Chapter Zero: The Road to Hell

"Colette's been digging around in Eggman's Network the last couple days…" Annabella's voice was heavy with worry while she helped her brother put on a tactical harness over his clothing. Buster, for his part, stood still as Annabella then moved to fit additional combat straps to the leather vest he wore so they would remain stable and refrain from making a single decibel of noise.

"How considerate of her. There must be some special occasion for her to risk detection like that." Buster jested. His cocky attitude and air of confidence quickly evaporated as he next spoke, a hint of worry sneaking into his suddenly quivering voice, "What did she learn?"

Annabella pulled on a strap till it was snug to her brother's leather vest, "She says Eggman's factories have been mass producing 7.62mm ammo…"

"So?" Buster said, "We knew that already-"

"-He also began production of 12.7x108mm rounds for his Army." Anabella abruptly stopped prepping Buster and raised her head to look her Brother in the eyes as she spoke. Her face became hard as stone, her voice was soft and quiet, filled with trepidation, "If you get hit by one of those rounds you'll be dead before you've hit the ground."

Annabella broke eye contact and focused on straightening Buster's Leather jacket, a look of disapproval plastered on her face, "You should go with the steel body armor instead of this."

"The point is to be mobile and agile enough to avoid getting hit in the first place. Armor will just slow me down and guarantee I get hit." Buster replied.

"You're being an idiot."

"No, I'm being practical. I could wear two inches of steel and if enough lead is fired at me, never mind the 12.7mm rounds, it won't matter how much armor I'm wearing. It's like you said, I'd be dead. So no, I'm not wearing the steel plates. We've got one shot at this Anna. We need to give it everything we've got. Dad understood that sometimes you need to roll the dice and hope for the best when in a bad situation, then dig yourself out of the hole you're in. That's why I have to do this."

Annabella's ears slumped forward with the mention of her late Father while her gaze fell to the floor.

Buster noticed this and attempted to comfort his sister. "Hey, cheer up. We're going to save them, remember? That's what this mission is all about. We just need one more Chaos Emerald to put our plans in motion."

"Just… be careful. We can't lose anyone else." Annabella pleaded.

"Anna," Buster began. Annabella raised her head to look up to her brother, while Buster looked at the ground with his head heavy with worry. "This is going to be the most dangerous mission I've ever gone on. I won't lie. He's going to be expecting me. He likely knows about Colette and her nosing around his Egg-Net and has set all this up as a trap. If I don't make it-"

Annabella slapped her brother across the face, hard, cutting him off mid sentence. When she spoke she said four words that could never convey the anger and dread that consumed her, four words that could never express the pain and suffering she had endured, nor the prospect of living a life where yet another soul she loved perished from her world. "Shut the hell up."

Buster raised his gaze to look at his sister. "If I don't make it-"

"-You don't get to say that. You don't have the right. We can't lose another member of our family. We can't survive if we lose any more blood!" Annabella stood in silence staring at her brother as she trembled.

Buster spoke, nearly in a whisper, "If I don't make it home… I want you to look after Colette."

"No…"

"I want you to forget about me-"

"-I hate you!" Annabella yelled as she began pounding her fist on her brother's chest.

"If I don't make it, I want you to save Mom and Dad and to live life without me."

"I HATE YOU! SHUT UP! JUST STOP TALKING!" Annabella cried out.

"Despite being blind, Colette's probably the only person on the planet who could have had a chance at beating Dad in Chess. Use her intellect to turn the tables on Eggman and make a future worth living… even if it's a future without me."

Annabella's tears flowed freely as she wept, no longer trying to hold them back, "We need you Benjamin. We need you. We can't lose you. Think of Colette. Her little heart couldn't take it. Mine couldn't either."

"In physics, like in life," Benjamin began, "Everything has a cost. All causes have an effect, every causal chain has an inevitable conclusion. If you save Mom and Dad but lose me… then that is a fair trade in my eyes. My death would be worth it."

Annabella was sobbing loudly as Buster embraced his sister in a hug.

"With that said, I don't plan on dying. Not for a second. But if I do… you'll know what to do."

Annabella gently broke free of the hug, turned, and walked into the nearby kitchen and blew her nose. She cleaned up her face with a clean rag, wiping her tears away. She went into another room then came back with several tools and weapons. She stopped in front of her brother and put the items down on a nearby table then helped attach a grappling hook to Buster's combat harness.

Anna focused intently on ensuring everything was fitted properly, her brother's life literally depended on it.

An unpleasant silence came over the room.

"Say their names." Annabella demanded.

"Mom-" Buster began.

"-I said... say their names."

Buster took a deep breath, his heart swelling with sorrow as he said the names of those he loved and had lost, "Zooey Prower."

Annabella nodded her head.

"Miles Prower." Buster continued.

Annabella nodded again as she tucked flares into one of his pockets.

Buster's voice quivered, his pitch becoming unstable and strained, "Sonic the Hedgehog."

More tears began to silently fall down Annabellas cheeks, as she nodded once again, barely moving her head. She securely tightened a medkit to the side of his vest.

"Amy Rose."

"Say their names again." Annabella insisted.

