FicWad

"Pass me the blowtorch, Sonic."

"What's a blowtorch?"

Sally looked up at him, appalled, but Sonic was grinning. "I'm just kidding," he reassured her. "Here." He passed it across to her. Sally took it without looking at him, and stripped another metal plate off the SWATbot's hull, firing it quickly in case nearby robots heard. The forcefield helped muffle the sound quite well, but Sally didn't want to take any chances she didn't have to.

The time had passed slowly, especially for Sonic, and he had gone over the plan with his uncle a ludicrous amount of times. "M34 is our target. It's a rocket on the northern armoury platform. At 9:31, plus two seconds, you need to be at the console to fire it. Type M34, a space, fire, and press return. Did you get that, Sonic?"

"M34, space, fire, return, got it." This was familiar territory to Sonic, who had been seen a few times toying with Nicole when Sally had misplaced her.

There was little to do for Sonic except reiterate the plan and pass Sally her makeshift tools, and so he became lookout. The window of the hovercraft had been smashed inwards by an explosion in landing, but the forcefield protected them. Sonic leaned forward as far as he could without touching it, checking to make sure that no robots around them were moving.

At eight o'clock, Sir Charles receded, making for the power units that he should have been in for the past hour. He walked off south, leaving Sonic and Sally with the best plan he had.

At quarter-past-eight, the hovercraft speaker clicked on. "SWATbot army," addressed Robotnik. Sonic and Sally froze in position. "Receive the Pegasus-beta signal. You should be instructed north. Obey."

At first there was silence. Then a sudden wave thundered across the ground as every robot stepped forward in unison.

Sonic was watching when it happened: around him, the doors in the surrounding buildings all opened simultaneously - and robots poured out of them, running as one along the track. Towards Knothole.

"How can we fight this?!" Sally whispered, slightly hysterically. "We have something like two hundred people! And they don't even know what's coming!"

"Don't panic," Sonic muttered, even though the same things were going inside his mind as well.

They watched the robots, struck momentarily speechless. But Sally flew past that stage in seconds, military training forcing her to think. "Pegasus-beta," Sally muttered.

She stared ahead as the droves of robots moved on, their simultaneous footsteps shaking the ground... and then, just as Sonic slipped from his position and hit the floor, she knew what they had to do.

"I've got it," she said. "We do what we've planned - destroy the satellite."

"How will that help?" Sonic asked, picking himself up.

"I'm guessing," said Sally slowly, "that Pegasus is the name of the satellite. That means that Pegasus-beta is the autopilot system, right? The system that controls the robots. Chuck already disabled Pegasus-alpha for us... But if we get rid of Pegasus itself, then the autopilot signal stops..."

Sonic realised: "And then the bots go crazy, like the hovercraft did."

"Exactly," Sally said. "They try to follow the static. Wham. Instant victory. Now let's get this bot apart. The moment we've got the processor, we go after M34 - and Pegasus."


If the duo had known that Robotnik was listening in through the communication channel, they would have obviously kept quiet. He had signed onto it just five minutes ago, to see whether the craft and driver were operational, and heard Sonic and Sally! Although the radar was offline, and Robotnik couldn't actually determine where the craft was, he could hear the occupants speak. As they continued, oblivious, he pieced together their plan.

Nine o'clock came and went, and he left for Tails' interrogation, which went unnoticed by the fox's greatest friends. Robotnik returned, listening again.

He hadn't very much interest in Tails or Nintex - he just needed them to be out of the way. But he could see the potential in getting Sonic and Sally split up, and so he waited.

At nine-twenty, Sonic mentioned leaving. Robotnik grinned and flipped on the hovercraft's speaker remotely.

"Greetings, Sonic Hedgehog, Sally Acorn," he said.


At first, Sally thought she had misheard.

She looked to Sonic, but his face registered only shock. Then she realised, and, shaken, tried to compose herself. Thinking quickly, she said: "I'll sort this out, Sonic. Get moving, I'll pick you up when I can."

It was exactly what Robotnik had been hoping for - a split-up. Sonic grimaced, but sped out after the armoury building where M34 was waiting, and Sally was suddenly left cold and alone.

