FicWad

"Kaitlyn, are you in here?"
Kaitlyn jumped in her seat and shoved the object she was examining into her desk drawer, then stood and move away from the desk and to the door. But when she opened it Kaitlyn realised that is was only Griff, and relaxed.

"Hi, Griff. How are you?" she asked casually.

"Good, thanks. I didn’t get you at a bad time, did I?" Griff questioned.

"No, not at all. I was just... cleaning up a bit," she explained, voice somewhat trailing off as she noticed Bunnie standing next to the goat. The familiar feeling of self-consciousness overwhelmed Bunnie as the fox‘s vision trailed down to her legs, a look of stunned awe on her face.

"Ah, okay then. Well this is Bunnie, you’ve met her already," Griff said, snapping Kaitlyn out of her trance and relieving Bunnie of her discomfort.

"Howdy," she greeted, giving Kaitlyn a slight wave.

"Hi, I’m Kaitlyn," Kaitlyn returned, taking a hold of Bunnie’s real hand and shaking it. "Did you two want to come in?"

"Yes, please. I actually need your help with something if that’s all right," Griff explained. Kaitlyn stepped away from the door and allowed Griff to walk in, the goat making his way into the main room of Kaitlyn’s apartment, then followed Bunnie as she walked in and closed the door behind herself.

As she followed Griff Bunnie was surprised to see that Kaitlyn’s apartment was built with the usual rooms of a house, like a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen along with a main room, but there were not any walls separating the rooms. Bunnie also noticed that on some of the shelves that donned the main walls that formed the apartment there was various picture frames complete with photographs, but none of them were of Kaitlyn or anyone that resembled her family save for two.

Kaitlyn saw that Bunnie was looking at the photos and ran over to the shelves, pushing the frames facedown as soon as she reached them.

"It’s all right, Kaitlyn. You don’t have to hide your things from Bunnie, she’s from the Surface," Griff reassured. Kaitlyn faced the cyborb rabbit and looked her over, again focusing on her legs, then carefully stood the frames up.

"What did you need my help with, again?" Kaitlyn asked as she walked over to Griff and sat down, offering a chair to Bunnie and watching her sit.

"It’s actually two things, I hope you don’t mind. First, do you think you could take a look at Bunnie’s arm? She can’t seem to move it, and I’m not sure what’s wrong exactly," Griff clarified.

"I can do that, no problem. I’ll just get my tools--" Kaitlyn went to stand, but Griff raised a hoofed hand for her to wait.

"Just one more thing before you do go. We also need your help to get Bunnie out of here without anyone seeing her. You see she needs to get back home as soon as she can, apparently we’ve been digging under her village.

" Kaitlyn covered her mouth in shock. "Oh no, are you sure?" she breathed.

"Pretty shure, sugah. ‘nd th’t is why Ah need mah arm fixed, mah friends might need mah help to clean up any damage," Bunnie explained. Kaitlyn began rubbing the back of her neck in thought, lips pursed.

"That’s bad, hopefully we can..."

The door suddenly burst open, making Kaitlyn jump from her seat. She stood behind Griff as a lizard stepped up to the door and looked around the room.

"Kaitlyn, is Griff in here still? I saw him walk in and knew that you might be showing him more junk," the lizard commented, a small grin stretching through his scaled lips.

"Kevin, I really don’t want to warn you again about that," Griff scowled, walking over to the lizard. Kevin smirked, mischief playing on his lips.

"She knows I’m only mucking around, don’t you, ‘lyn?"

Kaitlyn just looked away, wringing her tail in her hands. Bunnie watched the fox do this unusual habit, noting how intimidated she appeared.

"What did you want, Kevin?" Griff questioned.

"One of the pipes in the tunnel is leaking again, it’s only a little bit but still just thought I’d let you know," Kevin informed. Griff groaned to himself, and began rubbing at his eyes in a stressed manner.

