Chapter 45: I Have No Lungs and I Must Breathe
The evening moon rose over the countryside, providing the guiding light needed for Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, and Bokkun to make their way to Chuck's barn. Upon their arrival, they were met with a set of exhausted companions who were still weary after the jailbreak and subsequent fight with Metal Chris. Sonic was nursing his bruised arm while Tails yawned over the operating table housing a restrained and unconscious Metal Chris. Amy was asleep against the wall while Helen snoozed in her wheelchair.
"Hey, Knux," Sonic greeted, waving at the red echidna with a single finger. "Took ya long 'nough."
"I had some unfinished business," Knuckles replied as he pulled a piece of the Master Emerald from his dreadlocks. "Angel Island was swarming with soldiers, so I did what I had to do to prevent its power from falling into the wrong hands."
"I sure hope they don't trash Tails' workshop," Cream said, "especially all of his inventions."
"Chao, chao," Cheese replied with a downcast face.
"I wish there was something we could've done," Bokkun added.
"Against all those soldiers?" Sonic approached the small robot and gave him some head pats. "Nah, it would've been worse to take them head on like that. Letting them have the floating island for now was the best strategy."
"After what I did to the Master Emerald," Knuckles corrected, "you can just call it an island, or, really, just a mass of land covering the park at this point."
"Ah geez," Tails replied as he shook his head. "First the big fight with Chris and Eggman, and now this! So much for greenifying the city. At least there were no fatalities…"
"We can deal with the fallout later," Knuckles interjected. "For now, we should plan our next move, and also…what the hell is that!?" The red echidna pointed at the table where a deactivated robot was restrained.
"Remember that spoiled rich kid Chris?" Sonic asked with a grin.
"Yeah, who could forget that overwhelming sense of entitlement?" Knuckles approached the metal body before shifting his focus back to the blue hedgehog. "Wait…you don't mean…" The red echidna pointed at the table.
"Yep," Sonic replied with a nod.
"Holy shit…" Knuckles tapped the left arm of the metallic creation.
"Yeah." Tails nodded his head. "It seems Eggman abducted him. He was after Sonic just as we were making our escape from Prison Island, but Sonic put a stop to him!" The orange fox enthusiastically smashed one fist against the palm of his other hand.
"Hey, I couldn't have done it alone!" Sonic added, giving his lil' bro a noogie with his gloved fist, earning a laugh from the young fox.
"What are you going to do with Chris now, Mr. Tails?" Cream asked.
"Well," he replied, "I don't have the capability to undo the roboticization, but I can restore his consciousness." The orange kitsune pulled out his trusty screwdriver, using the tool to pop open the inside of Chris' head, a brain-shaped processing unit within. Connecting this with his Miles Electric, Tails got to work messing with the programming that put Chris under Eggman's control.
"Eggman's coding is messier than the kitchen after Sonic makes chili dogs," Tails noted, "but I think I got things in order. All I need to do is reboot him."
"Hold on a sec," Sonic suggested as he approached Amy and Helen, placing his gloved hands on their shoulders. "It's time to wake up," he said softly. "We're about to reactivate Chris." The two girls opened their eyes, yawned, and stretched their arms.
The party gathered around the table as the orange fox prepared to reboot the machine. Helen peered down at the robot with a frown as sweat rolled down the side of her face. She placed a finger on her throat where Metal Chris' choke marks could still be felt, the metal creation's searing words permanently etched into her mind:
You…will pay.
The young girl gulped as Tails' finger approached the on switch. She furrowed her brow when the robot was rebooted, and nearly instantaneously, Chris' red eyes flashed open, and his head moved left and right frantically.
"Hey…where am I? And why does…my voice sound like that?" There was a distinct, robot-esque monotone pitch he was unable to control, and like a guitar hooked up to an amplifier, there was a hint of distortion.
"Try to relax," Tails replied. "Take a nice, easy breath."
