Chapter Three: Discoveries

Written by Japs, finished by Yosh.

It had been six hours since the transmission had come in announcing Sonic, Shadow, Rouge and Rotor's return in the Stag. Despite Manic's optimism, the point Tails brought up was put under heavy consideration. To Amy's disgust, the party was no longer going to have pink balloons and banners spread with "Welcome Home" in bright silver lettering. To Manic's disgust, the loud music would be called off too.

  The result proved to be sickening. All of the Revolution members moved about the base twiddling thumbs and looking over their shoulder to peer at the hangers, as if the Stag Beetle might have silently materialised without anyone noticing. Anxiety rolled around in everyone's stomachs. The sickly feeling of waiting and worry was now very common.

  Sat with her knees gathered to her chest, her arms hooked around her shins loosely, Sonia sat staring atop of the cliff face that the Revolution building burrowed into and under, staring at the skies. She had lost track of how long she had been there in silent solitude. The palm trees of the Green Hill zone swayed in a gentle breeze, which she was too lost in her own thoughts to feel, despite it brushing her pink spikes, her every individual quill shivering in the late summer chill. Worry.

  "You ok, sis?"

  Her daydream broke like a bubble bursting near her skin; able to feel the liquid shards skim her fur, an impulsive shock through her body. Manic draped his arms around her before she could respond, slinging his brown leather jacket around her form. It had slipped her mind that she had been wearing only a short-sleeved tee shirt and a pair of jogging pants, both near enough skintight. He knelt beside her, himself now only in his baggy jeans and two-sizes-too-big tee shirt.

  "I'm ok," she replied. The wind curled around her again, and she realised how cold it was actually getting. She snuggled into the jacket thankfully. "Just... thinking, ya know?"

  "I dig," Manic replied, looking out at the hills and rivers of the Green Hill zone. Sonia looked at her brother and felt what she supposed must have been pity. The world wont stay still for us, she thought. We're going to have to fight for it now, Manic. And if we loose, all is lost. She swallowed, and then reached out to put her hand on his shoulder. He was exposing a side she had never seen before, sitting up here with her. This was where she came to sit and look when the pressures of the Revolution became too much for her. She could sit here and gaze at the grass, the trees, the flowers, everything that was being lost on the other side of Mobius to metal and industry. She couldn't believe that Manic, the punk, the street-rat, had this same feeling inside of him. This sadness at what had been lost, and what might still be lost.

  "He's over there, see?" He continued, before she could touch him. "Tails. That stupid fox ruining what could have been a really far out party."

  She could have slapped him. Men! All the same! Not a poetic or caring bone in their bodies!

  But she didn't slap him, or even responded to his arrogance at the situation. She looked where he was looking. Tails was squatting near the riverside, running his fingers through the water. An eight-year-old fox, almost a cub still. Before she had reunited with Manic or Sonic, the three of them being separated at birth for reasons she was still not sure of, Sonic had befriended Tails, despite him being seven years younger than him. To Tails, Sonic became a best friend and a brother, who, despite his haste, took in the little fox when he was only six. "Tails is anxious," she replied after a moment. "You need to cut the kid some slack some times, Man'. He's probably twice as smart as you when it comes to mechanics, and he loves Sonic just as much as we do."

  "He is not twice as smart," Manic snorted. "I know what wires to cut to hotwire most machines."

  Sonia sighed and stood up. "You'll never learn," she murmured, walking off.

  "You're up here because you're worried about Sonic." Manic called after her. She stopped. "Well... I'm worried too sis. Tails has got all these... ideas in my head. I just need to get my mind off it, ya know?"

  "...I dig." The pink hedgehog replied, breaking into an unseen grin. He isn't so uncaring as I thought. Just damn stubborn. "I'm gonna be inside, 'kay?" She put her hand on her brother's shoulder, shaking it slightly.

  "Sis, you still got my jacket..."

  She closed her eyes. Stubborn and an idiot. And my brother. "'The world wont stay still for us.'" She said, pulling off the jacket and throwing it to him. Despite the face full of leather, he still smiled at her.

  "Sonic wouldn't want us sittin' around worrying about him."

  "No, he wouldn't. C'mon, we'll keep busy. I'll spar you."

  "He-hey! You're on, sis!"

***

Tails dropped down into a sitting position, his legs tired of being bunched together in a crouch. He shivered. Sighing, he gathered his two tails either side of him and hugging them to his chest like a blanket. It's getting cold. Maybe'll be better if I just stayed inside and waited for Sonic. I don't have to be first there.

  "Hi Tails!"

