sonic's tracer, and the cop-bots responded in kind. Sonic ducked back into the alley as the bullets rained in, embedding in the wall. The cat was shrieking like a little girl with a very deep voice.
"Be quiet." Knuckles hissed from the other end of the alley, and big clamped his mouth shut. "How old are you?" he mumbled as he turned back to watching for more cop-bots.
"Uh, twelve." Big replied after some consideration. Knuckles stared at the cat, easily two heads taller than him, and then at the cat's companion.
"Twelve?" Knuckles hissed.
"He looked older." Jet replied defensively.
"Well I can see that. You two hide in a house and don't leave under any circumstance. Understand?"
"Yes."
"My path's clear. Get lost." Knuckles nodded as Jet and Big ran past, and glanced over to where the three were still exchanging fire with the cop-bots. After minute the fire stopped and Sonic confirmed they were clear.
"We can't keep going at this pace." Manic said. "We'll need to take the roofs."
"Can your siblings do that?" Knuckles asked.
"Yeah." Sonic replied testily.
"I see. We can get to the fire escape from inside the house." The group quickly filed out of the alley and inside the house, keeping watch for more cop-bots. They made their way upstairs and out a window onto the houses fire escape, quickly making their way to the roof.
Two young skunks, who had almost minutes before been alerted about the violent rebels by the viewer, poked their heads out from under the couch.
"Are they gone yet?" the younger one asked in French. The older one pushed both of them back under the couch.
"They might come back and look for us again."
=--------=
Sonia stumbled as she reached the other side of a gap but Knuckles grabbed her and pulled her up. The group quickly worked their way over to the next gap, while Knuckles scanned for the city's jail, the most likely location for the cop-bot's control unit. Spotting a large grey block surrounded by concrete walls and small turrets, he pointed it out and the group started moving towards it. On opposite rooftops they could see other groups of freedom fighters eliminating cop-bot squads. After a few more blocks of going by roof, they were forced to descend to the street to continue.
They chose to avoid the cop-bot squadrons they met on the way, trying to speed up their journey there. When they finally reached the jail they found the gates open. Manic went to an edge to check if the way was clear, and then lead them into the courtyard. Knuckles led them to the closest set of doors, and covered them as they filed inside. Sonic disabled a servitor operating a computer in the first room. Knuckles closed the door behind him as he entered, and the group filed through the first room into the second, a short hallway leading to a metal door clearly marked in French. Sonia went up to the sign and translated it for everyone else.
"Warning: Mark Seven Enforcers Storage. Keep Out." They opened the door hesitantly, revealing a row of cop-bots lined up to leave through a larger door. Sonic's gun was the first one up and firing as the group ducked to the side of the doors. The cop bots turned in groups of five and fired back, forcing them to close the door. The group retreated to the lobby and shut its doors, hearing the cop-bots begin to break through.
"Reinforcements." Knuckles said. "If they get out it will leave us with even bigger problems to take this city." Manic had already rushed to the computer the servitor had been operating, and was pressing buttons furiously. "What are you doing? We need to get to the main computer." Knuckles growled.
"I think this is the main computer." Manic replied.
"What? It can't be that small."
"Okay, then its connected to the main computer, or whatever the control unit for the cop-bots is. But, just think about it. Why else would they have a computer right next to the cop-bots' storage?" Knuckles frowned as he tried to think it over, and his eyes widened when he figured it out.
"Can you find the function to shut all the cop-bots down?"
"Uh, why would they have one of those?" Sonic asked. Knuckles cursed as he realized that he had a point.
"Okay then, can you figure out how to do something." Knuckles said.
"I'm working on it." Manic said. "But I'd just like to remind you that my education in this field was mostly along the lines of breaking into safes." Manic resumed pressing buttons furiously, while the rest of the group kept watch for more cop-bots. There was a crash as the first door to the storage was broken, and the door in the lobby was soon being hammered by the same cop-bots. Meanwhile, another group was had come to the front and was beginning to bash that set of doors too.
"Hey, repairs can be ordered manually." Manic said obliviously.
"Nobody cares." Knuckles yelled, quickly glancing between the two sets of doors. A few more buttons were pressed, and the banging stopped.
=--------=
Big was nearly squeezing his frog in terror while bullets flew over head after Jet decided to take some potshots at cop-bots outside.
"Dude, why the poor frog?" Jet yelled, covering his head to keep out the noise."
"Because Froggy keeps me safe."
"What?" as Jet yelled it, he realized the gunfire had stopped. Daring to peek out the window, he was quite surprised to see the cop-bots walking away.
=--------=
"Yeah, it's not going to take too long for the bots to figure out they don't need repairs, so we should really kinda' hurry." Manic said. Knuckles radioed the rest of the freedom fighters and began having them move to the far side of the city. Sonia had to remind him to have Jet and Big picked up, and they were eventually found and escorted by another group. Knuckles led the three out of the city and they rejoined with the rest of the freedom fighters. Sonic found himself being hassled by Amy about whether he was okay; while she cheerfully ignored her own bandaged shoulder. There were a few other injuries throughout the army, but luckily no one was seriously hurt or killed. They resumed marching as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid a re-sighting by the city's cop-bots.
=--------=
Sleet let out another angry sigh as he and his companion trudged along the dirt "road" on their way to the port. The U.F. had nice, paved paths, railroads, and dirt paths with out rocks every where. This place seemed to make an active effort to look like the middle of nowhere, when it right across from on of the most industrialized countries in the world. And that was before it got taken over by the nutcase with the robots. Something odd suddenly struck him.
"Dingo, I just realized that we don't have a plan for killing the heirs yet." He said
"I thought we'd just do the usual."
"But we need some sort of plan. After all, they practically are the rebels."
"Freeze in the name of the revolution." A voice yelled out. The heavy acornian accent betrayed the speaker, a female squirrel standing in the middle of the road pointing a machine gun at them.
"Look," Sleet said continuing to walk forward with his hands in the air. "Let's be reasonable now."
"I said freeze." The squirrel said, tightening her grip on the gun as Sleet nearly reached her.
"I just want to explain something." Sleet hands moved fast, grabbing the rifle and ramming the butt into her face, twisting it around and knocking her down with the barrel. He pointed the barrel at her face as the other squirrels started to leave the woods, and they froze. Glancing back, he saw his partner standing over a rabbit.
"Interesting company." Sleet said. "Now let me save you all some time. You will not be slipping into Mobius while the Robotnik's distracted by his local revolution because they were going to do that, so he locked up Mobius tight. Now, you really should be more careful next time someone suddenly starts talking about something you're interested in for no apparent reason, it's a very obvious trap. Also, try not to let me get so close next time. Really bad move. Actually you probably should have shot me to begin with. Now, let's both go our ways, both of us the wiser from this little encounter."
Sleet kept the gun pointed at the rebels as he walked back from them, with Dingo following shortly behind. The squirrels pulled themselves up and ran away from them. When they were well away Sleet turned back to the road, satisfied that the rebels had quit following them. He probably wouldn't be telling the Robotnik about that silly incident; he had wasted enough time as it was.