[A]
Chapter Four
[A]
The Temporary Robian Lodge Building, Mobotropolis, Northamer, Planet Mobius, The Following Day
With Doctor Robotnik's lackey, Snively, and the numerous robots in his forces restrained, it did not take long for Sonic and Lien-Da's teammates to arrive with further reinforcements and bolster their control over Robotropolis. While the city itself, especially the ovoid building that was used as Robotnik's headquarters on where Castle Acorn once stood, was heavily mechanized and bleak-looking, Sally announced that despite the contrasting appearances of the present, the capital of the Kingdom of Acorn could still recapture its former symbolism, and as such, all but formally proclaimed Robotropolis to be Mobotropolis once again.
With their victory seemingly assured, the Knothole Freedom Fighters and their various allies, the Secret Intelligence Division directed by Harvey Who, the Rebel Underground commanded by Geoffrey St. John, certain inhabitants of Knothole Village either volunteering to help on the spot or having been trained beforehand, and even a secluded group of Mobians from the Northern Tundra that Harvey's spies discovered by accident, had taken to separate tasks from within the city limits to outside the continental reach of Northamer itself as part of a postwar imperative. Their goals moving forward were to ensure no influence of Robotnik's remained following his absence and that they could help reestablish a more peaceful, yet securer, global community.
As a start, after Antoine begrudgingly accepted Geoffrey's formal apology for taking charge with his father's plans for the Rebel Underground, he and Rotor commandeered a onetime passenger airplane of the Kingdom's they called the Turboprop to fly themselves and the Arctic Mobians, who were considering becoming their own Freedom Fighter cell, to specific locations far from Mobotropolis. First, the Northern Tundra to return the potential Arctic Freedom Fighters to their homeland after they had been cut off for so long due to Robotnik's reign, and then the Kingdom of Mercia in Eurish.
From what Lien-Da understood, Rotor and Antoine had significant ties to those regions respectively, and Sally had instructed them to be safe while personally contacting the locals. The echidna remembered the pair looking rather forlorn when they volunteered for those assignments, but never really asked why there was a somber mood in place.
More locally, if outside the confines of Mobotropolis, Bunnie and a Knothole volunteer named Hershey the Cat were assisting the Secret Intelligence Division to uncover the suspended animation prison of a person named Ken Khan that Robotnik's personal databanks identified as the sole surviving subject of the doctor's experiment in cybernetically enhanced soldiers that underwent well-before the Roboticizer was invented. Lien-Da had considered going with Bunnie in place of Hershey to get a better understanding of this monkey from one cyborg to another, but ultimately chose to stick with Sonic once she saw the hedgehog's heavy, yet meaningful frown, then.
Within the recaptured castle, Sally was researching more information from Robotnik's computers with the assistance of Nicole, Geoffrey, and a captive Snively, who had been awfully quiet since the confrontation with E.V.E. in a way that almost bothered Lien-Da. While that was occurring in the castle, Lien-Da heard that Geoffrey's Rebels, aided by Sally's four trainees in addition to some friends of Sonic named Cyril Eagle and Larry Lynx, were looking over inventory from all over the city to keep track of Robotnik's multitude of weapons, vehicles, and powered down factories for anything useful such as foodstuffs.
Elsewhere in what was formerly called Robotropolis, a canine duo from the Secret Intelligence Division that Harvey recommended to Sally, Sleuth Dawg of the former Royal Secret Service and the knighted Sir Kicks-a-Lot, were standing guard over the portion of the city that the SWATbots, Badniks, and other semi-freethinking robots in Robotnik's employ that Lien-Da and Sonic had previously reallocated there, followed by erecting a force field to contain them until they were prepared to scrap them all. Although Dawg could not resist complaining about Sonic's reluctance in scrapping the troublemaking robots immediately, a hostile glare from Lien-Da shut him up as his partner led them both straight to where they needed to be.
Meanwhile, in a large, domed building, Lien-Da, accompanying Sonic and Tails, was overseeing the other inhabitants of the city, the roboticized portion to be more precise, on a balcony overlooking several rows of the poor, unfortunate souls.
