This this is a Re-write and Re-Telling of the Sonic Forces video game in a darker and dramatic way. Putting the story exactly where it needed to be. This is a Tale of the Resistance and their turmoil of a ruined world after the events of the attack in Metropolis City when their only hero gets taken away.
A MAJOR thanks to the Beta-Reader here on that helped me put this into words and to fix it as much as possible till I felt confident with it. Thanks to...
Cyberpolaris
Ivyshade24
Omesta
RevenantTP
Thank you so much.
WARNING/DISCLAIMER! This is written with TEENS to ADULTS IN MIND. Bad Language is UNCENSORED.
In Context: Tails in this story is 16 yrs old. With that in mind. Sonic and everyone else are in their mid-twenties close to thirties. Reason for that is due to the tone of the story is Suspenseful Drama, Violence and Language. But don't worry they don't swear. Worst thing to come out of them is Damn. But... the OC's? Get ready to see that F-word quite a bit.
The Story is Drama first, Suspense and Action. In that order.
Another thing is that there aren't any Wisps elemental weapons of power. The weaponry is typical weapons used in military. Knives, Pistols, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, and Shotguns.
Same goes for Super Powers. Sonic and Friends are still intact. Sonic super-fast, Tails can fly... etc, etc, but the OC's don't. They are just average nobodies trying to make a difference.
Chapter One Contains: 6,230 words
The Sonic Cast is: Main: Sonic and Tails.
Side Characters are: Knuckles, Amy, Silver, Vector, Espio and Charmie.
The OC Cast is: Main: Chris(Hedgehog) Zeke(Wolf) Trish(Dalmatian) Barnett(Rabbit)
Side Characters: Zander(Dalmatian) POS(Labrador) Eddie&Edward(Cat) and Lance(Kodiak Bear)
New Chapter will be submitted every Friday.
Forces
Chapter 1: The Fall of A Hero and the Rise of A New Hope
Sonic answers a broken distress transmission call from Tails as he rushes to Metropolis City. He can barely understand what was being said; the only words that he was able to understand were "city", "attack" and ending with "help" being taken by static never to be heard again.
And with that, Sonic goes full-speed towards Metropolis City with concern written all over his face.
"I'm on my way. Just hang in there," Sonic answers as he zooms by parts of the destroyed city. His tone holds concern and anxiety in hope that Tails heard his message.
After destroying a couple of robots, he soon comes to a stop. 'Where are you, little buddy?' Sonic thinks with worry as he looks all around. As he tries to figure out where to go, a flicker of purple particles floats into the sky, getting his attention as they disappear. He quickly looks down noticing that it was coming out from the destroyed robot. "What kind of robots are these?" he wonders. He then begins to shout for Tails in concern, "Tails! Where are you?!"
'C'mon, give me a signal, any-' Before he can finish that thought, he hears an explosion from the center of town. Was that from Town Square? In no hesitation, he speeds towards the explosion by boosting, destroying robots along the way.
Upon arriving screeching to a halt, he sees Knuckles causing the destruction by smashing and destroying the weird-looking robots. Sonic rushes into action, doing a homing attack on three robots destroying each one. Once hitting and bouncing off the last robot, he lands close to Knuckles.
"Hey Knucklehead, You alright?" Sonic disguises his concern and worry with his usual sarcastic and snarky manner of talking.
"I'll be better once I know what's… going… on?" Confused, he looks at his gloves and quickly shakes them as purple particles fly off of them. "Gah! What are these things?" he hisses as though he's feeling pain.
"I don't know for sure, but they're part robot and part something else." Sonic leaps into the air and does another Homing Attack on another robot. Bouncing off and destroying the robot, he lands right next to Knuckles and quickly asks, "Do you have any idea where everyone-"
"No! What we have to do is evacuate the city," Knuckles interrupts him. Sonic does a spin-dash on a robot behind Knuckles, to which Knuckles returns the favor by punching another robot behind Sonic.
"I'm not leaving 'till I know where Tails is!" Sonic shouts.