  "Ah!" Tails jumped, leaping to his feet and spinning around. A mushroom-yellow and peach furred rabbit stood before him. She was of his age and wore a red dress, with a white collar and a blue necktie. On her shoulder, a blue creature hung tight, being blown away slightly in the wind. Her ears, too, were being dragged in the same direction. "Hey Cream."

  Cream smiled, and the Chao on her shoulder mimicked. "Isn't it a little windy for you?"

  "Ah, I don't mind the wind," the fox replied, grinning. "I'm waiting for Sonic."

  "That doesn't mean you gotta sit out here and freeze your butt off," Cream giggled. The Chao did too.

  "I can if I want to. Sonic's my friend."

  "You're boring."

  "Am not!"

  "You are, Tails. You always go on Sonic's adventures. You never have any adventures of your own."

  "Can if I want to," Tails muttered, folding his arms and frowning as hard as he could at her. Cream seemed well and truly unaffected. "At least I have a real friend, rather than hanging out with some silly Chao all the time!"

  The rabbit gasped, clasping both hands over her mouth at first, then wrapping them around her Chao. "Cheese is not silly! Well, not in any bad way." To this, the blue critter, Cheese, gurgled happily and cuddled into her. "And besides, I have plenty of friends!"

  "Oh yeah? Who?"

  "Well! Up until today I thought you were my friend, Tails Prower."

  Out of all the replies Tails expected this had not been one of them. As long as he had known, he and Cream had been rivals in almost everything they did. He remembered once she and Cheese had tried to fly one of his planes without asking. They didn't get off the ground, but they did wreck an entire palm tree because of it. And not to mention the plane. But he had competed with her too, having once tried to bring up a Chao himself. Where it got to, he didn't know. All he knew is, it didn't like handing him the tools he needed when he demanded for them.

  Tails sighed. Cream had folded her arms and turned her back on him with a great "humph!", and although he hated to admit it, he had been wrong to shout at her.

  "I'm sorry." He murmured. "I overreacted. And I'd-..." He swallowed, hard, then continued when he was certain she could not see his scrunched up face and gritted teeth. "...I would like to be your friend too," then he added hastily "and Cheese!" to which the Chao gurgled in glee and Cream turned around to face him again. She ran to him and hugged him tightly, squeezing the air out of his lungs. And she squealed right in his ear.

  "Thank you Tails! I'm sorry for shouting too, I just don't like people making fun of Cheese!"

  "You're welcome..." Tails gasped back. "And it would... mean more... if you let me breath and count how many... ribs you have broken."

  Cream released and clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry!"

  "It's ok," Tails assured, lowering himself onto the ground. "Just... gimmie a moment..."

  "Hey," Cream said, once Tails seemed fully recovered. "I have an idea!"

  "What?"

  "How about if me and you had an adventure?" Cheese gurgled in delight at the idea. "And him too, of course!"

  "Well, I don't know... I mean, I know we're friends now..." The word "friend" and who he meant were an unusual combination. Like calling gas chocolate.

  "Sure you know!" Replied Cream. "Unless you're scared..." Something shone in her eyes when she glanced over her shoulder lazy-eyed at him. "...Miles."

  "I'm not scared. And don't call me Miles!" Tails barked.

  "Then prove it," Cream taunted.

  Tails puffed out his chest. "All right, I will!" He grabbed Cream's hand, who squeaked in surprise when the fox holding her broke into a sprint back to headquarters. "We'll go inside, and have cocoa, and then we'll plan an adventure."

  "Ok... Miles." Cream grinned cheekily.

 "DON'T CALL ME MILES!"

***

Sonic looked out of the window of the Stag Beetle. During the journey the different sights of Mobius blinked into existence as quick as they winked back out, the land below them rolling past swiftly. He had been sure that he could match the speed on foot, if not outrun it.

 Now the dust thrown up by the Stag's thrusters as they eased the great machine down slowly to land obscured the windows. But despite the tumbling yellow-brown clouds, he knew exactly where they were. They would be in front of the hangers, landing on a twenty foot white circle outlined in red, a big "S" printed in the centre for "Stag", though he had often joked it was for "Sonic". Rotor patted his shoulder on his way past, breaking his already dying daydream. He nodded in response, but no more. He caught a glance at Rouge, her hands gathered at her lap, her head low, before she descended the ramp walkway that had lowered itself to the ground. Rotor followed, wordlessly. It was hard to speak, after what had just happened. No one was left on the ship but him now. Shadow must've already gotten off, in a hurry. Unsentimental Jerk.