"What are you after?" she asked, searching for the microphone, so that she knew what to disable when the time came.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," said Robotnik conversationally. "Actually, I thought you might benefit from this." Sally blinked, confused. "You see, you are labouring under the idea that you are the only ones in the city. You are mistaken." He laughed. "Say hello to the princess, foxes."

And Sally gasped, hand over mouth in shock, as Tails and Nintex's voices came over the speaker. Both of them said simply: "Sally!"

She faltered. Her words caught in her mouth for several seconds. This wrecks everything! her mind screamed. Aloud, she stumbled over her words: "Nintex, are you there? Where are you?"

"In a cell block, Sally. You know the one - there are five robots here."

She gulped, understanding. "And Tails is with you?"

"Yes."

"Then..." Oh my gosh - it's the wrong guy! Someone else is still at Knothole, sending the signal! "Who's the spy?" she asked.

But she had been cut off - she was talking to Robotnik again. He laughed, not bothering with words at first. "Things will go a lot smoother with you out of the way, princess. You know where they are being kept, and you have a hovercraft to rescue them with. So do it."

And a click informed her that he had signed off.

She had never heard anything that sounded more like a trap. And the worst thing was that she had already been ensnared. She couldn't leave the foxes there, under Robotnik's grasp. Her conscience wouldn't allow it. She would have to chance it, get them out as quickly as possible, and hope that nothing would go wrong.

She couldn't even feign helplessness - Robotnik knew she had a craft. Head in hands, she sat there, thinking, the now-detached processor lying on its side on the control board. Robotnik had cornered her completely.

Then she made her decision. She would go to the cell block and do the best she could. She owed Tails that - and Nintex, maybe, if he was truly innocent.

Powering up the craft, remembering an old reconnaissance mission where she had flown one through a security grid - she grabbed the flight yoke and watched the ground fall away behind her.


Meanwhile, Tails and Nintex were having their own problems. Robotnik had made sure that he had left the pizza box open when he left them, and while Tails had had the sense to shut it, the delicious smell lingered in the air. Try as he might, Tails couldn't quite get it out of his mind. He kept drawing uncontrollably toward the box, then flinching when he realised how close he had got.

"I'm real hungry," he said, when Nintex had asked him what was the matter. "I didn't eat, remember? I was waiting for Sonic and Sally to leave before I ate."

"Tails," Nintex said sternly, forcefully, "you're not to touch the box. Not even to open it and look."

"You can't order me around," Tails said.

"Of course I can't," Nintex said, and for the first time Tails caught real danger in his voice. "But I am anyway. You take a mouthful and you could wake up dead, so no. It looked pretty disgusting anyway," he improvised, hoping, for once, that Tails' imagination would come to life. "Covered in little black bits, like metal. Kind of oily, too..."

"You're a good friend," Tails said, huddling down on the floor, "but lying won't help. It looked delicious - or Robotnik wouldn't have passed it in."

He looked up at Nintex, and to Nintex's irritation, he was crying again. When had that started? "I know, I mess up," Tails muttered quietly. "I'm fine most of the time, and then suddenly I go and make some stupid mistake. I don't deserve to be a Freedom Fighter."

Nintex turned away, slightly annoyed by the brooding. "You deserve to be whatever you want," he said, "and I know you don't want to be unhappy."

But Tails was too engrossed, and he seemed not to hear.


Sonic was pressed for time.

He had been caught off-guard, although he couldn't figure out why. When you thought about it, ten minutes seemed like a long time, but even at Sonic's speed, trekking along the dirt track, he had lost several to a detour. He had forgotten about the SWATbot army, and they had forced him around, between some of the buildings to the side. The buildings impeded his running, as he was forced to swerve around each one in turn.

Sir Charles had stressed to him the importance of not being seen, but now that Sonic had seen the army for himself, he didn't need the reminder. Knothole itself was at stake.

With eight minutes to spare he arrived at the armoury building with the army already in sight further down the track, coming towards him. He took a deep breath and stepped through the door.

He was in a long, metal corridor, a deep humming coming from somewhere inside the walls. He had not expected this - each of his own footsteps made him flinch. He was too loud. Annoyed, he pulled off his shoes and walked barefoot along the metal. It was actually hot.