"So those are total Robians," the echidna noted aloud as she and the two boys saw the Mobians and even more animalistic Mobini that had been transformed from flesh and blood creatures into metallic versions of themselves. It was a new sight after seeing the partially roboticized Bunnie with her own eyes, but while Lien-Da still marveled that roboticization was a fact, the lack of emotion and free will in the eyes of the Robians unnerved her. With an exhale, she said, "For all the potential that the Roboticizer represents, the loss of independent minds is just unnatural."
Sonic was just as uncomfortable as Lien-Da was as he commented on her left side, "Ain't that the truth, Lien?"
Attempting to cheer his oldest friend up, Tails placed a hand on Sonic's left arm as he said, "It's okay, Sonic. Your uncle never meant for the Roboticizer to work like this."
"I know it's all Robotnik's fault, Tails," Sonic replied somewhat annoyed before adding with a gesture to the roboticized crowd in front of the three, "All the same, I don't want my Uncle Chuck's legacy to be all this."
Tails's effort for an optimistic smile turned into a frown as he said, "Yeah, I know, big bro."
Her interest captured by the words in their conversation, Lien-Da took it upon herself to interject. "Time out, boys. What connection does Sonic's family have with the Roboticizer?"
Their attention captured by Lien-Da's curiosity, Sonic and Tails traded embarrassed facial expressions before the former spoke first. "For the truth to be told, Lien, there was a reason why Bunnie was chatting with you while the rest of us were learning what we could from Robotnik's computers at that same time."
Lien-Da's eyes gazed at the two questioningly as she remembered Bunnie pulling her aside to exchange viewpoints from a victim of Roboticization to a Dark Legionnaire and vice versa. The conversation started out of the blue and awkwardly, but Lien-Da did come to have a better understanding of Bunnie's character, and even appreciated her hairstyling advice. Pushing the memory aside, the truth came clear to the female echidna as she said with what she hoped was a sympathetic frown, even though, she felt internally suspicious, "You and your friends learned of what happened to your families."
Tails looked down to the floor, replying, "It's hard to know which story is the biggest out of the whole infodump, Lien, but you should probably know, anyway."
With Sonic's permission, Tails began to tell Lien-Da the tale of his parents first that he finally learned just recently after so long. On the day of his birth, hours before Robotnik's Coup happened, Tails's father, a Royal Army Commander named Amadeus Prower, learned of then Julian Kintobor's treachery and tried to solely arrest him, but was overpowered, roboticized, and then used to toy with his wife's feelings just as soon as their son was born.
Soon enough, Robotnik ordered Amadeus to personally place Rosemary Prower into the Roboticizer, but at that exact moment, the married couple apparently disappeared right before the doctor's eyes. As far as Robotnik was able to learn of what had happened, Amadeus and Rosemary were teleported to an alien vessel that orbited Mobius at the time and then left immediately after the event. Despite having advised E.V.E. to adopt a friendlier form just in case she encountered spacefaring civilizations that would be prone to violence, Lien-Da was still surprised that genuine alien lifeforms visited Mobius in relatively recent years, but the echidna was kept from thinking of the implications as Sonic and Tails changed topics.
The true reason Antoine and Rotor had ventured abroad was because they learned that their own fathers, who had tried to recapture Mobotropolis alongside a sizable force just as soon as it fell to Robotnik's machines, had met different fates. In Mercia, Antoine's roboticized father was appointed by Robotnik as his Sub-Boss, or regional governor, to oppress the people of his birth country despite going against the principles the coyote general valued so dearly, and Antoine was spurred to rescue him from the vile programming that compelled his actions.
Rotor's, in contrast, was confirmed to have been killed in action, and the fatherless walrus wanted to personally inform his mother and younger brother living in the Northern Tundra of the truth for closure, if nothing else. Sonic was unnaturally bitter as he commented that Rotor's brother was not even born yet before their father fell in the line of duty, and whatever hope the older walrus had for them to meet each other and bond with one another died quickly.
On a somewhat positive note, the location of Sally's father, King Maximilian Acorn, was revealed to be in the pocket dimension Robotnik's files stated was the Zone of Silence. Even during the Great War, the future Ivo Robotnik had used the Zone to imprison problematic people in the cruelest manner, but the last time he explored the place in the flesh, he saw that the dominant figure there was a dark sorcerer that terrified even the Overlander despot. Sally planned to save her father regardless, but for the moment, she was focused on laying the groundwork for the Kingdom's revival before she would go about preparations for her royal family reunion.