  Sonic slung his backpack over his shoulders and walked down the ramp. The dust was clearing around him, and he could see the hangers and the cliff.

  "A welcome would've been a treat," said Sonic, catching up with Rotor.

  "Oh, I radioed ahead. Told them to go to the assembly hall."

  Sonic frowned. "You mean, we're gonna tell them straight away?"

  Rotor was silent for moment. "Do you think news like this can wait, sir?"

  "You're right," Sonic admitted. Truthfully, the news was a great burden on his shoulders right now, one that he did not want to think of right now. Or ever.

  Once through the thick steel doors, bordered with their round bolts the size of apples, the hallways of the Revolution base sloped downwards steadily, then spread into a massive underground network locally called the Warrens. Maps and markings of the Warrens had to be memorised from a master copy before they got burnt and destroyed. Should the enemy breach, the Warrens provided an assortment of dead ends and secret passageways to confuses them, and provide escape from anyone should they be fleeing.

  The hallways were a collection of random sheets of assorted metals, like a silver patchwork, the odd length painted with thick black-and-yellow diagonal lines. Most of the metal had been pilfered from one of the chemical plants. Sometimes it was hard to believe that it all came from the one. The Warrens spread over such a massive distance.

  Sonic's trainers squeaked every step. He watched them as he walked, but was more interested in the metal floor passing below him. Funny, he thought. Fifteen hours ago and I had seen enough metal to last me a lifetime. And here I am surrounded by the stuff. He often wondered if there was anything significant in the feeling that here, in supposed safety, he did not feel much safer than he did out of free grounds.

  Rotor, Shadow and Rouge were behind him. He did not know what order they followed him, and quite frankly he didn't care. Three people could walk abreast in the long hallways, but it was likely that Shadow was lagging behind again, dragging his feet and looking bored. An aptly timed sigh from somewhere behind him clarified this.

  His mind rolled over everything he had seen onboard the Stag Beetle on the journey back here. He cringed, then tried to shoo away the memories. It didn't help. He still had to recite it all to everyone. He swallowed hard, taking a right turn.

  Before him stood the double doors of the assembly hall, about five times the height of him. Once bearing one great yellow-and-black strip and the initial R (Originally for Robotnik, but now changed to read "Revolution" underneath), various members of the Revolution had now gratified on it, though Sonic was sure Manic was responsible for the majority. To the right side of the doors, a fox was propped against the wall, hands on his belly and snoring. At least making fun of Antoine D'Coolette would take his mind off things for a moment. 

  "Yo, vhy iz zee door not open?" Sonic mocked. Antoine sprung to his feet, blinked the sleep out of his eyes and then frowned when he realised who had woken him up.

  "Not funny, Soneek!" The fox squealed in his annoying accent. "Scared the life out ov me. Could 'av been a robot, no?"

  "No." Sonic replied simply. Antoine brushed off his blue jacket and then punched in a pin code on the digital lock that he had been guarding – or supposed to have been. With the hiss of pistons and the roll of gears, the doors slid apart in the centre.

  Inside, there was a murmur of noise that silenced within a second. Dozens of faces he recognised stood in a huge circular, dome-topped room. Around the edges of the room mechanical equipment and computers whirred amongst four pillars, and in the centre was a circular pedestal. This acted as a holoscreen, and the Revolutionaries would gather around to view projections of mission briefings or any news. The space between the rows of the anxious faces gave the three enough room to walk to the holoscreen. Sonic looked along the crowd when he passed them. He saw the faces he recognised, of his friends, even from before the New Order was uprising. But now, he was noticing the missing faces more than the present. Now that he knew what happened.

  Shadow and Rouge stood at the front of the crowds – leaders usually stood around the front for the better view, but since they had been involved with the mission they stood among them in case they had something to say – leaving Rotor and Sonic to take their usual places. Rotor sat himself in front of a computer screen and started typing furiously on the keyboard. Sonic turned; facing the doors he had come through. The parting through the crowd had now been filled as the Revolutionaries spread back out. He looked around him. Manic, Sonia and Tails stood on the front row of leaders, along with Johnny Lightfoot the rabbit and Porker Lewis the pig. Johnny was a weaponry expert, where Porker was the architect who designed the Warrens.

  "Sonic," said Rotor from behind him. "It's ready."

  He was silent for a moment. Words didn't usually fail him like this. He licked his lips.

