"Behind Enemies Line"
Naugus surges with energy, as Snively takes a step back from him, and Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie are watching.
"Yes, this feels much better," Naugus says, looking at himself. "I'm pretty much back to my old self."
"Naugus please, Robotnik's gone," Sally says, taking a step forward, with Naugus looking at her. "We can all live in peace now."
"I'll be happy to live in peace," Naugus says, with a smile.
Sally sighs with relief, as Bunnie smiles and Sonic holds a thumbs up.
"And I will be in peace, with the power over all of Mobius," Naugus says, surging with more energy.
Sonic steps forward, placing a hand on Sally's shoulder, gently moving her back, "Listen, we beat Ro-butt-nik and we'll beat you too, Nut-gus."
"I am nothing like my former apprentice!" Naugus surges with energy, before he holds out his claw hand, launching a large energy blast from it.
Quickly, Bunnie uses her roboticized hand to pull up a panel off the floor and holds it in front of her friends, blocking the energy blast.
"Looks like a good time to leave the party, sugars," Bunnie says, over her shoulder, as she continues to block the energy blast.
Sonic helps Sally into the opening in the ground, entering a duct, before jumping in after her.
The energy blast dissipates, with the floor panel falling down on the ground, and no one in sight.
Naugus and Snively watch the scene before them.
In the large garbage room, Rotor pushes past some damaged Swat-Bot remains, as Tails watches Antoine shaking.
"There's got to be a way out of this place," Rotor says, before looking up. "Hmm, look like we fell through a couple floors. We're lucky to be alive."
"L-L-Lucky…?" Antoine looks around at the damaged and destroyed robot remains. "I don't feel too l-l-lucky…"
"There's nothing to worry about, nothing here can hurt you," Tail says, as he looks around, before he notices something.
Tail flies ahead a little and picks up a Buzz Bomber head, "Hey, it's a Buzz Bomber, this brings me back." He turns the head slightly. "I wonder why Robotnik stopped using them?"
"There you go," Rotor opens a small panel on the wall and starts to work on the wires inside. "A long time ago, we destroyed the factory that was constructing them. I always guessed that Robotnik decided it was too costly to rebuild just to make more Buzz Bombers."
"R-Right," Antoine pulls on his coat, then crosses one arm across his chest. "I remembered the mission well. I showed great bravery that day."
"I don't remember you being there, Ant," Rotor continues to work on the wires, before there's a small shock.
Antoine looks at him, annoyed, "You must've missed moi."
Tails holds a hand on his mouth, laughing slightly.
There's another shock on the wall panel, with Rotor responding, "I think I got it working…"
At that moment, the walls start to close inward, with the three quickly looking around.
"The walls are moving! Why are the walls moving?!" Antoine panickly asks.
"Oh no, we are in a trash compactor," Rotor realizes.
"Can you shut it down?" Tails asks.
"I don't know," Rotor returns to work on the wires in the wall panel. "I think I triggered a power surge to activate the compactor."
"We are doom-ed, we are doom-ed," Antoine starts repeating.
Sally, Bunnie, and Sonic are crawling through an air duct.
"I don't believe how slow this is," Sonic complains. "This is gonna take forever."
Sally sighs, with Bunnie noticing.
"Hey, don't worry about Sugar-hog, Sally-girl," Bunnie tells her friend. "He'll be fine once we're in the open air."
"It's not that…" Sally starts. "I knew this mission was too dangerous. Even with Robotnik gone, I should've known better."
"You had no way to know things would turn out the way they did," Bunnie responds.
"Still, I'll feel better once we find everyone and get out of here," Sally tells her.
Snively is walking toward a computer console, with Naugus watching him.
"This is too perfect, Freedom Fighters on the run," Snively rubs his hands together. "We should seek and destroy them while we have the chance."
"Do what you want," Naugus starts to turn away. "This had been a time waster. I need to focus on my goal."
Naugus finishes his turn and walks away.
Snively angrily looks away, "I don't need your help, I don't need anyone's help." Snively starts to type at the console, as a screen shows a maze of ducts, with three blips going through it. "I just need to locate my little guests, and give them a hot foot." He presses a button.
Sally, Bunnie, and Sonic continue to crawl through the ducts.
"This… is… so… slow," Sonic complains. "Are we actually moving?"
"Sugar-hog, I like you, but you need to stop with the complain'," Bunnie tells him. "It's doing my hair no good, not that all the sweatin' helping either."
"It is getting unusually hot, is it," Sally realizes.
"Yeah, hotter than a chili dog grill…" Sonic says, before he and the girls look behind them, as several feet behind them huge jets of fire shoot around the corner and toward them.
"Okay, time to rev the motor," Sonic starts to run his feet, before speeds ahead, grabbing Bunnie and Sally.
