War for Mobius
Act 1 Chapter 10

Miles ducks down just in time to avoid being sprayed in the face by the strange purple liquid launching up from the pipes.  It shoots over him and lands on the ground, bubbling.
“That was way to close,” Miles stutters.

“That’s probably the fourth of fifth time we’ve said that.  With the stealth spiders, chemical traps, and large amount of SWATbots,” Sally shakes her head, “It looks like we’ve fallen into one of Robotnik’s Traps.”

“And we’ve lost Sonic,” Miles adds.

Sally pauses looking back the way they came, “I’m sure he’s alright.  In fact he’s probably already ahead of us.”

The fox boy tilts his head to the side, “But….if that were the case, wouldn’t we have noticed him running by?”

“Sonic may be fast, but he has a terrible sense of direction,” Sally explains, “He probably took the wrong corridor and shot right by us.”

That was not completely true.  Sonic didn’t have a terrible sense of direction, just a bad habit of taking the wrong tunnel first.  Usually he ended up back where he needed to be on his own, but still, everything seemed to be trying to separate Sonic from the rest of the group.

She leans against a yellow and black stripped warning sign.  Not that it helped warn them about anything.  All the traps usually happened before they got to the signs.  Just like the one that was coming.

“Aunt Sally!  LOOK OUT!”


The SWATbots halt before the closed garage door and recheck their weapons.  While normally SWATbots didn’t function in full combat manner, usually acting as a security or police force rather than a military force, Snively wasn’t taking any chances.  He had them functioning in full combat mode.

Behind the SWATs, sat their back up, a collection of other robots Snively had managed to secure for this operation.  There were a few Buzz Bombers, but most of the bots consisted of the Yellow and Black Spider Grabbers and the Spiny Mobile Turrets.  Snively had hoped that Robotnik would have given him access to the superior combots for this mission but the doctor had turned him down believing that the Freedom Fighters would pose little threat to his operation.  

Snively decided not to take any chances.  His orders were clear.  March in in full combat mode and fire upon anything that moves in the garage.  The Garage would then be bombed by the buzz bombers just to be extra safe.  While it was probably wiser to bomb the garage first, Snively didn’t have many buzz bombers to spare so he had ordered them to hold back until needed.  

The Garage door swings open and the SWATbots aim their laser rifles.  But there isn’t any targets to shoot at, Only Communications screen that had been moved to block the garage door.  It takes a few moments for the SWATbots to comprehend this, which is all the time Rotor needs to spring his trap.

With a quick flip of a switch he had jury-rigged from a few spare parts, Rotor detonates the screen.  The explosions shakes the garage but destroys the first two rows of SWATbots and knocks the others off their feet.

Taking advantage of the stunned robots, Bunnie stretches her cybernetic arm out through the opening, grabbing one of the SWATbot’s laser rifles.  She brings it back in and hands it off to Antoine.  She sends her robotic arm back crashing her fist into one of the SWATbots as it stands back up, having been knocked to the floor by the explosion.  She takes his Rifle for Rotor.  

Upon receiving his Rifle, the Walrus Tech Expert fires through the opening into the crowd of robots lying in wait.  Antoine joins in.  Neither are expert marksmen, in fact most of their shots miss their intended targets, but it does cause the SWATbots to scatter for cover.  

“The SWATs will be activating their Shields now,” Rotor warns his companions, “Focus all fire on those Turrets towards those buzzers in the back.  And if you happen to hit those others bots in the crossfire, good for you.”

“You can be counting on me!” Antoine fires again, nearly losing his footing in the process.

“Right,” Gulps Rotor, “Bunnie you get our escape route open!”

“You got it sugar,” Bunnie replies as she returns to the dented wall where she had been pounding away earlier.  The cyborg rabbit returns her mad pounding with new resolve.  If she can’t bust through soon, they won’t last much longer.

Rotor wipes sweat from his brow and fires again.  It was only a matter of time before they were overrun.  They either had to hold out till help arrived or they had to escape on their own.  The odds were against them, and they wouldn’t be able to take the SWATbots by surprise again.  He hopes the other team is faring better than they were.


The Speedy Blue Hedgehog blasts up the spiral staircase as the bubbling purple liquid fills up the room below.  He had only been in the room for a few seconds before the strange goop began to rise through the vents on the floor.  Now Sonic may not be a science major, but he was pretty sure that stuff wasn’t natural and probably was not good for his health.  Also, while he was a master speed demon, Sonic was very much not a swimmer.
 
At the edge of Spiral Staircase he leaps to an overhead platform and pulls himself on top of it.  Only then does he pause and check out the substance below.  While it wasn’t nearly as fast as he was, the lower 4 feet was now completely submerged and the stuff was still rising.  

“Man,” Sonic wipes his brow, “I get the feeling somebody doesn’t like me very much.”  He looks around for another exit to the chamber but can find none on his level.  He then turns his attention upward.  From here he could see no other escape, but there were some more platforms up above.  Perhaps an exit was still up there.  If not, he was in real hot soup.  Or at least he assumed it was hot.  He wasn’t going to stay to find out.  
Taking a couple steps back to give him a running start, Sonic dashes forwards and leaps to the next highest platform he can reach.  Not one to lose his momentum, Sonic uses his speed to keep moving to the edge of his new perch, turn around at the last second a leap upward again.  

