AN: Looks like the end of Snively's arc for a little while! Hope that him and Rosie's conversations weren't too boring. Meanwhile, Bunnie's got herself into a real situation here. What will all this lead to?
14:15 HOURS LEFT / THE WIND
"He's just asleep now, isn't he?" Rosie asked.
Snively nodded, standing over Tails and watching him sleep soundly. He had been sitting in the room for hours with the old Nanny now, simply discussing the freedom fighters or the weather, or just staring out the windows. He had learnt a surprising amount about the structure of the freedom fighters through their little conversations, and had made mental notes about the importance of the technician and the locations of the training areas that were used for young freedom fighters.
He'd also been practicing his smile over the last few hours. The tales she had told of the young freedom fighters, even the young Sonic and Sally, contained many elements intended to provoke positive response, he had noticed, so providing a genuine-looking smile would help alleviate suspicions or negative thoughts harboured towards him. Not that he believed this lady could ever harbour any suspicions or negative thoughts at all, unless they were aimed at Robotnik.
His fake smile hadn't helped him much, though, when she'd asked why he had come.
"Did you come with the rest of the freedom fighters?"
Snively's smile had instantly faded. "Um... yes, I did... I was out doing my business when you called, you see."
"Ah, so that's why you were so reluctant! Well, you've got to go when you've got to go, eh?" Rosie giggled.
"Indeed," muttered Snively, glad that he had avoided further questioning.
Now, he returned to his stool, and looked at Rosie. "I don't think there was anything terribly wrong with Tails anyway."
Rosie sighed with relief, and chuckled softly. "Well either way, I'm very glad for your help, and your company. Even if there was nothing wrong, without you I don't know what state I'd be in!"
There was a brief silence, before Snively finally saw an opportune moment.
"Maybe I should go and find my friends," he said quietly.
Rosie nodded. "If there's any problems, I'll know who to ask for."
Snively stood up and walked out of the door in silence. Rosie called after him.
"Thank you so much, Miles!"
Snively tried his best to ignore it, and closed the door. He took a deep breath as he stood, staring at the huge trees and bushes once again in front of him. Taking a step forward, off the wooden patio of the nursery building, a powerful gust of wind suddenly caught him in a bad position and blew him over, out of the cover of the cabin. He was on the floor in full view of the entirety of Knothole.
Snively had no idea of what to do. Panic replaced all thoughts of trying to make an advantage of the situation.
Fortunately, Snively knew panic better than anybody else.
He stood up and turned around. Nobody was there. Another blessing of good luck.
Snively heaved a large sigh of relief, then scampered over to the next-closest cabin to try and eavesdrop. He couldn't hear anything from inside, so he ran around the back of it and moved along to the next cabin with haste. He could hear something from this one, so he shuffled along the side and pulled himself up to see through a window. Inside was a burly-looking rhinoceros and a tiger, both with their backs to the window. It was a couple of minutes of idle chit-chat before Snively began to pay full attention.
"I've heard the invasion's being done this evening, but that can't be true," said the tiger. The rhino nodded.
"I was confused too, but according to Sally they think Robotnik's covered up too long and they can't wait any longer."
The tiger shook his head. "We've barely got materials to take out one or two SWAT-bots each, despite us being outnumbered ten-to-one. I don't see how it's possible."
The rhino shrugged. "I think it's crazy too, but you have to admit waiting any longer is real risky, especially now that we have Robotnik's midget henchman-"
Another strong gust of wind blew in Snively's direction and knocked him off the window ledge. Snively landed hard on his back, and as he sat up, reeling over the term 'midget', the realization hit – the freedom fighters were attacking today? The time-traveller must have known about this, and the boy must have some master plan for it all... which is why he had been kidnapped, to allow the plan to flow smoothly. That, or the time-traveller didn't want Snively to be taken down with the Doomsday Project. But then why would he play for Robotnik's side?
He made his way to the next cabin, deep in thought, but stopped as he heard that recognisably self-satisfied tone of Sally's voice.
"I'm asking you for the last time – how do you know so much about Robotnik? And how does Uncle Chuck know you?"
Sonic's distinctly annoying voice chipped in too.
"He's not talkin', Sal. We should just lock him up."
"We can't, Sonic. He might know where Bunnie is."
Snively waddled over to the hut and very tentatively pulled himself up to look through a window. Inside, Sonic and Sally were standing with the time-traveller opposite them on a chair, slightly angled away from the window. The time-traveller had his eyes closed and head back.
"Ignorance is bliss," he said simply.
"Not specific enough!" Sally replied, clearly very frustrated.
"We're wasting time, Sal. C'mon, you're the one worried about time. Let's have the meeting to discuss the attack and come back to do this later," Sonic complained. He was obviously bored.
"This shouldn't take 5 more minutes. And if the time-traveller really is on our side, he'd appreciate the pressure we're under and co-operate!"
"You still have roughly 14 hours left until Chuck estimated Doomsday will happen. Let's say you need 5 hours for preparation, and you take 3 hours to get there plus another hour to do the assault... you still have another 5 free hours," the time-traveller said calmly. Snively noticed that despite his attitude, the boy was shaking.
"It's not gonna be a smooth ride, smart-ass," Sally snapped. Sonic jumped. He'd never seen Sally this angry before. Neither had Snively. It reminded him of Robotnik... maybe the two weren't so different.
The time-traveller finally opened his eyes and looked ahead, at Sonic and Sally. "It's never gonna be a smooth ride, Princess," he said simply, and his eyes wandered slightly before focusing very suddenly on Snively. "But if you want to make it smoother, you just have to trust in yourself."
