Chapter 45; harsh reality part 2
Archer entered the room the recovering Proton was in; the team executive was in horrible shape. He was on a wheelchair with both legs in casts. His wheelchair was equipped with a navigation system which Archer was not too pleased with as he believed Proton deserved to suffer for his failure.
"Sir" Proton saluted when Archer entered.
"What went wrong Proton? Our team depended on you and you had one job. Just that one simple job".
"We were doing well sir. Until the moment the hero of Kanto and his minions showed up".
Archer took in that last phase with great interest.
His assumption was correct. Proton had underestimated team Sonic.
He viewed them as boss and minions not as equals acting as one.
"And what did you do when they showed up? The hedgehog had to be triggered to the extreme to assault our boss like that at silph co. So this means you triggered him enough to go this far".
"I…I just… I don't know why everyone of our guys rushed for the exit instead of attacking. 20 plus grunts to 3? That should have been an easy battle".
"The boss once tackled 40 grunts at once and won effortlessly. The hedgehog is his equal in battle you blithering idiot whether you like it or not. You really thought our grunts would stand beside you in the face of not only him but his friends as well?"
"But then what should I have done sir? Play friends with our grunts?"
"No. You should have just been smart and set precautions to avoid a confrontation with him".
Proton looked down in shame. Archer had even warned him minutes before things went downhill to have someone watch the entrance and warn them if Sonic or his friends approached.
"Normally you would be punished for your failure but the hedgehog did my job for me here. Consider yourself lucky" Archer said and turned to leave.
"But what are we going to do with him sir?"
"I've already sent… him… after the hedgehog".
"Him?!" Proton gasped "the traitor? He left us when the boss went into exile".
"Unlike you and the lot however he is strong and he is faithful to the boss' ambitions. And above all he is smart and capable. He will deal with team Sonic while I prepare for the revival of team rocket".
Proton took all this in as Archer left the room, smiling.
"And even if he fails he will still buy us time. Or at least enough time to make sure the plan is carried out successfully" he thought as he contacted Ariana. She would need to bring in more Electrodes.
While that was taking place, on the depths of Ilex forest Knuckles laid on his back, badly cut in many parts of his body. His tormentor, the marauder's Scizor was indeed strong.
The marauder's patience had also started running thin.
"I don't get it" he said looking at the badly hurt echidna "why won't you talk? Do you even understand that I have you at my mercy? That you are on the verge of death?"
"Is it even a question?" Knuckles answered with a lot of effort "I told you already. I would never betray my friends".
"Why? You are going to lay down your life for them? For two strangers when your family is probably waiting for you back home?"
Knuckles felt a tear crawl up to his eye at the mention of his family. Fighting it back, he answered.
"They ARE my family. The only family I have left. They saved me from my darkest moments. I owe them my life. Which is why you cannot and will not break me".
The marauder cursed. The echidna was indeed not going to break.
At least not by torturing him.
"I believe you. But you know what? You showed me your weak point just now".
"Did I?" Knuckles asked trying to sound confident.
"Yes. Your weakness is your hopeless loyalty. Or rather your undying loyalty even during times of hopelessness. I say we test it shall we?" the marauder said opening Quilava's cage.
Knuckles immediately knew what the plan was.
"Stay away from it!"
"Oh I think not. That is of course unless you are finally ready to talk. Scizor when you are ready".
Scizor prepared to strike.
"Where is Sonic the hedgehog?"
Knuckles gritted his teeth trying to figure out what to answer to keep Quilava from getting hurt without revealing Sonic's location. He also tried to break free but was too weak too after that torture.
"Slash!"
Scizor struck and Quilava cried out in pain.
"Noo!" Knuckles yelled in anger.
"You know the drill so you know what's awaiting your partner. Where is the hedgehog?"
"… Ecutreak. I told you he is already very far away"
"Slash!"
"QUIIII!" Quilava cried out in more pain unable to avoid it.
"Quilava no!" Knuckles yelled trying to desperately to break free "I'm telling you the truth please stop!"
"No you're not. I stalked you three in the woods before your little team broke apart. I know he is not very far. Now" he said as Scizor winded its arm to strike again.
"The truth".
