The ground was muddy, swirled around by the hundreds of shoes crossing the forest floor on Knothole. It was still raining, and the clouds blocked out all sunlight, even though there wasn't much to speak of anyway; it was almost seven in the morning. Tails was busy making a few finishing touch-ups on his airplane, currently suspended above the ground by heavy steel chains. Rotor occasionally called out for system checks. "Landing gear." He stopped tightening the bolts holding the control panel together and flipped a switch on it. The wheels of the plane extended.

"Check," he replied.

Sonic, who was sitting on a chair near the back of the garage, stretched his back. An early riser, he was not, and his grimace and half-lidded eyes denoted he really wanted to go back to sleep. "That mean we're ready now?"

"Almost, Sonic," Rotor replied.

"Hmph. There an echo in here? Could've sworn you already said that at least twice," Sonic replied.

"'Cause these things take time," Rotor said coolly.

The only other people who were waiting on Rotor and Tails at this point were Amy, Antoine and Sally. Amy was keeping mostly to herself, bouncing on her heels and Antoine was standing around near the front of the garage and in front of the plane, staring the metal beast down. He would have been tired if he wasn't so terrified of getting inside the aircraft and flying hundreds of miles above solid ground, and this anxiety was severely draining his focus and energy, and that lack of energy fueled his anxiety. It was a vicious cycle. He swallowed hard and asked, "B-b-b-but z-ze-ze plane will be w-w-wo-working, yes?" He paused and muttered, "S'il t-t-te pl-plait, Dieu," under his breath.

"Don't worry, Antoine! I've done all the calculations," Tails said, "this thing'll fly."

"...I will be ascertain when I am seeing it...safely from on zee ground," Antoine whispered to himself.

Sally was leaning on the wall at the entrance to the garage, and still trying to think of where to stash the voice comms in the plane, or if they'd be safe enough on everyone's heads during flight. Though it wasn't a high priority at the moment, as she was still waiting for Bunnie and Trystan to get there. And, through the sheets of rain, she saw them both approaching. Bunnie was kind enough to get a large umbrella that shielded them both from the rain. When they got close enough, Sally waved to them both, but only Bunnie waved back.

"Hey, Bunnie. Sleep well?"

"Oh, Ah feel fantastic!" Bunnie replied. She turned her head to look at Trystan and smiled, with pity showing in her eyes. "But, um...Ah don't think Trystan's been 'here' since Ah went an' got'im up."

And he was certainly "up," but "awake" was pushing it. He didn't look especially happy at all. His hair was a hot mess, he only had his grease-stained tank top and jeans on, his sweatshirt was slung over his shoulder, and he was glaring ahead blankly. Sonic smirked weakly when he saw him. "Mornin', bright-eyes."

"...I think I'm blind."

This was met with sparse laughter from everyone else, and as it died down, Sally explained, "Well, just relax once we get off the ground, 'cause it'll take us hours to get to Switch Nightmare City." She turned to look outside before adding, "And with this rain, it may take longer."

"...Great," Trystan yawned as he meandered over to a chair up against the wall. He plopped himself down and muttered, "Wake me up when it's done."

Sonic scoffed. "Well, ya might get lucky," he called. "Tails'n Rotor're taking years."

Tails jerked around to look at Sonic. "Geez, Sonic, !" he exclaimed. "Gotta make sure this thing'll get off the ground without losing a wing." While that comment made Antoine a whole lot more pale, everyone else was content to wait until Tails and Rotor were good and ready.

Sally walked over and sat down next to him, muttering, "You're such a sourpuss in the morning," lightheartedly. Sonic rolled his eyes and stretched out and tried to get at least a couple minutes of shut-eye. The finishing touches didn't take long, however. Tails called the final checks and walked around the front with Rotor behind him, smiling up at the plane.

The machine itself was colored red and white. Hardly conspicuous, but Tails, and by extension, everyone else, knew the plane wasn't meant to fly into Robotropolis itself, or any other substantially crowded center for Robotnik's forces. They'd even painted a stylized insignia of two fox-tails on the tail of the plane. There was a pilot's cockpit and a passenger hold behind it, all open-air, with what were, apparently, an abundance of safety straps. The wings were fashioned like a bomber plane, with two propellers on each. "Okay, Aunt Sally," Tails said cleaning his gloves of oil and grease. "It's ready!" Everyone got closer to the plane, scanning it and taking in the design.

Tails remained quiet before Rotor nudged him and whispered, "Go on. It's your plane, not mine," with a wink.

He stared up at Rotor for a minute and then nodded. He cleared his throat and declared, "I'm calling it 'The Tornado!'" He paused a second and held up a finger and added, "...Mark one." Everyone clapped and otherwise expressed their congratulations, though Sonic and Trystan were far less enthusiastic.

Rotor walked around to the other side of the plane and stepped up on the rungs that led into the passenger hold. "I've done some calculations," he called to Sally, "and if we get moving now, we'll get to Switch Nightmare City in about three to four hours."

"Perfect." Sally skipped forward and jumped into the passenger hold herself. "Alright, guys, let's get going!"

There was a quick wave of excitement as the Freedom Fighters all entered the plane in single-file. While they were going to be gone, no one else was going to try and carry out any guerilla missions in Robotropolis, which Sally believed to be a good thing; letting the heat cool off might get Robotnik working on new machines faster, but at least nobody would be putting themselves in harm's way.

The passenger seats got filled up quickly, though Antoine was constantly twitching and glancing around nervously. Bunnie noticed and nudged him in the side and whispered, "Not much've a frequent flyer, are ya, 'Twan?" He only shook his head. Trystan was the last one in, fumbling around for a sturdy grip on the side of the plane in his groggy state. Sonic helped pull him in.

"Thanks," Trystan slurred as he sat down on one of the cushioned seats.

"Geez. Even I'm not a zombie at this time of day," Sonic quipped with a cheeky grin. Trystan just groaned and rolled his head back and relaxed into the seat. "You gonna be okay flyin' high over the clouds, Trys?" he continued, not expecting much of a response.

"I don't care if we fly or die, I just want some sleep, for God's sake."

Tails took his place in the cockpit and ignited the engine. It roared to life and propellers on the wings of the plane began to move, rotating very slowly as Tails took control. The Tornado lurched forward as he steered it out of the garage, and it rumbled along the muddy ground. The constant jostling wasn't doing much for Antoine's nerves, or Trystan's attempts to go back to sleep. Eventually, the plane rolled into the back of Knothole, where there was now a small runway cleared in preparation for the plane just over a mile long, but still covered by the canopy of trees. Tails stopped at the nearest end, aiming the plane straight down the runway, and he turned back to everyone else. "Ready?" he asked with a grin.

There were various affirmations of "Yeah!" all around, save for Antoine, who was busy shaking his head violently. Even if Tails had seen him, he would've still kicked the engine into high gear and let it cook. The propeller blades started to rotate faster until they were blurred, and The Tornado began driving down the runway. "Strap in!" Tails called. The Freedom Fighters did so if they hadn't found the safety belts already, and the airplane kept picking up speed. It was halfway down the runway and still going strong, but hadn't taken off, and by now, Sally could see Tails pulling on the control wheel a lot harder than he needed to. "Tails…? What's going on?"

"I...I can't budge the controls!" he cried. "They're jammed!"

Everyone froze. Time itself seemed to stand still, even as it ran out with a wall of trees rapidly approaching. Sally, without thinking, undid her seat belt and leaned over into the cockpit, trying to help Tails forcibly move the controls. Rotor joined in too after he got over the shock while everyone else panicked; Antoine was shrieking "We are doom-ed!" over and over while Bunnie tried to think of a way to stop the plane. Trystan was basically useless in doing much else, even if he hadn't been bone-tired, and Amy instinctively gripped Sonic by the arm. Sonic himself had other plans.

He firmly pried Amy's hands off of him long enough to jump and dash out of the plane, run around to the front, and throw all his weight against the front hull, running at top speed to try and slow the plane down. It wasn't going to stop it, but it would buy some time, and that's all that mattered.

Tails kept struggling with the control wheel, yanking on it with all the strength his little body could muster. "Come on…! Come on, you worthless…!"

Before he could continue cursing, he felt himself launch up slightly, and something below him snapped. He knew, instinctively, that it was coming from the pistons and hydraulics inside the plane and found, when he was back in his seat, the controls were unstuck.

"They're good!" he yelled back. "Quick, get back down!"

