FicWad

Changes Are No Good
By: Chibi
Chapter 7: "Product of War and Fear"

*

The guest bedroom was dark, save a sliver of light from the barely-open door. Shadow peered in at his sleeping son and smiled. "Never fails," he muttered to himself. "Play with a kid long enough and they're ready to take a nap."

"Honey," Amy said from down the hall, "They're waiting for you."

"I'll be right there," the dark hedgehog replied. "Sorry, Maury, but you're just not ready for something on this scale yet. Just let me protect you one more time..."

*

At a location in Central City, away from GUN HQ, Saffron was fussing over the commander one last time. "You're sure you have everything ready? And fasten this all the way,"-(she did the top closure on his jacket)-"you should at least try to look professional about this, sir."

Sonic backed away and waved a hand at her. "Yeah, I'm sure, Saff. I've got everything under control," he said. "Now I gotta get out there. Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it." He then walked out into view of the press.

The hare smirked and pushed up her glasses, causing them to flash. "Indeed you will, sir." "Got everything under control," do you? Hardly, she thought.

Dr. Prower approached her with a file folder. "I have the 'information' you wanted," he said. "You sure you wanna go through with this plan? It's pretty risky."

"He's still got a conscience in there somewhere. I saw it after he left that mess in his office," Saffron replied. "And if it doesn't work, there's plan B."

"Plan B?" Miles echoed with a frown. "What's plan B?"

She turned to him and said grimly, "You don't want to know. One way or another, this ends today."

*

"... but now that we know where the threat is coming from, it's all a matter of following the paper trail back to St. Jimmy," Sonic answered from the podium.

The press, however, was not satisfied with this answer:

"But Cmdr. O'Reily-"

"-why did it take this long-"

"-address the rumors surrounding the possible identity of-"

A voice shouted, "Sir!" over the din, followed by Sonic's second-in-command approaching the podium. The hare stopped a foot away and saluted. "Sir! We've just received important news regarding the St. Jimmy attacks!"

The hedgehog nearly fell off the raised stand behind the podium in shock. "We've got WHAT?!" he exclaimed.

Saffron nodded. "It appears from the evidence that St. Jimmy is-"

The commander cut her off. "Saffron, backstage! Now!" For emphasis, he hopped off the platform and pushed her about halfway there. He then returned to the podium. "Er, this might take a while. You may as well go home." He was about to leave it again when a thought struck. He leaned into the microphone, grinned evilly, and said, "Oh, and by the way, I like cock. Discuss." He hopped back down and went to meet his subordinate without another word.

"Cmdr. O'Reily, wait!"

"One more question!"

"This is a surprise?"

*

Out of public eye, Saffron greeted him with, "Was that really necessary, sir? You may have been in the closet, but the door was wide open."

"Are you kidding? I've been dying to end a press conference like that for years," Sonic answered. He ran a hand through his quills, a few coming out with the pass, then crossed his arms. "Now what's going on, Saff?"

The hare patted a file folder with the back of her hand and replied, "The evidence points to only one person, sir. Think about it. It was someone on the inside. The robots had to be remotely controlled, because no one inside was off-duty consistently with the attacks. Captain Horrocks is Signal Ops. Communications. No one would notice if he had something else going on. His ID was used by Jet al-Rashid, who was going to do God-knows-what to you or our computer systems, in the recent intrusion and was found on the hawk's body. He deliberately interfered with the arrest of General Gordon Ansem, from your report, and very likely took him with him. Whether it was as a captive or co-conspirator, however, is currently up for debate."

"B-but the robots themselves! Where did he come up with a mech design?" the hedgehog stammered. "And what's his motivation?"

"Things get lost in the shuffle," Saffron answered, "Perhaps he stole one. As for motivation... Who knows? Yet another tale from another broken home?" She shrugged. "But motive isn't what's important, it's evidence."

The commander flung a hand out to his side in a wide arc. "Motive isn't important?! Motive isn't important?! But... er..." He stopped to think for a split second. "But the people are gonna wanna know why the hell someone wanted to blow the hell outta GUN!"

"You can tell the people we fully intend to get the answer for that after he's been captured and interrogated," Saffron said briskly.

Sonic gaped. "You... You didn't..."

"They were looking for him under your orders anyway, sir," she told him. "A few of our soldiers ran across E-123 Omega under her civilian guise, Megan Thorn, in the search. She was less than happy about the intrusion. There were a lot of obliteration threats and cursing of Isaac Asimov, from what I heard."