"Not again. Thanks, Kev. I’ll take a look at it now before too much gas gets out," he said.

"We also need Kaitlyn’s help," the lizard added, although his tone of voice sounded reluctant to admit the idea. "One of the digging machines’ gears are jammed up, and the mechanic can’t get to it."

At this Griff cringed. Now he would not be able to work out a plan with Kaitlyn, and Kaitlyn would not have a chance to help Bunnie with her arm. He gave Bunnie an apologetic look, receiving a reassuring glance from the cyborg rabbit, then spoke.

"All right. Kaitlyn, Bunnie. Let’s go."


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As the last Rat-Bot landed on the ground the first leader had just finished scanning the tunnel they had reached. Thanks to their sturdy claws and flexible bodies climbing down a vertical drop was made easy for the robots, and the descent only took them about five to ten minutes.
According to the leader’s scan results the tunnel stretched at least ten to twelve kilometres from their current position, as far as they could tell due to their scanners' limited range. To their right was another system of connecting tunnels that led further down, while to their left at the very end of the tunnel was a large gap of empty space filled with various heat sources.

Unable to determine what type of heat sources, the leading Rat-Bot decided that perhaps it would be best to explore the tunnels on their right, as according to their scanners those tunnels were empty. And if their face-less Master was able to get that robotic dog they had encountered before to follow them here, it would surely get lost in the labyrinth.

Finding the deduction logical in all sense, the leader began making its way to the right, the others following closely.

Fifteen minutes later Sonic jumped the last five feet to the ground, landing with a quiet grunt. Brushing off the dirt from his hands he looked up in time for a shower of dirt to spray right into his face. Suppressing a growl Sonic shook the dirt out of his eyes, sneezing out whatever got into his nose.

"Sorry, Sonic. My fault," Rotor called down shyly.

"No, it’s fine, Rote’," Sonic assured as he rubbed at his eyes, again sneezing. "Can you see your way down all right?"

There was silence for a moment, then: "No, it’s too dark."

"Toss me your flashlight, I’ll help you down," Sonic offered. His ears twitched at the sound of Rotor going through his tool belt, then a disk of light appeared as the walrus flicked on the switch.

"Here it comes," Rotor informed, then tossed the flashlight down. Sonic caught it, almost hitting the wall in his effort, then shone the light onto Rotor. A few minutes later the walrus was safely on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Are you all right?" Sonic asked. Rotor nodded.

"Just not used to climbing. Better check on Tails," he said, before fishing out a bottle of water from his backpack. Sonic shone the light up again, and found Tails at least ten feet off the ground. He was descending at a slow pace, carefully weaving his way through the metal rafters that had fallen into the hole. Muttski kept dead still in the fox kit’s grip, not daring to move in case it caused Tails to drop him.

"Doing great, Tails. Need any help with Muttski?" Sonic questioned.

"No thanks. I’m okay," Tails responded, although Muttski gave a worried whine and a pitiful glance at his master. Sonic could not help but smirk.

"Guess Muttski isn’t used to climbing either," he remarked. When Tails was low enough Sonic stretched out his arms and took Muttski, placing him on the ground as Tails landed.

"You know, these tunnels sit directly under our emergency tunnels back home," Rotor informed, gazing up to the roof of the tunnel. "And these look like they’ve been dug by some sort of machine, the walls are too smooth and large to have been dug by an animal."

"They’re a little too deep to belong to Robotropolis, so ‘Buttnik didn’t dig them," Sonic said. He shone the flashlight around the wall and the ground, and as he did a flash of silver shone in the light. Sonic focussed onto the source of the shine, then cocked his head to one side with surprise, as the source was a silver pipe embedded into the tunnel’s wall.

"Hey, check this out," Sonic called while he walked over to the pipe. Rotor and Tails followed the hedgehog, Muttski wandering off a short way away as he sniffed along the ground, and were also surprised when they took a closer look.