Upon hearing this news, everyone perked up, and Sally and Rotor hustled back to their seats and began strapping themselves in. The line of trees was almost five hundred feet away by now. Sonic, meanwhile, heard Tails call out, and knew that was his cue to exit. He stopped trying to push The Tornado and dashed back into his seat, nonchalantly buckling himself back in. Though he didn't show much emotion, the stupefied looks he got from Amy and Trystan made his day.

Tails pulled back on the wheel as hard as he could, and the plane started to rise about three hundred feet from the trees. "Almost…" The whole aircraft was shaking from the thrust and the wind, but it was rising. "Almost…"

The Tornado roared as it lifted near vertically into the air, clipping the tops of the trees. It got bumpy, and most of the Freedom Fighters closed their eyes. Antoine's face kept shifting between pale as a ghost and green as the trees he lived under; even Sonic looked shaken by the rough takeoff. But almost as soon as it started, the turbulence stopped, and The Tornado flattened out. After everyone got over the shock, the glanced around, cautiously at first, and then cheered. Sonic was almost asleep by now, but Trystan was wide-eyed and staring blankly ahead. "...That sure as hell woke me up."

Only about three hours had passed. The drearly early morning gave way to brighter skies with the sun shining above them and a sea of clouds just below the plane's underbelly. The sky was perfectly blue, and Sonic whistled as he looked out his window. "How 'bout that view?"

"I wouldn't get used to it," Sally replied. "Switch Nightmare City's coming up quickly, and those white, puffy clouds aren't gonna stick around."

"Sally's right," Tails added, pointing ahead. "Look!"

Just above the horizon, they saw something looming: a city with jagged spires rising above the skyline. A dead place, frozen in time. Switch Nightmare City was just as smog-choked as Robotropolis. The only lights, it seemed, came from the center district, and the two spires that pierced the blackened sky. Trystan gazed at it for a long time; it looked the same and felt totally different, especially from this high up in the air.

"Not too happy about comin' home, I bet?" After snapping out of his thoughts, Trystan shot a glance over at Sonic. He didn't look like he was trying to make fun of his situation, but his method of lightening the mood was unrefined, to say the least.

Trystan sighed as he looked back out over the rooftops. "Honestly, I never thought this day would come," he muttered with a weak chuckle at the end. He leaned back in his seat and went silent for a moment before muttering, "Think I'm gonna be sick…"

The Tornado dipped slightly, and Tails aimed for an empty-looking street on the perimeter of the city, on the east side. "Hold on, guys!"

Antoine's grip on his seat tightened until his knuckles were white. "N-n-n-ne vous emb-b-bêtez p-pas à me le d-d-di-dire deux f-f-f-fois."

Bunnie, despite the rough takeoff, had been enjoying her flight, and spent most of the trip looking over the edge of the passenger seats at the ground far, far below. Now was certainly no exception, as she found the air rushing by and the speed of their descent to be fascinating. "Whoo-ee! Lookit that, An-twan! See that ground floor jus' rushin' up ta meet us?"

"Bunnie!" Antoine cried, "Will you please be shutting up your own face!?"

Sonic and Sally braced themselves on the back of the hold in order to avoid being thrown around by the landing. It was something Trystan realized he should have done when The Tornado finally touched down.

The plane skidded a bit after the landing gear came out, though Tails kept it straight. Then the rubber-on-asphalt squealing started, and the plane kept barreling down a deserted street for a few more yards before it came to a full stop.

As soon as The Tornado halted and everyone undid their seatbelts, Antoine threw himself out of the passenger hold, jumped to the ground, and bent on all fours. "Dieu merci au ciel...!" he exclaimed. He spent the next few seconds kissing the ground before looking back up and crying out, "Sweet terra cotta!"

The rest of the Freedom Fighters ignored his theatrics as they piled out of the plane. Tails stayed in the cockpit with his lips pursed and staring intently at the plane dashboard. Sonic, being the last one out due to still being exhausted, stayed behind when he noticed Tails wasn't getting out, and took to leaning on the back of the pilot's seat. When Tails took notice, Sonic asked, "What's eatin' ya, buddy?"

Tails sighed and rolled his eyes. "I just...It's just that I'm gonna have to send this hunk'a junk back to the shop," he admitted.

"But Tails, The Tornado works just fine."

"It should have worked better. I nearly got us all killed!"

Sonic paused for only a moment, and then grinned. "But ya didn't, and we got here safe. Besides, that was fun."

"Seriously?"

"Heck yeah," Sonic replied. He flexed his arm and continued, "Haven't had a morning workout like that in weeks."

Tails giggled and Sonic trussed the hair on his head for good measure and added, "Don't worry 'bout it right now, bud," before helping him get out of the plane and down to scope out the area, which was what everyone else was doing. And the more they looked around, the more morbid and depressing it got. The street was suburban, on the very outskirts of New Pacific. On both sides of the cracked road there were houses, charred, collapsed; the signs of a world broken by Robotnik's tyranny. The only sound that remained was the stiff breeze blowing down from the north.

Everyone was silent for moments that turned into years, until Amy muttered, "This is spooky."

"A lot spookier than I remember it," Trystan added. "And to think I only left about a month ago."

"Trystan, is it safe enough to leave this plane out here in the open?" Tails asked.

He turned to face Tails, the surprise evident on his face, and it made him pause a moment before he said, "Um...yeah…? There's no security patrols this far out. Mainly 'cause they roped up all the civvies years ago…"

"And how far out do those patrols go?" Sally quickly interjected.

Trystan had to think a little harder about that, but after a moment, he said, "Hmm...I don't have anything accurate, but I think none of the SWATbots or robo-slaves patrol any further than the downtown district–waitafrigginminnit, why are you people asking me all these questions...?"

Sally shrugged. "Because you've lived here and we haven't."

Trystan inhaled and raised his index finger as if to argue, but he quickly stopped and relaxed. "That...is a good point. Touché," he said. "But the real question is, what is our plan, exactly?"

Sally pulled out Nicole and replied, "Well, our first step is to get to a safehouse…" She trailed off and looked at Trystan. "Your house, if you don't mind. From there, we need to infiltrate the central district and go from there," she explained as she pointed off toward the middle of the city. Sally looked back down at her computer, and the hundreds of data streams and radio frequencies Nicole had picked up already. She scowled. "If there's one thing Robotnik's got no shortage of, it's plans to use every asset he has to his advantage, and he's got a hundred other failsafes if we manage to get our hands on them first. Raiding his main base in this city's our best bet for now. We'll go from there."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, only broken by a deadpan, "...Ya lost me," from Sonic.

Sally rolled her eyes. "Get to safety and figure out Robotnik's next move," she repeated curtly.

Sonic only smirked to himself and shook his head as he stared up to the sky. Trystan thought for a moment about returning "home," if he could even call it that anymore. Eventually, he breathed in, and decided that maybe facing the past was the best thing he could do for himself. "Might be a little cramped in there for all of us, but okay. Come on then, follow me!" Trystan charged forward with the Freedom Fighters close behind.

They pushed further into New Pacific City, right up to the midtown district. The townhouses and apartment buildings hadn't changed much, but the more Trystan looked at them (while sneaking around through the back alleys), the more he noticed the grime caked on the walls and rampant decay seeping into the foundations. He realized he'd never noticed it before. All the same, he followed his instincts and natural street smarts until he found himself rounding the corner into a familiar backstreet; very little had been disturbed. He slowed down to walking pace and said, "Almost there, just a little ways up this street."

Sonic slowed down and relaxed his head backward, holding it with his hands. "'Bout time. Followin' your slow butt was gettin' boring."

"Bah, you'd be lost without me," he replied.

"Says who?"

Trystan paused and thought for a moment before glancing over at Sally and nodding at her with his head. "Your girlfriend, I bet."

Sonic's eyes widened and he spat, "You know that ain't true!"

"...I'm not gonna comment," Sally said.

"Then quit smilin' like that, Sal!"

Trystan stopped when he reached the back of his old apartment building, and he quickly ran forward and kicked himself off the wall to grab the ladder on the fire escape scaffold. Of course, when he landed, the ladder only made a metallic squeak. "Of course the damn thing's rusted in place," he muttered.

Before he could clamber up the rest of the way, he saw Tails carrying Sonic and Amy up to the platform he was trying to get to. He was about to say something before he saw Sally vault herself up and over the railing of said platform. Trystan stopped moving altogether, until everyone took notice and stared at him.

