A/N: You ever think you have something important to say at the beginning of the chapter but then you either forget and don't have anything, and then it comes out awkward when don't say anything since you've been having opening author's notes for over 40 chapters? Yeah, that's me right now, but it's okay. I do, however, have a lot to say in the closing author's notes, including a pretty important announcement I need to make. While it is serious, it won't impact my work on this story and I'll keep writing chapters like normal.
Also, sorry it's been two months since my last update, this chapter has been seriously difficult for me to write, especially one particular scene. Also, just a heads up that there's a couple small parts that readers might find unpleasant, but I tried not to go into details. More on those in the ending author's notes.
On the bright side, yesterday I discovered a pair of Sonic X stories by zman123, called "Tails, do you hate me for stealing Sonic?" and "Chris' first mission". I love them so much because they nail the characters spot-on. In fact, the first aforementioned story has some of the best characterization of Tails that I have ever seen in any story! It's definitely up there with Blue Hedgehog Psychology, My Brother's Keeper - re:TUNED, and A Bridge Between Worlds. While I'm at it, check out those stories too!
I would like to thank Elizamed and Dragon Titan 1 for favoriting and following since my last chapter!
Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!
12 Reviews
The Counting Reviewer [account is now deleted]
Thank you for making Chaos on Earth your 141st fanfic!
Super duper waffles
1: I did occasionally think about that, but Sonic's world is called Mobius in my headcanon. Sometimes it could be called Earth by the humans, but only because "falling to the earth" sounds better than "falling to the Mobius". But yeah, everyone on Sonic's planet calls it Mobius otherwise.
2: Sonic has been to New York City a few times while he was on Earth, and yes, it does remind him of Empire City a little bit, except somehow more crowded.
3: I'm not sure who the President before Remerson was, but without actually getting political here, he is of the opposite party from Remerson, and Jerome Wise was first appointed by him.
D.J. Scales
Thanks!
Unfortunately I don't consider Sonic Chronicles to be canon in my headcanon, but Jerome picked Emerl because he considered him to be effective while not being potentially cliche like Metal Sonic.
soberan 123
I agree, Jerome is definitely careless, especially since he seems to be acting outside of Eggman's plan.
gregorian12
Yikes… Fortunately for Jerome, Metal Sonic wasn't sent to Earth along with Eggman and everyone else. And it's true, Jerome does tend to jump to conclusions a bit. Eggman's gonna be so mad when he finds out that he used the Phantom Ruby without his permission!
snake screamer
I'm sure it'll still have some kind of psychological impact on everyone, especially since Sonic Chronicles is not canon in my headcanon.
And Jerome probably does find it suspicious, but even then, Eggman did have a decent security system, but being around him a lot, Jerome started to learn the codes. However, I wouldn't doubt that Eggman knows this.
I have my hopes up that Jerome will get his just desserts. Who knows, it might not go down the way you think! ;)
DBDebehi01
See ending author's notes for my reply.
iron maker1
I love seeing everyone's thoughts about Jerome and what he's up to, because this is when his true colors are starting to show.
Bloated corpse
I'm debating about either reusing the original Seedrian / Metarex backstory that the anime gave us, or using a new one, because we don't know who the Seedrians were fighting against, although it's probably safe to say it's an animal species of some sort. Earthia may be particularly challenging for me to work with, depending on which scenario I pick.
Jerome doesn't seem to be that smart. Even if you think you can crack the Eggman, in the end, the Eggman will crack you. If he's not careful, he'll find out the hard way.
Five-Chosen (first review)
Thanks! I'll go back and fix that as soon as I post this chapter. Sometimes it's tricky to keep track of five or more characters in a single scene.
I knew I had to fix Lindsey because she couldn't go forever thinking Cream was just a girl in a costume. Take episode 27 for example, she asked Cream when she was going to get out of her "costume". That episode took place a whole six months since episode 26, which in turn was at least a few weeks to a few months since the Mobians arrived. It's unrealistic for her to be completely oblivious for that long.
Five-Chosen (second review)
That's a very interesting idea to bring the Babylon Rogues into the Metarex Saga! I'll definitely consider it, although I don't know if they'll be going into space in my story.
CreativeKitty975
To be honest, I was surprised too when I thought of those possibilities with the Corona Corundum all of a sudden, especially the energy amplifier part. I had name-dropped it a few times, but I didn't really know what to do with it, but now I do!
Chapter 41
Episode 43
Mechapocalypse
Thorndyke Mansion - Chris' room - Thu February 17, 4:45 AM – Chris' POV
My eyes shot open, and it took me a moment to collect my bearings. I had been sleeping so soundly up until now. But glancing around my room, the first thing I noticed was it was still dark out.
I didn't know what woke me up, but something didn't feel right deep down. Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't stress. In fact, I had been feeling quite happy for the past few days now that Eggman was arrested and the sun was finally shining once again. So the feeling I had definitely wasn't stress.
But whatever it was was making me sick. It reminded me of when I got off the roller coaster at Six Flags after at least three rides.
And then it hit me.
As I slowly sat up in bed, I pinpointed the uneasy feeling as coming from deep within my stomach. I sat there for a moment, monitoring it and hoping I could just ride it out and go back to sleep without any problems. Except the feeling didn't go away. In fact, it was slowly starting to get worse. Panic filled my mind as I realized I was about to throw up!
I immediately threw my blankets aside and bolted for the bathroom, only just then remembering that I had a garbage can in my room that I could have used instead. However, the toilet was the first thing I thought of, as well as the only thing on my mind.
I made it to the bathroom, turned on the light, and lifted the toilet lid just in time as my stomach heaved.
After about thirty seconds, I was left panting, and I shakily wiped away the sweat and tears from my face. I didn't know how I had possibly gotten sick. In fact, no one I knew had the flu…
Until I remembered Frances. Last Friday, she told me she had been feeling a little under the weather, and I heard that she had gotten the flu the next day. And now I had it too.
While I was waiting to see if my stomach was finished churning, I glanced in the mirror. Judging from my pale, fatigued expression, I definitely looked sick. There were still remnants of tears in my eyes, and the blood vessels under them were broken and red, not to mention I felt a little chilly all over. It didn't feel cold though…
After about a minute, I figured my stomach was calm enough for me to be able to return to bed safely, but I didn't think I would be able to go back to sleep again. And even if I did try and pull an all-nighter, I didn't have any energy to do anything.
I finally stepped out of the bathroom, realizing how weak I felt. However, I was startled when I saw a pair of softly glowing blue eyes in the hall several feet away from where I was standing, and my heart jumped. Then I realized it was just Tails.
"Uh, d-did I startle you?" I asked quietly, realizing that my voice sounded weak too.
Tails shook his head. "Are you okay?" he asked just as quietly.
"Not really, I think I have the flu…" I admitted, placing a hand on my stomach, hoping it would stay calm for the rest of the night.
"You probably picked it up from Frances…" Tails thought aloud. "Since I remember you saying she was sick too."
"Yeah…" I said.
"Try and get some rest if you can and take it easy tomorrow," Tails told me as he stepped aside for me. "And don't worry about me, 'cuz Mobians are immune to most human sicknesses."
"That's good," I said as I slowly made it back to my room. I already knew that beforehand, but I felt comforted that he reminded me of that fact again now.
"If you need to, um… throw up again…" Tails apprehensively said, "you may wanna get the garbage can next to your desk."
"Okay, good idea," I said as I approached my desk. It took more effort than usual for me to walk because I felt weak from the flu, but I made it to my desk and grabbed the garbage can before flopping down onto the bed, letting the can slip from my hand.
Instant regret. That took a lot more energy than I was prepared for.
Right as Tails took the garbage can and set it upright next to my bed, we heard something metal slamming onto the ground outside. My heart leaped in my chest, and Tails' namesakes poofed out to almost twice their side as he took a startled step back.
"What was that?" I asked.
"I-I don't know," Tails admitted. "I'll check."
"I wanna see too," I said as I pushed myself out of bed and shuffled to the window.
"Chris, you– you don't have to–"
That was when I saw what was lying out on the patio near the pool.
"Is that a robot…?"
"A robot…?" Tails asked, looking confused and a bit concerned. "I thought Eggman was in jail."
"He is…" I said. "Or at least, I think he is still."
He approached me and stood on his tiptoes to look out the window. He was now just tall enough to see over the ledge and down below.
He let out a gasp.
"That's… That's Emerl!"
"What?" I asked in confusion and concern. "You know him?"
As soon as I looked over, Tails was already opening the door and flying down to the patio where the swimming pools were. My curiosity was getting the better of me, and I couldn't just stand around and not know what was going on. I followed Tails out onto the balcony and looked down at Tails as he thoroughly inspected the robot.
"But… There's no way this is the real Emerl," Tails mused. "He was destroyed a long time ago… And his code is part of Gemerl now. I'm thinking this has to be a Phantom Ruby illusion." He looked back up at me. "But I don't know what to do with him… I have a bad feeling about this."
"M-Maybe he came here from the Egg Carrier," I speculated, holding onto the railing for support so I wouldn't fall.
"I was thinking the same thing," Tails said as he bent down over Emerl again. It was quiet for a moment while I watched him working.
"What are you looking for?" I asked, probably a little too quietly. However, Tails' ears twitched, which meant he heard me anyway.
"A way to open his maintenance panel," Tails explained. "I wanna see if he's put together the same way as the original, but… this Emerl feels a lot less real than–"
Suddenly a blue glow shone from Emerl's face, and Tails yelped and scrambled backwards. I peered closer, and I saw that the blue glow was coming from the robot's eyes.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, blue means neutral," Tails said, nervously rubbing the back of his head as he stood up. "Hey Chris, can you– oh wait, never mind."
"What was it?" I asked as Tails flew back up toward me. He landed next to me and looked back down over the railing at Emerl.
"I was gonna ask if you could open the door down there, but… I realized it was kinda redundant, and also, you're sick," Tails responded.
"It's okay," I said, before my attention was diverted to movement from the patio below us. I was surprised to see the robot stand up and twirl its arms behind itself at an impossibly fast speed. Then it levitated into the air and flew toward us at a surprising pace. I took a startled step back as it hovered over the railing and landed on the balcony in front of us.
"H-How did it do that?" I asked, feeling a sudden chill ripple through my body.
"Emerl can copy people's abilities," Tails explained, glancing at Emerl. "Which makes him a pretty good fighter."
Kinda like Kirby, I thought for a moment.
"Wait, are you saying Emerald or…?" I asked in confusion.
"No, Emerl," Tails gently corrected. "Without a D. It's okay, I kinda had the same mix-up myself when I first met him. Also, I just realized– huh?"
I was on my way back to bed because I felt a sudden wave of weakness hit me. I felt bad for leaving Tails while he was talking to me, but I had to get rest. I almost didn't make it before my legs gave way and I collapsed onto my mattress. I felt exhausted, not to mention frustrated with myself.
"What happened? You okay?" Tails asked as he came back inside. Emerl followed him.
"I feel weak…" I admitted as I slowly climbed back into bed and tried to make myself comfortable. "Wait… if Emerl is a trap, then how come we're bringing him inside?"
"I… You know… I don't know," Tails realized, glancing at the yellow-orange robot who was standing there behind him. "Um… I know he used to be our friend back then, but…"
"What if he's like a Trojan horse or something?" I asked, sitting up in bed.
Tails tilted his head slightly in confusion. "What's a Trojan horse?" he asked me.
"Like…" I thought for a moment about how to explain it, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling rising in my stomach again. "What if Emerl is just a decoy for something really bad to happen?" I clarified.
"Oh," Tails said, realizing what I meant. "Well, if that's the case, I'm gonna stay up and watch and make sure nothing happens. And also, there are security cameras everywhere, so they can always catch something I don't."
"Okay, that's–" my voice trailed off as I felt the familiar uncomfortable feeling getting worse.
"You haven't said anything yet…" I heard Tails musing as he walked around Emerl. "I know you could talk before, but–"
The moment he looked back at me, his eyes widened in concern, and right as I reached for the trash can, he scurried outside and covered his ears for privacy. I felt bad for making him run off.
When I was finished a moment later, I apprehensively held the bucket, wondering if I was going to throw up any more. Fortunately, I didn't, and Tails cautiously stepped back inside a minute later.
"…You okay…?" he asked, his ears folded down slightly.
"I don't know…" I quietly said as I set the bucket back down on the floor next to my bed. "I hate being sick…"
I was trembling from the force of vomiting, plus I still felt chills running through my skin despite feeling like I was burning up on the inside. Tails approached me and gently gave me a hug, and I returned it, folding my arms around him. It felt so good to have a hug now. Even though Tails said he was immune to most human sicknesses, it didn't stop me from feeling like I could potentially spread the flu to him.
"It's going to be okay, Chris," Tails told me. "We'll take good care of you, okay?"
"Okay," I said as Tails let go and took a step back, glancing away from the bucket near him. "Sorry I scared you…"
"You didn't scare me," Tails said with a smile. "I was just going outside to give you some privacy. Besides… it, um… kinda grosses me out a bit…" he nervously admitted.
"It's okay, me too," I said.
"But yeah, in case Emerl is a trap, protecting you is gonna be our number one priority," Tails declared.
He was right. I couldn't really do anything in my position since I was both sick and tired. In fact, it hurt just thinking about running in case Emerl decided to attack any of us. But since Tails and the rest of my friends were immune to the flu, they would have no trouble protecting me and the rest of my family from anything.
"Thank you," I said as I tried to lie back down.
Tails smiled and gave me a thumbs-up before turning to the door. Emerl followed him.
"O-Oh wait, is Emerl gonna stay with you?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on him though," Tails said. "And then figure out what to do with him tomorrow. For some reason, he should be able to speak, but… Maybe that part of him's broken. I'll check it out tomorrow."
"Okay," I said. I rolled onto my side to see if I would feel any better and huddled even closer to my blankets. "I don't know if I can go back to sleep…"
"I understand," Tails said with sympathy. "It's good to try and get some rest at least."
"Yeah… You're right…" I quietly mumbled.
After we exchanged good nights, Tails closed the door and left with Emerl, and I closed my eyes, hoping that I would be able to get some semblance of sleep. It was excruciating to cope with my upset stomach. It felt like I needed the bucket again at some point. I had my phone with me so I could kill time with Candy Crush, but I was too tired and sore to bother with it. It wasn't my first time dealing with the flu, but I still couldn't help feeling helpless. At least I was grateful to my friends for helping me.
Thorndyke Mansion - Kitchen - Thu February 17, 9:33 AM – Third-person POV
Breakfast preparations were in full swing the next morning. Vanilla was preparing chicken noodle soup for Chris while Ella was making omelets and bacon for everyone else. Chuck was out in the lab taking a look at Emerl, and Sonic was out on his usual morning run, but he told everyone he'd be back before breakfast. The rest of the family, except for Chris, were gradually gathering at the dining room table.
By now everyone knew that Chris was not feeling well, and Cream in particular was worried about him. She wanted to go upstairs and check on him, but her mother was worried that she would get sick too, especially since she was still young. However, that did not stop her from taking out some crayons and paper and making some get well soon art for him.
In the dining room, Tails had just finished telling the others about Emerl.
"I thought he was destroyed…!" Amy said in surprise.
"Me too," Cream said thoughtfully, looking up from her art.
"He's a Phantom Ruby illusion, he's not real," Tails clarified. "I know that because I couldn't find a clear way into his control panel last night." He looked down. "I don't know why he's here though… Like, I know it's a trap… but…"
"He was really nice when we knew him," Cream said, looking up from her drawing. "It was sad that he… you know… d-died…"
"Yeah, I know…" Tails agreed. "But at least all the good parts of his programming were incorporated into Gemerl."
