Red the Rabid (Sonic the Hedgehog)

[Syroc]

Well, shit. It sounds like I gotta read the sonic comics.

 

[Vaalintine]

I'd say the only thing Reginald got wrong here is not expounding on how close they came to having something happen horrible happen to them. Like outright harm by having badniks torch/kill people as punishment or him taking what edible crops they have and leaving them to starve. Perhaps he could have taken down the names of those responsible for the smokeless, implying to Wylla that those mobians are in deep shit and the rest have narrowly escaped disaster? Or just depending corporeal punishment for the ones responsible.

 

[Legionary]

I'd say the only thing Reginald got wrong here is not expounding on how close they came to having something happen horrible happen to them. Like outright harm by having badniks torch/kill people as punishment or him taking what edible crops they have and leaving them to starve. Perhaps he could have taken down the names of those responsible for the smokeless, implying to Wylla that those mobians are in deep shit and the rest have narrowly escaped disaster? Or just depending corporeal punishment for the ones responsible.

Click to shrink...

He probably would have done that if this was a human settlement he decided to help out. As it was he'd do his best to approach things with the gentle touch in regards to fellow mobians, though only to a reasonable amount considering who he works for. No point in showing mercy if your boss just undoes it afterwards and punishes you for it.

 

[Legionary]

2.4

The last time I was in a human city I was disembarking from an ocean liner and had spent all day just navigating the streets and trying to leave.

Suffice to say it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience and in my opinion humans loved cars too much and trying to get around with your own two feet too little. Too many sidewalks that would go around in circles, not enough crossings and far too many humans getting mad when you hopped across traffic jams. Managing to leave that night was a relief though short lived as the countryside was human owned industrial farms for dozens of miles. So I also ended up spending the whole next day dodging farmers and dogs. Finally reaching proper wilderness brought a much needed feeling of safety as I'd started suspecting I had gained something of a posse chasing after me.

Avoiding cities as much as possible was my main priority in my days of world wonderings. I had no choice when I wanted to cross oceans but otherwise I stuck to the countryside and wilderness. There were just too many humans packed in like worms for my liking and being a mobian in a human city invoked claustrophobic feelings in general. Walking down the streets, the crowds of people who were on average twice your height made it impossible to see far, bodies closing in with no respect for space and I was pretty sure most of the "accidental" bumping just plain weren't. Couldn't retaliate either if you didn't want to be marked as some rabid animal and gunned down with extreme prejudice. Always infuriating when the person "slapping" demands that you be the better person and turn the other cheek so they can slap you again.

Now though…

I had woken with the sun as I always did and sighed in satisfaction with the bedding in my penthouse suite.

When I arrived last night, what little traffic there was, was blocked or even forcibly shoved aside to make way for my convoy by the local badniks. The first thing I did was unload the smokeleaf at the train station. While I did this, the mayor of the city, a graying wrinkled man that I was surprised to learn was half as old as he looked, met with me. He came with only a single aide and in his personal car. The Mayor was a man who was VERY aware of the difference between our ranks as he bent over backwards to ensure I was treated like an honored Prince.

To ensure my stay was as comfortable as possible he had reopened a resort and had the place cleaned and running in record time. Or at the very least the pertinent areas of the building were put in order, as far as I was aware every room I saw was ready to service a full roster of guests. It spoke of either the man's ability to organize people or everyone's sheer desperation to keep me and ultimately, Robotnik, happy.

Only taking a moment more to enjoy the nest of blankets and pillows that was my bed I sighed again and crawled out to wash up. Soon after I was in the middle of amusing myself with the sight of a pair of glove shaped towels when I heard a chime.

Looking over I saw a small computer panel on the wall that was currently displaying a line of text saying "Doorbell: Answer/Refuse?".

'Probably the housekeeping back with my laundry.' I thought before walking over and tapping the answer button.

"Yes?"

"Underboss, Reginald Rabbit, we're here with your clean laundry sir." A feminine voice spoke. "May we enter?"

I hesitated to answer for a moment as the screen now had a little window showing a live feed from a camera just above my penthouse entrance. Displayed on it were two maids in modest dress uniforms. One was a human woman and the other, a cat mobian. The human was carrying clothes that I wore under my armor for cushioning while the mobian carried a bowl of water. Giving the two a once over I nodded and pressed the answer button.

"Yes, come in." I replied and saw the human pull a keycard out of her pocket.

Turning away from the screen I dressed up a little, putting on a bathrobe and the towel gloves before collecting a wireless blow dryer from a wall socket. I left the bathroom and re-entered my bedroom while working on my ears with the blow dryer. The pink skin had stopped being sensitive and fur stubble was poking up. Seemed like that healing steroid was still in my system. There were probably horrendous side effects, accelerated aging likely the least of them but the alternative was walking around with gaping holes in my ears for two months.

As I started heating the fur on my head there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"Come in!"

In entered the two maids. The human walked over to my bed and placed the clothes down while the cat mobian placed down the bowl on a table at the base of my bed, withdrawing a pair of neatly folded gloves from a pocket and placing them right next to it.

"Here you are sir~" The mobian said cheerily and then leaned closer. "Would you like me to get the other blow dryer and help you?"

Considering it for a moment I found myself a little discomforted by the offer. It seemed a little off although didn't rich people have servants do things like clothe them and cook for them? I guess in the position I was in I was just being treated the same. Still though I much preferred maintaining my personal independence of such obnoxious levels of luxury.

"No, I can do it myself." I waved off and undid my robe to see how much drying I had left to do.

Oddly as soon as I did that the human suddenly gasped and averted her head away from me with a flush. Blinking at the reaction I could only stare at her oddly flushed expression as the cat mobian rolled her eyes at the display. Scratching at suddenly itchy ears I wondered in some befuddlement what the reaction was for.

"Julia, he's a mobian remember!" The mobian maid chided.

"I-I-I know it's just that…" 'Julia' muttered and could only just make herself look me in the eyes with blazing red cheeks.

It hit me like a sledgehammer that the two staff assigned to me didn't just happen to be women. The cat mobian was rather attractive though her uniform did her no real favors and so I assumed the human woman must be considered attractive by human standards as well. Were these two assigned to me just in case I'd be the sort to be distracted by such things?

'Well if that was the intent they made one big mistake!'

Just the thought of touching a human woman in such a way had me nearly shudder in disgust. That wasn't even getting to the whole skeeviness of the situation in general. It brought to mind a certain situation that had happened yesterday and how incredibly uncomfortable it was. Even in this exact situation where it had no bearing on dues owed to Robotnik I wasn't about to partake in anything at all like this. Still that also didn't change the fact it was infuriating.

'Do I just have this look about me that invites assumptions of me being a scumbag?!'

TWICE already I've found myself in situations where "favors" were being put on the table. This better fucking NOT become a common occurrence otherwise I might have to actually exert some of that Robotnik given authority to… oh…

I was a mobian serving as an enforcer to Robotnik.

Frankly that alone gave a TON of bad first impressions. What kind of person- kind of mobian decided to work for Doctor Robotnik? The man who despoiled whole ecosystems with his stripmining and created oceans of oil to fuel his ambitions. Either a complete scumbag or a total fucking idiot. And seeing as I obviously had some principles it was obvious what I was.

'You are supposed to be charming!' I reminded myself. 'Be charming! Don't worry about what people believe you to be, you can't do anything about that. The best thing to do is maintain the persona of charm and use violence only when needed, an oasis of reasonability compared to the likes of Doctor Robotnik. Actions speak louder than words and so long as you maintain consistency with the chosen personality people will know what to expect from you.'

"Oh it's alright in fact I appreciate the sentiment!" Come on, channel a bit of Uncle Wallace's friendly air. That man could punch a stranger in greeting and he'd leave bruised but smiling.

"Huh?" Julia blinked at me in surprise but her flush was gone, that was good.

"You seem to think of me as the same as a human man?" I explained. "Putting me on the same level which is not something that happens all that often in my experience. So I thank you for the consideration, dear Julia."

"Oh, you are very welcome sir." Julia bowed her head. "I've… not really understood why humans and mobians should treat each other so differently to be honest. I've always resolved to treat man and woman mobians the same as the human ones."

"Which can result in awkward moments like this one!" The cat mobian added and then smirked at Julia. "Or times where she forgets that she really ought to keep in mind that there should be a difference. Like that time she started staring at what she thought was the obscene sight of a man's 'bare' crotch."

"Pepper!" Julia protested, her face blazing crimson.

"You're just lucky he thought you were coming on to him and let you down gently~" Pepper smirked with a bared fang.

I laughed good naturedly and noted I'd be dry enough in a few more minutes.

"Ladies, if you could leave the room?" I requested. "I'd like to put my gloves on."

"But… you're already naked." Julia remarked as she stared at my bare feet. "What's wrong with seeing your-"

'Patience! Be charming!' I reminded myself through the sharp burst of annoyance.

"Julia, amongst mobian no nos this is the NO'ist of NOs." Pepper said quickly and walked around the back of Julia to start pushing her out despite her protests. "We'll be in the living room sir!"

'Ugh, humans get upset when half of their body gets exposed but have the gall to think protecting and cherishing our hands is weird.' I thought with a roll of my eyes before getting started on the ritual of cleansing and wearing.

Besides your head your hands were the most important part of your body. You reached out to touch the world with them, you struck out at enemies with them and used them to guard yourself, you embraced loved ones with them and intertwined fingers with lovers in intimacy. With hands you could create or destroy, with hands you could even communicate without speaking a single word. It was important to take good care of them and protect them whenever possible. Was it really so strange that we mobians saw how important hands were and treated them with appropriate reverence?

'Honestly I wonder why humans don't feel the same?' Finishing the cleansing I began to slip on the gloves in practiced motions. 'It seems like they only really care about their hands when they do dangerous things with them.'

Once that was done I slipped on the freshly cleaned clothes. Aside from them being red with yellow outlines it was barely in the colors of the Eggman Empire. Looking off to the side I considered the armor where I left them piled neatly. I had been promised a full breakfast last night, would wearing my armor to the dining room be a sign of strength or fear? How much could I truly trust the mayor of Metropolis?

'How much of the Mayor's premature aging is caused by fear of Robotnik? How much of it is caused by concern for the people of the city?' I mused. 'It's likely a combination of both but it does seem like the man is going out of his way to ensure things go smoothly with me. What would killing me gain for the people here? Robotnik's wrath that's what, not that it would do me any good since I'd be dead.'

Robotnik had told me I now represented not only the Empire but him personally… That meant how I presented myself would reflect on him. So I had to present strength, which called for a wordless statement that I was confident I wouldn't be hurt.

Giving the high grade armor one last longing glance I turned away and left my bedroom into the penthouse proper.

It was not only a whole house atop the resort but a really nice one as well. There was a theater room for watching movies, a fully stocked kitchen filled with every cooking appliance imaginable, a dining room fit for hosting a high society party and a library stocked from floor to ceiling with books that had a functional fireplace though clearly gas powered. Of course I had been utterly unable to enjoy a single part of it, having come in feeling exhausted despite having barely physically exerted myself yesterday. I had only wanted to sleep last night and I hardly had the time to just spend sitting around enjoying luxury.

There was something in the city I had wanted to check out and I would only have time for that if I made sure the local taxes were secure and ready to be shipped. Also I wanted breakfast, I hadn't eaten a proper meal since yesterday morning. Anxiety had pretty much killed my appetite yesterday but right now I felt ravenous. It would be a bit tight but I should be ready to keep going by noon.

By the front door the two maids were waiting.

"Underboss, Mayor Need would like you to know he took the liberty of having Breakfast prepared if you feel like eating." Pepper announced as I approached. "If not he has his limo fully fueled and ready to transport you."

"Oh good!" I didn't need to fake a smile this time. "I am feeling rather famished right now. Furthermore I'd love to properly meet with the Mayor. Last night was all business you see."

"This way, sir." Julia motioned for me to follow as she opened the door.

The welcome and reassuring sight of the smaller models of Badnik stood guard in the hallway. Still though I couldn't help but notice how ungainly their animal shapes made for building interiors. Sure it wasn't normally a problem as these same badniks could and would tear right through most walls. But really would it kill Robotnik to design a more humanoid line of badnik?

Normally complaining about Robotnik not having better bots was madness but it was my problem now and my neck on the line.

'Though it's not like I could complain to the man himself now could I?' I mused to myself.

It was quite obvious to me what the end result of such action would be if I actually followed through on it. Robotnik's rage at being critiqued by a man who barely knew how to take off the armor plating of his badniks would be immense to say the least.

Best to just keep my thoughts to myself as usual.

Before long I was exiting an elevator onto the ground floor of the mostly abandoned resort. The two maids escorted me to the restaurant and I was met with the grandiose sight of what could only be an eating area for high class guests. Crystal chandeliers hanged from the ceiling, Lush drapes stretched from the center of the ceiling to each corner of the room, a carpet so thick I could actually feel myself sink into it slighter with each step, tables and chair of red sandalwood and gold engravings polished to a near mirror like shine.

In the center of the restaurant was a long dining table completely covered in dozens of dishes of every conceivable breakfast food. At the head of this table was probably the closest thing to a throne I've ever seen with how ostentatious its design was. Mayor Need stood by a seat next to the "throne" so it was blatantly clear who was sitting where.

'What an incredible amount of variety!' I scratched my ears as I took in the spread of options. 'They must have raided the pantries of everyone in the city to accomplish this.'

Afterall it wasn't like people traded with the Eggman Empire, trading implied someone had something Robotnik wanted but had to compromise to get. That simply didn't happen. Perhaps it was something of an exaggeration to say Robotnik would invade whole nations simply to retrieve a single item and then leave, but it was equally hard to say it wouldn't be in-character.

Suffice to say this spread must have been carefully preserved leftovers of better days.

"U-Underboss, Reginald!" The mayor greeted me with nervously wringed hands. "Please take a seat! The maids will get you servings of anything that catches your eye!"

The Mayor was a somewhat portly man in his thirties prematurely aged by stress. His dirty blond hair, mustache and short beard were streaked with gray and even in a relatively calm state he had wrinkles around his bespeckled eyes and face. He was dressed fairly formally in a dress shirt, polished dress shoes with dark red slacks and vest. A black tie sat a bit loosely around his neck from him constantly adjusting it.

One thing I rather liked about this human though was the fact he was rather short and about only half a foot taller than me. It was irritating to be dealing with humans from a position of some kind of power and authority only to find yourself looking up at them.

"I see you've taken the liberty to cook a little bit of everything!" I exclaim in a lighthearted tone, this human was extremely aware of his position here so no need to rub his face in it anymore.

"I sincerely hope that is fine!" Sadly my tone failed to calm him. "We didn't know what you liked, sir! And… well we didn't know if you'd eat meat so we decided to cook everything."

"... All mobians are omnivores." I answered, taking a moment to work through the spike of irritation. "I am more than capable of eating meat though… I'lll admit to having a fondness for salads, whether that is due to me being a rabbit mobian is up for debate."

Actually it was fruit salad I very much enjoyed. Semantics I suppose.

"Could I tempt you with some fried eggs, bacon, toast and a side of sliced oranges, sir?" Pepper leaned in closer with a smile.

"A classic, if you'd be so kind, Pepper." I told the maid who smiled brilliantly and quickly darted away to collect the food.

'That girl is starting to unsettle me.'

Tenting my fingers in front of my mouth to hide any cracks in my composure I contemplated the two maids. Julia was clearly aware of the implications of this situation and was not at all comfortable with it, though obviously not enough to not do it. Pepper though seemed to me to be the more worldly of the two and was also very aware of the situation. And yet not once has she given away any hint of discomfort. I suppose it wasn't too out there to think Pepper was more than willing to do unpleasant things for the sake of others, if attending to the needs of a guest made things easier for everyone so be it.

'Of course the other side of that is that she is doing this for her own needs.'

For some people the only thing that really matters when it comes to partners is whether or not they can not only support you but lavish you with luxury. When you thought about it I could be argued as being a desirable bachelor if you just judged it pragmatically. Though it was questionable just how much actual authority I had, it was leagues more than any other person in the Empire. In the common person's view I was the one doing the oppressing not being oppressed though the truth of the matter was that I was both. What was being a trophy spouse to the only man of power and significance in the Empire who actually had some interest in that.

'I'll admit that the temptation is there, to reciprocate the attention despite the lack of genuine feeling.' It had been a while, Robotnik bases and outposts didn't exactly have bars to find ladies to hook up with next door. 'To wake up curled up against someone, fool myself thinking there could be any love there and just have someone to hold and confide in. A shallow intoxicating dream.'

As heady as the thought was it was something I simply could not entertain as anything more than the half formed foolishness it was. Pepper would be an angle of weakness for me and not someone I could actually confide in. Could I honestly expect her to last any length of time being interrogated by Robotnik? So if I couldn't confide in her what would be the point? Just have someone around purely to remedy feelings of loneliness? Not only that but I had issues, major ones with the idea of such a relationship. Pretty as the cat mobian was, the sheer power imbalance between us was an emotional turn off. I would hold all the authority in such a relationship so what room was there for differing opinions? The idea of not being at least being equals with a significant other was nigh repulsive to me, it utterly didn't feel right.

'Sorry, Pepper but I'm just going to hope you are just being friendly and continue on.' I thought as the mobian maid collected my food. 'If you aren't… well who am I to judge? I know very well that living under Robotnik's influence is miserable as all hell and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to cope.'

"I-is there something wrong with your food, sir?" Need asked nervously.

Blinking I found myself simply staring down at a now full plate of food. Quickly shaking my head I answered the human.

"Nothing to worry about, Mayor." I waved off and began to dig in. "I have a busy day today and am preoccupied with my thoughts but tell me what do you intend to do with the leftovers?"

"Well u-uh I suppose I had nothing in mind to do with any leftovers." Need responded with ever wringing hands. "Did you want it all packed up for yourself sir?"

"No." Taking a moment to savor a strip of bacon I considered the two maids. "I'm not the type to indulge in gluttony, Mayor, this will be all I'll have to eat. Perhaps then you can give this bounty to the more needy members of your community. I'm sure these two lovely ladies wouldn't mind some free groceries."

I already have food supplies, stuff that will keep for months too. Pemmican wasn't the tastiest of things to eat unless you had things to spice or sweeten it up but so long as you put it together well it'll keep you nourished. Charity was easy when you had no real desire for what you were giving up, pragmatic too since no matter how small this truly was it would still leave a decent impression on people.

"Thank you so much, sir!" Julia immediately said with genuine gratitude.

"Mmmm… haven't had ham in a while…" Pepper muttered with a pleased purring to her voice.

"Would it be alright if I take some extra?" Julia asked, eyes glittering hopefully. "I have some family that could really appreciate a filling meal just for a day."

"I hope you are being truthful to me, Miss Julia." I pointed my fork at her with a serious tone. "Badniks are all over this city and I'd be greatly disappointed to find out you sold it for some pocket money."

Julia nodded agreebly, her happy smile was unwavering so it was clear to me she was telling the truth. Pepper however… As soon as I mentioned the badniks watching everything and I'd be watching for resale of the food there was a flicker in her expression. I only just managed to catch it but the corners of her mouth tilted down and her eyes narrowed. It happened only for a split second before her friendly smile was back but I saw it. It only led credence to the idea that Pepper was perhaps the sort to be fine with being a trophy wife. However…

'I'm not going to judge her on that.' I thought and pointedly pushed aside said judgemental thoughts. 'Why the hell would I when at the very least she knows what she is getting herself into? Compared to me who went into this blind and arrogant? Somehow I thought I could be a part of Robotnik's schemes, a villainous bystander at most with front row seats to every battle between the Doctor and Sonic! I was an idiot, an utterly cowardly fool…'

So you go ahead and try to seduce me Pepper, it's not going to work but I'm not going to look down on you for it either. It's a shitty miserable existence for all involved in the Great Eggman Empire save for one man alone, gotta do what you gotta do to make things better for yourself.

"Err… Sir if you don't mind me asking?" Need began, wringing his hands nervously.

"Go ahead, Mayor." Munching down more food I note the man isn't eating, ah ha another opportunity! "And grab yourself something to eat! Plenty here after all."

It might be generosity with a bounty that isn't even mine but every little bit helps to counter a bad first impression.

"Uh-errr, thank you, Underboss." Need said and soon one of the maids was setting down a plate of food to the human's liking. "I take it you intend to do something more than collect our taxes? We've got loading the trains down pat and it rarely takes longer than an hour."

"The theme park." I replied. "I want to examine its full functionality."

"Oh, uh… Sir it's a fairly popular section of the city." Need said and I heard him audibly gulp down a bit of food. "Even at this time of day it'll likely have people in there."

"Then get them out, I have business there that requires the park to be empty for my use."

"Of course sir." Need nodded obediently and fished a cell phone out of his vest pocket. "Uh, would you like me to bring you there with the limo?"

"... Very well, I shall finish eating and collect my gear from my room." I said and continued eating. It wasn't like I'd be driving Lady at breakneck speeds through the streets so getting a leisurely ride wasn't an issue. And besides…

I was kinda interested in seeing a city under the rule of the good Doctor.

Breakfast was finished in silence soon after. I briefly returned to my room and put on my armor though I kept my helmet carried under my arm. After that I sent a message to my awaiting badniks and returned to the ground floor. Upon leaving the grand entrance of the resort I was met with the sight of the Mayor's limo, a black model that was quite obviously just cleaned and polished. The door was being held open by Pepper and the Mayor was already inside waiting.

"Move over if you'd please?" I asked the Mayor as I entered. "I'd like to take in the city as we travel."

"Of course!" Need said and quickly scooted over to the opposite seating just behind the driver.

Settling into the seat I was briefly surprised to see Pepper enter as well. Closing the door behind her she took up a seat along the side facing what appeared to be a miniature bar. She opened a secure cabinet to reveal a line of a large variety of drinks along with a small fridge.

"Would you like something to drink sir?" Pepper asked.

"Well…"

Typically when I drank it was for the reason typical of most people, to get drunk. Now I can't exactly get drunk as I'd more than like to do but a man in my position cannot take the risk. I needed to be alert and have a clear head, if I was anywhere near drunk while driving Lady or in a fight… well either I'd just die or I'd live and suddenly have to deal with Robotnik wondering why I was drunk on the job. Having said that though this job was stressful as FUCK!

"Something light and fruity I suppose." I said to Pepper's visible surprise. "I do need a clear head after all."

"Of course sir!" Pepper said with a wide toothy smile.

Looking around I took note of my badniks settling up a moving perimeter. Dessy emerged from the underground parking and took up a position just in front of the limo, Lady rolled into place just behind and Saffron took up a spot just over the limo. The rest of the faster badnik horde took up positions all around me.

"Here you are sir!" Pepper held out a glass to me..

"Thank you pepper!" I said and examined the drink, it had an orange and a cherry attached to the lip. The liquid looked like orange juice near the top but turned red near the bottom. I plucked the cherry and ate it.

'Fresh fruit.'

Scratching my ears I couldn't help but feel a bit like an asshole, though that was a feeling that rarely ended nowadays. These people really were desperate to ensure everything went well for me. Somehow they had fresh tropical fruit here and were using such precious foods just to try to keep me happy. I wasn't sure how the hell they were able to preserve fruit in such a way they still tasted fresh, I wasn't so used to the chemicals humans used in their food that I didn't notice them anymore and the fruit didn't have any of that.

Leaning back I took a sip of the fruity drink and took in the city as it passed by.

Just as I thought yesterday, Metropolis' shining appearance of a city of the future was only because the badniks maintained it. The city streets were not lively at all, barely needing the escort detail to push aside traffic. There were not as many people on the sidewalks as experience told me there ought to be. Life under Robotnik clearly wasn't doing the city any favors but that was expected honestly. Likely the only reason the city was as orderly as it was was due to the badniks on guard everywhere.

"Mayor, how are the people of the city?" I asked casually.

"Uhh, well…" Need's reluctance was clear and the reason plainly obvious to me. "T-they are restless sir."

"Restless?" I was surprised he answered at all, the man knew that as Robotnik's minion I was duty bound to report everything I heard and saw.

"There is no trade sir." Need averted his eyes down to his wringing hands. "Modern society can't exist without trade with the wider world. Practically every office building in Metropolis was doing something that involved other parts of the Arcadias at the very least. Most again were owned by corporations from around the globe. When Doctor Robotnik… well, conquered us trade and ties to the wider world were cut off. There is no point in work if you aren't getting paid, no way to set up work and pay if you can't even contact your employers. The Doctor claimed the laboratories for his own uses along with our factories, Metropolis was going to make local manufacturing a profitable option again and shove out Chun-nan. But well… Doctor Robotnik has his reasons which I am sure are all very good ones."

Oh he's good! I can't even find any hidden feelings of hate or reproach in his tone. It was said all so matter of factly. 'It was a thing that happened, what can ya do?' though maybe that tone of resigned helplessness probably had something to do with it.

"The Doctor's reasons are his own." I nodded in private sympathy for the man. "I'm sure he'll share them in due time. So you have lost three major industries in the city? I can't imagine how anyone has any money left by now."

"Well to be perfectly honest the economy only exists in anything approaching stability because we all pretend it does." Mayor Need said quietly, so quiet in fact I probably wouldn't have heard if I wasn't a rabbit. "Like I said there is no trade so everything is completely local, we simply don't have access to the resources needed for modern society to function. It's to the point that Doctor Robotnik has needed to establish a few personal "corporations" to supply things we simply can't make ourselves. As one can imagine this has had an unpleasant impact on our dues to the Doctor."

Well that certainly explained the odd building with an egg themed name and his grinning icon. It made a certain amount of sense that if your citizens were missing a resource critical to the functioning of modern society you'd provide it. But for Robotnik to be doing this? I don't know, even if it's brought greater tax burdens to the locals it still felt much too altruistic for the man. Doubly so why would he bother with the pretense of opening businesses!

'Probably because it amused him, even if experience says he doesn't always do things for petty reasons it's probably still a good guess.'