Chris tried breathing in, but he had no lungs. Despite this, he didn't feel out of breath. In fact, he felt nothing.
"Oops, probably not the right thing to say," Tails said as he facepalmed. "Okay, so first thing: can you tell us your name?"
"Of course I can, rodent. It's Mr. Christopher Thorndyke, heir of the Thorndyke family! Even you know that I'm what you plebeians would call a big deal."
"And there it is," Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Too bad you couldn't deprogram his entitlement.
"Shush, Sonic," Tails replied before turning his attention back to Chris. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Chris took a few moments to think. "Well, I was…taken by this black hedgehog, and Eggman…he…he…oh my god." The roboticized human, who now fully remembered the events after Shadow kidnapped him, tried breaking free of his restraints, but his arms and legs were locked down tight. "When I get my hands on Eggman, I will fucking kill him!" The table rattled against the metallic might of Chris' rage.
"Chris, I'm gonna need you to calm down," Tails said. "We're still trying to fix things."
"What do you mean fix things?" Chris asked sardonically.
"He ordered you to go after Sonic, but we stopped you and deprogrammed your blind obedience," Tails replied.
"Yeah, you should be thankin' him," Sonic added.
"Thank you guys? Ha! Why don't you just end me now to spare the misery of your company?"
"Because I don't want you to die," Helen interjected.
"…Helen?" Chris turned his mechanical neck to the right to witness the young girl with tears in her eyes. "I…I bet I look hideous right now, don't I?"
"Actually…you look okay as far as robots go," Helen replied before pulling out a handheld mirror and holding it close to Metal's face, changing the angle periodically to give him a good view of the upper half of his body.
"Okay…I'll admit I do look a little badass."
Helen was stone-faced, not amused by Chris' display of ego under these circumstances.
"Look…is there anything we can do to fix me?" Chris asked.
"I don't think we can fix stupid," Sonic jeered.
"Shut the fuck up, rodent!" Chris exclaimed.
"Yeah Sonic, not helping," Amy added, elbowing the azure hedgehog in the hip.
"I can't fix you on my own," Helen replied honestly, "but I'll be helping Tails."
"It'll take some time," Tails added, "but I hope to fully reverse Eggman's roboticization. Unfortunately…" Tails furrowed his brow. "…there's more pressing matters to attend to."
"What do you mean?" Chris complained. "Shouldn't restoring me back to my patented peak human performance be the highest priority?"
"With Eggman currently hunting down the Chaos Emeralds," Amy replied, "we need to secure them all first and stop whatever he's planning."
"Incapacitating Shadow should be high up on the list too," Knuckles added.
"And now that Sonic and Tails are considered outlaws," Amy concluded, "we have no time to waste!"
"This is where you come in," Tails said, returning his focus to the restrained robot.
"What do you mean?" Chris asked. "Are you saying you need my help?"
"Precisely," Tails replied. "You are considered Eggman tech, meaning you should have access to the Eggman network. Are you able to access his database to give us vital intel on what he's plotting?"
"Even if I could," Chris replied, "I certainly wouldn't stoop so low as to help you vermin. As far as I'm concerned, y'all can bite my shiny metal ass!"
The room fell silent.
Sonic cringed as he shifted his focus to Tails. "Can't you just deactivate him and extract the data?"
"I mean…I could," Tails replied, "but…wouldn't it be wrong to use his brain to hack into Eggman's database without his consent?"
"I bet you couldn't hack your way down a flight of stairs because of how chonky you are!"
"…you know what?" Tails picked up his Miles Electric, which was still connected to Chris' processing unit. "Screw it."
"Wait, what are you doing!?" Metal Chris forcefully tried pulling himself out of his restraints.
"Saving the world," Tails replied as he rapidly typed on his computer.
"No, don't do it! I won't let you!" The metallic machine ripped himself from his restraints and pulled himself up, quickly falling off the table.
"Grab him!" Tails commanded.
Knuckles dove toward Metal Chris, but the roboticized boy swiftly dodged.