"Oh yeah!" Cream realized. "I wonder if he's doing okay back home?" she wondered before resuming her masterpiece.
"If we play our cards right, we'll be seeing him again real soon," Tails said with a smile.
Amy, on the other hand, was deep in thought over all this. At last, she looked up at Tails, who was sitting at her right.
"I don't know what to do either," she admitted. "'Cuz if he really is a Phantom Ruby illusion… then this is personal now."
"I know, and that's what's bothering me," Tails admitted, looking down in thought.
"Like, what's Eggman's game?" Amy asked rhetorically. "What's the point of him just… dumping Emerl on us?"
"I know just as much as you do, Amy," Tails said.
Just then they heard the side door open, and two pairs of footsteps approached the dining room. In walked Chuck, but Cream let out a gasp when she saw the other figure who was with him.
"Emerl! It really is you, Emerl!" she cheered. She got up and ran toward him, giving the robot a big hug.
Chuck smiled at the heartwarming moment between them before turning his attention to Tails.
"You know, even if he's just a Phantom Ruby illusion, he felt quite real to me when I took a look at him just now," he explained as he took a seat across from his Mobian friend. "Although I couldn't figure out a way to get into his maintenance panel."
"Me neither, I tried that last night," Tails told him.
"Tails, you told me he could speak, but he didn't say anything the whole time he was in the lab," Chuck said.
"He didn't say anything when I found him either," Tails said, glancing at the robot on the other side of the dining room as Cream spoke with him. "He feels… I don't know… incomplete, maybe?"
"Incomplete how?" Amy asked.
"Like…" Tails paused, closing his eyes for a moment as he searched for the right word. "Like Eggman didn't fully process his data when he was making a copy of him."
"Because it's not Eggman who's behind this," Chuck added. Tails nodded.
"So you're telling me Jerome tried to use the Phantom Ruby all by himself?" Amy asked incredulously. "Doesn't he know how hard it is to do that?"
"He probably does," Tails speculated. "I don't know if it was part of Eggman's plan to begin with or if Jerome did this on his own, but either way, we did meet Emerl a little while after we met Shadow back then."
"True," Amy agreed. "And also… how did he even get access to it anyway? I assume Eggman's keeping it under lock and key somewhere."
"That I don't know," Tails shrugged, glancing at Emerl again.
"Is that another one of those Phantom Ruby clones?" Ella asked from the kitchen above the noise of sizzling eggs.
"It is, but this one seems to be different," Chuck explained as he carefully watched Emerl, who was gradually warming up to Cream. His eyes remained blue, which meant he was docile.
"I heard what y'all were saying," Ella continued. "It landed out by the pool last night."
"Yeah, me and Chris found him out there," Tails confirmed, glancing at Ella.
Ella watched Emerl for a moment before turning around and heading back into to the kitchen. "I don't know about you, but this can only mean trouble," she said.
"It's okay Miss Ella, Emerl is really nice!" Cream told her, having overheard the maid.
"And I see you two are getting along very well already," Ella said with a smile. "I'm not telling you to get rid of him, I'm just saying you should be careful. The other Phantom Ruby clones were nothing but trouble for all of us."
"Okay, Miss Ella!" Cream said as she returned to playing with Emerl.
"We'll keep a close eye on him, I promise," Tails told her.
Mr. Tanaka made sure Emerl was out of earshot before stepping forward.
"If there is a single incident where Emerl misbehaves, I suggest we get rid of it," he opined.
"Good call," Chuck said. "I hate to think about doing something like that, but considering it came from Eggman, I 100% agree with you."
Meanwhile, Emerl, Cream, Cheese, and Chocola had moved into the living room, where the two Chao were flittering around the robot, inspecting it.
"Chao chao chao!" Cheese chirped after a moment.
Cream smiled. "He does look a lot like Gemerl back home, doesn't he, Cheese?" she said. Turning to Emerl, she added, "You can stay with us, but can you please promise me you won't do any bad things?"
To her delight, Emerl gave a small nod. This surprised the others in the dining room a little bit.
"That's very kind of you, Cream," Chuck said with a smile. "But just keep in mind that it could be dangerous."
"It's okay Mr. Chuck, I'll be very careful," Cream promised. Chuck smiled.
"A Phantom Ruby illusion with genuine emotions…?" Tails thought aloud back in the dining room.
"Or Eggman just trying to keep his cover," Amy whispered.
"Oh yeah, true," Tails realized. "I really hate having to not trust him… especially since he hasn't done anything wrong yet… but Eggman and Jerome are the ones with the Phantom Ruby, and they never used it for anything good."
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this in front of Emerl," Amy suggested. "It'll make him feel bad, even though he's an illusion… and a robot."
"Yeah, good point," Tails noted. "Sorry about that…"
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Cream realized as she ran back to her place in the dining room. With one small hop, she grabbed her now-finished art from off the table and ran for the stairs. On her way there, she ran into her mother who was on her way back into the kitchen, having just delivered Chris' chicken noodle soup to him.
"Please be careful, dear, Chris is sick," Vanilla gently told her.
"I will, Mama, I promise!" Cream called as she flew up the stairs, accompanied by her two Chao.
"She'll be fine," Amy told her with a smile, having overheard them. "After all, Mobians don't get sick the way humans do… uh, no offense to humans."
"Okay, I was just checking in case humans here are different than humans back home," Vanilla said. "But that's very good to hear in that case."
"Earth humans are not that different in general," Amy shrugged. "I mean, Mobians and humans live together in harmony on the same planet. Kinda like the Muppets," she added with a giggle. "Most of the time, we live in our own pockets of the planet, but there are still a bunch of cities where both humans and Mobians live. Although… it's more common that Mobians go in the human parts of the world than it is for humans to go in the Mobian parts."
"Because everything's smaller in your part of the world in relation to humans?" Chuck asked quizzically.
"Well yeah, kinda…" Amy said.
"We still have humans, it's just… not really that common," Tails said. "But there's another reason why."
"Why is that?" Chuck asked, concern etching into his features.
"There was a time where humans were, um… not that great," Tails explained, thinking of the right words. "During the Great War when we all fought Eggman for the first time, the humans stayed neutral even though the Mobians wanted them to help us defeat him."
"We begged them for help," Amy added.
"Yeah…" Tails looked down. "We really suffered… That was back when the humans had a different President. Things are a lot better now, and we made amends… but we felt really sore back then. Especially this guy named Geoffrey St. John. He was the head of the king's Secret Service. He did not like humans at all… I think it's because Eggman's a human and they could have done something to stop him from rising to power… but they didn't. Geoffrey's kind of the reason we didn't like humans at first. I'm glad we made up and things got better."
"That sounds rough," Chuck said. "I didn't know your world has those kinds of problems too."
"It's not a big deal now, obviously," Tails shrugged. "Poor leadership was the issue. They have a new President who's a lot better than the old one."
"So is it correct for me to assume… that the reason humans don't go over in the Mobian parts of the world all that much is because they still feel responsible for the heavy losses the Mobians suffered?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah, that's exactly it," Amy said. "But they don't have to worry anymore 'cuz they know we'll always welcome them with open arms!"
"Yeah, we won't bite!" Tails added with a chuckle.
"Even with all the dangers you talk about, I can't wait to travel to your world some day," Chuck said. "Every time you talk about it, you make it sound like paradise."
As he was saying that, Ella and Vanilla brought breakfast into the dining room and set several plates of eggs, bacon, and toast down in front of everyone.
"Yeah, there are so many cool places you should check out!" Tails said with a big smile. "Emerald Coast, Mushroom Hill…"
As they enjoyed breakfast, they continued chatting about what life and the scenery was like on Mobius, and the more Chuck listened, the more he found himself wanting to go there and see it for himself.
Thorndyke Mansion - Upstairs - Thu February 17, 9:38 AM – Third-person POV
Cream made it to the top of the stairs with her artwork and quietly crept toward Chris' bedroom so she wouldn't accidentally scare him. Cheese and Chocola didn't have to make an effort to stay quiet because the flapping of their fairy-like wings was almost noiseless.
A moment later, she gently knocked on Chris' door.
"May I come in?" she asked.
"You can," she heard Chris weakly say from the other side.
She reached up to the doorknob, but she found that she was too short. Luckily, Cheese floated over and turned the doorknob for her, allowing her to enter the room. Cheese slowly pushed the door open, and he and Chocola flew in after Cream. Carefully hiding her picture behind her back, Cream approached Chris, who was slowly consuming the chicken noodle soup that Vanilla had given him.
"Hi, Mr. Chris," she said sweetly.
Chris looked over at her, and while he was still visibly sick, his expression softened at Cream's gentle smile. He noticed that she was holding something behind her back.
"What do you have there, Cream?" he quietly asked. In response, Cream proudly held her masterpiece up for Chris to see. The boy gently took it and looked at it.
It was quite masterful considering it was a get well soon art. Drawn nearly entirely in crayon, Cream had drawn Chris and all his friends playing outside in the backyard. Everyone looked so happy. Sure, some of the crayons went outside the lines a little, but what truly mattered was Cream poured her heart into it, and Cream could see by Chris' expression that he couldn't love it more.
"Thank you," Chris said, feeling a lot better on the inside now. "I really like it."
"You're welcome!" Cream said, beaming. She was very happy that Chris liked her drawing. "I want to hug you so much, but… my mama doesn't want me to get sick…" She looked down. "I'm sorry…"
"It's okay," Chris said, sitting up more in bed while holding on to his bowl so that it wouldn't spill. "I understand."
Cream's expression softened. "It's sad that you can't have breakfast with us…" she softly lamented. "But it's good that you can still have soup though. My mama makes the best soup in the whole wide world! And so does Miss Ella!"
Chris nodded. His spirits were lifted now thanks to Cream's unwavering positivity and kindness. Cream took a step back as she prepared to make her way out of the room.
"Mr. Chris…? If you're feeling sad… just think about all of us and all the happy times we have together, and you'll feel a lot better."
"Okay," he said quietly. "Thank you, Cream."
"Get well soon!" Cream said with a bright smile on her way out of the room. "Then you can play with us again, and my picture can happen in real life!"
With the help of her two Chao, she gently closed the door. She was filled with warm feelings as she skipped back down the hall toward the stairs. It always made her happy to cheer up her friends and help them to feel better.
"Thank you for helping me with the door, Cheese and Chocola," Cream said.
"Chao chao!" Cheese responded.
But as she was halfway down the stairs, she was suddenly startled at the sound of propellers beating the air somewhere above the house.
"Chao?" Chocola was confused.
"Oh! That's Chris' mommy and daddy!" Cream realized, before she paused in thought. "But… they didn't tell anyone they were coming…"
"Chao…" Cheese agreed.
Even though she and all her friends were on Chris' dad's yacht on New Year's Day, they never met him in person on that day, so the last time she saw him was when he came home to help with the cleanup after Perfect Chaos, and even then he was only there for a short time.
As she ran the rest of the way down the stairs and through the living room on her way back toward the dining room, the propellers gradually stopped, and everything was quiet once again. She could breathe a little easier now because they had been a bit too loud for her sensitive ears.
"The masters have arrived," she could hear Mr. Tanaka say as she returned to the others. "I shall prepare to let them in."
"Impeccable timing," Chuck said, standing up as he prepared to follow Tanaka out of the room. "They're just in time for breakfast."
"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing," Amy agreed. "Did you make enough food for them too, Ella?"
"Of course, dear," Ella said with a smile. "You never know when you might have an unexpected guest." It was especially true in the case of the other-worlders, and most recently Emerl last night.
Cream looked back at Emerl, realizing something felt different about him.
"Emerl, you haven't said anything yet," she said gently, trying to hide her look of concern. "Is everything okay…?"
"He doesn't talk for some reason," Tails told her from his seat in the dining room. "I don't know why…"
"Oh… That is very strange…" Cream thought aloud.
"He can still copy abilities though," Tails continued. "I guess it doesn't require a lot of effort for him since he's a Phantom Ruby illusion. It's all pre-programmed into him. Actually, I use that term pretty loosely, because he's technically not real."
"Oh! Sonic's gonna be late for breakfast!" Amy realized, looking up at the clock on the wall.
"It's okay, he can always grab something later," Tails told her. "He usually does that when he's running late. No big deal–"
"Nelson! You're impossible!"
Everyone flinched at Chuck's uncharacteristically stern tone, especially Tails, who let out an involuntary squeak of fright and sat up straighter in his chair. He wasn't expecting it at all, especially since he was still talking.
"But you seriously left the company in a state of disorder just to see Chris?" Chuck asked Nelson as they entered the room, along with a surprised Mr. Tanaka. "That's the second time recently! Look, it's okay for you to take time off to see Chris, but you have to make sure the company is in such a state so that everything will run smoothly while you're on official leave."
"I know, I thought about that in hindsight at least," Nelson said, sounding a bit flustered as he made his way into the kitchen to get some coffee. "But it's been too long since I saw Chris in person, and frankly, I have to make it up to him as a father."
"But you just saw him last November when the house got flooded, remember?" Chuck said.
"I know, but that wasn't on my own terms," Nelson told him.
"Nelson, look at me," Chuck told him. Nelson looked up from the coffee machine where he was preparing his usual caffeinated brew. "You're starting to get a bit careless here. Last time you forgot to let the rest of the corporate team know you were going on official leave to assist with disaster relief. You were lucky Miranda caught wind of it and took the reigns from there. But now you made the same mistake again!"
"But Dad–"
"Don't you 'but dad' me! You are the CEO of one of the biggest companies in America. It's your responsibility to make sure things run smoothly, even when you're absent. Believe me, I've been in your shoes before, and I've learned a valuable lesson about order when it comes to these things."
"Dad," Lindsey spoke up. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but don't you think you're being a bit harsh on him?"
Chuck thought for a moment, before looking down.
"You're right…" he admitted. "I guess I'm just a bit cautious about these things. It's like how I felt when Nelson was first driving and I was in the passenger's seat all those years ago."
"It's fine, you were just worried about me is all," Nelson said. "I'll try not to let that happen again."
"I'm sorry I snapped, Son," Chuck said. "I'm just concerned about the state of the company in your absence."
"What's the latest on Chris?" Lindsey asked, turning to Ella.
"Poor bambino is feeling a little worse now," Ella told her as she finished preparing the table for breakfast. "So Miss Vanilla gave him some nice hot chicken noodle soup to calm his stomach."
"That's good to hear, I hope he feels better soon," Lindsey said in sympathy, before she had a double take. "…Hold on, who's Vanilla?"
"That's me," the adult Mobian bunny said as she stepped forward out of the kitchen. "I'm Cream's mother."
"Ohh yes, I remember Ella telling me about you," Lindsey realized. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vanilla."
"Please, just call me Vanilla," she said modestly with a smile.
"He seems to have picked up the flu from Frances at school," Ella told Lindsey, "so it must be something that's going around."
"It's flu season again, isn't it?" Lindsey noted as she sat down at the table. "I hate to see my baby boy sick like this… I'll go upstairs and check up on him."
"I'll be there in a moment," Nelson called after her as he set his coffee down at his place at the table. His eyes wandered in the direction of the living room. "So who's that over there? Did you build a new robot?" he asked Chuck.
"Oh, Emerl?" Chuck asked, looking at the golden-yellow robot standing nearby. "Uh, not exactly. Tails found it outside and brought it in, and we were working on refurbishing it, but there still seem to be a lot of unanswered questions.
