erutcarF Chapter 18: Power rings, stockpiled, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

"Yep." Cassia said from underneath their open-top truck. "That's a busted axle."

Clove inhaled deeply, holding it in for a moment… before letting her frustration out in one big sigh. "Of course."

"Did you call the repair guys yet?" Cassia asked, getting up and brushing the dirt off of her prosthetics.

(Yes, prosthetics. They were prosthetics. Any time Cassia even joked that it was a chassis, Clove made sure to thoroughly explain the difference. Cassia was her sister. She was not a robot. Her disease just meant that… she needed prosthetics.

The fact that those prosthetics replaced all of her limbs, her skin, and most of her remaining muscle groups didn't make her more robot than not. It didn't.)

Clove sighed again. "Yes, I did. They should be here any…"

The sound of roaring rocket engines downed out what she was going to say next.

Flying into view around the patch of road the two sisters had broken down on was an ugly, grey, boxy shuttlecraft. It circled them, then dipped and spluttered down onto the sand next to their truck.

Clove's hand clenched, instinctively reaching for her staff… before she forced herself to grab her EggPad instead, holding it up in front of the shuttle.

Ding. "Badnik Army Repair Functionaries." The EggPad identified. "Native inhabitants of world 4."

Clove didn't think for one moment that Eggman had had the foresight – or the consideration, frankly – to realise that his forces would need some way to identify each other in all the dimensional (or was it temporal?) confusion. She assumed, therefore, that she owed the identification feature to that A.I. girl now following Eggman around. The one calling him 'father'.

…

That still felt weird to think about.

Cassia leaned over her shoulder to read the EggPad's screen. "These guys are called 'B.A.R.F.'?" She wondered aloud.

"Indeed!"

Cassia jumped a little, and Clover looked up, her eyes narrowing, as the rear door of the shuttlecraft began to descend. As it hit the ground, two figures began to walk down the new ramp.

"Cam the Cat!" The orange woman in front declared, her smile so creepily wide it felt like it should be tearing her face in half.

"Bert the Bull!" The tall, brown man grinned, his massive biceps and pecs barely contained by his jumpsuit (like the one Cam was wearing).

"And together, we are…!" They chorused in unison…

…before the left engine on their shuttlecraft suddenly coughed, spewing thick black smoke directly into the pair's faces, cutting them off and causing them to cough and splutter just as much as the engine.

Once the smoke cleared, the two were left, halfway to a pose, covered in soot.

"…you said you had a broken axle?" Cam eventually asked.

Clove wordlessly indicated their truck with a thumb.

"Right, then." Cam said, slapping Bert on the back. "Get to it, Bert!"

The huge bull grinned. "This looks like a job for my number four hammer!"

"You're going to repair an axle with a… arg." Clove pressed the palm of her hand into her face, as Bert casually rolled the enter truck onto its side with one hand, and started pounding away at the axle with the other.

For a moment, the other three stared and watched as Bert went at it, the sound of metal on metal fading away into the surrounding sands.

"So…" Cam rolled the 'o', pulling out and glancing down at her own EggPad. "Egg Boss Clove the Pronghorn… was it?"

"And Cassia the Pronghorn! Also an Egg Boss! Don't forget me!" Clove, even without turning around, could hear Cassia's pout at the implicit dismissal.

Cam looked back up, still with that same creepily-wide smile. "What brings such a… prominent member of Lord Robotnik's army all the way out here?"

"Uh…" Cassia scratched a prosthetic finger across a prosthetic forehead. "You mean Eggman's army… right?"

Cam's demeanour changed instantly, her hackles rising and a hiss leaving her mouth. "Do not use that insulting nickname for our glorious lord!"

Clove's mouth twisted in distaste. Great. Another Thunderbolt. "Even if Eggman himself told us to?" She crossed her arms.

Cam scowled, apparently not having a comeback for that one. "You didn't answer my question."

Clove considered pointing out to Cam that she didn't need to answer the question – she outranked the cat in the Eggman Empire's admittedly-rather-uncertain-at-the-moment chain of command…

"We're on recon duty!" Cassia piped up, causing Clove to shut her eyes tight and hold in a sigh.

Cam raised an eyebrow. "Two 'Egg Bosses'… on reconnaissance?" She asked, scepticism dripping from her voice.

Clove's eyes snapped back open against, and she glared at Cam. "Not that it's any of your business," she snapped "but this area suffers from near-constant sandstorms, rendering aerial and orbital surveillance spotty at best."

"So?" Cam was unimpressed. "That's what the Newtrons are for."