"Woah…I didn't even have to think…it's as if my body's reacting on its own." He tightened his steel fists and launched himself at Tails. "I'll deactivate you, pipsqueak!"
"Ahhhh!" Tails screamed.
Just before Chris' head collided with the orange kitsune, the metal boy was kicked away by a spy hiding in the rafters, sending Metal Chris through the rickety wooden wall of the barn.
"Rouge!?" Knuckles exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"You know, just eavesdropping," she replied with a smirk before redirecting her attention to Tails. "If you're gonna shut him down, better do it now before he gets a chance to get back up."
"Right," Tails replied with a nod as he approached Chris' off switch.
"No, don't!" Chris pleaded. "At least delete my browser history fir—"
Click
The robot was powered down, its metallic limbs lifeless as he laid in the grass outside the barn.
"So Rouge," Knuckles asked, shifting his attention to the secret agent, "why are you even here if you're working for the government…the ones who put Sonic and Tails in jail and occupied my island?"
"If you're worried I'm reporting this to Topaz or any of my other superiors, you have nothing to fear," she replied with a smirk. "I'm just here for my own sake."
"If you think your silence will be rewarded with a Chaos Emerald, think again," Knuckles replied as he crossed his arms.
"Oh, come on, Knuckles, do you really think I'm vain enough to be only interested in gems?"
"Yes!" Everyone replied, including Helen.
"Oh well…fair enough," Rouge replied with a shrug.
"I think I almost have access to Eggman's network," Tails said as he typed away on his keyboard.
"Wow, that was quick!" Sonic complimented.
"Eggman's network may be secured, but he allows any of his devices through with minimal security checks…" With a few final clicks, Tails raised his arms in excitement. "I'm in! I even have Eggman's spoken diary entries! Those should give us exactly what we need."
Tails opened the most recent file.
"Doctor's Log: As I have my henchmen out there exterminating Sonic and locating the Chaos Emeralds, I am sitting here watching the latest episode of My Little Pony, and man did Hasbro outdo themselves this time! I swear every time Fluttershy appears on screen, I squeal with delight!"
"Or…maybe not…" Tails opened a previous file and fast forwarded.
"So what's the deal with Sonic and Amy anyway? If they're getting married, they certainly haven't sent me an invitation! Me, their archnemesis! I'm offended…"
"Nothing useful here either…" Tails pulled up yet another file.
"…so I will take the Chaos Emeralds and use them to power the space station to take over the world!"
"What's this now?" Tails asked himself, allowing the file to continue playing.
"To summarize the history surrounding this space station: The Space Colony Ark was shut down over 50 years ago after the military wished to destroy all my grandfather's works, including the creation he dubbed 'The Ultimate Lifeform'. This Project Shadow was to be used to help cure my late cousin Maria's fatal disease, but the military not only captured my grandfather and killed my cousin, they also imprisoned Shadow, cryogenically freezing her indefinitely. Well…let's just say awakening my grandfather's creation served to be one of my most eggzzellent ideas ever, and once I use the Chaos Emeralds to power up the long-abandoned Ark, I will bring the Earth to its knees. Wooahhooohoohooo!"
"So that's how everything's connected," Tails observed.
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.
"This corroborates those writings on the wall of the prison cell," Tails replied. "We stayed in the same locked cell as Dr. Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather who was arrested many decades ago. He was driven to madness over the death of Maria and plotted his revenge from his cell. It's likely the case that he would've used the Ark as a weapon, just as what Eggman's plotting."
"How would he even do that remotely?" Amy asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
"Beats me," Tails replied with a shrug, "although if there's one thing I've learned from dealing with Eggman, it is to never underestimate a Robotnik." Tails pulled himself out of his chair and walked toward the group. "Eggman mentioned using the Space Colony Ark and the Chaos Emeralds to bring the people of this planet under his control. This may be linked to Gerald's revenge scheme."
"Great detective work, lil' bro," Sonic replied with a thumbs up.
