Changes Are No Good
By: Chibi
Chapter 7: “Product of War and Fear”
*
The guest bedroom was dark, save a sliver of light from
the barely-open door. Shadow peered in
at his sleeping son and smiled. “Never
fails,” he muttered to himself. “Play with
a kid long enough and they’re ready to take a nap.”
“Honey,” Amy said from down the hall, “They’re waiting
for you.”
“I’ll be right there,” the dark hedgehog replied. “Sorry, Maury, but you’re just not ready for
something on this scale yet. Just let me
protect you one more time…”
* * *
At a
location in Central City, away from GUN HQ, Saffron was fussing over the
commander one last time. “You’re sure
you have everything ready? And fasten
this all the way,”—(she did the top closure on his jacket)—“you should at least
try to look professional about this, sir.”
Sonic
backed away and waved a hand at her.
“Yeah, I’m sure, Saff. I’ve got
everything under control,” he said. “Now
I gotta get out there. Wish me
luck! I’m gonna need it.” He then walked out into view of the press.
The
hare smirked and pushed up her glasses, causing them to flash. “Indeed you will, sir.” “Got
everything under control,” do you?
Hardly, she thought.
Dr.
Prower approached her with a file folder.
“I have the ‘information’ you wanted,” he said. “You sure you wanna go through with this
plan? It’s pretty risky.”
“He’s
still got a conscience in there somewhere.
I saw it after he left that mess in his office,” Saffron replied. “And if it doesn’t work, there’s plan B.”
“Plan
B?” Miles echoed with a frown. “What’s
plan B?”
She
turned to him and said grimly, “You don’t want to know. One way or another, this ends today.”
* * *
“…
but now that we know where the threat is coming from, it’s all a matter of following
the paper trail back to St. Jimmy,” Sonic answered from the podium.
The
press, however, was not satisfied with this answer:
“But
Cmdr. O’Reily—“
“—why
did it take this long—“
“—address
the rumors surrounding the possible identity of—“
A
voice shouted, “Sir!” over the din, followed by Sonic’s second-in-command
approaching the podium. The hare stopped
a foot away and saluted. “Sir! We’ve just
received important news regarding the St. Jimmy attacks!”
The
hedgehog nearly fell off the raised stand behind the podium in shock. “We’ve
got WHAT?!” he exclaimed.
Saffron
nodded. “It appears from the evidence
that St. Jimmy is—“
The
commander cut her off. “Saffron, backstage! Now!” For emphasis,
he hopped off the platform and pushed her about halfway there. He then returned to the podium. “Er, this might
take a while. You may as well go
home.” He was about to leave it again
when a thought struck. He leaned into
the microphone, grinned evilly, and said, “Oh, and by the way, I like
cock. Discuss.” He hopped back down and went to meet his
subordinate without another word.
“Cmdr.
O’Reily, wait!”
“One
more question!”
“This
is a surprise?”
* * *
Out
of public eye, Saffron greeted him with, “Was that really necessary, sir? You may have been in the closet, but the door
was wide open.”
“Are
you kidding? I’ve been dying to end a
press conference like that for years,” Sonic answered. He ran a hand through his quills, a few
coming out with the pass, then crossed his arms. “Now what’s going on,
Saff?”
The
hare patted a file folder with the back of her hand and replied, “The evidence
points to only one person, sir. Think
about it. It was someone on the inside. The robots had to be remotely controlled,
because no one inside was off-duty consistently with the attacks. Captain Horrocks is Signal Ops. Communications. No one would notice if he had something else
going on. His ID was used by Jet
al-Rashid, who was going to do God-knows-what to you or our computer systems,
in the recent intrusion and was found on the hawk’s body. He deliberately interfered with the arrest of
General Gordon Ansem, from your report, and very likely took him with him. Whether it was as a captive or
co-conspirator, however, is currently up for debate.”
“B-but the robots themselves! Where did he
come up with a mech design?” the hedgehog stammered. “And what’s his motivation?”
“Things
get lost in the shuffle,” Saffron answered, “Perhaps he stole one. As for motivation… Who knows?