Nelson blinked. "Now did you say Emerald, or–"
"Emerl, there's no D," Chuck explained. "How did you say he got his name again, Tails?"
"Oh, Sonic named him that 'cuz he's powered by Chaos Emeralds," Tails explained, looking over at the robot as it blissfully interacted with Cream. "But…"
"But what?" Nelson asked.
"He's… not exactly real…" Tails explained hesitantly. "It's kinda a delicate situation. On the one hand, he's acting friendly and he hasn't done anything bad at all since last night. On the other hand… he's not even a real robot. He's a Phantom Ruby illusion sent here by Eggman– actually, it's by Jerome Wise. Eggman's in prison."
"Phantom Ruby illusion?" Nelson asked. "Is– Is this Eggman trying to infiltrate us?"
"I don't know," Tails said. "That's why it's a delicate situation. And it's technically not even Eggman this time."
"I'm just glad that menace is off our streets," Nelson said, leaning against the wall. "It's been pretty hectic with security at work lately. He's been keeping us on our toes 'cuz we didn't know if he was going to use us as a front for his schemes. Anyway, I'll be back down, just gonna go see Chris for a bit. You guys go ahead and eat, don't wait up."
Tails didn't once take his eyes off Emerl as Nelson headed up the stairs. Cream was showing the robot how to draw pictures with crayons. Even though Emerl was a robot, it didn't stop her from trying.
"You know, we could try sparring with Emerl after breakfast and test his limits," Tails said as he took his first bite of his eggs.
"Good idea," Amy said, looking back from Emerl to Tails. "But if it's a perfect copy, we may end up in a standstill every time 'cuz it can copy our skills perfectly."
"True," Tails shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to try though. Like I said before, it feels like this illusion in particular is… unstable somehow. It's not like the other illusions we saw in the last few months."
Suddenly Cream yelped and took a few startled steps back into the living room.
"Cream, what's wrong?" Amy asked, getting up.
"I saw a spider…" Cream admitted, nervously looking in the direction of the couch. "It's gone now."
"Where is it?" Mr. Tanaka said as he stepped into the living room. Cream pointed behind the couch.
As the butler went to find it, Cream returned to the table and sat between her mom and Amy.
"Everything smells very good, Miss Ella," Cream complimented the maid.
"Chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola chimed in.
"Thank you, dear," Ella replied with a smile as she too made her way to her seat and sat down.
"Hey Mr. Tanaka, don't sweat it if you can't find the spider," Amy called.
"I do take the utmost care in ensuring that this home is spider-free, but unfortunately I couldn't find it," Tanaka responded as he returned to the dining room and joined them.
"Maybe it really is gone," Cream said.
"I hope so…" Ella shuddered. "I hate spiders."
"Me too…" Amy admitted, before looking at the empty seat across from her next to Chuck's seat. "It's weird not having Chris here with us."
"I know…" Ella said in a sad tone. "I'll see how he's feeling later. Hopefully he'll be able to hold the soup down, and if he's feeling better by tonight, I can move him on to some solid food."
Soon afterward, Chris' parents returned to the table, and as everyone enjoyed breakfast, the conversation revolved around work at Starship soft, Lindsey's latest movies, Eggman in prison, and Emerl.
"So what's everyone's plans for today?" Nelson asked as they finished eating almost thirty minutes later.
"I'm gonna wrap up fixing some bugs in the X-Tornado's new TV system," Tails said, "and then after that, I still need to finish setting up internet access on the comlinks. I keep putting that off for some reason."
"Hold on, the X-Tornado has TV?" Nelson asked in interest.
"Yeah, in case we're going on a long trip and anyone gets bored," Tails shrugged. "It already has its own internet, as well as charging ports that are made for this world."
Nelson chuckled. "You keep thinking of everything!" he said in an impressed tone.
Tails rubbed behind his head with nervous laughter. "It wasn't just me, Chuck helped out with a lot of things," he replied modestly. "I couldn't have programmed the modem just right without him. And same with Chris, he told me the plane should have four seats. He's a lifesaver!"
Meanwhile, Ella, Vanilla, and Tanaka were clearing the dishes from the table. Vanilla got out Tupperware for the leftovers while Tanaka loaded the dishwasher.
"I'm thinking about making something Chris will enjoy, maybe his favorite cherry pie," Ella said as she brought the last of the plates into the kitchen. "But it might not be so good for his stomach this early on with his flu."
"I hear ginger ale is supposed to be gentle for upset stomachs," Vanilla suggested.
"That's true," Ella said. "I'll go get him some now."
She pulled on the fridge door handle, but the door didn't seem to open.
"Hm… That's strange…" she mused as she pulled harder. No matter how hard she pulled, the fridge door would not open for her.
"Does the fridge have an automatic locking feature?" Vanilla asked, noticing Ella struggling with the door.
"No, it doesn't," Ella said after another moment. "There's no reason it should–"
Suddenly both the fridge and freezer doors violently threw themselves open, launching Ella backward, and she stumbled across the kitchen floor with a yelp of fright. She would have fallen and possibly injured herself had Tanaka not been there to catch her. Just as quickly as the doors had opened, they slammed shut again.
"…Okay, what was that?!" Amy exclaimed after a second, her voice squeaking a little.
But the fridge wasn't done. It automatically unplugged itself from the wall and lumbered further into the room. While everyone was distracted with it, a vacuum cleaner sped through the living room and struck Tails in the back of the leg. With a yelp of surprise and pain, he leaped back, then grabbed the handle of the vacuum so it couldn't go anywhere. But he underestimated its strength, because it shot forward at a speed he wasn't ready for.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!"
Chuck acted fast and grabbed Tails around the chest. It took some effort, but he managed to pry him off the vacuum and set him back down on the ground.
"You alright?" he asked him.
But before Tails could answer, Nelson and Lindsey frantically came running down the stairs two at a time.
"All right, what's going on?" Nelson demanded in a concerned tone as he came barrelling through the living room. "Why are all the appliances attacking us?"
"Come help with the fridge…!" Ella grunted as she and Tanaka tried to push it back into its spot. There was not enough immediate room in the kitchen for the others to help.
Tails looked around, feeling a little frantic. "Uh… I don't know what's–"
Vanilla yelped and jumped back as the oven door suddenly opened on its own, and she, Ella, Tanaka, and Amy were exposed to a blast of intensely hot air that shot out of the range.
"Everyone get back!" Amy shouted as she ran back to the other side of the kitchen toward the dining room. But it wasn't enough because the oven also unplugged itself and moved forward toward everyone who was still in the kitchen.
"We got this Vanilla, I don't want you getting hurt," Nelson told Vanilla. "You make sure Cream and the others are okay."
"I will," Vanilla said with a nod as she hurried out of the kitchen.
The freezer door opened by itself, and this time Nelson, Chuck, Ella, Tanaka, and the newly-arrived Lindsey were exposed to cold air. They were gradually being cornered by both hot and cold air coming from the oven and freezer at the same time.
Just when it couldn't get any worse, Ella's countertop radio suddenly activated itself, blaring extremely loud 80s pop music across the living room. Ironically, it was playing "Stayin' Alive." Everyone nearby cried out, forced to cover their ears.
Cream could easily hear it from the living room, and she too had to cover her large flappy ears. In fact, it got to the point where she had to run out of the room to escape the noise. Lily the Flicky flew after her down the hall since the noise was so oppressive.
"Cream, come with me," Vanilla urgently told her as she followed her, looking for someplace safe from the technology. Tails joined them to make sure Vanilla was safe too. But before they could get far, the vacuum cleaner from earlier detached its hose all by itself and aimed itself at Cheese, suctioning the poor Chao onto it.
"Chao chaooo!" he called in distress.
"Oh no! Cheese!" Cream cried out. She ran back and tried to pry Cheese off, but he wasn't coming loose from the hose easily. It was only with Vanilla and Tails' help that they could free the Chao from the vacuum.
"Oh, Cheese… This is horrible…" Cream whimpered as she hugged Cheese, trying to be brave and not cry in front of everyone.
Just like that, the music from the kitchen stopped. Amy had just unplugged the radio from the wall. Now everyone's poor ears could finally have a break.
"This is ridiculous," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "We gotta find out why everything's acting like this."
Suddenly the radio started blasting loud music again! This time, instead of pop music, it was heavy dubstep music!
"Wha- HOW?!" Amy exclaimed. "I-I didn't know there even was a radio station like this!"
"Oh hey, it's Skrillex!" Nelson quipped upon realizing what song happened to be playing.
"I'm sorry!" Amy shouted as she pulled out her hammer and smashed the radio. Finally, the room was quiet… except for the sound of the kitchen furniture moving itself along the floor with a horrible grating sound.
Fortunately Tanaka, Nelson, Ella, and Lindsey were able to make some headway with pushing the fridge back in its place, but they had to back off because now the range was getting too close to them. The coils inside were red hot, even though it was unplugged. Chuck and Amy were watching their backs to make sure no other rogue technology was coming their way.
"There's more coming!" Tails shouted as he, Vanilla, and Cream and her two Chao were forced back into the living room. Close behind them were the TV, floor lamps, and even the treadmill and pinball machine from the other rooms, all of which were moving on their own!
"It's like everything is possessed!" Ella said, her strength starting to give out. "And you know I hate ghosts!"
In the nick of time, however, Sonic arrived on the scene and kicked the range door shut, cutting off the flow of oppressively hot air in the kitchen. Then he approached the fridge and pushed it with all his might, his legs doing figure 8s as he shoved the fridge back into its place.
"You guys okay?" he asked, turning around to face the others.
"Well, we're still alive, so that counts," Nelson said, panting after his exertion and keeping a hand on the fridge to make sure it didn't go anywhere. "But I don't know how or why any of this is happening."
"Me neither," Tails said, cautiously making his way back into the room.
"The radio was playing really loud music right before you got here, Sonic," Amy told him. "I had to break it…"
"'Cuz everything's still going even when it's unplugged," Sonic thought aloud. "Hey, it's not just you guys. All the tech in Station Square is affected. You should see downtown. It's crazy." He looked around. "By the way, where's Chris?"
"CHRIS!" Lindsey suddenly exclaimed. Abandoning the fridge, she bolted out of the kitchen and up the stairs to Chris' room.
Now that there was one less person holding it back, the fridge seized its opportunity and threw its doors open again, throwing Nelson aside. He almost fell into the hot oven door even though it was closed, but Sonic rushed forward and caught him just in time.
"Whoa! Human pinball is not cool!" Sonic told the fridge, holding up a finger, even though he knew it couldn't respond. "Yeah, you guys may wanna stay clear of those doors."
"An excellent idea, Master Sonic," Tanaka said as he took a step back, followed by Ella and Lindsey.
"To answer your question, Sonic, Chris is sick in bed," Tails said, approaching Sonic.
"Huh, that was fast," Sonic said in surprise. "He was lookin' pretty good up until last night." Raising his voice, he called, "His mom's got the right idea. Everyone get to Chris' room, we'll be safer up there!"
With that, he zipped up the stairs and disappeared down the upstairs hall. Everyone else ran after him through the living room as well as out the other kitchen exit, dodging the floor lamps and the TV that was automatically playing old King of the Hill reruns.
"Are you okay, Nelson?" Chuck asked his son.
"Yeah, just a bit overwhelmed is all," Nelson responded as they got to the stairs. "We have to get to the bottom of this somehow. I don't think– I don't think any kind of realistic weapon is capable of this. It's more of an Eggman thing, but…"
Thorndyke Mansion - Upstairs - Thu February 17, 10:09 AM – Third-person POV
Meanwhile, the first thing Lindsey saw the moment she ran into Chris' room was not her son, but instead a creepy amalgamation of fused technology standing in the middle of the room. It featured Chris' TV as its body, with menacing red eyes on its screen, and it had Ella's blender on top of it and two vacuum cleaners for arms, and its lower half was a lawn mower. It somehow managed to fuse Chris' alarm clock and even his phone into its core.
"Chris!" she exclaimed when she saw that the hybrid was slowly approaching his bed.
She ran toward her son and positioned herself between him and the robot to protect him. Just as it was reaching them, Sonic raced in.
"Coming, Chris!" he called.
It only took him a second to sum up the situation, and he sliced through the appliance robot, causing it to collapse in a heap on the floor. He landed and looked back at it; however, he was surprised to see it reassemble itself in the same form as more appliances entered the room behind him.
Chris was scared and cowering back in his bed, while his mom was alarmed at how much destruction was being done to what used to be her house appliances.
"Oh, you're one of those robots, huh?" Sonic said. "A big ugly smorgasbord of tech bunched together. Saw a couple of you guys in town. Well, you know what I gotta say to you. Rest in pieces!"
He spun through the robot again, causing it to collapse once more. A crack formed on the robot's TV screen as it landed. Everyone else caught up to him just in time to witness the robot reassembling itself yet again.
"I'm here, son!" Nelson called as he joined his wife in protecting their only son and shielding him from the battle that was unfolding in his bedroom.
Meanwhile, Emerl, who had mysteriously not done anything or had any reaction to the situation so far, had appeared in the doorway, observing what was happening. He had been all but forgotten in the midst of the madness.
"This thing won't die!" Amy remarked after she smashed the amalgamation, only for it to rise back up. Smoke was pouring out of the robot now.
"Please don't break anything," Lindsey pleaded. "This is thousands of dollars' worth of technology. Tens of thousands!"
"I don't think we have a choice, I'm sorry…" Tails said, before looking in the direction of the door. "Roomba incoming!"
He scurried toward the Roomba and tried to pick it up, but it suddenly spun like a sawblade in his grasp. He yelped and immediately let go before it had a chance to throw him out in the hallway.
"Don't touch it, it has some kind of self-defense!" he called, taking a few wary steps away from it.
"Noted," Amy said before pulling out her hammer and putting the Roomba out of commission.
"There goes another three hundred dollars…" Lindsey lamented, not daring to look.
It was only at that moment that Emerl decided to take action. In one swift movement that baffled the humans in the room, it suddenly curled into a tight ball, perfectly mirroring Sonic's signature form, and smashed itself into the appliance robot, sending it down onto the ground in pieces again.
"Oh, now you decide to join in," Amy commented in annoyance, rolling her eyes. "The real Emerl would have helped us a long time ago!"
"It's just gonna rebuild itself again, isn't it?" Nelson said, looking over at the heavily damaged vacuums and TV that comprised the robot.
"Probably, yeah," Sonic shrugged. "But hey, Emerl helped out, so we got that going for us, yeah?"
Poor Lindsey was mentally calculating the cost of all the lost technology, while Chris was scared and helpless in bed, and he was trying not to cower back.
"Oh hey, eight seconds!" Sonic quipped as the appliances reassembled themselves in the same shape as before. "That's a new personal best!"
"There has to be another way to destroy it!" Amy said.
"Do you have to destroy it…?" Lindsey said. "Isn't there another way to shut it off somehow?"
"Not that I can see," Tails said, sounding a bit urgent. "I can try, but we also have to deal with all the other appliances too!"
This time, the robot aimed one of its vacuum arms at Chris and its other one at Sonic behind him. Nelson grabbed the one aimed at Chris and tried to pull it away, but the robot was strong and swung it at him, throwing him down to the ground.
"Dad!" Chris shouted, before coughing hoarsely.
Lindsey was the first to help her husband back up, while Sonic grabbed the robot's other vacuum arm and tried to throw it aside. However, the robot revved its lawn mower engine, forcing Chris and Cream to cover their ears. It then used its free arm to attempt to swat Sonic aside, but he leaped out of the way.
"These things are like zombies!" Nelson remarked as he stood up.
