Chapter 2
Half-Past Mayhem
Sonic asks "but who can we send?" I reply "I'll go. Send me back; I'll get rid of that assimilator." "But that's dangerous for a person to go against a assimilator 1 on 1." "Oh come on Sonic, you're talking to me, your brother. Have I ever let you down?" "Never. Alright, go then." Ok, press the red button." I walk into the machine and Sonic presses the red button. Light envelopes me and I fly off into the time stream. It throws me about every which way. It is rather dizzying. But soon it's over. I find myself in a forest the great forest if I have my geology correct. I say "that was rough. But I made it." I slowly get up. I see that everything around me in a short radius has been burned. "Wow…. Time travel is a bit destructive. Ah well, I've got to get to Knothole before it does. I hear footsteps. I consider diving for cover but I know that there's only one enemy to deal with so that can't be it. Into the clearing, comes Sonic, Sally, Bunnie and Tails…wait what? I look at him for a few moments. Then I walk forward. But suddenly my strength leaves me and I fall to the ground and black out.
(Obviously this has to be 3rd person for a bit because our narrator is unconscious.)
The 4 walk up to the strange Mobian in the clearing and stare at him. Sonic says "whoa…. He has 2 tails." Tails looks back at his and says "how is that possible?" Sally says "I don't know. But Nicole might be able to tell us. Let's take him back to Knothole." So… they lift Tails' body and carry him back to Knothole where they lay him on a couch. Sally says "Nicole, run a scan on this person. Try to find out who he is." "Alright I'll scan him." A few moments later, Nicole says "this can't be right." Sally asks "what did you find?" "My scanner is telling me that the guy lying on the couch there is Tails Prower. But that can't be right, he's right there." *points to Tails* "well I don't know what to tell you Sally. I guess we just have to wait until he wakes up."
(ok… back to first person Tails. 20 minutes later.)
I open my eyes. My surroundings are different. I'm on a couch…. In a room. Outside a window there are trees, suggesting a forest. I think "this must be Knothole. Or at least I hope it is." Sally walks up to me and says "you're finally awake. So…. Now you can start talking." I reply "gladly Sally." "Wait how do you know my name?" "I'll explain that when you get everyone here." A few minutes later, Sonic, Tails, Antoine, Bunnie, and Rotor enter the room. Sally says to me "ok. Everyone's here; tell us who you are." "Well…. You're not going to believe this but I'm Tails Prower, from the future. 7 years to be exact." Nicole appears beside Sally. She says "so my systems WEREN'T malfunctioning after all. Good to know." I continue "the reason I'm here is to stop a plot to erase me and the rest of the freedom fighters in my time from existence by roboticizing you in this time. He has sent an assimilator back in time to do that. This assimilator is no mere robot. It's actually a robot covered in flesh and blood. Meaning that it looks like a real person. It also acts like one. Meaning that you don't know that it's an enemy until (you take an arrow to the knee) it shoots you in the face. The future is a dark place. Robotnik has gotten really powerful. We are struggling to get by at the moment. He's destroyed a number of cities. Though Knothole was one of the first ones he destroyed. But we rebuilt it underground. The city of Knothole now consists of a LOT of underground tunnels. These can be closed off in the event of an enemy attack. So, we are sort of safe-ish." Sally says "so, if the future is so dark, how does it go from what we have now to a living nightmare? That doesn't make sense." "Well…. With the invention of the roboticizer rifle and the portable roboticizer artillery cannon 2 years ago,(or 5 years ahead of this time.) freedom fighter forces all around Mobius were hard pressed to survive. Robotnik's armies invaded cities and robotized the inhabitants. The people able to flee the cities ended up finding their way to New Knothole. With them, the resistance army is still strong, though we're weak compared to Robotnik's armies." "So what parts do all of us play in this future war?" "Well Sally, you got shot by a roboticizer ray. But I was able to save most of your body with a serum I created to stop the roboticization process. So, all you have is one metal hand. But despite your mechanical appendage, you continue to lead the resistance." I turn to Sonic and say "Sonic, you and I help Sally to run the resistance" Rotor asks "what about me?" I look at the floor. A long silence follows. I say "you…..you're dead. You got shot by a Roboticizer ray. I hadn't yet completed the serum. So, I gave you what I had. But it couldn't completely stop the process. So, you turned in a month, instead of a minute. The robotization finished right in front of my eyes. So…..I….I won't tell you that." Rotor swallows. Bunnie and Antoine ask the same question Rotor had. I say "Bunnie… you got shot by a ray right in front of me after preventing a robot from shooting me. The serum saved you. Though now both of your arms are roboticized. Antoine… you got roboticized in front of me. I hadn't started the serum yet. But your death gave me the idea to start it."