Soon enough, Sonic then decided to answer Lien-Da's original question in the form of three Robian hedgehogs and a roboticized Mobini dog that were in a row right in front of them, a group of four he identified as his uncle, the knighted scientist, Sir Charles Hedgehog, his parents, Jules and Bernadette, and the family pet, Muttski. More shockingly, Sonic revealed that he believed for years that his mother and father were Great War casualties, and that the intel he learned from Robotnik's records stated that Jules was the first subject of Charles's invention to prolong the sick and elderly that the future Robotnik sabotaged and then stole for his own purposes.
"Your uncle invented the Roboticizer," Lien-Da exclaimed in surprise at the idea that Sonic was related to such a brilliant scientific mind. The awe quickly shifted to disgust as a darker thought came to her and she glared at the mustached Robian next to two other hedgehogs that were also roboticized. "And he tested it on his own brother?"
In response to the echidna's frosty conclusion, Sonic was momentarily taken aback before he showed genuine anger at Lien-Da for the first time in their knowing of one another. "Lien, it wasn't Chuck's fault! Weren't you listening to what I said about Robotnik sabotaging the Roboticizer? It would never have taken anyone's free will if that sicko hadn't gotten his dirty hands on it!"
Surprised by Sonic's rage and that it was directed at her, Lien-Da quickly snapped back, yelling, "And that makes him innocent of using the device on your father in the first place, or that he lied to you about what really happened to him and your mother?! I wouldn't be surprised if it would've been fatal without Robotnik's meddling!"
"You don't know my uncle as I did, Lien-Da," the blue hedgehog retorted harsher than what the echidna thought he ever could have been. "Chuck was not only smart, but he felt responsible for what became of my folks. I can feel it! I'm upset right now, that's true, but do you really think I would've handled the truth better as a five-year-old than how I'm doing at my present age?"
Lien-Da silently scowled at the fuming hedgehog before she finally asked, "Why do you sound like you want any of them back in your life when it's clear that you don't need them now, Sonic?"
Gapping in distraught at the question, Sonic was about to get even madder when Tails interrupted to say in horror, "How could you say something like that, Lien?! If it were my family, I would want to get to know them! My friends may have raised me, and I'm glad they did, but is it wrong to know that you have blood relatives who love you, too?"
"Don't presume I have the same views of family as you do, Tails," Lien-Da reprimanded coldly that caused the fox to flinch back. "It's just pure arrogance, stupidity, and selfishness in that regard."
Cutting a visibly saddened Tails from her, Sonic turned to Lien-Da with a hostile glare and said, "Look, Lien-Da, I'm sorry that you didn't have the best home life with your stepmom or whoever, but you can't just tell others that they don't need their families, especially like that! That's just being petty, cruel, and selfish!"
Briefly stumped that Sonic had somehow learned about her having a stepmother, Lien-Da felt tinglers of lightning develop in the fingers on both of her hands as sheer fury was overtaking her. "So, you figure out one little piece about my past, and that gives you the full idea of the person I am," she asked with mounting wrath before screaming with electricity covering her entire body, "Well, guess what, Sonic, you're wrong, wrong, wrong!"
Propelling a thunderbolt straight to the ceiling with a crashing sound, Lien-Da took a moment growling at the rather intimidated blue hedgehog before she then huffed and walked away to the exit. "I'm getting some fresh air," she announced, even if she saw it as an unneeded thing to say, and rhetorical, given the state of their current location.
Making her way to the adjacent hallway, Lien-Da was a quarter on her way to the streets of Mobotropolis when she heard Sonic sigh in exhaustion, and more so, say, "I'm a real screwup, Tails."
The echidna stopped in her stride as surprise possessed her as she heard the sincere regret in Sonic's voice.
"I shouldn't have been defensive over the whole uncle thing," the hedgehog went on to add, "I got where Lien was coming from, but I just felt angry at the idea that Chuck did what he did for science rather than to save my dad's life."
As a sudden, uneasy feeling came into Lien-Da's thoughts, she then heard Tails choking a sob as he said, "I got defensive, too, Sonic. Lien was right, I shouldn't believe that everyone thinks of family the same way I do. That just made me a bad friend."