Yet another tale from another broken
home?” She shrugged. “But motive isn’t what’s important, it’s
evidence.”
The
commander flung a hand out to his side in a wide arc. “Motive isn’t important?! Motive isn’t important?! But… er…” He
stopped to think for a split second.
“But the people are gonna wanna know why the hell someone wanted to blow
the hell outta GUN!”
“You
can tell the people we fully intend to get the answer for that after
he’s been captured and interrogated,” Saffron said briskly.
Sonic
gaped. “You… You didn’t…”
“They
were looking for him under your orders anyway, sir,” she told him. “A few of our soldiers ran across E-123 Omega
under her civilian guise, Megan Thorn, in the search. She was less than happy about the
intrusion. There were a lot of
obliteration threats and cursing of Isaac Asimov, from what I heard.”
“But
Horrocks isn’t St. Jimmy!” Sonic protested.
“Sure, he interfered with Ansem’s arrest, but
he was just doing what he thought was right!
Shit like that’s why I wanted him on my staff! He’s a good man!”
The
hare folded an arm under her chest, lowered her glasses with the other, and
peered at him over the top of her glasses.
“If you’re so convinced Horrocks isn’t the terrorist, then who do you
think St. Jimmy is, sir?”
The
hedgehog took a step back. “Well, y’see… um…”
Saffron
leaned in towards him. “Yes, sir?”
And
suddenly, it hit the commander like a giant cartoon anvil. The worry subsided and turned into a weak
laugh. “Ahaha… You know.
You know!” His laughter crescendoed until it was too much for him and caused him to
cough. He got out between coughs, “Dammit,
how did the doc do that…?”
With
a soft sound, the hare’s sidearm was drawn and pointed at the hedgehog. “Of course I know. You think you can keep something like this
under wraps from an old intelligence officer for long?” she said. “If my childhood hero hadn’t been so
insistent on giving you a chance to turn back, I would have had you arrested or
shot at the first convenient opportunity.”
“Your childhood hero?” Sonic repeated, still coughing a little.
“The man who orchestrated the fall of the Black Arms,”
Saffron said, “Dr. Ivo Robotnik.”
The
hedgehog sneered. “Yeah, and he got his
hands dirty for the greater good too.”
“What
‘greater good’ could come about from killing long-retired veterans, people who
have faith in their leader, and innocents that got in the way?” Saffron shot
back, gun holding steady. “This is about
vengeance, pure and simple!”
Sonic
opened his mouth to protest, but the denial wouldn’t come out. The only things he could do was droop and reply quietly, “You don’t know anything.”
Saffron
lightly shook her head, eyes never leaving him.
“You really are playing up the ‘patron saint of the denial’ part, aren’t
you?”
“I’m
an all-or-nothing type,” he said with a shrug.
“So, what’re you gonna do now, Saff?
Shoot me? I’m kinda hopin’ you will. But
it doesn’t matter in the end, you know?
Everything’s already been set in motion.
Soon GUN will cease to exist as you know it and there’s nothing you can
do to stop it.”
“You’re
a long ways from the Eclipse Cannon controls, sir,” the hare said stiffly, “and
I called for an evacuation of the premises until this is resolved while you
were with the press.” She smiled. “I must thank you for leaving that notebook,
sir. It’s been most helpful.”
The
hedgehog shook his head. “You just don’t
get it, do you?” He then grinned back at
her. “Oh, and good luck evacuating
people who can’t move, by the way.
Those canisters of Black Arms gas must be just about empty by now.” The hare gasped. Sonic continued to grin. “Oh, c’mon, Saff, you honestly expected me to
spell out every detail of my plan in something I had just lying out on
my desk? I’ve read the Evil
Overlord List. Tails and I used to make
fun of the doc for not reading it, for crying out loud!”
Saffron’s
finger twitched on the trigger. “You…!”
Sonic
closed his eyes. “That’s right, shoot me
now, Saff,” he said. “If you don’t, I’ll
keep trying to tear the damned organization down.” He balled up his fists. “Prove to me GUN is worth saving,
Saffron. You’ve already found the bad
guy and have him where you want him.