Bunnie says "well I-" her sentence is cut off by an alarm "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" I say "it is here. We have to get out of here. All of you must live. Otherwise the future will be rewritten and I don't want to be ruled by Robotnik." Sonic says "I ain't scared of some future robot." Bunnie says "me neither." Sally says "this is our home. I won't let it fall to some future enemy." I say to them "you can't do anything about it. It can't be hurt by normal means." Sonic says "oh yeah?" A white wolf walks into the room. It stares at the group for a few seconds. We all realize what that wolf is. It says "primary targets acquired. Begin roboticization." It raises a rifle and points it at Sonic. Before he can act, I say "JUST RUN ALREADY!" I think "I've got to find a weapon." I see a metal bat and grab it. (Which is conveniently placed there for his use.) "well, it's not much, but it's better than nothing." I charge at the robot. I hit the gun, knocking it to the side. then, I get in closer and hit the robot in the face. after one hit, the robot catches the bat mid swing and wrenches it from my grasp. Next, it picks me up by the chest with one hand and throws me against the wall behind me. (inspired by this scene from Terminator 2. /12078669 5:35 - 5:43) The wall hits me like a hammer blow. Pain shoots through my back and tails. (He had landed on them.) I think "darn it. What a stupid idea. Why did I try that? It's gonna kill me now, or worse, roboticize Me." a thick smoke envelopes the room. A hand grabs mine and pulls me in some direction. A few seconds later, I am out of the smokescreen and can see.
Sonic says to Tails "that was some quick thinking bro." Tails replies "I know right?" Sally says "so, what do we do about that robot future Tails?" I reply "for now, we can't do anything about it. We need better weapons. Is there some sort of armory or weapons locker? I don't remember the layout of old Knothole." "no, there-" Rotor cuts her off. "Yes there is. Come with me." "Rotor, is there something you haven't told me about?" "Well… yes, and no." "What's that supposed to mean?" "You'll know when we get there." I say "well we better get there fast because that smoke screen won't fool it for long. If we don't move, it's gonna be right on our tails again." Sally says "then let's get going. Rotor, lead the way."
We walk down a narrow hallway. At the bottom is a door with various "keep out" signs on it. Sally says "but this is just your lab Rotor." Rotor replies "yes, it is. And this I have shown you. But, what I haven't shown you is this." He punches some numbers on a keypad near the door. But instead of the door opening, a panel slides out from under the floor. We walk down the revealed stairs into the room beyond. Inside, is a bunch of tables and other stuff that you might see in a mechanic shop. But there's another door labeled "weapons". Rotor opens this door and lights go on in the room. These reveal an assortment of weapons that even I can only guess the purpose of most of them. Sally says "and what's all this? Why didn't you tell me sooner? We're running a resistance and you go off and hide all this stuff under your lab? What's wrong with you? Are you insane? We could have used this stuff against Robotnik… not that I have any idea what any of this stuff does." Rotor looks down and walks away. I say to Sally "Sally, don't you think that was a little harsh? So what if he has a hobby… a secretive hobby. You didn't have to beat him up about it. Besides, I know what a few of these things do. This stuff MIGHT be able to stop the assimilator." "Yeah… like what? What could possibly be in here that would have any chance against that thing?" I walk over to a shelf and take off of it a pistol. I hold it up and say "this, is actually one of my favorites. I still use this from time to time. This pistol, is fitted with explosive rounds. I would demonstrate but that's dangerous in an enclosed space." I walk over to another item. I say "this is an incinerator gun. It shoots a super-hot beam that can melt robots on contact." Next, I walk over to a small satellite dish type object. "I remember this one well. The original intent behind this one was to broadcast radio waves that would disrupt the sensors of the robots. It worked, at first. But Robotnik changed his robots so they would no longer fall prey to that. Now… unfortunately… that's all that I know. I've never seen this room before actually. So therefore I have no idea what the rest of it does. Care to enlighten us Rotor?" "Gladly future Tails."