Sonic took a right turn, following the corner of the building, and flinched. Bright sunlight streamed through the inner wall, which was actually a window, showing him how the whole building wrapped around the central launch area, where all the rockets were. Sonic couldn't tell which one M34 was, but he could be sure that it was among them.

There were no cavities - nothing to hide him, except the corner. This was designed to be tricky. Opposite the huge window were doors, made of glass but framed by metal. He needed to be in one of those rooms, any one. And quickly - Pegasus would be overhead in minutes.

Without warning one of the doors opened, and a SWATbot turned away and walked down the corridor. Sonic flinched, but to his amazement, it hadn't seen him. He seized his chance and ran, ran as he couldn't remember running. He was visible - the robots would see him - the door was closing - he was at the threshold - they would see him -

- and then he was inside. He ducked behind the computer screen, where he was hidden from the rest of the world, breathing hard. The door had slid shut with him inside. To his surprise, no alarm had been called.

How had he managed to not be seen?

He looked out again, peering around the computer screen, and realised. The sunlight was bright, and it was aimed towards him. Any robot looking in would just see the glare on the window. The weather was on his side.

He looked at the screen again. The time was shown at the top: nine twenty-eight. Three minutes to go, yet...

Then he noticed it. Motion from outside, and the roaring sound of a jet. Instinctively he looked to see what it was - and then he flinched back. A robot.

A blue robot.

A blue robot with silver claws.


Tails sat, cross-legged, thinking silently and watching the five figures around him. They were staring at him, all of them, unblinking. Tails frowned at them - how could they be free minded? They looked demented, looked bizarrely animal-like, not from the appearance of their metal bodies but from what they were doing with it, standing both rapt to attention and blank with ignorance at the same time.

Nintex opened his eyes, leaned against the back wall. "I know," he said. "Horrific, isn't it."

Tails assumed he was referring to roboticization. "It's awful. Are... I mean, were they nice people? Who were they, anyway?"

Nintex, for the first few seconds, merely closed his eyes again. But then, he said: "Three of them are friends. Phil is an artist, he likes drawing things. He remembers everything he sees. Cohae is just getting out of school. See his left eye? That's where another fox caught him by the claw. He can't use it, he's blind in that one. Nice, though, he comes around and helps with the work. That's Cyrus. He's..." - he laughed at the memory - "a troublemaker. A big one. Couple years back he was expelled from school for swapping the teacher's notes between all the departments. His dad teaches him at home."

But Nintex stopped there, with two names still unheard, teeth gritted slightly. "Nintex...?" Tails asked.

"Ryan and Anthony," he said, voice growing louder. "I never told you because nobody ever asked. Ryan /Hanyu/. Anthony /Hanyu/. They're twins; they're my brothers. Dad always used to joke that they were locked in a time-loop, the same ten-seconds of scuffling, over and over. They -"

And he grabbed his crutches and thrust himself to his feet, snarling. "They're mine!" he yelled. "Robotnik took them from me!" He thrust himself at the bars of the cell, but the crutches slipped and he fell, landing on the floor, eyes blazing.

"He changed them!" he roared. "He destroyed them!"


Sonic watched the timer carefully, keeping his head behind the screen and trying to calm himself. There were minutes left. Metal Sonic had thousands of windows to check, so with any luck, the robot's presence wouldn't matter to the mission.

Wait a second/, Sonic thought, /how does he know I'm here?

Sir Charles had been predictable, he realised. Robotnik knew the satellite would cross his city, and he had prepared for an attack.

The Freedom Fighters had underestimated their enemy, again. Sonic took his time about typing in the line as his uncle had told him, pressing each key carefully.

M34 FIRE.

His finger hovered over the return key, but if he pressed it now, the missile would miss by a mile. The clock had only ticked half-past; there was still a minute to go. A minute and two seconds. Sonic halted, waiting.

And then, slowly, he became aware of the silence.

Metal Sonic's jet had stopped. Sonic froze, listening, but there was no sign of it. He peered around the screen. No sign of his counterpart - Metal Sonic had vanished.

Vanished without a trace, with fifty seconds left on the clock.


