War for Mobius
Act 1 Chapter 8

The alarm clock blares loudly filling the room with its dreadful noise.
Sonic reaches out for it from under the blankets but finds it out of his reach.  He leans farther out but still cannot find it.  He finds something however the second time, the floor.

Sonic picks himself up and bleary eyed looks around the room until he spots the alarm clock on the floor just on the other side of his night stand.  It must have fallen off while it was ringing.  If you could call it ringing.  Rotor had made sure that the alarms could wake anyone up from their sleep.  Sonic wasn’t convinced otherwise.  He was pretty sure they could hear the alarms way out in Robotropolis.

Sonic finally manages to reach the alarm and switch it off.  The time reads the number ten with a thirty following it.  TEN THIRTY!?  The alarm was set for nine!  Sonic checks the settings again.  Nine.  Had he really been sleeping through the alarm for an entire hour before waking up?  He hadn’t been that tired had he?

Don’t have time to worry about it now.  He’s late to meet Miles.
 
Well….as late as you can be when you travel nearly the speed of sound.


Miles waits patiently, seated on the bench near the Chili Dog stand that Sonic had performed at the day before.  He really didn’t know what was going to happen today so he only brought a handful of stuff with him.  Some money if needed, a water bottle which was already half empty, and a camera that most of its film has already been used up on previous occasions.

The fox boy had arrived a couple minutes early hoping to beat the rush of other Sonic fans that had come to catch a glimpse of their hero this morning, but unfortunately there were a few others already there.  Specifically ones he didn’t want to see, as they were usually part of the group that picked on him.  So he tried to be as invisible as possible from the group.

It didn’t work.

Soon the group had surrounded him.

“Hey look everybody, it’s the freak!”

“Uh…hi guys,” Miles stutters, “What’s up?”

“Nothin’, what are you doing here?”

Miles thinks for a minute, maybe if he tells them the truth they’ll leave him alone, “Well I’m going to hang out with Sonic today.”

The other kids bust out laughing.

“You!?  With Sonic!?” One kid chuckles.

“Why would he want to spend any time with you?” Another teases.

“Yeah freak,” one of the larger ones glares down at him, “You think you’re better than us so you can just hang out with Sonic?”

Miles realizing his plan had backfired now thought it best he try and slip away to avoid the other kids’ upcoming wrath, “Well no, it’s was his idea….”

“Oh, so Sonic just wanted to hang out with you and not us, huh?  You think we’re stupid or something?”

“No,” Miles replies, trying to calm the larger kid down, “I didn’t mean to…”

“Listen freak,” the bigger kid announces, shoving Miles off the bench, “you’ll never be cool enough to hang out with Sonic!  You’re a freak and a loser and you always will be!”

“Yeah,” another chimes in, “You think anyone would be dumb enough to believe Sonic would just magically choose to hang out with you and not his cooler fans?”

“Oh look,” a third joins in, “he’s about to cry.”

“No,” Miles sniffles, “I just got dirt in my eye”

“Sure,” the big one mocks, “I bet.  Spending the day with Sonic, yeah right.  Who’d ever believe that?”

“Oh so you believe my little buddy is a liar now do you?”  Sonic ask from behind the group.  The kids jump back startled at his sudden appearance.  The look on his face also tells them he is less the pleased with their actions.  In fact, he looked mad.

“Mr. Sonic we were just…”

Sonic holds up his hand, “Don’t even start.  I saw what you guys did and I can honestly say I’m not happy.  It’s okay to joke around with your friends, but once someone’s feelings get hurt, that’s no good.”

The group of kids looks at their feet.

“And who gave you permission to decide who I choose to hang out with or not?” Sonic scolds, “I thought I was a better example than that.  You’re lucky it was me who saw your actions here and not the Princess.  You’d be in a whole lot worse trouble.”
The kids nod.  

“Alright then, go home and think about what you did.  Maybe next time you’ll think before ganging up on someone.”

With that the kids scatter.  Miles slowly gets to his feet dusting himself off, “That won’t help.  Even when other adults chew them out they always make fun of me again.  Usually because I wasn’t good enough to defend myself.”

Sonic smiles, “Yeah well you can only keep trying.  You okay right?”
Miles checks his camera over.  Luckily the kids hadn't touched it or his money for once.  He turns back to the blue hedgehog, “I guess so.  Thanks for helping.”

“No prob little buddy,” Sonic replies, giving Miles a thumbs up, “That’s what friends are for.”

Miles’s face brightens up almost instantly, “Friends?”

“Sure.  Unless of course you don’t want to be friends.”