"But Horrocks isn't St. Jimmy!" Sonic protested. "Sure, he interfered with Ansem's arrest, but he was just doing what he thought was right! Shit like that's why I wanted him on my staff! He's a good man!"

The hare folded an arm under her chest, lowered her glasses with the other, and peered at him over the top of her glasses. "If you're so convinced Horrocks isn't the terrorist, then who do you think St. Jimmy is, sir?"

The hedgehog took a step back. "Well, y'see... um..."

Saffron leaned in towards him. "Yes, sir?"

And suddenly, it hit the commander like a giant cartoon anvil. The worry subsided and turned into a weak laugh. "Ahaha... You know. You know!" His laughter crescendoed until it was too much for him and caused him to cough. He got out between coughs, "Dammit, how did the doc do that...?"

With a soft sound, the hare's sidearm was drawn and pointed at the hedgehog. "Of course I know. You think you can keep something like this under wraps from an old intelligence officer for long?" she said. "If my childhood hero hadn't been so insistent on giving you a chance to turn back, I would have had you arrested or shot at the first convenient opportunity."

"Your childhood hero?" Sonic repeated, still coughing a little.

"The man who orchestrated the fall of the Black Arms," Saffron said, "Dr. Ivo Robotnik."

The hedgehog sneered. "Yeah, and he got his hands dirty for the greater good too."

"What 'greater good' could come about from killing long-retired veterans, people who have faith in their leader, and innocents that got in the way?" Saffron shot back, gun holding steady. "This is about vengeance, pure and simple!"

Sonic opened his mouth to protest, but the denial wouldn't come out. The only things he could do was droop and reply quietly, "You don't know anything."

Saffron lightly shook her head, eyes never leaving him. "You really are playing up the 'patron saint of the denial' part, aren't you?"

"I'm an all-or-nothing type," he said with a shrug. "So, what're you gonna do now, Saff? Shoot me? I'm kinda hopin' you will. But it doesn't matter in the end, you know? Everything's already been set in motion. Soon GUN will cease to exist as you know it and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"You're a long ways from the Eclipse Cannon controls, sir," the hare said stiffly, "and I called for an evacuation of the premises until this is resolved while you were with the press." She smiled. "I must thank you for leaving that notebook, sir. It's been most helpful."

The hedgehog shook his head. "You just don't get it, do you?" He then grinned back at her. "Oh, and good luck evacuating people who can't move, by the way. Those canisters of Black Arms gas must be just about empty by now." The hare gasped. Sonic continued to grin. "Oh, c'mon, Saff, you honestly expected me to spell out every detail of my plan in something I had just lying out on my desk? I've read the Evil Overlord List. Tails and I used to make fun of the doc for not reading it, for crying out loud!"

Saffron's finger twitched on the trigger. "You...!"

Sonic closed his eyes. "That's right, shoot me now, Saff," he said. "If you don't, I'll keep trying to tear the damned organization down." He balled up his fists. "Prove to me GUN is worth saving, Saffron. You've already found the bad guy and have him where you want him. Finish what you started."

Saffron tried to steady her hand with limited success. "Yes, sir," she said as she started to squeeze the trigger...

"Hey, I found the danishes you mentioned! They were-" Dr. Prower said, carrying a paper plate loaded with pastries towards the pair. Before he knew it, a gunshot went high into the wall, then something blue, gray, and fast brushed past him and stole a danish from the plate. "Wha...?!"

The hare chased the blur past the fox, accidentally knocking the plate out of his hands, and fired a pair of shots at the retreating figure. "Bollocks!" she shouted at her apparent misses. She pulled out a cell phone and quickly dialed a number, growling something like "cut him off at the pass".

The fox's shock began to wear off as he finally understood what had just happened. "You didn't..." he began. "You... You..."

Saffron waved a hand at him and spoke on the phone. "Ms. Wayneright? This is 'Whatsername'. I need to be put through to the doc-what? He isn't there? I see, good..."

Miles would not be shushed that easily. "You confronted him without me?! After you bitched at me about not going it alone?! And now he's-"

The hare held a hand over his mouth. "Not now, Dr. Prower. Right now, we have other things to worry about." She turned her attention back to the phone. "I'll need assistance with an evacuation, Ms. Wayneright. The commander has-what?! He saw something like this happening? Good, deploy them immediately!"

Miles pried her hand off his mouth. "I will not be silenced! What the hell were you thinking?!"