The three of them burst out a panel, exiting the air ducts into a computer lab, before the fire shoots out into the lab. Sonic, holding onto Sally and Bunnie, speeds out of the lab and into a corridor, coming to a stop. Sonic then quickly presses a button next to the lab's doorway, repeatedly, before a door closes as the fire fills the lab.
Sonic sighs.
"Hum, Sonic…"
Sonic turns to see Sally and Bunnie notice two Swat-Bots approaching them.
"Out of the fire into the junkyard," Sonic says.
The Swat-Bots stop running and start to aim their arms.
"Nope," Sonic speeds around the wall, dodging laser fire from the Swat-Bots, before rolls into a ball and slams into the back of one of the Swat-Bots, knocking it down.
Bunnie slides into the legs of the other Swat-Bot, tripping it, before grabbing its arm and flips it onto its back.
Sonic runs up to Sally, helping her to her feet, unaware that someone is spying on them, from around the corner.
Tails and Antoine try to stop the respective walls from closing, as Rotor is working on the wires in the wall panel.
"Stoppin', stoppin', stoppin', stoppin'," Antoine keeps on repeating to himself.
"There's gotta be a way to stop the compactor," Rotor says, trying to rewire the wires. "C'mon, Rotor 'Boomer' Walrus…"
"We're running out of time," Tails tries to push back the wall but falls down, before he flies up to Antoine. "Perhaps I can carry you both out of here."
Tails picks up Antoine by the shoulders and starts to lift him up, with him complaining, "No flyin', no flyin'."
Tails and Antoine both fall, with Antoine sighing upon impact.
"This is no good," Rotor says, looking away from the wall panel. "Tails, you better go. And try to get help."
"What?" Tails turns and looks at Rotor, while on his knees. "I can't just leave you two here…"
Tails then notices a Swat-Bot head a couple feet away, as his optics glow slightly.
"Wait," Tails hurries over to the Swat-Bot head and holds it up slightly. "This Swat-Bot head is still functioning." He lifts the head, with a lot of struggle, and flies it over to Rotor, before landing. "Rotor, could we use this to countermand the trash compactor's controls or something?"
"That… that might work," Rotor looks at the head, before stretching out some wires from the panel and connecting them to the underside of the Swat-Bot head.
Rotor then opens a panel at the back of the Swat-Bot head, typing couple buttons, with the head's optics glow slightly. Suddenly the walls stop moving before starting to pull away back to their original positions. At the same time, a side door opens near Rotor and Tails.
"It works!" Rotor calls out.
"Yeah!" Tails jumps into Rotor's arms.
"We savin', we savin'!" Antoine holds his arms up in the air.
Naugus stands in front of a large console, typing away.
"Machines might not be my 'thing', but how hard it can be if that buffoon Robotnik could work it," Naugus says, continuing to type.
Images of Cluck appear on the screen, "So he had a robot bird? With a bad… motor or whatever. So he just put it in storage."
"Nonetheless," Naugus continues to type, as images of the Crystal Caves appear on the screen. "Crystal Caves, huh? Now this could be useful in the future. But still, not what I'm looking for…"
Sally is holding up a walkie-talkie, next to Sonic and Bunnie.
"Rotor, come in. Tails, you there?" Sally says to the walkie-talkie. "Antoine, please respond."
"I'm telling you, Ant sat their communicator," Sonic jokes.
"This isn't funny, Sonic," Sally tells him, before looking at her walkie-talkie. "Maybe Snively blocking our communications."
"Sorry, Sal, but I can run ahead to get them…" Sonic starts to suggest.
Suddenly, a loud bark gets the group's attention, when they turn and see Muttski at the end of the corridor.
"Muttski?" Sonic realizes, before the roboticized dog starts to run at him. "Whoa, Muttski. I don't wanna hurt you. Muttski!"
Muttski jumps on Sonic, knocking him onto his back, and starts to playfully licking his face.
"Okay boy, down, down," Sonic starts to laugh, as Muttski backs off. "Wait, Muttski, are you back to your old self?"
"He is, my boy."
Sonic looks ahead to see approaching them is Uncle Chuck.
"Uncle Chuck?" Sonic returns to his feet. "But how?"
"It took some time, but I managed to find Muttski and reprogrammed him," Uncle Chuck explains. "Unfortunately restoring the free will of other roboticized people won't be so easy."
"We are so happy to see you, Sir Charles," Sally says, as she hugs Uncle Chuck.
"The feeling is mutual, dear," Uncle Chuck says, as Bunnie hugs him. "Now, the mission. Did something go wrong?"
Sonic grins, "You got a moment?"
Snively slams a fist on his console, "I don't believe those three pests got away." He starts to type again. "They have to be here somewhere."