He goes on to explain what the rest of the stuff in the room does. We all select weapons from the room. I take the explosive pistol. Antoine takes a laser sword. Sally takes an EMP gun. Bunnie puts on a pair of powered gauntlets that would increase her punching power. Sonic doesn't take a weapon, stating "I'm too cool for a weapon." Tails looks around the room. He spies a really small pistol. (Btw, by sheer coincidence, this is the only weapon that neither Rotor nor Future Tails explained.) Tails picks it up says "hmmmm… this thing's small. I wonder what it does. Well something so small can't be THAT damaging. Hmmm… I really wanna try it." Both I and Rotor hear this and yell in unison "NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!" but it is too late. Tails pulls the trigger and a large beam blows a hole in the wall, causing a massive amount of dust. When the dust clears, everyone in the room gives Tails an angry glare. He says "hey, how was I supposed to know what that would do?" I say to him "that was a prototype miniature laser cannon. Meaning… little gun, big payload. Got it?" "Uh huh." "the assimilator probably knows that we're here now. We have to move." …. "Target located. Commence assimilation." A green beam heads straight for Sonic. He easily dodges it and says "oh come on, too slow." Sally fires the EMP gun. The electricity hits the robot and drains into the ground. I say "what? No way. He stopped EMP from working? Darn it." Antoine is next. He swings his sword in a downward cut, intending to cut the robot in half. The robot catches the sword between both palms. (Like they do in all of those kung foo movies.) Antoine says "sacrebleu! How eez zat possible?" the robot breaks the sword in half and throws said half across the room. With half of it missing, the sword turns off and Antoine runs behind me. Bunnie charges the robot with her gloves. She punches towards its face. But her fist is stopped by the robot one handed. This leads to a power struggle. The robot is too strong for her, even with the gloves. She is forced to the ground and then kicked across the room. I fire my weapon, thinking that it should easily hurt the robot. I fire, and a small explosion emanates from the robot's chest. I say "what? Oh right…. Explosives of the future are much better. So this isn't the power I'm used to. Oh well….plan B, RUN LIKE HECK!" the robot says "I calculate the possibility of you getting away from me to be 1000000 to 1." Suddenly, a missile streaks by my head and impacts the robot, creating a cloud of smoke. (hehehehe….. I used to try roboticizing Mobians, but then I took a missile to the face.) I look behind me to see Rotor holding a missile launcher. He says "come on, that won't stop it for long." We start to walk out of the hole in the wall. A red eye can be seen through the smoke. This is sort of creepy. Rotor says "that won't hold it for long, but this might." He presses a button on a remote he grabbed from his pocket and a large explosion engulfs the underground lab. Rotor says "it's not like I could use that anymore anyway. I mean Tails just blew a hole in the wall, not to mention the fact that that robot would probably watch that spot with a remote device to see if we came back." I say "we have to get somewhere safe, somewhere defendable." A (nameless) freedom fighter runs up to us. (Come on… Sonic and the gang CANT be the only ones resisting.) He says "I know a place we can go. It's a bit of a walk, but we should be safe there for the moment." I say "very well, lead the way. It's not like we had any better plans." We start our trek to the perceived safe zone.