Chapter 4: Weapon Factory (武器工場; Buki kōjō)
Tails flew his plane through the sky. The little fox was looking at his Miles Electric, which showed the route and the point of some place.
"I can find answers in this factory," he said before he got nervous. "Unless, of course, I'm here ... "Gulp" They won't kill me."
Soon he noticed that he was nervous, and Tails began to calm himself:
"Tails, don't worry about going there alone to a factory filled with dangers and mavericks…Without Sonic…" (The little fox shook his head to distract himself from negative thoughts). "Tails, you can do it, you can and you know it. Be brave and confident. Now I need to concentrate on what I'm going to do now."
Tails directed his plane to the right place.
A few hours later...
A small fox noticed a factory in the distance, which was located in a mountainous area. The factory itself was a complex of metal buildings, in the center of which stood a large building, probably the most important. The factory was surrounded by a wall and wires. Tails flew his plane in a different direction from the weapons factory and landed the plane behind some trees in a small meadow. Getting out of the plane, he took the bag and Miles Electric, and pressed the button on the plane's panel. The transport went invisible and Tails locked it up before it flew on its two tails towards the factory. When he was near the wall, the little fox looked at the Miles Electric. He calculated something on it before the message "Enter password" appeared on the screen. Tails entered the password: X1SID10T.
"And who came up with this password?" thought the little fox, sweating in the anime style.
It was obvious that he was confused by this password. Tails entered the factory's security system and pressed something on the screen before he flew and flew past the wall and landed on the other side of the wall. He ran towards the main building. The door to this building was open so that Tails could easily enter it. The little fox walked through the corridors until he came to a production facility where various types of weapons were produced: pistols, flamethrowers, tanks, rockets, and so on.
"That reminds me a lot of Eggman," Tails thought. "I have my suspicions that this weapon is not good…"
KA-BOOM
"Ah!" the little fox shouted in fright so that it could be heard throughout the factory. "WHAT IS THIS?!"
He looked around to find the source of the sound. But nothing could be seen or heard except the sounds of weapons being made. Tails took out a wrench from his bag and braced himself to prepare for the unexpected.
"Who is there…?" the fox asked in a trembling voice and began to walk back and forth.
Suddenly, he felt something iron on his back. The little fox turned and saw Zero in front of him, who was standing behind him and looking at the fox with puzzled eyes. When Tails saw him, his eyes bulged.
"What's the matter?" the red reploid asked before the little fox began waving the wrench.
"Don't get close!" Tails said loudly. "I will defend myself!"
"Calm down," Zero said. "I don't want to harm you."
Hearing his words, the little fox began to calm down and looked at the red reploid.
"Really?" Tails asked uncertainly and suspiciously.
"I'm a maverick hunter, not a fox hunter." the red reploid said sarcastically before he asked. "Listen, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here gathering information to find my friend," replied the little fox. "If I'm bothering you, then I can leave and come here later."
"Are you talking about Sonic?" Zero asked.
"Do you know him?" Tails asked in surprise.
"Well, he's a pretty good man, but he rushes into battle a little, then he thinks." the red reploid replied. "You don't bother me here. If you came for important information about your friend, then go. I go my own way."
"Um, mister…" the little fox started, but Zero said to him:
"Zero."
"Zero, are you here for some reason too?" Tails asked him. "I can help you, if anything."
"Listen," unexpectedly for the fox, Zero changed his voice to a gloomy tone. "I'm here for personal reasons.
"Personal reasons?" asked the little fox.
But Zero didn't reply before he went in some direction.
"See you later!" said the red reploid, saying goodbye to Tails.
"Wait!" the fox flew on two tails after him and stood next to him. "I can help you!"
"How?" the red reploid asked.
"I can hack the data and give it to you if you need it." Tails replied.
"I'm telling you again, I'm here for personal reasons and I can handle it," Zero said. "I don't want you to get hurt. I go my way and you go yours. I still have to deal with the Hornet..."
"Who is Hornet?" Tails asked curiously.