It was a trait of the man I noticed, that he just did things his own way even if they were clearly inefficient. There were no video records of the times he had battled Sonic or perhaps those records simply weren't available to me? Either way I couldn't help but feel this trait played a part in why the man lost against the Blue Blur every time. I mean I could easily imagine him making each battle overly complicated or dramatic so he could defeat Sonic the right way.

Not that I was complaining mind you.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, the city district sized amusement park, Egg Land.

Roller coasters stretched to the skies as tall as skyscrapers, roller coaster rails snaked throughout the park, only distinguishable by the different colors. There were other rides a plenty, ones that shot straight up for a hundred stories, ships that swung around the entirety of the park. And while there were plenty of rides of grand scale there were also many smaller more conventional amusements from arcades to merry go rounds.

All the while a whimsical tune filled the air.

"Not a person to be seen, good job Mayor." I told Need, I can't imagine it would have been easy emptying the place even this early in the morning. Say what you will about Robotnik but the man loved his amusement parks and while they were in regular function mode they were perfectly safe.

But ONLY while this mode was on.

"Thank you sir." Need nodded before adding nervously. "Do you need us to accompany you further or should we wait here?"

"Wait here, only people with clearance are allowed where I am going." I told the human and immediately set off.

The rides of Egg Land didn't just sit there while not in use, they would run while empty to maintain constant motion in the park. The cheery jingle was never too loud and faded easily into the background once you got bored of it instead of getting annoying. I even saw several different kinds of the typical confection stands you'd find at a circus.

'Just what is with this man and his love of amusement parks?' Looking everywhere I took in the sights and sounds.

Seriously the man had aspirations to world conquest with the full capability to do so. He had plotted to attain mysterious gems of unspeakable power and managed it several times. He was apparently so competent and deadly that all the nations of the world working together couldn't stop him. Every time his defeats were at the hands of a legendary hero and only that hero seemingly could stop him.

And yet despite all this he delights in making grandiose theme parks?

Shaking my head I arrive at my destination, standing before a spinning merry-go-round. Glancing at the grinning icon in the brickwork I stood myself on it and faced the ride.

"Underboss, Reginald the Rabbit requesting access to Egg Land command center."

The ride immediately comes to a stop before slowly rotating just so. Once down, one of the horses turned around to face the horse behind it. The eyes on the two horses suddenly retracted to reveal a pair of lenses. A red light emerged and ran over my body twice before fading.

"Identity recognized! Underboss, Reginald the Rabbit! Access granted!"

The base platform of the ride lowered to the ground while a panel on the center column lifted to reveal an empty space. I stepped forth into the space and the panel closed behind me. Soon I found myself shooting downwards into the ground, the feeling of my stomach rushing up into my throat almost had me retching. Eventually the lift came to a stop that was a bit too sudden for my stomach's liking.

Before me was a sealed and highly secure chamber deep beneath the grounds of Egg Land. This was but one of many command centers that could grant manual control of the amusement park. All were hidden and for the most part were intended to run autonomously. The reason I was here was to check something that I could very easily argue was part of my responsibilities. Which was good because otherwise I'd have no reason to be here besides purposeful distraction.

I stepped into the command center, the only real source of light being the screens and blinking lights of the computers that completely filled the room. I walked forward and came to a stop before a wall of monitors that were constantly shifting between different views of Egg Land.

"Cease regular function mode." I commanded and immediately every ride on the screens came to a stop. "Assume needlemouse trap formation and run test simulation."

"Command recognised! Initiating Simulation!" A voice from the computer droned loudly. "Warning! Machspeed ground anomaly detected! Hedgehog priority one recognized! Priority one on northerly approach! Assuming needlemouse trap formation type N!"

Suddenly in a barely discernible blur of motion the amusement park transformed. Structures practically flowed as they shifted and changed. The roller coasters seemed to almost come alive like snakes before forming the lattice work to support the new formation. The ground opened up and mechanical structures rushed out to shape Egg Land into something new. Before long the shape of the overall structure finished and the details were filled in. Springs, bumpers and spikes dotted the new shape. Badniks swarmed out from hidden compartments to take guard positions and so many different forms of antigravity technology popped up all over Egg Land. gravity chutes that went up or down, floating wheels with a gravitational pull strong enough you could walk on them and gravity projectors to send one spinning into the air. And the barrels, floating red and white barrels all over the damn place! Just what was the point of them?

Overall the whole transformation happened in less than a minute.

I nodded with a slight smile, I had always wanted to see the transformation itself in action. Robotnik had plenty of videos and images of before and after but never during. Since the action itself was so fast I can see why.

"Cease simulation." I commanded. "Return to regular function mode."

And then the process reversed itself. Badnik and trap alike was packed away in a moment, the structure pulled itself apart before folding itself and falling way into the unknowable abyss beneath Egg Land. In just as fast a pace the amusement park transformed and returned to a more normal appearance.

With a final nod I turned around and walked back to the lift.

There was still actual work that needed to be done after all.

---

Mayor Need stood beside me as we watched the train get loaded with the taxes.

I had been wondering what exactly it was that this city produced that was of value to Robotnik. The Mayor had readily admitted that the Doctor took their labs and factories as their own and it was all they could do to maintain the illusion of a functional economy.

The answer both surprised me and really shouldn't have.

Hundreds of paintings of Doctor Robotnik were carefully stored into crates before those were loaded onto the train. Statutes of the Doctor were painstakingly given custom sized crates and packing material. No piece of art looked quite the same and no doubt caused artists no end of issues trying to make sure everything was unique in some way.

'What a surprise, the dues this city owes to Robotnik is rather low for being a city.' I huffed internally and crossed my arms. 'Of course that egotistical maniac considers artwork dedicated to him to be worth their weight in gold.'

Soon nearly all the taxes had been loaded up, I say nearly because there was the matter of a ginormous stone head of the Doctor though without his mustache.

"What's the deal with the head?" I ask Need.

"You don't know?" The Mayor blinks at me a moment before adjusting his glasses and answering. "Doctor Robotnik tasked us with the construction of an especially large statue. We've been building it in portions and have just managed to finish the last piece. Well… pieces, as you can see we had to keep the mustache separate otherwise it couldn't be transported safely."

Ah, so that's what those two long spiky looking things on the ground were.

"So where is this statue?" Judging from the fact the head was present at the station it was clearly somewhere far off.

"South west of here along the coast." Need answered before suddenly nervously pulling out a cloth to clean his glasses. "U-umm, you'll need to transport it yourself as well as take some people along with you to properly install the head."

"Transport it myself?" I looked at him sharply, I was kinda making good time but if I had to make a significant detour it may cause me to fall behind. "Why? Are there no rail lines along the area?"

"I couldn't say sir!" Need shook his head emphatically, near desperate to placate me. "The Doctor doesn't make his transportation network known to us. This project has always been transported by the tax collecting badnik units and we've always had to send people along to install the pieces."

I… could potentially see the twisted logic there. To further place the burden on the people, make them responsible for the safe transport of their own dues. It wouldn't do after all if something happened to an object as significant as this without someone to conveniently blame it all on. Why imagine if the Doctor had to take a hit to his own pride that he hadn't protected or secured something of value to him?

"Very well, make sure those you send with me have a fast vehicle. I'll be moving at a fast pace as much as possible and don't want to be slowed down."

"Of course, sir!" Need bowed his head. "I'll go make sure of this immediately!"

Taking a breath I only released it into a sigh once Need was out of earshot. I only spent half a day in this place and it already felt like far too long. I kinda wish I could have taken my time here as the sheer amount of badniks present in the city actually gave me some semblance of safety. Not a whole lot since they could and would turn on me in an instant if I gave them a reason, but enough to almost relax if I distracted myself.

Well at least delivering the statue parts should be fairly straightforward. I wouldn't even need to attempt installation myself! So that was one big concern lifted off of my shoulders. Normally I'd still have other concerns like the eventful transport of the head becoming very eventful but I had a small army in badniks with me.

Surely the beaten down populace of the Empire were no threat by now?

-TBC-​

Author Note: Oof! When I initially planned this part out I had thought it was going to be short enough to include a little interlude. I am still bad at making accurate guesses at how much work an idea will need in order to put it to 'paper'.

In any case the next part will be an interlude starring a group of highly defiant and very much NOT beaten down people. I wanna say it'll be a bit on the shorter side but I'm not going to make any promises.

 

[Legionary]

Interlude: Freedom Fighters

The sound of scraping metal filled the air of the tent as I carefully sharpened my blade.

Great care had to be taken, it was an old thing having been in use for over fifty years. The knife wasn't really good for combat purposes anymore, having been sharpened down to little more than a long shank over the decades. Barely better then the short savage little numbers found in prisons. I even had to remove its good handle for something smaller to make it look less silly.

We have so much in common, this knife and I, that we might as well be brothers.

The wind blows and carries with it the smell of burning wood and weeks of unwashed skin and fur. Used to the smell I may be but it still ruined the mood. It was the beginning of some prime old man musings!

Bah probably best I got interrupted anyway.

Carefully sheathing the old blade into a hidden sheath I stood up, half expecting popping noises and spikes of pain. I was always surprised by their absence but after decades of working past my prime I had been used to pain. Some people might hesitate at replacing worn out joints with alloyed prosthesis, trading in old failing organs with rejuvenated cloned innards. But some people ain't a man in his seventies who used every favor he had to get his veteran benefits despite being 'dishonorably' discharged.

"Snot nosed little bastard!" Anger spiked, still hot despite years left to cool but I wouldn't let it.

If I had my way I'd still be out here but disavowed instead of discharged, if I had my way we'd be doing so much more with GUN's ascension to global power. I'll give the heterochromic little albino bastard this much, he was a lot more willing to be sleazy then I thought he'd be. Were I ten years younger I'd have tried to get back at the little shit. Getting into that kinda fight was for fat politicians, stupid shits who thought they were powerful just because they had a title and some money to throw around.

Maybe if they wore all that wealth to bed not so many of them would have been introduced to this ole shank of mine?

Hesitating at the flap of my tent I basked in the deluge of memories that washed over me. Faces of man and woman who thought a fancy seat behind a fancier desk gave them any kind of real protection, their fear and panic as their blood drained away. Sadly they weren't targets that terribly often, just like in ye olden days the 'nobility' got the dignity of live captures and ransoms most of the time. The majority of my targets had been people of lower status but had been deemed a threat in one way or another. I hadn't known why at the time, I wasn't high enough rank and even when I had obtained the rank I had no interest to find out. Course my fellow humans weren't the only targets. There had been plenty of missions for culling the herds…

Which made the sight outside my tent all the more infuriating for what it represented.

Hidden beneath the pine canopy of an evergreen forest in the morning light was our encampment. Further hiding us was the layer of pine branches covering each tent and the smokeless cooking fires I had painstakingly taught how to make. So long as we kept the fires to an absolute minimum and our scouts kept an eye to the sky we'd avoid detection by thermals. Anything else? Well there was a reason why we kept the camp stone age, couldn't detect radio signals and the like they simply weren't there in the first place. All of this had taken so much to set up, even more to ensure it was maintained safely. It should have been something to take pride in, a cancerous blight to poison baby Julian's holdings. A sign that no amount of metal was going to keep a good man down. And it would have been if it weren't for the fucking animals.

Almost completely ruining the sight of the camp were the damn mobians in our midst. There were plenty of right and proper humans, good and proud men and women who wanted to free their homes. Each one wearing a full set of fatigues in forest camo patterns. But at an infuriatingly equal number were the little furry fuckers. Mother and her Saints save my soul from this constant humiliation! I had spent a full year trying to get just minimal numbers to get some decent operations off the ground. Julian must have lobotomized the pride out of my fellow humans because I just flat out failed to get the numbers at the rate I needed. Even worse was the fact that the idea of taking in these fuzzy little ingrates was the idea of my appointed officers. They could have offered solutions to the loss of pride and spirit in our fellow man but instead kept badgering me with recruiting these walking carpets. It was the first time I had been ashamed to be a good soldier, that I had to take into account our situation for what it was and agree.

So now we had mobian troops… Thank the Holy Mother that I've yet to step on a hairball I swear if I do I'll lose my fucking shit!

"Commander Jeon!" A voice called and I nearly cracked a smile at hearing my rank. Course that was ruined when I saw who was calling me.

"Commander, the messages are fully decrypted!" Said some kind of vermin, maybe an opossum.

"Good! Call the officers to the conference tent." I ordered, if there was exactly one thing I liked about having these animals under my command was how easy it was to look down my nose at them.

"Yes sir!" The rodent said and saluted in a manner I was sure was sloppy, I was already turning away and making for the central tent.

The conference tent was several tarps lashed together and anchored to a large pine tree, which in itself was already a luxurious use of resources. But we did genuinely need a somewhat secure space for leadership to talk of important things. Having meetings out in the open where every rank and file can hear has its purpose but those were mostly for show, get the grunts all ramped up and their blood boiling for action. All the details in those meetings would have been worked out beforehand.

Entering I was met with the sight of a small circle of chairs around two holes in the dirt floor. To my utter lack of surprise I saw that someone was already at her typical seat.

"Topaz." I greeted the young woman.

"Dan." Topaz nodded in greeting.

"The early bird as always." I commented, turning a sneer into a thoughtful frown with long practice.

I so very much wanted to instill order and discipline in my recruits. Make them a fighting force worth taking seriously with steely eyes and spines to match. But that was just old experiences tainting new ones. GUN back in the day had been more of an elite special force rather than the general standing army it had transformed into over the decades. I was just too used to people knowing their shit and not needing to be taught the pecking order and that they should respect it at all costs. These were recruits, practically conscripts. They weren't the experienced and tested commando elite I had served with throughout my whole career. And without months of training and the right facilities they were never going to be, at best I could hope they'd turn into their own ramshackle but well oiled machine from experience.

Which was honestly a massive disappointment if only because that meant that Judith Topaz was never going to get the training she deserved. She was not amazing or a stand out soldier in any one talent but she was great at soldiering in general. Topaz saw struggle as a whetstone to sharpen herself endlessly against and never quavered at it. She would be an amazing soldier for GUN and whether I succeeded or failed here I had hopes of sending her south over the border.

'Live or die I'll see this woman become the soldier she deserves to be.'

Personal vow made, I settled myself into a seat.

Soon the two other members of our little junta arrived.

I smiled at the sight of Hunter entering first. The man was always in his hunting camos and even preferred to sleep out under his homemade ghillie suit. Something that had surprised me at how well made it was despite the work being done by a civilian. The man's name was impossibly appropriate, I've met few others in my career who could match Hunter in his tracking and scouting work and none with such reliable consistency. Placing him in charge of our scouting operation was an obvious choice and one I hadn't regretted.

However there was one interesting thing about the man I've since discovered.

In the region of his home there had been rather high reports of disappearances by the animals, something rightfully pushed aside and left to the little furries to figure out themselves. It was their land after all, wouldn't be right to intrude. Along with that when I had formed our resistance and Hunter had melted out of the woodland to join us he had refused for quite a while to bring anyone to his home. He had given an excuse that it was too dangerous, that badnik patrols would spot even him if he were to go back with numbers. Something I suspected to be untrue and had proven it to myself when I had undertaken my own scouting of the area. It was even more suspicious when Hunter finally led people back and his home turned out to be a self-sufficient and fully shielded underground bunker hidden in the heart of a forest. No one had seen anything Hunter didn't want them to see and they returned with as many guns and bullets as they could carry.

Personally I had no intention of pushing the matter any further. It was obvious to me that in Hunter's home was a trophy room rivaling those of rich freaks and the offices of cartel bosses. There would be some issues if he was discovered considering the growing acceptance of the animals in our resistance but that was a matter to be handled when and if it happened.

Entering the tent just behind was a dark skinned man of quite plainly morerikan descent. Randall wasn't much of a fighter, especially compared to the likes of Topaz and Hunter. A decent enough soldier at the end of the day but the man's talents leaned towards a more supportive role. Previously a successful procurement officer for some research facility before Julian grabbed them all up, the man almost effortlessly shifted into a logistics and morale role and proved himself capable of handling both. So long as supplies kept coming in Randall would make sure they went where they needed to go and which groups sorely needed an extra ration of beer.

Randall had also agreed with Topaz on the topic of bringing mobians into our resistance, something that to my quiet shock, Hunter had also agreed. Considering what the man had almost certainly gotten up to before joining us it was plainly confusing as all hell why he was fine with it. Didn't he hate the stupid furry little fuckers?!? Why the hell would he bother with hunting them if he didn't?!

Infuriating but that was neither here nor there.

"Take a seat gentlemen!" I commanded, gesturing to the empty chairs.

It was good that our junta was still entirely human but at this rate I'd be forced to take an animal seriously, I just knew it.

"How goes the scouting, Hunter?" I asked as the man settled into his seat.

"Oh quite well! Quite well indeed!" The man said in something approaching a refined tone. "Our people are still stomping through the woods like they want to wake every animal and mobini within miles but it's getting there!"

"Good. Supplies and mood, Randall?" I said before turning from Hunter to the other man.

"We're still flush off the last shipment sent out." Randall smiled. "The boys and girls are feeling good, feeling like they're doing something. If we want or if we even need to we could afford to throw a little party. Shore up the mood for any big things we might get up too."

"Fantastic news!" I congratulated before huffing. "Might as well complete the set… Topaz! How are the soldiers?"

"Just fine, Commander Jeon." Topaz answered respectfully and formally like the soldier she deserved to be. Still as much as I liked the difference she ought to be aware that officers could be relaxed amongst one another. "They've taken to the training regimen with a will! Keeping them from running into the first fight they see is going to be a problem in fact."

"I like the enthusiasm I really do but they need to learn to sit on their asses when told to do so." I thought aloud with a grimace, imagining trying to set up a proper ambush only for someone to jump the gun. "Something for you and I to work on, Topaz."

"Yes, sir." Topaz nodded seriously.

For their parts Hunter just stared on with an amused smile and Randall just sat patiently with arms crossed, a respectful demeanor about him but not nearly anything approaching Topaz's level of formality. Topaz really was like the familiar feeling of home with her soldier-like demeanor despite her lack of proper training. It was a struggle to not coddle the girl simply because I felt like I was among soldiers again and that feeling was something to be cherished.

'Afterall, it's not like I can ever go back now.'

"Returning to an important matter." I said with a shake of my head before turning to our scout master. "Hunter, the decrypted message?"

Clearing his throat and retrieving a note from his pocket the man spoke.

"Message start.

Robotnik irregular activity update.

Potential source spotted.

Tax convoy mobian leader.

Leader Reginald Rabbit.

New cash crop confiscated.

Leader current Metropolis.

End message."

I leaned forward, hands on my knees and could feel my face crease into a hundred craggy lines. There was a lot to unpack here.

"Since when does Eggman have flesh and blood Commanders?" Randall said in audible confusion.

"Since when do mobians seriously consider working with the man?" Hunter added with a thoughtful hum.

"New cash crop?" Topaz blinked a moment before her eyes widened. "The new field of smokeleaf! He took it?"

"Like I said, we're still flush but those new fields would have helped us expand." Randall commented. "Whoever this guy is, he took one look at those fields and immediately figured out they were suspicious."

"It's not such a great indicator of talent." Hunter waved off. "The local agents were too heavy handed in getting the smokeleaf planted. A proper mobian settlement like that should have had multiple kinds of crops to diversify their diet. The fact they both didn't and had whole fields of crops they couldn't eat was a dead giveaway."

"Point, this also looks like we finally have our answer for the weird activity at certain bases and outposts." Topaz said. "Remember that scare we had when our scouts nearly ran into badnik patrols? We had gotten complacent and had expected the bots to keep to the script and nearly paid for it when they didn't. I bet if we dug through our scouting reports we could pick out the times when the patrols started changing."

"It would show that it wasn't happening all at once, instead happening one at a time." Hunter nodded thoughtfully. "The Doctor assigned his new enforcer to new locations… hmm, testing him perhaps?"

"Whatever the tests were he clearly passed them." Randall remarked. "Here he is out in the open leading and commanding badniks instead of the typical horde boss bots we usually see."

"We have to kill him." I said loudly, immediately ceasing all discussion.

"...That goes without saying, sir." Topaz said as all eyes suddenly shifted to me. "But the way you said it…"

"Ah, I see now." Hunter leaned back with crossed arms and a thoughtful nod. "Reginald is an anomaly and represents a dangerous precedent that we have to snuff out as soon as possible."

"What's so important about him?" Topaz asked. "Aside from maybe being insightful all I see is an enemy we have to fight, flesh and blood instead of steel and oil but an enemy all the same."

"No, I'm seeing it now too." Randall said and leaned forward. "This isn't the first time some guy had the bright idea of working for Eggman, people who wanna make their own burdens lighter, people who think they see which way the wind is blowing and guys who see someone who'll pay them for being mercenaries. So far Eggman refused pretty much everyone except for a handful of times he needed criminals of talent."

"And those contracts were always short lived." Hunter added. "Weeks, sometimes only days. Not really a surprise, the Doctor seems to hate the idea that he needs to rely on anyone but himself. With his genius and his machines it's rather hard to refute him. However this was something of an advantage."

"Yeah, real damn easy to dehumanize an enemy that's just a robot." Randall nodded. "No messy ethics to dance around, the enemy doesn't cry and scream and beg for mercy. Shoot 'em enough and they spark and fall over. Nice and clean, no fuss, no muss. But that would all change if Eggman decided to start recruiting regular people along with his badniks. We'd have to deal with both bots and people, probably twice the numbers in any possible fight. Not to mention the risk that some of those people might just end up related to any one of our fighters…"

"And that would get messy really fast." Topaz gritted her teeth.

Yeah no kidding, the kind of bitching and whining about family I heard on the daily in training and even during my time as a commando had been irritating as all hell. It made me glad my old folks had been planning on kicking me out, made leaving in the night all the more easy. Even now just thinking about how I timed it just right so that I had just turned eighteen by the time I applied myself to an army recruiter… It was all very pleasant memories. Not at the time of course, at the time I was pissed as all fuck and my first month in boot was barely any better. But then the best kind of adventures were only fun afterwards.

'Focus.' Chiding myself I returned to the task at hand.

"You all understand what is at stake." I said to my three officers. "For whatever reason Ivo decided that this one mobian is worth making a direct subordinate. Whether or not this mobian has skills that even he can't ignore doesn't matter. What matters is what this mobian represents, a potential escalation of the already overwhelming force we are fighting against. If this mobian continues to prove himself it might be that Ivo will consider more people entering his forces. That cannot be allowed to come to pass…"

"Reginald the Rabbit must die." I stated this firmly.

"What's the plan sir?" Topaz asked as she and the others nodded their agreement.

"The report stated he was currently in Metropolis, combined with the fact he is the leader of the tax convoy it's obvious what he is there for." Taking out my shank I rapidly shape a map in the ashes of the firepit.

"The ego tributes and the statue pieces." Randall stated.

"Isn't that thing about done?" Hunter asked.

"It just needs the head left to put on." I nodded as I finished the rough map of Julian's holdings. "Randall, it looks like we finally have an excuse to use one of your plans for the statue."

The man grinned eagerly. Randall wans't that much of a strategist, as far as he was concerned any chance to hit Julian should be taken. Even if ultimately all that hit would accomplish is the bruising of the bristly brat's ego. As amusing as burning grinning banners, slashing portraits and smashing statues were we had to prioritize our resources. That wasn't to say we didn't do that, it was easy work and easy wins for morale, the best equipped army in the world could get annihilated by poorly equipped enemies if they didn't feel like they could win. Randall had been pitching destroying the statue since its legs had been built but until now there was no actual reason to do so.

"We need to get ahold of agents on site, get people into place." Pointing at Metropolis on the map I motioned along the road towards the coast. "We should assume that the target only stayed the night and that he is leaving sometime today, maybe even as we speak. We'll send a number of conditional orders back to Metropolis depending on whether or not the convoy has left or if there is still an opportunity to prepare some surprises. Whether this part is successful or not we'll move forward with the assumption that it wasn't, we have little time to keep everyone actively informed."

"I'm not sure if we have enough manpower at such short notice." Topaz's eyes narrowed and her lips tightened to a thin line. "Or if we can get them to the coast before the convoy."

"I can get them there in time." Hunter nodded confidently. "Whether or not they'll be in top fighting shape… well as Miss Topaz has said, the question of whether or not we have the manpower to do anything meaningful is questionable. With the timetable we're running on there simply isn't enough time to bring in our most distant fighters. The kind of forces that escort the taxes for the Empire…"

"You all know what that road looks like, there is a way!" Randall assured but hesitated.

"That kind of ambush will be deadly." Topaz remarked and then her eyes hardened with a grim stare. "Not only for Reginald but anyone else with him."

"You know what is at stake here." I said quickly, best not to let anyone dwell too much on collateral. "Already our people have sacrificed a lot just fighting the regular badnik forces. If we don't act decisively we might end up fighting people too, potential friends and families of our own fighters taking arms against their liberation. We have to do all we can to keep that from happening."

Topaz was still grim but accepting, Randall was gritting his teeth, clearly upset but I've seen his sort before so he won't be a problem any time soon. Hunter was a bit of a surprise in that he was frowning in disappointment and distaste. Didn't think he would have issues with this but it was very likely the man simply took pride in his precision, what was essentially going to be a messy bombing run wasn't what he'd have done.

"It's… for the greater good." Topaz said in the ensuing silence and after a moment my other two officers nodded.

Holding back a sigh of satisfaction I lean back in my seat and stare at the ceiling, imagining the sky beyond. Almost absently I remember that tonight would be about the time that old rock would float by in this part of the night sky. Almost smiling I can't help but fondly reminisce of the place where my career really took off.

'Maybe if I'm lucky I'll spot it glimmering as it goes by for luck?'

-TBC-​

Author Note: And I'm back! To quickly explain and put it behind me I'm currently in a rented home but am working on replacing the most important valuables from the fire. I'll have an actual owned house roughly by fall. Everything is fine.

Now then!