The Newtron model of badnik was very, very old – in fact, they were one of the first models Eggman had ever designed, right up there with Motobugs and Buzz Bombers. However, it's ability to turn invisible and lie in wait had kept it viable, even now when the Egg Pawn series and E series of badniks largely dominated the production lines.

If they didn't blow their cover – usually to take a pot-shot at Sonic or one of his friends – a Newtron could lie in wait for years, passively watching its surroundings and reporting back to Eggman all that time.

"Something's been destroying the badniks in this region." Clove growled, resenting the implication that she was an idiot. "All models, not just the Newtrons. Like Sonic has passed through here, except that no badnik reported sighting him."

That seemed to take Cam back for a moment… before her grin returned. "Oh no… we can't have that, now can we? That won't do at all."

"Got it!" Bert suddenly shouted, causing Clove to jump slightly and look back incredulously.

Somehow, the bull had pounded the axle so hard that the two broken ends had… fused back together. Clove stared in disbelief until Bert rolled the truck back onto its wheels.

"Heh heh heh." Bert chuckled. "Impressed, aren't you? Don't underestimate my number 4 hammer!"

Cam strode past her partner, patting him on the back. "Yes, yes. Good work, Bert. Now, get in." She said, slinking into the back seat.

"Huh?" Bert said, sounding as confused as Clove was annoyed. "But… the Barfmobile?" He said, looking somewhat longingly at their shuttlecraft.

"Will still be here when we get back." Cam said, her eyes glinting dangerously. "But we have wrecked badniks to fix, and the old girl can't handle a sandstorm."

As if to make Cam's point, the idling engine of their shuttlecraft suddenly let out a giant bang and seized up, smoke pouring from the front.

"Okay!" Bert shrugged, climbing into the back of the truck – the suspension creaking under the added weight of his massive frame.

Clove glared at the back of their heads, strongly considering telling the pair to get lost… but pulled herself together with an exertion of will.

"…just don't get in our way." She glared at Cam, even as she climbed into the passenger seat. (Cassia loved driving so much that Clove rarely had the heart to deny her.)

"They seriously call it the 'Barfmobile'?" Cassia whispered to Clove, still scratching her head.

They ran into one of the aforementioned sandstorms after only a few minutes of driving. Clove tied a scarf around her lower face and pulled on some goggles (styled after the ones her 'dear leader' liked to wear) to keep the sand out of her eyes and mouth as it blew through the open-top truck. Behind her, Cam and Bert made uncomfortable noises – they hadn't been prepared for the sand.

Cassia, of course, just grinned – not even blinking as the sand grains bounced off the cameras that had taken the place of her eyes.

The yellow haze of the sandstorm hid they horizon, but it wasn't so thick that they couldn't see what was around them. Clove suddenly sat straight up, squinting even behind her goggles. "Cassia, stop."

Cassia obediently slowed the car to a stop. "What'cha looking at, sis?"

Cam let out a noise of disgust. "Several hours of work for us, is what she's looking at!"

The scattered pieces of a Sandworm were strewn over the side of the road, already half buried in the sand. (A successor to the older Caterkiller models, the Sandworm was designed to hide beneath the surface of the sand and ambush enemies from below.) Beyond it could be seen other shapes in the sand – other wrecks of badniks.

Cam and Bert both leapt out of the truck, moving up to examine the destroyed Sandworm.

"Huh." Bert said, lifting a chunk of the Sandworm up out of the sand and holding it up to his face, closing one eye to get a better look at it. "Damage is too messy to be a Spin Attack…"

"Scorch marks." Cam growled, looking at the back of the piece Bert was holding. "This badnik was destroyed with explosives."

"What, like someone came through here with a rocket launcher or something?" Cassia got out of the truck as well, wandering over to where Cam and Bert were standing.

"There's been no reports of G.U.N. being active in this area, so I find that unlikely." Clove crossed her arms.

"Hmm…" Cam peered closer at the damage… before suddenly flinching back. Spinning around, she shaded her eyes with a hand and peered at the scrap-strewn sandbanks on either side of the road.

"Landmines." She hissed. Her unusually sharp teeth were still on full display, but now in an angry scowl.

Clove – still sitting in the truck – suddenly bolted to her feet. "What?! You're sure?!"

Slinking down into the dunes, Cam pulled several more chunks of destroyed badnik out of the sand, handing them back to Bert. "Look at the damage." Cam hissed, her tail swishing furiously behind her. "These badniks were all blown up from underneath."

"Who would be using landmines to fight badniks?!" Cassia yelped, her voice slightly panicked. Her head turned as though on a swivel, searching for any lumps or unexpected shapes on the road or sands around them.