Saffron said her goodbyes to the secretary on the other end and hung up. She looked him in the eye and said, "I was thinking you were too close to him. I couldn't predict how you'd react in the situation. Now if you'll excuse me..." She then started dialing a different number on the phone.

The fox scowled. "You were worried I'd side with him, weren't you? If I was gonna do that, I would've ratted you out after you came to me!"

Saffron stopped and sighed heavily. "I'll admit that was one worry. But..." She looked up at him. "As you have probably guessed, if he wouldn't come in peacefully, I was going to kill him. Worst case, you'd do something foolish to protect him. Best case... It's not something someone should see happen to family. Now again, if you'll excuse me, I have to see what support I can come up with on short notice. Other than that, it's in Dr. Robotnik's hands now." She laughed softly. "Unless, of course, you can remotely ensure the Eclipse Cannon won't fire."

Miles grinned and rubbed under his nose with a finger. "Ha! Just give me a wifi connection and..." The smile began to fade. "And... Uh-oh."

The hare's ears twitched. She leaned in almost nose-to-nose with him and asked, "'Uh-oh'? 'Uh-oh' what, Dr. Prower?"

The engineer tugged on his goggles and nervously laughed. "It's a funny story, really..."

*

Space. The final frontier, or so they say. There hung the Space Colony ARK, the home of the infamous Eclipse Cannon, in its unending orbit around the planet. Many have tried to use its power for their own selfish purposes. Today was no exception.

The control center stood where it always stood, at the end of a railingless catwalk perilously placed over what looked like a never-ending pit. Four Chaos Emeralds were already in place in the cylinder behind the computers. A blue, gray-clad figure appeared with a flash of light and propped himself up in the doorway opposite the controls. He put away a yellow emerald and gently touched where one of his subordinate's bullets had grazed him. He hissed and mumbled, "Not bad. Thank God she's no Tails, though." He pulled what looked like an ordinary hand-held game console and powered it up. He removed the stylus from the machine and set about his work...

Meanwhile, at the other end of the catwalk, Dr. Robotnik was steaming at the mangled control panel. "What in the nine hells did that blasted rodent do to this?!" he asked loudly.

His companion, Knuckles, tugged at the doctor's coat. "Er, Eggman?" he said quietly, pointing out to the door.

Ivo sighed as he assessed the damage. "You should know by now I left that name in the past. Call me Ivo, or 'doctor', or-"

"Doctor, then. You have to-" the echidna began again.

"And can't it wait? I'm busy-" the doctor began. He stopped abruptly and took a step back as the machine seemingly turned itself on. It hummed softly as it warmed up. "How...?!"

"Maybe we can ask him," Knuckles said flatly, pointing at the uniformed hedgehog in the doorway. He squinted at the commander. "Hey, is that a...?"

*

Saffron grabbed the fox by the jacket and shook him. "You did WHAT to that ancient piece of junk the commander's always playing with?! Why was I not informed about this?!"

"I don't know! It was supposed to be used in case another planet-raping comet came around or to shut the cannon off in case some more psychos tried to use the Eclipse Cannon! How was I supposed to know Sonic would be the next crackpot to take the cannon for a spin?!" Miles defended. "And the DS isn't junk! It's a classic!"

"I don't bloody care!" Saffron replied as she pushed him away. "It's in the hands of a dangerous man and the only other controls on the planet are at HQ, which, by the way, is flooded with that blasted alien gas!"

"Well, there is a counter-agent we could take," the fox countered. The lieutenant just scowled at him. "That'd solve..." More scowling. "... the problem." Even more scowling. "... it's stored at GUN HQ, isn't it?" The lieutenant nodded. "Well, that's no good."

"Quite," the hare replied.

Miles pulled his goggles down. "OK, plan B. I have a laptop in the car. Where's the nearest wifi hotspot?"

"The fast-food place down the street," Saffron answered. She let out a yelp of surprise as the engineer grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the door. "Dr. Prower?!"

"C'mon, Lieutenant, we got a cannon to stop," he said. "Let's hope we're not too late..."

*

Back on the ARK, the hedgehog calmly closed the little device and turned his attention to the other end of the catwalk. "Hey, doc-" he started coolly. His jaw hit the floor when he saw the other person by the human. "Knuckles?!" he exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Trying to stop you from doing this!" was the echidna's answer. "Sonic, what the hell are you thinking?! This is crazy!"

Sonic started towards him, but winced and stopped after the first step. He stared down at the abyss below. "I know. I know that, Red. But... The system's broken. I have to do something..."