Here are our local freedom fighters, quite the difference from a certain other forest dwelling group of rabble rousers. Led by self appointed Commander Dan Jeon. A man who is very much not a fan of Commander Tower. I've had a certain amount of fun looking up human characters for this group and ultimately decided it was better to have them all come from different sources so to speak.

I'm still working on my skills with writing first person but I feel that I'm starting to get the hang of it. Still plenty of room for improvement though! Though maybe I'll write in limited third person for certain kinds of interludes in the future.

Until next time!

 

[Syroc]

Wait, your home burned down? I'm glad to hear you're doing alright, but damn. Good on you for managing to get a chapter out at all.

 

[Legionary]

2.5

The highways of the Eggman Empire were expansive land bridges that only occasionally snaked around obstacles, more often than not it seemed that great expense had been taken in destroying anything standing in the way of 'Egg-perial' ambitions.

'Ah it appears I am starting to get accustomed to my predicament.' I let out a huff and crossed my arms as Lady took control. 'What with me making egg puns now. Next thing you know I'll be calling Robotnik, Dr. Eggman now.'

The use of the pseudonym was rising rapidly over time which was no surprise considering who coined it, I mean come on even Robotnik himself used it and the man was egotistical as all hell. Maybe it was because of the whole 'arch-nemesis' thing he had going with Sonic that he was fine with being known and referring to himself as 'Eggman'. Despite this I did not want to call him Eggman myself, it felt too much like a step towards disrespect for the man. While I may not like him at all to say the least there was no choice but to respect the threat he represented. Also in all likelihood at this point Robotnik would have noticed my insistence upon his actual name, and thus probably interpret calling him Eggman as a lack of respect.

Finding myself at a pause in my musings I glance over my shoulder at the convoy before grimacing.

Despite what I had said back in Metropolis we had slowed down greatly with the addition of the humans accompanying us. The problem wasn't even their vehicle which was a shiny and sleek black car, a recent and expensive model as far as I was aware. According to the humans I was traveling at a frightening pace and even on the highway they were unwilling to go as fast as I would like. Possibly they were right, Lady was basically the first vehicle I had regularly operated and also had no speedometer so I had no reference for how fast we were going. It certainly didn't feel like we were going too fast but again, no reference for that.

Just suck it up, you are still within the expected schedule.' With a barely restrained grumble I slunk down in my seat.

It had been exceedingly uncommon that I had taken rides in vehicles, let alone briefly operate one. It had been mostly intentional. Vehicles were a human invention so I didn't want to tarnish the experience of traveling the world and visiting mobian communities by going about like a human. My ancestors had spread to the far corners of the world by the power of their own limbs and so I would see the world the same way as much as possible. Being a mobian who lived traditionally I was already fit and trim but the globe spanning hike had certainly toned me up. All of that had been done for the pleasure of the experience but all that pride and reluctance went out the window the moment my life was on the line. Now that I was in the 'employ' of Robotnik and had no choice but to make use of mechanized transportation for regular travel…

Well it was certainly extremely convenient. Because of this there was now a traitorous part of me that wondered if my travels would really have been ruined by getting ahold of actual transportation. Said ancestors had traveled by foot out of sheer necessity, no? Surely they would have traveled in vehicles if they were available… right?

Something inside of me twisted and a massive urge to completely hate what I was doing surged up. I wanted to double down on my heritage as a mobian, hate the technology the humans invented. My people's ways worked for countless generations and even now the humans with all their new weapons and tech struggle to take what is ours. Unfortunately for such desires I was now a part of the problem, if Robotnik ordered I make my people abandon their ways and traditions in favor of his own methods at gunpoint… well as much as I want to believe I would decide that enough was enough my own actions have proven I value my life far more.

'Damn dirty coward… if you had any pride in yourself you'd let the next enemy kill you since you're too gutless to get yourself killed resisting Robotnik.'

Gritting my teeth I find myself gripping onto Lady's antenna as hard as I can. Briefly the image of myself driving Lady off the highway fills my mind, the further mental image of myself splatting across the countryside brings up dark and terrible emotions. Shaking my head I take a deep hissing breath through my teeth.

'I need to distract myself from my own drama.'

Reaching up I manipulate the communicator built into my helmet. Robotnik's communication network had no stations meant for music or recreation of any kind. Well, the regular network anyway. In all likelihood Robotnik's personal network was probably tapped into every conceivable network in existence so he could listen or watch whatever he wished. I didn't exactly know the truth of the matter, again despite being his right hand man the amount of actual authority I had in the Empire was dubious. What I did have was unlimited access to the regular channels full of robotic voices beeping or endlessly uploading updates. The noise became almost like music if you listened to it long enough but that might be desperation talking.

I had in fact almost convinced myself there was some kind of rhythm to the machine noise spluttering over the radio when there was an abrupt change.

"Situation Update! Foreign sea craft violating Empire borders!"

"Query: Position of craft in relation to borders?"

"Craft currently washed ashore! Under observation by aerial units!"

"Alarm Query: Status of sensor net?"

"Sensor net fully functional!"

"Confused Query: Quality of invading craft?"

"Fishing vessel! Chun-Nan markings! Readings show as dead in the water! No lifesigns and minimal electrical readings!"

"Response Suggestion: Maintain observation of craft, patrols shall investigate once scheduled routes intersect."

"Acknowledged!"

Spoken at a frequency and speed utterly incomprehensible to most people, a pair of machine voices crackled and squeaked at one another. Although there are times where I find myself wishing I was a mobian with abilities better suited for combat, times like this frequently remind me that sometimes something as boring as 'enhanced hearing' can be endlessly useful.

Hmmm… I should be able to just insert myself into this…

"This is Underboss, Reginald the Rabbit." Though my audience were merely machines I nonetheless attempted an air of dignity in my announcement. "What is the location of the vessel in relation to the statue Metropolis is tasked to build?"

"Sir! The invading craft is beached on the western coastline! The route Metropolis must take to the statue runs right past it!"

What was originally just an inquiry made out of a combination of boredom and curiosity suddenly had a chill going down my spine. According to the shouty machine it was merely a dead fishing vessel that washed ashore. Little better than a pile of driftwood and flotsam. But after surviving a battle where half of the enemies wielded literal stone age weaponry against killbots and winning I found myself suspicious of such a thing.

Already thoughts of my convoy passing a seemingly lifeless shipwreck only to be ambushed from behind by warriors with primitive weapons filled my mind. Once there was a time where such thoughts would have me smirk in delight, warriors weidling traditional weapons running roughshod over machines wielding weapons more advanced than what even GUN could make. It was a thought that should have brought up feelings of pride but now that I was potentially the target of such a force… I could only feel fear for my life.

'I have to investigate this.' The thought formed in my mind and to my own dismay I could not disagree.

It wasn't my job to investigate it but the danger it posed was too much to ignore. The badnik horde could because even if it was a problem they could drown it in numbers eventually, they cared not for their continued existence or the lives of their power sources. Although I doubted I was viewed as any less expendable by Robotnik I very much viewed myself as important. I wanted to live, survive and thrive no matter how little I deserved to. Despite my terror at the idea of investigating this potential threat my previous experience had taught me it was best to have the initiative. The times I hadn't had it before had gone badly for us, the first time we had lost dozens of badniks to a tiny ambushing force and the last time we had lost.

'On top of that I know I can't take the entire or even the majority of the convoy forces with me.'

My task was to collect Robotnik's taxes, not go take care of breaches in the Empire's borders. It seemed like a reasonable thing to deviate away from given goals to take care of, can't collect taxes in the middle of an invasion, right? Robotnik's mercurial nature made that an uncertain thing however. Would he approve of me showing initiative and being proactive? Or would he find the idea of a minion that made decisions for himself offensive? Counterpoint, would see me sticking to a given task despite more important problems springing up as being maliciously obedient? It was one thing to expect such inflexibility from a machine but I was flesh and blood, my thought process wasn't a rigid series of ones and zeroes and thus I should know better.

'Well… guess I'll have to settle for the worst of both choices.'

"Two squads of fast movers and one squadron with me!" I barked out as I ramped up Lady's throttle. "Saffron take point with the flyers! Deffy, guard the convoy and maintain course!"

Speeding down the highway with a relatively tiny force of wheeled and flying badniks I could only grit my teeth at the ball of ice settling in my chest. Ideally I'd tackle a potential ambush with my entire force but I had to ensure the timely delivery of the taxes. So I had no choice but to leave behind the majority of my badniks to ensure the security of our cargo, including what I considered my most potent killbot! On top of that due to how little badniks I had with me I wouldn't be able to get away with hiding behind a wall of murderous metal.

'Leading the charge on this one… spirits why?' Pushing aside feelings of despair with some struggle I cranked Lady's throttle harder and sped along the highway.

Paradoxically the following hours passed both quickly and slowly. Dreading what was to come had me hoping the miles would never end, the sheer inevitability of the task before me had those hours run out like a puddle beneath a summer sun.

In what seemed like no time at all I found myself gazing off from the road towards a somewhat distant beach. In the distance, somewhat wallowing in the surf, was a modern fishing trawler. I mention modern because for some odd reason this one appeared to have a multicolored sail strung across its superstructure.

More importantly its surroundings were very bare and open and would allow us plenty of room to surround the trawler. In fact the closest bit of cover was a nearby thickly grown treeline. Even if this is an ambush we should be able to handle it… unless…

"Observation unit, any changes in the fishing vessel since our arrival?" I questioned over the radio as I eyed the treeline.

"Negative! No activity since last report, Underboss!"

"Good…" I murmured with a relieved sigh before waving towards the beached fishing ship. "Surround the vessel!"

Saffron and the flyers swarmed the air around the ship as we drove off the road and down towards the beach. We had a brief moment where our wheels started burying themselves into the sand but the badniks were quite capable of hopping, combined with a rapid shift of the wheel treads to something more appropriate we were quickly continuing. Soon I was dismounting Lady with no little amount of trepidation.

Now closer I could make out the finer details of the vessel, its weather worn state, rust marks in the more unimportant areas, markings with characters in the language of Chun-Nan. And this close now I could see that the "sail" was perhaps not an odd addition but perhaps done out of desperation. The sail wasn't of one cloth but many, many pieces of clothing stitched together with fishing line. Most importantly were the patches of torn metal, scorch marks and blood stains.

'... Was this an actual accident?'

Perhaps I wasn't dealing with a potential ambush at all but the end result of a catastrophe at sea. Either way I found the tension draining away along with the fear. Even in the face of this discovery however I wasn't going to just go straight in.

"See anything, Saffron?" I asked as I opened up the trunk and grabbed my shotgun.

My customized buzz bomber quickly orbited the fishing trawler before suddenly stopping before the bridge. It leaned in to get a better look before looking back towards me and nodding energetically.

"... Next time I have the budget I am getting you a proper voice box, all three of you in fact." Quite belatedly I realized the downsides of having a personal minion slash bodyguard who cannot talk. All Saffron could do was confirm that it could see something, what that thing was would require either an inordinate amount of charades the robo wasp would no doubt fail at or just see it for myself.

Walking past Lady who suddenly perked up at my words I made for the fishing trawler.

The flyers closed in ever closer to ensure my protection and a motobug hopped in after me as I jumped aboard the vessel. Onboard the trawler I could make out even more blood stains and quite a few distortions in the floor circled by soot. Not only that but there was a number of blood streaks leading to the railing.

'Maybe this wasn't an accident?'

Was I seeing the aftermath of a ship attacked by pirates? Bodies dragged and thrown overboard, signs of what I was now considering to be explosion damage from fresh experience. But why would pirates attack a fishing trawler? They were going hungry at sea maybe? Just attacked the first fishing vessel they came across, killed anyone that got in the way of their looting and left it dead in the water? Then one of the victims wasn't as dead as first appeared and managed to get their damaged vessel on course with the nearest coast?

'Well… one way to find out.' I looked up towards the bridge where Saffron confirmed it found something.

Keeping my shotgun at the ready I climbed the stairs up to the bridge and found the door busted in and barely hanging by a hinge. Inside I found a large hole where the helm probably was along with a large amount of blood splattering everywhere. But that wasn't the only thing I found.

"Alfa?" Hesitantly I stepped closer to the slunk form of the coconuts badnik I had thought destroyed.

The prototype coconuts had been in a rather ramshackle condition since I had met the little murder bot but looking at him now I wondered if he wasn't scrap now. Its entire form was riddled with dents and little holes and it had made crude repairs where it could. The front half of one foot was replaced with the head of a shovel and one hand was now an iron vice I wondered was at all functional. Likely patching large holes was a number of metal plates clumsily welded onto its chassis. One eye was a shattered pile of junk and sprouting wires and its jaw was rather skeletal in appearance and only hanging on by one hinge.

"Alfa!" In an instant I found myself kneeling by the machine's side and shaking its sea salt rusted shoulder. To my shock I found myself hoping the little irritating badnik was still functional and merely in some kind of sleep mode. This hope seemed futile at first but suddenly there was a growing hum emitting from the badnik. The hum started to stutter and crackle and with a lethal sounding pop a spark emitted from Alfa's exposed wires and the hum started dying down.

"Dammit…" With a sigh I stepped back and stared down at the badnik.

Alfa appeared to be dying and here I was nowhere near a hospital, plus I only knew enough first aid to patch wounds and handle sprains, not do field surgery to sew up mortal injuries. What the hell was I going to do! He was going to… I'm an idiot…

'Alfa is a robot, not flesh and blood.' Shaking my head at my stupidity I grabbed the monkey bot by one arm and slung its body over my shoulder in a fireman's carry. 'I could literally have it dismantled for easier transport and it would be fine. All I need to do is just bring Alfa to a mechanic and it will be back on its feet in no time.'

Coming back out with the machine slung over my shoulder I looked over the fishing trawler and a different picture of what had happened formed in my mind. Alfa had clearly hijacked this fishing vessel to make its way back to the Mother Egg. It had either killed the crew in the taking or they tried to take their ship back after Alfa took it over. Considering the sail… it likely wasn't the first vessel Alfa had taken. Likely it had hopped from ship to ship as each one ran out of fuel in its voyage across the ocean to North Arcadia. This vessel had been close enough that Alfa had simply ran out the fuel and created a sail out of the crew's clothes to get the rest of the way.

'Seems the likely series of events.' I thought with a nod and made my way back to Lady.

Briefly I wondered how in the world I was going to strap Alfa to Lady's hull before just deciding to store it in the trunk. I had to keep my shotgun strapped to myself and load myself down with ammo to make room but I managed to fold Alfa into the remaining space. After that I simply waited by the roadside for the convoy to catch up to me. It wasn't a very long wait, barely twenty minutes later I saw it appear down the road and I directed my group to start moving down the road to smoothly integrate back with the convoy.

'Well that turned out far better than I thought.' Leaning back to let Lady handle the driving I considered the little diversion I went on. 'Went in expecting an ambush and instead found Alfa. Honestly that's something of a massive relief in a way. I never realized just how goddamn lonely it is in the 'employ' of Doctor Robotnik. No wonder the man likes to make quirky robots. Even he would fall into madness with nothing to keep him company. Misery loves company as they say.'

It wasn't much longer before our final destination came into view.

Taking a place of pride at the point of an artificial ridge in a cliffside was a nearly complete statue of Robotnik. The statue was only missing the head and was set in a pose with arms stretched wide open in an almost welcoming gesture. Of course anyone who even vaguely knew the man could tell the pose was more him reaching out to grab hold and take as much as he could.

As our convoy continued along the cliffside road I leaned and glanced down the ledge. Below was a stony coastline with a close line of forest along it. Nearer the cliffs was a great mess of rocks and broken logs and I wondered just how much of the mountain was cut away to make this ledge. Absently I looked up the cliffs in curiosity and found myself frowning at a small shape that suddenly popped into view.

'What? Is that a huma-'

There was a distant boomf and my ears popped as a light appeared and closed in on us in a near instant. Vaguely I was reminded of the large crabmeats that had fired rockets at the humans as the light impacted the Robotnik head we were transporting. I had expected a small explosion and a torn metal ruin that used to be a replica of the Doctor's head. There indeed was a small explosion but it was followed by a far larger one in a near instant.

Immediately I was knocked senseless, my ears popping and ringing from the cacophony. I must have blacked out for a moment because suddenly my face was pressed into where Lady's dashboard would have been if it had one. All I could hear was seemingly the rush of my blood through my veins. My head throbbed with pain and dizziness I thought would never end and it was all I could do to hang onto Lady to keep from falling off. Then quite suddenly it was over, I could hear and merely staying in my seat wasn't a nigh impossible task.

Looking back up I could see more shapes on the cliffside along with my flying badniks swarming up to get at them. Suddenly the ground started to shake and I could hear explosions from below. The view of the coast was obscured by clouds of dust and smoke and it was only now the confusion had finally cleared my mind and I realized that we were under attack!

Some of our badniks could scale sheer rock faces and were slowly joining our flyers on the attack above. Others with built in weapons started lining up along the ledge to start firing below. But over the deafening din of combat was a noise that turned my blood to ice.

The earth rumbled and shifted beneath us and the sound of falling and crashing stones sounded up from below.

Barely warding off feelings of abject panic I gripped Lady's antenna and practically tried to tear them off with how hard I pulled a u-turn. After my turn I was met with the sight of Dessy's scorched and battered form entangled with the flaming wreck of the cargokiller that had been carrying the head. With a revving of its shredding teeth that sounded more like an outraged roar it was dragged down by the wreckage through the freshly blown hole in the road. Had this been a more calm moment I would have been furious with the amount of invested time and resources Dessy's loss represented, as it was I was far more concerned with directing Lady over the rapidly crumbling remnant of road around the hole.

More explosions filled the air and I felt my stomach drop out of me from the ground shifting even more. Cracks started appearing in the road and I had to zig and zag Lady over them to avoid trapping the tire in the new gaps. I was just managing to avoid getting caught in the cracks, no doubt mostly to sheer dumb luck, when a significant roadblock appeared before me.

The car the humans from Metropolis had been assigned handled exceedingly well on an asphalt surface, the same couldn't be said for a road that was both falling apart and falling down. The humans had likely been frozen in shell shock like I had been and now had tried to turn around on the two lane cliff road. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the widening cracks in the road that quickly caught the tires of their car. In shared panic they remained in the car while the driver moved the car back and forth in an attempt to get loose. More importantly the car being trapped sideways blocked the road and the growing cracks meant I couldn't just drive around.

"SAFFRON!" I shouted before pointing sharply at the car. "Get them outta here!!!"

A near instant later the badnik in question nearly crashed into the car with how fast it flew down towards it. The legs of the machine wrapped around the car and its thrusters ramped up to full power as it lifted the vehicle. Though now clearly greatly encumbered it still started flying away at a decent clip. I was just about to drive through the cleared road when the rumbling noise ramped to a deafening volume. To my utter horror I watched as the cracked road before me started to rapidly disintegrate and disappear. Where there once was a narrow path for the foolhardy and reckless there was now nothing but nearly sheer cliffside. Looking over my shoulder I found it was the same thing where I had come from, vast swatches of road disappearing and dragging badniks down with them.

Utterly panic stricken I found myself throwing Lady in reverse anyway and tried to pull away from the disappearing road. Soon I found myself smashing back into the cliffside as I backed myself into a corner and had no choice but to watch my doom approach.

'I really should have told Saffron to grab me instead of those humans.' I thought inanely. 'That was pretty much its whole purpose.'

Then there was no more time for thought as the road fell away and Lady tumbled forward.

-TBC-​

Author Note: Literal cliffhanger! How do you like it?

Here comes the climax for this arc, hope you all enjoy it!

Currently I'm fully caught up on the IDW comic up to the point of the second climax with Surge and Kit. It's been a wonderful few arcs so far and I'm just letting a bit of a backlog build up before I get back into reading them.

Also anyone looking forward to Starfield? I'm hoping it does as well for its genre as Assassin's Creed IV did though in its own RPG way with spaceships and alien planets. I'm looking forward to it but I'm not confident enough about it doing well on launch to preorder it. So far I'm getting "Fallout 4 but with tons more features and maybe a refined settlement system" vibe from it, not necessarily a bad thing if you liked Fallout 4 like I did but here's hoping it doesn't need an unofficial patch and bunch of mod overhauls to make it fun.

 

[Legionary]

2.6

They say when you have a near death experience your life flashes before your eyes. It's to my detriment I can now confirm this as a fact.

The faces of my parents grinning happily down at me, my stocky brown furred father, my slender bespeckled white furred mother. I was playing with my wooden blocks when they suddenly came rushing over and making happy noises at me. It would be much later when my parents told me that I had managed to spell out my name

My flop-eared uncle Wallace was standing in front of me in his baker boy hat, white shirt and rolled up sleeves, tweed vest and red tie. He was grinning widely at me through a bushy mustache, an unlit oak pipe hanging from his lips. Fists swung at me playfully and my own adolescent hands felt barely up to the task for even this much.

A grinning blue eyed young girl pulls me along by the hand, basket in one arm, white hair and fur, blue shirt and purple overalls. I called her Princess because her family wore the most clothes in the town. Her cheeks would puff up in a manner I found amusing whenever I did this so I always did…

The sight of my hometown from an elevated position, scenic and calming. It was also a sight I'd seen countless times before and I long since took the view for granted. Home was familiar and most importantly, at the time, utterly boring. Day in and day out farming and maybe going out to scavenge the crashed airships, it was rare any of those were considered safe enough for children to tag along. I wanted excitement, I wanted adventure like the stories. I wanted to be more than some silly little farm rabbit.

The road was before me, the entirety of my home was behind me waving goodbye and calling out after me. There were tears and no little amount of attempted persuasion to stop me but I wanted more than this, I wanted- TO LIVE!!!

A stone of not insignificant size grazed my head as I plummeted, blessedly knocking me out of my shock. Barely a moment had passed but that moment was more than enough to be halfway to the ground. In a frantic moment I desperately went over everything I had on me that could do something to break my fall! There was nothing! Why the hell would I have something like a chute when I had Saffron to catch or carry me!? Not that a chute would help considering how close to the ground I was!

'STOP THINKING AND DO SOMETHING!!!' Roaring internally at my tightly clenched hands I forced them open and kicked.

Lady shot away from under me, crashing into the rubble strewn ground with a loud crash and larger dust cloud. It felt like my brain was being squashed into the bottom of my skull and my vision swirled as my blood rushed down my limbs. Somehow the leap was enough to slow my momentum significantly though not nearly enough to briefly stop or even reverse it. I must have blacked out for an instant as suddenly I found myself falling in an uncontrolled spin. There was no time to get my bearings and figure out where up was, let alone start whirling my arms to stop spinning.

CRACK!

'...I'm alive?'

That had almost certainly been a fall of excess a hundred feet, not to mention completely uneven terrain for a landing zone. I could take a fall of a hundred feet with merely broken legs though maybe that number was a bit higher now after my training. But I hadn't taken that fall with my legs, I had plummeted out of the sky in an uncontrolled spin and landed in a tangle upon my back. And yet I was barely in any pain from impact! Hell I probably hurt myself more by jumping off Lady!

'This armor was worth the investment!' I thought, marveling at my protective shell for the first time. Taking a moment to knock on my chestplate in appreciation I rose onto my feet.

The base of the cliff had already been a mess of broken rock and boulders, the addition of even more rock and boulders hadn't done much. Though one obvious change was the form of Lady partially buried face first into the rubble. I found myself just standing there staring at the still form of my mount. Strangely I found myself feeling rather morose instead of frustrated at the fact I'd have to replace my ride.

Rrrrrrrr!

Lady seemingly roaring defiantly to life had me hopping back in startlement. My hand was halfway to my chest to clutch at my heart before I caught the motion. I leapt forward and was at the struggling badnik's side in a moment's breath.

My metal mount was stuck fast. The wheel was spinning and sending loose rock flying more than it caught traction. It's arms was buried deeply beneath heavy boulders and pinned down, perhaps not much of a problem for say a crabmeat but motobugs weren't exactly known for their arm strength.

'Another thing to add to the list of upgrades.' I thought with an inward grumble.

Adding seat belts, upgrading the armor plate, better engine, adding flight capability. Compared to Dessy's near total remodeling all I did was make Lady bigger and install in a seat. To install everything I wanted its frame would need extensive expansion merely to make room. I wouldn't be surprised if Lady's remodeling would be as expensive as Dessy's.

'I wish I could afford the tech and parts that went into the Metal Sonic line.' I scratched my ears as I looked for a decent leverage point, Lady was heavier than a car certainly but surely I could push it loose with my legs. 'But just the common machine parts and upgrades for Dessy drained my allowance. I can't even begin to imagine how ruinously expensive any parts that would go into an Anti-Sonic machine would be for me. Hell, I'd probably not even be able to look at them in the first place.'

It was as I was thinking how to safely wedge myself under Lady that I paused. Out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. Looking over in the distance I was greeted with a sight that froze my blood and threatened to send me to my knees in terror. Melting out of the treeline was a mixed force of humans and mobians wearing camouflage clothing or cloaks.

'Oh right, I was nearly killed by people blowing out the road from under me.' I thought inanely, dumbfounded by the sight before me. 'How could I possibly forget?! Well it certainly seems like people really hate paying their taxes! Yeah seems like a measured response to the taxman!'

Struck dumb as I was, I failed to respond in any meaningful manner whatsoever as the somewhat distant figures opened fire. There I stood presenting the easiest target possible to my prospective murderers and I could only stare out at them like I couldn't believe the reality before me. And really it was just so much utter bullshit. Here I was not even two weeks later since I last found myself before a small army out for my blood, not just back in the same situation but even worse! At least last time I had an army on my side, this time my enemy had made sure to rob me of that advantage.

I don't know what snapped me out of my shock, either my will to live had finally overpowered it or perhaps a bullet had grazed me. Either way it was less a sudden return of control and more like the awakening of a sleeping limb. To my horror I found myself slowly turning away from the gun toting horde and beginning to walk away like I was out on a brisk stroll. If it weren't for the fact running and gunning made them such bad shots I would have been dead then and there. Gunned down as I strolled away instead of run like an idiot, such an ignoble end would have been well deserved. Maybe it was these disparaging thoughts combined with the mental image of me dying to a single lucky shot but my bodily control finally returned in full.