Finish what you started.”
Saffron
tried to steady her hand with limited success.
“Yes, sir,” she said as she started to squeeze the trigger…
“Hey,
I found the danishes you mentioned! They were—“ Dr.
Prower said, carrying a paper plate loaded with pastries towards the pair. Before he knew it, a gunshot went high into
the wall, then something blue, gray, and fast brushed past him and stole a danish from the plate. “Wha…?!”
The
hare chased the blur past the fox, accidentally knocking the plate out of his
hands, and fired a pair of shots at the retreating figure. “Bollocks!” she shouted at her apparent
misses. She pulled out a cell phone and
quickly dialed a number, growling something like “cut him off at the pass”.
The
fox’s shock began to wear off as he finally understood what had just
happened. “You didn’t…” he began. “You… You…”
Saffron
waved a hand at him and spoke on the phone.
“Ms. Wayneright? This is ‘Whatsername’. I need to be put through to the
doc—what? He isn’t there? I see, good…”
Miles
would not be shushed that easily. “You
confronted him without me?! After you
bitched at me about not going it alone?!
And now he’s—“
The
hare held a hand over his mouth. “Not now,
Dr. Prower. Right now, we have other
things to worry about.” She turned her
attention back to the phone. “I’ll need
assistance with an evacuation, Ms. Wayneright. The commander has—what?! He saw something like this happening? Good, deploy them immediately!”
Miles
pried her hand off his mouth. “I will
not be silenced! What the hell were you
thinking?!”
Saffron
said her goodbyes to the secretary on the other end and hung up. She looked him in the eye and said, “I was
thinking you were too close to him. I
couldn’t predict how you’d react in the situation. Now if you’ll excuse me…” She then started dialing a different number
on the phone.
The
fox scowled. “You were worried I’d side
with him, weren’t you? If I was gonna do that, I would’ve ratted you out after you came to me!”
Saffron
stopped and sighed heavily. “I’ll admit
that was one worry. But…” She looked up at him. “As you have probably guessed, if he wouldn’t
come in peacefully, I was going to kill him.
Worst case, you’d do something foolish to protect him. Best case…
It’s not something someone should see happen to family. Now again, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see
what support I can come up with on short notice. Other than that, it’s in Dr. Robotnik’s hands
now.” She laughed softly. “Unless, of course, you can remotely ensure
the Eclipse Cannon won’t fire.”
Miles
grinned and rubbed under his nose with a finger. “Ha!
Just give me a wifi connection and…” The smile began to fade. “And… Uh-oh.”
The
hare’s ears twitched. She leaned in
almost nose-to-nose with him and asked, “‘Uh-oh’? ‘Uh-oh’ what, Dr. Prower?”
The
engineer tugged on his goggles and nervously laughed. “It’s a funny story, really…”
* * *
Space. The final frontier, or so
they say. There hung the Space
Colony
The
control center stood where it always stood, at the end of a railingless
catwalk perilously placed over what looked like a never-ending pit. Four Chaos Emeralds were already in place in
the cylinder behind the computers. A blue,
gray-clad figure appeared with a flash of light and propped himself up in the
doorway opposite the controls. He put
away a yellow emerald and gently touched where one of his subordinate’s bullets
had grazed him. He hissed and mumbled,
“Not bad. Thank God she’s no Tails,
though.” He pulled what looked like an
ordinary hand-held game console and powered it up. He removed the stylus from the machine and
set about his work…
Meanwhile,
at the other end of the catwalk, Dr. Robotnik was steaming at the mangled
control panel. “What in the nine hells
did that blasted rodent do to this?!” he asked loudly.
His
companion, Knuckles, tugged at the doctor’s coat. “Er, Eggman?” he
said quietly, pointing out to the door.
Ivo
sighed as he assessed the damage. “You
should know by now I left that name in the past. Call me Ivo, or ‘doctor’, or—“
“Doctor, then. You have to—“ the echidna began again.
“And
can’t it wait? I’m busy—“ the doctor began.
He stopped abruptly and took a step back as the machine seemingly turned
itself on. It
hummed softly as it warmed up. “How…?!”