Snively dropped from the window ledge instantly and jumped into the nearest bush. It was quite thorny, but right now he didn't mind. All he needed now was to get back to Robotropolis. He was finally grasping the extent of the freedom fighter's plans, and if he was right, then Robotnik needed to know.
"Well, well, well, what are we 'aving 'ere zen, hmm?"
Snively was pulled out of the bush backwards, which hurt even more than going in forwards, and was spun around to face a smug-looking coyote.
"Anozzer grande asheevment for moi! I have kidsnapped the Snively!" Antoine cried.
Snively cursed his luck.
13:30 HOURS LEFT / THE BARRELS
"Are y'all there? What's yer deal, ya gonna bore me ta death?"
Bunnie had spent far too long in this room, a supposed 'torture chamber' which only consisted of a single iron chair, a desk, four walls and a ceiling. She had been restrained in the chair before, but the bots had underestimated the strength of her robotic arm, meaning she easily broke out. Escaping the room was a different matter, though, as the doors were much heavier than even she could manage. She'd spent a long time punching the door - and she'd made a very significant dent - before she realized it was doubly sealed. There was no way she was getting through it with brute force.
The two hours she'd been in the room had given her plenty of time to think, though, especially about why the time-traveller would be working with Robotnik. All she could come up with was that he just wanted to stay alive and un-Robotisized. Even then, he would probably have a lower chance if he was a freedom fighter. And he'd brought Snively to the freedom fighters too... Was it to keep him out of the way for the time-traveller's evil plans? He confused her.
She smashed the door again with her metal fist, screaming. "Stupid time-traveller! If y'all can hear me, ah'm imaginin' this door as yer head!" Punching it again, she sighed and fell backwards in exhaustion, looking up at the ceiling. She hadn't looked at it much in detail before, but suddenly she noticed what could be a fusebox linked to the door. The room was roughly 10 feet tall and Bunnie was barely 3 feet, and climbing was impossible as the walls were sheet metal. She got herself up quickly and stood on the top of the chair, jumping as high as she could possibly manage, but she was still nowhere near the fusebox.
A crackling noise and microphone spike interrupted her second jump attempt, and the grating voice of a SWAT-bot came through. "You will be extracted and robotisized in T-minus twelve minutes."
Bunnie groaned and slumped dejectedly onto the chair. "What happened to the torturin', huh? Not like ah'm askin' for it," she grumbled, looking at the dented door. "Come on, Sonic... when are ya gonna git here and help? Hurry-" she kicked the foot of the chair with her heel, "-the heck-" she kicked again, "-up!"
One last time she kicked the chair, before she felt her legs shoot out like pistols, only stopping as they slammed against the heavy iron doors of the room. She stared in wonder at the long metal legs, and realized that her ladder-legs had kicked in, and at the perfect time. They were a bit awkward to position, but as she picked herself up, she found herself almost face-to-face with the fusebox on the ceiling.
A quick punch to the box left the doors wide open, but Bunnie found a problem. Her ladder-legs were stuck, and she was nearly 10 feet tall. With a bit of trouble, she was able to crouch under the door, but the corridor was just too small for her, and walking was incredibly awkward (not to mention she was bending over and showing her rear in a most un-ladylike fashion). Yet as she got the hang of travelling through the small hallways on her extended legs, she noticed that there was absolutely no bots around. Maybe she'd been forgotten about, or something important was going on somewhere else.
Roughly ten minutes after she'd escaped, she heard the alarm siren go off. "Whuh-oh," she muttered, and quickly made her way to a nearby doorway. This one wasn't tightly locked, so forcing it open with her robotic arm was no problem here, and she ducked inside. It was some sort of store room, she figured, with hundreds of barrels on tall shelves stretching off into the distance. After staring at them for a while, she sat herself down behind a nearby stack and waited.
The sirens stopped after what felt like an eternity. She hoped that they had thought she had escaped, but now she had to be very careful around any of the surveillance cameras. It was just lucky she hadn't gone past any when getting here. She stood up straight, stretching her arms out. Her legs were still stuck, as no matter how much she had tinkered with them, they didn't seem to do anything. Moving out from behind her hiding spot, she noticed a barrel lying on its side in the middle of the room. With a quick check over her shoulder, she decided to test whether her kung-fu skills were any more powerful with longer legs.
"Hi-yah!" she screamed, stepping back before swinging her foot forward and hitting the barrel perfectly, sending it flying down the hallway. She smiled, impressed with herself, and was turning to check over her shoulder again to see if anyone had heard her when she noticed she'd taken two floor panels off as well.
She leant down carefully and inspected the floor underneath the panels. Dirt, with a large hole going deep into blackness. She hadn't expected to see even a hint of natural material in Robotropolis, let alone a secret passage in said natural material. There was a pretty large loose bolt lying on the floor nearby, presumably having come out with the panel, so she picked it up and dropped it into the hole, listening for a noise. The thud was soft, but didn't take long to come back out of the hole, so she decided it was shallow enough to climb into. It may have been leading right into Robotnik's hands, but it was a risk she needed to take now as she couldn't risk being spotted in the open.
The tunnel was not very tall, and pitch black, but bending over she could run at a very reasonable speed, and with an arm on the wall she kept herself running onwards. It would only be a matter of time, hopefully, before she found light again, but the best she found herself hoping for was to stay undetected, and hope that Sonic wasn't coming looking for her now.