"Me and my big mouth…" Zero said quietly.
A little while later…
Zero and Tails walked down the stairs. The red reploid told the little fox about the Hornet:
"Previously, Blast Hornet was the leader of a group of hooligans three years ago."
We'll slowly flash back into Zero's memories...We see him with a lot of reploid hooligan groups in Pater Park. In the park you can see the clock tower and some fiery colored lines (this is not a fire). It was late.
"I first met in Pater Park, where people usually rested. These guys decided to throw a party here, and I had to come here to chase them away."
In the next picture, we again see the red reploid along with the Hornet. Hornet - A reploid whose body was modeled after a hornet, more specifically resembling a hornet queen. It has large wings, thin legs, long antennae, and a bulging belly full of eggs. His mouth is covered by a mask, and his shoulder pads have the signature hornet stripes.
"Hornet approached me and began to threaten me. But I laughed in his face, which made him furious and turned his stinger on me."
We are shown a hornet-reploid that directed its sting at Zero.
"But I hit him with one fist so that he flew to the chapel and hit it."
In the next picture, the Hornet crashes into the clock tower.
"You are kind of very tough on him…" Tails asked, feeling sympathy for Hornet.
"Yeah…" the red reploid replied before he continued his story. "After all the gang members ran away because they saw what I did to him, Hornet came to his senses. We talked for a bit and I told him that if he wants a rematch, he can go to the Maverick Hunter base. Then it was the previous base."
"What happened to your previous base?" Tails asked worriedly.
"It was destroyed during the first Sigma revolution." Zero replied and continued his story about hornet-reploid. "Hornet joined us and became Maverick Hunter. He was in my unit. Recently he disappeared somewhere and I didn't know where he was until he sent me a message saying that I should come here. That's exactly what I did."
"Why would he want to meet you here?" the little fox asked again. "Instead of that, he could come to your base."
"I thought the same about it." Zero said.
Suddenly a voice was heard:
"Zero... Can you hear me?"
Zero and Tails walked further down, but the little fox turned his head around, looking for the source of the sound.
"Is that a Hornet?" the little fox finally asked the red reploid.
"Yes, it's me, little fox," the voice said again. "Your name is Tails, right?"
"Yes." the little fox replied in the affirmative.
"I can't believe you took care of that shurikein* with one blow... You're really tough. If anything, it's not about you, little fox." (Tails has water drop above his head in anime style at the words). "Truly, a strong weapon makes all difference. Actually, I have a weapon just as strong as yours."
"Um… " said the little fox confused.
"Tails," Zero turned to the fox. "You go there and collect information, and I went to deal with Hornet. This is my own business."
Tails looked at Zero with rather uncertain eyes. On the one hand, he wanted to help the red reploid deal with Hornet, but on the other, he wanted to find Sonic.
"Master Doppler recognized my dormant abilities and gave me a more powerful weapon. If you don't like losing, then leave. Because execution awaits you outside these gates... Except for the fox, because he is too cute to die."
Tails has more water drop from confusion at these last words.
"Is he serious?" thought the little fox before becoming thoughtful.
"Tails?" Zero asked him.
After thinking for five seconds, the little fox said:
"I'll go for information."
"Okay," Zero smiled and walked towards the open entrance of the boss battle. "I wish you good luck and a safe journey."
"Thanks, Zero!" Tails thanked and ran up the stairs as the red reploid entered the entrance.
Tails got upstairs and took the Miles Electric, then he walked down the hallway of the weapons factory. As he walked, the camera watched him.
In the other place…
In the dark, Dr. Doppler watched the little fox before he spoke to someone.
"Bit."
"Yes, Doctor Doppler?" another voice asked from the shadows.
"Go to the factory and deal with Mr. Tails," the mad scientist reploid said. "Just don't kill him. I still need him."
"Will be done, Dr. Doppler." answered another voice and disappeared somewhere.
Back to Tails...
The fox kept walking through the corridors of the factory until he saw something on the Miles Electric screen. He was already flying on two tails and was following the direction indicated on his board. Soon he arrived at the place where he should collect information.