It was a fair question, Clove thought. Even if landmines weren't illegal in the United Federation, G.U.N. preferred to take the fight to the badniks, their favoured weapons being tanks, planes and mechsuits. Eggman was perfectly happy to build robots that ambushed people, but considered simple landmines to be beneath his genius; something the rest of the planet was deeply grateful for.

Cam pulled out her EggPad. "Bert –"

"Building a minesweeper, got it." Bert anticipated his partner's words, his voice suddenly very serious. "Gonna need my number two hammer…"

As Cam scampered back up to the road, Bert started hammering the badnik scrap into a rough, Frankensteinian abomination of scrap metal shaped somewhat like a metal detector.

"Wait, hang on." Cassia's artificial eyelids blinked. "How did a Sandworm trigger a landmine? Shouldn't it have been digging through the sand underneath the mine?"

Cam and Bert paused in their work, sharing a confused look with each other.

Clove scanned the horizon again. "The Sandworm must have surfaced… which means there must have been something it thought was worth surfacing for."

"Badniks are smart enough to identify a killing field, even if they don't know what's been killing them." Cam added, connecting her tablet to Bert's work with a cable and typing furiously. "To pull off something like this, you'd need bait."

The minesweeper beeped, and Cam disconnected her cable.

Clove's mouth twisted in distaste. Technically, she could return back to safer territory now, and report that they weren't able to proceed due to encountering a minefield. If Cam and Bert wanted to stick around, well, that was on them.

But then Cassia gasped. "You mean somebody might be in the middle of that?"

And just like that, Clove knew they would be pressing into the minefield.

To her slight amazement, Cam and Bert's improvised minesweeper actually seemed to work. As the four trekked into the field of badnik scrap, away from the road, the sweeper would occasionally start beeping, and they would change direction. Sometimes Clove could see the small black disk of the mine, but usually it was buried too deep in the sand for her to see.

What a mess. If it weren't for the fact that the badniks had already set most of the mines off…

"I think I see something!" Cassia said, pointing a little off to their left. "Some kind of pole?"

It was a pole – specifically, one pole embedded upright in the sand, with another smaller pole tied to it at right angles. A rabbit old enough to be her dad was tied to it, their arms bound to the horizontal pole and their legs tied to the vertical pole. On top of that, they were blindfolded and gagged, and the only protection they had from the harsh sandstorm was their yellow fur.

Cassia made to dash forwards, but Clove grabbed her shoulder before she could. Cassia turned around in confusion, her eyes wide in askance. But Clove just pointed down at the scattered badnik parts at the base of the pole – thicker than anywhere they'd seen yet – and looked meaningfully at Cam and Bert's minesweeper.

Said sweeper was already being swept back and forth, Bert making absolutely sure it was safe to proceed before each step he took.

Cam, meanwhile, was staring up at the pole – and, specifically, at the Eggman-style uniform the rabbit was wearing, similar to the ones Clove and Cassia were wearing. "Of course." Cam hissed. "The badniks would recognise the rabbit as a member of the Empire and try to rescue him – and with him gagged, he could not warn them away. How… devious."

"Whoever did this is going to regret messing with Robotnik's forces." Bert said, his tone also promising pain. "My number one hammer and I will make sure of it."

Clove almost corrected him on Eggman's name… but honestly, she really didn't care that much.

Eventually they were confident that they could reach the pole without getting a limb blown off, so they did. Cam pulled off a glove, extended a claw, and started cutting the rabbit's ropes.

Clove, for her part, held up her EggPad again.

Ding. "Beauregard Rabbot." The EggPad chimed. "Egg Grandmaster. Native inhabitant of world 3."

Cassia scratched her head. "Where's a Grandmaster rank compared to an Egg Boss?"

"Tell ya what, darlin'." A tired, scratchy voice broke in.

Clove looked up from the EggPad to see Beauregard being lowered down to the ground – somewhat gently – by Bert's oversized biceps.

"You don't make a big deal outta it, an' ah won't neither." Beauregard rubbed his eyes on the back of his glove. "Ah, blast it, that stings…"

Cassia didn't say anything, too busy staring at Beauregard's right arm.

His mechanical right arm.

Clove noticed this, and didn't like the way Cassia was focusing on it, so she spoke up.

"I take it you didn't string yourself up on that pole?" She asked Beauregard, crossing her arms again.

Beauregard chuckled, even as he stumbled as Bert set him on the ground, his legs not quite ready to support his weight. "Yah got that righ', darlin'. Ah was just gettin' ready to have a real serious talk with mah niece… then da whole world went crazy. When everythin' cleared up, Bunnie and Matilda weren't nowhere to be found, an' so weren't half mah forces. Jack just marched right in an' strung me up like a scarecrow. Dunno why he didn't jus' kill me, t' be honest…"

"Jack who?" Clove's eyes narrowed.