Knuckles stops pounding on a robot and quickly turns to Sonic in disbelief. "What, he's still here?! I thought he left with some of the civilians. He probably got stuck somewhere."
"Which way did they go?" Sonic asks, his voice filled with anxiety.
Knuckles looks in several different directions, before gritting his teeth and speaking with self-loathing in his tone, "Dammit! I should've been more alert!"
"Knuckles!" Sonic shouts in distress, jabbing him in the shoulder.
Knuckles slightly lowers his arm, unsure where to point as he scans the ruined rubble. When he spots something familiar, he points, "That way, I think. Everything looks the same now. I can't leave here 'till these people are safe."
Sonic doesn't say anything in return. He just zips off in the direction Knuckles points to in search of Tails, and hopes that he isn't too late.
Rushing through the city, Sonic then looks upward, as an aircraft on fire flies directly over him, getting his attention. But not only that… he also notices that the sky is beginning to turn red.
"This is bad," he mutters as he shouts out for Tails over and over. "Tails! Tails!" Sonic frantically shouts from place to place.
"OVER HERE, SONIC!" Tails yells from a distance.
Hearing Tails' voice, Sonic accidentally lessens his speed boost, causing him to lose a good amount of his previous speed - enough to reach Tails, but not enough to dodge a hit that one of the robots delivered to him. Sonic, realizing it's futile to dodge, attempts to block with all his might… barely managing to survive it. Sonic screams in agony as he is sent flying backwards onto the ground.
Tails stares in absolute shock. He then runs towards Sonic, only to barely dodge the sheer amount of gunfire that the robots shoot in his direction. Tails swings a piece of a broken steel bar, hitting the robots' control sensors, taking them offline… only for him to then be surrounded by more robots.
Sonic forces himself to stand and quickly rushes forward, leaping into the air, doing the longest homing attack chain he has ever done, to destroy every robot surrounding Tails. But the damage is already done. Every part of himself screams out in agony, feeling like he is being ripped apart landing blow after blow. He feels immense pain once the final robot is destroyed, but to Sonic, it was worth it.
Landing on one knee, Sonic forces a small smile, but even Tails knows it's fake - it is only meant to reassure him that everything will be alright.
"I'm here Tails! Get everyone out of here-" With his eye on Tails, Sonic's focus on the robots slips, and one of them punishes him with a blow to his side.
"SONIC!" Tails yells out, worried. With steel bar in hand, he lets out a snarl, unleashing blow after blow on each and every robot keeping them away from Sonic. "Sonic, I can't leave you here!"
"Don't worry about me, just go!" Sonic forces himself to speak as he painfully stands up, in an attempt to continue fighting the robots in front and behind them. But Tails doesn't move.
Then, suddenly, an Unknown Attacker's voice is heard, echoing from somewhere that neither Sonic nor Tails can see. "It's about time you showed up. Always being the hero." The Attacker's voice is bitter and full of hate.
"Where are you? Who are you? Why are you-" An energy ball comes flying towards Sonic, but he quickly dodges away from it. Sonic lets out a scream as all the injuries he accumulated over the course of the day begin to make themselves known yet again.
While Tails tries to find where the menacing voice is coming from, he turns his attention back to Sonic…
And nothing but fear enters his body. The Masked Assailant was hovering right behind Sonic. He looks at what seems to be a demonic puppet held up with no strings. Long silver white hair stretches out from the back of his head, as he wears a pointed metallic mask with violet glowing eyes. A violet ruby is presented directly in the center of his chest as purple particles float around him.
"SONIC! BEHIND YOU!" Tails yells out, but it is already too late, as the Masked Assailant attacks yet again.
The Masked Assailant then kicks Sonic into the air, and laughs as Sonic screams yet again, immediately following up with another kick that sends him colliding into a nearby building.
"AGH! HAHHG! AHH!" Sonic's painful screams can be heard loud and clear as the beating continues for what feels like an eternity.