Picking up speed into a sprint I leapt forward towards a dagger like boulder sticking straight out of the rubble heap around me. My only hope of survival outnumbered as I am would be sticking to cover, that lot may be bad shots but there were a lot of them and only one needed to get lucky.

Bullets rained down around me even as I landed safely behind cover, bullets chipping rock surfaces into stinging clouds of dust and shrapnel.

'I really should have packed some grenades!' I thought with gritted teeth.

All I had taken with me were small arms and extra ammo. I wasn't actually expecting to get attacked within the borders of the Empire! Plus I had a whole fucking army of murder bots ready to retaliate with extreme prejudice at the first sign of trouble! If anything needed exploding I expected to tell a badnik to do it, not find myself suddenly bereft of the things and hunted!

'Stop freaking out! Focus on what you have and what you can do!' The intensification of fire on my position reminded me to keep moving. 'You've got a pistol and shotgun, you're loaded down with spare ammo, you've got the same armor as GUN's best and you've got your natural abilities! You don't even need to fight, you just need to survive long enough for patrols to arrive!'

I leapt and ran around and between the labyrinthine mess of boulders, the rain of bullets not ceasing for a single moment. With how outnumbered I was I didn't dare even risk blind firing at my enemies. Putting distance between myself and an army of people out for my blood was the priority and I-

There was a sudden high pitched and brief screech of metal that had my ears ringing. I felt like someone just gave me a sudden intense jab in the side of my back with the tip of a metal rod. The noise with the sensation shattered my concentration and I found myself tripping into a roll.

"Ugh!" I grunted both from impact and the sudden throbbing pain in my back. Reaching behind to rub at the ache my probing fingers found a shallow crater.

'I was shot…' I thought with shock before gritting my teeth in anger. 'AGAIN! I was shot AGAIN! FUCK!!!'

What should have been intense relief at the fact my armor stopped what was almost certainly a mortal wound was instead burning ANGER. I've never been so angry I actually felt a vein in my temple throb and heard my heartbeat in my ears. But then again I've never been in a situation where not even in the full span of a month I've had literal hundreds of people out for my blood. Never before had I been in a fight that resulted in more than bloody noses and bruises and yet I've now killed half a dozen people. Never before had I ever imagined myself on the side of the oppressors, always I've had fantasies of protecting my people against human expansionism and yet here I am putting the jackboot to anyone irregardless of who they were.

'This isn't FUCKING FAIR!' Gnashing my teeth in petulant rage I smashed a gauntleted fist against the ground. 'All I was doing this time was collecting taxes! I wasn't attacking anyone! I-I-I-FUCKING FUCK!'

"Hurry! He was around here!"

Ears twitching and shifting position I shot up onto my feet. Taking a complete guess on the source of the voice based on how close it sounded I took aim and kicked out. The boulder I had taken cover behind soared a short distance before landing again and rolling. I heard screams of pain and crunching noises followed a moment later by several crushed forms appearing in the boulder's passing. That got rid of a few but there was far more to replace them.

By the time the horde swarming into the rubble got over their shock I was already diving back into cover and safe from the hail of retaliatory fire. I had to keep moving though, obviously while I didn't think to bring grenades they didn't.

Explosions resounded behind me as I leapt again, showering in a shower of rock shards. I winced as I landed from the feel of several bits of stone finding gaps in my armor, nothing vital but places on my arms and legs started stinging horribly. Still I had to keep moving, somewhere off to the side I could hear the hurried scrabbling of feet over stone. Aiming blindly to my left with the shotgun I leapt briefly into the open, blind firing as I went. I heard a sound like a wheeze and a body hitting the ground and the fact I could now reliably identify that noise had my gut churning despite my anger.

More gunshots, this time from behind I felt two impacts. One bullet deflected off my helmet and another impacted solidly into a pauldon. I whipped around, my shoulder throbbing in pain though I hardly noticed. Several rebels had bunched up and presented to me a target even my amateurish shooting couldn't miss.

Rapidly I emptied my pistol into the crowd and would have been deeply gratified by the dropping bodies if it weren't for the detail I just noticed.

Humans and mobians working together again!' I thought as I leapt into cover. 'Because of fucking course I've got both coming after me again!'

No time to get fixated on that though, the rubble may be funneling the insurgents into manageable numbers but they were clearly trying to surround me. I was proven right a moment later when a shape leapt at me from the right.

My back impacted into a long piece of road and I had a brief moment to see that my attacker was some kind of amphibian mobian woman wearing a leafy cloak. With one hand she held the barrel of my shotgun away and with the other she raised a submachine gun to fire point blank. I raised my pistol only to remember I hadn't reloaded it yet. With a screaming warcry she let loose and I tensed as I expected pain to wash over me.

To my surprised relief however after a deafening racket and blinding flashes I barely felt the bullets as anything worse than light punches. The woman however screeched, dropping her gun as she clutched at her eyes and blood streamed down her face. Not only were the bullets too low caliber to really hurt me she had fragged herself with the deflected bullets. Wasting not another moment I lashed out with a kick and sent the woman crashing into a boulder with a sickening crunch and she immediately quieted.

All around me the sound of charging boots were resounding louder and louder, not only that but there was an ever growing earth shaking rumble. The blinding rush of anger drained out of me, leaving only frantic desire to live in its place.

'Fuck! I'm getting too distracted by fighting!' I thought in rising wide eyed panic. 'What the hell is that noise?! Is more of the cliff going to collapse?! I need to get out of here!'

Reloading my pistol with only some fumbling I moved again and tried to run away whenever I heard or glimpsed movement. Before long however I found myself with my back pressed against a boulder as no matter where I looked I saw insurgents taking positions just around corners. I was surrounded utterly and completely. They had clearly been overeager to just swarm me to quickly kill me, but I had bloodied their noses enough to handle me smartly. They had mobians and humans in their number, as strong as I was, as tough as my armor was, once they closed in they could drag me down with sheer numbers and I'd be as good as dead. My only hope now was to pick the path of least resistance and try to make a breakthrough.

Making one final scan of my surroundings I picked a direction that seemed to only have two people. I tensed my legs to make a leap for my life when the world before me erupted in noise and blinding light.

Already half frenzied by mortal terror as I was, the sudden chaos had nearly overwhelmed me. Having apparently fallen back onto my posterior I found myself staring dumbly as a rain of lasers exploded boulders and people both. Finally looking up I saw a battle damaged swarm of buzz bombers led by Saffron diving down from above.

'Oh there you are! I had nearly forgotten you existed, Saffron!' Came the half crazed thought. 'Finally come back from dropping off the humans to safety? What, were you bringing them back home to FUCKING METROPOLIS!?'

I was then reminded that despite the new threat arriving, the insurgents had very much not forgotten about me. There were a series of many little impacts all over my body but along with that was a number of intense stabbing sensations in my armor gaps. Looking to my left I saw another human insurgent ratcheting a shotgun while a monkey mobian lobbed a grenade at me.

Dumbly I lied there in increasing amounts of pain and injury and watched the grenade sail through the air at me. Head empty of all thought I swung my leg up and somehow managed to not only hit the grenade but give it a solid enough whack to send it flying back. The human had only just finished reloading his gun when the grenade smashed squarely into his face and rebounded off a short distance into the air. The monkey flailed in visible panic I felt absently sympathetic for and managed to catch the grenade only to explode an instant later.

'Well… another problem solved.' I thought with a nod when I heard a series of explosions echo behind me. 'What, are they just chucking grenades randomly in my direction now?'

Standing back was a scarily difficult affair, intense aches and pains flared and throbbed throughout my body that had me understanding what an old gray fur felt like on the daily. Unwanted empathy for the elderly aside I heard the approach of boots and prepared for another assault only for it to arrive in odd fashion. Three insurgents backed into view, weapons held warily towards the direction they were backing from. Somehow these three had completely forgotten I was here if the horrified surprise in the eyes of the insurgent who spotted me was any indication.

Lashing out with a kick I sent one sprawling into their fellows and had them all in a tangle on the ground. They tried to scramble away or get their weapons up again but two shots with my shotgun had them all safely dead or at least safely bleeding out. Absently replacing the shells in my shotgun I glanced around the corner they had come and was met with a shocking sight.

Somehow even more battered than before, Lady was hopping from boulder to boulder in order to traverse the rough terrain. Standing atop her back was the ramshackle form of Alfa. The damaged monkey bot stood proud and tall as it could, cackling in an electronic stutter as it tossed bombs everywhere.

"YOU STILL A-A-ALIVE CONY?!" Alfa shouted with an electronic stutter to its voice. "YEAH Y-YOuuuUU ARE!"

'...I'm getting that monkey a tune up if we get out of this.' I thought with a shocking amount of relief at the sight of him moving again. 'Definitely deserves it.'

Victory wasn't clear even with the tide beginning to turn, the addition of over a dozen badniks and some custom numbers no longer made this fight suicidal but it was hardly good odds. I'd seen badniks lose a fight with numbers in their favor and it most certainly wasn't here. If only Dessy hadn't been lost!

The rumble from before had grown to become audible to normal hearing and keeping my footing became difficult on the shifting stones. I looked up in time to see the ground explode in a shower of dust and stone amidst a crowd of insurgents. Soon the dust cleared and I was met with the welcome sight of Dessy's dented form sticking out of the ground. Clearly it had gotten buried and managed to dig itself free with the use of its grinding teeth… teeth which currently held the crushed lower half of a human.

I could only stare up in horror as Dessy revved up its shredding teeth and the human disappeared into its maw with a choked off scream of agony. Twin streams of blood and ground meat and bone erupted out of the debris vents in the side of Dessy's head. The insurgents had understandably frozen in shock at this sight of brutality, something Dessy was only too happy to take advantage of.

As it surged forward in serpentine movement it managed to snatch up two more insurgents in its grinding maw. From its three carrier segments out swarms nine drones, each one like a miniature of Dessy's head and armed with a small laser. Along its sides the laser emitters light in a deadly cascade of blazing death. The insurgents returned fire, rockets and bullets both managing to hit Dessy's armored sides even as it slithered about, leaving trails of red in its wake. Dessy's armor was made of stronger heavier alloys then my own and was in thicker plates atop of that, bullets pinged or smashed apart harmlessly and even the rockets did little more than add dents. They were more successful in bringing down the drones but those were expendable and could be packed back into their carriers for repairs.

'Are… are we winning?'

It certainly seemed like we were from all the screams I could hear. But I couldn't see anything from where I was. For all I knew the badniks were making a supreme effort but would succumb to numbers soon enough, maybe we actually were winning but the survivors were being driven in my direction and would swamp me. There was one way of finding out however and I wondered which was stupider, keeping my head down and not knowing the flow of battle or sticking my head out in the open and risking it getting blown off.

Well… here's hoping I at least don't see it coming.

"It's just been nothing but shit choices…" Muttering under my breath I clambered atop a boulder and took in my bearings.

Well it was as bad as it looked but not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. Everywhere I looked were the ravages of this battle. Dessy's sheer bulk was flatting the rubble and leaving a blood slick trail in its wake. Bodies of insurgents were scattered about, a lucky few were merely dead on the ground but most were not whole, torn apart by Dessy's firepower or Alfa's bombs. There were survivors despite the badniks' best efforts but they were in full retreat to my utter relief.

Looking up I spied the still headless statue of Robotnik. With the loss of the head and road its completion would be delayed until both were replaced. Speaking of losses… it was supposed to be my mission to deliver safely wasn't it? I mean my job was to collect taxes and I did that… it was just blown up in the process of transporting it. And now I'm making excuses and reaching for justifications. This was clearly all some grand pageantry for the Doctor's sake and the actual value of the taxes was practically beneath consideration. But at the same time this pageantry was important to Robotnik for reasons beyond the material, the symbolism of the conquered giving tribute. Really I ought to be panicking about now but I was feeling a bit drained at the moment.

'At least the statue didn't take any damage.' I raised my right hand to shade my eyes against the sun.

Crack!

Wuh?

I blinked and found half my vision quite suddenly obscured by a spider web of white lines. My right eye socket throbbed in a familiar pain. Huh, was I stabbed in the face again? Strange, I didn't see anyone rush at me. Pawing at my right eye was oddly difficult, as if I had spent the night sleeping on my arm and my hand was still waking up. Eventually I managed to pluck something hot and mostly flat from the right side of my goggles. It was a little black met- why did my hand have a hole in it???

'Oh… I was shot again… wasn't I?' A wave of surrealness washed over me and it felt as if I was seeing the world through a long dark tunnel. I looked up in the direction I vaguely felt the shot had come from and saw only fleeing forms of the insurgents disappearing into the treeline.

Crac-CLANG!!!

Blinking again I found my sight suddenly blocked by a scorched, dental metal wall. Looking up I saw Dessy had coiled around me in a protective posture, its shredding teeth revving to such a crescendo it sounded more like an enraged shriek. The upgraded caterkiller then unleashed a blinding fusillade of laser fire though at what exactly I could not currently say as enclosed as I now was. There was the sound of more explosions though not in a direction I expected.

Standing contrasted against the horizon the headless statue of Doctor Robotnik started to topple forward. The great edifice of the Doctor after having been kneecapped by very well aimed shots had nowhere to go but down and did so with great calamitous clatter. After staring at the empty space where the statue ought to have been for several long moments I felt all the energy I had flow out of me. It was all I could do to merely fall to my knees and not topple off the top of the boulder in imitation of the statue.

A moment later the sound of a gently revving engine approached and Dessy uncoiled a bit to allow me to see Alfa driving Lady towards me. Alfa didn't look any worse for wear though that wasn't saying much considering the condition I found it in. Lady however was covered in tiny craters from high caliber bullets and one side was ripped completely open by a lucky rocket. My transport did not sport the quality of armor Dessy did as it wasn't exactly meant to be rode into battle. Just another thing I'd have to rethink going forward…

"Hey cony!" Alfa waved from the driver seat. "You alright?! You look almost as bad as I fee-fee-fee-fee-fee-"

Seemingly stuck in a sutter, Alfa's body suddenly froze and it slowly toppled from the driver's seat to fall to the ground with a crash. It lay there utterly frozen for a long moment, the impact having at least knocked it out of the stutter.

"ERROR!"

"... Yeah, I feel the same way." Sighing I pushed off the ground with an effort that felt deceptively herculean.

From above I heard the low roar of thrusters and saw that Saffron had returned with the surviving flyers. Not a single one was without battle damage from bullets but out of all my machines only Saffron was barely touched. It hovered in the air above me looking all in the world like it hadn't been in a battle for our lives, in fact the only damage I could make out was a couple scratches. Guess I had designed it well… at least that means I don't really have to worry about needing to upgrade it as well.

Picking up Alfa I began the arduous task of folding it back up again for transport.

As much as I wanted to immediately turn tail and run back to the Mother Egg I still had a job to do. Doubtless, Robotnik already knew about everything that happened and considering that none of my badniks had suddenly boomed with his voice he expected me to finish it. So I'd have to finish my route, collect the rest of the taxes and then finally return to base for debriefing. Already that last part felt like a blade hung precariously above me, ready to fall at any minute.

"... Okay, let's just get myself patched up first." I muttered as I unpacked my first aid kit from Lady's fortuitously undamaged trunk. "I need to project a strong first impression and I can't exactly do that covered in blood."

So much to do and the job was barely halfway finished, but as bowel freezing as the unknown of whether or not there would be further attacks was… nothing compared to the distant overhanging dread of what would be Doctor Robotnik's reaction to my failure. Would he be raging and take that out on me like he had done to so many other personal minions? Would he be dismissive and take this as a sign that organic minions were worthless? Would he demand I work even harder, as hard as a machine to prove my worth?

No matter what it was I'd be finding out one way or the other eventually…

-TBC-​

Author Note: AND I'M BACK AGAIN! After nearly getting my house burned down AGAIN!

After a brief evacuation I'm back and lucky enough my home wasn't burned this time, sorry for the delay.

Anyway

Reginald's first failure, how is Eggman going to take it? Well if he was Archie!Eggman he'd be halfway to being Adam Smasher right now wouldn't he? Games!Eggman is a different beast, kinder, more human. We'll see how things go when Reginald comes back from the job.

Hopefully there won't be another goddamned forest fire so there shouldn't be excessive delays in the next update!

Until then.

 

[Syroc]

... I dunno what god of fire you angered to have your home threatened by fire twice like that, but they're pissed. Glad you're safe, at least.

The start of the chapter was interesting: a quick look at his upbringing doesn't show any immediate signs for why he'd wanna join up with the eggman, and he doesn't seem like the kinda person who'd join just for the sake of adventure. The rest if the chapter was good too, but that's the part that really stood out to me.

 

[Legionary]

2.7

Somehow I was still alive at the end of it all.

I mean I suppose it's a bit of a dramatic statement to make when only the very middle of a task tries to violently murder you but no other part. But I am hardly a mobian of the same like of Sonic the fucking Hedgehog so you'll pardon the spit and fire if I feel upset about it. It's still so very upsetting that somehow I, a simple taxman, was worth an assassination attempt. Of course if one were to be reasonable it would be fairly understandable why I was attacked, trying to assassinate Doctor Robotnik is an exercise in both futility and suicide, simply attacking his machines and installations gets you watching as it all gets fixed up over the course of a few days if even that. Killing me would actually accomplish something, even if that something was meaningless you still took something away that Robotnik couldn't just rebuild. Of course that something was me so fuck them all and good riddance, this well of guilt for killing turns out to have had a bottom and I refuse to start digging.

Where was I? Ah yes, the completed task…

Despite my worst fears the rest of the tax collection went without a hitch, Robotnik never messaged me so I kept going and I hadn't been attacked again. What an impression I must have made to all those people. There I was representing Robotnik but I, along with my badniks, were in such absolute states. I had done my best, I really had but there was only so much blood you could clean using river water. The best I could do was wash off the fresh blood for myself but forget doing the same for the badniks. For one thing the prospect of washing Dessy was a task in itself with how large the moving meatgrinder of a bot was. Then there was potentially washing all the other badniks and what exactly was I going to do about the various dents and assorted battle damage? In the aftermath of the fight the pain in my injured hand had increased massively without the adrenalin of fighting for my life to dull it, needless to say I was in no mood to attempt to handwash what remained of my badnik horde.

So there I was making due with a battle scarred force, dirty with murder and destruction. Had to make Lady take the rear and ride with Dessy on the replacement cargokillers, it wouldn't look good going around on a mount with sides ripped open from explosions. Though it was something I had quickly grown to regret. Dessy in the heat of the passing days had rapidly begun to smell. It wasn't bad enough I had to put up with the gut churning smell of blood and ground up viscera, of course I also had to keep a straight face while bits of meat and blood started to rot within Dessy. And just to make an already horrendous situation worse Dessy had started to drool.

Of course it wasn't actually drooling, Dessy was a machine afterall, but it must have 'eaten' something that disagreed with it violently, like a grenade. So as a result of what was almost certainly internal damage it had started to leak this equally foul smelling and looking concoction from its shredding maw. Now I was no mechanic and more importantly had no desire to closely examine the disgusting gunk, however at a glance I guessed it was some combination of oil and rotting gristle.

It had certainly done my various first impressions on the other settlements we visited no favors.

Instead of the respectable sight of a clean uniform and shining armor I was filthy with blood stains that had settled in before I got the chance to wash them out. My fur wasn't as bad but there were definite bloody mats that would require a hot shower to wash out. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad if my badniks were merely dirty and dented but Dessy had become… well I don't want to say overprotective as recent events have shown that clearly I am not protected enough! However the strongest of my murder machines refused to be any significant distance away from me and even tended to get in the faces of people it felt were too close, snarling and, quite unfortunately, spitting mad.

Honestly I was very appreciative of Dessy being so proactively protective but it still came at the expense of making me look like I could barely control my horde. I rolled with it however, if Dessy was going to be a hellion I might as well try to pretend it was intended all along. So long as it only looked like I could barely control my forces it was salvageable, not so if I went ahead and confirmed it like an idiot by apologizing for Dessy being aggressive.

'I would say it was a relief that it's finally over and I'm back…' I thought as the damaged form of Lady carried me into the perimeter of the Mother Egg. 'But it's hard to feel that when I still have the consequences of my failure hanging over my head.'

If Robotnik had just raged at me through one of the Badniks it would have certainly been terrifying but I'd know what to expect. But he hadn't done that, there had been nothing but literal radio silence on his end and I could not help but wonder endlessly what his intentions were. If anything it was all part of the plan I torture myself with my own thoughts, the sadistic piece of-

'DO NOT GET IN THE HABIT OF THAT!' I quickly interrupted myself. 'All it will take is one slip of my thoughts showing on my face and I'm fucked!'

Maybe it was a losing proposition to try to force myself to not think negatively about Robotnik in any way. However… I liked being alive, very clearly more than I liked being moral, more than I liked honoring the heritage of my ancestors, more than the prospect of my home disowning me in disgust and horror at my actions. I had to be honest with myself, I was a selfish and cowardly piece of shit. Strange thing to think considering how often I find myself fighting life and death battles but those were at least survivable compared to trying to desert the Empire. Reginald the Rabbit was no Sonic the Hedgehog or even Tails the Fox, no he was just some idiot who had a grossly inflated opinion of his ability to handle quite possibly the most ornery human in existence.

'Only the extraordinary can face someone the likes of Doctor Robotnik.' The central command tower of the Mother Egg loomed before me, the shadow it cast over my group seemed to bring with it a spirit smothering wave of resignation.. 'And I am far too ordinary…'

Finally I was back where I started this whole thing though with a far lesser host of badniks than before. I dismounted from the oversized motobug with a sigh, somehow feeling relieved that I was back despite my surroundings. Honestly it was a surprise I wasn't attacked again considering how few machines I had left to defend myself with, but maybe they just thought it was obvious bait?

'Course there is always the hope that the failed attack really sapped their resources.' I mused optimistically. 'So hopefully this won't happen again any time soon and by the time it does I'll be prepared. About as prepared as can be for an attempted murder bound to be done when I'm most vulnerable anyway.'

I was in the middle of starting to lose my mind trying to think up a way of becoming so paranoid as to never be vulnerable when a battalion of maintenance bots swarmed towards me.

"Underboss!" Shouted what might have been the overseer of the lot. It was difficult to say as they all had the same coverall like paint job but it was the only one with a hat like thing on its head. "We see that your custom machines have managed to survive their first forays into combat! Quite outstanding!"

"Is it such a surprise?" I asked as I saw the various maintenance bots rush past and begin to do a bit of on the spot work.

"It was your first time designing a badnik, sir!" The Overseer chirped cheerfully. "The expectation had been you would have made a singularity powerful wonder bot that did everything."

"My needs were… far too varied to concentrate my allowance of industrial capacity towards just one badnik." I replied somewhat self consciously. "Perhaps if the budget allowed for it I would have tried just such a machine but I settled for some basic upgrades."

Looking back at Dessy, who was currently being power washed and having its dents removed with powerful suction cups, I was reminded that for all its killing power it still wasn't the most deadly machine in the Empire. When I had laid out the intended upgrade package I had thought the end result was actually going to be a kind of wonder weapon. But going by the words of the Overseer it had just been my inexperienced talking. Dessy was just a suped up caterkiller when you came down to it, nothing more. And since Dessy had taken up so much of my budget, Saffron and Lady had only some basic upgrades.

No, none of my custom machines were really all that special even compared to the lesser Horde Commanders.

Suddenly a crashing noise grabbed my attention. Turning to look I saw that Alfa had tumbled out of the back of Lady. Currently my mount was being attended to, minor damage being fixed and the rough edges of major rents being cut out in preparation for major repair work. Included in this was the rather badly bent and twisted doors of Lady's trunk. The maintenance bots had quite abruptly unbolted or torn off the damaged doors and Alfa's heavily damaged body just slid out. I wouldn't have spared this a second thought if it wasn't for the fact that Alfa was now being curried off along with the clearly about to be scrapped damaged parts.

"... What are they doing with Alfa?" I asked, feeling oddly anxious and keeping Alfa's body in sight.

"Oh that old outmode is long overdue for recycling!"The Overseer bot chirped, grasping its front as if it were holding onto suspenders. Actually on a closer look it had a pair of straps built into its front for seemingly this exact purpose. "He always just hid or resisted whenever we tried, however. Rather foolish! He'd fulfill his purpose as a proud Eggman Badnik best by being the raw metal for newer and greater models."

"Didn't Robotnik also have him rebuilt a couple times after encounters with Sonic?" I found myself… protesting I suppose. My eyes stayed locked on the little monkey bot, increasingly aware of the line of scrap he was about to join leading to what must have been the recycling vehicles. "Plus doesn't the Doctor have a tendency for leaving destroyed or damaged equipment where they lie?"

"True, there are quite a few areas scattered with the remains of a downed Egg Fleet." The Overseer nodded in agreement. "And while I'd never think to question the actions of THE Dr. Eggman, he has never forbidden us from trying to dismantle the alpha prototype."

"...Very well." Still staring I watched as Alfa was unceremoniously dumped onto a pile of scrap atop a transport and made my decision. "Bring him back, I will have him slated for full remodeling."

"Ah! Are you sure, Underboss!?" The Overseer protested even as the distant bots heard my command and unloaded Alfa's body from the scrap pile. "It would do you no good to keep him as of right now, according to the database you have used up your assigned budget for the month! Alfa will require outdated parts and a major rehaul just to get running again! To get him to be as useful as a more modern badnik would require expensive modules and upgrades a new machine won't need! Please, sir it's a completely unneeded investment and-"

I could almost hear my patience snapping.

"Stand there." I interrupted, pointing at the ground just before me.

"Underboss?" Despite the question in its voice the bot did not hesitate to obey.

Once it was in position I gave its form a glance over before looking over towards Alfa and nodding to myself.

Crunch!