"Oh, sure. Kill my thunder, I guess."

The Freedom Fighters laughed, and in all honesty, he couldn't help but laugh at himself, too. Antoine was the only one who took the ladder after Trystan kicked it free, and they all clambered up to the second floor, Trystan took point and kicked the maintenance door wide open. The thing nearly came off its hinges and he, Sonic, and Tails coughed from the release of dust almost everywhere. "...Watch your step," Trystan cautioned as he took a tentative step forward. "The floors might just give out from under you in some places."

"Thanks for the tip," Sonic said as he grabbed Tails by the hand and led him forward. He hated going slow, but this place was cramped enough, the hallway barely enough to fit three of them shoulder-to-shoulder. Amy was being the most brazen, not holding onto anything, with Rotor right behind her, and Antoine and Bunnie brought up the rear. After a couple steps, everyone heard a loud *snap!*

Bunnie felt the wood planks break under her and, working on instinct, shrieked and reached out to grab something that could stop her fall. She managed to grab the part of the floor that hadn't broken, and by now, everyone was gathering around the hole that now took up most of the third floor hallway.

"...Kinda like that?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, kinda like that."

Antoine was the first to move, in a turn of events that actually shocked Sonic, though he said nothing. He reached down to Bunnie, who, when she saw him, grinned and grabbed his hand. Antoine spent a couple more minutes pulling Bunnie up, though he found it...easier than expected. "Thanks, An-twan," Bunnie gasped as she stood up. She glanced back at the gaping hole in the floor and scoffed, "Sure's hell's one way ta tell someone they're packin' on the pounds."

"I would not be saying zat about yourself so quickly," Antoine replied without thinking about what was coming out of his mouth.

Bunnie paused to stare at Antoine. The way it took him no time to come up with a response for that, it...sparked something. They remained there for a moment before Antoine, sensing he'd done something wrong once again, quickly broke off, mentioning, "I, ehm...I zink we'd best go forward, yes?"

Bunnie brought herself back and quickly found her voice again. "Right."

They rejoined the rest of the Freedom Fighters, who had followed Trystan to an entrance close to the end of the hall when they saw Antoine take Bunnie safely out of harm's way. The door had been kicked in and was lying on the floor in front of them, its hinges broken. The Freedom Fighters stood there, staring into the apartment Trystan once called home: it opened up into a combination living room and kitchen, with all the necessary kitchenware and appliances on a counter to the immediate left, long rusted and burned out. The living room itself housed a worn and torn green couch, and the wall held two windows blocked by plywood. There were discolored streaks coming down from the edges, the result of unfixed water damage. As if to hammer home the absolute disrepair, there was a television set sitting on a desk in front of the couch; the screen was broken by several bullet holes. "Well…" Trystan began. "This is home. Or what's left of it."

He entered the apartment first, followed by the Freedom Fighters, but elected to sit on the prep counter in the kitchen as everyone else familiarized themselves with the layout of the room. "Sorry about the mess," he quipped with a bitter smile. "I tried buying a vacuum for the place, but the only ones they had at the store wanted to murder me."

Sally was the first to move to the kitchen table and set Nicole down on top of it. "Nicole…?"

"Right away, Sally." Nicole's screen flashed to life and displayed maps of the immediate area, the sewer network, and the whole city as holographic models.

Sonic sauntered over and leaned his hands on the table, staring at the maps Nicole had made. He was joined momentarily by Amy and Tails, who quickly sat down at the worn down table, followed by Bunnie, while Rotor and Antoine stood over the table itself, and Trystan propped himself up on the kitchen counter. "Once we've had time to rest, we need to go to the center of the city."

"An' then?" Bunnie asked.

"Then we need to find a suitable database that I can get Nicole into so we can look through Robotnik's project files," Sally explained. "We'll set out in about...thirty minutes, I'm thinking."

"I can work with that," Sonic replied as Tails nodded after he'd spoken.

"Sounds good," Rotor said.

"Ah'll be ready, sugah," Bunnie affirmed.

"I'm always ready!" Amy exclaimed.

"I, erm...suppose…yes…?" Antoine stuttered.

"...Let's rock," Trystan said, pumping his fist.

"Alright, then that's settled." Sally stood up and slid Nicole into her jacket pocket, and the Freedom Fighters all stood up to leave the table as well and either rest or keep a lookout from the roof. Trystan himself, walked to the left, further from the kitchen and into a hallway that had four doors, two on each side. Sonic watched him go, and couldn't help but notice that the smile he'd worn earlier had faded completely. Trystan trudged to the furthest door, paused as if reconsidering his actions, and then turned the knob and pushed it open.

Tails must have noticed, too, because he felt him yanking on his vest. Sonic glanced down at him, and Tails motioned for Sonic to bend over. When he did, Tails whispered, "Is Trystan okay?" into his ear. Sonic opened his mouth to reply but...

"Sonic?"

He whipped his head around to look at Sally, who was halfway to the hall door, and staring at him worriedly. "Something wrong?"

Sonic only shook his head. "Nah, not with me." Before she could ask him anything else, he said, "Be right back, Sal," and ran to the end of the hallway. Tails looked back at her and shrugged, and quickly went to rejoin Sonic and, as quietly as they could, entered the room Trystan was in.

The room must have been, at one point, the master bedroom, if the bedframe up against the wall in front of him and Tails didn't make it obvious. The sheets were frayed, moldy, and probably had moths living in them, but Trystan was standing to its right, staring at the wall.

On it hung a massive picture. It was hard to see at first, but when Sonic walked around the bed to get a better look, with Tails right behind him, he saw it clearly: from left to right, there was a small child with messy black hair and wearing a T-shirt with the picture of some sort of brand drink, beaming and flashing a double peace sign. To his right was a young man with long but well groomed blonde hair wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans, grinning happily; leaning on his shoulder was another young man with messy green hair that reached beyond his shoulders, most prominent in the back, and lifting a pair of sunglasses off his face, smirking at the camera, and finally, a teenager with short violet hair, the left side shaved completely, standing with his hands behind his back and smiling warmly.

Sonic and Tails remained there, staring at it. Trystan either didn't notice them or didn't care. He simply kept looking at his memories preserved on glossy paper. After a heavy, almost awkward silence, Sonic cleared his throat and said, "So...those're your brothers, Trys?"

"'Were,'" Trystan corrected him.

"Hey, don't be hasty; that's my job," he quipped.

Trystan scoffed and glanced down at his shoes for a second before gazing back up the at photo. "I'd love to, but there's almost no chance they're still around," he replied, "Z's probably dead, Armin's dead, Decker's either dead or being tortured…" He trailed off and grimaced before covering his face with his hands and groaning. "I mean...I wouldn't care if they are dead, necessarily!" he complained, "I just don't wanna be left in the dark, y'know?"

"Well, look at it this way…" Sonic began, "Ya got a bead on…" He trailed off, and gestured to the picture.

"...Decker."

"Yeah, Decker, and if you find him, the other two can't be that far off!"

Trystan only smiled weakly and studied the photo a minute longer before reaching into the neck of his hoodie and pulling out his silver pendant. He flicked it open to look at the picture inside. It was another snapshot, his parents surrounded by three children, the oldest no more than twelve, and his own mother obviously carrying another child. He found he could barely summon his own voice up in his throat. "...I don't wanna lose my brothers, Sonic. They're the only family I got left."

"Now, that's just not true," Sonic rebuked.

Trystan froze, and he whipped his head around to stare at Sonic with subtle incredulousness. "Ex-cuse me?"

Before Sonic could answer, Tails joined in, too, cutting around Sonic's back to exclaim, "No, he's right!" There was a pause before Tails continued, with a big smile on his face, "You've got us!"

Trystan remained frozen, staring at the both of them until the words sunk in fully. In light of the shock, he could only smile weakly to himself, nod, and wipe his face and the mist forming on his eyes. "Thanks, kid."

The thirty minutes beforehand almost seemed to pass by as thirty seconds before the Freedom Fighters were outside again, boots and shoes dashing over the broken concrete roads of the midtown district as a moderate rainshower hammered on their heads. They mostly stayed to the back roads and alleys out of the sight of the prying eyes of Robotnik's minions, but kept their headsets up and ready. Eventually, they passed the boundary between the slum the outer city looked like, and the densely-packed skyscrapers near the center. In the cramped confines of yet another alleyway, they hid from a passing patrol of roboticized overlanders, shepherded by SWATbots. Sonic and Tails were serving as lookouts, and he couldn't help but wince and shake his head. "Man, I thought these guys were like normal overlanders. Now I feel kinda bad."