Hiding from the Masked Assailant… Tails was utterly terrified, and is a sense of self-loathing for acting like a coward. He witnessed Sonic survive countless of near death moments, even when he did see him die. He also saw him fought an enhanced Metal Sonic, not to mention multiple demonic entities, and he wasn't scared then… So why is he feeling so scared now? It was like an untapped fear was unleashed within himself that he found impossible to ignore.
He sees Sonic's body being hurtled through the air. No matter how hard he tries, he is unable to see The Masked Assailant striking Sonic. It is all a blur to him.
The civilians hiding alongside Tails can't believe what they are also witnessing. Sonic, the hero that everyone loves, the hero that saves the world more times than they can count, the hero that is friendly and kind to everyone… is being beaten nearly to death.
It sparks anger, hatred, and fear in the civilians, and especially Tails.
Tails wants to do something, but this overwhelming fear cripples him even further. No matter what he tries, his nerves tie him to that hiding spot. He just sits there, watching it all happen. "I have… to do something." He tries to get up, but he then falls right back down, shackled in that unbounded fear.
Then... silence. Deafening… terrifying… silence.
Tails gets up and peers over from his hiding spot and watches as the robots haul Sonic's battered, unconscious body away. "Sonic… Sonic…! Sonic!" He hears one of the children sadly mutter to themselves over and over. Tails also cries seeing his hero… his friend… his brother… disappear within the enemy horde.
On that day…the sky turned red.
Part 2: 6 Months Later
Survivors scatter and flee to a College University now turned into a secure hidden base, located far away from Metropolis City, a city completely destroyed and left in ruins. As months go by, a group is formed, called "The Resistance". Later on, Knuckles is chosen to be the Lead Commander of the Resistance. Day by day, survivors come seeking safety, losing and leaving everything they know behind. People hang on to whatever hope is left, a hope that was fading away slowly.
At the H.Q Building, Team Chaotix talk amongst themselves.
"The whole world is overrun by those weird robots." Vector paces back and forth.
Espio responds, "We've been slowly finding other survivors but it's not even close to the amount Robotnik even has on his side-"
"Well, I'm not giving up hope," Charmy butts in boldly.
Vector stops pacing. "I'm glad that you're the only one that still feels like that around here Charmy."
Charmy looks out the window and asks in concern, "Is Knuckles still out there searching for, umm, you know…?"
"No, not this time," Espio answers his concern, "I think he's given up. He still blames himself for not going with Sonic to find Tails, and also, don't be afraid to say Sonic's name."
Charmy still continues to look out of the window worried, "Not to mention Tails still missing, too."
A chair moves, catching the attention of all three of them. Amy, being in the same room and over-hearing them, gets up from her seat and makes her way to the exit. She tries saying happily without sounding too depressed, "I'll go check on inventory. It's that time again." She opens the door and leaves, with all three members of the Chaotix remaining quiet.
After watching her exit out, Charmy looks over to Espio and asks, "Are you still sure that it's okay to say his name?"
Amy slowly walks towards the inventory building, miserable and depressed thinking about Sonic. She tries to remain hopeful that Sonic is still out there somewhere. On her way, she comes across a recruit that had been around for a couple of months, as he walks right by her. She has to tilt her head way back to look up to see his face, as he completely towers over her, standing at over 6 feet tall. She sees him in his new pilot uniform as he heads to the Mess Hall for lunch. "Hi!" she greets him cheerfully. "You're Zeke right? Congrats on that promotion,"
Zeke is an average built, middle aged dark gray wolf. But even though his long bushy fur is mainly dark gray, his snout is white as snow, spanning to his cheeks that clawed out.
He stops and turns around to smile back to her. "Oh you've heard? Thanks. Been wanting to fly for a long ass… um, I mean for a long time. Sorry for the language, I'm just really excited."
She looks up to the sky. "I hope being up there is a lot safer than being on the ground. I'm off to go check inventory. See you around!" She walks away.
Zeke remains where he stands, watching her leave before looking up at the sky muttering, "Well, I hope it is too. So far all they do is keep me on the damn ground." He turns and heads to the mess hall for lunch.