  "This is not a mission report," He said, stalking around the circular base of the holoscreen so everyone in the dim room would have a chance to see him. "It would have been, but there's… a development." The holoscreen flickered, and then a sphere mesh made of a green light appeared in the centre of the room, jumping every now and again or horizontal lines distorting the picture for only a second before it was reformed. The light projection units had been damaged when they had been stolen, so the picture on screen was never really crisp. Inside the light sphere, a mesh of the power plant flickered into existence. "We had two objectives. Both of them were successful. The power plant has been destroyed, and before we destroyed it we were able to obtain the disk we've been looking for."

  There were a few explanations of "yes!" amongst the crowd.

  "Though," continued Sonic, silencing them, "what we have found out was not pretty.

  "It took us twelve hours to read the encryption of these files. We have found out a lot about what Robotnik has been planning, but this has not advanced us. In fact, it's the biggest set back this group has seen.

  "First off, Robotnik has discovered a new power source." The screen flickered, and the globe of Mobius appeared in lines. "There is something moving along here," he pointed at the equator of the planet, "What it is, we don't know, but it's being kept in the air by something." The screen changed. "Something unbelievable."

  Conversation rose from the crowd. He heard someone exclaim, "It can't be!"

  "If it couldn't be, Robotnik wouldn't be leading his army towards it. They're going launch an airship to get inside, or land, on it, and then infiltrate. Guys, Robotnik is renowned for his intelligence and tactical skill. He wouldn't go after legends if there wasn't some evidence." He paused. "This means that the Chaos Emeralds exist.

  "The power being produced by the Emeralds is that which is keeping this UFO floating, and Robotnik intends to take this power and wield it."

  "What for?" He recognised the voice now. Sally Acorn. Full of energy, but with an enthusiasm that he suspected would be the end of her if she didn't learn how to control it. The holoscreen flickered again as the image changed. On screen, bordered by measurements and figures, was meshed a new sphere-shaped object, but not a planet. On the front were features, a small, egg-like nose sat wedged atop some beady eyes and atop of pair of a curved moustache. The face of Eggman – the nickname of whom it belong to, Dr. Robotnik – was a symbol of dread, and the gasps proved that.

   "A weapon." Sonic replied, trying to stay cool. "Something greater than we've ever anticipated. The Death Egg. We don't know a lot, only what it looks like, but there's clear evidence of some kind of laser weapon here… here… and if we change the image" the image switched to a side view "here. This is big, it's bigger than our moon, that's for sure. And if what it can fire is a laser, it can destroy Mobius with one single blast. But we don't think this is what it's for. Why would Robotnik destroy his own empire, unless there's some kind of level of insanity he hasn't yet reached – which I doubt.

  "We…" this was the first time Sonic had hesitated during his speech. Everyone seemed to notice it, and the atmosphere in the room turned to worry. "We must have found some kind of blueprints disk. There are things on here which will… shock you." Another anticipation. He would have been shocked about how unsteady he was, had this been a different situation. "We have found out what has… what's happened to our missing numbers."

  A few members of the Rebellion started talking to them. Friends and family had gone missing. Sonic wished they weren't here to see this.

  "Are they slaves?"

  "Are they still alive?"

  "I heard they clean the robots."

  "No," said Sonic. "No… It's… you'll see."

  The image didn't load fully before the interference caused it to dance and shift awkwardly. It lasted for a moment, then, when it was over, the image could be seen in an almost too clear manner.

  It was the cross section of a swat-bot, but its inside weren't that of machinery. It was a rabbit. Wires criss-crossed around it, plugged into it, like blood vessels. The rabbit's eyes were completely glazed over, as if it was dead.

  Sonic didn't make eye contact with his audience. He couldn't. He didn't want to face their faces of shock, horror and disgust. But he had to keep his speech going. Not lifting his eyes off his notes, he read them out almost as fast as he would run.

  "As this image shows, our former comrades are being used in Robotnik's army. According to notes found on the disk, the animal is gassed into a coma-like state, and this armour is built around it. They're plugged into the armour and motherboard, so that they loose all of their free will. If the armour gets punctured in any way, the motherboard kills the animal. This image is dated five years ago, but we can't be too sure how long Robotnik has been using this technology. That is all."

  With that Sonic left his pedestal and hastily left the hall with his head low. He didn't want to see the faces of the crowd. He didn't have to. He could sense them watching him, staring at him, each with so many questions, questions Sonic didn't want to answer. He knew fine well that most animals joined the resistance because someone close to them disappeared. He was no different. He could still feel the glare of the crowd boring into the back of his head. Slowly his walk turned into a march, and then a jog, and soon he was sprinting out of the hall.

 The doors slammed shut. Everyone was confused; it was not like Sonic to act like this. For many the news was still sinking in. One by one, the crowd got up and left of their own accord. Not many slept easily that night.