Everyone else had, in some way, shape, or form, a clear line of sight to the streets outside. Trystan kept his back to the neon lights and his revolver out, and on "stun," of course. Sally made one quick check outside the backstreet once the patrol had passed and brought Hicole out. "Nicole, scan this area for any high-concentration of data flow."

"Right away, Sally. One minute..."

"Been awhile since we been here, huh, Rotor?" Bunnie asked in passing.

Rotor nodded. "Yup. Certainly had more fun back then, too."

Trystan shifted uncomfortably and everything was silent for another minute before Nicole piped up, "Sally, the scans are done. I've found several locations with a high amount of data traffic." She continued to ramble off, "Of the twenty-seven locations scanned, eighteen are major data repositories. I estimate that eleven of these locations are under heavy guard, four locations have moderate defenses, and three have only minimal defenses."

"In English, Nicole," Sonic quipped.

Sally tried to shut him up, but Nicole only giggled to herself and explained, "That means I've narrowed down our options to six places that we could visit: one is a data repository in a manufacturing plant exactly two-and-a-half kilometers from here…"

Trystan grimaced and hissed, not wanting to do much more walking today. "Two is a moderately-sized databank in a bunker seven blocks due southwest of here, three is a command center for approximately nine-point-two square kilometers of the old downtown district, four is a series of interconnected laboratories exactly one-point-two kilometers away, five is the tallest radio tower in the city, Spire Alpha, and six is a second bunker two-point-three kilometers away."

"...Ya lost me at the measurements, Nicole," Sonic stated.

"I feel as if I should note that Spire Alpha is the closest to our location," Nicole added. "It's only about one hundred twenty-one meters from here." As Sally, Sonic, Rotor, and Tails glanced up at the skyline, they could clearly see Spire Alpha against the dark sky, and its twin perhaps slightly further away. She paused and added, "And it's one of the more lightly-guarded places."

"Zat sounds good," Antoine commented.

"S'matter, Antoine? Forgot your brown pants back at home?" Sonic taunted with a smirk.

Antoine froze and glared at Sonic for a moment before Sally announced they should get moving before another patrol came by. They left the confines of the alley, though Trystan muttered something about "witnessing a murder" under his breath. The Freedom Fighters passed through the rest of the downtown district in much the same way as before, narrowly avoiding detection twice over by the dozens of patrols that crossed the streets. Soon enough, they came to the base of the first spire in the center of the city, surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers and factories that were dwarfed by comparison.

The Freedom Fighters found that, as expected, there were dozens of SWATbots lingering outside the base with security checkpoints set up at three different places that they could see from where they were hiding. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, and Sally all poked their heads out and over the ground level the spire was standing on and quickly hunkered back down on the street below. "Does the computer have a plan on how to get in there, Sally?" Trystan whispered.

"No, but you can ask," Nicole answered instead.

Sally gave Trystan a knowing look and shrug, and flipped Nicole open. They were both quiet for a minute, all the while Sally's expression shifting between concentration, worry, and back again. She sighed after a long pause and said, "Well...I've run scans and diagnostics, and according to Nicole, there's hundreds of defensive measures in each of those security gates. We can hack them, but there's too many eyes, everywhere."

"And that means?"

"For one thing, we need a distraction…"

Before anyone else knew what was happening, Sonic had broken the line between safety and danger and ran right out into the open. If there were SWATbots who didn't notice or hear that, they definitely heard him call, "Hey, idiot boxes! Look who's here to make your day just a little more interestin'!" There was a call sent out across all the security checkpoints, and in a matter of seconds, almost all the SWATbots guarding the tower were chasing Sonic down. The Freedom Fighters paused only for a moment to process what had happened, but the only ones who were actually surprised were Tails and Amy.

"...Come on, everyone, let's go!" Sally clambered up to the higher street, followed by Bunnie and Amy, and then everyone else, with Trystan bringing up the rear. They made for a door at one of the closest checkpoints and she set about inspecting it. It was password-locked, but as per usual, that wasn't going to be much of a problem. "Nicole…!"

"On it, Sally." Nicole's screen lit up and a data stream began to flow by on it, highlighting different encryption keys.

Sally could feel the comms lighting up across the sector. "Dammit, Sonic, I didn't say I had a plan to get in!" she hissed under her breath.

"What, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed on the receiver. "You just said we needed a distraction, I'm the only one who can give the SWAT-heads a run for their money, kinda only had, y'know, one option."

Sally was going to argue with him more, but she decided to go with a stern but resigned, "Don't get shot," over the mic before she cut it to go back to hacking the first gate.

It took longer than she expected, about six minutes of standing around nervously watching each others' backs before they could get into the checkpoint proper. Beyond the gate was another stainless-steel door, this time closed with a valve lock. This time, it was Bunnie who led the way to the door and she gripped it with her cybernetic hand and started to pull as hard as she could. The lock began to give after a minute, and with one last yell, Bunnie wrenched the lock downward, casing something to audibly snap either from the other side or within the door itself. Still, it opened up either way, and Bunnie yanked it open. "After y'all," she said calmly, gesturing through the door.

Sonic had swung his way around the city on one of the major streets and ended right back up at the base of Spire Alpha. When he saw it in view, he quickly scanned around for more SWATbots, and finding none, casually strode up to the base, whistling to himself. "A whole gaggle of SWAT-heads, shaken in six minutes. That's a new personal best!" he gloated to himself. He stopped and glanced at the preliminary security door he found himself at. "...Now I just gotta get in."

He placed his hands on the door and started to slide them around, looking for anything that might get him in: a switch, a hidden button, something. When no option to enter presented itself, he simply ran over to the next one, repeated the process, and kept moving. It wasn't until his fourth attempt to open one of the preliminary doors that he heard someone call his name.

"Sonic! Over here!"

He whipped his head to the right and saw Tails and Amy leaning out of one of the checkpoint doors, waving to him. Sonic rolled his eyes and jogged over, and Tails came running up to greet him. "Heya, little buddy! Was wonderin' where you and the others disappeared to," he said as knelt down to hug him.

Amy wasted no time in jumping up and wrapping her arms around Sonic's neck, causing him to stumble to the side slightly and gag. "I knew those stupid robots wouldn't be able to catch you, Sonic!"

"Yeah...real glad to see you, too," Sonic gasped. He stood back up and firmly pried Amy off him before he turned back to Tails and asked, "So, where's everybody else?"

"They went inside already," Tails explained. "Sally said she was gonna look for a central computer from the ground floor up.

Sonic gazed up at the spire, nearly breaking the blackened clouds high above their heads. He hummed a minute, deep in thought, and then answered, "Bottom floor up, huh? Gonna take'em years, then."

"Actually," Tails began as he ushered the other two through the door, "Nicole scanned the infrastructure, and according to her, most of the spire's empty. I didn't get a good look inside yet, but I mean…" He trailed off and chuckled. "I can't argue with her."

"Come on, you two!" Amy called to them from the second door. "We gotta get back to the others as fast as we can. I really don't wanna be out here any longer…"

Sonic rolled his eyes as subtly as possible and replied, "I hear ya, Ames, we're comin'," as he sauntered over to her with Tails at his side. They ducked into the preliminary room and got the door open to the main building a fast as possible, and once inside, they were met with a somewhat expansive hallway with miniature terminals lining the walls. "'Kay…" Sonic trailed off and scratched his chin. "So how do we get to the third floor?"

Tails began to walk forward and explained, "I don't think it's that hard. The closest elevator's just around the corner, according to Nicole." Sonic followed him and Amy brought up the rear, and the three of them took a couple steps forward before they were greeted with something coming around the corner. It had been mostly silent before; the walls seemed to dampen sound, which meant not only could very few things hear them, but they could barely hear anything else in return. But this thing looked like an overlander, though instead of skin and clothes, it sported hard steel plating.

The three of them instinctively froze when it crossed through a hallway running perpendicular to them, and unfortunately, must have caught them out of the corner of its eye. Or it came equipped with extra sensors, it was hard to know for sure. It jerked its head around and glared at them with soulless black visors that had replaced its sclera long ago, the tiny, blood-red LED dots in the middle scanning them one by one.