Off in the distance, Ex-General Barnett, a small statured, short haired brown old rabbit is waiting patiently for the new recruits that he'd be in charge of training. He mutters to himself while pacing around, "Four of them …only four." He only trains a couple of recruits at a time. Then, they are given away to actual squads to do real missions in the field. Bonding is something he never does anymore. He stops pacing around as he notices a recruiter walking his way with the four recruits.
She hands over info about them. "Here you go."
"Thank you," he says back to her as he watches her walk away, and she sits down on a bench. He mutters, annoyed, "Great… she's going to stick around and watch." He sighs before approaching them as they line up side by side. Thinking to himself, 'Alright, what do I have here?', he looks at the single paper given to him about the recruits. 'What the-?' Confused about one of the names, he asks while looking at them, "Who is POS?"
"That's…me…" answers a recruit, dropping his shoulder shamefully as he does so.
Knowing exactly what POS meant, he looks at the Labrador. He has to ask, "POS? What does that mean?"
"It's… my uhh …initials, sir," he answers shamefully.
He looks over to the next two dirty blond haired felines. He can tell that they are brothers due to how identical they look. "I can see that you're twins, which means that you're also related."
"Yes sir. I'm Eddie and he's Edward," one of them answers.
His brother glares right back while growling, "I can introduce myself."
"Yeah, but that involves you saying words and I know how bad you are at doing that," he shoots back.
They stare at each other in anger, looking ready to fight, but refrain from doing so with their Drill Sergeant watching. Instead, they step away from each other and turn their attention back to Barnett as they mutter quietly, mocking each other.
Barnett looks them over trying to tell them apart, but their bickering just causes him to grow more annoyed with them. He raises his hand to draw their attention. "Enough!" he orders. He points at the twin next to POS. "You! Get to the other side of him and stay there."
The Twin follows the order and as he moves, he lets out one last remark, "Didn't want to be next to him anyways."
Barnett slightly shakes his head at them in annoyance and moves to his last recruit, slowly tilting his head way up just to lock eyes with the bear. "And that would mean you're Lance."
Lance nods in agreement, not uttering a word back.
Taking a step back while still looking at Lance, he then instructs to all of them, "I'm not here to be your best friend. I'm only here to train you and then to send you off to where you really need to be. Do what you're told, and there won't be any issues. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" everyone says except Lance, who just nodded instead."
He stands there while looking them over again before slowly shaking his head. 'A troubled Labrador, Twin felines that hate each other and a bear that's a mute', he mutters to himself before sighing, "Why does it have to be a weird group..."
Zeke arrives at the Mess Hall; he notices that the place is a little busier than before. Day by day more survivors are being found by squads that are sent to check areas around Metropolis City, or any other small town affected by the attack. It is their #1 top priority whenever they're deployed - to find survivors.
"Flown yet?" He hears a familiar high pitched voice to his right. It belongs to Zander, a Dalmatian on the shorter side who also happens to be his best friend. Zeke needs to tilt his head downward to him as if he is a pre-teen, but he is in fact twenty-three years old. Having a smile on his face, he slowly loses the smile upon seeing Zeke trying to hide his frustration. "Not yet, huh?" he adds, walking towards Zeke with his tray - a tray that has a vast amount of food on it which would have no effect on that scrawny body of his. He is wearing a small green shirt and dark gray pants that have way too many pockets on them.
"Captain's always give me a bullshit excuse. So far, it's always that I don't have a Co-Pilot," Zeke answers, giving Zander a hard look, examining him from head to toe.
Zander worriedly takes a step back as he argues knowing exactly what's on his mind, "DON'T even think about it." He shakes his head in concern. "No WAY will you ever catch me up there. Plus, I'm just a Navigational Expert. I just point people in the right direction to go to get things done safely. And also, a secondary plus… If I did fly with you, once we land, my sister will most likely kill you. That will make her the worst threat on the ground for you."