"Thanks!" Tails replied with a smile. "Piecing two and two together is my favorite pastime!"
"So now we need to stop Eggman from obtaining all the Chaos Emeralds?" Helen asked.
"That about sums it up, yeah," Tails replied. "Not to mention needing to stop Shadow along the way."
"We should probably check to see where the remaining Chaos Emeralds are located," Amy said. "Last time we checked, they were scattered all about."
"Good idea," Tails replied. "Let me just get the program pulled u—"
Crashing through the barn door, Doug, Alicia, and Chuck ran in, with Vanilla following shortly after.
"Helen, it's about time we head out," Alicia ordered sternly.
"But mooooom," Helen complained. "I want to help my friends."
"I'm sorry, Helen," Doug replied, "but this is for your own good."
"I tried talking them out of it," Chuck said, "but they did make some convincing arguments. Sonic and company should be fine, and it's certainly not worth jeopardizing your future over."
"I don't care if I'm helping out fugitives, I wanna do what's right!" Helen complained.
"And you are," Tails replied.
"Huh?" Helen peered at the orange fox, her head tilted in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you've already helped a great deal, but at this rate, if you're caught helping fugitives, the legal ramifications would not only destroy your future, but it'd also add to our growing list of problems. Besides, when the time's right, you can help us again." Tails nodded for emphasis. "Remember, this is only temporary."
"I know I'm not usually a helicopter parent," Alicia said as she approached the exit, "but the stakes are simply too high here. C'mon, Helen. Grab your things. We're heading out now."
Vanilla approached Cream, bending her knees to lower herself to her height. "Cream, dear, why don't we go back to their house to keep Helen company?"
"That sounds pleasant, mother," Cream replied with a smile. "Right, Cheese? Right Bokky?"
"Chao, chao!" Cheese replied.
"I'm in!" Bokkun added, raising a fist to the air. Helen couldn't help but smile at their enthusiasm, but a deep sense of sadness still filled her as she turned her attention to her friends once more.
"Well…" Helen said, her eyes glistening with a fresh set of tears. "Sorry I can't stick around."
"No worries at all," Sonic replied, placing a palm on her shoulder. "You've done more than enough to help us, and once things cool down, we won't need to be so paranoid. Right gang?"
"Right!" Everyone replied in near unison.
"Okay…" Helen sniffled as she spun around, following her parents out of the barn. "Goodbye everyone!"
"Goodbye!" They called back.
"Oh, and I'll be sure to repair the Helengelion!" Tails said.
Helen smiled and nodded before rolling out of the barn, following her family to the running van as she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Alright gang, let's gather around…" Tails pulled up his Chaos Emerald tracking program on a large monitor. When he started the app, the party gasped as five blinking dots rapidly approached the barn, represented by two additional blinking dots signifying the emeralds collected by Knuckles.
"It's gotta be Shadow," Sonic exclaimed as he tightened his fist, grimacing as the dots nearly descended on their location. "She's the only other one who could collect them so fast, and I bet Eggman gave her some sort of tracker."
Tails' ears perked up in fright as she realized her friends outside were in danger. "Helen!" Tails shouted as he ran out of the farm, just catching Helen as she was about to ascend into the handicap-accessible van.
"Tails, what's going on?" Helen asked as the orange kitsune pulled her away from the van.
"Come with me, all of y—" Tails' warning was cut short as an energy bolt tore through the van, splitting it in two, causing an explosion. Tails was just fast enough to grab hold of Helen, pressing her against his chest as the explosion sent them, as well as Chuck, Alicia, Doug, Vanilla, Cream, Cheese, and Bokkun, in all directions.
As the smoke cleared, Tails opened his eyes, still gripping the young girl in his arms.
"Are you okay, Helen?"
"Y-yeah," Helen replied with a nod.
