Emptiness. It was all she could feel.
“Why?” Was all she could think inside. Her heart had been ripped out by
that fat, evil scum when she looked upon the metal monstrosity that used to
be her true love. It was worse than the Void. Life lost all meaning. He
had won. Faintly, a voice could be heard from far away.
“Dammit Sally-girl! Wake up!” Bunnie was right next to her friend but
yelled as if she was a block away, trying to wake her out of her trance. It
was chaotic, from Tails’ perspective. His best friend had been captured and
roboticized, Sally and Bunnie were indisposed, Spartacus and Antoine were
ready to fight to the death ~weird~ he thought, and his only living family
member was thrown a few yards away from him, smoking. Smoking! Tails looked
at Zero. His older brother’s right hand was smoking and with his left, he
quieted Tails and told him to turn around.
“HAHAHAHAHA!” Robotnik’s evil laugh rang throughout Robotropolis. “Victory
is mine!” he cackled some more. Behind him, Sonic, or what was Sonic,
scanned all of the targets.
*Rabbit, SWATbots, Badger, Fox x2, squirrel, search for 3rd fox * The
dented blue head scanned the horizon. * WARNING: smoke emanating from left
*
Quickly the smoke rolled in covering the Freedom fighters. Tails
understood. He grabbed Antoine and motioned Spartacus to follow him.
Suddenly, an orange blur swung by Bunnie and Sally, they disappeared. ~Back
home! ~Tails thought as they tired to keep up as fast as they could. When
the smoke cleared, Robotnik smile left his face momentarily and came back.
“Back to your patrol!” He barked. The SWAT-bots scattered. CLICK, the
screen to off and Sonic followed.
--
Back at Knothole, the mood did not change after the mission. Bunnie took
Sally to her room. ~God what happened to you?~ She set her friend, the
blank look still on her face. Bunnie wiped off a tear, mascara clinging to
her hand. Shock came over her body. ~Zero!~ And tore off to the infirmary.
Booker Draftwood was probably the person with the most amount of knowledge
in medicine in all of Knothole, so it seemed fit for the middle-aged raccoon
to be the village’s pharmacist. Inside his hut, he did his best bandaging
up Zero. Tails was bedside with the doctor, silent the whole time.
“Sonic did quite a number on you.” Booker said, sighing heavily, “But your
healing ability is quite fast, just like your younger brother.” Tails
looked blankly in the air, still silent. Zero saw this and nudged him.
“You ok?” He asked. Tails snapped out of his trance.
“Yeah, I’m o-“ WHAM! The door slammed open, making them all jump. It was
Bunnie. Zero jumped the highest, knocking his right elbow off the sling.
When he landed, it was off balance and he fell off the bed and on to the
floor.
“OWW! Somebody help?” Bunnie ran to him and lifted off the floor, helping
him lift the arm into the sling.
“Sorry Sugar.” She apologized. Booker looked at Tails and vice versa.
Booker smiled and Tails stared at him.
“What?” Tails asked. Booker waved it off and handed Zero a vial with a
clear liquid in it.
“Take this in a couple off hours and you should be ready to go in two
days.” Zero looked at Bunnie.
“Kay doctor. Bunnie think you could help me to a stream? I need to clean
some cuts.”
“Sure thing Zero-honey.” Tails jumped off the bed and walked out.
--
Several days had gone by and nothing out of the ordinary happened at
Robotropolis. Sally had come out of her trance but was in a deep
depression. And Zero and Bunnie never seemed happier when they where around
each other. The lake seemed to be the most popular place for couples to be
together and Zero and Bunnie found a secluded spot where they would sit and
talk. The days sunset made the scene a picture perfect paradise.
“Yah know? Ah never actually felt lik this with anyone else before.”
Bunnie said as she moved her feet in the water. She decided that if she was
going kiss him it would be today. So she wore a small revealing top and
short combo. Zero could sense that she wanted to do something and was
getting choked up about what it was.
“You want to go swimming?” He asked as he put his arm around her.
Bunnie’s insides squirmed a little.
“Well, yeah ah thought we could-AH!” Zero gently shoved her in the water.
When she rose to the top, she was drenched from head to toe.
“Your turn!” she grabbed his leg and dragged him in. The two played in the
water and both were drenched when they got out. Zero pulled his rabbit
friend out of the lake and noticed that she was cold.
“Here, take my cloak.” He said. Accidentally, he wrapped the cloak around
both of them. Bunnie giggled at this mistake and looked right into his
eyes. Zero did the same thing.
“You have very beautiful eyes, you know that?” Zero said as he softly
brushed away one of his companion’s ears. Bunnie bent her head down in a
mix of embarrassment and flattery.
“Well, thank ya Suga.” She spoke softly. When she looked up, Zero was
smiling.
~Great, she fell. What did I do?~ Zero bent down to lift Bunnie up. When
he bent down, he couldn’t control himself. Her kissed her. He had never
felt lips so soft before in his life. ~It’s like kissing an angel in
heaven. This is what i had only dreamed about before~ The two of them
standing there in the sunset topped of Zero’s best day of his life. It was
cut short by a beeping sound from the tree they were sitting in before. It
was Zero’s comlink. He knew who it was.