'A friend,' Lien-Da thought to herself as she absorbed Tails's words without his or Sonic's knowledge. On the first day, she affiliated herself with the Freedom Fighters as a pragmatic strategy to bide her time in rebuilding her strength and renew contact with the Dark Legion somehow, but hearing that the youthful fox valued her as a friend and a person, no matter if it was a naïve belief or not, it did not take long for Lien-Da to comprehend that her sense of unease was actually guilt on her part.
Not having the heart to restart the conversation in fear it would just be a worser argument, Lien-Da resumed her pace in exiting the domed building, and once outside, felt tears form at the corners of her eyes. Doing what she could to swipe away those tears, Lien-Da thought back to Sonic's prior words about her being petty, cruel, and selfish, and realized that he was correct.
In hindsight, she should not have been so quick to judge Sir Charles's intentions with the Roboticizer and knew, that if the Legion had that technology when Lien-Da was a child, she would have used it to save her birth mother from dying, no matter how vain the attempt would have ended up being. But in that moment of Sonic's explanation, the castoff Legionnaire could not help but compare the situation of the former's uncle and father to another pair of siblings in the Twilight Cage, specifically a brother who gave his sister a daunting weapon for which they would ascend to greatness together, only to reveal that he never wanted an equal partner.
And that comparison as well as the accompanying memories roused her ire, which grew even more as Lien-Da saw that her teammates had a better bond with their families than she ever did with hers. But now exhausted, she felt horrible for what she did. A far cry from the inner peace Lien-Da believed she had obtained upon murdering her father, and stepmother before him, back in the Twilight Cage.
Sniffling to herself, Lien-Da softly let out, "Sonic, Tails, I'm sorry."
[A]
The War Control Room, Castle Acorn
Having set up shop, so to speak, in what Robotnik referred to as the War Control Room of his headquarters, Sally, with the assistance of Nicole and Geoffrey, was continuing to gather more intelligence from the fallen tyrant's computer servers to see what further uses they could gleam before they would open Mobotropolis to organic citizens again. Afterwards, Sally intended to arrange a meeting, or perhaps more than one, on the Floating Island, and then try to rescue her father from the Zone of Silence. The tasks in front of them were all daunting, but as a Freedom Fighter and as a princess, Sally was willing to undergo whatever it was that needed to be done.
Seated in Robotnik's former command chair, Snively was literally tied up with rope and remained silent. While Rotor and Lien-Da had their doubts on whether Snively was indeed trusted with any important information from his deceased uncle, Sally had chosen to have him nearby just in case Nicole found a file that was too encrypted for her to unravel in just one day. So far, they only saw a few files that were just that, including one named "Ancient Hidden City," but the trio opted to save those for another time.
As the search was ongoing, Sally took a glance to her left at Nicole in her holo-lynx form and noted that her unlikely advisor and friend had become well-adjusted in viewing the real world as a hologram of a Mobian, even as her handheld body carried on with the necessary hacking and downloading. While she was unsure of Nicole's true origins, or even if the latter herself knew, Sally nonetheless held great faith in her loyalty and ability.
Turning to her right, Sally observed Geoffrey St. John looking at the large computer screen in a calculating way. While he still presented himself confidently around the others earlier, Sally was at least pleased that Geoffrey made good on his promises to reveal the Rebel Underground's true origin to his men and make a good apology to Antoine, who Sally was also impressed had accepted with some begrudged feelings on his part. While she was uncomfortable with the prejudiced remarks Geoffrey had given Snively earlier, Sally understood where he was coming from and hoped that he would find peace eventually with the Robotnik War, by all accounts, over at last.
Putting thoughts of her companions aside, Sally returned her gaze to the computer screen and noticed a file titled "Great War Instigators" which caught her interest. Turning to Nicole, she asked, "Nicole, can you show us what information Robotnik had on the past conflict?"
"Accessing right away, Sally," the holo-lynx consented with a nod and smile.
Geoffrey, meanwhile, scoffed in derision. "Figures that the lard-containing dictator had a hand in causing that conflict," he said in distaste.
Before the chipmunk princess could soothe the skunk's temper, Nicole gasped in alarm which got both Sally and Geoffrey's attention.
"What's wrong, luv," Geoffrey asked in concern, then added, "You look like you've seen a ghostly blighter."