"I know!" Tails said, taking a stance and trying to anticipate the robot's next move.
Suddenly Chris' phone, which was part of the combination of tech, burst into flames.
"No! My phone!" Chris shouted, sitting up in bed. However, he forgot he was weak, and he collapsed onto his bed again.
"Chris, I'm so sorry, sweetheart…" Lindsey said, even though the situation was tense.
While everyone was worried, they were also tense because they were focusing on dealing with the robot and the other appliances first.
"If there's a way we can beat it for good, we can try and see what's holding the tech together," Tails said, visually scanning the robot for a weak point.
"Good thinking, buddy," Sonic said.
But before the heroes could launch another attack on the appliance robot, there was a sudden high-pitched chirping that rang throughout the entire house. Everyone instinctively recognized it as the smoke alarm. The mansion's sprinkler system turned on, creating an indoor rainstorm that gradually soaked everyone and everything.
More importantly, though, was that all the appliances and the robot were getting wet. The robot stalled for a moment, but after a moment of everyone looking at it uncertainly, the red eyes on its cracked screen vanished, and it collapsed in a heap once again. This time it didn't rise back up after ten seconds.
Sonic walked over to the robot and poked it, satisfied that it didn't move or react.
"So that's all it takes, huh? Just a little water?" He shuddered. "Just a chunk of cheesy hardware. Ugh, my fur's getting wet…"
"I guess Eggman didn't think that through," Tails said, tapping his muzzle in thought. He looked up. "O-Oh yeah, I keep forgetting he's in jail."
"He still has underlings who can carry out his dirty work for him," Nelson said. "So most likely it's one of them."
"True," Chuck said. "Like we were saying before breakfast, I wouldn't put it past Jerome to do something like this. So, now that we know what their weakness is, let's get some water going and take care of the other appliances!"
"You guys do that, I gotta let the town know about this," Sonic said. "And get outta this indoor rainstorm!" he called from the hall as he ran out of sight.
"I'll get some towels," Vanilla volunteered as she followed Chuck and Sonic out of the room.
"Okay…" Tails said, looking around the room. "I think this room should be a safe haven for now. Just keep the door closed, okay?"
"That won't be a problem," Lindsey said.
"I'm gonna go downstairs and help everyone. Who's coming with me?" Tails asked, pausing at the doorway.
"Count me in!" Amy said as she followed Tails out of the room. Nelson, Mr. Tanaka, and Emerl followed, and Nelson closed the door behind them, leaving Ella, Lindsey, Cream, Cheese, Chocola, and Chris as the only ones left in the room.
As the footsteps died down, Cream took a few steps away from the others and shook the water out of her fur.
"Well, at least the fire is out now," Ella remarked.
Right as she said that, the sprinkler system shut down. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, and water was dripping from the various shelves and fixtures. Needless to say, the room was a mess.
Chris was thoroughly shaken up from the trauma he had just been subjected to. He and his clothes were soaking wet, and he felt chilled to the bone. Now that the immediate danger was over, full realization hit him that he lost his phone and everything on it. He was clinging tightly to his blankets, but he no longer felt warm in his own bed because everything felt cold and wet. He struggled not to cry. It was already bad enough that he had a bad flu.
"It's all right, dear," his mom gently told him as she patted his back. "Mommy will get you a new phone. But first, let's get you into some nice dry clothes."
"O-Okay…" Chris said.
"That was scary…" Cream said, before looking up at Ella. "Miss Ella… Are you sure they can't get us in here?"
"Yes, Cream, I'm sure," Ella gently told her, patting her on the head. "And don't forget, Chris, Mr. Tanaka backed up your data for you."
"S-So that means I didn't lose anything?" Chris asked, hope returning to his voice.
"I'm very sure that's the case, dear," Ella told him with a nod.
The door opened, and all heads turned to the doorway as Vanilla returned with several towels for everyone.
"It's dangerous downstairs, so I think it would be best if we stay in here for now," she said as she closed the door behind her.
"Yes, I agree with you," Ella said. "After we dry ourselves, we should clean up as much water as we can in here."
"That's a must," Lindsey said as she took the towels from Ella and passed them around to everyone. "If we can't get it all up, I may have to call the cleaners. We can't have mold in my son's bedroom. He sleeps here."
"Didn't we just have water damage?" Chris asked in surprise, recalling Perfect Chaos.
"We did," his mom told her. "I'm sorry, I don't like this either, but… If we have to use water to shut down all the appliances, then we can just call the cleaners when this is all done."
Vanilla was drying Cheese and Chocola, while Cream was patting her own fur dry with a towel. She looked down at her soaked dress in dismay.
"It's okay, I'll make sure the coast is clear first, and then you can go get a new dress in your room," Lindsey told her as she made her way to the door.
"Okay, please be careful, Chris' mom!" Cream said as Lindsey left the room.
"I will, I promise!" she called behind her.
"Chris, you may want to dry yourself before you put on your new clothes," Ella told him, handing a new set of pajamas to him.
"Okay," Chris said, reaching over and accepting the pajamas. It felt very uncomfortable for him to move in his wet clothes.
"And don't worry, we'll give you privacy to get changed," she added. "In the meantime, I'll ask Tails if you can stay in his bed until your bed is dry."
"Y-You don't have to do that…" Chris said, although deep down he appreciated it.
"I know, dear, but being cold and wet is not good for you since you're still sick," Ella said.
"Y-Yeah… T-True…"
As Ella and Vanilla left the room, a shiver ran through Chris' body. He realized he hadn't vomited in almost two hours. He hoped he didn't jinx anything by thinking about it. He hated being sick so much.
And now he couldn't even kill time with his phone.
Thorndyke Mansion - Downstairs - Thu February 17, 10:15 AM – Third-person POV
Downstairs, Tails and Amy were doing their best to keep the rogue appliances at bay. They, as well as Chuck and Nelson, were using the living room as their last stand inside the house.
The washing machine had just lumbered into the room, being one of the many new arrivals, but one swing from Amy's hammer was all it took to put it out of commission.
"There goes the washer!" Nelson reported to Lindsey as she approached him.
Lindsey could only sigh in dismay as she and her husband returned to the kitchen to secure it. But there were too many appliances everywhere, and they were all moving and crowding around each other.
She screamed as the hand mixer flew right past her head, blades whizzing at max speed. She ducked just in time as it embedded itself in the opposite wall, its blades coming to a hard stop as bits of drywall were ripped loose and fell on the floor. Emerl approached and slammed a floor lamp onto the hand mixer, breaking it into several pieces. Evidently it had copied Amy's ability.
"We have to get the water on," Tails told everyone nearest to him. "The sprinklers worked, but just for that one room."
As he jumped over another floor lamp that tried to trip him up, he suddenly got an idea.
"Hey, maybe we can hook up the garden hose!" he suggested.
"I hate the idea of causing even more water damage like that," Chuck grimaced, backing away from the TV, "but I can't think of an alterna– Actually, we can use the Super Soakers too! That might work even better, actually."
"Or why not both?" Tails said. "Since there's only one hose."
"We have two," Chuck said. "But get the retractable one in the garage, that one's easier to use."
"Okay!" Tails called as he ran outside. Mr. Tanaka followed him so he could protect Tails just in case he was ambushed, even though he knew Tails could fight for himself.
However, the situation was just as bad outside. Not only were all the appliances and electric tools in the garage alive, but they were filing outside and approaching him fast!
Tightening his hands into fists, he flew straight toward the garage as fast as he could, making sure he stayed several feet above the horde of tech. He knew he was leaving Tanaka behind, but he had to find the hose. As he predicted, the appliances turned around and followed him back into the garage. It was like a zombie apocalypse below him. And this was the second time in the same month that he dealt with a horde like this at Chris' house.
He landed and quickly scanned the shelves for the black retractable pocket hose. He had seen it before, and it wasn't like a lot of the hoses he had seen back home on Mobius. He made a mental note to invent one when he returned to his lab.
As he searched the shelves, he glanced over at the elevator door. It seemed the technology didn't know how to access or even hack into the elevator, and if they had tried it, they had given up by now. Besides, he realized now that the X-Tornado was down in the sublab, and it would have been disastrous if that had been hacked too.
But then he realized, it probably couldn't have been affected anyway! The Tornado 2 was parked in its own shed behind the garage, and it was still there when he looked over, so it was safe. This invasion seemed to be limited to mostly house appliances for some odd reason.
At last he spotted the hose on one of the lower shelves. He grabbed it and flew out of the garage in one move, barely avoiding a riding mower as it made its way back into the garage.
"Found it!" Tails called as he made his way back to Mr. Tanaka. The butler couldn't even make it halfway to the garage because there was so much tech in his way.
"I apologize that I couldn't reach you in time, Master Tails," Tanaka said as he returned toward the house.
"It's okay!" Tails said, before pointing to something in the distance. "Behind you!"
Tanaka looked back just in time to see a generator approaching him, and he sprinted back into the house. Tails covered him before flying in after him, and he slammed and locked the door, making sure he still had the hose with him.
"You brought the hose in here? Why?" Amy asked out of confusion.
"They'll unplug it if I hook it up outside," Tails hastily replied as he flew toward the kitchen.
"Oh yeah, good point," Amy realized.
Tails paused. "…Where's Chuck…?" he asked.
"He went to get the Super Soakers," Amy answered as she readjusted her grip.
"Okay!" Tails said, before making his way back into the kitchen. Once he was there, he saw Nelson and Lindsey once again trying to hold the fridge and range back, but this time they seemed to be even more aggressive, and appliances from the other rooms were making their way in, even if they weren't plugged in. Even with added help from Tanaka, it didn't seem to be enough.
"Here!" Tails called before tossing the hose to Tanaka. The butler caught it and screwed it onto the sink's faucet while Nelson and Lindsey did their best to cover for him.
"Is that gonna be long enough?" Nelson asked, looking over from where he was pushing against the refrigerator.
"To run through the entire house?" Tanaka asked. "Perhaps not, but the professor is getting the water guns, and we do have a second hose in the garage that we can use."
Tails gasped. "Oh yeah!" he realized. Just like that, he was out the door once more thanks to his rotary namesakes.
However, it was a complete warzone outside, despite him having only been out less than a minute ago. It was like all the washers, dryers, power tools, and lawn care tools in the neighborhood were out to get him. He told himself to be fast as he made a beeline for the garage once more.
Once there, he hurriedly searched for any sign of another pocket hose, flying the whole time to reduce the chances of the machines possibly touching him. Then he caught sight of a green garden hose. That was the hose Chuck said he always wanted to replace with another pocket hose, but he never got around to doing it.
There was a sudden buzzing sound, and Tails whipped his head around to see several chainsaws coming at him. He yelped as he dragged the hose out of the plastic crate it was stored in and took it out of the garage. However, the chainsaw lunged at him, leaving Tails little time to dodge. He escaped the direct path of the chainsaw, but unfortunately, the hose didn't.
Looks like you're gonna have to get a new hose sooner than you thought, Chuck… he thought.
Dropping the hose, he flew back toward the house, dodging a drill and several nails fired from a nailgun as he did so. As he flew into the house, he found Chuck with a small pile of water guns he had just placed on the coffee table.
"I'm sorry!" Tails apologized as he landed. "The hose was cut by a chainsaw!"
"It's okay, I've been meaning to replace it," Chuck replied. "Also, I hate to tell you, it wouldn't have worked anyway. The water was just turned off."
Tails blinked in surprise. "…What?"
"Yeah, Mr. Tanaka just tried to use the hose in the kitchen but there's no water coming out," Chuck clarified.
Tails let out a sigh before his hands balled into fists.
"Then this means whoever's behind all this is on to us," he concluded.
His gaze shifted to the other side of the living room, where Amy and Emerl were cornered by the various appliances that were somehow still congregating in the living room. Somehow, the machine wouldn't die no matter how many times Emerl copied Amy's moveset. However, Amy was able to put the dryer and pinball machine out of commission. But the more machines she destroyed, the more that flooded in to replace them.
They heard a yelp and grunt coming from the kitchen, followed by Lindsey's alarmed cry of "Dad"! With a sudden burst of determination, Amy hammered the machines aside and hurriedly made her way into the kitchen. One look told her the whole story.
The refrigerator had boxed Chuck in a corner, and was facing the room, repelling anyone who came close with its doors. Nelson was trying to pull the fridge off of him, while Lindsey had just turned off the water since it was now useless. Chuck was trying his hardest to push the heavy fridge back, and he didn't have enough room to climb onto the counter to escape.
"Hang in there, Dad!" Nelson called.
Without any hesitation, Amy swung her hammer directly at the fridge. While it did only dent the heavy appliance, it moved it back a few inches, allowing Chuck to escape. He narrowly avoided the fridge's swinging doors.
"You okay?" Amy asked in concern.
"Yeah, but I will say it was a tight squeeze," Chuck responded with a nervous laugh.
Lindsey let out a sigh as she backed away from the fridge. "I can't believe it, we just lost water," she lamented.
"At a really convenient time," Amy pointed out. "Tails is right, someone's on to us." She too was feeling frustrated since there was no longer a real way to deactivate the machines now.
"Is everyone upstairs safe?" Chuck asked.
"I don't know," Amy said, keeping an eye on the rogue fridge. "Chris is safe, at least."
"That's good," Chuck said with a nod. He grabbed a nearby broom and used it to prop the oven door shut. "Because I don't know if they're capable of breaking down doors."
"I doubt it. These things are slow,," Amy speculated, leaning against the handle of her hammer. "The sprinklers were on in Chris' room a little while ago, so we can hole up in there if we need somewhere to hide."
"Well, I can't hide," Nelson said as he made his way out of the kitchen. He was met with confused gazes. "I'm going down to the reservoir. I need to diagnose this problem personally."
Amy blinked in surprise. "You have the clearance…?"
Nelson smiled. "It's amazing what money can do," he said.
Amy shrugged. Even on Earth, humans were overreliant on their currency.
"Please be careful, darling," Lindsey told Nelson as he made his way to the side door.
"I will!" he promised as he approached the door. Tails spotted him and made his way over.
"Where are you going?" he asked out of curiosity.
"To the water reservoir," Nelson responded as he reached for the door handle. "I figured it's best for me to deal with this weed at the root."
"You should probably take the X-Tornado," Chuck recommended. "The helicopter is way too risky."
"Huh? Are you sure?" Nelson asked. "We'll have to make our way across the yard to get there, but the helicopter is just in the other room."
"I've been noticing the appliances starting to file out of here," Chuck said. "Where do you think they went?"
Nelson's expression fell. "Oh…" he realized.
"Yeah…" Chuck continued. "They are crowding around the helicopter right now, almost like they're being controlled."
"I can take you!" Tails volunteered, his tails swaying in anticipation, before he paused in thought. "…Except I don't know where the reservoir is… Actually, I can just find it on the GPS and set a course there on the way over."
"Sounds good," Nelson said with a nod.
"I'm coming too!" Amy volunteered as she ran over. Emerl started to follow her, but Amy turned back and looked it in the eye. "No Emerl, you stay here. Everyone needs your help with the appliance robots, okay?"
Emerl looked a little disappointed for a second, but he looked up and gave a short nod. Amy nodded in satisfaction, wondering if she would eventually regret it because she knew he was a Phantom Ruby illusion.
"Are you ready for this, guys?" Tails asked as he reached for the door handle.
"Is it that bad out there?" Nelson asked in surprised.
"Well…" Tails hesitated for a moment as he slowly opened the door. "You tell me."
He didn't think it would get worse outside, but somehow it did. It was literally a graveyard of undead house appliances. Amy gasped in surprise.