"You want the truth? Well this is the truth" Knuckles said in a last ditch attempt to get him to lose focus in order to have a moment to try and escape "they are right behind us. They will come to save me. Cause I am not the only loyal member on our team".
The marauder burst out laughing for a solid 20 seconds before getting serious again.
"They're coming for us? I feel so sorry for you. And to think you consider them your family. They both left you! The hedgehog went forward to pursue us, choosing revenge over you two. And the fox abandoned you. He turned tail and run like the coward he is. You are alone" the marauder taunted Knuckles.
Knuckles momentarily felt the doubt creep into his soul. It did indeed seem that way. Sonic didn't budge in his mission to destroy team rocket. And Tails was just not cut out for the dangers that lied ahead in this conflict.
It was indeed entirely possible both had abandoned him.
But the next moment he pushed it all down. His friends were not like that.
"I may be alone right now but when they get here you're going to regret messing with us".
"Heh. Feisty and loyal until the end. So be it then. Pity it had to come to this. But if you won't talk… you and your Quilava are useless to me".
"W-wait! Let Quilava go please. Do with me whatever you want but don't hurt it".
Tails and Cosmo were close by when they heard that plea for mercy.
"It's Knuckles!" Tails whispered as to not be heard.
"Then we have to hurry come on" Cosmo said guiding Tails.
"It may have been the hedgehog's orders but you broke Proton's legs" the marauder said with a hint of sadism in his voice "it is only fair that such an action has consequences. Scizor" he said to his pokemon "use swords dance twice then prepare to strike!"
Knuckles' face became a mask of horror and despair.
Double swords dance?
That wouldn't just knock out the pokemon.
It would most likely cut it in half. Especially if Scizor put all of its effort and focus into it.
"Last chance" the marauder warned him "where is Sonic the hedgehog now?"
"I… he is…"
"Time's up. Scizor Slash!"
"Noooooooo!" Knuckles could do nothing but scream in terror of what was about to happen.
"Eevee quick attack!" a female voice suddenly ordered.
An eevee fast like a bullet came out of nowhere and slammed into Scizor's claw, sending it off course just enough to miss Quilava, slamming the claw into the cage floor and getting stuck.
"What?!" the marauder said in shock as Quilava was able to escape its cage and rush towards the direction eevee came from "where did this joke of a pokemon come from?!"
"Knuckles!" Tails called out to his friend as he and Cosmo arrived on the scene.
The marauder took the sight in fascinated.
"The fox returns. With backup too. Interesting. Scizor slash them!"
Scizor tried to attack Tails and Cosmo but couldn't unstuck his hand from the cage floor.
"Oh right you are trapped. No matter. Come on out!"
Another pokemon came out from one of the marauder's pokeballs. A dark blue pokemon with white claws and a red edge on its head.
"What is that?" Tails asked on edge.
"A sneasel. Look out they are relentless" Cosmo warned him.
"Sneasel use icy wind!"
Sneasel unleashed a cold breath upon the duo. Tails instinctively stood in front of Cosmo to shield her from the cold.
"Looks we got a knight here" the marauder joked with an evil smile "sneasel give him a challenge! Faint attack!"
Sneasel immediately rushed towards Tails baiting him into stepping back. The next moment it backstepped very fast causing Tails to get confused and step forward again then jumped towards him. Tails shoved Cosmo aside before being shoved down himself.
"Slash him!"
"Vee!"
Eevee came out nowhere and slammed into the sneasel with another quick attack. Sneasel recovered from it quickly and prepared to attack.
Knuckles watched this all unfold as he noticed his backpack next to him.
"If only I could get my knife" he thought as he tried to reach for it with his legs.
Cosmo noticed it.
Tails and eevee kept their focus on sneasel. It was quick so they would need to be quicker.
"Eevee growl" Tails ordered it as he knew that they would need to first try and limit the damage.
"Vee" eevee growled.
"That's how you waste your turn? So be it! Slash!"
"Eevee dodge!"
Eevee tried to dodge but was just not quick enough. Thankfully the slash only clipped a little bit of its chest fur so it remained mostly unscathed.
"Ready to quit little fox? Or would you rather see how much you can take before I break you like your friend?!"
Only then Tails noticed Knuckles' body. He was covered in cuts.