And that's how they stayed. The overlander slave made no moves to attack, only staring at them, and Sonic, Tails, and Amy went rigid. They remained as still as humanly possible. Tails shifted ever so slightly and rasped out of the corner of his mouth, "...Sonic…?"

Almost immediately, everyone heard a shrill note being emitted and quickly covered their ears. The robotic civilian must have caught Tails' movement, because its mouth was now open, emitting said brown note. Luckily, the noise didn't last long before Amy brought her hands off her ears long enough to take two steps forward, bringing out her hammer and swinging it in a hard uppercut. She hit the robo-overlander square in the jaw and sent it into the ceiling, leaving a remarkable dent in the metal.

"...You really can't sing," she muttered, trying to ignore the ringing in her ears.

After a pause to get their bearings, the three of them did their best to hide the robo-overlander behind a corner, decreasing the chances the body would be seen and thus tipping off any security patrols. They quickly made their way to the elevator Tails mentioned earlier, to the left of the door they came in through, and once they were in, Tails punched the controls to get them up to the third floor. The silence was tangible and the elevator was rather slow, which meant that Sonic thinking out loud was inevitable. "What'n the world's this place supposed to be for, anyway?"

Amy quirked an eyebrow and stared at him. "Hmm, I dunno, Nicole said this place was a radio tower, so I can't say I know either."

Sonic rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, I know it's a radio tower, but what's Robuttnik tryin' to radio for?" he asked no one in particular. "He could talk to someone livin' on the moon with this."

"If I had to hazard a guess," Tails said, "it's for relaying information between Switch Nightmare City, Robotropolis, and West Robotropolis."

Sonic looked up at a floor indicator, just above the elevator door. It used a meter to indicate where the elevator was in relation to the three floors, signified by yellow dots. An arrow was slowly ticking up to the third one, only a couple inches away. Then, they all felt the elevator slow down...and then stop.

The doors slid open, and Sonic instinctively braced for a firing squad of SWATbots. He, Tails, and Amy were only met with nothing but dim fluorescent lights coming from dozens of feet above the floor. The room they had entered into was spacious; highly spacious. There were no walls separating certain computer stations, and there were electrically generators everywhere, humming a drudging tune. The lighting only helped add to atmosphere.

"...Spooky," Sonic said nonchalantly.

"Psst…!"

The three of them pivoted to the right and saw a familiar face poking out from behind one of the generators. Cloaked in shadow and holding his gun up to head level, Trystan motioned with his hand for them to follow him, and they quickly followed him through narrow walkways between the generators and terminals. "'Bout time you got up here, Sally was gettin' worried."

Sonic shrugged and rolled his eyes. "She's always worried 'bout somethin'." Everything was bathed in a sterile, dim blue glow, and they walked around, slipping between generators and computer servers around nine feet high. After a minute, they came to a more open area with a single, large data terminal hooked up to several of the aforementioned servers, constantly feeding it information. In front of it were Rotor, Bunnie, Sally, and Antoine. Sally herself was leaning on the console and keyboard, staring down at Nicole, who'd been placed on top of the console itself. Sonic smirked and took a casual step forward. "Find anything yet, Sal?"

She glanced over at Sonic and shrugged nonchalantly. "Almost. Nicole's been working on cracking the firewall around the main server for the past few minutes," she replied.

"Actually, you've both got a great sense of timing!" Nicole chimed in. Everyone looked over at the handheld computer, her screen blinking methodically before lighting up fully. "All done!"

The password screen on the larger computer disappeared and several menus and file directories appeared. Everyone grinned at each other began to murmur excitedly while Sally stepped up to explore the inner secrets the computer was keeping. Before she could, though, Nicole called out, "Sally, wait!" Everyone paused and glanced back down at Nicole, who continued, "I've been skimming the files on this server, and there's a lot of them, but I keep finding a bunch of terms belonging to and referencing other files."

It wasn't as drastic as she expected, but Sally still paused a moment before she asked, "What are they?"

"Well, among all others, the most prevalent term I've found is 'House Pilyte.'"

Robotnik had been a busy man ever since he and Snively had arrived at New Pacific. First it was an extensive check on the manufacturing district, then he had to deal with delayed tests of his next model of jet engines and magnetic field generators, and finally, he had to check up on how the dig site directly under the old political forum was coming along. Snively had been proving to be more of a nuisance than usual as well, constantly asking one question too many. Robotnik didn't want to resort to physical violence so soon in the day, but he was beginning to suspect he shouldn't bring his nephew here anymore. And of course, he couldn't leave Snively behind in Robotropolis, either; the little weasel would no doubt try to hijack one of his inventions to use for his own gain.

They had taken one of the many single-rail sky-trams to the old forum, now sundered and partially collapsing on itself from the tunnels being excavated underneath, and the going had been smooth. He was good at concealing his excitement; this was the furthest any of Robotnik's more...ambitious projects had got in years, and by now, he was getting impatient. He and Snively entered the old building, what was once the height of the city's political power, and were greeted by a massive room of elevators, manned by hundreds of roboticized overlanders, going about their daily work programmed at the start of their servitude. Robotnik and Snively entered one of the elevators to the far right, and a voice, eerily monotone, spoke up over the intercom inside. "Lord Robotnik."

"Sector seven-omega," Robotnik replied without missing a beat.

"By your will."

The elevator suddenly lowered itself into the earth, increasing in speed to get the leaders to their destination in a timely manner. Neither Robotnik or Snively said anything until the elevator stopped and its doors opened to allow them to pass. They stepped out into a large cavern of metal, like a sewer pipe but far larger, at least as tall as a two-story house. There were drills of varying sizes and varying types spread throughout the tunnel, from manned machines with steel noses to smaller, handheld laser devices meant to chisel out fine details, all coated in the white fluorescence of floodlights. There were even more roboticized slaves working here than on the ground floor, either using said drills, running checks on the lights, using scattered computer terminals, or reporting their finds and progress to their SWATbot masters.

Robotnik strode amongst them, and if the slaves saw him, they immediately dove out of his way; whether it was out of respect or fear was known only to them in their delusional haze, and if they failed to see him coming, he simply threw them aside with a push from his robotic left arm. He kept walking with Snively right on his heels like a dog too stupid or too loyal to run away from its abusive owner. Snively, of course, bossed a few of the roboticized civilians around, but it was of no importance to Robotnik. They continued walking, going around a few twists and turns, deeper into the ground, until they came to a center of activity at the end of the tunnel, sporting the most drilling equipment, the most slaves, and the most SWATbots watching them.

Robotnik made his way up a small tower erected to hold several computer terminals, passing by SWATbot guards who saluted him as he entered the main control room. It wasn't particularly impressive, just functional, and overlooking the whole operation below. Robotnik sat down at a terminal with a screen almost large enough to match his ego, and was silent for a moment before he gestured to Snively and grunted, indicating he need to get moving. Snively did so, and booted the terminal up. "Finally," Robotnik muttered, "Firstly, Snively, get the construction of a new elevator up and sent out. I am not going to walk that distance again."

"Too much motor oil, Your Immense Density?" Snively muttered under his breath. He continued entering the data and then sent the memo out to all radio receptors and servers in the forum.

"Excellent. Now, onto business…" Robotnik began. "I want all this equipment drilling at maximum speed until we make contact with anything even remotely resembling treated steel."

"Yes, sir," Snively said as he punched away at the keyboard.

"Get all SWATbots working the equipment, too. The tomb can't be much further."

"Yes, sir," he droned.

"This is it, Snively. In just a few short hours, the Freedom Fighters will not just be dismantled...they'll be putty in my cold, iron hands," he eloquated with a psychotic grin on his face.

"Yes, sir."

Robotnik paused and glared down at Snively. "...I'd also like open up a new project titled, 'Gamma-class Hadron Cannon Versus Oblivious Toadie.'"

"Yes–" It took Snively a second to process what Robotnik just said, but by then it was already too late. "...My sincerest apologies, sir," he conceded.

"Then perhaps act like it," Robotnik spat back.

Before the argument could get more heated, there was knock at the door of the watchtower, and Robotnik quickly sighed to collect himself and reclined in his chair. "Enter." He heard the door slide open and metallic footsteps entered the room, jogging up behind Robotnik's chair. He rotated it around to face a SWATbot that had come in, and it saluted him with crossed arms. "What do you want?"