Beauregard paused, looking carefully at Clove's uniform – similar but not quite identical to his own. "Ya don't know Jack…?" He turned around, taking in Cassia's artificial features, and Cam and Bert's own unique appearance.

"Who exactly are you people, again?" He eventually asked.

Clove sighed. "I'm Clove, and this is my sister Cassia. We're Egg Bosses from world… which number were we again?"

Clove remembered that the Eggman who'd seized control – who seemed pretty much the same as the Eggman she knew, honestly – had numbered his world as number 1, but apart from that the numbering system seemed pretty arbitrary to her.

"10." Cam answered, her mouth widening into its unsettling smile again. "That's Bert, and I'm Cam. We're Badnik Army Repair Functionaries from world 4."

Beauregard blinked, clearly lost.

"There was this thing with a new kind of magic crystal, and a bunch of different worlds got smushed together!" Cassia explained, with considerably more cheer than Clove thought was warranted. "You're from world 3, by the way."

Beauregard lifted his mechanical right arm up and started scratching an ear. "Ya mean worlds, or zones?" He eventually asked.

Cassia responded with a "What?" at the same time as Cam answered "Yes.", neither of which really seemed to clear anything up.

"There was an explanation sent out over the EggNet, but you were probably tied to this pole by then." Clove said, before suddenly realising something. Digging into one of her uniform's jacket's pockets, she pulled out a small device the size and shape of a shirt button. "Here, put this on."

Beauregard took the device wearily. "What's this?" He peered at it closely.

"It's a personal T.D.E. It'll stop you from –"

Beauregard suddenly doubled over with a pained noise, his outline wavering in a glitching fit that lasted for nearly ten seconds.

"– doing that." Clove finished.

Beauregard was still visibly suspicious, but as he panted, trying to catch his breath, he grimly pinned the tiny device to his uniform's coat.

Bert peered at the device's tiny screen. "Huh. You're lucky we found you! Your temporal stability's already down to 57%."

"What happens when it hits zero?" Beauregard asked.

Cam's teeth-filled smile widened. "Well, then you have something like a one in twelve chance of not disappearing forever."

"…oh." Beauregard was visibly taken aback. "Any way to, uh…"

"No." Clove said, her voice deadly serious.

"Ah." Beauregard hesitated. "Ah'll… just keep this here gizmo on, shall ah?"

"Please do." Clove tapped a foot. "Now, as the commander of the local Egg Army –"

"Ah, we were called the Dark Egg Legion, actually…" Beauregard corrected, still somewhat stunned.

Clove rolled her eyes. "As the commander of the local Legion, you should have the most recent intelligence of this area."

"Well, ah… mah chapter of the Legion pretty much got wiped out, sad to say." Beauregard slumped. "Anybody Jack didn't jus' shoot, he probably took to Sand Blast City."

The other four swapped blank looks.

Beauregard's (organic) hand slapped itself across his face. "Great big city in the desert, 'bout three miles that-a-way." He pointed to the side of the minefield opposite the direction of the road. "It's full of 'Freedom Fighters' that have been the bane of me and mine." He made air quotes with his mechanical hand.

"And you didn't just besiege them?" Cam raised an eyebrow.

Beauregard chuckled, letting his hand drop from his face. "Darlin', dat city's got its own water n' food supply – there's an underground river with fish that comes up in the middle of where the city is. Only reason it got built there in th' first place. T' add insult t' injury, the whole blasted place has a shield generator. Might as well be a fortress. Th' Legion's limbs' would have rusted clean off before we starved the Sand-Blasters out."

Well, at least now they no longer had any reason to hang around in a minefield. "Alright." Clove drew herself up, projecting her best 'Egg Boss' attitude. "We need to get a look at this city. Eggman's going to want it taken, and we'll need to know how much force to bring."

Beauregard suddenly straightened up. "Wait! We need ta look for Bunnie and Matilda, and all them others what disappeared!"

Clove's mouth twisted in distaste. "This mess scattered people all over the world – that's probably why they disappeared on you. The Eggman Empire is currently looking to secure all of it's… citizens." Hopefully Cam and Bert hadn't picked up on the effort it had taken to keep her tone neutral on that last word. "If they make themselves known to the nearest outpost of the Empire, they'll be issued with T.D.E.s just like the one I gave you."

"But Bunnie ain't…!" Beauregard started, then hesitated.