"They look like gas pipes to me," Rotor stated, then gave the pipe a tap with his fingers, listening to the hollowed echo that resulted.

Sonic held an ear to the pipe. "Yeah, I can hear the gas going through. But why would there be pipes so deep underground?"

"Maybe there’s a bank of natural gas around here somewhere. We keep our gas pipes pretty deep in the ground, too," Rotor guessed.

"Sonic, the pipe continues down the tunnel," Tails pointed out. "Maybe we can follow it."

The hedgehog shook his head. "Nah, maybe some other time, bro. We came down here to find Bunnie, not check gas pipes," he reasoned. All at once Tails looked disappointed, but nodded in agreement.

"You’re right, I suppose."

"Cool. When we do find Bunnie we’ll come back here and look around," Sonic promised to the kit. "Now let’s get climbing."

But as the trio headed back to the opening in the tunnel they came through Muttski charged over to Sonic and took a hold of the cuff of his glove with his mouth, yanking Sonic back.

"Whoa, Muttski. What’s your problem?" Sonic demanded as he attempted to yank his glove out of the dog’s mouth. Muttski continued to pull Sonic back until they were a few metres away from the opening, where on the ground was a small pool of blood. Sonic’s eyes widened at the sight, and he dropped to one knee to examine the blood.

"This is fairly fresh," Sonic muttered.

"Fairly fresh?" Tails questioned. Sonic pointed to the edges of the pool of blood, showing that they were dry and a rusted colour, but the centre was still wet. Sonic sniffed, Bunnie’s familiar scent mixed with the coppery smell of the blood reaching his nose.

"You know what? I bet it is Bunnie’s," Sonic proclaimed. "Isn’t it, boy?"

In response Muttski gave a loud bark, and his tail began wagging with anticipation. Sonic stood and pointed the flashlight down the tunnel.

"Well, looks like we get to follow the pipes after all, Tails. Muttski, lead the way."


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Finally, after hours of programming, cutting wires, running up and down stairs to get to different branches of the station, and pulling rocks out of keyboards, the network command centre was up and running with its own power.
Robotnik stood and basked in the multiple glows of the computer monitors and fluorescent lights, feeling like a god. He watched as his computers fell back into their programmed routine, showing feeds from hundreds of cameras around the city and environment stats. Even though all the feeds showed nothing but destruction and chaos, Robotnik felt in control once again.

"Snively, report," he rumbled. The tiny Overlander slipped over to a much more advanced computer, glad to be able to use a computer that would now be able to keep up with him, and began calling up numerous windows and programs.

"Power has returned to approximately twenty percent of the city, including half of the Doomsday Device’s sight. Remote command points have been cleared from all interferences and able to send commands to the surviving SWATbots."

"Excellent," Robotnik purred, drumming his fingers in a slow motion. "Are you able to track the Rat-Pack? I suspect the Freedom Fighters may have attempted to sneak in here while we were... vulnerable."

Snively punched in more commands, using the network system to access the programs from the old computer he had been using before. Once the Rat-Bots’ tracking program was executed Snively noted with disbelief that the robots were deep underground.

"Well?"

"Sir, the Rat-Bots appear to be underground," Snively informed, turning in his chair slightly. If the statement surprised Robotnik he did not show it, but instead he bent over his nephew and glared at the computer screen to see for himself. Eventually his bloated lips slivered into a pursed position.

"Sent a small squadron of SWATbots to their location. Perhaps they have found a Freedom Fighter hiding there, and may require assistance with their capture," he ordered after a moment of thought.

"Yes, Sir," Snively confirmed, already punching in commands.

Around the city all the still functioning SWATbots suddenly stopped and stood stock-still as a new message weaved through their receivers. Then simultaneously they began making their way towards the Western Regions, heavy footsteps echoing through the empty streets.