"Glorious Overlord," the SWATbot said, "our scanners on the top floor have been receiving scattered security malfunction reports from Spire Alpha."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Hmm. This soon already?" He swiveled the chair around to face the monitor and continued, "I would have thought it would have taken those nasty little rats longer…Snively, connect with the Spire Alpha mainframe."

"As you wish, sir." Snively pressed a few buttons and a wireframe map of one of the spires in the city centre came onscreen. A green bar descended from the top, with the text "Scanning…" blinking on the right of the screen. Once the bar was gone, several red dots appeared around what was approximately the third floor and began blinking. Robotnik sighed and leaned over on his elbow, stroking his moustache thoughtfully. After the silence, Snively said, "Sir, it appears they're trying to access the tower's server from the mainframe on the third floor."

"Enable screen-share via the RDAH system," Robotnik commanded. Snively nodded, and after more button presses, the screen switched to a hidden camera view of the terminal on the third floor of Spire Alpha, watching the Freedom Fighters through the screen. Robotnik quirked an eyebrow before scowling. "Damn it. Now it's only a matter of time before they discover my mining operation," he surmised. He studied the screen again before realizing something. "Luckily…" He pushed himself off of his chair and strode forward, right up behind Snively, who began to sweat. "I believe we can buy ourselves that time back. And if memory serves correctly…"

He trailed off and stared at Trystan, near the back of the group. Robotnik began to chuckle to himself, another psychotic grin growing on his face before he continued, "Yes, it's perfect! Snively!" and threw his arms out wide. "Patch me through, and then get out of my way."

Despite running through all files ranked by importance, thanks to Nicole, Sally, nor anyone else could properly discern who, or what, House Pilyte was. She sighed and leaned on the terminal. "All evidence we have points to it being an old overlander family from long before even King Maximilian."

"Your dad's dad?" Sonic asked.

"Yep."

Sonic turned to look at Trystan, as did Bunnie, Antoine, and Rotor. He was quiet for a moment before the silence got too awkward and he asked, "What?"

"Y'all know anythin' 'bout'em?"

Trystan rolled his eyes up and racked his brains for a moment before shook his head. "Nope. Never learned about anything like that in the history books."

"Not even rumors?" Rotor asked.

"'The rumors were stillborn,'" Trystan responded. "If you'll pardon the expression."

Everyone was silent for awhile before Tails said, "Does it say what Robotnik wants with them?"

"I don't know, but if we can take all the major files associated with it, maybe we can decode what he's planning," Sally replied, leaning over the dashboard. "Nicole, start downloading as many files as you can, in order of importance."

"Right away, Sally," Nicole agreed, "By my calculations it'll take…"

The silence stuck, and everyone glanced at Nicole worriedly, none more so than Sally. "...Nicole?" She didn't respond, prompting Sally to call again, "Nicole?"

"...Sally, pull me out."

"What?"

"There's been a spike of activity running through the server, I'm getting a video signal coming in through the antivirus system!" Sally's eyes widened, and since the time to safely eject Nicole might not be feasible, she reached for the USB cable she'd plugged into the mainframe and tugged it out. It was just in time, as the screen shorted, faded to black, and re-established connection. Except that now, instead of a menu screen, there was Robotnik, standing at a terminal of his own, grinning maliciously down at them.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty. Don't you little rats know not to stick your noses in other people's business...?" he chortled.

"Robotnik…!"

"Don't act so surprised," he said. "After all, it's my empire you're living under."

"Hey, Buttnik, how 'bout ya cut the crap and you tell us where your next big honkin' machine's bein' built," Sonic jeered. "That way we can trash it quick and save us both some time."

Robotnik paused for only a second, and then laughed. "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho...! Why Sonic, I would, but you're missing an important detail…"

Sonic leaned back and crossed his arms. "Lemme guess, it's shaped like your ugly head an' you don't wanna see me give ya a 'facelift.'"

"No, hedgehog. The fact of the matter is, I don't have any new inventions for you to destroy." He stood back up to full height, grinning down at the Freedom Fighters. "...But that doesn't mean you're safe. By this time tomorrow, the Freedom Fighters will be dead!"

Sonic scoffed and pretended to take out a pencil and began "scribbling" on his arm. "Alright so that makes...two-thousand times you've said that, seven hundred times you've said, 'This time, I've finally got you,' two-hundred an' five times ya told us you'll, 'Raze the Great Forest to ash,' and not once has any of it worked."

"Yeah," Amy added. "What's got you so convinced you're gonna beat us, anyway?"

"Oh, I would so love to tell you, but why ruin the surprise?" Robotnik drawled. "Since you're already here, however...perhaps I should introduce you to my resident overseer of this tower?" He chuckled darkly to himself and gestured with his hand to Trystan. "In fact, I'm certain my kinsman here will quite enjoy it!" He gave no room for anyone to question his statement as he reared back and commanded, "Snively, lock the spire down and summon the Egg Warden."

"Right away, sir."

After another second, most of the lights went off and the terminal went dark. The Freedom Fighters glanced around, and somewhere in the distance, an alarm sounded in time to a new dull red emergency light blinking somewhere up in the rafters. They kept looking around for another second before Sally advised, "...We should go."

"I second zis motion," Antoine added smalley as he raised his hand.

"Guys…?"

"Do we have to?" Sonic whined half-heartedly. "I really wanted to see what Buttnik sends our way." Sally only glared at him, which prompted Sonic to roll his eyes and sigh, "Okay, okay, let's-"

"Guys, look out…!"

Everyone turned to look at Amy, who'd been staring up into the heights of the spire, and before they could ask what she'd seen, something hit the floor in front of them, a blur of metal, smoke, and the smell of jet thrusters cooling down. It stayed still for a moment, and in the shadow it looked like a blob, but it raised itself up into a humanoid form. "Targets...found," it droned. It took a couple steps forward and continued, "Sonic the Hedgehog…" The space where its eyes were lit up red. "Sally Acorn…Miles Prower..." It kept walking forward, step by heavy step. It had to be the Egg Warden.

"Nobody move…" Sally muttered through grated teeth. Sonic huffed. He could feel his blood beginning to boil.

"Bunnie Rabbot...Rotor Walrus...Antoine d'Coolette…"

Trystan slowly retrieved his revolver and knife from their holsters and everyone else tensed up, waiting for the inevitable brawl. Sally, however, could feel Sonic breathing down her neck. "...Sonic, don't…"

"Trys–" The Egg Warden cut himself off for a second and froze on the spot. "Trystan...Trrrrysstan C-r-o-n-u-s…"

And that pause was enough permission for Sonic to get moving. Despite Sally's interjection when she saw him fly past her, that plea fell on deaf ears, and Sonic charged straight for the Egg Warden, and curled up into a ball to ram him.

Which amazingly worked. There was a satisfying *CLANG* and the Egg Warden flew off to the left, and crumpled in a heap on the ground. Sonic flew off in the opposite direction, flipping backward several times until he stopped himself and flourished his arms out to the side, declaring, "Nothin' to it!"

But the Egg Warden obviously wasn't done. He twitched, and then slammed his fists into the floor, righting himself by force and standing up.

And then he finally stepped into the light.

He was another overlander, "dressed" in a bodysuit with a padded jacket, all of it made of metal. The suit had dozens of red fluorescent lights crossing his body, acting as a pattern for the bodysuit, and his vest was a dull steel blue. He was almost a couple feet taller than Rotor was, putting him in the category of "imposing." The only other notable point was the messy metal "hair" on his head; it was a surprisingly vibrant green. It gave Sonic pause for a moment, and he stood straight up and rubbed his upper lip with his index finger. "Huh. Come to think of it, ya look kinda familiar…"

It was at that point Bunnie and Rotor noticed Trystan was completely rigid, leaning backward slightly, and there was absolute terror pasted on his face. And he said one word that changed everything:

"...Decker…?"

Every single one of the Freedom Fighters looked from each other to Trystan. There are very few times in one's life where they may connect with others by a mere glance, but unsurprisingly, the feeling of "oh, shit" is surprisingly easy to convey with the eyes and brow alone. As expected, Sonic was the only one who took it lightly, as he rubbed his forehead and groaned, "Oh, great. You gotta be kiddin' me."

"In the name of the Overlord…" Decker raised his forearms faceup, perpendicular to his head, which opened a hatch on each, propelling a hilt from each side. He reached up and snatched them out of the air, and the hilts instantly extended into steel blades. Each sword had a missing section on the front, which lit up with blue plasma and hummed dully. "It's time to purge some vermin."