“No, of course I don’t!  I mean of course I do!  I mean…”

“Relax Miles,” Sonic laughs, “I understand exactly what you mean.  So uh, I kinda slept in and didn’t get around to planning, so what did you want to do today?”

Now it was Miles’s turn to laugh, “Well honestly I didn’t know what you would want to do so I didn’t make any plans either.”

The two laugh as if they had been friends for a long time.  It felt good to laugh.  It had been a long time since Miles had laughed this hard.

Finally the laughter came to a close.  

After a brief moment, Miles breaks the silence, “So uh did you think of an answer to my question from yesterday?”

“Question?” Sonic thinks for a moment, “Oh yeah!  About being cool.  Yeah I have an answer for you.  All you have to do is….”

“There you are Sonic!”  Rotor interrupts.  He’s outta breath, “We’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Hey there Rote,” Sonic waves, “I think there might be something wrong with the alarm clock you gave me.”

“Oh, it might be the power source.  I’ve been working on…. Hold it.  That’s not important right now,” the walrus catches himself before he goes too far off topic, “Sally needs to talk to you right away!  It’s really important!”

“Like Freedom Fighter important?”  

The walrus nods, “You got it.”

“Well we better not keep her waiting then.  C’mon Miles.  We better go see Sal.”
“You mean I can come too?” Miles asks excitedly.

Sonic shrugs, “I don’t see why not.  Worst case scenario you just can’t tell anyone what you hear.”

Rotor shakes his head, “If he can’t tell anyone, Sally probably just won’t say it in front of him.  But she didn’t say it was secret, just important.”

Miles nods, “Maybe I can help out!”

“Well let’s find out,” Sonic says, “Grab on and we’ll be there in faster than you can blink.”


Sally was not amused.  

She did not like the idea that Sonic brought Miles.  She did not like the idea he had promised Miles a chance to help out.  She did not like the fact Rotor did nothing to discourage Sonic from doing this.

But most importantly, she did not like the mission.

NICOLE had received an anonymous e-mail about a chemical laboratory Robotnik had built near the Great River.  There were two major problems that the laboratory causes.  First, the lab was making chemicals including many used to make explosives and acid rain, perhaps to be used as a way to flush out the Knothole Freedom Fighters from the Great Forest.  Adding to that the chemicals themselves are beginning to contaminate the river.  Secondly, the chemical factory was top secret.  There were supposedly a few new models of ‘bots being created there.  Any new robot design Robotnik whipped out was a problem.  And unfortunately there was no guarantee that those robots would not be already in fighting condition.  

However the e-mail was anonymous.  The only signature it contained was “a friend.”  It could be anyone; the whole thing could be a trap even.  Unfortunately the risk of leaving it alone was worse than the risk in attacking it.

“It’s too dangerous!” Sally objects to Sonic.

“C’mon, it’ll be fine,” Sonic attempts to reassure her.  It has little success.

“We’re going into enemy territory for what may even be a trap, and you want to bring Miles?  No, it is too dangerous.”

Sonic shakes his head, “If he wants to help we ought to let him.  We need everyone we can get, no matter who it is.”

“There are other ways he can help!”  Sally explains.

“Really?  How?”

Sonic had her here.  There wasn't much Miles could do back here in Knothole.  But still, surely Sonic should realize that-

“Well maybe we should let him come along.”  Rotor chimes in.

“It may be dangerous but if he wants to help I say we let him,” Bunnie agrees.

“The youth must be given the opportunity to do their part as well,” supports Antoine.

“With Ben and Johnny already out on their own mission and the others with their own assignments, the team is one man short,” NICOLE adds, “Miles increases the chances of mission success by a very good amount.”

“You too NICOLE?” Sally asks surprised, “All of you?”

The group stands behind Miles who gives Sally a small smile, “I can help.  Just give me a chance.”

Sally lets out a deep sigh, “Alright you win.  Miles you can help.  Alright-y then Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine you’re on ‘bot duty.  Make sure the newly designed robots are offline and unable to be produced.  Sonic and Miles, the three of us will be on demolition duty.  It should be the safer job but harder work.  You up for it?”
“You can count on me!” Mile reassures her.

“Then Freedom Fighters move out.” Sally orders.  On command, the team begins moving out.  However Sally stops Sonic before he takes off.

“One thing Sonic Hedgehog,” she warns him strictly, “Miles is your responsibility.  Your number one priority is to keep him safe, you got that?”

“Hey it’s me,” the blue hedgehog grins, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

With that Sonic speeds off to catch up with the rest.  Sally pauses a moment longer to consider it, “I wish you hadn't asked…..”