A squeal of electronic protest burst from the Overseer's voice box as it soared through the air, chest massively caved in. I fought off the wince of pain and paid no mind to the waves of pins and needles running up my leg. A moment later the Overseer fell back to the earth with a crash and rolled to a stop next to the scrap transport. By my feet was the hat like metal object belonging to the Overseer, knocked loose by my kick. Picking it up I dusted off the object and turned to the nearest maintenance bot before unceremoniously dropping it with a clang atop the bot's head. There was a short scraping noise as the hat slid slightly before settling at a jaunty angle.

"You are the new Overseer, congratulations on your promotion." I said tonelessly.

"Y-yes sir, Underboss, sir!" The bot said in a nervous reedy voice, snapping to a shaky salute.

"I do not care if I do not have the budget to have Alfa fixed just yet." I continued and struggled to keep the weariness I felt out of my voice and stance. "Have him transported to my room, I shall keep him in personal storage until I do, got that?"

"Of course sir! At once sir!" The new Overseer's answer was immediate and it burst into motion to follow its orders, one hand clamped down upon its new hat to hold it in place.

Pausing only to make sure my orders were being followed, I turned and started to make my way to the command center. Throughout the long walk I was tormented with itchy sensations from inside my right hand, a place I was doing my best to not freeze in horror at the fact I could now reach. The pain was unending and even now throbbed horribly though it was hardly surprising that such a horrible wound had even barely begun to heal. I had mended it as best as I could, crippling myself with sheer agony when I cleaned out the wound and then stuffed it with cotton balls before wrapping it with gauze. Suffice to say the basic first aid I knew along with the contents of a medkit was hardly enough to properly tend to such a large puncture wound. The worry haunted me endlessly and I wondered if my hand could even be saved. Clearly my tendons had been damaged or cut since it took immense effort to clench my fingers enough to barely form a fist. I was sure if I had been able to get medical attention immediately such worries would be moot but that was most certainly not the case.

'Far too late to worry about it now.' Coming to a stop before the central tower, I gazed up at its monolithic form looming over me. 'It's time to face the music…'

Another long walk and an elevator ride later and I found myself disembarking onto the hallway leading to the Command Center. Never before had a simple passageway felt so dread inducing, not even the literal death trap in the ruins back in the Frontier Canyon Zone had instilled such a feeling in me.

Warding away a desire to scratch at the inside of my hand, the itch so incessant it felt more like something chewing away at my insides, I moved forward.

The door to the command center slid open smoothly and I was met with the sight of the Doctor standing before the central holo projector. Hands clasped behind his back Robotnik was intently studying the transparent image of Angel Island. There were a number of little data windows that were also open with little arrows pointing out specific areas of the island. Steeling myself I marched forward and came to a stop a short distance away from the Doctor. With herculean effort I forced my right hand into the proper shape before saluting smartly.

"Underboss Reginald, reporting and ready for debrief, Doctor Robotnik!" I said, dredging up some energy to shove into my voice.

"Indeed." Doctor Robotnik waved absently and the hologram of Angel island shrunk down before a new image replaced it. "Your performance certainly leaves much to be desired."

My stomach churned as the new image that appeared was the route I had traveled along through the Empire alongside pictures taken of me while I worked. Somehow despite the fact I knew he was watching my every move being faced with the physical proof was a punch to the gut. I felt like in the end nothing I did truly mattered and it was all some amusing game to Robotnik, a show to be tolerated until I started performing poorly in which he'd retake control in an instant.

"You have at least continued to show loyalty to me." Robotnik stated and an image of my first stop came up. "But what you have failed to accomplish is to always strive to do more and better."

A video recording this time, likely taken from the viewpoint of a flying badnik. I was down below and talking with the human foreman when a flock of birds burst from their roosts. Suddenly that video paused and zoomed in on the birds. It was then I noticed a detail I hadn't before, the presence of what looked to be a piece of paper tied around the leg of the pigeon.

"At least… until this event." Robotnik said and another video popped up, this time with sound.

"DEPLOY THE BADNIKS! WE'RE HARVESTING THE CROPS OURSELVES!"

A dread chill ran down my spine as I heard my own voice emit from the projector.

"Thank you for this!"

Wylla…

"The will of Doctor Robotnik is my duty! And part of that duty is preemptively disrupting suspicious activity and I have much to be suspicious about! 'Anxious hands looking for work' indeed!"

Why did I ever believe I could get away with anything? Of course he'd see through my scheme immediately…

"You have…" Robotnik began, stroking his mustache, and my imagination ran wild with a thousand different sentences I could get. "A talent for finding trouble, crude and unrefined but a talent nonetheless."

Huh?

"Though you missed certain signs like the messenger birds you still felt suspicious about the crops, rightfully so." The Doctor waved and screens popped up. The smokeleaf, their price down in the UZA, images of what looked to be an open arms market of cargo trucks with a vast camo net canopy. "The shortsighted fools that call themselves Freedom Fighters grow the smokeleaf in their own private farms or get local communities to do it. They then smuggle the cash crops south of the border and smuggle in arms, at greatly discounted prices and outright subsidies I might add."

"Doctor… I had no idea that the Empire had an insurgency problem." My thoughts were running a mile a minute, so very heavily unbalanced by the fact Robotnik wasn't bringing up my failure. I wanted to keep the conversation moving forward, hoping beyond hope it just wouldn't be addressed. "When I see the realm you have created I see only extraordinary strength, something the merely ordinary could never hope to truly harm. It honestly boggles the mind that anyone not Sonic the Hedgehog would ever resist you."

I wasn't even being a sycophant, from all that I knew of the Eggman Empire's industrial capabilities you simply could not compete with or harm it on a conventional level. Unless the damage was widespread anything you destroyed could and would be undone in mere days, hours even. How in the world was a force that wasn't an organized army supposed to cause anywhere near that kind of damage? Maybe if they could slip people into the right positions of authority or usefulness they could enact devastating surgical strikes. However the main issue of that was the fact that anywhere of any importance whatsoever was run by badniks or fully automated with no need of roaming personnel.

'An insurgency's main strength is that fact they could be anyone,' It suddenly occurred to me. 'An occupation can march and fight forces out in the open, fighting them with little complication. But an insurgency is reliant on the insidious nature of their operations for protection. Moving about, being part of the crowd, only to strike at the opportune moment. Seems like an incredibly irritating problem to deal with once and for all but what happens if you have no crowds to hide in?'

That was the strength of the Empire that could not be replicated by any other on the planet. Robotnik's legions and enforcers were made entirely of machines. An insurgent could walk down the street in the UZA and toss his backpack of grenades into whatever target he was after before melting back into the crowd. Not so in the Empire, if you were made of meat and walking towards a badnik factory you were suspicious by that fact alone and liable to be stopped way before then. The only thing an insurgent could safely target that was of any significance in the Empire was their own people and what would be the point of that?

"A problem? You give these fools far too much credit." Robotnik waved dismissively but seemed pleased all the same by my words. "They destroy a few utterly expendable machines, deface monuments to my intelligence and then celebrate their grand victory in the wilderness. A problem, bah! The rodent is my only concern, these are just vermin to be swept aside once he is gone for good. Or…"

Finally Robotnik turned away from the holo screens and faced me. He stared down at me consideringly and stroked his mustache.

"That was once the case." He said after a moment and continued to stare.

"Doctor?" Suddenly I had the strongest urge to scratch my ears to date, not that I risked even such a simple action before the Doctor.

Was he changing his mind about the insurgency? Well… I suppose it was of no real concern. Only Sonic and his friends had any real success at stopping any plan of Robotnik's. A group of normal people, no matter how righteously angry, had little chance of doing the same. The Doctor didn't even really need to be all that clever about it, sweep the wilderness with tiny badniks, crush any and out insurgency hideouts and strongholds then increase surveillance over the population. Problem solved.

"... Something to consider after." Robotnik said with a nod before waving at the hologram. "Behold the first step of my master plan!"

Once more the hologram of Angel Island appeared. This time it only hung in midair for a moment before the image zoomed in on a specific section of Angel Island. I didn't recognise any of what I was seeing, stories had spread from the Blue Blur himself of what had happened on Angel Island but in my travels I hadn't really heard a consistent version. There wasn't really a full report of those events in the Eggnet either which, again, could either be my lack of clearance stopping me from finding them or Robotnik erasing such reports out of frustration of his failure.

Suddenly the image stopped zooming in, focussing on a stone shrine like structure sat near the edge of the floating island. In the center of the shrine was the one thing I did recognize from the stories.

"The first step of my plan, the Master Emerald!" A truly manic grin appeared on Robotnik's face as he clenched a fist dramatically, leaving me feeling deeply unsettled.

Also I couldn't help but notice he wasn't actually telling me anything important, just that he had a plan and our first stop. Which really wasn't all that different from before, as far as benefits being an Eggman Empire Underboss went I wish being trusted with more operational details was among them.

'Suppose I'll just have to try to do that myself.' I mused. 'The Eggnet is pretty far reaching, I should be able to get a signal everywhere and try to keep myself informed via the database. If Robotnik refuses to give me even the advantage of what to expect next I'll just have to try to familiarize myself with the local terrain. Finding a place to flee to with prepared excuses for how it was a tactical advance in a different direction will probably save my life. Course now the question is where on Angel Island could I run if it starts going pear shaped?'

"Begin preparations for yourself, we leave for Angel Island within twenty four hours!" Robotnik announced grandly before glancing at me, specifically my wounded hand. "Ensure you are one hundred percent or I will be most displeased that I'm taking suboptimal assets with me, away with you."

"As you command, Doctor!" Saluting again with the injured hand I turned about face and marched out the room.

Once the command center doors slid shut behind me I gingerly removed the bloody gauntlet of my right hand. The bandage wrapped around the palm of my hand was almost entirely stained red, the crimson dot where a bloody hole had been torn through was obvious. How in the hell was I going to get this fixed up enough to be considered "one hundred percent" within a day's time? As far as I was aware the steroids that supercharged my natural healing would only be able to get this hole closed within a week, not a day.

'Maybe it would be just a matter of dosage?' I thought optimistically. 'More steroids to get my palm closed up by tomorrow? Otherwise how in the world was I-'

Shaking my head I interrupted my own thoughts and decided to just consult with Robotnik's two medical badniks. Whatever they had in store for me would probably include putting me under which really would be just the thing about now.

A short walk later and I found myself lying back in the stretcher while the taller snake headed badnik was gently poking and prodding at the torn interior of my hand. The upturned cauldron shaped 'Caddy' was over in a nook filled with nozzles and pipes, loading itself up with what I hoped were medicines.

"What's the prognosis, err… Doc?" I said questioningly.

"You may refer to me as Asp if you wish, Underboss." 'Asp' replied softly as it straightened to look at me. "While it is possible to significantly speed up your natural healing via the steroid and boost it further with greater dosage… it cannot be amplified enough to heal within twenty four hours. Along with that such dosages would have deeply impairing side effects that would render you operating under unacceptable parameters."

"Doctor Robotnik did say I needed to be at one hundred percent." I nodded in agreement, suddenly rather relieved he had said that. Trying to fight for my life while high would have been… problematic to say the least. "What are the alternative treatments?"

"There are two treatments we can perform that would both fix the damage and keep you within the requisite parameters." Asp said and motioned to a holoprojector on the ceiling. "We can simply amputate the limb up to about the mid forearm and install a cybernetic replacement, steroids and pain medications will have you healed enough to be field ready."

It took all my effort not to panic or violently vomit. Especially when the holoprojector had started playing an insanely realistic video of how the operation would go step by step, a computerized copy of myself having his arm sliced off. Not only did the operation not stop at simply cutting off my hand but it would involve operation further on healthy flesh for the connections and various anchor points. Impulsively I wanted to hold my right arm protectively against my chest. The thought of my hand being replaced with unfeeling metal had my stomach roiling and it was all I could do to hold down the nausea.

"And… the second?" I somehow managed to get out in an even tone.

"A lesser viaration of the same treatment." Asp answered as the holoprojector changed. "Instead of amputating the section of limb entirely we will remove the damaged and some healthy flesh to install lesser cybernetics."

A cross section of my hand and forearm appeared on the holoprojector and the damaged tendons were highlighted. The tendons were removed along with a significant portion of my palm and a far smaller section on the back of my hand. There was far less work needed for anchoring everything in place, seemingly only really requiring the nearby flesh. It was still horrifying but compared to the prosthetic I'd at least keep my hand.

"You will perform the second procedure." I said firmly and leaned back.

Some part of me was still screaming in horror at what was going to be done to me, wanting me to take back the command and somehow find a third option that would allow me to keep my hand intact and satisfy Robotnik's demands. A far greater part of me, the cowardice I never knew I had crushed it down almost effortlessly.

I wanted to live, even if it meant mutilation…

Thankfully before I could get too introspective Caddy injected me with sedative and I soon blacked out.

-TBC-​

Author Note: So I've finally given Cyberpunk 2077 a try, no it had nothing to do with how this chapter ended. That was just a natural consequence of significant injuries and I kindly ask you to keep your accusations to yourself!

It might have had something to do with why this chapter took so long to get out, ahem…

In any case unless I decide to do a little interlude then that's the end of this arc. Next up is:

3.1 The First Adventure

 

[BIRBADELLE]

I can't believe I didn't see this yesterday, absolutely wonderful especially considering the procedure is on his hand which has been previously stated as being of high valued cultural importance.

Also absolutely adore Dessy favorite Badnik so far

 

[Legionary]

3.1 The First Adventure

In near total darkness I stared at the tightly closed fist of my right hand.

I wasn't sure what I expected when I woke up. Maybe the doc bots ignored my orders or were countermanded by Robotnik and chopped off my arm anyway? Perhaps I would have woken up feeling like I had icy chunks of metal in my hand and would have forever had to live with the sensation? A nightmare of inexplicably animalistic hardware interlaced with my flesh, something to spend my every waking hour struggling against and binding down every time I sleep?

Admittedly that last one was kinda dramatic but my dreams whilst sedated had been highly unpleasant…

What I hadn't been prepared for was to wake up and not even notice the difference. Well I had noticed a difference but it was more the fact I no longer had a hole in my hand plugged up with cotton balls, not the fact a significant portion of my hand was now cybernetics. I had and hadn't expected so many things when I woke up but what I hadn't expected was my hand to feel… normal.

Pretty much the entirety of my palm was now made of this black fleshy synthetic substance, though the lack of a thin layer of fur threw me off it still felt like flesh to the touch. It wasn't uncommon for balding to occur in the palm and surfaces of your fingers, though there were quite a few little urban myths for why this occurred, many of which were rather crude. So having a bare palm wouldn't be too bad… save for the coloration.

'I suppose I could claim birth marks…' I mused as my stomach roiled with steadily growing nausea. 'Two marks, one on the entirety of the palm of my hand and a spot on the back of it. It's not an obvious mutilation, anyone in a position to see my bare hands shouldn't care too much about odd colorations… too much.'

A feeling of wrongness washed over me as I Prodded the synthetic flesh. Gingerly I poked as if testing a hot surface, I had to force myself to firmly press the finger down and trace the surface of the cybernetic. It was just so surreal to know you had a hole in your hand only to be fine barely a day later.

"Gah!" Hissing in pain I clutched at my cybernetic hand as it suddenly erupted with pain.

All along what were the torn edges of the hole in my hand there was suddenly a feeling like pins and needles, pins and needles so intense it actually felt painful and throbbed. The sensation was so inexplicable it had taken me several long moments of simply sitting there, rocking in place and cradling my right hand, to place it.

'Is this what phantom pain feels like?' I thought with gritted teeth. 'I thought you had to lose a whole limb to get it… just this small piece missing from me is enough?'

It was an immensely surreal experience to look down at your own hand, feel as if a hole was torn open in it, to see it… whole. And yet it wasn't, I was never going to be whole ever again wasn't I? Already I could predict what the future had in store for me. I would eventually encounter a situation like the insurgent assault again and would be demanded to go straight back into the fray by Robotnik soon after. Unable to recover fully in time I'd be forced to undergo yet more and more cybernetic surgery to ensure I was field ready each time.

An image flashed in my mind, a merely rabbit shaped abomination, more metal than mobian. Crimson lenses stared out at the world…

Bebeep! Bebeep! Bebeep!

My communicator announcing an incoming transmission shook me from my thoughts. Tugging my gauntlet back on with an almost violent motion I slipped my helmet back on and tapped a button on the side.

"Underboss Reginald receiving." I answered.

"Report to the bridge, Underboss." Robotnik ordered, an undertone of excitement to his voice. "We are approaching the first step of my master plan! I will not have any subordinates of note miss it!"

"On the way, Doctor." I replied in an obedient tone and sat up when the link cut.

This was perhaps the third time I had ever been aboard an airship. Since Robotnik's Empire was all over the world the main method of transport between the main holding in North Arcadia and various outposts was air travel. During my initial time aboard an airship one thing I noticed was the fact the man hadn't really bothered to try to hide the craft's movements. It was a brightly colored red and gold floating boat and didn't really do things like hide behind cloud cover or make movements unpredictable. Completely arrogant, of that there was no doubt but it wasn't like anyone who wasn't Sonic had the slightest chance in hell of stopping the man so… it made the fact that the current ship was a dark colored manta equipped with an array of stealth and camouflage oriented devices rather interesting.

'I suppose it makes sense.' I thought as I glanced through a one way window to spy the heartland of the UZA below. 'As far as I am aware all these take over the world plots always go off without a hitch in the beginning. It was always later when Sonic inevitably got involved that things started to go wrong. It would be such a massive blow to Robotnik's pride if due to some non-Sonic related problems that his latest scheme even failed to take off or just failed to do so smoothly.'

Robotnik said the first step on his plan was Angel Island but his first, first step was apparently some place along the western Arcadian coast nearest Station Square. I didn't really know the area, having pointedly avoided that whole region. Part of that was that mainly that area of the continent was very heavily developed by humans and another part was that the area around Station Square was just very awkward.

The "countryside" of Station Square was almost entirely wilderness, a thickly grown jungle surrounding the city on all sides. Most cities I've encountered were surrounded by rural or industrial zones but the same couldn't be said of Station Square, the so-called jewel of the West Coast. It is also famed for its tourist attractions so one could make the argument that the UZA was maintaining the wilderness for exactly that reason. I was not fooled however, there was a reason why the local humans hadn't slashed and burned the whole thing and it likely had to do with the local anomalies. There were said to be places called hidden zones throughout the world, places of mystical power and rules alien to the wider world. The regions around Station Square had abnormal amounts of heavy winds that blew in at unpredictable schedules and directions. There was almost certainly some kind of wind related hidden zone nearby and the occasional bouts of anomalous power that escaped resulted in these winds.

On top of that, Station Square was the one place that got to see Angel Island float by on a semi-regular basis.

Before much longer I found myself entering the bridge of the stealth ship.

For once Doctor Robotnik wasn't seated within his pod, instead the man sat upon a blatant throne from which the controls of the entire ship lay at his fingertips. Walking over I came to a stop at a spot visible in his peripherals before bringing my boots together with a click and saluting.

"Underboss, reporting as ordered, sir!" Making sure my tone was enthusiastic I froze in place until relieved.

"Eager I see?" Robotnik remarked, crossing one leg over the other and steepling his fingers before his mouth. "Perfectly understandable! You are about to bear witness to a work of utter genius! Something that this vessel will play a part in though indirectly. Behold my dear, Underboss!"

With a grandiose wave, Robotnik directed my attention towards the window and it took everything to not let my startlement at the jungle canopy rushing at us show physically. A moment later we hit the canopy and instead of the snapping of boughs and warping of hull plating I only saw a slight flicker in the leaves as we passed. Suddenly it was as if the trees never existed and before us was a vast industrial complex colored in the grinning heraldry of the Eggman Empire. Far more attention grabbing however was this utterly massive vessel docked within the complex.

"The Egg Carrier!" Robotnik announced with a laugh. "The flagship from which I shall oversee each step of my masterplan!"

Couldn't argue with that, I've seen Egg Fleet airships before and at minimum they always rivaled ocean going vessels in size. This however was a ship that dwarfed those. At first glance it was like someone had taken a behemoth of a ship, proudly bedecked in Empire colors and heraldry, and flipped it upside down. The Egg Carrier being an airship meant that it didn't need a regular keel and instead had something of a flat bottom and hull that sloped inwards towards the top. The… what was it… the bow of the ship looked all the world like it was designed for ramming, a reinforced looking prow was crowned with a spike while a far larger ram sat at its base. It probably wasn't a ram, I don't think Doctor Robotnik would intend such a function in his flagship but who was I to make assumptions? Powerful looking engines sat at the back of the ship, the engine nozzles glowed faintly with blue fire. Apparently the craft was kept warm and ready to go.

The Doctor brought our own vessel into a docking bay neighboring the larger ship and I actually had to adopt a slight jog to keep up with Robotnik's excited stride. Exiting our stealth manta and heading over to the Egg Carrier the sheer scale of the ship was only hammered in further. It wasn't exactly a mountain but the looming edifice of metal and weapons gave all the same feeling of immensity.

'And it isn't even the biggest thing he's ever built.' A shudder went down my spine as I forced myself not to rubberneck at the monstrosity before me. 'The actual mountain of metal was the Death Egg.'

A construction so grand and terrible that the Doctor seemed to have ensured documentation of it remained accessible to me. Typically Robotnik out of what must have been bruised pride had hidden away documentation of previous major encounters with Sonic, however the one exception to this was the Death Egg. The flying doom ball had been widely known in its infamy and by the fear it spread. I had been hiking at the time and had no way of knowing what was going on but everyone with the means had immediately noticed when the Death Egg took flight. The moment it had taken its maiden voyage every nation on the planet had their collective eyes glued to the sky. A space going vessel several kilometers in diameter, capable of entering and leaving the atmosphere under its own power, an eye watering array of weapons that in my position I have the liberty to know about but back then everyone had no idea. During that time the threat of the Death Egg hanging over head had crushed United Federation rhetoric of resisting the Doctor. The threat of an orbital weapon of unknown potency was orders of degrees greater than any other asset of the Empire. If Robotnik hadn't been utterly consumed with the task of fighting Sonic he could have marched his mechanical armies into nations around the globe with little to no resistance. It was no exaggeration to say that the nations of the world owed Sonic their freedom.

And then the Death Egg dropped out of the sky.

What fear people had felt before was UTTERLY eclipsed by the horrifying realization of what a mountain of metal hitting the planet at terminal velocity could do. According to scientists the Death Egg hitting the planet at significant speed would have caused such devastation that only people on the opposite half of the planet had any hope of survival.

Of course that didn't happen.

For whatever reason the Death Egg remained functional enough to enact a controlled crash landing, Sonic perhaps somehow having a hand in slowing its fall, and Robotnik's latest super weapon seemingly crashed softly into the sea.

Of course that didn't happen either.

Instead the Death Egg had managed to hit a landmass in the fairly wide and open South Sea and to rub the salt in deeper it had to be the one that moved.

The story of what had happened on Angel Island had apparently been retold by Sonic but whatever the original tale was there was now a hundred different versions. All were varying levels of believability but frankly speaking the things that happened to Sonic were already unbelievable no matter how true they were, so really there was no telling what the original story was without going to the source himself. Though one common detail was shared amongst them all, Robotnik had been rebuilding the crashed Death Egg and Sonic's meddling had been bad enough he had tried to use it to get away. It had stalled out midair, crashed back into Angel Island before managing to lift off one final time into orbit

Then there had been some kind of final battle going on in orbit, no one could really agree on what happened and all eyes in the sky had been blinded by silver flashes of light. Ultimately it resulted in the Death Egg falling from orbit again and terrifying everyone with the threat of half the planet going up in flames.

Thankfully that didn't happen.

By the time the Death Egg hit the ocean it had started losing significant pieces of itself and only caused a few tidal waves along the coasts.

While Sonic had been fairly famous before, the whole Death Egg debacle made him the household name he was today. Really no one had an answer for the giant doom ball that wasn't chucking every nuclear missile they had at it and there was no telling if that would even work. So when a guy single handedly solves a problem whole nations couldn't he tends to get a tidy bit of acclaim no matter what the leaders of said nations may say otherwise.

It was a proud day for Mobians everywhere that one of us could be so universally famed.

'... And I'm going to have to face him sooner rather than later.' I thought with a wince as we approached the Egg Carrier's dock. 'Whatever this new take over the world scheme is, Sonic will inevitably come rushing over.'

Getting overwhelmed by anxious thoughts of being beaten to a pulp at the speed of sound was profoundly unhelpful, so I refocused on the present.

Robotnik and I finally reached the massive dock for the Egg Carrier. A canyon of steel extended to dizzying depths far below, the darkness of the artificial abyss was barely lit up by now flashing orange lights. A rumble resounded and a metal gantry extended before us, crossing the gap towards the deck of the Egg Carrier. The Doctor hadn't slowed his stride at all and kept walking forward and onto the gantry just as it barely finished extending. I was right behind him and reached out towards the railing as I meant to lean over to look down, something I didn't end up doing as I for some reason punched the railing instead of clutching onto it.

Practically dancing as I forced myself to keep moving forward I fought not to let out even a hiss of pain, let alone the avalanche of curses that wanted to explode out of me. Shaking out the pain of bashing my middle knuckles I wondered why the hell I did that when I noticed my hurt hand was still tightly clenched. Frowning I realized that not only was it clenched but it felt like I had been tightly clenching it for a while. It took conscious effort to actually relax the fingers and even spread out it still felt tense.

Why? Why was this happening?

Suddenly noticing that the Doctor was steadily gaining distance I quietly picked up pace and tried to keep the oddity of my right hand out of my mind.

Now on the deck of the massive airship I took in my surroundings.

'Wide open deck with no enclosed walking spaces or even railings near the edges.' Frowning, I started noting a few hazards to keep in mind. 'Oh wait, railings are right there, still not near the edges and way too short though. Is that the bridge tower? It might be, it's the only thing that looks bridge-like. Okay note to self, avoid doors leading outside when the ship is in motion. Best to leave fighting against the wind speed to badniks with magnetized attachments.'