"And blowing things up is going to fix it?!" Knuckles asked incredulously.

"The only way it's gonna change is if it's burnt to the ground and rebuilt from scratch!" Sonic replied as he swung his arms out wide, the gaming device dangling precariously over the pit by its wrist strap.

"No, it isn't!" Knuckles countered. "There has to be another way!" He slouched slightly. "You used to be good at finding them."

The hedgehog took a couple painful steps closer. "Believe me, I've tried other ways, Knuckles, but nothing's worked! Do you think I'd jump into something like this if it wasn't a last resort?" He paused for a moment. "Hell, do you think I'd even be here if I wasn't desperate? The Eclipse Cannon's too big a cliché anymore. If only I could've found that last emerald..."

"I guess Rouge's underwear drawer really was that last place you'd look," the echidna said absently.

"Rouge's...?" Sonic began. He shot the echidna a nasty look. "And just what the hell were you doing in Rouge's underwear drawer?!"

"What the hell was I doing in Rouge's underwear drawer?" Knuckles echoed. "Just what the hell was Shadow's kid doing with the emerald I gave you?!"

"Pwned," the doctor muttered under his breath as he tried to repair the controls.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes at the human as the hedgehog's jacket slipped down his shoulder. Sonic pulled it back up and turned his gaze back to the void below. "I won't ask forgiveness, 'cause I know I really, really don't deserve any."

The echidna crossed his arms and frowned. "Now listen here, Sonic, I-"

"I'm sorry, Red. I'm sorry you had to see any of this," Sonic interrupted, ignoring him. He took the device off his wrist and opened it. With a tap of a finger, a seemingly very generous countdown appeared on the control center's screens. He heard the doctor curse as he edged to one side of the walkway, toes of his shoes dangling over the brink. "I wanted to keep you out of this. I didn't want..." He closed his eyes as well as the device. He either didn't hear the approaching footsteps and a click, or ignored them. "Ha, look at me. This whole mess has turned me into some lame-ass drama queen. Just remember this, OK? I love you, and I never wanted you to get hurt by this."

He opened his eyes, looked down at the long drop, and whistled. "Doubt even I could survive that. Maybe I'll jump after the cannon fires." He turned away without looking up immediately. "Can't do it before, that's against the Evil Overlord-the hell?!"

Ivo stared down at the hedgehog, a gun pressed against the echidna's back. He spoke in a tone the hedgehog and echidna had not heard for many, many years. "The Evil Overlord List not only takes the sport out of being a supervillian," the doctor said, "it fails to factor in the hero may be less than an upstanding citizen. I believe we have a matter to discuss, hedgehog..."

*

Back on the ground in a local TastyBurger, Dr. Prower saw something on the laptop's screen and said "damn it" more times than Shadow on a bad day. The hare on the phone ignored him for the moment, another issue on her mind.

"Sgt. Sawanoguchi-hell, can I just call you Espio?-Sergeant, how's the evacuation going? Well, hurry it up! There's no telling how much time we have-"

"According to this, nine minutes and five seconds," Miles said as he typed something.

"Beg pardon?" Saffron said. She then pushed in next to him and looked at the screen. "But it won't take you that long to deactivate it, will it?"

"Providing he hasn't rigged it so it goes off way too early, yeah," the fox confirmed.

Saffron's glasses slipped down. "Evil Overlord List rule, correct? 'I will not employ the use of a countdown, but if I must, it'll activate early' or something to that effect?"

Miles nodded. "Bingo."

The hare let out a grunt of annoyance. "Shut the thing off as fast as you can, Dr. Prower," she said. She raised the phone back to her ear and ordered, "Sergeant! Redouble the evacuation efforts! We have... Yes, I know you're a cop, not a miracle worker, and yes, I appreciate the precinct's cooperation in this! Just try harder! If we're lucky, we've got all of nine minutes to go!"

"Eight and a half," the engineer corrected.

"Eight and a half, then!" the lieutenant repeated.

"If he didn't follow the Evil Overlord List again," Miles added.

Saffron grumbled. "I swear, if it's within my power, I will have that bloody list deleted from the internet!" She allowed herself a moment to fume, then went back to her work. GUN was not going down without a fight.

*

"Turn it off, Sonic," Dr. Robotnik said, "or the echidna dies." He racked the slide of the gun for emphasis. The echidna flinched, but otherwise remained steady.

The hedgehog looked up at the human, then the echidna, then back to the doctor again. "You wouldn't dare," he decided.