"O-kay…" Tails said, sounding a bit nervous now. "It wasn't this bad when I was out just a few minutes ago…"
"But you can fly us over them, right?" Amy asked, looking at Tails in expectation.
"Yeah, I can try," Tails said, reaching for Nelson's hands. "Grab on!"
Nelson was a bit hesitant because Tails was roughly three feet shorter than he was, but he bent down and took the small fox's hands anyway. Before he knew it, he was airborne thanks to Tails' spinning namesakes.
"I can make my own path!" Amy called after Tails as he flew Nelson over the sea of technology.
"Okay, good luck!" Tails called.
Amy cautiously looked around to make sure she wasn't about to be ambushed, before she pulled her hammer back out of Hammerspace. She bashed lawn mowers and televisions aside, clearing a path for herself to rejoin Tails. She ruled out using the appliances as leverage to gain ground because that was too dangerous, even for her.
"Do you know if any vehicles are affected?" Nelson asked, trying his best not to look down.
"Not that I saw," Tails replied as he picked up speed, regretting it because he forgot his passenger was heavier than what he was normally used to. "I know the Tornado's safe… so is Chuck's car. And they don't really seem to be that smart, so… if we play our cards right, I think we may have enough time to lift the garage and get the X-Tornado out of there."
Setting Nelson down in Chuck's car, he flew into the garage and grabbed the X-Tornado's remote. All the tech seemed to have cleared out of the garage itself, giving Tails a moment to himself while he pressed the button. The entire garage rose up, revealing the underground lab.
Taking a deep breath, he zipped down from the garage and flew into the sublab, opening his plane's canopies while keeping an eye on the technology that was slowly surrounding the car that he had placed Chuck in.
"Get in!" he called.
While Tails finished getting the plane ready for takeoff and waited for Nelson to get to him, he scanned the skies outside for any potential flying appliances, such as the hand mixer from earlier. Some of the appliances came from the neighbors' houses in the luxurious surrounding neighborhood, while others looked like they were brand new out of the box.
Tails helped Nelson up into the seat behind him, and Amy caught up and climbed into the back seat. The fox wasted no time going through his cre-flight checklist, closing the canopies, and taking off, crashing right through several heavy dishwashers. He was nervous that they would hinder his takeoff, but he was going at maximum speed which helped him.
"This is just like when we were evacuating from all those brainwashed people recently," Tails reminisced.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about that," Amy agreed.
The sky was the last remaining safe haven from the mechanical apocalypse. Nelson was idly looking down at the streets below him; they looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve, except it was all house appliances. Where they all came from and how far out they were affected, he could only guess.
Tails was in thought about all this too. Could Jerome have done something like this? It seemed like he was the kind of person who would take full advantage of being in the limelight once the doctor was away, but there were still so many unanswered questions.
The Egg Carrier – Thu February 17, 10:17 AM – Third-person POV
Although Jerome Wise was the one who came up with the suggestion to break into the prison Eggman was being held in guns ablaze, even he was showing signs that his decision may have been a bit too reckless. So when the GUN robots began to open fire on the Egg Carrier as it loomed over the federal prison, he began to have second thoughts about his strategy.
Even worse, though, was that GUN was winning this fight. It didn't matter that he had given the order to deploy several Super Badniks onto the ground to break into the prison. Robotic reinforcements of all kinds were joining GUN's cause to keep Eggman's mighty flagship at bay.
While he did finally give in to Bokkun's persuasions to free Eggman, he needed some time to formulate a strategy. It took a while, but he finally had one that was suitable enough to work, and it met Bokkun's approval. He didn't know why the messenger robot didn't trust him. It may have been because he was a human. Or more likely, because he wasn't Dr. Eggman. But whatever the case, this was his hour to shine, and now that he thought about it, it would probably end up being his only hour to shine.
On the ground below, GUN's forces were met with several groups of Eggman's own robot forces, and both sides were evenly matched. However, GUN was backed up with many of their most powerful robots, including Valkyries, whom Jerome discovered had a remote pilot feature.
"We don't seem to be making any forward progress," Jerome reported from his seat in Eggman's command chair.
"Huh, I wonder why…" Bokkun said sarcastically. "Maybe it's 'cuz you didn't send enough forces!"
"But he'll kill me if I deplete his whole army like that!" Jerome argued.
"But Dr. Eggman told us to get him out of there!" Bokkun pressed.
"Might I suggest hacking the prison and deactivating its defenses?" Orbot asked.
Jerome pondered this for a moment. "That'll work, but we have to be fast. GUN seems to know what they're doing."
With salutes, Orbot and Cubot floated over to their posts on the bridge and typed several commands into the console. Jerome spun his chair around to face his own personal console.
The circumstances surrounding this prison breakout felt very strange to Jerome. It was only a week ago that he assisted the Society in breaking Colonel Card Passer out of Bigley Prison in Station Square. Now he was overseeing another federal prison breakout at the exact same prison under a different affiliation. It was funny how things worked out that way.
It felt like too much of a coincidence that Eggman was transferred to Bigley Prison, especially considering they had just been raided earlier that month. But this was not the first time Jerome was attempting to break Eggman out of prison. There was a failed breakout attempt a few days ago in Oakland, and he had picked up intel that Eggman would be transferred to Bigley Prison as a result of Jerome's breakout attempt. Surprisingly, he had learned Bigley had quickly recovered from the Society's own raid. Speaking of the Society, he was holding out on hope that they would set their own plan into motion before long.
"Hey, you know what goin' on in Station Square?" Bokkun asked.
"No…?" Jerome replied, turning to face the messenger robot as he held up one of his yellow TVs in his face. Jerome pushed it away so that he could see what was on it better. He was quite surprised to see thousands of house appliances taking to the streets. It looked like a scene straight out of The Walking Dead. While he knew who was responsible for it, he decided not to let the cat out of the bag.
"Huh…" Jerome said aloud. "That's… something. Pretty sure Eggman didn't plan that. Or maybe he did, I don't know. I don't know everything he does. This is probably one of his backup plans. Or…" He sat up straighter. "You know what this is? This is a distraction! He set one up so Sonic wouldn't notice us breaking Eggman out of prison! He literally thought of everything!"
"Well, let's not let a good distraction go to waste!" Bokkun cheered.
Jerome breathed a mental sigh of relief that Bokkun bought into his exaggeration. He glanced at one of the screens lining the top of the console as it showed a Laser Hunter destroying an Egg Hammer. That was just one of the Eggman robot casualties on the prison grounds.
Jerome's hands tightened around the armrests of the command chair. He looked impatient.
"So do we shoot the prison walls or something?" Cubot asked. "'Cuz it would look so cool if we did that–"
"No!" Jerome exclaimed. "We're here to rescue Eggman, not destroy him!"
"Oh, but I thought you said a few days ago that you wanted him to quote-unquote 'cool his heels for a bit longer,'" Orbot recalled, holding up a finger.
"I know what I said," Jerome grumbled as he punched in a few codes to deploy more robots to the prison below. "Now that I got the Phantom Ruby back, I can prioritize Eggman. Damage control, if you get my drift." Secretly, he would rather have Eggman continue to rot in prison, but he didn't want the doctor to get suspicious of him.
"Good news, Mr. Wise!" Orbot said, looking up from his post. "We have successfully shut down the prison's defense systems. We now have unhindered access to its surveillance system. However, Dr. Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe have been moved to separate cells."
Jerome grit his teeth. This mission had just become a bit harder… "So do we send another batch of robots in the prison, or…?"
Bokkun shrugged. "How would I know? I don't have commander programming! I'm kinda like Eggman's version of Charmy Bee!" He zipped around the room, the sound of his small jetpack whizzing right past Jerome's ear.
Jerome rolled his eyes. "Who's Charmy?" he asked.
As a response, Bokkun smirked. "Oh, you need to get out more… if the doctor will let you!" He burst into hearty laughter.
"For that little remark, I'm gonna find out how to use your own TVs against you," Jerome threated.
"Joke's on you, I'm immune!" Bokkun teased.
"You don't have proof!"
"Hey, all the GUN robots are running away!" Cubot announced, pointing to one of the screens near his post.
"Wait, what?!" Jerome exclaimed. He got up and ran to where Cubot was floating, and sure enough, he could see all the GUN robots gradually filing off the battlefield, as if they were simultaneously ordered to. Jerome couldn't help a smile. The Society's plan was working.
"Huh…?" Bokkun asked quizzically. "…Why are they leaving…?"
"Look who's talking, Mr. Don't Let A Good Distraction Go To Waste!" Jerome said. "Send another wave of robots directly into the prison immediately!"
"And look who's talking, Mr. Don't-Waste-Eggman's-Whole-Army!" Bokkun countered.
"Forget I said that! Just do it!" Jerome snapped.
Within moments, a large swarm of robots descended from the Egg Carrier's hangar and flooded toward the prison. They attempted to make their way in, using either their laser weaponry, claws, and otherwise brute force.
"Hey, uh…" Cubot started speaking, sounding a big concerned. "I was gonna download a map of the jail, but, uh… for some reason, I already found a copy of it in our database."
"Th-That was fast…?" Jerome said, trying not to let anyone know that he was sweating bullets. He had forgotten to delete the old map of Bigley prison during his last breakout!
"That's weird…" Bokkun said.
"It's… advantageous at least," Jerome pleaded, trying to sound completely normal and not suspicious in any way. "Besides, I downloaded it on our way here so we wouldn't have to struggle with layouts."
Cubot scratched his metallic head. "What's weirder is the date it was downloaded was before–"
"Th-They can't get in," Jerome reported, a little too loudly. "They can't break through any doors or windows, th-the robots can't. We're gonna have to use the turbolasers."
"Not even the Egg Hammers?" Bokkun asked incredulously as he flew over to see what Jerome was looking at on his screen. Sure enough, even the mighty Egg Hammers were only making small cracks in the outer wall of the prison with their gigantic hammers.
"Yeah…" Jerome said. "They really stepped up their defenses here."
"How would you know that…?" Bokkun asked under his breath. "Okay, I think it's turbolaser time!"
"You heard him!" Jerome called to the entire bridge as he sat down. "Charge turbolasers and direct all fire on the prison walls!"
But to the human's dismay, nothing happened. He let out another frustrated sigh. Of course he forgot again that they were programmed to listen to Eggman's voice only.
Orbot cleared his throat. "The boss would greatly appreciate it if you could fire the turbolasers at the prison," he spoke up. To Jerome's surprise, that was all it took for the robots to follow the order.
"Uh– How… were you able to do that?" Jerome asked. "You're not Eggman!"
"I am one of the doctor's personal assistants after all," Orbot said. "And you're only human."
"So is Eggman!" Jerome retorted. "And you said it like it's a bad thing."
"Hey, you try slaving over a factory 24/7 and making all kinds of cool robots!" Cubot said. "Otherwise, you're almost as dumb as me!"
"What he said!" Bokkun echoed.
"Redirecting energy from the main reactor to all turbolasers," Orbot reported. "Charging cannons."
"Turning safety off!" Cubot echoed.
"Now I see why Eggman ditched you guys for Decoe and Bocoe…" Jerome grumbled, slumping down in his command seat.
"What? They do this all the time in the movies!" Cubot whined.
"I wasn't talking about your technical spaceship talk, I was talking about… you know what, never mind. You guys think you know it all, I quit. You win."
With that, he got up and started to leave the bridge.
"Hey, wait! You can't go!" Bokkun called.
"And why not?" Jerome asked without looking back.
"'Cuz Eggman's gonna ground you soooo hard if he finds out you bailed on him," Bokkun said, flying after him. "You're supposed to be in charge of this whole thing. And like I said, I don't have commander programming!"
Jerome stopped walking.
"Oh, now you want me back," he said. "Only because you can't do this yourself."
"Nope! I'm just a kid!" Bokkun reiterated, crossing his arms.
"Turbolasers are fully charged," Orbot announced. "We await your orders, Mr. Wise."
"I like 'Wise Guy' better…" Bokkun said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Jerome said to Orbot as he sat back down in his command chair and faced the screen. "Open fire."
There was a low rumble as the Egg Carrier's turbolasers opened fire upon the prison. Jerome was surprised that they didn't need as much firepower as he thought, because two hits was all it took to create a gaping hole in the roof.
"Huh…" Jerome said after a moment. "You guys couldn't have aimed a little lower, could you? So we could get ground troops in there?"
"You're complaining about a free lunch?" Bokkun asked incredulously, before zipping back toward the exit to the bridge. "Speaking of lunch, it's break time! For me, not you."
"Now?!" an incredulous Jerome exclaimed. "Also… Y-You're a robot, you can't eat!"
"You've been working for the Eggman Empire for over a year and you still don't know?" Bokkun responded incredulously. "Dr. Eggman made me one of his most advanced robots! I can eat real food and turn all those proteins into good ol' fashioned energy!"
As he flew off the bridge, Jerome could only shake his head in disbelief and subdued fascination at Eggman's sheer genius. He looked up at the screen, which showed a view of what was happening on the prison grounds. Many aerial robots were entering through the newly-formed hole in the roof, and in a matter of moments, the prison guards were being escorted outside.
"This is tempting…" Jerome thought aloud. "This is one of those times where I wish I had the clearance to operate the Roboticizer… Why does Eggman never let me handle anything cool?"
"Hey Mr. Wise Guy, can we just leave Decoe and Bocoe in there?" Cubot asked. "They're rude and act all superior to us, and it hurts my feelings."
"Besides, they are not compact like we are," Orbot added. "Their lame 64-bit processors can't compare to our superior 128-bit ones."
"Eggman would want them out," Jerome said in a bored tone as he turned away from them. He was still a bit pale from nearly having his cover blown. And there was always a chance that they could tell on Eggman. But if worse came to worse, he knew he could always jump ship and work with the Society full-time. They had the tech to rival the doctor after all.
"They are making their way into the prison en masse," Orbot reported from his post.
"Once we get a visual of Eggman, we'll arrange an Eggmobile for him," Jerome declared. "Actually… maybe we can get him out through the roof instead. Send the Eggmobile down there. And an escort. How are their defenses?"
"They are virtually nonexistent, Mr. Wise," Orbot said. "The larger units have done an excellent job neutralizing all potential threats, and all vehicles and weapons on the scene have either retreated or been destroyed."
"So we got smooth sailing," Jerome said with a grin. "I think we're ready for that Eggmobile now."
"I shall arrange it," Orbot said as he typed a few commands into his console.
Jerome, meanwhile, chuckled under his breath. He could get used to being the new Eggman. However, he also knew his temporal position of command would be very short lived, because the doctor would be back in full control very soon. He knew it was time for him to start plotting his resignation from Eggman and full commitment to the Society.
Roughly a minute later, Jerome watched as the aerial robot units, mostly Buzz Bombers, descended toward the hole in the prison roof and vanished inside. Among them was a single Eggmobile that was set to autopilot, and it hovered just outside the hole, waiting for Eggman.
Jerome watched the operation with bated breath. He could only hope that Eggman wouldn't find out who was really behind the house appliance invasion or the sudden withdrawal of the GUN robots. And for once, he was rooting for Sonic to deal with the house appliances before Eggman found out about them. On the bright side, though, Sonic and his friends didn't seem to take note of the Egg Carrier as it loomed directly over Bigley Prison.
Jerome's eyes shifted to the ground on the viewscreen as the remaining prison guards valiantly shot at the robots. While they did manage to destroy a few of them, they were hit by stun rays from other robots that were waiting in the rafters.
"Pushovers, every one of 'em," Jerome said with a satisfied grin.