With the mere mention about his sister, he worriedly searches around, "Where is she, anyways? She probably already knows that we're talking about this 'cause she's fucking psychic."
He shrugs. "The heck should I know. I think she's with one of the Drill Sergeants, the one that has new recruits."
He laughs jokingly while asking, "Getting into other people's business as always?"
Zander laughs back. "Yup, as always."
Back with Barnett and his recruits, Zander's sister sits there.
Trish is Zander's sister and is much more older than him by ten years. The dalmatian sits there with clipboard in hand, something she is never seen without. She is wearing her field secretary uniform that covers nearly all of her spots.
In deep thought looking out into the distance, she then glances down to her clipboard going through all of the names... All of the names that are currently present at the base, and unfortunately the ones that are not.
"Do you really have to sit there and watch over me?" Barnett's irritated voice speaks. "I'm capable of functioning on my own," he states looking over at her, hoping that the question annoys her enough to get her to leave.
She answers exhausted while not looking, "I'm not. I've just been on my feet all day." She looks at him with a curious question in her mind. "So, what's your story? Why don't you have more than six people or heck… even a squad?"
"I'm semi-retired," he answers slightly hesitant.
Knowing that there is more to that answer, she probes again with, "Then why do you look like you just got shot in the gut when one of them gets taken away?"
He looks at her and answers bitterly, "Because I know how it really feels to lose someone out in the field. It's a way more different look I give when I lose someone this way."
She gets up and extends her arm. "I'm Trish."
He shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Trish." He looks over at his new recruits again and… narrows his eyes, upset at two of them. Eddie and Edward are standing next to each other. He lets out low deep growl and then takes a deep breath to calm himself, as he looks at each one of them. All four of them are wearing a plain white t-shirt and green army pants with brown boots. He then asks, "What's the deal with POS?"
"POS? I could have sworn that I changed it back to his real name." She looks at her clipboard. "Labrador. Age 22. Name is Philip Osiris Schneider, but people found out his initials, so now he's always referred to as POS… which everyone make fun of it as-"
"As in Piece Of Shit?" he interrupts her.
"That's right," she answers.
He looks at the brothers next and asks, "The Twins?"
"The Twin Felines, known as 'The Morrisons', Age 22. They are inseparable."
"I've noticed," he remarks.
She goes on explaining, "I advise you not to even try because it's not going to happen. It's been attempted many times, but they always find a way to remain together. You might have them around for a very long time."
"Mr. Nods?" he asks next.
She puts her clipboard away under her arm. "Kodiak Bear. Age 23. Name is Lance Cage. I've never heard him talk. I assume that he doesn't speak. Another person you might have around for a long time. No one wants someone who doesn't talk. So he's stuck with you."
"Thank you very much. That's way more info than this lousy piece of paper," he says, waving it at her.
"I knew you would be annoyed by that. Sorry." She looks past him and sees another recruit wandering around alone. "I… have to go. Goodbye, and don't be too rough on them… and on yourself," She says walking away.
"Goodbye Trish," he says back, feeling slightly more at ease with himself as he walks back to his recruits.
Trish manages to catch up to the recruit. "Are you lost?" she asks with authority.
He stops and looks at her. "Yeah, no idea where the HQ Station is," he answers back.
Looking at her clipboard, she glances back at him, making sure to get a matching description. 'Average height, …mid-twenties…, Green Hedgehog. …nothing.' "Name?" she orders.
"Chris Beckers," he answers.
She looks and looks… nothing. She gives back a stern look. "You're not on the list."
He smirks, knowing that it wasn't. "I just got through the paperwork and dropped off here so I doubt I'll be on it."
Becoming annoyed by his laid back attitude towards her, she puts her clipboard away and informs him, "Really? Well I have no choice but to-"
"Stop right there, Ms. Reviera!" A voice behind interrupts her. She turns and sees an Informant Officer heading her way. "I'm in charge of him!"
She tries to correct him with procedure, "But he's not even on-"
"Doesn't matter. He's with me." Completely ignoring her, he walks right by her, grabbing Chris by the arm pulling him away from her.