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Bunnie gawked at the massive steel door that blocked the main exit to Lower Mobius. It was at least six feet high, and Griff had mentioned that it was two feet thick. Experimentally Bunnie rapped her knuckles on the door, listening to the sound echo through the thick steel.
From behind her Griff pulled out what appeared to be a pen, but when he pressed a button on the pen’s surface the security lock on the door beeped, and the jaws of the door began to slide open at a fast rate, squeaking slightly as they slid into their sheathes.

"These are our security doors. They were installed when my grandfather built Lower Mobius, just in case the Overlanders managed to find the tunnels. We also use them as floodgates during the rainy season; you’ll be surprised at how much water does get in here. We have another two further down this tunnel," Griff explained to Bunnie as he led her outside into the main tunnel.

"You’ll be staying with Kaitlyn while Kevin and I work on the pipes. That way the two of you can think up a plan to get you home, and Kaitlyn can work on your arm if she has time," he added.

Bunnie nodded. "Sounds fair ta meh, sugah. By th' way, where is Kaitlyn?"

"She’s with Kevin getting a hover car." Griff cocked his head, an ear perking up slightly. "Here they come now."

Like Griff said the two Mobians drove up to them in a small yellow hover car. The engine was quite noisy unlike the hoverunits found in Robotropolis, and the vehicle looked like it had taken on a bit of damage over the years, judging by its chipped paintwork and dented exterior. Kaitlyn jumped out of the car while Kevin scooted over in her place, allowing Griff to climb into the driver’s seat.

"We’ll be back as soon as we can. Kaitlyn, look after Bunnie," Griff said. Kaitlyn gave a short salute.

"Will do, Griff," she called as Griff took off down the tunnel, exhaust and flame trailing after the little hover car. She then began walking down the tunnel, then turned to her left and seemingly disappeared into the wall. Bunnie blinked, not knowing what had just happened.

"Kaitlyn?" she yelled. She was relieved when the fox poked her head out, although she was doing it through the wall.

"Sorry, follow me," she said in a sheepish voice. Bunnie hesitated for a moment, then carefully made her way to where Kaitlyn’s head was. Once there Bunnie realised that the fox had not disappeared into the wall, because there was no wall to disappear into. Further exploration showed Bunnie that another tunnel had been dug into the side.

"Come on, this way," Kaitlyn urged as she began walking down the new tunnel. Bunnie ran up to the fox, keeping close as the passageway began to grow darker.

"Where’re we goin’?" Bunnie asked.

"This is where we keep our digging machine. We have two, the other one is in the northern branch and is a bit smaller. I use this one really late at night whenever I want to go to the Surface, because it has a drill that can stretch right up into the ceiling. We’re only meant to use that to drill air holes and such, but I discovered by accident that it could pierce all the way through," Kaitlyn explained.

"’nd... how far down does this tunn’l go?" Bunnie began fanning her hand in front of her face, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. She felt fine while in the colony, but that was because there was plenty of light and space there. In this subway it was pitch black, and she could not see how big the space was or if the walls were starting to get smaller or not.

"We’re almost there. Here, I’ll hold your hand so you don’t bump into anything," Kaitlyn suggested. A moment later Bunnie felt Kaitlyn’s hand slip itself into her own, and gave it a tight squeeze.

"Hey, Bunnie. Can I ask you something?" Kaitlyn asked shyly.

"Shure, sugah," Bunnie confirmed. Kaitlyn stayed silent for a few heartbeats, Bunnie’s keen hearing picking up the fine sound of the fox’s lips separating and pressing back together as she tried to form the words. Then:

"Your legs, did they used to be real?"

Bunnie stopped in her tracks. So quickly she had stopped that Kaitlyn was not prepared, and she bumped into Bunnie from the recoil.

"W--why do ya wanna know th’t?" Bunnie breathed at a length.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just wondering because..." Kaitlyn’s voice trailed off. "I’ll show you in a minute."