As Tails was pulling himself up, with Helen still against his chest, Sonic rolled her wheelchair up to them, allowing the young fox to safely deposit her. He then scanned the immediate area, finding everyone within the outer edge of the blast radius to be okay, pulling themselves up with no immediate signs of injury.
Finally, the blue hedgehog quickly turned his attention to the one standing atop the flaming van.
"Shadow!" Sonic pointed at the ebony hedgehog. "Is this how you operate? Harming innocent civilians to get what you want?"
"Innocent civilians?" Shadow asked, a grin across her muzzle. "As far as I'm concerned, all Earthlings are guilty and should be punished accordingly."
"If you've got so much pent-up aggression," Sonic replied as he rotated his arm, "then at least take it out on me and leave everyone else out of it."
Shadow jumped from the van and approached the azure hedgehog. "By the time I'm finished with you, I'll have enough aggression left over to exterminate the rest of your friends." The ebony hedgehog peered around at the Mobians and humans she'd eventually exterminate one by one, except when she glanced at the girl in the wheelchair, she froze.
"M-Maria?" Shadow whispered.
Sonic stood between her and Helen.
"Hey, my eyes are up here," Sonic said, glancing at his face. "You don't know me very well, so I'll give it to ya straight..." The blue hedgehog proceeded to spindash toward Shadow, launching her off her feet, colliding through the fiery rubble of the van and hitting a nearby tree. Before she could get up, Sonic pulled her up by the collar. "…I may be forgiving, but the one thing I'll never forgive is hurting my friends."
The blue hedgehog threw Shadow back toward the road and raised his arms, tightening his fists once more.
"Now are you gonna take this fight seriously, or do I need to spell it out for ya again?"
"So much bravado," Shadow replied with a grin as she pulled herself up, "but actions speak louder than words. If all you can land is a lucky punch, then this fight will be over quickly."
"Now that's more like it," Sonic replied as he raised his arms and tightened his fists, bending his knees and he entered a fighting stance.
"Hmph…I can't wait to wipe that cocky grin off your face…" Shadow smirked as she pulled the turquoise Chaos Emerald from his quills. "Chaos control!" The ebony hedgehog disappeared, suddenly reappearing behind the oblivious blue hedgehog, performing a roundhouse kick to the back of his head, sending him flying through the rickety barn door.
"What's wrong, tired already?" Shadow chuckled as she approached the blue hedgehog, who was slowly pulling himself up, but her attention was drawn to the robot lying on the floor with a cable stuck in its head. "Ah, so it looks like Eggman's side project completely failed." Shadow approached the robot and examined the cable leading to the Miles Electric. "No doubt you harvested some useful data from the boy."
"We know all about your master's plans," Tails shouted as he helped Sonic to his feet, "and we won't let him get away with it."
"Oh, so you think you are going to stop him?" Shadow asked, a smirk appearing across her muzzle once more. She grasped at her Chaos Emerald behind her back, gripping it tightly as she silently teleported behind the orange fox, kicking him in the back.
"Hey, this fight's between you and me," Sonic declared. "Leave my friends out of it."
"Your friends involved themselves the moment they tried stopping me from collecting the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow replied. "Besides, I'll use your soft spot for your friend to my advantage."
"How so?" Sonic asked. "All you'll do is royally piss me off." The blue hedgehog approached his younger brother, helping him to his feet. "You gonna be alright?"
"Y-yeah," Tails replied, giving the blue hedgehog a thumbs up.
"You sure about that?" Shadow appeared next to the orange fox, placing her gloved palm on his shoulder before teleporting away with the furry captive.
"Tails!" Sonic shouted. "Where'd she take you?"
"Out here!" Amy cried, pointing to the roof of the barn. Speeding outside, the blue hedgehog gasped at the sight of the ebony hedgehog holding the orange fox up by the neck, dangling him from the roof as she aimed a pistol at his head. The party watched in horror as Tails struggled to escape Shadow's grasp.