“Maybe
we can ask him,” Knuckles said flatly, pointing at the uniformed hedgehog in
the doorway. He squinted at the
commander. “Hey, is that a…?”
* * *
Saffron
grabbed the fox by the jacket and shook him.
“You did WHAT to that ancient piece of junk the commander’s always
playing with?! Why was
I not informed about this?!”
“I
don’t know! It was supposed to be used
in case another planet-raping comet came around or to shut the cannon off in
case some more psychos tried to use the Eclipse Cannon! How was I supposed to know Sonic would be the
next crackpot to take the cannon for a spin?!” Miles defended. “And the DS isn’t junk! It’s a classic!”
“I
don’t bloody care!” Saffron replied as she pushed him away. “It’s in the hands of a dangerous man and the
only other controls on the planet are at HQ, which, by the way, is flooded with
that blasted alien gas!”
“Well,
there is a counter-agent we could take,” the fox countered. The lieutenant just scowled at him. “That’d solve…” More
scowling. “… the
problem.” Even more
scowling. “… it’s
stored at GUN HQ, isn’t it?” The
lieutenant nodded. “Well, that’s no
good.”
“Quite,”
the hare replied.
Miles
pulled his goggles down. “OK, plan B. I have a laptop in the car. Where’s the nearest wifi
hotspot?”
“The
fast-food place down the street,” Saffron answered. She let out a yelp of surprise as the
engineer grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the door. “Dr. Prower?!”
“C’mon,
Lieutenant, we got a cannon to stop,” he said. “Let’s hope we’re not too late…”
* * *
Back
on the
“Trying
to stop you from doing this!” was the echidna’s answer. “Sonic, what the hell are you thinking?! This is crazy!”
Sonic
started towards him, but winced and stopped after the first step. He stared down at the abyss below. “I know.
I know that, Red. But… The system’s
broken. I have to do something…”
“And
blowing things up is going to fix it?!” Knuckles asked incredulously.
“The
only way it’s gonna change is if it’s burnt to the ground and rebuilt from
scratch!” Sonic replied as he swung his arms out wide, the gaming device
dangling precariously over the pit by its wrist strap.
“No,
it isn’t!” Knuckles countered. “There
has to be another way!” He slouched
slightly. “You used to be good at finding
them.”
The
hedgehog took a couple painful steps closer.
“Believe me, I’ve tried other ways, Knuckles, but nothing’s
worked! Do you think I’d jump into
something like this if it wasn’t a last resort?” He paused for a moment. “Hell, do you think I’d even be here if I
wasn’t desperate? The Eclipse Cannon’s
too big a cliché anymore. If only I
could’ve found that last emerald…”
“I
guess Rouge’s underwear drawer really was that last place you’d look,”
the echidna said absently.
“Rouge’s…?”
Sonic began. He shot the echidna a nasty
look. “And just what the hell
were you doing in Rouge’s underwear drawer?!”
“What
the hell was I doing in Rouge’s underwear drawer?” Knuckles echoed. “Just what the hell was Shadow’s kid
doing with the emerald I gave you?!”
“Pwned,” the doctor muttered under his breath as he tried to
repair the controls.
Knuckles
narrowed his eyes at the human as the hedgehog’s jacket slipped down his shoulder. Sonic pulled it back up and turned his gaze
back to the void below. “I won’t ask
forgiveness, ‘cause I know I really, really
don’t deserve any.”
The
echidna crossed his arms and frowned.
“Now listen here, Sonic, I—“
“I’m
sorry, Red. I’m sorry you had to see any of this,” Sonic interrupted, ignoring
him. He took the device off his wrist
and opened it. With a tap of a finger, a
seemingly very generous countdown appeared on the control center’s
screens. He heard the doctor curse as he
edged to one side of the walkway, toes of his shoes dangling over the
brink. “I wanted to keep you out of
this. I didn’t want…” He closed his eyes as well as the
device. He either didn’t hear the
approaching footsteps and a click, or ignored them. “Ha, look at me. This whole mess has turned me into some
lame-ass drama queen. Just remember
this, OK? I love you, and I never wanted
you to get hurt by this.”