They began walking again. Bunnie felt her heart grown heavy with the anticipation of telling the story behind her robotized limbs. No matter how many times she told the story Bunnie could never come to terms with the horrific experience. Ever since she fell victim to the Robotizer all those years ago there had not been a night where she prayed for a way to get her body back, nor a day where she cursed herself for existing in such a state. Covering her angst had become an art from to the rabbit, to the point where she was sure none of her friends knew that she was still suffering.

She thought about what Griff had said earlier, feeling somewhat better. Although she realised just now that he did not react to her robotized limbs like other strangers she met did – in shock or horror or even fear – but he seemed to overlook them, like as if he did not even notice them until she had pointed them out to him. Bunnie found that quite odd; the goat did not even ask about them or resist touching her arm when he examined it. And now Kaitlyn was asking about them, but not with the morbid tone she was so used to, but with genuine awe, perhaps even hope.

"Here we are," Kaitlyn suddenly announced, startling Bunnie out of her thoughts. The rabbit looked around, realising that the room they were now in had light. She gave a relieved sigh and linked to get her eyes to adjust, feeling the anxiety from both being in a dark space for so long and the shock of the fox’s question melt away.

"Finall’," she commented, then released Kaitlyn’s hand and watched her walk further into the cavern. As she did Bunnie noticed the large machine that sat in the middle of the room. The machine appeared ancient, the once silver hull now a dirty shade of grey with patches of light rust and muck, and in front of it was a massive drill, the tip somewhat dulled down due to constant usage. At the top Bunnie saw the little drill Kaitlyn had mentioned before, it too somewhat dulled down by constant usage.

"Hello, anyone here?" Kaitlyn yelled, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"Over here, Kaitlyn," a new voice answered, and a second later a male black mole appeared from behind the machine. He wore a pair of overalls similar to Kaitlyn’s, although the knees appeared to have been patched up multiple times with different coloured materials, and had a thick tool belt around his waist. The mole was somewhat podgy, but moved with great ease as he made his way around the machine.

"Glad you could make it, this jalopy is giving me heck," the mole remarked.

"You know I’m always happy to help out, Bradley," Kaitlyn commented, smiling brightly at the mole.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," Bradley said. Then he noticed Bunnie standing behind the fox. "Hello, who are you?"

Before Bunnie could open her mouth Kaitlyn butted in, placing a hand on the rabbit’s shoulder to let her know that she would do all the talking for her, at least for now.

"This is Bunnie, she’s... she’s from the Southern Branch. She came down here to get some help with her arm," the fox explained, pointing to Bunnie’s arm in the sling. Bradley took a closer look at Bunnie’s arm, eyebrows raised in a surprised manner.

"I didn’t know there were other Mobians here with artificial limbs. Did you want me to take a look for you, miss?" Bradley offered. Bunnie’s ears cocked back quizzically, wondering how many Mobians could possibly have artificial limbs.

"Oh, that’ll be great. I was going to but then Kevin told me that you needed help, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to now," Kaitlyn exclaimed.

"All right. First I’ll show you where the problem is, and then I’ll see what I can do," the mole said, smirking.


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"Anyone else feeling claustrophobic?" Sonic question. "’cause I’m starting to. How long have we been walking for?"
Rotor shone his flashlight onto his watch, squinting at the numbers. "About twenty minutes I think," he reported, before wiping away the sweat that was dripping over his eyes.

Beside him Tails landed heavily, panting. He had been flying for the whole trip through the tunnel, mostly out of habit and more so to keep up with Sonic, as he had set a fast pace once again.

"It feels like forever, I don’t think this tunnel ends," he moaned in between pants. He began dragging his feet, allowing his tired out tails to lug behind him.

"Well I can’t see any more blood, but Muttski’s still following something," Sonic remarked as he shone his own flashlight onto Muttski, whom was walking a little ahead of him. "Will you be all right?"