It was a common issue of Robotnik's designs, the lack of significant safety measures. Oh there were some safeties in place but they were built according to his standards. Of course the Great Doctor Robotnik could never befall such a pedestrian fate as to slip and fall from his own ship! He'd never put himself in such a scenario and therefore something as banal as a railing was beneath his notice. I for one could not help but notice the wood paneling along the deck and the implication that it was an area to be walked with some frequency.

'Alright… map the ship as soon as possible.' Thoughts of myself struggling against a wind only to be blown away ran rampant. 'Find all alternate routes that don't require walking the deck. I refuse to die because Robotnik didn't see the point of basic safety measures!'

Instead of heading to what I assumed was the ship's bridge we made a metal platform set into the wood decking behind it. The platform descended down through the deck and I was met with the sight of a wide open chamber. There was a lot of turquoise green though on second glance it was just the effect of the lighting. The sides of the chamber were lined with what I recognised to be berths for Robotnik's hover pods though currently only one was in use. There was this strange glowing blue cable running through the hall, leading in and out of the area via passages in the ceiling. The lift that we were on, that I was soon to realize was also hovering, moved towards an indentation at the top of a stage. Based on the steps and the commanding view from said stage this area was clearly going to be the place where Robotnik would rant and boast at a captive audience of ever loyal robots and yours truly.

Once landed we descended the steps and moved towards a set of three doors, each one a rather odd design of being Robotnik's stylised face. Suddenly the left door's 'teeth' slid apart and a green, red and black badnik of a non-animal design floated through. It was a heavily armored and bulky design with two arms that ended in massive fists, a rather large inverted conical head that plateaued in a flat top and a pair of red eyes for a face. The green badnik then immediately made for us and came to a stop just before the Doctor.

"Underboss, behold the prototype, the zeroth, for my new badnik line: The E-100 series!" Robotnik became quite suddenly animated; he stood to the side and grandly gestured to the green badnik, grinning ear to ear as he did so. "Zero is a rather basic proof of concept I admit and doesn't share much in common with the final build but he is sufficient for now. Zero!"

At the barked address the prototype badnik jerked and quickly faced the Doctor.

"Give me an update of the current status of the Egg Carrier and your younger brothers." Robotnik ordered.

I expected the badnik to speak now but only silence ensued. Standing somewhat awkwardly I looked from the still absolutely silent badnik to the Doctor. Robotnik seemed to be taking the silent treatment in stride, one hand behind his back as the other adjusted his glasses. Uness…

Peering carefully I just managed to make out scrolling blue lights going down the Doctor's glasses. Apparently Zero couldn't speak but it could send information via a wireless signal. Signing inwardly I settled in to wait until Robotnik was finished scrolling through information. Thankfully unlike other times I only had to wait ten minutes instead of standing there in silence for several hours.

"Very good!" Robotnik said suddenly as he released his glasses. "Begin the next phase and collect the specimens! It's time for your brothers to wake up…"

Zero nodded its head and immediately zipped around me and headed towards the hover platform. It settled itself onto the platform and to my shock the whole thing started to spin rapidly the moment it lifted up and into the ceiling. Looking back I saw Robotnik chuckling at my reaction.

"Hohoho! A bit of fun to be had at the expense of a certain rodent." The Doctor explained with petty glee.

"Might I ask that I be exempted, Doctor?" I had no doubt I wasn't in the first place.

"Well…" Robotnik began and stared down at me in consideration, confirming my suspicions that I wasn't. "Very well, I shall add you to the exemptions at first opportunity. I suppose I should keep in mind I have a rodent of my own to command…"

"Thank you, Doctor." I nodded, ignoring the insult with ease of long exposure.

"Come!" The Doctor commanded and walked back to the hover lift. "Angel Island will be in prime position soon, we must lift off immediately!"

We went up the lift ourselves sans the dangerously fast spinning and returned to the deck. Robotnik led me to the door of what I had guessed to be the bridge. Entering behind the man the first thing I noticed about the bridge was the turquoise lighting again, seriously it gave everything in here an odd hue. Second thing was the many moving things on the bridge. Pistons moved in and out on the walls and attached to odd vents in the room, the levers of what I assumed was the command console were moving wildly on their own. It actually kinda bothers my eyes a bit to have this constant almost wild looking movement going on. The captain's chair was another command throne as befitted Robotnik's ego, though it was an oddly complicated looking device with its own roof, wheels and even mufflers on the back. Why in the world did the Doctor need his chair to be so complicated?

The final thing I noticed was the fact there was only one entrance.

'Great… if I have to leave the bridge while we are moving I'll have no choice but to go out against the wind.' Honestly I half expected something like this would be the case, it made the reality of it no less anxiety inducing to think about.

Doctor Robotnik walked forward and stood in front of his throne. With a burst of energy I've honestly not seen out of the man before he assumed a pose. Grinning ear to ear, one hand held up in a clenched fist and the other reaching out dramatically towards the bridge windows.

"Mooring arms disengage!" Robotnik shouted in a volume I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if I managed to hear out from the deck. "Engines full power! Take us to the sky and assume an altitude of seven thousand meters!"

I felt the weight of acceleration as the Egg Carrier obeyed Robotnik's command. The view of the dock rapidly disappeared from the bridge window as we climbed up into the sky at a probably unnecessary pace. Normally I always assumed a position either a short distance behind Robotnik or just at the edge of his peripherals. This time felt different however and I walked forward to be near the front and center of the bridge. The base the Egg Carrier had been docked in was already long gone, disappeared beneath the holographic camouflage. Long suppressed wonder at being in the sky rose up in me as I beheld the rate of our climb.

"Oh don't get excited too early my dear Underboss!" Robotnik cackled. "After all, the game has yet to begin!"

Firming my shoulders I purposefully expelled the wonder and regained my focus. As much as flying was still a new thrilling experience to me there were far more important things to pay attention to.

The Egg Carrier continued its rapid ascent, shrouded by the darkness of the late night and the stormy overcast skies overhead. Soon we were among the clouds and still rising. Lightning bolts occasionally struck the hull but were absorbed harmlessly. The view would repeat itself for several minutes, occasionally we'd break through into a kind of valley between the clouds only to be amongst them again, obscuring the viewport like it was a thick fog. Before much longer I felt the weight of momentum cease pushing down on me as the Egg Carrier ceased climbing.

"Target altitude reached!" The Doctor said gleefully before scowling. "If this blasted cloud cover would cooperate we should soon see our destination."

I couldn't help tilting and angling my head as if it would have made a difference but all I could see at the moment were clouds of mountain-like scale on all sides. The storm continued to rumble and would strike the Egg Carrier but a vessel meant to face Sonic would at the very least be capable of withstanding the forces of nature. Then the wind shifted, the clouds roiled as they moved and revealed a sight I never thought I'd see so close.

Angel Island.

"Going to need a good angle for this next part, raising the ship up another five hundred meters." Robotnik muttered before his grin returned. "I refuse to miss the look on his face when he sees what's going to happen!"

We gained altitude again and the Egg Carrier shifted position around Angel Island. Watching in silence I wondered what exactly we were going to do here? Who was he talking about? Was Sonic up here for whatever reason? Did Robotnik's plan involve another invasion of the floating island? Hmm, not likely… though I was still struggling to come to grips with understanding the man I felt like he wasn't the sort to really repeat himself. So what else was he going to do here? Whatever it was it required that he seek out ancient lore to even start this whole scheme.

Suddenly a square appeared on the bridge window. After a moment the section of the window within this square started zooming in on a small section of the island along the edge. There was a relatively 'tiny' floating rock separate from Angel Island, connected only by an old rickety looking wooden bridge. Atop this floating rock was a large ruined stone shrine and at the crown of this shrine was a massive shining green gem. I then noticed one other detail…

'Someone lives up here?' I thought incredulously as I stared at the red figure sitting atop the shrine. 'What even is he? I don't recognize the species at all.'

A mobian with red fur was reclining on the steps of the shrine. He had a head of spines like some species of prickly mobians but his hung limply from his head instead of spiking out. He had a pair of yellow and green shoes and his gloves were large boxing glove like mitts with spikes over the knuckles.

'Was this the one Robotnik mentioned? Is he a tenrec? No he can't be, he doesn't have the right ears.'

"Perfect!" The Doctor sneered in anticipation, steepling his fingers before his face. "Angle the sound projectors! Target the Master Emerald!"

'Really wish I was in the loop here…' I thought with an internal sigh. 'I have no idea whatsoever what we are even doing.'

"WAAAAAH!"

"The hell?!" Jumping in fright I turned towards the direction of the sudden shriek

What sounded like the anxiety inducing cry of a very upset baby was coming from the ship console. It was the cry of a baby, no doubt there but… I have never heard a baby make that sound before! A chill went down my spine and I felt something twist inside me, driving me to want to find the child and soothe it. The more I listened to the cry the worse it made me feel until I realized with a disgusted shudder what exactly was off about it.

It was a scream of agony.

How- why would Robotnik get a recording of what sounded like a baby in terrible pain?! Then I realized that I very much didn't want to know. Was it just a recording he pulled from somewhere? Did he… make it himself? Was there a kidnapped infant left in some forsaken outpost, utterly forgotten after he got what he wanted? The horrid thoughts raced through my head faster than I could keep them repressed.

'Great now I gotta add revulsion to "anxious caution" whenever I've got to look at the man.' I thought tiredly.

The disappointing thing is that somehow I thought that Robotnik was better than this. But I never did have a clear idea of what exactly the man was like or what his limits were. Even now I still didn't know and was in no hurry to change that. There was always the chance it was just a recording gotten from some other horrid source, hell it could be just some mundane, blameless tragedy taken from a hospital… but there was a chance that it wasn't. Would asking for clarification be a show of weakness? That I was questioning my place as his minion and had limits to what I was willing to put up with? I didn't know… but I did know I was safer not bringing up questions of morality to a man who is bent on violent world conquest.

"Fool!" Robotnik shouted and for a brief horrifying moment I thought the man had seen straight through me to my inner turmoil. "Even as weak as he is you stand no chance against The God of Destruction!"

What?

Bringing my attention back to the zoomed in scene I watched as the red mobian tumbled down the stone steps of the shrine. But atop the shrine was what had me boggling in utter confusion. The Master Emerald was reduced to a shattered base and before it stood a mobian shaped creature made of what might have been water. It was honestly hard to tell because of the unnatural state of the liquid and it could easily have been a kind of gel.

Was this the 'God of Destruction' Robotnik was referring to? Honestly the title brought up a lot of impressions but 'weird water monster' hadn't been one of them in my book.

The red mobian dashed back up the stairs to re-engage the apparent water god only for it to collapse into a puddle and seep between the cracks of the shrine. Suddenly the ground appeared to shudder and shake beneath the mobian's feet and the zoomed in view disappeared. I was back to seeing the island from the far distance and what I saw took my breath away.

Once more Angel Island was falling…

I stared as the floating island plummeted, picking up speed and parting clouds with the wind of its passing. The Egg Carrier blocked further view of the falling island but vaguely I knew we were around the coastline when the ship made its ascent. It would be a near thing for the island to not hit the water… or the land, it hitting either was bad no matter what. Leaning forward I stared off to the side and caught a clear view through the clouds thanks to Angel Island's passing. A wave of icy dread washed over me as I beheld the distant glimmering lights of Station Square.

Gritting my teeth I could only brace for what was to come…

---

Interlude: Annabelle Jackson

The last few weeks were plenty busy, productive even… just wasn't meaningful was all.

Following around Jones had been irritating at first, I'd wanted to hunt down that furry fucker so much I up near just ran off in the night. But the 'Archeologist' was right about me needing to get used to losing my shooting eye. Lotta spent bullets and practice later taught me it was more irritating learning to use my left hand as opposed to just angling my gun. It was still awkward as all hell but I'd get used to it, ain't no way I was gonna bag that rabbit just using Earl's Knife. Couldn't be stupid about this, mobians were deadly up close and even in a gun fight those abilities could do work.

The thing was though I'd figure I'd be doing a whole lot of practice in lonely areas. But as it turned out, Doctor Jones had a habit of getting mixed up in things with a liability to end in a shootout. So my practice came with targets that shot back! Not like I never took a life before, being a prospector often meant you had to run off both mobians and humans. Oftentimes warning shots weren't enough and you did what ya had to do to protect you and yours.

Still, it was a good thing I knew a decent amount of mandarin because as it turns out Jones had some shady dealings with some local Crime Boss named Lao Che. Lao was supposed to give up some kind of fancy diamond in exchange for ashes of all things. The man apparently wanted both though and had attempted to poison Jones for it, something that had failed only thanks to Jacque smelling the poison with that forked tongue of his. This ended up in a shootout and all of us were kinda on the run from lawmen who were on Lao's take.

Figured we would have been outlaws hiding out from there on then but apparently being an archeologist got you in some fancy wide reaching circles? Only had to get out of the city and we didn't have to worry about bribed lawmen out for our hides. Course that was easier said than done, nothing like practicing your shooting from the back of a bullet ridden car while gangsters chase you down.

I got real good, real fast, long story short.

Despite the shootouts and being on the run, Jones was happy since he got to keep the ashes and managed to snatch that diamond he wanted so badly. I was just happy I wasn't liable to miss the broadside of a barn anymore. Despite his connections though, Jones didn't want to stick around Chun-nan after nearly killing some big time crime boss and stealing from him at gunpoint. So we made way for an international port and got aboard the first ship to the UZA. Which happened to have been a big fancy cruise liner much to Jones' grumbling about the cost.

Don't remember the last time I got to relax… really relax is what I mean. Not just hang out at the local watering hole and get boozed up after a day's labor. When you live on the frontier, every day is a weekday and the only time you get off is when you're too sick or dead to get up. So while on a cruise liner I took the chance to try out some things I'd only ever heard about before on Jones' dime.

After several days of wearing fruit and cream on my face, being buried in mud of all things, and sweating in a steam room I actually looked… girly for once in my life. Well I say girly but you don't get rid of a lifetime of hard livin in the sun, grit and dust buried in your skin, over a couple days of pampering. That isn't even mentioning the fact I'm missing an eye, eyepatches ain't exactly ladylike but I never did like glass eyes and forget about buying a fancy metal one. What I mean is that for once I didn't look like I'd become some hunched over old lady in a couple decades. Honestly I'd wonder what the hell Earl saw in me if it weren't for the fact everyone else was deep in the same hard livin.

Grief…

'Ah hell…' The spike of misery speared me through the heart. 'Why'd I go and remind myself again?'

"Messieurs Jackson, are you alright?" Jacque said from the seat next to me.

"M'fine, Jacque." I replied and did my best to fake a yawn. "Jus' late is all."

"Of course, messieurs." Jacque nodded and returned to staring at the approaching harbor, Jones apparently grabbing some shuteye under his hat in the next seat over.

Shaking my head clear, I stared off as well. Station Square glimmered and shone, wide awake despite the late hour. The ship would be docking soon and anyone willing to disembark so late could do so though most would wait until morning. We, amongst a few others, were seated nearest the main connections for disembarkation.

It… had been near on twenty years since I left Arcadia for meaner pastures, doubt I'd recognise anything after so long. But I was back now and might as well be a foreigner for all the good my childhood spent here would do.

'What do I do?' I leaned back, frowning and biting at a knuckle in thought. 'Heard a whole lotta nothing while running around in Chun-nan though I was kinda busy at the time, gotta admit. Do I stick with Jones and hope his weird connections get me news? Or do I go off on my own and try to find things out on my own?'

Probably was a good idea to stick with Jones for as long as he was willing to put up with me come to think of it. I had no idea at all how to begin hunting the little furry fucker down. Whenever it was time to pay back some hurts it was always some other fella or gal who did the tracking, I was just an extra eager gun tagging along. Jones seemed to get in all manner of mischief for some guy who dug old pots out of the ground for a living, so it seemed a safe bet I'd pick up some useful things from hanging around the guy.

"Hhhhhhaaaaa~" Yawned a small voice.

"Just a bit longer, sweetheart." Soothed a mature voice in motherly tones that made my heartache all the worse for the memories it brought up.

"Mrrr…" Grumbling, I couldn't hold back the sidelong glare I sent their way.

Just a few seats over was a pair I had been doing my best to ignore. It was a mother and her daughter, the little thing was cute as a button that much I had to admit while her mother seemed an elegant and mature sort. The little girl was wearing a little orange dress with light blue ribbons at her collar, matching little shoes and a pair of white gloves. The mother was wearing a purple dress with white trims, over it was a red and white waistcoat with a blue necktie. She had a pair of red heeled shoes and also wore white gloves.

The two were mobians… rabbit mobians.

It was stupid as all hell to be upset, I knew this! But it was just god damned hard… Neither of them even looked like him! Their ears were floppy instead of straight and their fur was cream colored with rich brown accents. He was a straight eared, piebald rabbit with off white fur and dark brown patches. HE was a killer! These two were not… but god damn if they didn't double whammy me something fierce!

The sight of the mother with her daughter made me miss Emerson so much, that little goofball… But their species just reminded me of why I missed him and I just-!

"Can I help you?"

My stomach dropped when I suddenly realized that I had gone from side-eyeing the pair to full on staring at them! The mother rabbit was staring right back at me with a firm gaze, protectively pulling her steadily waking up daughter closer. Face burning I turned away and had to stare down at the ground like a guilty child when I saw Jacque giving me looks as well.

"L-look ma'am, I apologize for the staring…" The stutter only made me flush harder, god damn embarrassing and that little rabbit was blearily awake and staring now too. "I admit to having a… bad encounter with a rabbit. I don't mean nothing with my staring and I mean that!"

The mobian mother's expression grew sympathetic and I could feel nothing but shame. Earl would have liked that I was trying to play nice with a mobian but he would have been happier if I hadn't been standoffish from the start. Suddenly the little rabbit hopped off her seat and walked over in front of me.

"Miss… did that rabbit hurt your eye?" She asked with a yawn.

Some part of me didn't want to answer her, everything involving the day I lost everything I ever valued felt intensely personal. But something about the little lady in front of me felt so warm and comforting. So even though we were hardly the only people around, I nodded slowly.

"My momma always told me it was better to be kind and help others, even if it hurts sometimes." The little rabbit said with a wide smile. "I'll be your friend miss, that way you have good memories of rabbits."

"You're a sweet little thing ain't cha, sugercube?" Middle of the night and the sun might as well be shining in front of me, I reached out and patted the top of that little sun. "Enough of that 'miss' stuff though, you can call me AJ."

"You can call me Cream, Miss AJ." She said with a guileless smile.

"Your momma raised you right and proper didn't she?" Shooting a glance over at said momma I was met with a proud smile.

"Momma also said it's important to practice proper etiquette and always be polite!" Cream grinned.

Suddenly feeling a bit self conscious I looked around to see who was watching my little drama. Thankfully most people were gathering towards the disembarkation connections as the ship began to finally dock. Jacque and Jones were seated right next to me though and had front row seats to the whole thing. The snake was actually looking fairly nostalgic and staring off into the night sky. Jones though, instead of being asleep it seemed like he had been trying and failing from the clear smirk he now wore.

"Momma, what's that noise?"

Looking back I saw Cream's ears twitch and she lifted one up and angled her head to hear something better. Her mother was doing the same and she suddenly stilled, hooded eyes opening wide in alarm before abruptly standing up. She quickly trotted over to the railing and leaned over to stare off into the darkness along the coast.

"... Tsunami?" I heard her mutter and the word had my brain stutter to a halt.

Tsunami? After spending a small lifetime several hundred meters above the waterline it took a little bit to remember what the word meant. After remembering I was really hoping I was mishearing her what with all of us still being on a goddamn boat!

"Tsunami." She said again this time in a firmer tone before turning around and drawing a deep breath. "TSUNAMI!!!"

The crowd over by the connections startled and most just blinked dumbly at the mobian, only a few reacted properly and started sprinting across the barely connected gangways. I could sympathize honestly, I was still wrapping my head around the idea of a dangerous amount of water coming our way right now.

"Cream, come over here!" The little rabbit's mother commanded and Cream obeyed.

"Follow me, Miss AJ!" Cream shouted before grabbing my hand and before I could prepare I suddenly found myself dragged out of my seat and across the deck by a little rabbit girl.

'God damn!' I flailed along the deck, struggling to still on my feet. 'I knew mobians were strong but I thought it took time for that strength to grow in!'

From the sounds of tromping feet, Jones and Jacque were not far behind me. Soon we were standing next to Cream's mother and I stared at where the crowds were. They had now begun to realize there was danger and were jamming up the gangways in panic.

Ain't no way we were getting through that anytime soon…

"Cream, can you carry us up to that roof?" Cream's mother asked.

Looking to where she was pointing I stared up at the roof of the boarding terminal. What? Was Cream that much of a better jumper than her mother that it was going to be her job to get us up there? Well as much as I wanted to add my two cents I couldn't help but recall being practically helpless as Cream dragged me along the deck. If her mother was confident she could do this I wasn't gonna argue.

"Yes, Momma!" Cream nodded with little fists clenched.

What I expected was Cream to jump her mother onto the building, what I didn't expect was for Cream to start to rapidly flap her ears like wings. Staring so widely I'd probably lose my other eye, I watched as Cream lifted off into the air and hovered above her mother. Said mother reached up and firmly grasped Cream's hand before motioning to me.

"Quick hold onto me!" She said before pointing at Cream's other hand. "You two grab her other hand!"

I think I did as was told… but then it was likely the mother rabbit had just pulled me close. How in the hell was a rabbit able to fly with their EARS. Almost absently I hung onto Cream's mother as I gaped up at the flying rabbit. There had been some kind of ruckus with Jacque and Jones over who would be better to hold onto Cream's hand since one of them had metal limbs, I didn't know, I was distracted.

'... Mobians are fucking bullshit.' We were now in the air, the only sign of strain Cream showed was her face getting more and more red. 'She's not even a fucking bird! How does this make any sense!?'

And before I knew it I was tumbling onto the roof of the terminal, a little rabbit falling next to me panting her lungs out. She had barely laid there a second before her mother picked her up and was quickly trotting further up the roof.

"Come on!" Jones said suddenly and pulled me up by the arm. "She has the right idea, we have to go as high as we can!"

Nodding in agreement I followed behind him and Jacque when it Heard it. The noise that the two rabbits heard way ahead of time thanks to their ears. It was a distant rumble and crashing, growing steadily louder. In the dark of the night the oncoming tsunami was impossible to see… up till it suddenly wasn't.

In the light of Station Square the tsunami became abruptly visible and by then it was way too late.

Screams filled the air, just barely audible over the crashing water as people in their sleeping clothes desperately tried to leave the ship. The multistory wave rushed along the beach and smashed into the cruise liner. The ship ripped free of its moorings in an instant and withstood the wave only a moment before it began to visibly crumple. It turned suddenly, capsizing beneath the wave as the lights aboard flickered and died.

Beneath us the building groaned and windows shattered as the tsunami washed over the port. Water spouted and began to wash over the roof. My feet were sliding along the metal roof and it was all I could do to fall over and grab onto the roof ridge. The others were forced to do the same and suddenly I wished I had gloves like the mobian next to me did as the edges bit into my hands.

The water rushing over the roof seemed to last for hours. We all struggled to both hold on and keep breathing with water blasting in our faces. But just as fast as it began the flow of water began to stop. Almost abruptly we were all lying there on the metal sheeting, half drowned and coughing up water.

I laid there on my back, panting and boggling at the night sky wondering what in the world just happened.

"M-Momma?" I heard Cream say after her own coughing fit.

"Yes, dear?"

"Do you think the chao are okay?" She asked.

"I'm sure they are, sweetheart." I remembered that tone, I'd have it too whenever Emerson got hung up on silly things when he was little… "The garden is atop a tall building after all."

"That's good." Cream said brightly before she suddenly turned serious again. "Are we still on vacation, Momma?"

"I don't know, Cream."

"Oh…"

"Monsieur Jones what's so important about zat hat I had to help you hold on." I heard Jacque mutter and turned to see Jones was trying to whip out some of the wetness in his hat. "You had a death grip on zat zing!"

It was then I was reminded of something and reached up to pat my head, my now very bare head.

"Ah hell…"

"Language, Miss AJ!"

-TBC-​

Author Note: And I've finally finished the first chapter for the new arc and just in time for it to be a Christmas present!

It certainly took a while but my memories of Adventure were rather vague so I had to play it and do some other research to prepare myself. Good thing too otherwise I'd have gone into this thinking the area around Station Square was super weird with multiple climates when most of that was stages set on Angel Island.

New interlude mixed in as well, I feel like I'm getting better at multiple POVs but could stand to keep improving. I felt like I had managed to capture Annabelle's 'voice' in the first half fairly well before it felt like it slipped away from me. Still tempted to switch to third person during these but I'm not going to improve if I'm afraid of showing off my struggles.

By the way, would anyone know any artists that can do a fairly good Sonic style? I want to see if I can commission a thing or two for this.

 

[Legionary]

3.2

'Well… it could have been worse.'

It was a very cold comfort to think this as I watched rescue efforts swarm the capsized form of the cruise liner. It had been pushed somewhat ashore so the whole thing hadn't flooded but there had clearly still been plenty of death from it toppling over and from the sections that did flood. The city itself wasn't as damaged as it could have been, everywhere near the beaches had been swept over by the sea but it hadn't really gone too far inland. Perhaps if Angel Island had crashed some distances into the open ocean the damage would have been greater. As it was it seemed that the tsunami lost a lot of strength traveling along the coastline

It honestly could have been so much worse…

'Why do I feel so guilty?' I thought with a frown. 'I wasn't the one to bring Angel Island down. It wasn't like I could have spoken up about it either. If Robotnik wanted Angel Island to fall it was going to fall no matter what I could do or say which is fuck all.'

No amount of reasoning with myself was going to assuage that guilt though, no matter how irrational it was. Just being on the side that did this was enough to feel like I had brought the floating island down with my own two hands. The responsibility for every lost life or lives irrevocably changed by the tsunami was a weight my conscious was willing to grasp hold with near desperate abandon.