He
opened his eyes, looked down at the long drop, and whistled. “Doubt even I could survive that. Maybe I’ll jump after the cannon fires.” He turned away without looking up
immediately. “Can’t do it before, that’s
against the Evil Overlord—the hell?!”
Ivo
stared down at the hedgehog, a gun pressed against the echidna’s back. He spoke in a tone the hedgehog and echidna
had not heard for many, many years. “The
Evil Overlord List not only takes the sport out of being a supervillian,” the
doctor said, “it fails to factor in the hero may be less than an upstanding
citizen. I believe we have a matter to
discuss, hedgehog…”
* * *
Back
on the ground in a local TastyBurger, Dr. Prower saw
something on the laptop’s screen and said “damn it” more times than Shadow on a
bad day. The hare on the phone ignored
him for the moment, another issue on her mind.
“Sgt.
Sawanoguchi—hell, can I just call you Espio?—Sergeant, how’s the evacuation
going? Well, hurry it up! There’s no telling how much time we have—“
“According
to this, nine minutes and five seconds,” Miles said as he typed something.
“Beg
pardon?” Saffron said. She then pushed
in next to him and looked at the screen.
“But it won’t take you that long to deactivate it, will it?”
“Providing
he hasn’t rigged it so it goes off way too early, yeah,” the fox confirmed.
Saffron’s
glasses slipped down. “Evil
Overlord List rule, correct? ‘I
will not employ the use of a countdown, but if I must, it’ll activate early’ or
something to that effect?”
Miles
nodded. “Bingo.”
The
hare let out a grunt of annoyance. “Shut
the thing off as fast as you can, Dr. Prower,” she said. She raised the phone back to her ear and
ordered, “Sergeant! Redouble the
evacuation efforts! We have… Yes, I know you’re a cop, not a miracle
worker, and yes, I appreciate the precinct’s cooperation in this! Just try harder! If we’re lucky, we’ve got all of nine minutes
to go!”
“Eight
and a half,” the engineer corrected.
“Eight and a half, then!” the lieutenant repeated.
“If
he didn’t follow the Evil Overlord List again,” Miles added.
Saffron
grumbled. “I swear,
if it’s within my power, I will have that bloody list deleted from the
internet!” She allowed herself a moment
to fume, then went back to her work. GUN
was not going down without a fight.
* * *
“Turn
it off, Sonic,” Dr. Robotnik said, “or the echidna dies.” He racked the slide of the gun for
emphasis. The echidna flinched, but
otherwise remained steady.
The
hedgehog looked up at the human, then the echidna, then back to the doctor
again. “You wouldn’t dare,” he
decided.
“Just
like I wouldn’t dare nearly kill him through electrocution?” Ivo asked,
counting off each incident on the fingers of his free hand. “Or just like I wouldn’t dare send you to
your death in front of your adoptive child and would-be girlfriend? Or that I wouldn’t dare put countless little
animals in my robots to power them until they die, or blow up a GUN base after
stealing from it in broad daylight?” He
wagged a finger at the diminutive soldier.
“Don’t underestimate me.”
Sonic
swallowed hard. “More like how you wouldn’t
dare hurt Amy every single time you took her hostage!” he forced
out. “This is obviously a set-up. You two make it look like you’ll hurt
Knuckles to force me to call it off. No
dice, doc. I’m callin’
your bluff!”
Ivo
frowned and shook his head. “I’m sorry
you feel that way. Is there nothing we
can say to make you change your mind?”
“‘Fraid not, doc,” the hedgehog answered. He flashed his trademark grin, now tainted
with malevolence. “Seriously, what in
our history together made you think you could ever stop me?”
Ivo’s
frown deepened. “I suppose I have no
other alternative.” He looked down at
his red companion and said, “I’m sincerely sorry for this, Knuckles.”
Neither
furry had a chance to say anything before the bullet tore through the echidna.
He lurched forward and fell face-first on the platform. Sonic froze.