Nicole shook her head negatively, while replying, "I don't know anything about the supernatural, Mr. St. John, but according to this file, the Great War's instigators were not Overlanders at all, but two members of the royal court at the time!"
"The royal court," Sally repeated in confusion before she and Geoffrey shared a realized look of horror as she then said, "Wait, my father's royal court?!"
Geoffrey had begun to stammer in disbelief. "That's impossible! Who would do that and why?"
With hardened eyes, Nicole answered, "Warlord Kodos Lion and Court Wizard Ixis Naugus."
The next quarter of the hour had Nicole filling both Mobians in on the prejudice and greed that motivated the two traitors to cause warfare between the Kingdom of Acorn and the Overland. Naugus used his sorcery to manipulate the sentiments on both sides until true conflict was on the rise before he secluded himself into the Zone of Silence to wait out the destruction that would ensue. And Kodos not only provided the proper cause for war on both sides indiscreetly but had also taken Julian Kintobor into his confidence to make use of his talents in conquering the world before the ambitious turncoat locked him away in the Zone of Silence himself.
As Sally grew angrier at the revelation, she could tell that Geoffrey was taking the news more quietly, as if his worldview had shattered at what he just learned. There was more than likely a story behind that, but Sally was willing to chalk it up to Geoffrey's lifelong resentment for the Overlanders for what had become of his father and his unwillingness to accept that a Mobian could be just as rotten as Robotnik.
Upon the conclusion of Nicole's report, Sally heard Geoffrey exhale wearily before he then straightened himself and then advised, "Sally, with your permission, once we are ready to rescue the King, I believe leaving the traitors stranded in the Zone of Silence would do us all some good." He then darkly added, "Having them return to Mobius, even to stand trial, is too good for the likes of them."
Relaxing somewhat, Sally turned to Geoffrey and responded with a casual smile. "A tall decision, Geoffrey, but one I will gladly follow up on." Sighing in a fatigued fashion, she then said, "Our planet is better off without monsters like those two or Robotnik."
"Curse you, Dr. Ivo Robotnik," a high-pitched voice screamed in a mixture of grief and loathing that considerably spooked the two Mobians and artificial intelligence. Turning their gazes to the source of the scream, the three saw that Snively was finally having a breakdown after suppressing his emotions for so long.
"Uh, Snively," Sally tried to ask the diminutive Overlander, but the latter ignored her.
"You were an evil spirit who possessed the one man I trusted in all the world," Snively went on to say with tears in his eyes, "the closest thing for a true parental figure when my mother died bringing me into existence and my father had no real love for me whatsoever my entire life, and then turned him into an abusive monster!"
Awkward glances were swapped between Sally and her helpers in response to what sounded like a completely screwy upbringing. For all Snively's flaws, he might as well have been justified due to the amount of baggage he carried.
"I groveled to your whims like no other humiliated lackey in pain could," Snively further complained, "I privately took up the Robotnik name myself for good measure even, and this is what I get in return?! A badly bruised sense of self-esteem, no real hope of succeeding you, and left in the care of those who might very well kill me when my usefulness runs dry?!"
"Hold on," Nicole tried to interject, and Sally could not blame her. They may have spent years disliking Snively, but they did not want to kill him needlessly or cruelly. Even Geoffrey, with his eyes open because of the recent secrets uncovered, looked troubled at what dark fantasies went inside the Overlander's mind.
Continuing to sob in ignorance of his concerned onlookers, Snively then said, "To think that after all this time, Sonic has finally won it all! Oh, the agony!"
"Be quiet," Geoffrey finally hissed, but more out of worry than anger. He then whispered to all in the room, "Listen."
Following the skunk's instruction, Sally was surprised to hear and even see that the computers had suddenly glitched into static, or at least, that is what she thought at first. Nicole, on the other hand, had already investigated what was happening, which caused her to be taken aback in fright.
"Snively just uttered code words to a buried subroutine in Robotnik's mainframe," she quickly explained to the pair of Mobians.
Snively himself, having just regained his wits, exclaimed in sheer shock, "I uttered code words to what now?!"
"How did you not know that at all, you mad bloke," Geoffrey demanded out of frustration, while all Sally could do was wait and see what kind of postmortem surprise Robotnik had left for all of them.