"Great. Now what?" Sonic asked.

"Look out, for one!"

In a heartbeat, Decker practically flung himself at Sonic. Granted, the hedgehog dodged it, but with a graceful turn and unflinching flick of his wrist, he threw one of his swords at the Freedom Fighters. It wasn't aimed per se, but sailed toward Amy, and Sonic caught it out of the corner of his eye. He stopped on a dime, reversed direction, and charged at Amy, and snatched her up second before the sword would have made impact. She cried out, and the sword clattered to the ground a few feet away. The rest of the Freedom Fighters sprung into action, with Bunnie leading the charge. They both met and began a rapid exchange of punches, which Decker was matching blow for blow. Bunnie wasn't slouching either, but every jab of hers that landed, Decker seemed to return that much more. To try and hammer him one last time, Bunnie banked on landing a roundhouse kick to Decker's head.

When she swung her right leg around, Decker leapt off the ground and vaulted over her, supporting himself by pressing on her shoulder. He landed and held up his left hand, the one without a weapon, and a few of the metal plates slid back to reveal a small dial. A magnetic dial. The sword that had landed on the ground shuddered and promptly flew right back into Decker's open hand. He would have stabbed her clean through the chest if Rotor hadn't body-checked him out of the way. Decker stumbled back, but threw himself forward almost as quickly, tackling Rotor to the ground and held up his blades, yelling, "Kill the mobian menace!"

Decker never got the chance to draw blood before Sonic came barreling toward him again and knocked him clean off of Rotor, and Decker effortlessly rolled and stood back up from tumbling across the floor. In a flash, he was right back in the fight, and right in Sonic's face, but really, how was he going to hit that hedgehog?

Sonic ducked and weaved out of the way of every cut Decker tried to make on him, a cocky grin on his face the whole time; twisting slashes, backhand strikes, none of them found their mark, and both he and Sonic kept at the dance for only a few more moments until Decker yelled, "I am the ultimate killing machine!" in Sonic's face. He didn't seem too pleased with the fact that someone was getting up in his grill, but Sonic casually flecked some of the spit off his face, while still dodging, and vaulted up and backward; directly behind him was a very angry Amy.

"And the ultimate sucker," Sonic commented.

"Don't you even try to touch him...!" Amy hoisted her hammer up over her head and Decker brought up both his swords to block her, and stopped her swing at the pole, not the hammerhead. This allowed him to glare right into her shocked eyes for a split second before he reeled his upper body back and slammed his forehead right into Amy's face, causing her to scream and stumble backward. Decker didn't let up.

Each blow could be heard echoing off the metal walls as Decker, steadfast as any machine, kept hammering his forehead into Amy's face. Blood was starting to hit the floor, pooling in some places, until someone grabbed Decker's arm and tried to pull him away.

"Decker, stop! You're gonna kill her!"

Decker paused only long enough to take a glance at Trystan tugging on his arm before swinging one of his swords to try and cut off his own brother's head. Trystan could feel time slow down, for all of the two seconds he realized Decker was going to commit fratricide, until he felt Sonic tackle him and push him out of the way. He rolled over on the ground a couple times, but Sonic was back up and heading for Decker in a flash. By now, he had stopped headbutting Amy and stared Sonic down instead. When he was close enough, Decker swung wide to try and catch him; Sonic was still too fast.

Sally ran over, trying hard to avoid provoking Decker's aggression while she got Amy back up, and Trystan pulled himself to his feet alone, though he did pull out his gun and made absolutely certain to set the volt settings to "Stun." Decker took another swing at Sonic as he paused momentarily to stick his tongue out. "My hate will sear your bones white!" Sonic took off, ricocheting around the immediate area before Decker had even brought his sword down.

"Yeesh. And I thought Buttnik was hammy," he mumbled to himself.

Amy had a couple bruises on her face, along with a deep cut running down on the left side of her head. "Amy? Amy, you okay?" Sally asked to try and keep her focused on something aside from the pain.

"...No…" she muttered, trying to keep herself upright. "Really hurts…"

Sally took a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure Decker hadn't locked onto them and replied, "Robotnik went all-out with him…Come on, you'll be okay, keep going." She led Amy away from the fight and behind one of the many generators, and unsurprisingly, Trystan was headed that way, too. "Bunnie, would you-"

She didn't even finish before Bunnie strode past her and rolled up her sleeves. "On it, sugah." She started walking right toward where Decker and Sonic were still duking it out and called, "Mistah, Ah don't much appre'chate ya hurtin' mah friends!" Decker froze in place and whipped around to look at her before Sonic spun himself into him and launched him forward; Bunnie followed up with a straight punch with her robotic arm when he got close enough to her, effectively clotheslining him.

"Trystan, did you bring any nanomorphine shots with you?" She failed to get a response. Trystan was too busy staring at Sonic and Bunnie going at Decker from their cover. "Trystan!"

"What...?"

"Did you bring any shots?" Sally repeated.

Trystan remained still for a second and quickly glanced over his shoulder before digging into his pocket and stuttering, "Y-yes.." Sally snatched it out of his hand and stuck it into Amy's arm, after some direction from Trystan, distracted as he was.

Sonic and Bunnie were still fighting Decker, who showed no sign of slowing down, if his dialogue was anything to go by. "Lie down, and I'll make it quick!" he yelled as he swung at Bunnie; she ducked under the blade and came popped right back up to an uppercut, sending Decker into the air. Sonic ran forward and launched himself up, spinning forward and uncurling into a kick that sent Decker downward and crashing into one of the generators.

There were sparks, small fires, and the air was punctuated by sizzling and the sound of mini reactors breaking down from the force of impact. It all went up in flames, and everyone flinched as they watched the fires dance. Trystan, understandably, went completely rigid, and stared into the fiery vortex, looking for movement, a shadow, anything that denoted signs of life. The rest of the Freedom Fighters had to catch their breath for a moment, and Sonic immediately raced up to Amy. "Amy, oh my God, are you okay…?"

Blood was still on her face–nobody had the time to wipe it off yet–but thanks to the nanomorphine shot, she definitely looked a lot better. The swelling from some of her bruises was going down. "I'm okay, Sonic," she muttered. "And getting better with you here."

"I'm…" Sonic stopped himself, realizing how shaky his own voice was, took a deep breath and tried again. "I'm real glad you're okay, Amy. Losin' you woulda been bad."

Despite the throbbing in her head, Amy grinned back at Sonic. "You're so sweet."

Sonic just sighed and began whistling as he backed up. "So, we gonna beeline fer the exit now?" Bunnie asked.

"Depends. Is there anyone who can't walk?" Sally asked. Everyone, in general, shook their heads, even Amy. "Are you sure, Amy?"

"Absolutely," she replied firmly.

She paused for a second and glanced at Trystan. He was still staring into the raging inferno that had consumed his brother. "Trystan…?" There was no response. His eyes were transfixed on the dancing, furious flames, watching for movement. "Trystan?"

His head whipped around, his concentration broken, and now, in his eyes, the ones who watched him saw them twitching madly and convulsing; and in his own heart, he tried to hold back an overwhelming tide of grief. "Are you...are you gonna be okay, Trystan?"

There was a pause, the only sound they could hear was the crackling fire. "...No." Trystan went silent for another moment before he inhaled and continued, "I just...that's–that was...my brother. And I've been searching and wondering where…" He stopped, his voice cracking, for just a second before explaining, "...Where he's been for so long...and he was right under my nose this whole time!" He sighed mournfully again and muttered, "And now he's go-"

There was another explosion that cut him off, and everyone whipped around to see a figure rising from the flames behind them all, and it wasted no time in rushing them down. It was Decker, still alive and well, though not without a few scratches, and before anyone else could react, Sonic had pushed his way forward and headed him off, spin dashing him head-on. Decker flew backward and only lingered a moment before he broke out of the roll and righted himself, swinging one of his swords up in anticipation of a strike.

It was well-founded, as Bunnie brought her left arm down again to try and hammer him over the head. Decker only glared at her, the red LED lights in place of his eyes threatening to burn themselves out due to the glowing hatred in them. He threw Bunnie off of him and before she could retaliate, she and the other Freedom Fighters head Sally call, "Forget fighting! Run…!" Bunnie took a quick glance back and turned around just in time to dodge another blow from Decker before she retreated completely.

Everyone behind Bunnie looked at each other and wasted no time in running back to the elevator, though Trystan had a few qualms with it. "W-wait…! We can't just...l-leave Decker here, can we?"

