Author Note: This chapter should get the plot moving again. Read and review, please.
Chapter 19
"I have seen some stupid plans in my time. I have been the originator of some stupid plans." Manic said "I have never seen a plan which involves us wearing fake hair as a disguise."
"Historically, hedgehogs put a good deal more attention into their head-spikes than most other anthropomorphic species." Sonia explained. "Hiding our head spikes is nearly as effective as a mask to hide our identity."
"Does it have to be so itchy?" Sonic said.
"Well, they were designed with shaved heads in mind so this was bound to happen. Just don't break it; that's an artifact you're wearing."
"Seriously, anyone who collects fake hair as a hobby needs to see a few broken." Manic mumbled. Knuckles looked away from where the three were adjusting their wigs to glare at Bartleby. It had turned out that the guest wanted live music during his discussions with the "overseer" of Thran, its former king, and had been very obstinate about the musicians the king had already found. Apparently this had been such an important issue that Bartleby's friend had been able to arrange a performance for the next day. Knuckles found it lucky that he had let the three keep their instruments with them. Except for the drum of course.
"You better hope you were right about what you heard. A plan which involves my three very important assets directly approaching someone whose allegiance we don't know yet, using some of the flimsiest disguises I have ever seen, is bound to not end well." Knuckles said.
"It isn't really about covering the hair." Bartleby said, not quite trusting Knuckles's self-control after the echidna's display back in the lounge. "Imitating human hair was really only something nobility did, and I don't think there were that many hedgehogs who did it anyway, and there's also the more… fancy clothes. From what I can tell the Robotnik's expecting wild anarchists, not people looking highly sophisticated and purposely imitating nobles. I couldn't tell Sonia apart until she started speaking because of that… normal outfit, so I don't think the king or whoever his guest is will be able to tell who they are just by looking at them, and they won't know what the three sound like either." Knuckles face showed a mix of confusion and admiration. "What?"
"You actually thought this out." Knuckles said. Bartleby chose to not touch upon what that implied and nodded. "Are you sure your bud can get them there?"
"Yes, certainly."
"Just make sure he knows that they will be traveling armed, and that I will be watching." Bartleby frowned as he tried to picture where the rifles could be hidden. It would be amazingly difficult.
"There bringing machine guns?"
"No, they- wait, never mind." Knuckles said, trying to actually keep some things hidden from the noble. Pistols then. Bartleby thought. So they will be able to defend themselves. The three finished donning their "disguises" and were led to the waiting transportation.
=--------=
Sonia took the chance to look around the city of Spire as the horseless carriage wove through its streets. It was certainly more picturesque overall than Mobius City, with more room given for houses, more household plants, and generally more Reemergence era houses, with far less modern ones than Mobius city. This only made the occasional factory look all the more aberrant in contrast. She turned away to look at her brothers. Sonic's head was bent over as he tapped his foot on the ground, and Manic was still making faces at Bartleby's friend Antoine. Personally she thought he was rather nice overall, and he was also being amazingly brave to help out the freedom fighters. The others probably put it down to Knuckles's "persuasion", but she felt that even then the wolf was being surprisingly helpful.
"What song?" Sonic said suddenly.
"Something older sounding." Manic said. "We only have Bartleby's word that the guest doesn't want classical."
"Ballad of the Green Knight?" Sonia suggested. "It starts out the same either way you do it, so we'll have time to judge his reaction."
"And we're going to hold them up anyways." Manic added. "It doesn't really matter how well we do." The rest of the three sighed and nodded sadly.
=--------=
The three finally arrived at Spire's central castle, which seemed more of a large mansion than an actual fortress like Mobius City's or Edmund's-Burrow's. They were let off at a side gate while the driver took the horseless carriage away. Antoine led them up to where a servitor robot was already waiting. Its speaker crackled and then said something in French. Antoine said something back that was obviously acceptable, because it turned, said something, and led them deeper into the castle. They were left in some form of practice room. It was far nicer than even the theater, with marble columns in the corners and a large mural of a skunk strumming a harp in the middle of a thunderstorm. It managed to be both awesome and silly at the same time.
"Come on, we need to start practicing." Sonia said, and Sonic pulled out and tuned his guitar while Manic checked the drums they had been loaned. The three practiced short snatches of the different songs making up the Ballad until they were called by a servitor bot to come up to the even more impressive meeting room, with golden chandeliers, golden wall candles, and gold candle holders on the central table that made Sonia jab Manic in the stomach to keep his attention. Apparently the room was being set up entirely by servitor robots.