“Bunnie?” He asked. Bunnie kept her eyes closed and hummed sweetly. “Could
you go on back to Knothole? I’ll be there soon, after I check on Sally.”
Bunnie took the cloak and walk on back to her hut, she had never felt
better.
--
“Hi Antoine.” She said as she passed him behind a tree. He seemed to be
spying on another couple but lost them.
“Vat do you vant?” He said irritated. Bunnie said nothing but bye and
walk home.
~Vhat is he doing vith zat comlink?~ Antoine perked his ears up and
listened intently.
--
“Hello?” Zero asked. He looked toward Antoine and walk farther into the
forest. Another voice, deep and grainy, spoke on the other line.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” He yelled. Zero didn’t know how
Irvine had watched him, it was a small clearing, he would’ve been able to
sense him.
“How did you see that?!” Zero asked.
“Forget it. You have a job to do. Our client wants his money’s worth.”
The comlink went dead. ~God, I wish I could find a way out of this, Zero
thought, for mine and Bunnie’s sake.~
--
Darkness engulfed the room, save a candle lighting Sally’s face. She
stopped crying and tried to find some way to help Sonic, but it was no use.
Her attention was now on the door which opened slowly, Zero walked in and
moved a chair close to Sally.
“How’s it going?” He asked. No answer. “I know that it is hard, but I
know that wasn’t Sonic.” This definitely caught Sally’s attention.
“How do you know? We all saw him.”
“Well when I fought him in the warehouse, I snapped his neck with a kick.”
Sally put her hand to her mouth in terror. “Wait.” He continued, “Even if it
was a Mobian roboticized, if it’s neck was snapped, it would have died. No
questions asked. Which leads me to believe that Sonic is still alive.”
--
~Well ah’ll be!~ Bunnie thought. She was right outside the door listening
to the conversation. ~Ah think he’s right!~ She opened the door a bit more
to see what was happening.
--
A lone figure clicks rapidly on the keyboard in front of him. In this dark
room, the only source of light comes off a water tank and the monitor
itself. The figure keeps readjusting the chair so he can see over the edge.
His name is Snivley.
“So, you still wont show us where Knothole is huh?” He said as he rapidly
taps the keyboard frustrated, “Well maybe you will NOW!” Snivley hits the
command button as the figure inside jerks around violently from lack of air
in his mask. The figure is Sonic. Sinvley allows him to breathe again.
From behind the short man, another, rounder figure enters the room.
“I told you not do that until I say so!” The round man screamed. Snivley
dropped to the ground by his feet.
“Sorry Robotnik.” Robotnik sweeps Snivley to the side and takes control of
the board. He does the same thing to Sonic only longer. Watching him in
agony brings evil joy to his face as he recounts how many time he’s escaped
his clutches.
“Snivley, get back up here. Get farther into his mind and find Knothole’s
location. After that, load up the robot and send him their to kill everyone
their except the princess. What are you waiting for! DO IT NOW, I’ve
waited long enough!” Snivley sat back into the chair and continued to hack
deeper into the hedgehog’s mind. After Robotnik left, a smile came across
Snivley’s face as he continued to have fun with his captive.
--
“Your sure?” Sally said. She belived him to some extent but it was harder
know that he almost got them killed.
“Seriously sure.” Zero repeated. From outside the room, Bunnie could see
and see and hear everything they said. Zero could already sense she was
there. Sally looked a lot better and started to devise a plan.
“Thank you. Oh God thank you!” She said. Nothing could have prepared for
what happened next. Sally threw herself upon Zero and kissed him. Bunnie
was shocked, ~He just lets her kiss him! The bastard!~ She ran off with
tears in her eyes. What she didn’t she was Zero trying to get Sally off of
him. When he succeeded, he said.
“God! Ummm.. thanks but you really shouldn’t have done that.” Sally looked
at his face and could read everything.
“Oh my.. I’m sorry.”
“Jeez! Too late for sorries now. I have to find her!” He ran out the room
in sreach of Bunnie, leaving Sally to think of a plan.
--
“I see him.” A small bird was holding a comlink a small distance away, “I
think he’s going after the rabbit.” On the other side of the comlink, a
wolf yelled in anger at Zero's idiocy. Behind him were a bear, and a frog
(half roboticized).
“Dammit! He was right there! Why didn’t he grab her and go!”
“I don’t know sir. I’m coming back to camp. Alley over and out.” The
comlink closed. The wolf held it in his hand for a while and set the
comlink in his cloak pocket. The bear behind seemed sure of himself.
“Irvine,” He said, “Does this mean that Zero’s thinking of changing
sides?” The whole time, he had been pounding his fist in his hand. Irvine
thought about it for a while.
“Yes Lee, it does. I can’t believe this! I taught him not to do.. anyway,
we’ll make sure that a certain Mr. Julian gets what he wants. And if Zero
gets in the way, I’ll get rid of him and what he cares about the most.” Lee
smirk was replaced with anger. ~That little bastard should be mine to
kill.~
“We go tomorrow night.” Irvine said, “When Alley comes back I’ll get first
watch.”
TO BE CONTINUED

Zero Prower