"The humans don't seem to be offering much of a resistance," Orbot remarked.
"They're too afraid to go up against my– Dr. Eggman's forces," Jerome scoffed. "We already shut down their systems. Even if they had control of their surveillance or even a jammer, it's useless. Heh, the doc is right, this is just like hacking Superior."
Several minutes later, Jerome, Orbot, and Cubot finally saw the doctor climbing out of the hole, awkwardly carrying Decoe and Bocoe over his shoulders. He got inside the Eggmobile, and soon he was on his way up to the Egg Carrier.
"HE'S BAAAAAAAAACK!" Cubot cheered, zipping around the room in celebration.
"Mr. Wise, it would be wise of you - no pun intended - to meet the doctor down in the hangar," Orbot said. "Cubot and I will prepare the Egg Carrier for departure."
"Okay," Jerome said with a nod. He deleted the prison map from the database, making sure the other robots couldn't see him doing so, before getting up and leaving the bridge. A few minutes later, the bridge doors slid open once again.
"Dare I say it, the time I spent behind bars was nothing short of anticlimactic," came the familiar voice of Dr. Eggman as he stepped onto the bridge.
"Hey, welcome back, boss!" Cubot greeted with a salute.
"Where are Decoe and Bocoe?" Orbot asked.
"Bokkun and a few repair robots took them down to the workshop to start reactivating them," Eggman answered. "They haven't been switched on since our arrest." He felt the seat of the command chair before sitting down. "The chair is warm… I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. In return, where is Jerome?"
"He left to look for you," Orbot responded. "Perhaps you just missed each other."
"Figures," Eggman said, looking over the console before deciding to activate the intercom. "Jerome Wise, return to the bridge immediately."
Having said that, he glanced at the various screens lining the consoles, as well as the readouts surrounding his chair. His gaze fixated on one specific monitor, which showed what looked like thousands of robots swarming the streets in town.
"Are those… everyday house appliances…?" Eggman asked in surprise. He adjusted his glasses and took a closer look. "Orbot, Cubot, did Jerome do this?"
"No, sir," Orbot responded. "Mr. Wise seemed to suggest you were the one who set up this diversion so Sonic wouldn't notice us helping you to escape."
"Hm… Fascinating…" Eggman said, stroking his mustache. "Why didn't I think of something like this sooner?" He sat up straighter. "I know I didn't do this, which means if it's not Jerome…"
"Perhaps this means you have an impersonator?" Orbot suggested.
"They always say every mastermind has his cheap copy!" Cubot added.
"That's masterpiece, Cubot," Eggman muttered, crossing his arms. "Anyway, I am not behind this lackluster excuse of a scheme. And, at a cursory glance… hijacking all the machinery in the city is entirely pointless. Besides, it lacks all the bravado, that special touch that makes this scheme mine."
"I-I, uh… didn't expect you to be back here so soon, Doctor," Jerome stuttered as he returned to the bridge.
"When you least expect me, expect me," Eggman said matter-of-factly, swiveling his chair around to face Jerome. "Take a close look at Monitor 5. Do those machines look familiar to you?"
"No, sir," Jerome replied calmly. "I happened to notice it while I was in the process of breaking you out."
"I thought so," Eggman noted. "My direct subordinates don't lie."
"So, what do you plan on doing about it, Doctor?" Jerome asked.
"My question exactly!" Bokkun's shrill voice sounded as he too reentered the bridge.
"Simple," Eggman said calmly, facing the rest of the bridge. "We go into hiding."
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
"Did I not make myself clear?" Eggman asked. "The governments of this planet will expect us to be here. Which means as long as we're on the Egg Carrier, we have a giant target painted on our backs. That's why we're going dark while I realize my master plan."
"Okay…?" Jerome said.
Eggman chuckled. "While everyone thought I was rotting away in prison for the past week… while the rodents and all their friends partied their hearts out, thinking I was gone forever… I wasn't entirely idle. My 300-IQ mind was working overtime, rewriting my master plan. All the loose ends have been tied together at last."
Jerome looked like he was about to inquire further, but Eggman cut him off.
"What is my master plan?" Eggman rhetorically asked, anticipating Jerome's question. "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out. As for you, you're going to stay here and watch the ship."
Jerome looked like he was about to protest, but he instead let out a sigh. He didn't want to show Eggman his distaste. However, the doctor picked up on it anyway.
"There's a reason you're not coming with us," Eggman told him, approaching him. "Remember, you're my link to the humans, just the same as Christopher Thorndyke is Sonic's link to the humans. It is your job to monitor them and report back to me if there is any activity regarding actions taken against me. And don't do anything without my express consent."
"…Yes, sir," Jerome said.
"Good," Eggman said, taking a few steps toward the middle of the bridge. "We're heading east."
"East– What's wrong with in the ocean?"
"They know to look in the ocean now," Eggman responded.
"But it's… more vast than the desert?" Jerome asked in confusion.
Eggman sighed. "It's just like you to question my decisions, isn't it…? In case it wasn't obvious, the Egg Carrier was not designed for underwater travel. You've seen how there's no hull covering the upper deck area, in case that wasn't a dead giveaway. This is exactly why the Egg Carrier is equipped with heavy fortifications against both ground and air units. You should be perfectly safe here."
"I… understand that, but GUN can still find me though."
"Not if we activate the ship's cloaking device," Eggman said, holding a finger up. "I've been perfecting it since before they arrested me, since I've been anticipating having to go into hiding again. You'll find that the cloaking device is designed to last indefinitely, and the Egg Carrier can do anything but fire weapons while cloaked."
"Okay," Jerome said, looking around the bridge.
"Begin takeoff procedures," Eggman ordered the bridge. "Set a course for Death Valley."
"Aye-aye, boss!" Cubot saluted as he and Orbot directed the other robots at their posts on the bridge. In three minutes, the engines roared, and the Egg Carrier mobilized.
"Engage cloaking device," Eggman instructed. There was a low hum that sounded throughout the bridge before it died down.
"…Nothing happened…?" Jerome said, squinting as he looked out the viewport.
"Or so it appears to the untrained eye," Eggman said with a grin. "I assure you no one can see us from the outside. When we land, I'm taking my robots with me and leaving the ship. You will stay here to monitor the humans."
He took a step closer to Jerome, looking him in the eye. It seems like Eggman towered over the man even though he was barely taller than him.
"Under no circumstances are you allowed to take off, deactivate the cloaking device, or leave the ship against my orders. Do I make myself clear?"
Jerome was taken aback by these sudden restrictions, but he nodded. "Y-Yes, sir."
"Good," Eggman said, before his attention was diverted by Bokkun. "Yes, Bokkun?"
"Um… Do you wanna inspect Decoe and Bocoe personally? Make sure they're 100% ready to serve you again?"
"That's a random question," Eggman remarked. "But yes, I suppose my bodyguards will need my personal inspection. Maintain a course for central Nevada. I'll be right back."
Bokkun left the bridge first, followed by Eggman.
"Why did you want me out of the room?" Eggman asked, sounding confused.
"There's something I have to tell you," the messenger robot whispered. "It's about Jerome, it's really important."
"Hmm…" Eggman said, before a somewhat malicious smile formed on his face. "I'm all ears."
Station Square – Thu February 17, 10:26 AM – Sonic's POV
Whenever I took my morning runs, I sometimes cut through the heart of the city because I could get to the more secluded parts of the country faster than way. Usually the streets were very busy with morning commutes, and it wasn't uncommon for me to see traffic jams.
However, today was worse than any traffic jam I had ever seen. It was complete bedlam as machines swarmed across every street I could see. The people were holed up in their shops or apartments, which I could only hope were some form of refuge for them, since those kinds of places were where the appliances came from originally.
As I hopped from shopvac to dishwasher crossing the crowded streets, I noticed that most of the appliances were either aimlessly roaming around or trying to enter the skyscrapers and highrises. The police and even GUN personnel were spread thin trying to contain the apocalypse.
"Try hitting 'em with some H2O! That's their weakness!" I called to a group of police officers as they barricaded the entrance to the Eckstein Center.
"We already got a few dozen 911 calls about it, and the fire department's on their way, but thanks for telling us!" the lead officer on the scene told him.
"Anyone still out and about?" I asked, glancing around at all the nearby stoves and tabletop fans as they tried to approach the building.
"No, the mayor issued a citywide lockdown," the officer responded. "Everyone's been ordered to stay in a single room without electronics until the situation is dealt with."
"Okay, cool," I said as I took off.
There were sirens everywhere, which meant the police and firefighters were spread across the city keeping the appliances away from everyone. I used more of the appliance robots as leverage to avoid the broken glass that littered the street. Even though my sneakers could protect me, I wanted to be a good role model and not take any chances, though I couldn't say I recommended playing The Floor Is Lava on someone else's washing machine.
I debated fighting off a few of the machines, but even if I destroyed a dozen or two, there were still tens of thousands of them everywhere that could easily replace them. It would be like throwing a tiny pebble at a brick wall. However, I changed my mind and shrugged, because doing something was a million times better than doing nothing.
Running toward the nearest intersection, I kicked a few appliances away to give myself plenty of room to fight. Once I had enough space, I ran around in a tight circle before gradually widening my radius. All the nearby appliances were sucked into the vortex I was creating, including a few more hybrid robots like the one I fought in Chris' room. Even though my strategy was working, it wouldn't be a long-term fix.
Once I attracted as many appliances as I could into my vortex, I made a run for it, but I stopped when I heard sirens coming my way. I realized I had started to clear a path for them, and I looked at the other appliances as they landed on the rooftops and side streets around us.
Looking up, I could see a fire truck approaching me, but there were still so many appliances everywhere, and it was getting to the point where it was hard to move without getting squeezed between them. I jumped toward the nearest building, ricocheted myself off of it, and curled into a tight ball, slamming into the appliances closest to the fire truck. Seconds later, it had smooth sailing to continue down the street.
About fifteen seconds later, the vehicle pulled to a stop next to a fire hydrant, and the firefighters wasted no time connecting a hose to it. In moments they were blasting water at all the nearby appliances, deactivating several of them on the spot. It was really satisfying to watch, although I told myself I couldn't stay.
However, I was glad I stuck around, because before long, the water stopped coming from the hose as its pressure and volume decreased, and eventually it stopped altogether. I assumed the rest of the water in the city was cut off, just like how it was back home.
"Huh… You really thought this out, Eggman…" I thought. Although, with Eggman in jail, either this was Jerome's doing, or it was one of the doctor's backup plans. And although I didn't really have too much technical knowledge, all the water that traveled through the city had to have come from somewhere.
I happened to glance up at the right time, because I saw the X-Tornado up ahead. I wasn't sure where Tails was headed, but I trusted that he knew where he was going, and chances are he had a lead that I didn't know about.
"Hang in there guys, I'll get the water back up in no time!" I called to the firefighters as I took off in pursuit of the X-Tornado.
Station Square – Thu February 17, 10:29 AM – Sonic's POV
"I think I see a place I can land…" Tails mused. He made its final approach toward Station Square's water reservoir on the northwest side of the city. "Gonna have to switch to X-Cyclone mode though. Do you have clearance to get inside?"
"Yes," Nelson replied, holding onto the leather sides of the place as he braced himself for the landing. "They happen to be one of my clients, actually. They know who I am."
Amy looked down at the ground. "Hope we don't run into any more appliances here," she said.
"We probably will, since they did manage to shut off the water to the whole city," Nelson told her.
"Yeah, but at least they're not very strong," Amy said. "The only thing they got going for them is numbers. Like, there are so many of them!"
"But the question is, how'd they get in there?" Tails asked as he converted the plane to prepare it for landing.
"They don't– they're not smart," Amy added. "And yet… they managed to work together and just… caused all this."
"Well, whoever's controlling them, we need to get to the bottom of this after we get the water back on," Nelson speculated as he fished his phone from his pocket and dialed the reservoir's number.
In the minute that followed, Tails converted his plane into its X-Cyclone mode and guided it down for a gentle landing in an empty spot in the reservoir's parking lot. Once everyone was out, Nelson pulled out his phone and dialed the reservoir's number.
"All right, can you scout the area for me and make sure we're clear?" he asked, glancing at the reservoir center.
"Way ahead of you!" Tails called as he and Amy rushed toward the front door. Nelson held the phone to his ear.
"Mr. Thorndyke, what a surprise!" came the voice of the reservoir's manager on the other end.
"I happened to be in town this week," Nelson briefly told him. "Listen, we know about the water situation. I'm outside with Tails and Amy Rose, and we're here to help get the water back on."
"Good, thanks," the manager said. "There are rogue appliances everywhere in here, they got me trapped in a closet and it's too risky for me to leave without getting crushed. I hear some people in town have been injured and hospitalized, but they're blocking the streets, and from what I heard, they can't get any emergency vehicles out–"
"I know," Nelson said. "We found that water is their weakness, and we think that's why they turned it off for the whole sity."
"Okay, that explains everything," the manager realized.
Right as he was hanging up, Nelson looked up to see Tails flying back toward him.
"There are robots everywhere in there!" he reported, hovering several feet above him. He looked like he was urgent for Nelson to follow him.
"I know, the manager just told me," Nelson said with a nod as he followed Tails. "They got him trapped in a closet, so we gotta make him our first priority."
"Yeah," Tails agreed with a firm nod.
When they caught up to Amy, they found that she had already hammered the glass door down.
Hope she doesn't get in trouble for causing any damage here… Tails thought.
As they carefully stepped across the broken glass shards, they saw heavily damaged appliances everywhere across the lobby, and just beyond them was the pink hedgehog laying waste to even more of them with her Piko Piko Hammer. Tails flinched at the sound of her hammer squarely impacting a refrigerator.
"Hey Amy, let's try and keep the property damage to a minimum," Nelson called over the noise.
"Okay, sorry!" Amy called, looking up. "I was just making a path. Looks like it's not gonna be as bad as I thought!"
"Well, that's good to hear," Nelson said.
Now that there were no more immediate appliance threats, Nelson led the way through the facility's office block and toward the water reservoir control area. He didn't know the building's layout, and he didn't have anyone there to guide him, but there were many overhead and wall-mounted signs that pointed him in the right direction.
"What exactly are we looking for again…?" Tails asked, looking up at the human. "Besides the manager?"
"We're looking for a switch in the control room that will reactivate the water supply," Nelson replied as he looked up at the signs they passed.
"That sounds easy!" Amy remarked. "All we gotta do find the control room, right?"
"Except we've never been inside a water supply center before," Tails said, checking a closet as he passed it. He sighed; the reservoir's manager wasn't inside. "At least there are plenty of signs here to point us in the right direction."
Amy rushed through the stairwell they were approaching and threw open the heavy door. However, she stopped in her tracks when she saw various appliances of all shapes and sizes crowded on and around the stairs in the relatively tight stairwell.
"Um…" she scanned the stairs ahead of her. "I think Tails and I can get through this no problem, but you…"
"Hold on, I think I remember us passing an elevator back there," Nelson realized.
"But that's too dangerous, they'll trap you in there before you can get out!" Tails held his hands out in protest. He jumped at the sound of the stairwell door closing, the booming noise reverberating off the concrete walls.
"No, well… not unless you clear a path to the elevator, or at least the area around it where I'm gonna get out," Nelson said.
Tails gasped. "That's a great idea! And I can fly us to the top so we don't have to do a lot of fighting on the way up. You're a genius!"
Nelson smiled at Tails' compliment. "Good luck! See you at the top!" he said before opening the door and backing out of the stairwell. Tails took hold of Amy's hands and carefully flew her up the stairwell.