"Umm… Bye," Chris says as an apology.
Surprised by what just happened, she mumbles to herself, "Well, that's never happened before."
The Intel Officer finally stops as he pokes Chris in the shoulder, scolding him, "You were not supposed to talk to anyone when you got here."
"I was looking for the higher-ups around here," he answers back with attitude.
He gets angry and shoves him into a wall. "I AM THE HIGHER-UPS!" He pokes him in the chest. "You just stay out of sight and wait 'till orders are issued. Soon things are going to happen. When it does… you're going to be a part of it all. Got it?!" he orders.
"Got i-it," Chris stutters back. "I'll stay out of sight!"
The Officer then walks away while saying, "In a couple of hours."
Chris just stands there, as he tries to keep his temper in check. "Geez… Sign the dotted line, they said. 'It's going to be an exciting experience' they said. Where is it?" He begins to look around the area to see where everything was located. "Inventory stock building… Training Fields… that must be the Barracks… Woah! He's gotta be pissed. He just destroyed that dummy in one damn punch." Looking around again he then sighs, "This is going to be a boring couple of hours standing here."
Over by the destroyed dummy, Knuckles sighs looking down at it as his eyes then travel to his fists, looking them over. "They don't even last anymore."
"Maybe you should hold back a little bit from now on." He hears a voice standing near the rest of the destroyed dummies as he inspects them.
Knuckles looks over to Silver, The Silver Quilled Time Traveler. He is still 16yrs old while Knuckles and everyone else are much more older than him now. "It's a good stress reliever, Silver." He picks up the destroyed dummy and walks to where the rest are with Silver, tossing it with the rest of the busted dummies. He looks at his watch and sees that it is almost time. He lets out a sigh and sits down on a bench. "Are all the recruits ready?"
Silver sits right next to him. "Everyone almost is. We don't really have enough people to attack a major prison, but if we can save enough of them, then it'll be a major victory for us."
Knuckles, feeling concerned, then adds, "But if we lose anyone and gain nothing…-" He sighs. "We're back to square one …again." They both stay silent for a bit. Knuckles looks into the distance. "I know he's still out there. It's been six months and he's waiting for us. …Waiting for us to find him."
Silver, with his eyes on Knuckles seeing how worried he is, has to think of something to make him feel better. With a slight nod, he pokes him on the shoulder. "You're in command now and doing just as good as him. You just have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to him."
He pokes him on the shoulder again. "You needed to help the people that you were with, and you wouldn't have if you went with him."
He pokes him again, "You saved so many people on that day and you did so by not going with him."
Silver pokes him once again, "You did the right thing on that day, doing what you had to do." He then proceeds to poke with every word, "Not… going… with… him."
Knuckles looks at him and smiles at him with newly acquired confidence. "You're right, Silver. Thanks."
Silver smiles back. "No problem old timer," he teases.
He raises a single brow, "Old timer… really? I might be almost twice your age-" He raises his fist up, "But that doesn't mean I can't turn you into one of these dummies." Instead he pokes him back. "Get ready for a prison break." He gets up ordering and heads towards the Announcement Area.
Part 3: Preparation for Operation Smash and Grab
At the Announcement Area, Knuckles, Silver, Vector, Espio and Amy all stand on stage ready to announce the plan to storm one of Robotnik's Flying Prisons that hold dozens of captured civilians.
Knuckles approaches the mic and taps on it, trying to get rid of some of the nervousness building up inside him. He takes a deep breath and begins his speech, "Testing? Alright. So here are the plans for Operation Smash and Grab."
Espio face-palms in embarrassment. "He just had to use the name."
"We're going to attack one of the flying prisons located in the southernmost side of Metropolis City. We're going to separate into six different groups to attack three different spots. The plan is to extract and to save as many civilians as possible in a short amount of time. No one, and I DO MEAN 'NO ONE', is to stray from the plan. Because as soon as things go bad, we all make a mass retreat."