In response Tails pressed a paw to his head, running a fingertip over the cut that ran across his forehead. "I feel kinda dizzy, and tired," he explained. Sonic redirected his flashlight to look at Tails, noting how rundown he now appeared.

"Hang on a sec." Sonic stopped walking and bent down to the fox’s height, scooping him up into his arms. As soon as his head touched Sonic’s shoulder Tails gave a relieved sigh, falling somewhat limp against Sonic. Sonic heave a lament sigh, the sound mixing itself with a tired growl, then he petted Tails’ head.

"Sorry, bro. Guess this was a waste of time for us," he murmured.

"It’s okay, at least we know Bunnie’s not here," the fox murmured back, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. Guilt flushed through Sonic’s heart, making it grow heavy with defeat and remorse for himself.

"I pushed him too hard. I should have taken him home ages ago," Sonic muttered in a flat voice.

"Don’t be so hard on yourself, Sonic. Tails would have wanted to stay with us even if It did take all night, you know that," Rotor pointed out. Sonic flattened his ears, allowing his shoulders to slacken.

"At this rate it probably will. Tails should be back home in his bed safe; we all should be."

His voice trailed off, and seemed to land into a pit of sadness that engulfed the hedgehog. Like before when he was angry Sonic’s whole body reflected the feeling he was now in, from lowered eyes to dragged feet, which surprised Rotor. It was always hard to bring the hedgehog down, as he had a knack for always finding the bright side, but now it appeared that all Sonic could see was pitch black.

Then Sonic stopped dead in his tracks, keeping his head down and falling behind Rotor and Muttski.

"Let’s head back, I shouldn’t have dragged you two down here like this," he stated, voice low and lifeless, before he turned on his heels and began walking back the way they came.

"We can’t stop now, what if we’re almost at the end?" Rotor questioned.

"How can we be? There’s no light coming from anywhere, that would have told us we were near the end," Sonic said. "We’re just wasting our time, it was a stupid idea to come here." Rotor stared blank-eyed at his friend, not believing what he was saying. Even Muttski was staring.

"Well... I’m not going to stop. We found Bunnie’s blood, so that means she was here at one stage. And Muttski’s still trailing something, maybe Bunnie got up and is still wandering around," Rotor protested.

"I doubt it. I could smell Bunnie’s scent back there, but it’s long gone now. So we’re leaving, now," Sonic sneered.

"You’ve could have just lost it. If we leave now only to find out later that Bunnie was down here you’ll be kicking yourself."

Sonic stopped walking and faced Rotor, a dangerous glare on his face. "Right now I’m kicking myself for coming down here and wasting the time we could have used to look around Robotropolis. Now let’s go before I really get ticked off and drag you out by the nose."

As he said that Sonic tensed his fingers, his long black claws unsheathing themselves. Rotor backed away half a millimetre at the sight, knowing well what damage they could do. But then he gritted his teeth and stood firm.

"Then drag me out by the nose, because I’m not leaving," he remarked. Sonic’s eyes widened at the remark, but then they slowly narrowed, his slit pupils dilating as his anger rose.

"Fine," he uttered, voice mixing into a savage growl. But before he could make his move Muttski began to bark madly, distracting both the hedgehog and the walrus. Sonic relaxed his body and stepped up to his dog, grabbing his collar when he realised that he was about to run off.

At his shoulder Tails stirred and began pawing at his eyes, woken up by the dog’s loud barking.

"What’s going on?" he asked around a yawn. Sonic set Tails down, keeping him steady as he woke up a little more.

"I think Muttski heard something," Sonic explained shortly. When the dog’s barking increased in volume Sonic knew that he had guessed right. So he released Muttski’s collar, allowing Muttski to run.

"Why did you do that for?" Rotor exclaimed, shocked by what Sonic had just done.

"Letting Muttski prove to me that this wasn’t a waste of time. Come on," Sonic answered, before revving up his legs and taking off after Muttski.