He entered the room. The room looked like an office and information center at the same time. Here you can see computers, large monitors, an armchair and other equipment. Tails sat down at the chair and connected the Miles Electric to the computer before he turned on the computer. It was written on the screen to enter a password, which the little fox did. As he typed in, the screen showed many important documents. Tails began flipping through the documents and collecting information from them that could help him find the blue hedgehog. But as he looked through the documents, he began to notice something strange.
"Some of the documents have been removed," he said quietly. "Doctor Doppler removed them before I connected. Does that mean he's planning something more...?"
Having collected everything he needed, the little fox disconnected Miles Electric from the computer, put the device in a bag and left the room. He ran down the corridor and looked at the Miles Electric, which showed him the route.
"According to Miles Electric, I should turn left…" Tails thought as he turned left into another hallway. "And then to the right..."
Soon Tails began to fly on two tails, turning right and left. Eventually our little fox arrived at the metal door. The fox approached the door, when suddenly the door itself opened automatically. Tails was a little wary because his intuition was telling him that something was wrong here. But deciding that all this is nonsense, he entered a large room. The room was eerily quiet. The further our little fox walked, the louder his intuition told him to get out of here. Tails began to get nervous. Suddenly he heard some strange sounds, from which the fox shied away.
"Who is there?" he asked nervously.
" , I presume?" suddenly breathed voice.
Tails became very frightened and turned to look for the source of the voice before he spotted a figure in the darkness. Soon the figure came out. It was a yellow reploid of slightly above average height. He has blue plates along his legs and arms, and his breastplate and head are adorned with orange swirls reminiscent of magatama. His face is hidden by his helmet except for his eyes, and he has four blue orbs on either side of his head, reminiscent of the ancient Japanese mizura hairstyle.
Tails continued to look at him with concern. The reploid noticed this and began to speak:
"Don't be afraid of me, Mr. Fox. I won't harm you."
"How do you know me?" the fox asked.
"I'll introduce myself first." the reploid said formally before continuing. "My name is Bit and I am a member of the Nightmare Police. I am also Dr. Doppler's right hand."
Tails took one step back as soon as he heard who this reploid was.
"I came here to bring you to the Doppler Master." Bit said. "Your technical knowledge is very impressive. I'm sure you'll get along with our master."
"Never!" the fox said loudly. "I won't work for villains like you!"
"Well…" said Bit, while drawing his laser saber with a purple blade. "If you don't want to join us peacefully, then…"
He accelerated and quickly approached the fox with the saber.
"…Then we can force you to do so!" he finished.
"Ah!" Tails gasped and flew in the other direction.
Noticing that the fox was not there, Bit stopped and looked in his direction. This made the fox more nervous.
"He seems strong," he thought, then he shook off his head. "No, Tails, you don't have to be afraid of him! You have to be brave, just like Sonic...Sonic..."
"What's happened?" Bit asked. "Are you dulled?"
"Not at all!" Tails said loudly and boldly. "I will fight you to the end! No matter what!"
"You remind me a little of a guy. He always told his enemies that he would fight them to the end." the yellow reploid said to the fox before it quickly approached him. "Often at the end of a fight, he weeps over the bodies of his defeated enemies. But unlike him, you won't cry over my body at the end, because you'll be dead by then."
"Don't judge me by my appearance," Tails said with a wide grin. "Especially if you don't know much about me!"
With those words, the little fox rolled into a spin dash and headed towards Bit. He slammed the reploid in the face, then flew off to the side. Bit held his face in his hand.
"You're bastard!" Bit shouted in a furious voice and threw a ring of light at him.
Tails circled around the ring and headed towards Bit, while spinning again into a spin dash and hitting him. And again in a circle. The cycles continued in this way until the yellow reploid grabbed the fox by the throat as it headed towards it in the form of a ball. The evil robot lifted the poor fox above him and hissed:
"It's started to get bored for me!"