[A]
The Streets of Mobotropolis
Having gone for a long walk since exiting the Robian Lodge Building, Lien-Da did what she could to clear her thoughts from the arguing beforehand. By the time she found herself facing a large monitor on the middle section of a Robotnik-designed complex, Lien-Da felt that the only thing keeping her from returning to Sonic and Tails was the uncertainty on whether they had relaxed since then themselves, or not.
'I guess I can ask Sally what Tails likes to eat other than chili dogs,' she thought to herself in a kind of compromise. The chili dogs would be an obvious fix for Sonic, of course.
Taking a pause in her move to Castle Acorn before it would begin, a sudden thought came to Lien-Da as she realized something. Ever since she truly saw Sonic without any antimatter coating his body, she had been inexplicably drawn to the hedgehog, and right then, wanted to apologize to both him and the youngest of their group with gifts no less. Thinking it over, the whole thing reminded Lien-Da of what the texts she read back in the Twilight Cage described the Soultouch to be like.
The immediate reaction to that line of spiritualist thinking, was for Lien-Da to scoff dismissively. Her and Sonic? That was the stuff of insanity. He already had a thing for a princess, so what would be the point?
'That is the case, right,' the echidna thought to herself as she uncertainly frowned at the exact moment the nearby monitor turned on to reveal an unexpected individual that prompted Lien-Da to incredulously exclaim, "Robotnik?!"
"Attention, Freedom Fighters," the Robotnik on the screen announced with a condescending smirk. "You may think you have beaten me, but I haven't even begun to fight back! In fact, if I can't have Mobius, neither will you! For my last act from beyond the grave, I will unleash my army of SWATbots and other assorted mechanoids to totally devastate, demolish, and just plain turn Mobius into a wasteland!"
While Lien-Da had gotten the idea that Robotnik set up a pre-recorded message meant to be played in his absence, she could not resist scoffing how his doomsday plan was already ruined due to the SWATbots and other machines being kept within a forcefield. Unfortunately, she then remembered about the Robians in their separate building, and that Sonic and Tails were right there with them.
Using her electricity to run at top speed, the female echidna heard a computerized alarm go off with the following announcement on repeat. "Attention! Operation Wasteland shall now commence!"
Upon catching the Lodge Building in her sight, Lien-Da felt relief at seeing it standing still, but quickly became worried upon seeing Sonic and Tails running out at a panicked speed. "You guys," she called out to them, and they both gestured with their hands for her to slow down.
Once she did so, Sonic was the first to speak, saying, "Lien, please tell me you or the Princess have a plan for this Operation Wasteland thing!"
"Hadn't thought that far yet," Lien hastily responded, and then asked, "What's going on in there?"
Tails was about to answer just when several Robians crashed the building's entrances and walls alike, prompting the two-tailed fox to say, if unsurely, "Uh, that among other things?"
"Operation Wasteland is now in effect," one Robian hedgehog, the mustached Sir Charles no less, stated in a drone-like manner of speech.
Another roboticized hedgehog, Sonic's own father, then added, "Directive, destroy everything in sight!"
"Leave no stone or hedgehog unturned," a third, who was clearly of feminine build, then inputted in a warlike frenzy.
Lien-Da could see Sonic raise a questioning finger up, saying, "Uh, Mom, there's something about what you said that reminds of boomerangs, but I forgot the punchline."
"What," Lien-Da flatly remarked just as all three Mobians heard a mechanical growing sound that revealed the Mobini dog, Muttski, preparing to jump right at them.
[A]
Took a great deal of time and concentration, but the positive reception An Atomizing Appearance has been receiving prompted me to make another update, which I successfully did.
Anyway, as I am sure you all can understand from reading the whole thing, dialogue and otherwise, there are certain changes happening now that Mobotropolis has been reclaimed by the Knothole Freedom Fighters and friends much earlier than it did in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series. In time, I plan to go through a chapter via Rotor and Antoine's perspectives while they look for the latter's father, but that is for the future, of course.
Other than that, I hope you did not mind my humanizing of Lien-Da. It may seem contradictory, but it is easy to forget that this Lien-Da is not in her thirties like in the actual comics, so she can still be influenced by others to be more empathetic and such. All the same, be ready for when I eventually offer up Chapter Five of An Atomizing Appearance.