Bert, who had been preparing to scan for a safe path forwards, looked back at Beauregard in confusion. "But what?"

"N-nothin'…" Beauregard mumbled, pulling a hat over his eyes. "It ain't important."

Clove pressed her mouth into a thin line, even as Cassia tilted her head in confusion and Cam's teeth-filled grin glinted in what few rays of sunlight pierced through the sandstorm.

…come to think of it, wasn't there a rabbit amongst the Knothole Freedom Fighters named 'Bunnie'? Was she…?

…best not to assume.

Bert just shrugged and turned back to his slapdash minesweeper. "Waste of good badniks…" He muttered, looking mournfully at the field of scrap metal.

Cam patted her partner on the back. "Cheer up, Bert. We'll put them right as rain, as always."

"Oh, I know." Bert nodded, scowling. "But getting all that sand out is gonna be murder on my number 3 hammer…"

Beauregard still looked reluctant, but evidently did not want to be left alone in the middle of a minefield because he joined the end of their odd procession.

"Besides, we'll have to capture a new batch of animals to power the older models." Bert added casually.

Clove paused for a moment, thinking through the implications of what Bert had just said. Her eyes were traitorously drawn to the sand underneath a wrecked Skorp, which seemed like it had a red –

Clove forced her eyes forwards, clamping down on her emotions with the same sudden surge of willpower.

She couldn't afford to look weak. Not when it wasn't just her and Cassia.

"So…" Cassia started, after a minute without anyone saying anything. "Why'd you join the Empire, Mr Rabbot?"

Beauregard raised an eyebrow. "Why'd you?"

"Oh, we joined for the healthcare benefits!" Cassia proudly declared, rapping her (gloved) metal knuckles on her metal forehead, causing Clove to pinch the bridge of her nose.

Yes, that was essentially why she had submitted herself and her sister to Eggman's rule, and yes that was something of an open secret amongst the Egg Armies, but that didn't mean she should sounds like she was proud of it…!

"Robotnik recruited us right out of collage, remember Bert?" Cam grinned.

"I remember!" Bert laughed. "He promised us a life choked by smog, of pointless waste, underpaid and overworked, hated by all!"

Cam sighed wistfully. "And to think, normally to get all that you need to have a career in road maintenance!"

The other three shared awkward glances.

Bert suddenly shielded his eyes. "Hey – what's that?"

The sandstorm had worsened just a little, so visibility had been reduced such that there was a faint haze even between Clove's eyes and her hand. But still, she could make out what Bert had seen – a shape in the distance, coming towards them fast.

It was a motorcycle – or something like it, given tracks instead of wheels so that it could traverse the sand.

Clove looked down – they had reached the edge of where the strewn badnik parts were, so they had probably reached the edge of the minefield. Even Bert had stopped paying attention to his sweeper. Taking a risk, Clove stepped around Bert to get a better look at the approaching figure.

The figure on the not-motorcycle (sandmobile?) was wrapped head to toe in a full-body cloak, strapped down tightly so that it did not come off despite the wind. As Clove moved into view, the figure gave a visible start, swerving their vehicle around to drive around, their existing momentum causing them to continue to slide towards them.

Clove reached around for her staff, pulled it off where it was attached to her back, and hurled it forwards like a javelin.

Her aim was true, her staff hitting the cloaked figure in the head and knocking them off their sandmobile and into the sand.

Bert whistled. "Nice shot!"

Beauregard's eyes narrowed, and he strode out in front of the group – his eyes cold and his mouth scowling. He grabbed the cloaked figure by the shoulders and forcefully pulled them upright. "Fancy meeting you here…" He pulled the figure's hood off. "Jack Rabbit."

This was the mysterious Jack? Aside from an eyepatch over his left eye, he looked much like a normal rabbit to Clove.

"Beauregard Rabbot? Sure, why not." Jack spat, clearly as happy to see Beauregard as Beauregard was to see him. His eyes were having trouble focusing – the blow to the head wasn't doing him any favours – but his words were clear. "S'not like there was much else left to go wrong anyway."

"Wait, he's a rabbit with the family name of 'Rabbit'?" Cassia scratched her head with a finger (her glove preventing a horrible metal-on-metal screech). "That's kind of redundant, isn't it?"

Jack gave her a grin devoid of any kind of friendly warmth. "Oh hey! Ya picked up some more traitors since last I saw ya, Rabbot. What damp rock did ya turn over to find them?"

Calmly and methodically, Clove walked over and retrieved her staff; turning to face Jack with it held tightly in two hands.

"You wanted to know why I joined the Empire, Cassia?" Beauregard growled. "It's 'cause this man treated me – treated all of us! – like we were nothing but scum. After I went an' joined, I ate my first full meal in weeks."