Even though Tails attacked him several times, he was still intact. Soon Bit pressed the fox's throat even tighter.
"Now I have no more desire to keep you alive." said the yellow reploid with a sadistic tone. "Now I will torture you cruelly until you die!"
"Not at all," said the little fox, looking at him with a sly smile. "Remember what I told you not to judge me by my appearance. I'm not what you think at first glance."
"Look, we've got a smart guy here!" Bit said with arrogance. "If you think you..."
No sooner had the yellow reploid finished his sentence than he was struck by an electronic shock. As he spoke, Tails used his hand to pull out a disc-shaped stun gun from his bag and set it on Bit, who didn't even notice. The fox freed itself from the grip and stood up, then to run away from the room. He entered the corridor and ran straight down it, looking at his Miles Electric.
My stun gun will stop him for a while, Tails thought, but I now know that electricity, in large quantities, can weaken him even more. You need to get to the part of the factory where there is more electricity.
Soon he ran to this electronic power sector, which was charging the factory. In the middle of the sector was a machine, in which, in theory, there was a lot of electricity. The fox entered the sector and approached the car. He took the wires out of this car and put clothespins in them, then he walked around to find something that would increase the voltages of the electricity in the car. He decided to make sure that this did not completely kill the yellow reploid. Suddenly, Tails heard quick footsteps. Realizing that the steps belonged to Bit, he hastened his search. Soon the yellow reploid entered the electronic sector. His expression was so frightening and angry that it seems that he is an oni*. Bit began to look for the fox, while walking heavily. The little fox himself was hiding behind one of the electronic sector machines.
"We need to find something that will turn the machine on faster." thought Tails, frightened, before he noticed the panel on another machine that was not far from him.
This machine is a huge version of the voltage booster. Noticing, Tails was delighted.
"Got it!" he thought, and quickly flew from his hiding place to the voltage booster.
The little fox stopped by the car and began to quickly press the buttons on the panel. After he pressed the right buttons, he looked at the machine's screen, which depicts the level of tension. But when he tried to move away from the car...
"Ouch!" said the little fox when someone grabbed him by the back and lifted him.
Tails turned his head and saw Bit, who was looking at the fox cub with wild and mad eyes. His glance greatly frightened the little fox. But Tails had the courage to slap his tails in the face to get him to let go. The little fox quickly ran to the car and took the wires with clothespins. Bit was rapidly approaching him, about to slash Tails with his lightsaber. But the little fox dodged his blow by flying on his two tails. He quickly stood behind the yellow reploid. Holding the two wires in his hands, he found the plate around his neck, which served as the entrance to the Bit system, and took the plate. At that moment, yrllow reploid turned and attacked him again with his saber. Tails dodged and flew behind him again, while trying not to tangle the wires. He inserted the clothespins inside Bit's system.
"What you…?" Bit asked, but Tails had already flown to the voltage booster.
Realizing what the little fox was about to do, the yellow reploid ran after the fox, threatening to strike him with his saber.
"I'm sorry…" Tails said softly.
In a rather quiet voice, you can hear that the little fox will regret what he is going to do to Beat. He pressed one button on the panel and...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The yellow reploid's cries of agony and pain echoed throughout the factory. As soon as Tails pressed the button, Bit was struck with electricity, which caused him great pain. The little fox watched the yellow reploid suffer. Although he knew that he was protecting himself and others from him in this way, but seeing Bit screaming made him sympathize with him. Tails soon decided to finish it all, thinking it was enough. The little fox pressed another button on the machine's panel, lowering the voltage level. Then he turned to Bit.
The yellow reploid fell to its knees, eye sockets empty. Tails walked over to him and examined him to make sure he was okay. Luckily, Bit was still alive, but unconscious. He removed the clothespins from his neck. Tails continued to look at the yellow reploid with guilt and regret.
"Goodbye, Bit." said the little fox, leaving the body of Bit and left the electronic sector.
Sometime later...
Tails came to the place where he first met Zero. He saw that weapons were still produced in large numbers.