"This is my fault" Tails thought "had I not left this wouldn't have happened".
Then he noticed something else; Cosmo was slowly sneaking towards Knuckles, holding a sharp rock.
"You certainly tried to break Knuckles. But you haven't broken him. And you won't break me either!"
"Hehe and why's that?"
"Cause we're a team!" Knuckles declared freed at last as he sent out his heracross while using his pokeball to recall Quilava.
"Heracross horn attack!"
Heracross slammed into sneasel. It was sent flying and crashed into a tree but bounced back immediately.
Tails and Knuckles stood side by side ready to face the Marauder. Cosmo stood back.
"You got this Miles" she encouraged him.
Knuckles momentarily looked at her in surprise. Calling Tails by his first name?
"But then again she may not know that we call him Tails" he thought as he shifted his focus back to the battle at hand as his heracross and Cosmo's eevee readied themselves for the battle.
Faraway from there Sonic and raichu were practically running in circles following the calls of help from Tails until he also heard another voice.
"Sonic help us!" Knuckles voice could be heard.
"What is going on?!" Sonic screamed in frustration and fear for his friends "whoever you are quit it!"
"Rai!" raichu touched him with his paw pointing at something in the distance.
Sonic looked and saw in the distance something faintly resembling a small fairy.
"What is that?"
The pink fairy flew away and the voice was heard again coming from the direction of the fairy.
"Sonic this way".
Sonic not thinking rushed that way. Raichu followed.
"Heracross use leer!" Knuckles ordered his pokemon.
"Eevee quick attack!"
Heracross lowered his opponent's defense while eevee slammed into it pushing it back.
"Sneasel slash them!"
Sneasel tried to slash eevee but eevee proved to be quite agile dodging the attack.
The marauder was bewildered that they were not already defeated.
"Scizor what are you waiting for! Break free!"
Scizor immediately put its all into freeing itself from its stuck state.
"Sneasel you too stop playing around! Slash them apart!"
Sneasel attacked only to be stopped by heracross' massive size compared to it. Though neither Knuckles nor Tails knew it, it was a pity that heracross didn't know a fighting move at that point in time because that would certainly knock out sneasel with one strike. Nevertheless heracross and eevee kept playing off of one another trying to strike and keep each other safe.
Until of course the marauder came up with the simple solution to recall Scizor so it would get unstuck then send it back out making it a two against two again.
"Damnit" Knuckles cursed "heracross horn attack on Scizor!"
Heracross rushed Scizor. Sneasel took the opportunity to attack eevee.
"Knuckles I need backup!"
"Got my hands full mate. That thing knows swords dance. If I don't keep it busy it will set up and slash us apart like it tried to do earlier.
"Then let me wield Quilava in battle! Eevee go back to Cosmo and get her out of here!"
"No way. I'm not leaving you here Miles!"
Knuckles sent Quilava out immediately and asked it to fight alongside Tails. Eevee however refused to leave.
"Cosmo you need to get eevee out of here this guy's dangerous!"
"In front of you!" Cosmo point forward.
Sneasel had tried to use ice punch against Quilava and Tails. The duo dodged and Tails tried to tell Cosmo to run again.
"If you want me to be safe, get off your ass and win this battle already! I'm not leaving!" she declared causing Tails to silently gasp in shock, awe and to his surprise, butterfrees in the stomach.
"That thing used ice punch!" Knuckles whispered as heracross and Scizor clashed "Tails! Sneasel is an ice type!"
Tails immediately took action upon processing the info.
"Got it! Quilava Rapid fire ember!"
Quilava launched a barrage of embers towards Sneasel. The result was devastating as Sneasel, already hurt against heracross, fainted.
The marauder knowing that he had to take action now, ordered Scizor to strike at heracross' horn's base, causing it to momentarily retreat in pain and finally giving him the time to use sword's dance then using bullet punch to move first, striking fast at Quilava, knocking it out.
"The threat is out. And so are you! Scizor finish them!"
Scizor moving like a blur went for the strike aiming at eevee.
"Not this time! Raichu iron tail!" a voice determined to prevent history from being repeated was heard.
A yellow blur rushed by Tails, Knuckles and Cosmo. Raichu, using its iron tail as a defensive maneuver, parried the slash, knocking Scizor off balance.