=--------=
Sleet and Dingo walked down the streets of the most recent city, a nice industrial one more like what they were used to. It even had the occasional abandoned warehouse. It had been rather easy to talk around and find out what happened. Rebels came, the enforcers that were supposed to fight them suddenly ran off, the rebels left, and then everything was back to normal minus a few robots. The kids were still heading towards Spire, and from there they would probably start heading north again in varying conditions, but they had habit of avoiding cities so… Sleet twitched around and pulled out a gun to point behind him.
"Do you see him?" Dingo asked.
"No." Sleet said. The two of them knew someone was following them, but whoever it was must have been very good at hiding, because they hadn't found him yet. The watcher waited for them to start walking again and continued following. It is a risk that they know I'm here, but it was inevitable. As long as they never see me it is only suspicion, which cannot be acted upon. It is becoming definite that thugs like these are too likely to make the death a martyrdom. I must be the one to do it.
=--------=
The three were ready when the king and his guest arrived. The king was a tall skunk dressed in a surprisingly plain business suit. The guest was a tall human, barely an adult, with a small pair of glasses, a bald that was barely covered by a comb-over, and the small beginnings of a mustache. Surprisingly, he looked rather much like the Robotnik. Sonia started the song with the chant, low and soft, as she neared the end they could easily tell the guest was rolling his eyes, and Sonic dove into the opening bars of the guitar part, causing the guest to sit up quite suddenly. As the song fell into a regular flow, the guest and the king started talking. Surprisingly enough it was in English, and mostly about a rebellion in Acorn that had migrated north to Thran. Ironically the Mobian freedom fighters were also brought up.
=--------=
Edward Gareth Goering leaned back in his chair as his conversation with the overseer of Thran hit a lull and the music hit a good part. After the guitar solo ended he decided to move onto small talk, seeing as they both really only had the Mark Seven Enforcers available and were already waiting on petitions.
"They're wearing wigs, right?" He said. The skunk nodded. "Why is that?"
"Don't know." The skunk shrugged. "Wigs were started a few hundred years ago. When humans started reemerging it became very popular to imitate them, including the amazingly complex… hair." The skunk obviously could remember the last time he had made a comment on Edward's hair, but this time it was clearly just part of the conversation, so Edward let it go. "It was mostly a noble thing though. That and it was only in fashion for a few decades. Their sponsor probably gave them the wigs to look higher class." Edward nodded and leaned forward. He was able to control Acorn remotely for now, but he probably should be returning to his jurisdiction soon, despite really wanting to be seen making an active effort to handle the rebels.
"You know, I've been dabbling in Pre-Armageddon zoology, and couldn't help but notice that there didn't seem to be any skunk equivalent in the wild animals of Thran." Actually he had seen that tidbit mentioned in a scholarly journal from the U.F., but he was close enough. The skunk merely shrugged.
"Perhaps. Perhaps the scientists have no clue what they're looking for." The skunk said. Edward simply nodded, failing to think up a quick response.
"You know." He said, glancing at the musicians. They were starting to reach the songs climax, the guitar coming in heavier than before. "Weren't the Mobian rebels a band? The leaders I mean."
"I believe I remember being told that." The skunk said. Edward stared at the musicians some more. Come to think of it, there were three specific leaders, though there hair was much more distinct… Edwards face dropped as his mind made several logic leaps involving obscured hair, fur color, and instrumentation.
"Guards." Edward yelled. The blue one was quick, slinging his guitar on his back, pulling out a hand gun, and reaching Edward to press it under his chin.
=--------=
"We've made our move." Sonia said over the radio.
"Affirmed." Knuckles said. "We're moving out." He motioned to the kids behind him, and they began moving deeper into Spire. He changed his radio's channel, and told the stalker girl to start the distraction. They had found a stonework house which could easily be held against the city's cop-bots while still being able to escape from the roof. That would help siphon robots away from the palace and out of Knuckles's unit's way.
Knuckles led his unit through the streets, moving from alley to rooftop to alley, careful to avoid any cop-bots in their path. Getting involved in a fire fight would only slow them down and make an escape more difficult.
=--------=
"I knew you shouldn't have let a Neworlder stay in this country." The human yelled to the skunk. "It was a betrayal waiting to happen."
"Actually, you'd be surprised what a few well pointed guns can get you." Sonia said, keeping her gun covering the room's entranceways while Manic grabbed the skunk by one arm.
"What's going on here?" the former king asked.
"We'll talk about it once we've gotten you out of here." Sonic said. "What do we do this one?" he asked, pushing the gun further into the human for emphasis.
"Easiest thing would be to kill him." Manic said. Both of his siblings glared at him. "Just saying. 'Course, then its gonna' be harder to hide what bloodthirsty killers we all are, 'cause this guys obviously gonna' be missed." The human squirmed at the heavy sarcasm in Manic's voice.