Sally turned around while still running and called, "And do what with him? There's no way we can get him back to Knothole without him slicing us into pieces!"

"There's gotta be a way!" They continued weaving through the small reactors of the tower until the elevator was in sight, and while everyone knew Decker was right on their heels, they couldn't see him through all the machines that had been installed in the tower.

"There isn't," Sonic said as he, Amy, and Tails got into the elevator. Everyone else crammed in soon after. "Only person who might be able to reverse the Roboticizer's Uncle Chuck, and you know how well he's doing."

Bunnie scrambled for the door controls and smacked the "Descend" button a couple times before the doors began to close. "Okay," Sally said, trying to catch her breath, "like I was saying before...we're gonna get back to the apartment, I'm gonna comb through all the files Nicole has available, and then-"

She was cut off as the doors got jammed by two metal hands between them, slowly forcing them open, and everyone shrieked, with varying intensity, of course. Decker's face greeted them as the steel was forced apart, his face radiating anger as he screamed, "Beg! Beg! Beg for death like the worthless scum you are!" Everyone was almost frozen in place, but before Decker could actually step into the elevator, it began to go down. The squealing of steel against steel was almost mind-numbing, and only Antoine fought against the assault on his ears long enough to hammer the "Descend" button again, overriding all safety measures, and causing the machine to jerk down sharply.

It caught Decker by surprise, for he buckled under the force of the elevator and could only afford to hold the top of the box up with one hand as he braced his other on the floor. Everyone was still yelling, and while they were all loud, Trystan was screaming, above all else, for his brother to get out of the shaft. After another minute of struggle, Decker glared down at all of them and quickly slid out between the elevator doors; whether Trystan's words actually got through or not, it was hard to say. After a couple moments of tense silence (and mild claustrophobia), the elevator doors opened again to the main hallway, and the door that led to freedom.

The Freedom Fighters all piled out of the elevator and made straight for the door. "How many SWATbots d'ya think Robotnik posted outside?" Rotor asked in between breaths.

Sonic shrugged, though he kept his cocky grin. "Not enough, I bet."

Once they were at the door, Bunnie wasted no time in snatching the handle and pulling. It didn't budge. She pulled a couple more times; still nothing. "...Sally-girl…?"

"Oh, darn it," Sally muttered a she pulled out Nicole and walked up to the door's control panel on the wall. "I almost forgot Robotnik locked down the building, didn't I?" She popped the screen up and continued, "Nicole, can you hack this door open?"

"Of course."

"How fast?"

Nicole paused for a second to consider her words before she said, "That...depends entirely on the encryption key. Cross your fingers."

The entire hallway went silent save for the scattered beeping coming from the control panel. The only thing everyone could really do was wait in silence. Antoine tried to lighten the mood. "On zee bright side...we are not being swarm-ed and fighting for our lives."

And as if on cue, the ceiling a few feet in front of them glowed bright red a moment before something caused it to explode, sending shrapnel down in a narrow cone. Tails screamed, Antoine screamed, Rotor screamed, everyone screamed. The explosion itself was almost deafening enough. Through all the smoke, Decker slowly descended from the upper floor, the rocket thrusters built into his boots lowering him downward. He kept his gaze fixed dead ahead of him, on the Freedom Fighters, and brought out his swords again. "Surrender to oblivion, where you belong," he said. His words, though monotonously even, were forceful, and in an instant, he had wound up his arms behind his head and charged forward.

Sally raised herself up from kneeling on the ground, though she was still covering her head. "Nicole...!"

"I'm trying!" she yelled back. "Just...try and hold him off for...another minute, maybe!"

How strange, the way the mind works when faced with danger. Either it breaks completely, or is filled with such steely resolve that even others who face such people are emboldened by their strength. In the back of the whole group was Sonic, Rotor and Trystan, and while neither Sonic or Rotor were easily scared, everyone who looked back was at least mildly surprised. For Trystan had, in mere seconds, stood up and stretched out his arms, as if he was trying to shield all of them at once, even though his thin body couldn't block everything. And through it all, he said only two words:

"No, Decker."

This bravery (or maybe it was idiocy) was enough to stun the roboticized Egg Warden into actually stopping, though he still had his swords raised. Trystan had braced for the inevitable attack slightly, but he perked up when he saw Decker actually stop. It was fairly obvious he hadn't expected his defiant stand to work. After that, there was only the crushing silence of the corridor left, until Decker broke the silence again.

"Kill."

"No, Decker," Trystan repeated, lowering his arms slightly. "No killing."

"...Kill…"

"Decker, please," Trystan continued, ignoring his brother. "Don't hurt them. They're friends."

"Trys…!" Trystan glanced back at Sonic, who was hissing at him under his breath. "Trys, what the hell're you doin', dude?"

"Buying us time," he hissed back. And hopefully, he thought to himself, redeeming a tortured soul in the process. After another pause, he took a tentative step forward, fully expecting Decker to snap and charge forward, cutting him in two; but he didn't even flinch. "C'mon Decker, I know you're in there somewhere...right? You know me, you know who I am."

"...Destroy the mobians," Decker spouted. It was propaganda forced into his head by a merciless machine, but somehow, it sounded like he believed his own lies a little less than before.

Trystan gulped and took another couple shaky steps forward, closer to Decker. Trystan could practically see every pixel in the LED screens that made up his eyes. "You know me, Decker," he repeated, coming closer. "It's me. It's Trystan, your little brother." Almost instantly, he could see something break. Decker's body lost some tension, his eyes widened, and the pupils of his eyes began to blink colors between red and green. Trystan felt himself smiling, and he slowly reached out for his brother's face. "Decker…?"

However, Nicole managed to break the lockdown code keeping the doors of the tower shut, and as a side effect, the RDAH system was meant to sound an alarm. It did so, blaring loudly like a screeching airhorn.

And once that went off, Decker's eyes reverted to red.

He swung down, though luckily for Trystan, Sonic's reaction times were impeccable. He ran in and yanked Trystan out of the way of Decker's blades in a split second, and the two swords embedded themselves in the floor, the hot plasma searing away the metal. Sally unplugged Nicole from the door controls and yelled, "Everyone, move!" Bunnie didn't hesitate to rip the door open and throw it off its hinges, which, in a twist that barely surprised anyone, Robotnik had the entire spire surrounded with SWATbots. The door managed to bowl a lot of them out of the way, and the Freedom Fighters came right out after it, rather than be faced with another minute with the Egg Warden. Of course, not everyone was adamant one leaving; in fact, Sonic had to drag Trystan along by the back of his collar, helped by Antoine, and God, did he scream.

"No! No! That was it! Didn't you see him! He came back! We gotta go back for 'im!"

"Listen, Trys, that ain't your brother no more," Sonic called back as he ran forward with Trystan trailing behind. "He's snapped!"

"Let me go!" Trystan yanked at his collar to try and get free, maybe tear the sweatshirt if he had to. "Lemme go!" Sonic, however, kept a deaf ear to his cries, and they ran into the nearest alleyway and headed for home, all the while, Trystan's pleas reverberating around the metal buildings: "No, lemme go! Lemme go! He needs my help! He needs–stop! Stop! We gotta go back! Decker? Decker!? No! No…!"

Back at the spire, Decker remained motionless. He had watched his quarry escape through a horde of SWATbots and duck into an alley, while he himself could go no further than a few feet away from Spire Alpha. It had been hard coded into his directives as Egg Warden of New Pacific City. All around him, he watched as SWATbots began cleaning up the mess the Freedom Fighters left behind; broken glass, shattered carapaces and the like. Destroyed SWATbots were all thrown into a pile to be melted down and turned into scrap. The rain splattered against Decker's steel body, hammering out a mournful tune. The fresh water of the sky mixed with the dirty, confused water eking its way out of his eyes.

"...Targets lost."

A/N: Another long-ass chapter where I started to lose steam toward writing the end. Sorry about the wait, I wanted to draw up custom artwork to add in, but I haven't had the time to actually do it with a menial factory job forcing me to work seven-and-a-half hours, five days a week; that custom artwork's gonna come later. Still, I've reached the milestone of "Completing One Section of This Story!" There's approximately 75% left to go before Freedom Rising concludes. It sounds like a lot (and it kinda is) but the more I look at it, the more I realize it's shorter than I expected. Hope you've all been enjoying it so far!