Before any of them could turn around to look, Sonic walked past them, ready to end the battle.
"That was a pretty snazzy performance there guys" he said looking sideways to his friends smiling "now let me do my part for our team".
Tails and Knuckles smiled.
"So you came" Knuckles teased him.
"Did you doubt I would?"
"Maybe for a moment".
Sonic smiled and turned his attention to the marauder. The latter gritted his teeth. Tackling the hedgehog alone would have been a hard task by itself which is why he waited for the chance that was their temporary disbandment to attack. But facing them all at once?
"Scizor attack raichu with slash!"
But things were now just destined to be in team Sonic's favor; raichu's earlier defense of eevee triggered static.
"No!"
"Raichu thunder punch!"
Raichu charged and punched the paralyzed Scizor, knocking it out with ease. The marauder backstepped once at the realization of his defeat then turned away and fled, dropping a small device as he did so.
Sonic went to pursue him, before Tails and Knuckles took him by the shoulder at the same time one shoulder each, while nodding negatively. Sonic took a deep breath and decided their opponent would get away for that day.
Sonic turned to meet his friend's gaze when he saw Knuckles' wounds.
"My god! What did he do to you?!"
"Tried to break me to find you. Obviously he didn't".
Cosmo looked at Knuckles' wounds.
"I have a friend at Azalea town who has a slowbro that knows the rare move heal pulse. Come to my place for tonight and I will bring her Slowbro to use its move and heal your wounds".
"Will that work?" Tails asked "I mean, Knuckles is no pokemon".
"I see no reason why not. Chanseys working at pokemon center usually know it and are known to use it for healing non pokemon wounds as well but it's better not to draw people's attention after this".
Tails nodded. Indeed they could just do the latter but then they would have to explain how Knuckles' wounds were inflicted and that could draw attention.
Plus spending time around Cosmo with the butterfrees still in Tails' stomach was definite yes-yes.
After Sonic picked up the device dropped by the iron masked marauder, team Sonic followed Cosmo to her place, which to Tails' accurate guess was a flat over her shop. She was actually a florist.
The team was brought in discreetly so no one would notice the injured echidna and afterwards Cosmo left momentarily to borrow her friend's Slowbro.
While Tails and Sonic were waiting for her to come back, Sonic tried to apologize to his friends but Tails stopped him saying it was not the time yet. Knuckles who was recovering asked Tails where he had met this girl in the literal half hour that transpired between Tails' flight from the fight and his return to save Knuckles.
"She uh… run into me…" Tails said getting red like a strawberry.
"Now that I recall… she called you Miles" Knuckles also added remembering.
"What she called you by your first name?!" Sonic gasped in surprise.
"Yeah. I mean… she doesn't know you guys call me Tails… and also…".
"Now that I also recall" Knuckles remembered again "you shielded her from Sneasel and tried to get her to leave".
"I… uh… I did… I mean it was our battle and everything… she helped us and all…"
Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other and smiled mischievously.
"W-what?" Tails said looking back and forth at his two friends.
"Looks like our little friend here has fallen in love" Knuckles joked.
"What…? Of course not!"
"Haha! Butterfrees in the stomach!" Sonic yelled in excitement.
"Shhh! Cut it out. You're acting like children".
"Oooooh! You've fallen hard for her to deny it so fiercely and try to reflect it on us" Knuckles whistled to tease his friend.
"J-jerks" Tails looked away to hide the blushing as his two friends continued teasing him playfully.
A couple of moments later Cosmo returned. She brought out slowbro and it used heal pulse on Knuckles, healing the scratches on his body. His body was still exhausted from the fight however. Cosmo insisted that the team stay at her place for the night before setting out again and even offered to guide them through ilex forest. The team agreed.
Later on as Knuckles had fallen asleep, Sonic had also retreated to rest, while Tails went outside and laid on the grass to process the events of the day.
As Sonic laid in Knuckles' sleeping bag next to the bed Knuckles was sleeping at he petted raichu telling it how proud he was off his save of eevee from that attack today. He closed his eyes and started drifting asleep.
Until he felt the marauder's device buzzing.
Intrigued he took it out and read the contact name on the screen.
Archer.