"Just like I wouldn't dare nearly kill him through electrocution?" Ivo asked, counting off each incident on the fingers of his free hand. "Or just like I wouldn't dare send you to your death in front of your adoptive child and would-be girlfriend? Or that I wouldn't dare put countless little animals in my robots to power them until they die, or blow up a GUN base after stealing from it in broad daylight?" He wagged a finger at the diminutive soldier. "Don't underestimate me."

Sonic swallowed hard. "More like how you wouldn't dare hurt Amy every single time you took her hostage!" he forced out. "This is obviously a set-up. You two make it look like you'll hurt Knuckles to force me to call it off. No dice, doc. I'm callin' your bluff!"

Ivo frowned and shook his head. "I'm sorry you feel that way. Is there nothing we can say to make you change your mind?"

"'Fraid not, doc," the hedgehog answered. He flashed his trademark grin, now tainted with malevolence. "Seriously, what in our history together made you think you could ever stop me?"

Ivo's frown deepened. "I suppose I have no other alternative." He looked down at his red companion and said, "I'm sincerely sorry for this, Knuckles."

Neither furry had a chance to say anything before the bullet tore through the echidna. He lurched forward and fell face-first on the platform. Sonic froze. His mouth opened and shut repeatedly, like a fish out of water desperately trying to get oxygen. "Oh my God..." the hedgehog breathed. "You..." He rushed for his fallen friend, putting his own pain out of mind. He stumbled and fell to his knees before the echidna, wincing and muttering a curse upon impact. Sonic pulled the echidna up into a half-sitting position and asked, "Red, are you OK?! Please say you're OK!"

All Knuckles could muster was a feeble groan. The hedgehog hugged him tight, causing him let out a louder "ow!"

"You'll be OK, I swear you'll be OK, you have to be OK..." Sonic rambled.

He didn't fight when the doctor successfully pulled the DS away from him. Ivo opened the device and stared at disbelief at the words on the top screen. "'Chekhov's Gun'? 'Justin Bailey'? Don't tell me, I have to input the Konami code to shut the cannon down?" He sighed. "Even I never went this unrepentantly fanboy with my passwords. Well, except for the time I used 'reindeer flotilla' when I was a teenager..."

The mechanisms behind him whined loudly, threatening to fire down on the planet below. The doctor yanked the stylus out of the DS and frantically tapped in "up, up, down, down..." on the touch screen, getting as far as the first "left" before the cannon abruptly shut down seemingly on its own with a groan. He looked at the displays, which now read "Game Over" in large letters. "What on Earth...?"

*

Dr. Miles Prower leaned far back in his seat, to the point of almost falling off, pulled his goggles off, and took a deep breath. The words "Game Over" were displayed on the laptop screen. "That was way too close..."

Saffron lowered the phone. "You... You did it?"

"Yeah, barely," the engineer confirmed with a weak smile and a thumbs-up. "I almost didn't make it, but we should be in the clear now."

"Good work, Miles!" the hare said brightly. She hugged him tightly to her for a moment, then went back to the phone. "Continue the evacuation, Sergeant. We may not be in immediate danger anymore, but we still don't know what prolonged exposure to that gas will do..."

The fox sat up straight and pouted. "What, no kiss?"

"You're a married man, Dr. Prower," Saffron replied. "What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"One that hopefully wouldn't leave me for a flaming pussy from a parallel universe," Miles muttered bitterly.

The hare looked at him and adjusted her glasses. "I beg your pardon?"

Miles waved a hand at her. "I've had a lot of personal issues going on lately; it's not important now. What's next, Lieutenant?"

Saffron told the man on the phone, "Keep working, and call me if anything unusual comes up." She gave him a call-back number and hung up. "Continue monitoring the situation, Dr. Prower," she said to the engineer. "All that's left to do right now is hope Dr. Robotnik comes through with the rest..."

*

Ivo breathed a sigh of relief and closed the DS. "That's one less thing to worry about." He turned back to see that Sonic was now missing his jacket's sleeves and that they had been turned into dressings for the echidna's wound. The hedgehog continued to fuss over his friend, hugging him again after tying the makeshift bandage in place.

The doctor pushed up a sleeve to reveal a watch-like device. He pressed a button and spoke into it. "Shadow, please come here."

The dark hedgehog's entrance was hardly flashy. The door swished open and he stepped inside. He eyed the pair on the floor. "I take it things went well?"

"Splendidly," the human replied dryly. "Listen, Shadow, Knuckles is in need of medical care. I need you to take him for me."