If Beauregard had meant for his words to shame Jack, he was disappointed – the other rabbit just kept grinning. "Hey, it wasn't that long ago y'all were mindless machines trying to kill us all. Nobody knew why you changed back. What if it wore off?" He shrugged, almost nonchalantly. "I couldn't let you hurt the innocent people of the city."

Clove felt a chill run through her body.

Was Jack talking about roboticisation? Beauregard had been roboticized?! Despite what some people assumed about Cassia, Clove had never known anyone who had ever been subjected to the awful procedure – it had stopped working some time ago for reasons she'd never actually found out.

"We were innocent people in your city!" Beauregard spat.

The fake mirth vanished from Jack's face, replaced with an intense cold stare. "Yeah." He spat right back. "Ya were. Then you joined up with Eggman – and ya lost all right to complain 'bout how I treated ya."

Beauregard pulled back his metal hand into a fist, his mouth twisted in fury…

…only for Clove to grab his fist before he could throw the punch. "Wait." She said.

"Why?!" Beauregard demanded. "Gimme one cotton-picking reason why I shouldn't turn his face into mashed potatoes?!"

"Because he's stalling." Clove said, her voice deathly serious.

The fury drained out of Beauregard's face. "What?"

"He was running away." Clove said, masking the unease she felt. "From what?"

Jack laughed. "Ha! Fer once, Eggman's gone and found himself a minion with more sense than a garden salad."

Bert's minesweeper let out a quiet, slow beep.

Beauregard resumed his tight grip on Jack's collar and shook him roughly. "What have you done this time, Jack?!"

The minesweeper beeped again, causing Bert and Cam to look down at it in confusion.

"Hey," Jack smirked "ya know how in all them stories about wishes, ya always think 'Ha! There's no way I'd be dat stupid if I got a wish. I'd be real specific!'"

Sharing a puzzled look with Bert, Cam pulled out her EggPad and connected it to the sweeper.

"What, did you find a magic lamp out here in the sand?" Cassia asked, honestly confused.

Jack flashed her a mocking grin. "Don't need one, if ya got enough ring energy."

"It's not a bug…" Cam muttered, peering at her EggPag's readout. "It's definitely picking up electrical activity."

"The Ring of Acorns got used up, Jack." Beauregard snapped.

"I know that!" Jack snapped right back. "But I figured… if I didn't have one big powerful ring, what about lots an' lots of normal ones?"

"Er…" Cassia looked uncertain. "Wait, I was joking about the lamp. Are you guys really saying…?"

The minesweeper continued to beep, louder and faster now.

Beauregard's ears folded down flat against his head as his eyes went wide. "Ya blasted fool." He whispered. "What did ya wish for?"

"Well, I didn't wanna make a wish that could go wrong, ya see." Jack grinned. "So I wished for a weapon that would scare the stuffin' even outta Eggman."

Bert scratched his head. "But the minefield's behind us, and the badniks are all scrapped. So what's it picking –"

A reddish, metallic hand punched out of the sand – glinting in the thin sunlight like liquid mercury – and reached out for Cassia's ankle.

Clove whirled around at the sound of her sister's scream, the energy blade on her staff igniting, turning it into a scythe. Cassia was stamping down on the wrist of the hand that had grabbed her ankle, one leg trying to free the other without success.

"Don't move!" Clove shouted, then slashed downwards, slicing the hand clean off.

"What in Sam Hill?!" Beauregard stumbled backwards, watching as the hand melted, flowing backwards towards the wrist and forming back into a hand, good as new.

"Some kind of magnetohydrodynamics?" Bert leaned forwards to get a better look as the figure buried in the sand started to properly pull themselves out to the surface.

Cam hissed, pulling Bert back. "No – nanites!"

The silver mass of 'liquid' emerged, showing itself as having the same shape and size as a bear. Another hand burst out of the sand… and another… and another…

Beauregard sucked in a breath. "Tex? Avery? Why are your… son of a gun, some of those are my people!"

Now free of the sand, the metal figures stumbled forwards, their featureless eyes unfocused. They reminded Clove of nothing so much as…

…as zombies.

Cassia started backing up, pulling out her tonfas. "Why do they look like people?!" She cried, her voice scared.

"Why do you think?" Jack smirked, suddenly springing up and punching Beauregard in his jaw in a massive uppercut.

This was the moment he'd been stalling for – for when they were distracted and he could make his escape! Jack put his springy rabbit legs to full use, sprinting for his capsized sandmobile at full speed…

But what he hadn't bet on, was Bert's massive hand clamping over his shoulder from behind like a vice and yanking him off of his feet.