'I can't do this to myself!'

Taking position before the currently empty command throne of the Egg Carrier I faced the digital displays built into the windows of the bridge.

"Shift view from the rescue efforts to the Doctor's current position." I commanded.

The various streamed views from the deployed flying badniks switched inputs. An instant later I had multiple angles of Robotnik's location. The man was standing atop a building, just out in the open, not even in his hover pod in case he was spotted and had to make a quick getaway. As for what he was looking at that he so willingly endangered himself, well…

Before a large gray structure that was probably Station Square's city hall was a sight that honestly took my breath away. When people talk about Sonic they go on and on about how fast he is, 'The Blue Blur!' they shout. Well it was one thing to just hear about how fast he is and a whole other thing to actually see The Blue Blur in action.

In the courtyard of the city hall, rebounding off a number of flag poles was a blue blur. I didn't even recognize what I was looking at, at first. It was only the screen coming alive with various alerts and I saw 'Hedgehog: Priority One!' flashing on the screen that I realized what exactly I was seeing. At the center of this courtyard was the water god, having apparently made its way to Station Square faster than an airship, picking a fight with Sonic. A blinding array of flashing lights swarmed the entrance to the courtyard, the police force of Station Square out in force yet content to let Sonic do the fighting.

'Not that bullets would be useful against a water monster…' I mused and then frowned as something occurred to me. 'But by that logic wouldn't a hedgehog with no special abilities other than hit something really fast be just as helpless?'

Though all I could make of Sonic were streaks of blue bounding from flagpole to flagpole, his impacts causing each to bend backwards and fling him forward, I did see him strike at the water god. Each time Sonic's blur struck the watery being it splashed apart into a puddle but merely reformed after. I honestly wasn't sure if anything productive was happening here. It didn't seem like Sonic could hurt something that was pure liquid but it wasn't like that same thing could do anything if it kept being splattered. In fact it seemed like the water god realized that as well…

Down below the 'God of Destruction' remained a puddle after being splattered yet again. Probably out of annoyance if anything it proceeded to make a retreat and flow down the nearest storm drain. And finally for the first time since I shifted the view the Blue Blur slowed down enough for me to actually see him.

I've seen hedgehogs before, hell I've even seen blue hedgehogs before and some of which even grew out their spines simply because it was in the same style as his. Certainly I've seen pictures and even a video or two of the guy but somehow it just didn't compare to seeing him in the flesh. Maybe it was the hero worship talking but actually seeing the Blue Blur down there, seeing Sonic, invoked a feeling of breathlessness in me that I've frankly never experienced before.

Quite abruptly I snapped out of that feeling when a targeting cursor appeared around
Sonic's face and a metallic voice announced: 'Target Spotted!'.

'Oh right, can't forget.' I thought with a scowl. 'I'm not on the same side as him, he is my enemy. Dear spirits, what am I going to do…'

It would be shocking how easily I keep forgetting that if it wasn't for the fact it was a gut churning thing to consider. I never seriously considered the fact I would be his enemy when, in my arrogance, I decided to join Robotnik's side. My thinking had been that I'd be some utterly non-important lackey of the Doctor and could just be a forgettable face in the background. No one paid attention to the janitor right, so why would Sonic? But those plans had been made purely on assumptions; I assumed that Robotnik would have little to no interest in an organic minion besides the novelty of having one, I assumed that when his latest major scheme was underway I'd be just a passive observer. In the end my plans had been a castle of sand and had washed away upon the tide that was my reality.

"You know nothing, fool!" Robotnik's voice suddenly projected and I turned to a screen focused on him. "It's Chaos! The God of Destruction!"

I then watched as Robotnik laughed, he laughed rather loudly in fact. Looking at another screen I couldn't help but notice that the distance between him and Sonic wasn't that significant. If it weren't for the wailing sirens, the beating rotors of a nearby chopper, I'd have little doubt Sonic would overhear Robotnik laughing and investigate. With the city in the aftermath of a tsunami and a sudden attack by a water god apparently named 'Chaos' it was hardly a cheerful atmosphere. Even for me it would have been suspicious enough to check out what in the world had been so funny that someone had been laughing so obnoxiously.

That hadn't happened though and I spent a few moments watching Robotnik maniacally laughing to himself as Sonic wandered over to the police. Eventually the man had his fill at laughing at his nemesis' apparent future misfortune. He walked over to a shadowed section of roof where his hover pod had been parked and boarded it. After a moment the hover pod lifted up and soared off over the city. The man did a good job of sticking to the shadows of the taller buildings from what I could tell, keeping his presence a secret though I doubt anyone would have noticed considering what had just happened. Eventually his pod shot up into the sky, he would be back on the Egg Carrier soon.

Barely ten minutes later the man was striding into the bridge with an energetic air.

"Oh ho! Enjoyed the show I hope?" Robotnik strode forward with an almost prance like energy.

"Indeed, Doctor." I nodded and stepped back to the side of the throne. "I cannot help but wonder where it will all build up to?"

"Oh you'll see!" The man said with a chiding wag of his finger. "Mustn't spoil the climax after all! As much as I may wish… Hmm?"

Of course… being Robotnik's first flesh and blood lackey ultimately amounted to being his captive audience, obliged to clap and cheer on command or else. I couldn't even expect to be kept in the know of his major schemes, otherwise it would ruin the surprise and the authenticity of my first reaction. It was expected, it just didn't stop being infuriating when it happened. What if he did something as insane as making Angel Island fall again? When I witnessed that I was practically frozen to the spot in horror of what just happened. That time it was in the safety of the bridge but what if I had been in the middle of something dangerous? That freeze would have likely hurt me grievously if not outright killed me.

"... Interesting." Robotnik mused with a hum, hands steepled before his face.

Itch.

Ignoring the urge to scratch my ears I clamped down on any desire to shudder. I most definitely did not like the tone of his voice. Especially just fresh off thinking how horrid it would be to get surprised by something he was plotting. Hopefully he wouldn't mind being prodded a bit, there was always the chance he'd at least give me a hint.

"Doctor?" I maintained a tone of professional curiosity, keeping my expression calmly neutral . "Has something unexpected happened?"

"Yes, in fact." He answered; staring out into the pitch black sky, fingers tapping against each other rhythmically. "I've received an interesting update from back in the Empire. It's actually occurred several times before and I've always dismissed it. However…"

Suddenly the man turned his head and stared at me silently and I fought to hold down an urge to swallow. I couldn't help but remember I basically got off scot free for a failure in my assignment. Sure tax collection from everywhere else went smoothly but what kind of egomaniac tyrant overlooked even the slightest failure in their underlings? Him talking about how I didn't quite meet expectations was hardly punishment. Had his machines uncovered something suspicious on my part that he'd no longer put off punishment for later?

After a moment he gave a nod with an air of finality about him.

"Something we will be talking about after." He said and returned his gaze to the window. "For now we have far more important things to do."

"Of course, Doctor." I nodded, feeling like my heart was in my throat.

The Egg Carrier began moving from its cloud cover and made way for its next destination, not that I was really paying attention. It was all I could do to just stand there imitating a solemn statue and not hyperventilate at the implications of Robotnik's words. Now if worrying about even surviving Robotnik's scheme wasn't enough I had to worry about what was coming after.

Somehow I managed to make the trip back to the Empire Outpost merely with heart palpitations, not a full on heart attack. Which wasn't exactly a sterling example of my current health come to think of it. I've been under so much stress and anxiety in the past month…

"Ah more news!" Robotnik suddenly announced, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Zero has finished his objectives and retrieved all marked specimens, now I can begin activating E-100s!"

"Wonderful, Doctor." I commented and added some polite clapping for good measure, earning what was certainly an indulgent grin. "Might I ask if you'll have further need of me tonight?"

"Hrm… yes, very well you can go to sleep!" The man frowned before waving off in irritation of being reminded I needed such things. "Head to the tower, there will be quarters set aside for you. But only tonight may you indulge in such things my dear, Underboss. I highly advise you to secure some stimulants from medical. Duty may demand so much of you that sleep will be an ill afforded luxury in the coming days."

"I will make sure to pick up some on my way to my quarters, sir." I said before snapping a salute. "I shall report for duty as seen as I wake."

Absently the Doctor waved before strolling off into the base. Looking away from the man I looked up to the barely visible tower of the outpost, hidden as it was beneath the camouflage. Well I call it an outpost but it's more of a small city with an obnoxiously tall tower stabbing out of the center. Leave it to Robotnik to build something that would likely drain the coffers of any other nation of the planet and see it as an expendable asset.

'Well best pick up those drugs. Hopefully I can catch enough sleep that I don't have to forgo it but might as well prepare for the alternative.'

Either I was gaining an instinct for the layouts of Robotnik's bases or he used this one before because I didn't have difficulties locating medical. I took the opportunity to not just load up on stimulants but on various other medicines and medical supplies. Though I was hardly a trained healer, I should be able to stabilize some serious wounds with all I collected. Here's hoping anyway…

Soon I found my quarters and to my utter lack of surprise found it to be a near carbon copy of my quarters back in the Mother Egg. The password on the computer was even the same but if anyone thought they had any privacy at all in the Empire they were more the fool for thinking so. I was just thankful my ability to get to sleep no matter the conditions worked in the face of immense stress. It would have been just my luck to spend the night tossing and turning for the first time in my life…

Still something must have been wrong because it felt less like restful sleep and more like I just blinked and suddenly it was the break of dawn.

'Let's just quickly wash up and head out…'

Not even the shower was all that soothing in the face of the unknown, I spent the entire time worrying about how long it was taking. Though I was unpleasantly surprised by one change and that was some extra strength blowers built into the walls of my bathroom. I had barely left the shower when panels retracted and I was practically blown into the opposing wall.

At least I got dry in under a minute though my skin felt a tad hot and tender as a result, not to mention the sudden volume my fur coat gained. Had no choice but to go around fully geared if I didn't want to look like a giant puffball.

A hovering badnik awaited me outside my quarters. It looked like a caterkiller but much smaller, though the only thing it had in common with the larger badnik was the general body shape. This thing was practically bare and only really had a pair of bugged out eyes at the front of its long body.

As soon as the machine saw me it suddenly turned around and moved down the hall at a pace that had me jogging after it. It was a good thing I was in good shape because it hadn't slowed down until it finally arrived at our destination.

Stopping just before the door, taking deep steadying breaths, I looked back at the little cater killer only to see it turn around and float away at a far more sedate pace. Squaring my shoulders I stepped forward and through as the doors opened at my approach.

Entering the room I was met alongside the usual turquoise lighting and glass tinting was the sight of three machines. Suspended within glass tubes were two eye-catching machines of hedgehog shape while the third sat within a small gantry of spiky limbs in the corner. I walked over to the blue metal hedgehog and stared at it.

"Metal Sonic…" I said aloud.

The infamous metal doppelganger of Sonic 'in the flesh' so to speak. This was the very first time I had seen the Doctor's strongest creation. I hadn't exactly been expecting to pass the thing by in the halls but I'd been wondering where it had been all this time. Every glimpse I've had so far was some old recording. But here it was, suspended in some tube for some reason.

'Is it going to help?' Frowning, I turned my attention away from it to the other machines in the room.

Walking over to the corner I looked up at the rather round bodied machine with spindly looking limbs. It barely had a head, more this wide yellow slope at the top of the body that ended in a shaded opening with a black 'face' with two green lenses. Its body had a vertical stripe bisecting two green halves of the machine. Its legs ended in a pair of flat slabs of metal but also had a pair of small wheels on the back of the 'calves'. The left arm ended in a metal hand with three wide fingers while the other ended in a built in gun of some kind.

Finally I walked over to the tube containing the other metal hedgehog.

It was like Metal Sonic only in general shape, otherwise it was completely different. The first thing that stood out to me besides the gun metal gray color was the sheer bulk of the thing. If it weren't for Metal Sonic's reputation you'd think the machine right here was the stronger of the two. The primary feature of its hedgehog shaped head was the singular wide orange reflective lenses of the machine's face. Its body was ringed with riveted hoops and had a prominent and extra thick slab of armor plate on its chest. The upper portions of the arms and legs were thin rods but led onto bulky appendages. The forearms and calves were fused into the hands and feet in massive inflexible slabs of metal. What little flexibility there was, was regulated to the fingers and red forefoot of the machine.

'What in the world is this?' Very much intrigued, I leaned in closer. 'Some kind of prototype?'

It did seem to be a variant of Metal Sonic operating on vastly different parameters compared to the original. Maybe this one wasn't meant to go after Sonic? How could it with how slow and bulky it looked. Though having said that, I did notice some more interesting details…

The fingers of the machine were large and bulky but instead of strength the size seemed to be purely to account for the holes in the fingers. The fingers seemed to be hollow lengthwise but why was that? Were the hands meant to be some form of hidden integrated gun? And there were attachments on the elbows and back of the calves, attachments that my time with flying badniks had me recognize as booster nozzles. And right on the heels of the machine were wheels very much like the machine in the corner.

"I see Silver Sonic has attracted your attention."

I froze in startlement but thankfully for my long bruised pride that was all I did this time. Smoothly I spun on the spot and snapped a salute.

"Good morning, Doctor Robotnik." I greeted now stood behind me though his attention seemed to be on gray metal sonic, speaking of which… "Silver Sonic, sir? Are you making a second Metal Sonic?"

"Hardly!" The man scoffed and stepped closer to the tube. "Silver Sonic is actually Metal's predecessor, though not a direct one it bears mentioning. No, Metal's direct predecessor would be Mecha Sonic."

"And you have both Metal and Silver on site, are they going to be assisting with operations?" I sincerely hoped so, having a badnik as powerful as Metal assisting would be an immense relief on my shoulders. And even if Silver was only half as powerful, or even a quarter, as Metal it would still be a powerful asset to have on my side.

"No, neither of them will be deployed." The Doctor said with a huff, quite effectively extinguishing my hopes then and there. "It's a disappointment but Metal's performance has recently proven to be most unsatisfactory. I've been working on some software updates and a few upgrades on his frame but it's proven to be quite the time sink. Metal will not be ready in time to be of use for my scheme."

"... And Silver Sonic, sir?" I risked a further question.

"Hmm, I had a most… interesting dream some time ago." Robotnik began, stroking his mustache in thought. "After rebuilding Silver Sonic I had him mothballed in memory of a key point in development of the Metal Nemesis program. But I now have some interesting ideas that would be easier to develop and implement in Silver's frame as opposed to Metal. Alas, Metal's upgrades are more important and while Silver could be an interesting distraction that's all it amounts to in the end."

With that the Doctor turned and walked towards the machine in the corner. Giving Silver Sonic one last look over I followed after him.

Robotnik came to a stop before the round bodied machine and suddenly the spiky arms whirled into motion. They poked and prodded along seams and rapidly opened hidden panels to access internals, occasionally sparks flew whenever something needed soldering. After a few moments the arms returned to their original positions and a 'bing!' filled the air.

"Excellent!" Robotnik shouted as the machine itself jolted to life. "All systems full power!"

The machine's head turned and studied the two metal hedgehogs before its gaze settled on me. I met its gaze wondering what exactly kind of machine this one was going to be. It couldn't be just a regular combat badnik, Robotnik had literal legions of those. Maybe some kind of in-between Horde Commander and regular badnik, an officer class?

"Look at me!" Robotnik commanded and the machine did so. "I'm your brilliant creator, Dr. Robotnik!"

"You're the seventeenth of my E-100 model machines." Robotnik continued as he moved to give the machine room to walk out of its berth. "E-117! Code name: Sigma."

'Seventeen? He must have been up throughout the night overseeing their activation one by one.' I thought and then realized my earlier musings were correct. 'He'd never do this for any regular badnik, the E-100 series must be something special… or maybe it's just auspicious timing they be activated during a major take over the world scheme. One way to find out I suppose…'

"Sigma." The badnik repeated.

"That's right!" Robotnik grinned widely and spread his arms in a grand gesture. "You will obey my commands first and foremost! And so long as those parameters are met you will also obey him."

Suddenly Robotnik turned and gestured with a hand towards me and Sigma looked directly at me again.

"Meet the first Underboss of the Eggman Empire, Sigma!" Was… was that pride in Robotnik's voice? "Unless I order otherwise you will be obeying his commands, his authority is my authority! Remember it well!"

Honestly I'm a little hung up over the fact the Doctor was speaking about me with a tone of pride of all things. Besides the intrigue in his voice when I first met him, an encounter that in hindsight should have been utterly terrifying had I not been so arrogant, he had always been mocking or dismissive of me. At the time I was perfectly fine with it and figured he would have been like some rich ponce who was ever disdainful of the help. That had been when I was still operating under the delusion I could be some evil minion janitor. But now to hear him speak of me in nearly the same tone he spoke of some new shiny machine of his…

'It's not really pride in me, it's more something about me that reflects well on him.' Of that much I was certain. 'There are a lot of things about this man that makes me unsure but one thing I am absolutely confident in is his egotism. Pride in others is anathema to a man like Robotnik, it's more my actions on his behalf and what I represent… yes he mentioned something of the sort when he elevated me. I am the first to recognise his "inevitable" rise to total dominance. What am I if not a constant living embodiment of that?'

"Hello, Sir." Sigma greeted me.

"E-Series Sigma." I returned in a formal tone, doing away with the number because I was bound to forget it at some point.

"Come along, Sigma!" Robotnik ordered and walked across the room to another door. "Through this door is the shooting range, you'll have it all to yourself as your brothers have all finished their runs. Go, show me what you're made of!"

"Affirmative, Doctor Robotnik." Sigma said tonelessly before darting through the door.

"Come, we shall see how Sigma performs." Robotnik said once the door mouth slid closed.

"Yes, Doctor!" I saluted.

Soon I found myself in a different section of the room, watching a Sigma run the firing range over a camera feed. It wasn't an especially difficult course in my opinion, a couple obstacles, shooting at stationary targets which were dummies of Sonic and what were obviously his friends. There was only one moving target at the end and the only danger was a handful of expendable badniks. Honestly I could have run this course myself, I wouldn't have enjoyed it at all but I was confident in managing this much.

Sigma was running the course in a straightforward manner but again, the course wasn't especially complicated in the first place. What was more interesting to me was seeing the capabilities of the new badnik at work. The simplicity of the course wasn't exactly helping to show them off in entirety but I had a baseline to build off of. As expected the wheels on the back of his feet allowed Sigma to change stance and rapidly drive along flat surfaces. Though the stance seemed a little awkward to my eyes. It probably would have been better if the feet had an ability to become wheels as opposed to shifting into an odd croach. The integrated gun was a powerful energy weapon, one that had me wincing as I watched. The… 'energy bolter' fired off bolts of plasma that made even other badniks explode into pieces of shrapnel and slag… not to mention flash charcoaled meat.

It was always an unpleasant reminder of what powered the Doctor's legions when a little broken body popped out of a badnik wreck. It wasn't always a certainty that the little mobinis would die upon a badnik's destruction, but it wasn't like their capsules were designed to safely pop open upon destruction. Studying badnik internals had me conclude it was possible to smash them in such a way as to make the mobini safely pop out. But to do so consistently and while said badnik was trying to smash you back? Utterly unfeasible to say the least and I wasn't surprised that even a machine had trouble managing it, though one had to wonder if a machine would be programmed to even consider such a thing. I digress…

Sigma's powerful weapon allowed him to bulldoze straight through the course with no real need to consider clever approaches. Which really made the purpose of the course quite obvious.

'Clearly though the point of this isn't for Sigma's benefit.'

Turning my head I looked over at another screen, this one not projecting the firing range but an outpouring of data. There was a rotating figure of Sigma and a cross section of his mechanical anatomy beside it. There were several different kinds of moving graphs, statistical readouts and a big block of scrolling text. All of this I didn't understand in the least, having only enough context to know it was Sigma's current status in extraneous detail. But that was just me, Robotnik obviously had no issues following the barrage of information like it was his favorite sports team about to win it all.

'Obviously what's happening on the range is less important than Sigma's operating performance.' I concluded. 'This little exercise is just meant to get his 'brain' going and 'blood' pumping. The Doctor wants to make sure everything is operating as intended for his grand scheme. Which is probably why he let me have a full night's sleep, it was less consideration for my need for it and more my sleep deprived state may cause a disruption. Dear spirits, I hope he explains something today! I want to at least mentally brace myself and not get blindsided by another catastrophe.'

"Good enough, Sigma!" Robotnik barked out. "Return immediately!"

Sigma, who had been in the process of blasting the sole moving Sonic dummy at the end of the course, froze for an instant before turning around and making his way back. The view followed Sigma as he marched back through the course and I managed to hide the wince this time as I saw the remains of various obstacles. That plasma bolt would almost certainly bore straight through my own armor like it was butter. And it really wasn't like I could wear better, other alloys were stronger but came at the cost of weight or bulk from the necessity of their layering.

At the end of the day I really was just one order away from death…

"Your thoughts, Underboss?" The Doctor suddenly asked.

I side eyed the man briefly and saw he was now gazing at the view of Sigma's traveling form. Well I could hardly admit I was thinking about how the deadliness of his weapons was keeping me in line. So what could I say instead? Make some banal remark about his machine? Might as well; not like I could get away with actually critiquing the man's work, not like I knew much about designing death bots in the first place! All I could do was give some vague expectations for modifications and expect the mechanics to work their magic.

Giving a second look over the firing range as the view followed Sigma I made note of the states the badniks and dummies were in. For the most part they had been cored and promptly blown to smithereens by the plasma bolt. Others however had been fatally mutilated by a side or glancing hit.

"Interesting shooting on Sigma's part." I commented like I wasn't an utterly mediocre marksman. "He cores the targets on most hits and cripples them on the closest thing he has to a miss."

"His aim is indeed substandard." Robotnik nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Gamma would have gotten clean shots every time. E-102's experimental eyepiece may need to become standard issue…"

Wasn't what I intended by saying that but the Doctor took it well and that's all that mattered in the end. A moment later Sigma had returned.

"Follow." Robotnik commanded and turned away.

Sigma and I fell into step just behind the Doctor and followed him through the outpost. After a few halls we entered what was possibly the world's most overengineered elevator imaginable. Of course a car lowered and raised via a system of cables and pulleys was not good enough for the likes of Doctor Robotnik. No, the only elevator worthy of transporting the Doctor is one that moves via an array of spider-like limbs!

Robotnik's typical pretentiousness aside, we soon arrived after disembarking the elevator.

"After you, Underboss." Robotnik gestured grandly towards a large door, grinning maniacally all the while.

The large weird mouth door parted at my approach and even though I knew to expect something I still found myself inhaling sharply at the sight before me. It was a vast open chamber lit up by large spotlights lining the ceiling and standing in formation at the center was a small horde of bipedal badniks.

The large block of badniks were a lot like the E-100 series in shape, so much so in fact I felt they were a predecessor series. They had egg-shaped bodies, limbs that looked even spindlier than Sigma's and a paint job that reminded me of the sweater Robotnik used to wear. Some marked differences from the E-Series were the fact that not only did these badniks have hands, they had mobian-like gloves. At their sides was clearly a large energy weapon from the sheer obvious complexity alone. Attached to their backs was a pair of rocket boosters, the presence of which had me raise the estimation of their threat level. What little experience I had told me that flight capability was a force multiplier.

Standing apart and before the formation was a small line of nine badniks, E-100s like Sigma but each in a different shade of color.

"Behold, Underboss!" Robotnik announced, arms spread in a grand gesture. "Your new command!"

I froze in place upon hearing those words, utterly disbelieving my own ears. Commanding badniks was most definitely not a new experience to me, I generally knew more about it then I did shooting. However the badniks I had commanded had all been utterly expendable common models, machines I could throw at a threat without concern. These were not only clearly brand new and top of the line shiny badniks, they included special models Robotnik had personal involvement in.

On one hand these machines were, as stated, top of the line models and thus could be expected to handle even greater threats than the regular badniks could. On the other hand, that meant I was expected to face even greater danger than ever before and would need murder bots of superior make.

"... You would entrust badniks of such quality to me, Sir?" I said, careful to keep even the slightest hint of a questioning tone out of my voice.

It wouldn't do to sound like I was questioning the man's decisions. It would be better if it sounded like I was merely voicing surprise and hope he answered anyway. Something I thankfully managed from his next words.

"But of course!" Robotnik replied with a wide grin, hands clasped at his back. "All loyal and capable assets of the Empire must do their part in the days to come! And you my dear Underboss will not only be entrusted with my newest and most impressive badnik line but your own vessel as well. All to fulfill an objective important to my plans!"

"I am HONORED, Sir!"

Oh fan-fucking-tastic, not only shiny warmachines I couldn't freely expend to save my own sorry hide but a task I can't afford to fail at!

"You better be." Robotnik said in a dangerous low tone, sending a chill down my spine.

After spending a moment staring me down to convey how utterly vital it was to my health I did not fail, Robotnik finally nodded and continued.

"You will be keeping an eye on approaches to both Station Square and Angel Island." Robotnik began. "It is of utmost importance that GUN be kept away. Their meddling will interfere with my projections so it will be up to you to ensure they stay out. The tsunami has given them ample distraction but they won't stay out of the region for much longer. I am counting on you, Underboss! DO. NOT. FAIL ME."

I shall not fail, Doctor!" I somehow promised in a steady voice. And because it already was on the line there was no harm to adding: "I shall stake my life on it, Sir!"

"Good." The Doctor nodded approvingly before turning and walking away. "Now I must go, I have to introduce myself to a god and it would be most unseemly to be late."

With that the man left the chamber, the mouth door sliding shut behind him with a certain hint of finality. Looking back to my new command I saw Sigma had joined the line of his series siblings. The E-Series and their predecessors stood silently in perfect attention, awaiting my orders. And really at this very moment I had only one thought going through my head.

'FUCK.'

-TBC-​

Author Note: The joke here is that Eggman essentially spent all night giving every E-100 their own intro sequence.

A wonderful person by the name of Psychoman13 had created a TV Tropes entry for this story! Go check it out!