"What do you care about him?!" Sonic exclaimed, protectively pulling Knuckles away from the human. "You're the one who shot him!"

Shadow ignored his blue double. "I'm not leaving you alone with him," he told the doctor, spitting out the last word as if it were an insect that flew into his mouth. "He's done enough harm to my family already."

"We have things to discuss in private," Ivo explained. "Please, Shadow."

"Rouge..." Knuckles mumbled.

The black hedgehog growled. "Damn it, you just had to bring her up." He made his way to the pair before him and stooped over to collect the echidna. He whispered in Sonic's ear, "If you harm a single hair on his moustache, I will kill you, and not even Maria herself could stop me from doing it. The only reason I haven't killed you already is that my son-who wanted to come here himself, I might add-and cousin still seem to have faith in you. Are we clear?" Sonic nodded. "Good." Shadow paused, then added, "The echidna has done me no harm. I promise he will be in good hands." Sonic released his grip on Knuckles and Shadow carefully lifted the echidna up. "Doctor, if he tries anything, shoot him. Twice. Just to be sure," the dark hedgehog ordered before Chaos Controlling away with Knuckles.

The remaining hedgehog slowly rose to his feet. His white dress shirt and what was left of his jacket were stained with blood. His pants were stained as well from the wound his subordinate inflicted. He reached inside his torn jacket and looked up at the human with eyes reddened by worried tears. "I should do to you what you did to Red," he began.

The doctor gripped his own firearm. "I'm surprised you haven't done much worse already. Why did you target GUN and not me, Sonic?"

"You at least tried to fix your mistakes, doc," Sonic replied, his hand slipping down. "I always respected that."

"It was the least I could do, considering many of mine were of the world-threatening variety," Ivo said. There was silence for several moments. "There's still one more mistake I need to correct," he finally added.

"I'm not your mistake," Sonic said.

"I saw the signs, but I still couldn't manage to keep you from going the same road I went down," the doctor replied, "It is my mistake." He raised his gun one more time. The hedgehog reflexively drew his firearm as well. "I'm afraid this is the end of Sonic the Hedgehog..."

*

Later that day...

The press caught scent of the story that had unfolded far too quickly for her liking, Saffron thought. No sooner had she returned to personally check on the evacuation and set foot outside of Dr. Prower's vehicle had the press turned their attention away from a fuchsia chameleon in police blues to her. "Lt. General Saunders! Suzie Wong, Action 4 News! What do you have to say about the evacuation of GUN Headquarters this morning?" a reporter asked.

"We will be looking into how it was done as soon as it is safe to do so, but we currently know St. Jimmy had arranged it so a paralytic agent was released into the building and allowed to circulate," Saffron answered.

"How did St. Jimmy get inside to do it?"

"Simple." The hare replied. She took off her glasses and continued solemnly. "'St. Jimmy' was Cmdr. O'Reily."

If the crowd of reporters had been in an uproar before, they were in a positive frenzy now. Sonic the Hedgehog, world hero and commander of the very organization St. Jimmy was bent to destroy, was the terrorist? Horrible as it was, this was news! "Where is Cmdr. O'Reily now, Lieutenant?" Ms. Wong managed to say over the noisy crowd.

"If my source is correct, somewhere in the upper atmosphere," Saffron replied, putting her glasses back on. "I'm sorry, that's all I can give you at this time. I really must check in," she said as she pushed past the swarm. She knew it wouldn't be the last she'd see of reporters for a good, long time, but that was trivial now. Right now, she still had a job to do, and tonight, she had a date with a bottle and Halo 6. That was all that mattered.

*
End Chapter 7


Chibi's notes:

Holy crap, that sucker dragged the hell on in terms of actual writing. Anyway, a few notes:

"Cursing of Isaac Asimov": The first rule of robots is "A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

Chekhov's Gun: If there's a gun in Act 1, it must be fired in Act 2 or 3. The "gun" in question is there at the start, if you're looking...
Justin Bailey: A password for Metroid that gets you stocked up on goodies from the start
The Konami code: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start.
Reindeer Flotilla: Password from Tron. DT mentioned it. I could not leave it out.
Game Over: ... I don't really gotta explain, do I?

"Flaming pussy from another dimension": Blaze, obviously. waves tiny "Future!Cream/Blaze flag"; goes to hell

Thanks always to my co-conspirator for plot help, and THANK YOU FOR READERS.

Now hold onto your hats, there's still an epilogue to go...

Sonic et. al. are owned by Sega. I'm just borrowing them.