As he again lands on the new platform he looks around.  There was a small tunnel, probably a maintenance shaft, leading through the wall.  Looking back down towards the ever rising liquid, Sonic deems that he should take the chance that this tunnel could be an exit.  He barrels down it as quickly as possible.
 
Halfway through the tunnel a large mechanical spider drops from the ceiling towards him.  Sonic doesn’t even slow down.  Instead the blue hedgehog uses his speed to curl into a ball and continue rolling forwards, like a large blue saw blade.  His speed and spines allow him the tare right though the robotic arachnid, shredding it to pieces.  Sonic then, still without stopping, manages to pull himself back to his feet and continue running.  
“You know, I probably should have warned the guy,” Sonic mutters to himself, “Ah well.  Haven’t met a Robotic Spider that didn’t deserve to be squashed yet.”  

WHAM!  Sonic bounces off the door at the end of the tunnel.  His head spinning, the hedgehog collapses to the floor, wondering who would do such a thing.  After a moment he manages to get back on his feet and look at the door.  

It was definitely thick, probably designed to hold back that strange liquid rising in the chamber.  However there didn’t seem to be anyway to open the door on this side.  In the center of the door was a small porthole like window, which Sonic peers through to see on the other side.  He can see another hall way running perpendicular to his.  There is a broken warning sign lying nearby.  

“Now Robotnik tells me!” Sonic groans, “Great, just great, how am I supposed to get out of here now?”  He kicks the door hard hoping it budges.  It doesn’t, but instead the kick echoes through the tunnel.  

Sonic than hears tapping from the other side of the door, and the room fills with a familiar voice, “Sonic?”

“Miles!” Sonic shouts, “Little buddy can you hear me?”  

No response.

“Guess not,” Sonic sighs returning to the window.  The fox boy is now visible on the other side.  He waves at his hero.
 
“Sonic!  You’re alright!” the two-tailed fox cheers, “How’d you get over there?”

“Never mind that,” Sonic shouts through the door the loudest he can, “Can you get this door open?”

“What?” Miles leans on the window to listen.

“The door!  Can you open it!” Sonic shouts again.

“I can’t hear you through the door,” Miles voice comes back through, “Hold on a second.”  With that the Fox boy disappears from view.

“No wait Miles! Come back!” Sonic shouts after the kid but still the boy can’t hear him, “Peachy.”

A noise fills the tunnel behind him.  Sonic turns and looks back towards the entrance to see a wall of purple liquid rushing his way.  He was trapped, and if he couldn’t get the door open soon, he is going to be mashed against it.  And if he somehow survives that, he still was going to drown.

He turns the ram the door in a vain attempt to open it when the door opens by itself.  Miles stands on the other side.  

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you, so I had to open the door,” he says with a smile.

Sonic doesn’t waste time trying to explain and dash through the opening grabbing the fox kid.  He then slams back into the door trying to force it shut.  “Miles shut the door before that purple stuff crashes through!”  

The mutant fox jumps to his feet and runs over to a nearby switch board that had just been out of Sonic’s view.  Miles then press a large red button on the switch board and the door automatically slams shut, causing the blue hedgehog to fall face first over.  He gets up just in time to watch through the window, the purple liquid smash into the door.  The door holds well.  Sonic lets out a sigh of relief.

“Miles,” he turns to smile towards the boy, “Thanks.”

Miles smiles wide, “Anytime Sonic.  That’s what heroes do."

The two laugh for a moment, ignoring the fact that the situation was dangerous, they both nearly died, and it hadn’t been that funny at all.  

After the laughter dies down, Sonic looks around, “So where’s Sal?  Wasn’t she with you?”

“That’s right!” Miles shouts, pulling Sonic back to his feet, “That crazy bald guy with the funny nose got her!”

“Crazy bald guy? With a mustache?”

“Nuh-uh,” the fox shakes his head, “But he only had a few strands of hair on his head!”
The hedgehog gulps, “Snively!  Which way did he go?”

Miles points the direction he had been headed before he got distracted by Sonic, “That way!  He just popped up out of nowhere and grabbed her!”

The fox looks down at his feet, “I wasn’t able to help her.”

Sonic puts his hands on the boy’s shoulders, “Listen to me Miles, it is not your fault.  Do not blame yourself.  I know when I tell my stories I act like nothing ever goes wrong on a mission, but that’s just part of the story.  Very rarely do things tend to go exactly as planned out here.  Being a Freedom Fighter is a very dangerous job, and someone as inexperienced as you should have never been brought into this.”

“Do you regret bring me?”

Sonic smiles, “Kid, you just saved my life.  Even if I acted without thinking bringing you along, you’ve pulled your weight and proved you have what it takes to be here.  You’re not here for the ride Miles like I thought you’d be, we need you right now.”

The young fox looks his hero in the eyes, his face beaming with pride, “You mean that?”

“You got it big guy,” Sonic gives Miles a thumbs up, “Now let’s go save us a Princess.”