Zeke stands there with his arms crossed knowing exactly what Knuckles is going to announce next, "As WE'RE retreating, when we reach mid-way back to base, we have to deal with whoever is tailing us. That's when our best fighter pilots will destroy them."
Zeke couldn't contain his smile from spreading across his face. "Heck yeah, I'm fucking ready." He proudly says, looking down to his pilot uniform.
Knuckles continues, "Can't have anyone tailing us right back to base and risk it being found… GOT IT?"
"YES SIR!" Everyone answers out loud.
"Great. Now split up and decide the groups. Group one is led by Silver. Group two is led by Espio. Group…"
Zander runs up to Zeke excited, "Dude, are you freaking ready? You just might be flying today!" He looks over to the announcer, then back to Zeke. "I don't know who I'm going with yet. I'm probably…-" His ears perk up, turning to the announcer's voice. "I think I just heard my name." He then runs off, yelling, "DON'T CRASH!"
"Thanks a lot a-hole," Zeke mumbles, focusing on the announcer.
While Zeke stands there, waiting patiently for his position to be said, Zander heads to his group stationed as Navigator. He greets and shakes hands with the other group members and signs his name, confirming his position and that he's with them.
The announcer's voice is heard again. "And Zeke Tailor with ground sup-"
"FUCK!" someone yells in the distance.
Zander quickly looks to where the voice came from; knowing who it is. "Dammit," he says quietly as he shakes his head in disappointment. He sees Zeke approaching the group, signing his name and proceeding to leave, being upset about it. He continues to watch him leave the Announcement Area, following Zeke until he sees him enter the nearby bathroom.
And just when he is about to enter the bathroom entrance, a loud thunderous smashing sound comes from within, startling him. He quickly looks around, gathers his courage, then he enters the bathroom as well.
In the bathroom, the first thing he sees is a hole in the ceramic wall. The second thing he sees is Zeke's flight jacket hanging out of the trashcan. Zeke is nowhere to be seen. Taking a couple of steps further into the bathroom, he lets himself be known, "I know you're in here. It-" He sighs. "It sucks but …sooner or later you'll be up there in the sky-"
"Shut… up," Zeke interrupts from somewhere in the bathroom. "Forever on the ground. Months of work… just to end up fucking nowhere." Zeke says sitting in one of the stalls.
Zander walks further in, looking at the stalls. "You just got promoted. It's just going to take a little time-"
The stall door flies open, startling Zander. He stops talking, seeing Zeke with his fur flared in anger. He backs up against the wall as Zeke approaches, snarling, "Last mission. LAST FUCKING ONE! After this, am fucking out of here!" He shouts. He then storms to the exit.
Zander pleads, "AND GO WHERE?! There's nothing out there. You'll be all alone."
Zeke stops, hearing his desperate worried voice. He utters back, "I'll figure something out." He exits, not saying another word.
Now alone, Zander starts taking deep breaths, trying to get his composure back. He then looks to the trash can. He walks up to it, grabbing Zeke's flight jacket and pulls it out. He folds it up neatly and just stands there, thinking to himself while looking at the exit. 'Well, I won't let you leave alone. You're going to need a little bit of Navigation on your side. …I just hope my sister doesn't kill me for doing it.'
Meanwhile, Chris stands around by the Announcement Area, away from the crowd knowing that his name is never going to be called. His name isn't even on that bossy chick's clipboard. He looks around for that Informant Officer, knowing for sure that he has all the answers.
With a quick search, he sees the Informant Officer heading his way. Able to get a better look at him now, seeing his tall, lumbering overweight stature of his… but, his face is concealed. But that couldn't hide the fact that he is an Iguana due to his tail that followed right behind.
With a duffel bag in one hand and notes in the other, he hands it out to Chris informing, "This is for you." He puts down the duffel bag. "Here is the group list number. Here are the soldiers you're going to be with and which you are 'NEVER' going to leave their side. Your main mission is to keep them safe." He pokes Chris in the chest. "You go…" Then points to the other soldiers. "…wherever they go. Got it?" The Informant orders.
"Got it," Chris replies.