"I'll keep this simple enough so even you can understand," Shadow declared. "Hand over your Chaos Emeralds and the roboticized boy, and I'll let your friend go. If not, then I'd be more than happy to splatter Tails' brains all over this barn."
"You monster," Sonic replied. "Taking hostages? Now that's low. If you want to settle things, come on down here and face me like a true hedgehog."
"You have absolutely no right to lecture me," Shadow vehemently replied. "The people of this planet deserve no mercy, and if anyone stands in the way of my revenge, then they are accomplices to murder."
"I know how you feel," Sonic replied, "but what those soldiers did to Maria 50 years ago doesn't represent all of humani—"
"You keep her name out of your fucking mouth!" Shadow cried, her pistol hand shaking as she tightened the grip on Tails' neck. "The Chaos Emeralds and the boy: now."
"Don't do it, Sonic!" Tails shouted. "We can't afford to let Shadow get her hands on the Chaos Emeralds."
"…Knuckles." Sonic slowly turned his attention to the red echidna, raising an empty palm. "The emeralds." The red echidna didn't argue; he simply pulled his two gems from his dreadlocks and handed them over, understanding the immediate stakes.
"Alright, Shads, the emeralds are yours." Sonic threw the gems up to Shadow, who released his grip on Tails' neck and kicked his belly before catching the mystical emeralds. Tails was sent plummeting to the surface.
"Tails!" The blue hedgehog caught Tails in his arms. "Are you okay, lil' bro?"
"Sonic…" Tails slowly peered up at his big brother. "You shouldn't have done that."
"Relax, bro," Sonic replied with a wink. "We'll stop Eggman like we always do."
"I sure hope you're right, Sonic," Tails replied as he gently loosened himself out of Sonic's arms, his feet returning to the ground below.
"Now I'll just take the boy…" Shadow teleported back into the barn and hauled the unconscious metallic corpse of Chris over her shoulder. "See you around, Sonic the Hedgehog." The ebony hedgehog gave the party one last smirk before using Chaos Control to flee the scene, leaving the heroes without any Chaos Emeralds nor their key into Eggman's database.
The entire party was silent for a full minute, the evening wind and a hooting owl filling the noiseless void as everyone processed what just unfolded.
"What do we do now?" Helen asked.
"All we can do…" Tails replied, peering up at the cloudless sky, the stars twinkling above. "…is wait. I hate to say it, but Eggman holds all the pieces now, and he'll announce his scheme to the entire world."
"You're right, Tails," Sonic replied, placing a palm on his shoulder, "but we've thwarted his plans in worse situations. As long as we work together, everything'll be alright."
"Yeah!" The party replied in unison.
And so, without a Chaos Emerald or roboticized human to their name, the party went their separate ways. Amy went home to her apartment without Sonic, knowing the government would be coming after him and may wish to check their shared abode first. Knuckles retreated to the forest where he would be roughin' it in mother nature. Rouge returned to Topaz's apartment unceremoniously, disappointed that all the gems were further from her grasp than before. Alicia called a van rental company while Doug devised an excuse to tell his insurance company how their vehicle blew up. The rental picked up the remaining party, save for Sonic and Tails, who elected to stay at the barn, perhaps the safest, undetectable place for them to hide out from the authorities.
Thankfully, Chuck maintained a small bedroom in the barn, but as Sonic got some shuteye, Tails tossed and turned in his sleep, worried about the events that were about to unfold. Worried whether the humans would succumb to Eggman's demands. Worried that the humans would continue their narrowminded hunt for him and his friends instead of directing their efforts against stopping Robotnik.
Worried that, this time, Dr. Eggman has bested them all.
I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! I did want to address one question I've received from a few readers concerning the events of Sonic Adventure 1. I do plan on covering these, but I'm not sure if they will occur before or after introducing Cosmo and the initial events of Season 3. I've love to see how Cosmo reacts to the visions/flashbacks with Tikal, and with a genderbent Shadow in the mix as well, I'd love to truly put a unique spin on the events of SA1!
See you again soon!