The screen flashes between various empty rooms, before showing Tails, Rotor, and Antoine entering a corridor.
"Ah, what's this? The other pests," Snively crosses his arms. "In the sub basements, beneath the security hub. Any pest is as good as another." He presses a button. "All Swat-Bots, not on priority one duty, go after the intruders in sub basement 302. Now!"
Uncle Chuck tilts his head slightly, "I find it all hard to believe. Though I never really trusted Naugus. He always seems more interested in power than anything else."
Bunnie places her normal hand on the closed door, "Why is this door so cool? It should be hotter than a desert in the midday, with all the fire inside the room."
"The fire suppression system probably doused the flames," Uncle Chuck explains, before he starts to hold his head.
"Everything's okay, Uncle Chuck?" Sonic asks.
"I just received an electronic command from Snively," Uncle Chuck explains, before turning to his friends. "The others are in trouble."
Tails, Rotor, and Antoine are hurrying down a corridor, with several Swat-Bots chasing them.
"We all must be fuel to come here!" Antoine calls out.
"Everything will be okay, Antoine," Tails says.
The three come to a stop at a deadend.
"Okay? How is this okay?!" Antoine complains.
"Tails, go and save yourself," Rotor tells him.
"No, I'm telling you I'm not leaving you," Tails says. "I'll go down like a Freedom Fighter."
"Excuse me."
The Swat-Bots turn to see Sonic at the other end of the corridor, "Have you seen an ultracool and smooth Hedgehog around here?"
"Priority one Hedgehog," the Swat-Bots start to say, as they each aim an arm at him.
"No, pretty sure it's Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic jokes, before he speeds away, dodging laser fire.
The Swat-Bots start to chase after Sonic, leaving the other three watching, confused.
Suddenly, a hole is ripped out of the wall behind them, with Bunnie on the other side, "Hey, sugars, coming my way?"
Tails and Rotor smile, as Antoine grows relieved.
Sally and Uncle Chuck are at a computer console, with Muttski next to them, as Sally holds NICOLE to the console.
"I'm amazed by NICOLE's hacking abilities," Uncle Chuck says. "It would take me hours to get through Snively's new passcode locks."
"It's nothing at all, Sir Charles," NICOLE responds.
"I didn't know NICOLE was programmed to be modest," Uncle Chuck says.
"I'm in," NICOLE says.
Sally looks up at a monitor, as it shows Sonic speeding down a corridor, with the Swat-Bots chasing after him.
"Okay, NICOLE," Sally says, before looking at the handheld computer. "Do it."
Sonic speeds down a corridor, as nozzles pop out of the ceiling and walls, before firing foam, blasting the Swat-Bots, knocking them down and sorting them out, as they surge with electricity.
Sonic stops at the end of the corridor, turns and looks at them, "Fire suppression system and Swat-Bot smashing system all in one."
Sonic grins and turns to speed away.
"Okay, let's go home," Snively pulls NICOLE away from the console, then turns to Uncle Chuck. "All of us."
Uncle Chuck nods his head, as Muttski barks.
"Argh!" Snively grabs his head. "I don't believe it. Those blasted Freedom Fighters just ruined an entire corridor, AND destroyed several Swat-Bots!"
Snively lets go and exhales, "No, no, I won't be like Uncle Julian. I won't lose to my own anger. No, nothing like him." He starts to grin. "I'm gonna replace the Swat-Bots with newer and better models. Then I will rule over Mobius, with or without Naugus' assistance."
Naugus continues to type at his console, with several data files appearing on screen.
"There's so much here, it could take me days to find what I'm looking for," Naugus realizes, stops typing. "But while my former apprentice was a fool, he wasn't a complete failure. He must have data on it, in some form." Naugus resumes typing. "And I have all the time in the world to find it."
The Freedom Fighters, as well as Uncle Chuck and Muttski, are entering Knothole Village.
"So Unc, are you and Muttski staying?" Sonic asks.
"We will, for the moment," Uncle Chuck tells him. "But there are still a lot of roboticized civilians that need to be saved."
Sally knees next to Tails, stopping him from walking, "Tails, I heard you refused to leave when you were ordered to."
"I can't abandon my friends…" Tails says.
"I know how you feel," Sally tells him. "But you could've still helped the others while also staying out of trouble."
"And I don't want to be treated like a kid anymore," Tails says, before he starts to walk away from her.
Sally stands up, as Sonic walks over, "What on your mind?"
"I-I just don't know what to do anymore, Sonic," Sally says. "Tails' growing up. Naugus is as dangerous if not more so than Robotnik."
"Hey, that isn't all on you, Sal," Sonic says to her. "Besides, the future might be full of unknowns, but we can handle anything." Sonic kisses Sally. "Together."
Sally smiles, as she and Sonic continue to walk away.