The Informant turns and walks away from Chris before he even has a chance to ask a question. Becoming upset, he askes with an attitude, "Can I at least ask you a damn question before you go? What's this all about? What's with the secrets?"
The Informant looks at him and says, "It's on a need-to-know basis. Everything will come full circle when the time is right," he continues to walk away, not revealing anything else.
Grumbling to himself, "Yeah… what the fuck ever." And with one good look around the Resistance base, his frustration fades. "At least I have a place to stay and relax." Chris kneels down to unzip his duffel bag, and goes through it. In it is a rifle, a handgun, infiltration and combat gear and his… Identification card? …which has the name Rookie on it… he scoffs at it. "That's nice," he remarks, shaking his head.
"You're always standing around." Chris hears a familiar voice right next to him.
He looks and it's that one bossy chick that was outside. He cracks a smile as he answers back, "Hi again and yup. It's pretty much my thing at the moment," he zips up the duffle bag and stands up.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to question your motives anymore." She raises her clipboard of names to him. "I added your name to it. Chris Beckers, was it?"
He looks at her and smiles, "Uhh, not anymore." He shows her his identification card.
She looks at it, then at him, then the card again. "Rookie." She looks at him again. "Rookie?"
"That's right… Rookie," he says shamefully as he puts it away in one of his pockets.
She looks at her list. "I'll keep it as Chris."
He grabs his bag and is ready to go to his group. "I've got to start heading off. See you around Miss. Reviera," he says, leaving.
Her eyes widen in embarrassment and she shouts in protest. "NO! That sounds weird. IT'S TRISH!"
He gives her a thumbs up, continuing to walk away to find a spot where he can change into his gear. Unzipping the duffle bag, he takes out the black vest and just looks at it. "This fucking color," he quietly complains. Once he is done putting on his black combat vest, dark gray shirt, black pants and combat boots, he meets up with group six.
Approaching the group, all of them just look back not uttering a single word. They turn their attention to each other, whispering among themselves, then right back to Chris. And still nothing… not a single word was said.
In the H.Q Building, Knuckles and Silver watch as everything is being prepared. Silver informs, "Preparations are nearly ready. All aircrafts are set to be boarded. They just need your final say. Umm… Knuckles?" Once he is done speaking, Knuckles just stands there, not answering.
Knuckles is in deep thought, brooding to himself in concern. 'Why is this so hard? Why? Why am I so worried? What if something goes wrong? NO! Everything's going to be… fine. We're going to save people. Dammit Sonic. How do you do it? You should be full of white quills due to all this stress. Everything will turn out better than fine. We can do this. I can do this… They look at me because they believe in… me. Everything will turn out okay. Everything-'
"Knuckles, I need an answer," Silver asks, snapping him out of it.
"Um… yeah, alright." He takes a deep breath. "We leave once the sun goes down. Then it's time to go save some people!"
"I'll go get myself ready to go," Silver declares, taking a step to the exit.
"No, you won't," Knuckles quickly corrects him.
Turning back, Silver asks confused, "But, didn't you say I was leading group one?"
"Vector taking your spot, I'm taking his. You are going to stay here and protect the base while we're gone," he informs him.
Silver slumps his shoulders in protest. "Again? But-"
Knuckles argues back, "BUT NOTHING! That's an order."
Silver nods in defeat, accepting the order. "Fine… I'll watch over the base."
Outside at the Training Fields: "Sooooo…we're not going to be a part of any of that?" POS asks.
"Nope. You're too green at the moment," Barnett answers, not looking at any of the aircrafts that everyone is boarding. "Until you've learned the basics on how and where to shoot a robot to destroy it, you're not doing squat." He then looks at the others, seeing them stare at the aircrafts. "The same goes for all of you too, so stop looking!" Barnett orders.
"Yes sir," everyone says, except Lance who just nods away.
The sun was setting, and it was time for liftoff. Everyone gets on board different aircrafts, and off they go. So begins the daring rescue that would set everything in motion.
End of Chapter.