"Y'know, I haven't seen anyone else since we got here," Amy remarked, trying not to look down.
"That is strange.." Tails commented. "Maybe they're also barricaded somewhere. Let's keep an eye out for them while we find the control room. And the manager."
Aside from a few rogue blenders and vacuum cleaners, they both made it to the second floor without any trouble, and once they left the stairwell, they spotted the elevator. Just as Tails had anticipated, there were dishwashers and dryers everywhere crowding the hall. There was no room for humans to walk.
"Okay, let's do it to it!" Tails rallied, echoing Sonic's words. He and Amy wasted no time destroying the appliances that were gathering around them and the elevator. Tails' namesakes and Amy's hammer heavily dented them to the point where they were unable to move on their own.
Only fifteen seconds later, the elevator door opened and Nelson emerged just as the two Mobians were finishing off the last of the appliances. He blinked in surprise.
"That was fast!" he commented.
"They weren't that hard," Amy shrugged, leaning on the handle of her hammer. "Sure were a lot of 'em though."
"I'm pretty sure there are more staff hiding around here somewhere," Tails told them. "We have to find them first!"
"That's been bugging me too," Nelson said, looking around at the destruction around them. "Any more of 'em around here? Appliances, I meant, not staff."
"Um…" Tails took a few steps in the direction of the nearest hall before carefully peering down it, his baby blue eyes darting everywhere. "I don't see any this way."
Meanwhile, Amy spotted a door on the other side of the room. She hesitated for a moment before grasping the handle and opening it. By a stroke of luck, inside were six employees either sitting at various chairs or leaning against the wall. Notably, the room was completely void of any electronic appliances except for phones. They visibly relaxed when he saw that it was just Amy and not an appliance that had opened the door. They weren't surprised to see Amy either, since the manager had told them they were coming.
"It's all clear," she gently told them.
"You got all of 'em?" one of the employees asked.
"Well… not yet," Amy said. "But this floor is clear, so it's safe to come out for now."
"Okay," the employee said as he and the others gradually left the room.
"Right now we're in the middle of clearing a path to the control room so we can turn the city's water back on," Amy explained as she led the way back to where Nelson and Tails were. "Oh yeah, we also need to find the manager! He's trapped in a closet somewhere."
"Yeah, we know, he called us to tell us about it," one of the employees said.
"Uh, last time I saw him, he was downstairs," a second employee recalled.
"And we couldn't get to him ourselves. There are so many of these things blocking the stairwell, and the elevator is a no-go," the first employee said.
Amy's heart sank. She had passed him earlier without realizing it. However, she was still determined to rescue him from the unfolding technological apocalypse.
"Leave it to me! The rest of you guys find the control room!" Amy ordered.
"O-Okay!" Tails said, surprised at this sudden development. He took off down the hall, with Nelson and the six employees right behind him.
"I sure hope she knows what she's doing," Nelson said, glancing back at Amy as she disappeared into the stairwell.
"She does," Tails shrugged as if it was obvious. "Once she gets her mind set on something, there's no stopping her no matter what."
Nelson gave a hum of interest as he looked back in front of him.
"We're almost there, it's just down this hall," one of the reservoir employees said.
"This one?" Tails asked, pointing down the corridor to his right.
"Yeah."
Tails ran down the hall, scouting around for any lingering appliances. Fortunately, no threats presented themselves, and everyone was able to get to the reservoir control room without any trouble. Once they were inside, they were met with an impressive view of the city's dam and the surrounding forest.
"All right, let me see…" One of the staff members tapped a few buttons before pulling a lever on the water control system's console. A green LED light lit up in the corner of the reservoir's status display.
"Okay, we should be good now," he announced. "But for some reason, the sluice gate is not opening."
"It opens automatically, right?" Nelson asked. The employee nodded.
"Yes, all of the reservoir's basic functions are controlled from within this room," he said. "Although we do have manual overrides everywhere in case of mechanical failure."
"Not lookin' forward to that…" another staff member groaned.
"How come?" Tails asked.
"'Cuz the manual override is heavy. It takes all of us to turn the wheel and open the gate, and even then we have to give it our all."
"Sounds like a challenge if you ask me!" came an optimistic voice from the doorway. All eyes turned to see Sonic standing there, a confident smirk on his muzzle.
"You have impeccable timing, Sonic," Nelson complimented.
"Heh, I aim to please," Sonic said with a wink. "Hey, great job with the appliances back there. The ones in the city held me up a bit, so that's kinda why I'm late, but you guys did good taking care of the ones here."
"They closed the gate outside, that's why there's no water," Tails explained.
"Yeah, I heard," Sonic said as he stepped back out into the hall. "All right, let's get that gate open! But first, where's Amy?"
"Hi, Sonic!" Amy called as she approached everyone. To their relief, the manager was with her.
"Everything okay?" one of the employees asked the manager.
"I'm okay, don't worry about me," the manager said with a nod. "Did you get the water back on?"
After Nelson explained the gist of the situation to the manager, he and everyone else were hurriedly led back through the facility toward the side door. Not wanting to wait around for too long, Sonic ran ahead of everyone.
"Looks like there's gonna be a lot of cleanup around here," Nelson commented. "I'm not just talking about here here, I'm talking about the entire city."
"Oh yeah, that's gonna take a few weeks at least," the manager said. "And that's just the cleanup. It'll take upwards of a few months to get all the appliances replaced, and I can't begin to think of how much this will cost the appliance companies."
"I'm aware of that too, we'll cover the costs as much as we can on our end," Nelson told him. "And don't worry, we can afford it. Starship is one of the world's biggest companies after all," he added with a laugh.
When they got to the sluice gate's massive valve, they weren't surprised to see Sonic already there waiting for them. The hedgehog was leaning against the valve, panting.
"This thing's a lot heavier than I thought," he admitted.
"You already tried it by yourself?" Amy asked in astonishment as she approached him.
"Figured I'd give it a shot," Sonic said as he took a few steps back.
"It does take several strong hands to operate it manually," the manager said.
"Well, ya know what they say, teamwork makes the dream work!" Sonic said with a grin, "You're lookin' at the strongest guys around! 'Cept for Knuckles, he's back on Angel Island."
"I trust you, let's do this," the manager said as he grabbed one of the valve's handles. "We're turning it counterclockwise to open it. On the count of three!"
Nelson, Tails, Amy, Sonic, and the six employees took their positions around the valve, and after the manager counted to three, everyone pushed the valve with all their might. It took most of their strength, but when the valve had enough momentum, it was easier to keep it going.
"It's working!" Tails called.
"Keep going! Just a little more!" the manager called.
About a minute later, their ears were gradually filled with the sound of rushing water below them.
"Never thought I'd be happy to hear the sound of water," Sonic quipped. "As far as I can tell, there are no more robots around here, right?"
"There are still some in the stairwell," Amy recalled.
"Oh, we'll just hose them down no problem," one of the employees said. "And then call someone to have them taken out of here."
"Sounds good," Nelson said.
"In the meantime, we're gonna juice on back to Station Square and finish off the rest of the appliances," Sonic said. "We'll keep at it until the city's back up and running."
"Oh, before you do that, can you drop me off at home first?" Nelson asked.
"Sure," Tails said. Spinning his tails, he flew back through the reservoir in the direction of the X-Tornado. Sonic, Amy, and Nelson followed him.
They're the finest heroes and people this world has ever known, the manager thought. I'm proud to have them here with us.
The Egg Dome – Thu February 17, 11:57 AM – Third-person POV
Through the Egg Dome's hidden cameras situated in strategic spots around the city, Watcher was sitting in the surveillance room, watching in dismay as firefighters from all across the greater Station Square area hosed down the machines. In a word, the Society's plan was awash.
"And there go the last of 'em," he said. "All right, whose fault was it to not make them waterproof, huh?"
"Oh, am I suddenly to blame for not knowing they would all go down just like that?" Browning retorted.
"Well duh, you're the one who built them," Watcher snapped. "Listen, you're an engineer, you of all people here should know this." He spoke slower, emphasizing each word. "Electricity and water do not mix. When objects that are dependent on electricity get wet, they short out and stop working. And that's what's happening to your little army out there right now."
"If you would quit bickering for five seconds," Narasu said as he entered the room. "One, we were on a time crunch. Two, this was just a diversion, and besides, they've already served their purpose. Look!"
The doctor picked up a remote and pointed it at the screen. As he pressed two buttons, the screen changed to show the outside of the Egg Dome. The tranquil forest was being filled with countless GUN Beetles, Laser Hunters, Flying Dogs, Hot Shots, and hundreds of other GUN robots as they gathered en masse around the Egg Dome. There were even a few Valkyries that were gradually converting to ground mode and landing around the society's headquarters.
Howard Watcher let out an elated laugh, his insanity showing
"Look at 'em all!" Watcher said as he took in the view. "Too many to count, this is beautiful. We're so powerful now! Now I see what you mean, doc. Those machines of yours really have served their purpose."
"I still think it was a bit overkill to draw civilians into our conflict like this," Passer said, crossing his arms.
"A minor inconvenience for the greater good," Watcher responded, not looking up from the screen. "Machines can be replaced after all. Oh, and you know what? The Thorndykes have their hands in pretty much every pocket in America. Which means I'm counting on them to fund GE, Black & Decker, all of it, to get everyone's stuff replaced. And that means they're gonna go flat broke in no time. And you know what that means? Thorndykes lose their home, the furries lose their home… they're gonna be out on their own somewhere, their morale will be down… and that's when we strike!"
"Dream on, Howard," Passer said. "You have no idea how financially stable the Thorndyke empire is. Even in an event like this, they have ways of making all their money back. Sonic isn't going anywhere, and besides, we weren't directly targeting him this time. That wasn't the point of the mission."
"Fair enough," Watcher said.
"This is incredible!" Li Yan said as he and Hector Dragg joined the others in the surveillance room. "Now that we have their robots, not even GUN can touch us!"
"And they can only dream of hacking them back," Passer added. "I covered our tracks and change the code as soon as the override code kicked in. As for the manually controlled vehicles, I programmed them to eject their pilots, and autopilot did the rest."
"Huh," Watcher said in intrigue. "So why didn't GUN change the code after you were arrested?"
"I'm sure the Organizer knows the answer to that one better than any of us do," Passer speculated.
"He knows a lot of stuff we don't," Dragg remarked. "Surprised he doesn't just tell us things straight."
"I guess the less we know, the better in case any of us are detained," Passer said.
"All in all, I can say we've made a good first impression on society without anyone finding us out," Watcher said. "For all I care, they'll probably think this was one of Eggman's old backup plans that kicked in when he got sent to the slammer." He held up what looked like a tiny mechanical spider. "And it's all thanks to these little rogues."
"Wait, we still have some left over?" Dragg asked in surprise.
"Consider this a beta test," Narasu stated, leaning against the wall. "The real deal will be the time we inevitably deal with any of Eggman's robots. And speaking of Eggman's robots, I'm almost done with the upgrades for Beta." He took a few steps into the surveillance room. "However, to make it fully functional, I will need a Chaos Emerald."
"A Chaos– Do you have any idea how hard it is to find one? Just one of those things?" Dragg asked incredulously.
"They are incredibly valuable," Li Yan said. "I have firsthand experience with one, so no one will just give one to us."
"And plus, stealing them from Sonic is so far out of the question it's not even funny," Dragg continued. "So tell me, doc… how do you plan on getting us a Chaos Emerald?"
"You're asking the wrong guy," Narasu said. "I'm a technician, not a treasure hunter."
"Y'know what, next time the Organizer calls us, I'm gonna bring this up," Watcher said from his chair, still watching the ever-growing army of GUN robots outside. "Pretty sure something's gonna be arranged for us, if he plays his cards right."
Thorndyke Mansion - Chris' room – Thu February 17, 12:13 PM – Third-person POV
As Mr. Tanaka, Nelson, and Lindsey guided the cleanup crews to Chris' room, most of everyone else was gathered in Sonic and Tails' shared bedroom to discuss everything that happened. Fortunately for both Ella and Chris, Tails had no problem with Chris staying in his bed. Besides, it was only for one day until all the water was cleaned up.
Chris was starting to feel a little better, but he still had the flu. However, he did vomit twice while everyone was away at the reservoir. He had been told that the city's water supply was back up and running, and most of the appliances had been contained throughout the city limits. However, Chuck had told everyone it could take a few days until everything was fully under control, and a few weeks to upwards of three months for everyone to receive payment for new house appliances.
To say the least, it was a stressful time in the Thorndyke household, especially for Chris, who knew they would have to improvise and go back to basics until they could get new appliances.
"Guys! I found out what's happening to all the tech!" Tails called as he rushed into the room.
"What happened?" Chuck asked.
Tails held out his hand and opened his palm, revealing a mechanical spider. Ella and Amy yelped and took a step back, and even though Cream was a bit scared too, she let out a gasp of realization.
"Is that… I think that's the same kind of spider I saw earlier!" she said.
"And there was one of these in every appliance that was affected?" Chuck asked.
"Well…" Tails thought. "Not every one. But this spider was responsible for affecting all the appliances. I took a close look at it just now, and it seems to be filled with microchips."
"So it went across the whole house microchipping every appliance it came across," Chuck speculated.
"Yeah," Tails said with a nod as he stowed the spider back in Hammerspace. "When I was coming back to tell you guys, I noticed that only some of the appliances looked like they were new out of the box, so I don't think the spiders were able to get inside boxes. They did manage to affect larger ones like fridges and ovens."
"I see," Chuck said. "So we can still pick up some new appliances over the next couple of weeks, but that all depends on how many of them were affected in Station Square alone."
"True," Tails said, leaning against the bedpost.
"It's going to be expensive, even for us," Ella admitted. "Just think about the laundry!"
"Hey, it's no big deal!" Amy spoke up. "I can help out with anything you need. And besides, we Mobians have always been light when it comes to laundry."
"I can help too, Miss Ella!" Cream added from next to her.
"Thank you both very much, you two are angels," Ella said with a smile.
"You're welcome, Miss Ella!" Cream said with a slight curtsy.
"On the bright side, though, we can still shower and have basic meals and order takeout."
"But no hair dryers," Tails pointed out.
"Right, no hair dryers," Chuck confirmed. "I know how much you need one after your showers so your fur stays extra soft. I promise we'll get new hair dryers as soon as we finish cleaning up around here."
"Okay," Tails said with a nod.
"But yeah, this is definitely a wake-up call for all of us," Chuck continued. "About how reliant we all are on technology. And I will admit, I'm guilty too of looking at my phone every now and then when I'm working on my projects. Speaking of that, I am surprised how most people's phones weren't affected by all this. And don't worry, Chris, we'll get you a new phone as soon as we get some of the essentials first."
"Okay," Chris said, bundling into his blankets more.
The room was quiet for a moment as everyone reflected on what happened that morning. The only sound was the cleaners at work in Chris' room, along with the occasional voice calling over the machinery. Luckily, the cleaners seemed to have been spared by the apocalypse.
"So…" Sonic spoke at last. "I've been thinking, and… even though Jerome Wise is still out there somewhere, I don't think he's able to do anything like this. Sure, he came here in one of Eggman's combat robots with some Badniks, but hacking all the house appliances? Sounds a bit too chaotic to be him if you ask me."
"But it has to be him," Amy responded, placing her hands on her hips. "I can't think of anyone else who would do something this random."
"I don't think it's random," Tails said. "There has to be a bigger motive for why Eggman or Jerome did this, we just need to figure it out first."