"Good question." Bert snorted, steam emerging from his giant nostrils. "How about we find out?"

Jack's pupils shrunk to pinpricks. "No, wait –!"

Uncaring of Jack's cries, Bert hurled the comparatively tiny rabbit back into the horde, knocking them back like a professional at ten-pin bowling.

Clove grimaced, but remained silent.

"You –!" Jack gave out a strangled cry, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by gurgling. Before the eyes of the assorted Egg forces, the tips of Jack's ears and the back of his throat – the areas where his fur had touched the shining metallic figures – turned the same metallic sheen as the others, the change spreading rapidly throughout his body until it engulfed his whole body.

The thing that had once been Jack Rabbit stumbled to its feet, and turned towards the remaining living – eyes dead and empty.

"Run!"

Clove didn't know who screamed that – for all she knew, it could have been her – but that was the key that suddenly set everybody to stumbling backwards from the encircling… things.

Back towards the minefield.

Bert made to swing his minesweeper out again, but Beauregard slapped it away. "We don't have time for that! Just follow our footprints from before!"

"What footprints?!" Cam hissed angrily, her tail swishing. "We're in the desert, during a sandstorm!"

Clove thought she could make out their tracks from only a few minutes ago, but they were already halfway filled in and quickly getting fainter. And, given only she had goggles, she and Cassia were the only ones who could properly see.

There was a sudden movement in the corner of her eyes, and Clove spun around, scythe raised in a guard position –

– but Cassia was there first, her tonfas holding the green metallic bird back.

"A roadrunner, huh?" She identified the bird's species with a grunt. "Meep meep!"

She gave the roadrunner a solid kick in its centre of mass with the treads of her boots, sending it flying back a short distance –

Boom

– directly onto a landmine, splattering the 'liquid' metal over the area like a burst water balloon.

"Cassia…!" Clove gasped.

Cassia flicked a bit of liquid metal off her face, sending it to join the rest of the roadrunner as it pulled itself back together. "I'm fine!" She insisted. "See? No exposed skin! It can't infect me!"

Clove hesitated for a moment, which prompted Beauregard to grab her by one shoulder and drag her back. "Ah understand th' urge, darlin', but we gotta move!"

Clove grit her teeth, hating that she couldn't think of a counterargument to that, and reluctantly followed after the others, watching Cassia as she brought up the rear.

Boom

More explosions followed after them as the metal figures stumbled after them in a straight line, making no effort to avoid or even look for the mines. But no matter how grievous their wounds, the chasing figures simply picked themselves up and continued on, their bodies flowing back together.

The mines were slowing them down, but their own need to avoid the mines meant that they were barely keeping ahead. Desperately, Clove grabbed her EggPad and pointed it behind herself at the chasing figures.

Ding. "Metal Virus victims – Zombots. Native to world 1." The EggPad dutifully identified. "Warning: entry is tagged 'do not engage'. Warning: entry is tagged 'retreat on sight'. Entry is tagged 'eliminated'. Entry –"

"Tell me something useful!" Clove screamed at the tablet, her eyes crazed as she shook it roughly.

"– is tagged for automated reporting." The EggPad finished. "Calling: Doctor Eggman."

The roadrunner zombot made another run for them, but this time Beauregard knocked the bird off course with a punch from his metal arm.

Boom

"You were a right pain when you were alive, Jolt, and yer an even bigger pain now!" The elderly rabbit shouted, grimacing down at his Virus-splattered long-coat. With an annoyed grunt, he ripped his coat free with his mechanical arm, leaving it behind in the sand.

Click "Egg Boss Clive!" Eggman's furious voice raged out of the EggPad, some slight static in the line from the sandstorm.

"Actually, sir, it's Clove…" The much more quiet voice of Orbot gingerly corrected his boss.

"I don't care!" Was the entirely predictable outburst from Eggman. "What's this nonsense about sighting zombots?! I don't know who put you up to this, Clive, but I won't stand for any practical jokes! Do you understand?!"

In response, Clove turned the screen around, so that Eggman could see the zombots currently chasing after them.

In any other scenario, Clove would have been mildly amused to watch the colour drain from Eggman's face, his moustache drooping, his glasses sliding down his nose and exposing his all-too-human eyes.

At any other time, Clove would have silently rejoiced at seeing Eggman vulnerable, even for just a moment.

But not now.

Not when her sister's (and her own) life was on the line.

"That's…" Eggman gasped, before suddenly spinning around in his chair. "Cubot! Orbot! Sage! Vector in the Egg Fleet! Prepare for full bombardment!"