Tails sat away from Nintex, afraid of him. He didn't want to admit it. Tails never wanted to admit his fear of a friend. But in this case, Nintex, while no longer storming, was certainly not cheery.

"I'm sorry," Tails had said, and that had gone unanswered. Tails, unnerved, couldn't force himself to try again, and merely sat, thinking. So that was why Nintex defended them so heartily, why he had come to Robotropolis just for them: two of them were family, the others as close as. It made sense. Nintex had seen his chance to return and seized it.

And Tails had wrecked it.

And now he felt sickened at himself. Sickened and despairing. When he couldn't stand it, he was crying for the third time in just a few hours, lying on his side with his back to Nintex, head in arms, hiding his tears.

Nintex watched him in disgust.

The poor fox had had a lifetime of problems, it seemed - but that was no excuse for this. Crying was fine, but this kid seemed to do nothing else! Somehow, Nintex had to break it. There had to be something he could do - something to drive the fear and the helplessness away. He needed to make the fox /act/, somehow.

And then, in a flash of inspiration, he noticed the pizzas again. Robotnik, without realising, had given him the perfect weapon. To break his depression, all Tails had to do was something active; forceful.

Like dragging Nintex away from the pizzas, perhaps?

And the plan pulled itself together in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the better it became. The best blow to Tails would be to actually eat some of the food - the perfect device to kick-start Tails' adrenaline. Tails could grab him, grab the pizza; even tear the food from Nintex's mouth, if the timing was right.

And the best part was, Nintex didn't even have to risk his life to do it.

It might even be fun.

One last look at the pizza box decided him. Whatever he chose to do was better than sitting here listening to Tails sob.

The call to attention that sparked it, snapping the fox out of his stupor, was the sharp yap:

"Tails!"


The glass erupted, showering across the floor of the launch area. Sonic landed with a thump on the metal, wincing and trying to move. He groaned, pulling himself to his feet, wondering what had happened.

He became aware that he had been thrown from the room and froze. He was meant to be in there! The missile needed to fire any moment now!

With a clang of metal, the blue and silver robot landed in front of him. Sonic yelped and flung himself away from him, back onto something that protruded out. He hit his hand painfully on it, and looked up.

Two SWATbots grabbed him before he knew it, clasping him around the arms. Sonic shook, but they merely lifted him off the floor, breaking off his escape route.

Metal Sonic laughed. Sonic spat at him, fuming in his helplessness.

"Robotnik did not foresee this," the robot said, stepping towards him. "M34 aimed for Pegasus. What a plan! You must have had someone to help you through here..."

Sonic grimaced without meaning to. Metal Sonic laughed.

"Well," he said, "if you really want M34 to be launched, then launched it will be. Robots, bind him."

Sonic was dragged backward through the armaments, towards something he couldn't see. He pulled as much as he could, but even hanging there his energy was draining rapidly. He couldn't break free.

Suddenly both hands were wrenched upward and he felt cold, sharp metal wrapped around them. He was suddenly braced, not by the grip of the SWATbots, but on the surface of something metal and curved. His eyes widened as he realised what he had been attached to.

"M34," Metal Sonic said. "Just for the irony factor," he added, almost conversationally, but then, much colder: "You have been the bane of my existence, and the cause." His insane laughter echoed off the metal walls. "But I will control you. I deny you to continue! Now watch your plan fail!"

Sonic screeched, panic escalating till he couldn't think. He was being crushed by Metal Sonic's laughter. Crushed by those terrible metal slices that held his hands to the missile.

"Fire," Metal Sonic said, and suddenly the world went haywire. The engine was roaring below him...

But quite suddenly, Sonic found his mind gloriously free.

He was surrounded by blue-grey sky, wind flapping past him at a tremendous rate. The robots were gone, lost below him, and the world could wait. It was enough to be free.

With a jolt, his left arm was wrenched free of the metal by the wind. The panic returned - suddenly his position didn't seem safe at all. He swung around, landing with his chest on the missile plating, which was starting to curve strangely. That was gravity - his weight was driving the missile sideways, putting him underneath, dangling from it with one hand stuck under a single slice of metal. He swung with all his might, and grabbed this metal with his other hand. Instead of giving him a better grip, the metal came free of its frame, and suddenly there was no missile at all.