"Of course I'll be missed." He yelled. "I am the Robotnik's cousin once removed."
"Honestly, nobody cares." Sonic said. "You just happened to be in the way when we came."
"Now, where's the central computer." Manic asked the former king.
"Don't tell them." The human yelled. The skunk remained tight lipped looking at Manic uneasily. The green hedgehog slipped out a gun of his own and pointed it at the skunk.
"Look, we already have our people here, the only question is whether or not we fight our way out of the city." Manic said.
"Don't-"The human was quickly silenced by a swift kick to the shins from Sonic, knocking him onto the ground.
"Okay, I'll show you." The skunk finally said.
"Good." Sonic said. "Anyplace we could leave this guy?"
"The practice room only had one door." Sonia pointed out.
"I'm gonna' need help." Sonic said. Sonia quickly walked over and grabbed one of the human's arms while Sonic took the other. They dragged him down the halls to where the practice room had been, shoved him in, and let the former king lock the door.
"Right. Now, to the main computer." Manic said, shoving the former king for emphasis. The skunk nodded and walked in front as they walked down the halls.
=-------=
Amy looked behind her as she let the Scrat kid take over sniping cop-bots, seeing as he was better at it anyways. She went back to the ammo pile, where the owner of the house they were occupying was seated, sipping a glass of water. The house's viewer crackled to life and showed and amazingly fat, twenty-something human with glasses and a bad mustache, with an impressive mural of a storm behind him.
"Citizens of the Robotnik's system, your local overseer has betrayed you." He yelled. What a dramatist. Amy thought. "Fear not though, for I have remotely taken control of this country's computer systems to keep it under control, thwarting his and the rebels-he-has-consorted-with's plan to send this country in to chaos, something they are still unaware off, easily trapped." Not for long, genius. Amy pulled out the radio and contacted Sonia.
=--------=
As the three and the former king reached the terminal for Thran's central computer, Sonia's radio crackled to life. She pulled it out and put it to her ear.
"What? Fat kid… glasses… comb over…" She pulled it away and looked at the rest of the group. "The kid's accessed Thran's central computer somehow. He's taken over the country and declared the king here a traitor." Sonic turned and glared at the former king, who shuffled and tried to turn away before talking.
"It was some kind of handheld computer. He told me it wouldn't be able to access Thran's computer, only Acorn's; something about differential frequencies or encryption. I honestly wasn't listening to him."
"He runs Acorn?" Manic asked.
"Yes." The skunk said. "Apparently the old king wasn't able to be trusted the same way I was."
"And now he's running this country." Sonia lifted the radio again and began a quick conversation with Knuckles. She put it down and told them what he said.
"Contact the North and tell them we need to get out of Thran in two weeks. Then get out of the palace."
"Can this computer contact the North?" Manic asked.
"As long as their computer is still intact." The former king replied.
"Right." Manic went over to the computer while Sonic and Sonia started barricading the room's door before the local cop-bots could come. Manic grabbed a microphone and began speaking into it.
"Hey. Hey? Hey! Anybody there?"
=--------=
Tails stood in by the computer the Robotnik had given the king of the North. Ever since the freedom fighters had left he been questioned again and again on how his plane worked, though finding all of the materials that had been used was proving difficult. The fact that the North was already working on replicates had force to christen his original "the Tornado" to distinguish it.
He had tried to tell them about the alternate source, but they had convinced him that there was probably something else he put in the plane without knowing what it did. They let him keep it mostly on the grounds that "It is his, after all." In return they had let him fiddle around with the Robotnik's stuff they weren't using. He had worked on the old computer system, figuring it might be useful for spying or something. A call from Thran suddenly came up, with a tag saying "Rebel's need help". He took the radio headset as quickly as he could, before the call might disappear.
"Yes?" Manic's voice came from the headphones.
"Tails? What are you doing there?"
"They shot the computer because it came from the Robotnik. They let me fix it for fun.
"Ah man, we are so lucky. Look, tell the king we're having problems and need to get of here. We'll reach… Deppen in about a week, and we'll need to have some boats to pick us up. Got it?"
"Deppen?"
"Yes. Gotta' go." Tails put the headset down. Deppen, in… one weeks He needed to write that down now.
=--------=
"Did he get it?" Sonic yelled as the door shook again.
"Yeah." Manic said putting the headset down.
"Good, 'cause we need to be moving." Sonic pointed his gun at the center of the door and fired three shots. The shaking stopped. With a yell he pulled down the barricades and threw open the door.