"I wonder how I can turn it off?" thought the little fox and began to walk past the machine, looking for a switch to finish all this production.
Suddenly, the machine suddenly turned off to Tails' amazement. The fox came closer to the machine, while thinking about how it could stop.
WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. FACTORY WILL BLOW IN 3 MINUTES.
"That's why it all stopped!" Tails exclaimed when it dawned on him why the machine had stopped. "I should to warn Zero and Hornet, and…" (He remembered the yellow reploid whose body was still lying in the electronic sector and turned anxiously towards the corridor) "BIT!"
The fox ran towards the corridor that led to the electronic sector, but as soon as he ran, the passage to the corridor was closed by an autonomous metal door.
"BIT!" said the little fox in despair and horror, before he realized that time was short and Bit could not be saved.
Tails ran to the stairs to warn Zero, but the passage to it was also blocked. He flew on two tails through the corridors to the entrance at high speed. But along the way, he never stopped thinking about Zero, Hornet and Bit. He was sorry to leave them here, but he hoped that the red reploid, the hornet-reploid, and the yellow reploid would somehow survive.
He soon left the main building and quickly walked towards the wall. As soon as he got close to the wall, he flew up and flew over the wall, then he landed on the other side. Tails ran a long distance from the factory. He stopped on a hill near a lone tree. The fox wiped his wet forehead with his hand and heaved a sigh of relief. As soon as he reliefed...
BOOM
At the loud sound, Tails widened his eyes in fear and turned to where the weapons factory was. But the factory was already on fire. This vision upset him greatly.
"Bit, Zero, Hornet…" said the little fox, rasping in his voice. "I…I couldn't save them…I couldn't…I didn't…"
He covered his eyes with his hands, which were wet with tears. He thought:
"…They might be already dead and I couldn't help them…"
With that thought, Tails walked towards his plane, looking back at the ruined factory at the last moment before he disappeared into the trees. But Tails did not suspect that he was being watched by someone on top of another hill. It was a large silhouette that held the unconscious Bit in his arms. The figure stood on the hill in silence for a long time before he was gone into the thicket of trees.
Meanwhile…
"Zero, thank Goddness that you returned alive with Hornet!" X said delightedly when he met his friend in their secret place.
"Don't worry so much about me, X," Zero smiled at him. "The main thing is that we returned alive. That's just…"
"Something happened, Zero?" the blue reploid asked him.
"That two-tailed fox, Sonic's ally, was left in the factory when it exploded," the red reploid said grimly. "I remembered him when Hornet and I teleported here. But I hope he managed to get out of there.
"Zero…" - X said feeling sympathy for fox.
"X! Zero!" suddenly, both reploids heard the voice of Dr. Cain, who was sitting in front of a huge monitor.
"What is it, Dr. Cain?" the blue reploid asked.
"Someone sent us documents and data that were at the weapons factory where Hornet was," the old scientist replied. "The one who sent them to us said that he was a new acquaintance of Zero and that he was letting him know that he had survived."
"My hopes were justified," thought Zero. "I knew that the fox would survive. Hornet will be happy."
"He also added that when he collected documents and data, some of the information was removed by Doppler before he entered the system." Dr. Cain said. "Despite that, we've got the documents we'll need to find out what he's planning and put the puzzle together."
"That's very good, Dr. Cain." X said, smiling and approached the old scientist.
As they talked about the data, Zero watched them and thought about the little fox.
"Tails," the red reploid thought with a smile, "I wish you the best of luck in finding your friend."
He then joined X and Dr. Cain.
Next time…Heroes of New York!
Notes from the author:
1. In the game Mega Man X3, one of the weaknesses of the Beat is Triad Thunder. Since the Triad Thunder can be classified as an electric-type weapon, I made it so that electricity (especially in large quantities) is a weakness of our yellow member of the Nightmare Police.
2. Oni = demons from Japanese mythology.
is a mid-boss from Blast Hornet's stage in Mega Man X3 game.
And so in the fifth chapter, Sonic will meet new heroes that no one expected!