"But we don't know what he's capable of, especially when Eggman's not around," Chris said, before he paused as he realized something. "Oh yeah, there's Emerl… I guess somehow, Jerome knows how to use the Phantom Ruby."
"But not as well as Eggman since his version of Emerl can't even talk," Amy said.
"Just in case, let's not talk down about Emerl when he's nearby," Chuck said from his phone. "We don't know if he was sent here as a spy or otherwise. Actually, maybe we shouldn't say any sensitive information in his presence. But you do have a point, Amy. We don't know how much access Jerome is allowed to have to Eggman's technology. And Bokkun and the others are just servants, so– Um…"
"It's okay Grandpa, even people who are not real can be very nice," Cream said. "And I promised I will do my very best to help Emerl and make sure he doesn't do anything bad."
"He's out," Chuck spoke all of a sudden, looking up from his phone. The room's tension took an uneasy shift.
"Who's out?" Ella asked.
"Eggman?" Sonic asked in surprise.
"Yes…" Chuck said in a low tone. He turned the phone around. There was no mistaking the headlines "Notorious Scientist Doctor Eggman Escapes From Prison After Four Days In Captivity" and "Egg Carrier Spotted At Bigley Federal Correction Facility During Doctor Eggman Breakout Operation".
Amy let out a frustrated sigh.
"We spent so much time trying to arrest him!" Chris said, voicing her thoughts.
"Well, that's the thing about Eggman," Sonic said. "Prison's not gonna hold him forever. Believe me, he's been in jail a lot of times. Well… not a lot, but… some prisons aren't all six-by-eights and three hots and a cot, ya know? He has tons of robots, and back home he's got his Egg Bosses too. They all broke him out of prison when he needed it."
"So Jerome got him out this time?" Tails asked.
"I don't see why he would," Amy said, "unless he really is that loyal to him. When we met him when we were going up to Space Colony ARK… he was scared. He was scared of the government finding him and arresting him. So maybe he got him out so he can keep hiding in Eggman's protection."
"But Eggman wouldn't protect him willingly," Tails pointed out. "Just look at Snively that one time!"
"So then why would Jerome help Eggman?" Chris asked.
"Maybe, um…" Cream thought about it. "Maybe Dr. Eggman's robots made him do it!"
"That's… actually plausible," Tails thought. "But if Jerome was here a couple days ago taking the Chaos Emerald, and not out there trying to help Eggman… Then this proves Jerome is not entirely loyal to him. That, plus him using the Phantom Ruby, which I'm guessing is against Eggman's orders."
"So that tells me he might not be with Eggman much longer," Amy speculated.
"Sounds about right," Sonic agreed.
"There's more," Chuck said, reading from his phone. "This wasn't the first time they tried to break Eggman out of prison. They were up in San Francisco, but they failed, and Eggman had to be relocated back to Station Square because of its ultra-high security. And this also says, 'Eyewitnesses in the Santa Maria district report seeing the Egg Carrier moments before it vanished without a trace.' And it looks like Eggman hasn't been seen anywhere after that either."
"Cloaking device…" Chris thought aloud.
"Typical Eggman fashion," Sonic said, commenting on the last thing the graying professor said.
Amy let out a small gasp, her eyes open wide. "So this means he wasn't behind the hacked technology!"
"I'm sure his robots are programmed to walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, if you get my drift," Chuck said in response as he continued to look at his phone. "But there's nothing to indicate that Eggman was behind this. Usually he's open about his schemes if he's the one behind them."
"What he said," Sonic said, thumb-pointing at the professor. "No Eggman logos anywhere, I knew something about this felt off. I've been feeling off since I left here, actually." He started pacing the room, glancing from face to face as they watched him. "You know what this means? There's somebody else out there causin' evil schemes, an Eggman wannabe. Maybe it's those same guys who broke into a prison last time."
"Oh yeah…" Amy recalled.
"Which also happened to be Bigley Prison," Tails pointed out, eyes closed in thought.
"…For real?" Sonic said in surprise. "Okay, that's scary. First these guys break a military head honcho out of prison. Then, when Eggman gets broken out of that same prison, they decide to hack all our house appliances and make 'em go haywire." He paused in his pacing for a moment. "Wait a minute…"
"What is it, Sonic?" Tails asked.
"Think they could be workin' together somehow?" Sonic asked. "All these machines, what if it was just a diversion for Eggman so he could slip out of prison unnoticed?"
"While I can see that happening… why would humans want to willingly work for Eggman?" Tails asked, looking up at his big brother. "Like… what do they see in Eggman that they like?"
"Huh… I'm not sure," Sonic said, having not thought about that before.
"So what do we do, Mr. Sonic?" Cream asked.
"Simple," Sonic said, taking a few steps toward the window and facing the room. "We stay alert, and watch for anyone to make a move, either Eggman or these other guys. One or both of 'em could strike without warning, and we wanna be ready for that."
"This time with Eggman is not like the other times since we came here to Earth," Tails pointed out, holding up a finger. "The last two times we beat Eggman and he came out of hiding, he made himself obvious by using one of his flying fortresses. This time, as soon as he came out of prison, he went straight into hiding."
"Maybe he's planning something big," Chris said, before his stomach started to churn again.
"Everyone please give Chris some space," Ella told everyone as she made her way out of the room. "He's getting sick again."
"Oh no…" Cream whimpered in sympathy as she followed everyone out. To help Chris, Sonic opted to stay in the room, since he wasn't overly bothered by people being sick, as much as he didn't like it.
"Well, whatever happens next," Sonic called after everyone, "we'll be ready. And until then, I'm gonna help get this city back up and running. But first," he told Chris, "let's get you back up and running."
The White House – Thu February 17, 8:09 PM EST – Third-person POV
Having finished dinner and an important briefing on the day's events in Station Square, President Remerson returned to the Oval Office and sat down behind the Resolute Desk. Hardly a day went by without something or other happening in Station Square involving the other-worlders or the Thorndykes.
Ever since the briefing concluded a few hours ago, he felt unsettled that there was another major organization that had manifested itself, and they were slowly but surely snowballing and making themselves stronger. They had freed Colonel Passer from a federal prison, and now they somehow had GUN's entire robot army at their beck and call.
Furthermore, no one had seen Dr. Eggman or even the Egg Carrier itself since the doctor's own prison breakout. There was now a nationwide manhunt underway for him, and all citizens received an emergency text on their phones to contact their local GUN agency if they had anything to report concerning Eggman.
Eggman caught the population off guard when he returned the last two times. Remerson refused to let that happen again. Third time was not the charm.
He picked up his cell phone and dialed Mayor Pinsky's number. Fortunately the connection was secure, which meant the call was encrypted and no one could eavesdrop or tap the call.
"Mr. President, what an honor," the mayor spoke when he picked up.
"Mayor Pinsky, I wanted to discuss something with you concerning Eggman," the President said. "As we both know, he is a national priority. The national priority, I may add."
"I'm worried too," Pinsky said. "Because not only did GUN lose their entire robot army, but I heard back from Commissioner Perrault, and he told me that GUN was unable to hack them back into their possession. This underground organization is a serious threat that must be dealt with immediately. At this rate, we will have to call in all available military forces to combat Eggman if he makes his presence known again."
"There's a reason he went into hiding, I'm sure," the President said. "So there has to be a way to draw him out into the open."
"Mr. President, is it correct that your administration is in possession of a Chaos Emerald?" Pinsky asked.
"What for?" Remerson queried.
"As we know, Dr. Eggman seems to be attracted to Chaos Emeralds, so if we arrange one as bait, it will likely draw him into the open, and if not him, then one of his robots, and through it, we can trace his location."
"That's a solid idea, and yes, we are holding onto a Chaos Emerald. I'll arrange for it to be sent to you first thing tomorrow.
"However… what if someone else finds the Emerald first? Like maybe the organization that stole the GUN robots?"
"I'm starting to come up with something now, give me a moment, my gears are turning… Maybe… it doesn't have to be anything covert."
There was a pause.
"Can you… clarify, Mr. President?"
"Hear me out for a second, Mr. Mayor. Perhaps it could be a public event of some sort, for the publicity and benefit of everyone from our sister planet Mobius. Of course, there will have to be a lot of security measures in place to prevent anything from happening.
"Mayor Pinsky… I propose a tournament."
A/N: And that concludes "Mean Machines!" Except for Eggman's breakout and Emerl's demonstration of his skills, this episode was mostly filler in the anime, but I found ways to make it canon.
Episodes 42 and 44 (A Date to Forget and Sewer Search) are omitted in this rewrite; however, I did have plans for both stories when I originally planned on writing them. In episode 42, I would have toned Amy's Tsundere tendency down, but since I completely revamped her character anyway in this story, I found it unnecessary to adapt this episode; however, aspects of it were happening in the last chapter in case you didn't pick up on it.
As for episode 44, I had more plans for this one. It would have primarily focused on Danny, Frances, and Helen. Chris and Cream's roles would have been greatly diminished, and they wouldn't accompany Mr. Stewart down into the sewer. There is a possibility that I could reuse the Egg Spider that appeared in this episode, although I'm not sure about that yet. I did, however, loosely adapt the first scene of that episode as the last scene of this chapter, as a lead-in to the upcoming arc I'm about to write starting next chapter.
I don't really like writing scenes where anyone vomits because while I love intensity, I don't want to show anything too graphic. However, I thought it was necessary to make Chris have a little more than a cold because it would warrant an actual logical reason for Nelson and Lindsey to come home, and besides, Nelson was a critical character to the plot. Also, I knew I had to keep the moment where Chuck says "Nelson! You're impossible!" because it's OliviaGames1208's favorite moment from this episode (shoutout to her!).
I've written several tough scenes before. It took me a few months to fully plan the Matt's Quest original chapter. It took me a long time to fletch out the nuances or both chapters 6 and 7. It even took me over a year to fully plan out the Shadow Saga due to writer's block. But no single scene plagued me more than the scene where Nelson, Tails, and Amy went to the water reservoir to turn the water back on. They say to write what you know, but I know nothing about water reservoirs and that's a critical part of the plot. I left out Chris (for obvious reasons), Lindsey, Ella, Mr. Tanaka, Cream, Vanilla, and Emerl from this scene because I didn't want to crowd the scene with too many unnecessary characters.
So yeah, while I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, I'm proud of the overarching plot, and I'm really excited to show you the future chapters I have planned!
And now, I need to address something that I and my readers have been noticing and this has gone on for long enough.
START OF RANT
Unfortunately, I can't reply to Dbehi / Greedzilla's review because he has been extremely annoying recently and giving me suggestions that I'm never going to use in my story because I explained multiple times that I'm not doing crossovers in this story. He has been known for going on long-winded monologues about all these other unrelated franchises that I'm not familiar with (even in a live stream chat once), volunteering information that's completely irrelevant to the story, self-promoting his own projects, and spamming my DMs with stuff about his story. He even told me this: "I will also kindly request that you Stardown, will help me with beta reading, writing a backlog, and working together with me on all of COIE, to ensure that COIE maintains the same level of detail and quality as COE." I have screenshot evidence of this. I already had a bad betareading experience in the past. I can't go through that again, especially since I looked at Dbehi's profile and I saw that his stories have gotten flame reviews. He joined my friend OliviaGames1208's Discord server (which I am a co-owner for), but he wouldn't stop talking about his story, posting off-topic stuff in the wrong channels, speaking over others in the VC, and talking about Backyard Sports and other stuff that nobody was interested in. When one of my friends was sharing some information in the VC, Greedzilla was like "That's nice, anyway…" and went on rambling. The last straw was when he was spamming about his story in the Discord forum post reserved for my story, making overly violent comments and suggestions about both my story and his, and made another one of my friends extremely uncomfortable in the VC. We banned him after that, and I blocked him on Discord as a safety precaution so he wouldn't spam my DMs, but he didn't seem to learn his lesson, because he was banned from the Sonic Revolution server as well, and he left AndTails' server soon afterward after he was timed out for spamming in the general chat. After I posted the last chapter, I had it with Dbehi and blocked him on FFN on August 8, but tonight (September 20), I just discovered that he left a guest review to circumvent his ban on August 11. I don't wanna have to enable guest review moderation because a lot of my regulars are guest reviewers. However, I can just delete any future reviews he posts.
You know what, I think I will respond to this review. The reason I changed Decoe and Bocoe's personalities is so that they don't overlap with Orbot and Cubot's personalities. And the only reason I skip filler episodes is because I couldn't think of a coherent way to make them canon in Chaos on Earth. You can't say that "almost nothing from them will be important in the long run." I know a TON of people who love the filler episodes, especially 14 and 69. 5 was important because it was character development for Knuckles. 6 gave us Chris' parents. 9 was character development for Amy. 14 gave us character development for Helen. 18 gave us character development for Tails. 19 was a fun adventure that gave us Amy and Chris scenes. 21 gave us a fun little race between Sonic and Sam Speed, plus it showed Jerome getting fired which changed his role later on. 22 was referenced in 32 which is a canon episode. 24 gave us a little bit of SonAmy, plus it was a fun break from the intensity of the previous two episodes. 42 gave us character development for both Amy and Sam Speed, plus it introduced Emerl. 43 was actually canon because Eggman broke out of prison. 44 showed us a new side of Mr. Stewart, plus the first scene was a lead-in to the tournament arc. 47 and 48 gave us great voice acting from Jerry Lobozzo as Chuck in my opinion, plus it set up Decoe and Bocoe being temporary good guys for 49, which is canon. 59 is canon because it sent the Chaotix into space. 65 is referenced in 78, plus it is THE Tailsmo episode. And last but not least, 69 is ALSO a Tailsmo scene, and it has a lot of fanart devoted to its final scene.
So yeah, just because it's not canon doesn't mean it's not important or memorable.
I've been holding back this whole time, but I'm just gonna make this clear, Greedzilla. I was asking for ideas for Cosmo's age ONLY. Literally no one asked for the Backyard Sports kids' ages or anything about them. And I agree with iron maker2 on everything they said about you. No one needs to compare any character to other characters just to determine their age. Furthermore, no offense, but I didn't ask to hear about your story plans for Chaos on Infinite Earths, and I'm sorry I suggested that name for your story, because you took it and ran with it. I won't be helping you with your story because it would not be the best use of my time. I blocked you for a reason, and that reason is because you wouldn't stop pestering me with off-topic information. And now I found out that you're evading the block. If that's not against FFN's ToS, it should be. I will be deleting all of your future reviews from now on. Thank you and have a nice day.
END OF RANT
Sorry about that everyone, I had to get that off my chest and I said what needed to be said. Moving on!
Anyway, I know that the end of the second scene (where Tails and Amy talk about human relations with Mobians) is completely filler and probably doesn't add anything to the plot, but I love taking any opportunity I can to incorporate my headcanon into my stories. Besides, I think I can find a way to incorporate this headcanon in a later chapter, as well as another story I'm thinking of starting when Chaos on Earth is complete.
Fun fact: Including this paragraph, I used the word "appliance" 69 times and "robot" 85 times! I knew I was using those words a lot this chapter XD
If you have any suggestions or corrections, please let me know! Every little bit of help counts to make this story even better. I personally felt like this chapter was a bit weak in some departments, but if you see something that I may have missed, please let me know.
And I'm also curious, what are everyone's thoughts on the Corona Corundum? I know that in my response to CreativeKitty975's review, I had it lying around and name-dropped it in two chapters in season 1, but I didn't really know what to do with it until recently.
Next time: "Prize Fights Part 1", where preparations for the President's tournament begin! Don't miss it!
Anime title: Doctor Eggman Escapes!? The Terrifying House Appliance Battle!