Also, everyone welcome Sigma to the story! The IDW born scrapnik leader to be, or will he? Who knows? The situation that had led to him being scrapped may never come to pass this time around.

Reginald's task is to be on the outskirts and keep random variables from slipping into the mix. Unlike before when he was dealing with civilian militias and ragtag rebel fighters he will be facing actual military units this time. Surely the help of a small horde of elite badniks will be more than enough to meet this new challenge? Time will tell!

Also I've been lately distracted by the latest craze that is Palworld and for all its bugs and rough edges it's proving to be incredible amounts of fun. I didn't want to keep this on the burner however and focused on finishing this latest chapter. And now that I've finished this I will now be seeing if I can reach lvl 50 in the next few days.

Until next time…

 

[the swarm]

"Stake my life on it" oh mouth before the brain I imagine he's thinking he will be a "'Steak' my life" if he fails for eggman

 

[Legionary]

3.3

Interlude: Annabelle Jackson

"Angel Island is right there!"

"I know, Monsieur Jones."

"No need to organize an expedition, just walk right over!"

"You have mentioned zat, Monsieur, many times."

"Of course the feds have to pick now of all times to do their jobs!"

Staring blearily off into the distance I absently brushed off more sea salt, stuck listening to Jones bitch and moan. He'd been bitching and moaning pretty much all night, the whiny ass. He was probably doubly irritated from being tired seeing as most of us had been able to get any real shut eye. Turns out all the hotels and such in town were pretty much along the beach so the wave smashed every window and soaked every room. So now everyone was stuck out in the streets, some locals had opened up their homes but there were a lot of tourists and such in town. Jones, despite his connections, was just as shit out of luck as the rest of us though the man was at least used to some hard livin.

'Just wish he'd stop his bitchin, he ain't the only one that had to go sleepless.' I grumbled inwardly.

"Haaaa… Goo-haa-good morning, Miss AJ." I heard Cream yawn and mumble sleepily.

Looking over, I saw the little rabbit waking from fitful slumber. She and her mother, Vanilla, had managed to snag a cot together as opposed to trying to sleep on the ground like most of us. Not that it did Vanilla any good seeing as she spent the entire night, laying there wide awake and clutching her daughter to her side on the narrow cot. In fact it wouldn't surprise me none if making sure Cream didn't roll off in her sleep was what kept Vanilla awake the whole night. It was something I woulda done for Emerson and couldn't help but respect the motherly mobian for it.

"Mornin sugercube." I greeted, smiling despite myself at the sight of the little rabbit yawning and stretching. "How about ya hop on over and give me some decent company?"

"Okay!" Cream replied and I caught the grateful look Vanilla shot me before falling asleep on the spot.

'Looks like I was right on the money.'

Cream strolled on over and took a seat on the sidewalk next to me. She joined me in silently taking in the sights for a while. The low drone of people talking filled the air, other unfortunates like myself lined the streets, either sitting on bare pavement or a lucky "few" sleeping on cots. There were actually a lot of cots, just too bad there were just a whole hell of a lot more people that needed em. Kinda wish they had at least corralled us somewhere inside but I wouldn't have been surprised if they did and it was already full.

"Miss AJ! When did you get a gun?" Gasped the little mobian.

"This little beauty." I patted Emerson's revolver holstered on my hip. "Jones, Jacque and I went back to see if our luggage got offloaded before the wave hit. Turns out it did and we were able to get a few things."

Never had I been so glad Jones was in such a hurry to leave as soon as we docked. Luxury cruises didn't let passengers keep firearms on themselves. If Jones hadn't bribed the crew to unload our stuff first, Earl's knife and Emerson's revolver woulda been sunk with the ship. The idea of losing them to something as normal as some natural disaster would have gutted me. Though as it turned out that disaster wasn't as natural as it looked.

'The last time Angel Island fell from the sky, that crazy Doctor was involved.' I mused 'It's never fallen before, it just can't be bad luck it falls all on its own now! The Doctor is involved and if he's around then that means…'

Subconsciously I found my hand drifting over to Earl's knife and Emerson's revolver strapped at my hip. My fingers ghosted across the handles of both and I could already imagine drawing em on him.

"But… why do you need weapons Miss AJ?"

Looking over I couldn't help but pause at the completely aghast look Cream was sending me. It had me confused for a moment, at her age my son had known how important weapons were, but it came to me soon enough. Vanilla had that look of being that sort of 'well-to-do' type and it wouldn't surprise me none if Cream had grown up in some fancy manor. Both of them had to have been enjoying that safe and soft livin.

'Am I going to have to give a little girl a talk about needing to protect yourself?' Warily I looked over to Vanilla and saw her utterly dead to the world in exhaustion. 'Fuck sake… I would be pissed as all hell if I caught anyone parenting Emerson but Vanilla needs the sleep, hell I need the sleep too but someone needs to keep watch.'

"... So I can protect all of us." I eventually answered, hopefully Vanilla wouldn't be too upset.

"Protect us from what, Miss AJ?" Cream asked wide eyed. "It can't be the tsunami, that would be silly!"

"Look darlin, not every danger is going to be something like a uh… a tornado, an earthquake and the like." I explained and without really thinking about it I started patting the little lop eared girl's head. "Sometimes ya gotta worry about other people trying to hurt you."

"But… Why would anyone try to hurt us, Miss AJ?" Cream wondered, just heart on her sleeve utterly horrified at the idea.

I just really didn't want to do this. If it were Emerson asking this stuff I'd just up and say 'Some idjits don't learn till they have a gun in their face'. Cream though… cute, innocent little thing like her… she deserved to keep on going like that a while yet. I suppose a little white lie couldn't hurt, can't be much different than giving Emerson the stork story until he was older.

"Well… sure we're all suffering through this together but you still got them bad guys like the crazy Doctor to worry about." It wasn't as big an excuse as it could be, considering the circumstance. "Plus he is just the biggest and meanest around. There are still plenty of littler bad guys to look out for."

"Oh… that's a good point, Miss AJ!" Cream exclaimed.

'There we go, one innocence bubble unpopped.'

Just as I thought that though I spotted a really pissed off looking bear mobian stomping down the street, made doubly easier by the fact he wasn't little like most mobians. Just like Vanilla this bear was one of those sorts that grew to be the size of a human for some reason. Though from what I heard it was more often than not that bear mobians were bigger, something to do with the fact their inborn trait was being generally tougher all around. That was it though, a bear mobian was as strong as it looked, no pint sized little fuzz ball lifting boulders. That toughness was trouble though, my hunting rifle was still packed away and all I had on hand was just Emerson's revolver.

The bear mobian was completely bedraggled looking. He must have gotten washed away because his fur and clothes were filled with salt. Maybe he looked a lot more like a friendly sort a day ago, blonde fur, a tropical shirt in bright warm colors, red shorts, sandals and the typical mobian gloves. Now he was a big mean looking bear who'd obviously gone the whole night without sleep like the rest of us and not taking it near as well.

Growling and grumbling loud enough to be heard over the low buzz of the crowd the bear mobian stalked over the street, lookin like he was hoping someone would do him the favor of crossing his path. Course no one did and of course he lost patience and snapped his eyes over to the nearest cot. Picking the one damn cot that would make his bullshit my problem I sat up straight as he stomped over, looking like he was just going to throw Vanilla out of the cot.

The bear mobian's eyes snapped over to me as I purposefully made a sudden motion and rested my hand on my pistol. He seemed none too impressed but a soft hissing noise had me glancing to the side. Jacque, still seated on the ground, had opened his mouth as widely as he could, something that would have dislocated mine if I tried copying the snake. His fangs were extended and dripped with venom. On the other side of the snake, Jones was doing the same as me and making it clear he was armed and willing.

Narrowing his eyes and panting in anger the bear mobian glanced at all us. Finally he gave one last huff and turned away from Vanilla's cot. I watched the bear leave, ready to draw on him, but he seemed genuine in leaving, no doubt to hassle some less armed folks. It was only when I saw Jacque and Jones relax out in the corner of my eye that I did too.

"Thanks." I thanked the human and mobian, getting nods in return.

"Don't make a habit of that." Jones muttered and got an eye roll from Jacque.

"What was that, Miss AJ?" Cream asked and I looked over to see a confused look, she must have missed that little exchange.

"Just glad these two are friends and all." I replied and could hear a small scoff come from Jones.

"It's nice to have supportive friends!" Cream smiled briefly before looking curious. "How did you meet your friends, Miss AJ?"

"Well I uh-" Suddenly a loud squawk and screech filled the air, I winced at it but Cream gave a full body flinch and recoiled like she bit down with a sensitive tooth. Vanilla for her part gave a truly unhappy whine in her sleep and just rolled onto her side. Just goes to show utterly exhausted momma rabbit was.

Looking towards the noise I saw a man in uniform standing atop a police car fussing with a megaphone. As the angry murmuring of the crowd started to rise the man handed the megaphone down to someone for a moment before getting it back.

"ATTENTION! Anyone displaced or seeking refuge from the damages caused by the tsunami is to make way to Main Street! All train stations will work at all hours to carry passengers to Main Street! Once at Main Street evacuation efforts organized by GUN will carry people out of the city down the Speed Highway! Please make way to Main Street as soon as possible, food and water will be provided for all who need it! That is all!"

The murmuring of the crowd grew louder and some shouted questions and demanded answers but the man was already stepping down. It wasn't exactly an easy night for anyone, all was quick to get pissed off even at the offer of help but food, water and the prospect of escape was quick to get everyone up and walking.

Sighing I stood up along with Jacque, Jones and Cream. Even the booming of the megaphone and loud rumbling of the crowd didn't wake up Vanilla. It was probably going to all of us to wake her up and I can imagine how upset she'd be at barely getting ten minutes of sleep.

'Here's hoping we can catch a few hours over on Main.' I thought listlessly.

"Now they're making us go away from Angel Island!"

"I know Monsieur."

"We have to slip away, Jacque. I'm not missing the opportunity to get to Angel Island by foot!"

"Monsieur, we don't exactly have much in ze way of supplies. We should at least stock up on what we can get before trekking through ze jungle."

"Fine! But we're going to have to slip away, I know how the feds work. Once we're in they'll make us stay."

"On ze run from the authorities again, Monsieur? How we are not wanted in every country we visit, I'll never know."

Right, I was supposed to be tagging along with these two. Did I really want to be going head first into some weird flying island covered in ruins? Crazy Doc Eggman would be there, no doubts there, and so would he. Jones certainly had experience tussling with both lawful and unlawful types, which was weird what with him just being an archeology type, but this was a fella who had whole armies of bots. Fighting a bunch of regular folk was one thing but did I trust him to know how to handle Doc Eggman?

'He'd probably just avoid him by focusing on treasure hunting in some ruins. You'd think that would be the very thing to do. After all, what reason would some crazed scientist type have in some old musty ruins? Well considering he had been focused on digging up some ruins the last time I saw the fella it would be just our luck if we ended up digging in the same place.'

A problem for later, better focus on waking up momma rabbit…

---

Food…

After a long night of sleeplessness and being covered in sea salt and wet clothes some hot food would be just the thing. So the scent that drifted over us all as we wandered past checkpoints into Main Street was just plain heavenly. Vanilla clearly thought the same and immediately walked towards the smell, little Cream hand in hand. I didn't hesitate to follow right behind them.

The Main Street of Station Square was this huge six line road with these garden like dividers going down the middle. Looking one way I could see that Main ran all the way through the city from the way I could see the distant ocean. Despite all this room the place was already getting swamped with people. Everywhere I worked there were surly looking folks in color vacation clothes pouring in from the connecting streets. Definitely a whole hell lotta vacations just got ruined…

Now we were heading towards a particularly crowded section of street. It wasn't hard to see why, if the mouth watering smell of cooking food didn't draw ya the sight of a hundred different food trucks parked along the road would. Still trailing behind the two rabbits we walked up to one truck with an image of a burger, fries and hotdogs on it. Then we ended up having to walk away a couple dozen meters because apparently the crowds were multiple lines.

Lemme tell ya, standing there in the sun with a grumbling stomach on no sleep? Fun…

Eventually we got to take our orders. It was about then I realized that I hadn't been able to exchange my Chunese yuan for UZA dollars yet. Just as I was about fucking lose it then and there in the middle of everybody I noticed a big FREE!!! sign taped to the side of the truck. Sighing explosively I stood there and watched as Vanilla and Cream got their food. Cream got a little burger and fries while Vanilla settled for a fairly large hotdog, pretty much the entire time she had to wave off the offer of a salad or their stuff being garnished with relish. My turn came around and I just got this big jaw dislocating monster of a triple patty burger with everything on it. We then went and managed to find a free spot along the dividers to sit on and eat our food.

'Mmm… there is a couple stuff on this burger I don't really like but,' I thought after taking a bite. 'Somehow it all tastes great together.'

"Thank you for watching over Cream, Miss AJ." Vanilla said softly, somehow still looking elegant despite eating a hotdog.

Annabelle Jackson always felt like a mouthful to me, always preferred being just 'AJ'. People can earn the full name later if they want. Besides, Mama was Mrs.Jackson not me.

"It were nothin, not like I babysat her very long." I replied between bites.

"Still, thank you all the same." Mama Rabbit said, taking a dainty bite of her hotdog. "I can tell you have experience with children, Miss AJ. Do you have any or care for them perhaps?"

"I had the one, half raised him up all on my lonesome when his dad died." Looking past Vanilla at Cream happily munching on fries I couldn't help but reminisce on Emerson at that age. "It weren't easy, often we had to work together to bring the bread home. But you don't choose to work the frontier for an easy life and I never regretted livin it or raising up Emerson in it."

"Emerson, now there is an old and noble name." Vanilla remarked and I couldn't help but blush at that.

"Well… I guess I did find it in some book." I think it was some history book, don't really remember my schooling all too well but considering Vanilla's remark that was probably what it was.

"It was popular among the more distinguished lines of mobian nobility and royalty." Vanilla explained with a small smile.

"Well shucks, didn't mean anything grand by naming him that."

Emerson was a mobian name? Well that was… I guess it didn't really matter where it came from now didn't it? I liked the name and my husband at the time hadn't minded it none so that's what I named my son. Suppose I would have minded it mightily a couple years ago but what could have beens didn't really matter all that much.

"How is he if I might ask?"

"He…"

It was like my brain tripped over itself, I hated to remind myself I was alone now and my family was all dead. It was one thing if Emerson had moved down the road or something with a sweetheart of his but… he was dead, murdered. So was Earl, the man who I was all but already married to. The empty spots in my heart ached horribly and it took everything just to not break into tears again.

Suddenly arms were wrapped around me.

"I'm so sorry, AJ, I'm so very sorry." Vanilla murmured softly as she held me close.

It was as if I was a little girl again and Ma was holding me after Pa died, the memory came so suddenly it was too much to stop myself from crying. I felt so embarrassed, a grown ass woman crying and needed to be comforted like I was a little girl woken up by a nightmare. At least I stopped myself from just sobbing and choking on my own tears. So I sat there silently crying and at least no one really noticed what was going on. I don't think my pride could have taken it if Cream looked up and saw me crying.

I wanna say I sucked it up and stopped crying but to my shame I stayed there, being held in Vanilla's arms like I was her own child needing comfort. It was only when it felt like I had no more tears left that I was able to pull myself away. Thank the Holy Mother and her Saints that I hadn't completely broken down, I think Cream would have noticed if I was choking and shaking like some hysterical woman.

As I pulled away, Vanilla leaned back before reaching out and holding me by the shoulders. She looked me square in the eye for a long moment before smiling.

"Are you feeling better, AJ?" She asked.

"Much… what happened to 'Miss'?" I asked jokingly, wincing a little at a rather wet sniff my nose made.

"I think the last thing you need right now is formalities." She replied before returning to her food. "What's a bit of casualness between friends?"

"I guess so…" I mumbled a reply before returning to my own food.

Life had been really rough to say the least in the past few weeks. Losing my family, getting mixed up in Jone's crazy shit, getting caught up in some latest take over the world thing by the Mad Doctor. Cream and Vanilla though, they were good people and I would happily stand by that even in the face of a few friends back home I'd shared some… opinions with not too long ago. Stuff I'd been so sure about now felt rather shameful, it… it was confusing to me but I felt like Earl would have been happy to know I felt this way now. Earl's more accepting opinions regarding mobians was stuff I never really understood, I felt more like he was still naive somehow despite his age and one bad dust up with the goats would fix it. Instead it was Earl's willingness to talk to them that got us prospecting lands without being attacked… It was in remembrance of his kindness that the goats wanted to keep the old deal.

'You always did say all I needed was one good experience with a mobian.' I thought fondly. 'Well, Earl I had several and have to admit… they're not all bad. Don't mind having a few furry folks as friends, don't mind it at all.'

Speaking of friends…

I looked up to see where Jones and Jacque had settled in with their own food. But no matter where I looked I couldn't find the two! Did they run off to go scrounge up some supplies instead of eating straight away?! Here I was thinking the two were right behind me the entire time when in reality I got distracted by food and got separated from them.

Still looking around I tried coming up with some idea of how to two the two down or slip out past the checkpoints. Maybe I could at least make my own way to Angel Island and see if we just happen to run into each other? Ah hell, I was no tracker and hadn't had much cause to try being sneaky. Sure there were a lot of people moving through the checkpoints but they were all coming in, it wouldn't be hard at all to spot the one person trying to walk out. Maybe I could pretend I was some local? Just heading back home from volunteering time serving out food? I had to try! I couldn't miss my chance to take a swing at that fucker who killed my family! Sure it'd be smarter to bide my time and wait for a better chance, but you didn't get anywhere just waiting for good things to fall into your lap either. Whether by lucky hit or the perfect shot I'd be killing that rabbit even if it were the last thing I'd do!

'Just have to figure out a way to slip outta here…'

---

Reginald the Rabbit

Leaning back against the throne I took in the view.

The vessel entrusted to me as part of my new command had in fact been the manta ray shaped one Robotnik and I had initially flown in on. Said ship had some serial number like designation instead of a proper name. Not feeling especially attached to something that would likely be shot full of holes by GUN I just redesignated it as the 'Manta'. I would have loved to say the ship was packed to the ceiling with expendable badniks but sadly that just wasn't the case. Other than the assigned Egg Robos and E-100s the only other machines in my employ were a squadron of non animal shaped jet badniks, something Robotnik may have forgotten in the hold, and my trio of repaired custom badniks. Attempts to order the vast swarms of badniks in the outpost to augment my forces were met with either blank stares or me being outright ignored. Clearly Robotnik was of the opinion it was time to prove myself able to command a force whose numbers I had to preserve as much as possible.

'Of course that is assuming this is actually a test and not Robotnik deciding to make my job difficult out of personal amusement.' Something that was depressingly likely unfortunately for me. 'One hundred high performance badniks, ten experimental badniks personally made by the Doctor, twenty four jet fighters armed with energy weapons and missiles and my three personal badniks. Is that enough to hold off GUN for who knows how long this whole thing is going to last? I got the implication that this whole thing isn't supposed to go on longer than a couple days…'

A couple days to accomplish… whatever it is that Robotnik wanted to do. The man wasn't talking out of a desire for drama so really it could be another take over the world scheme or something much more localized. Could I really hold off the might of the UZA based GUN for several days? Certainly the Doctor could do it but he'd just endlessly replace any losses against GUN, either grinding them down or smashing them apart. That was what always happened, GUN's attempts to resist the Eggman Empire would ultimately fail and oftentimes without even slowing the Empire down. Could I do the same with a limited number of high performance badniks? Maybe if Metal Sonic was amongst the number I'd be much less uncertain in my chances. And maybe I was underestimating how dangerous these elite badnik units would be but it was damned hard to look past the fact I barely had more than a hundred of them.

'What do I do know however is that wasting time bemoaning my fate isn't going to make it better.' I thought, breathing in deeply. 'I at least have the Manta as well, a fairly well armed vessel… I think. It's got a bunch of big energy weapons which should be dangerous to anything GUN can field so I'd say it's well armed. It's not the Egg Carrier but the ship does have built in stealth capabilities and can manage hiding in a clear sky better then the Egg Carrier can. So no matter what I can at least seemingly attack out of nowhere.'

A whir of servos drew my attention and I glanced out of the corner of my eye at my current second in command.

Sigma was no Alfa unfortunately, what with him being all of one day old, but perhaps a tad foolishly I was optimistic for his chances. I held hopes that Sigma would develop a personality just as lifelike as Alfa's and would be a valuable subordinate in the future. As it was I had my work cut for me as Sigma would need to be walked through various responsibilities of a competent second in command, namely keeping my undeserving hide in one piece. No doubt Sigma's various bodyguard subroutines would do a decent job of it without any hand holding but when it comes to my own life, 'decent' just doesn't quite cut it.

The E series badnik wasn't unique in his condition however. Sigma's nine other siblings were just as bland and empty of personality as he was. Which was just perfect considering I had divided the force of Egg Robos into ten squads and made each one a commanding officer. Oh yes, what I needed from my subordinates was to be a bunch of unimaginative dullards who no doubt just bowl over whatever threat they were pointed at. I had no doubts at all that such strategy would work most times but, again, I needed to conserve my forces.

'Now… if only I could be confident that I am not just as big an unimaginative dullard as they are.' I thought with a grimace. 'It's not like I attended some military academy! My strategies in battles so far has been outnumbering the enemy and trying, and failing, to be the ambusher. Come on, think! You're not that stupid! You can learn from mistakes!'

Returning my gaze to the bridge window I continued taking in information from the data feeds.

GUN was incredibly distracted by a number of capsized ships out at sea. Their land forces were working their way up and coast and attending to beleaguered settlements as they went. The vanguard of their advance would reach Station Square within the day. In fact they had messaged ahead and helped organize a partial evacuation effort of the city, something that had nearly given me a heart attack because initially I thought GUN had somehow slipped by me and entered the city. News from the city itself was a bit more varied, various accounts of issues from tourists stranded and left out in the streets by the tsunami, water damage everywhere and flooded sewers. There was something regarding a plane crashing into the sandbar and Sonic somehow being involved.

That last one was potentially interesting just from the Blue Blur's involvement alone but it was also more Robotnik's problem as opposed to mine.

'The GUN vanguard is traveling along the coast on Speed Highway.' I stared at glowing markers on a digital map. 'They have over a hundred vehicles and many more soldiers packed tightly in. These humans are being deployed to help their own afflicted by unnatural disaster. It's now my job to ensure they never get the chance.'

My stomach churned at the prospect of it all. They might not be Sonic but they were men and women coming to help those in need and thus heroes all the same. It… might not be enough to hit them hard enough to make them scatter and run. They may just group up back together in the wilderness and make their way to Station Square. I will likely need to give them a reason to stand and fight.

I looked at another window showing the view of a street camera. A line of buses were being loaded up with humans and mobians alike to be shipped down the coast. Innocent people looking for shelter away from disaster.

'Spirits of my ancestors have mercy upon my soul for what I am about to do…'

-TBC-​

Author Note: Well my wrist issues have turned out to be not as severe as I thought and they've healed. But of course I somehow slept bad enough to pinch a nerve and now have to deal with various limb issues. *Insert Theoden: My body is broken* here.

It's about that time to add to the growing legend of Robotnik's newest fleshy enforcer. At this point only being known by select groups and distantly aware of by GUN Intelligence (Probably call them SCOPE… Hmm, Scouting, Covert Operations and Preemptive Engagements) and the CLIP Division because they'd be the ones with ties to Dan Jun. This is the point in time that world infamy gets its start and for a number of good reasons.

 

[Stelarwand030]

This is very good. Kept me riveted the entire time. Very well done. I am surprised how little likes there are.

 

[Stelarwand030]

We need more povs of other people's experience with red. I really want to see just how crazy people think red is considering what crazy stuff he does in fights. I especially want to see POV of the rebels that attacked the Cliffside. Maybe a short POV on how the badniks like him as a new boss or even a one that shows how the doctors sees red.

 

[Stelarwand030]

Just pointing this out because I find it interesting but if you read the story with all responses from people it only takes up two pages. But if you read the story in reader mode it takes up three pages. Just thought it was kind of funny

 

[Tempest Warden]

Will be interesting to see what he does though feel like there's gonna be some casualties as well as trauma involved.

Let alone reactions from Team Sonic about him.


...I have concerns for Cream the Rabbit...

 

[Doccer]

Just pointing this out because I find it interesting but if you read the story with all responses from people it only takes up two pages. But if you read the story in reader mode it takes up three pages. Just thought it was kind of funny

Click to shrink...

Yeah I've noted that sometimes on other stories. I don't know why that happens.

 

[Stelarwand030]

Did a reread of the entire story today off and on and I have to say the rabbit is absolutely terrifying from other people's point of view. He just so happens to move in such a way that he's either dodging bullets catching bullets or getting shot Point Blank Range and he keeps on chugging. He's like the Energizer Bunny from someone's nightmares

 

[Legionary]

We need more povs of other people's experience with red.

Click to shrink...

It's most definitely in the works, we're still rather early in the grand scheme of things with only now getting mixed up in the events of the First 3D era Sonic game. But I definitely have a planned second POV of the 'Freedom Fighters' Reginald fought. The coming up arc after this is going to be so very interesting with one major shake up and maybe a title drop.

---

Hmm... I should mention that this story does have a TV Tropes page.

TV Tropes Red the Rabid

For any who are interested.

 

[Stelarwand030]

Hmm... I should mention that this story does have a TV Tropes page.

TV Tropes Red the Rabid

For any who are interested.

Click to shrink...

He needs a few more tropes:

1. 
   
   [*]super fast reaction time was able to have a flash back and still able to jump off a falling badnick.
   [*]incredible luck.
   [*]awesome armor
   [*]a few others but i have to go will finish later.​

 

[Legionary]

Also I had this made from an artist named Beroki:

Spoiler: A Place of Peace

Spoiler: A Place of Misery

 

[Stelarwand030]

Also I had this made from an artist named Beroki:

Click to shrink...

WOW! those are awesome. how much did they cost?