Another boom made Clove flinch, and quickly glance behind her. The zombots had hit another mine, but were only about ten meters behind them. Bert was going as fast as he dared, but they were barely going faster than a walking pace.

The EggPad's screen went fuzzy for a moment, before it cleared up with the image of that A.I. daughter this version of Eggman had.

"Attention all Eggman forces." Sage stared directly ahead, speaking in a robotic, emotionless tone of voice. "Bombardment will commence in two minutes. Retreat from the bombardment area immediately."

Then the screen changed to a rough map of their current area, with a great big circle, flashing red, superimposed over the area where they were. In the top right corner was countdown clock.

2:00

1:59

1:58

Clove looked up from the pad in shock. "We need to run!"

"We're still in this blasted minefield!" Beauregard pointed out.

Bert roared with frustration, tossing his minesweeper aside. "That does it!" He swore. Grabbing a large chunk of badnik, he pulled it onto the sand in front of him and sent it sliding forwards with a solid kick.

Boom.

When that chuck triggered a landmine, he grabbed another chunk and shoved that forwards.

Boom.

"Come on!" He roared.

It was far riskier, but they were moving faster now. The others all grabbed scrap metal from the ample amounts around them and hurled them forwards. Occasionally an exploding mine would pepper them with shrapnel, but their bodies were flush with so much adrenaline that they didn't even notice the pain.

Boom.

Another ten meters…!

Boom.

Three…!

Boom.

They were out! Clove dared glance behind herself.

They were out… but now the zombots had a clear path right to them.

1:03

1:02

1:01

"Start the truck!" Clove shouted at Cassia, planting herself in front of said vehicle. "Everyone, in!"

"Sis…!"

"Go!"

Most of the zombots were still too far away, but the zombot that used to be Jolt the Roadrunner had pulled itself together enough to try and charge at them again. While the others scrambled to fit into the truck – Beauregard taking her place in the passenger seat – Clove just braced.

For the first time in her life, she found herself grateful for her Eggman Empire training on 'how to hit a charging speedster'.

Jolt zoomed forwards, his feet moving so fast they blurred into a figure eight. Clove gripped her scythe tightly, watching his approach with laser focus…

And just as he reached out for her, she swung her scythe in a cutting motion, the energy blade neatly bisecting the zombot into two halves vertically – and importantly, without splattering Virus everywhere.

A firm hand grabbed the back of her jacket, and Beauregard pulled her up and onto the side of the truck, hanging desperately from the passenger side. The Chaos Drive that the truck had for an engine hummed with power, and the truck lurched forwards.

Clove looked at the EggPad again.

0:39

0:38

0:37

Following the road, they'd never make it in time. The road ran perpendicular to the centre of the target area, and they needed to head straight for the edge.

"Hard left! Get off the road!" Clove screamed, and Cassia obligingly swung the steering wheel around.

0:34

0:33

0:32

Just when Clove thought they might actually make it… the landscape rippled, a surge of glitching passing through the landscape like a tidal wave. It settled back into the sea of sand it had been before, but there was a deep crack from somewhere deep underground. Before them and to the right, sand suddenly slid backwards into a new hole.

Said hole let out a gurgling noise, and water suddenly gushed out of the hole like a broken water main, quickly forming a shallow river in their path.

"Are you kidding me?!" Cassia screamed.

The truck hit the water's edge… and immediately its wheels started to spin, unable to get any traction in the wet sand.

Bert roared with fury, and jumped out of the truck to push with his powerful legs. Cassia had the same idea, leaping out to join him.

The motor wasn't running without Cassia to floor the accelerator, but the truck moved forwards regardless, propelled by the two at the back. Letting out a startled cry, Beauregard hurriedly moved into the driver's seat.

0:22

0:21

0:20

Something silver flashed in the water, and it tickled Clove's memory.

…there's an underground river with fish that comes up in the middle of where the city is…

Bert angrily slapped something away from his ankle… and his hand – his bare, ungloved hand – came up holding a fish with a silvery, metallic sheen.

Bert looked up at the others, horror spreading across his face as fast as the infection spreading across his body. He opened his mouth –

– but whatever he was going to say would go unheard, as the bottom end of a scythe hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Bert's grip slackened, and he fell backwards into the shallow river current and was carried away.

Clove looked down, and somehow found herself holding the scythe that had just knocked Bert away.

0:18

0:17

0:16

Even as Cam screamed, Clove knew they were out of time. Cassia was the only one who could safely enter the water, but she couldn't push the truck fast enough to get them clear. Not without…

No. No.

0:15

0:14

0:13

She couldn't.

0:12

0:11