His mouth opened and shut repeatedly, like a fish out of water
desperately trying to get oxygen. “Oh my
God…” the hedgehog breathed. “You…” He rushed for his fallen friend, putting his
own pain out of mind. He stumbled and
fell to his knees before the echidna, wincing and muttering a curse upon
impact. Sonic pulled the echidna up into
a half-sitting position and asked, “Red, are you OK?! Please say you’re OK!”
All
Knuckles could muster was a feeble groan.
The hedgehog hugged him tight, causing him let out a louder “ow!”
“You’ll
be OK, I swear you’ll be OK, you have to be OK…” Sonic rambled.
He
didn’t fight when the doctor successfully pulled the DS away from him. Ivo opened the device and stared at disbelief
at the words on the top screen. “‘Chekhov’s Gun’?
‘Justin Bailey’? Don’t tell me, I
have to input the Konami code to shut the cannon down?” He sighed.
“Even I never went this unrepentantly fanboy
with my passwords. Well, except for the
time I used ‘reindeer flotilla’ when I was a teenager…”
The
mechanisms behind him whined loudly, threatening to fire down on the planet
below. The doctor yanked the stylus out
of the DS and frantically tapped in “up, up, down, down…” on the touch screen,
getting as far as the first “left” before the cannon abruptly shut down
seemingly on its own with a groan. He
looked at the displays, which now read “Game Over” in large letters. “What on Earth…?”
* * *
Dr.
Miles Prower leaned far back in his seat, to the point of almost falling off,
pulled his goggles off, and took a deep breath.
The words “Game Over” were displayed on the laptop screen. “That was way too close…”
Saffron
lowered the phone. “You… You did it?”
“Yeah,
barely,” the engineer confirmed with a weak smile and a thumbs-up. “I almost didn’t make it, but we should be in
the clear now.”
“Good
work, Miles!” the hare said brightly.
She hugged him tightly to her for a moment, then
went back to the phone. “Continue the
evacuation, Sergeant. We may not be in
immediate danger anymore, but we still don’t know what prolonged exposure to
that gas will do…”
The
fox sat up straight and pouted. “What,
no kiss?”
“You’re
a married man, Dr. Prower,” Saffron replied.
“What kind of woman do you think I am?”
“One
that hopefully wouldn’t leave me for a flaming pussy from a parallel universe,”
Miles muttered bitterly.
The
hare looked at him and adjusted her glasses.
“I beg your pardon?”
Miles
waved a hand at her. “I’ve had a lot of
personal issues going on lately; it’s not important now. What’s next, Lieutenant?”
Saffron
told the man on the phone, “Keep working, and call me if anything unusual comes
up.” She gave him a call-back number and
hung up. “Continue monitoring the
situation, Dr. Prower,” she said to the engineer. “All that’s left to do right now is hope Dr.
Robotnik comes through with the rest…”
* * *
Ivo
breathed a sigh of relief and closed the DS.
“That’s one less thing to worry about.”
He turned back to see that Sonic was now missing his jacket’s sleeves
and that they had been turned into dressings for the echidna’s wound. The hedgehog continued to fuss over his
friend, hugging him again after tying the makeshift bandage in place.
The
doctor pushed up a sleeve to reveal a watch-like device. He pressed a button and spoke into it. “Shadow, please come here.”
The
dark hedgehog’s entrance was hardly flashy.
The door swished open and he stepped inside. He eyed the pair on the floor. “I take it things went well?”
“Splendidly,”
the human replied dryly. “Listen,
Shadow, Knuckles is in need of medical care.
I need you to take him for me.”
“What do you care about him?!” Sonic exclaimed, protectively pulling Knuckles away
from the human. “You’re the one who shot
him!”
Shadow
ignored his blue double. “I’m not
leaving you alone with him,” he told the doctor, spitting out the last
word as if it were an insect that flew into his mouth. “He’s done enough harm to my family
already.”
“We
have things to discuss in private,” Ivo explained. “Please, Shadow.”
“Rouge…”
Knuckles mumbled.