"Miles, Zooey, Sonic, and Amy."

"Again."

"Miles, Zooey, Sonic, and Amy." Buster said the names again, with more energy and vigor.

"Again!"

"Miles, Zooey, Sonic, and Amy!" Buster shouted.

"AGAIN!"

"MILES, ZOOEY, SONIC, AND AMY!"

"Eggman killed our parents, our friends, and would destroy everything we love. What are you going to do? Sit on your tail and cry for the rest of your life?"

"No!"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to steal his damn Chaos Emerald!"

"What are you going to do if you get detected?"

"Be sassy, quick-witted, cocky, and annoying, so much so that Sonic would be proud."

With that said, Annabella grabbed a large revolver off the table and handed it to Buster.

"I thought we agreed we were not going to kill Eggman?" Buster asked.

"We did. This is for… just in case you..." Annabella looked away and she began to lose her composure, as tears began to assault her eyes.

"I get it. I won't let it come to that." Buster said.

"I- I should come with you. I could watch your back. We could protect one another."

"Absolutely not."

"But-"

"-You know how Colette gets when she is all alone."

"I know, but the alternative is you get caught and-"

"-It won't come to that. Stay home with Colette and work with her to provide me intel. Be my eyes."

Annabella nodded several times before conceding, "Okay." She turned back to the nearby table and grabbed a large egg shaped object. "This is the last item. I made it a while ago and was saving it for a rainy day. The parts are really hard to come by so this is the only one we have sadly." Annabella handed the object to her brother.

"What is it? A grenade?" Buster asked as he looked at the spherical object.

"It's a very powerful EMP grenade. Single use, obviously. Use it as a last resort and be mindful as it will fry any electronics within its vicinity. Including Eggman's robots."

"Thanks Anna, I'll put it to good use." Buster tucked the grenade into a snug pocket. He straightened up and puffed out his chest. "How do I look?"

Annabella gave a bittersweet smile, "You look a lot like Dad."

"Minus the extra tail attached to my butt." Buster joked.

"Don't kill the moment." Anabella said with a playful glare.

"Sorry."

There was a moment of silence between them.

Buster sighed, "Only one thing left to do." He said nervously.

They waited.

They waited until they heard her tiny footsteps, as she slowly entered the kitchen, having memorized the layout of the safehouse.

"Anna? Buster? W-where are you guys?" Colette's voice was filled with fear and worry as she clutched and held tightly to a plushie of Sonic the Hedgehog. It had been a gift from Amy when she had been born, and it had been a comfort throughout her life.

"We're over here Colette." Annabella said.

"Hey kiddo! We need to talk…" Buster added.

"You're going to Eggman's Tower… aren't you." Colette said.

"Yeah…" Buster admitted.

"Wait there." Colette turned and walked to the storage room. Colette was heard rummaging around awkwardly, when Colette returned she held out a small device. "Here. Take it."

Buster grabbed the strange object. "What is it?"

"It's a robot killer. It's a weapon made with a five inch long titanium handle, inside the bottom of the handle are several micro charges primed to explode when activated. The front of the handle has a flat, smooth, circular protrusion that is heavily magnetized once turned on with the press of a button. When turned on, the magnets will have the entire front face of the handle stick to whatever robot you want destroyed. When the handle is twisted, a three second timer will commence upon which the explosive charges in the rear of the handle will detonate, the explosives trapped blowback will cause a half inch wide, four inch long L6 Bainite spike to shoot forth into the robot, inside the spike are several more charges and chaff designed to destroy and disable any robot once detonated."

Buster blinked. "Uhhhh. Could you-"

"Button press, stick, twist, run. Three second window after the twist."

"Thank you Colette. Mom and Dad would be both impressed and proud of you." Buster said sweetly.

Colette smiled for a moment, then she held out her hands and slowly walked forward until she found her head resting against her brother's chest as she was quickly embraced along with her sister, in a group hug.

It was over far too quickly for any of the Prowers.

"It's as good a time as any I suppose." Buster said.

The trio moved to the laboratory room and both Colette and Annabella prepped an incomplete time machine. It was a large computer powered by two Chaos Emeralds, which enabled several connected quantum computers to run billions of complex calculations in less than a nanosecond. All they needed was a third Chaos Emerald to act as a controller device and they would be able to test their time travel theory, and possibly be able to generate a portal to enable travel back to their point of departure across space and space-time. This would, in theory, be done by making use of the Chaos Emeralds vast power and ability to manipulate time and space. Buster did not understand the science behind it, but he trusted his sister Annabella had it all figured out. After all, she had already created a portal generation device that allowed near instantaneous travel over long distances. Now it was time for Buster to use it to send himself to the very heart of Eggman's base of operations. All he would have to do is obtain the Chaos Emerald and make it home alive. Then… they could fix everything.

Colette entered a command into the computer system, a feat that never ceased to amaze her siblings.

A portal manifested itself in front of Buster. He put on an earpiece, a headset, and some shades. The last of which was to hide the fear in his eyes.

He turned to his sisters and said, "Later nerds."

He jumped through the portal and emerged on the other side… into a living Hell.