The
black hedgehog growled. “Damn it, you
just had to bring her up.” He
made his way to the pair before him and stooped over to collect the
echidna. He whispered in Sonic’s ear,
“If you harm a single hair on his moustache, I will kill you, and not
even Maria herself could stop me from doing it. The only reason I haven’t killed you already
is that my son—who wanted to come here himself, I might add—and cousin still
seem to have faith in you. Are we
clear?” Sonic nodded. “Good.”
Shadow paused, then added, “The echidna has
done me no harm. I promise he will be in
good hands.” Sonic released his grip on
Knuckles and Shadow carefully lifted the echidna up. “Doctor, if he tries anything, shoot
him. Twice. Just to be sure,” the dark hedgehog ordered
before Chaos Controlling away with Knuckles.
The
remaining hedgehog slowly rose to his feet.
His white dress shirt and what was left of his jacket were stained with
blood. His pants were stained as well
from the wound his subordinate inflicted.
He reached inside his torn jacket and looked up at the human with eyes
reddened by worried tears. “I should do
to you what you did to Red,” he began.
The
doctor gripped his own firearm. “I’m
surprised you haven’t done much worse already.
Why did you target GUN and not me, Sonic?”
“You
at least tried to fix your mistakes, doc,” Sonic replied, his hand slipping
down. “I always respected that.”
“It
was the least I could do, considering many of mine were of the
world-threatening variety,” Ivo said.
There was silence for several moments.
“There’s still one more mistake I need to correct,” he finally added.
“I’m
not your mistake,” Sonic said.
“I
saw the signs, but I still couldn’t manage to keep you from going the same road
I went down,” the doctor replied, “It is my mistake.” He raised his gun one more time. The hedgehog reflexively drew his firearm as
well. “I’m afraid this is the end of
Sonic the Hedgehog…”
* * *
Later
that day…
The
press caught scent of the story that had unfolded far too quickly for her
liking, Saffron thought. No sooner had
she returned to personally check on the evacuation and set foot outside of Dr. Prower’s
vehicle had the press turned their attention away from a fuchsia chameleon in
police blues to her. “Lt. General
Saunders! Suzie Wong, Action 4 News! What do you have to say about the evacuation
of GUN Headquarters this morning?” a reporter asked.
“We
will be looking into how it was done as soon as it is safe to do so, but we
currently know St. Jimmy had arranged it so a paralytic agent was released into
the building and allowed to circulate,” Saffron answered.
“How
did St. Jimmy get inside to do it?”
“Simple.”
The hare replied. She took off her
glasses and continued solemnly. “‘St.
Jimmy’ was Cmdr. O’Reily.”
If
the crowd of reporters had been in an uproar before, they were in a positive
frenzy now. Sonic the Hedgehog, world
hero and commander of the very organization St. Jimmy was bent to destroy, was
the terrorist? Horrible as it was, this
was news! “Where is Cmdr. O’Reily now, Lieutenant?” Ms. Wong managed to say over the
noisy crowd.
“If
my source is correct, somewhere in the upper atmosphere,” Saffron replied,
putting her glasses back on. “I’m sorry,
that’s all I can give you at this time.
I really must check in,” she said as she pushed past the swarm. She knew it wouldn’t be the last she’d see of
reporters for a good, long time, but that was trivial now. Right now, she still had a job to do, and
tonight, she had a date with a bottle and Halo 6. That was all that mattered.
*
End Chapter 7
Chibi’s notes:
Holy
crap, that sucker dragged the hell on in terms of actual writing. Anyway, a few notes:
“Cursing
of Isaac Asimov”: The first rule of robots is “A robot may not harm a human
being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
Chekhov’s
Gun: If there’s a gun in Act 1, it must be fired in Act 2 or 3.
Justin
Bailey: A password for Metroid that gets you stocked
up on goodies from the start
The
Konami code: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start.
Reindeer
Flotilla: Password from Tron. DT mentioned it. I could not leave it out.
Game
Over: … I don’t really gotta explain, do I?
“Flaming
pussy from another dimension”: Blaze, obviously. *waves tiny “Future!Cream/Blaze flag”; goes to hell*
Thanks
always to my co-conspirator for plot help, and THANK YOU FOR READERS.
Now
hold onto your hats, there’s still an epilogue to go…