Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Chronicles of Mobius book 2 ❯ Saving Nikós ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles finally made it out of the forest and to a clearing.

"It's gonna be a long, cold night." Sonic said, shivering.

Knuckles looked around. "Where's Nikós?"

Sonic and Tails looked around.

Sonic raised his spines. "Oh, no. No, this can't be happening." He said, hyperventilating. "I should've locked him in the dungeon before I left. I knew this would happen. I knew it."

Tails bit his lip.

Knuckles folded his arms. "Then why didn't you?"

Sonic whipped around. "You-"

Knuckles grabbed Sonic by his shoulders. "Listen. Panicking is not going to help him." He said sternly. "We can try to save him. Shadow and whoever he's working with most likely has him."

Sonic took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "You're right. Let's go."

"We head for the ship." Tails said, motioning to something glistening in the distance. "We can't make camp now anyway."

Sonic grabbed Tails and Knuckles by their wrists and raced off in the direction of the ship.

Shadow finally made it to the lab, where Nikós was being held,… too late.

Nikós was unconscious and recovering from gene splicing.

Two worker bots laid Nikós on a gurney.

Shadow sighed. "Well, he'll still listen to me."

Robotnik caught up to Shadow. "You have something against this too?"

Shadow turned around. "Kind of." He said. He motioned to Nikós as he was being pushed out of the room on the gurney. "It'll make my job easier by having another powerful hedgehog on my side."

Robotnik scoffed. "Oh?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You've added something extra to his gene splicing, haven't you?"

"Not really." Robotnik replied. "For some reason, you didn't respond to the mind control serum."

Shadow nodded. "I'm sure I can snap him out of it." He thought.

Robotnik called his guards in before leaving the room.

"I don't need that kid anyway." Shadow said.

The swatbots got ready to fire their weapons.

Shadow blasted the swatbots with his rings, then rushed out the hole he accidentally made in the door to find Nikós.

Nikós slowly sat up, rubbing his head and groaning. "Ugh… what happened?"

Robotnik came into the room. "I rescued you, Nikós." He said. "I'm Dr. Robotnik."

Nikós snapped to attention. "Yes, sir."

Robotnik grinned. "Ah, I guess you're not as strong willed as Shadow." He said. "Now, Nikós, I need you to do a few jobs for me."

"Yes, sir." Nikós replied. "Anything you say."

"Your first job is to get rid of these rodents." Robotnik said, motioning to the monitor on the wall.

The monitor showed four security camera feeds where Shadow and Sonic and his team were making their way down different corridors of the ship.

"Go after the blue one first." Robotnik said, handing Nikós a communicator, featuring a map and the security camera feeds.

Nikós slightly cocked his head to the side. "And do what, sir?"

Robotnik handed Nikós a laser gun. "Shoot him." He said. He showed Nikós the "Just point this end at him and pull this trigger. You got that?"

Nikós nodded and took the gun. "Yes, sir."

Sonic curled into a ball and slammed into two of the metal Sonics, his spines cutting through the robots.

The robots exploded.

Sonic noticed another robot and drew his sword. He ran over to it, leaped into the air, and struck the robot.

The blade sliced through the robot.

Sonic sheathed his sword and looked at the damaged robot. He scoffed. "You may look like me, but you're definitely not me."

Sonic crept through a corridor, trying to figure out how he was going to get in the rooms when the doors were tightly locked. He sighed. "I wish Manic was here." He whispered. "I'm sure he could get in these rooms."

Sonic stepped around a corner and froze. "Nikós?"

Nikós stared coldly at Sonic as he silently walked over to him.

"Nikós?" Sonic asked. "Are you okay?"

Nikós raised his laser gun and pointed it at Sonic.

Shadow raced out of another hallway and grabbed Sonic. He dragged him to another room.

The metal doors shut and locked behind them.

Nikós banged on the door. "By orders of Robotnik, come out now!"

"I don't think he can get through titanium." Shadow said. "The doors are laser proof too."

Sonic pulled away from Shadow. "Why should I trust you?" He questioned. "What did you do to Nikós?"

"I didn't do anything to him." Shadow replied. "Robotnik did. He made this ship, those robots-"

"But you're helping this guy." Sonic protested.

"Not anymore." Shadow said. I didn't know the full extent of his operations until yesterday.

I only sided with Robotnik because I didn't care for the way that echidna was allowed to take the throne. Robotnik didn't seem like a tyrant at the time. If I had known about the forced robotizations, I never would've joined his side."

Sonic nodded. "I guess I can see your point." He replied. He motioned at the door. "What's wrong with Nikós?"

"He's mind controlled." Shadow replied. "His genetic code has been altered so he's stronger than you and maybe about as fast as you."

Sonic tilted his head slightly, raising his eyebrow. "Okay… so what does 'mind controlled' and 'gene splicing' mean?"

Shadow handed Sonic a tablet. "I downloaded all the files." He said. "It's earth tech. That's where Robotnik is from."

Sonic and Shadow flinched as the door was ripped open by Nikós with his bare hands.

Sonic dropped the tablet.

Nikós climbed through the hole in the door.

Shadow grabbed Nikós by his shoulders and slammed him into the wall.

Nikós yelped and dropped his gun.

"Listen. Robotnik has you under mind control." Shadow said. "You can fight it; I did."

Sonic looked at Nikós' arm. "Wait. What's that thing on his arm?"

Shadow noticed a probe, similar to the one he had, stuck to Nikós' arm and ripped it off.

Nikós winced, then shook his head. "Sh- Shadow?"

Shadow finally eased his grip off of Nikós' shoulders. "Welcome back."

Nikós looked at Sonic, then to Shadow. "What happened?"

Sonic shrugged. "We were trying to figure out where the metal army came from and we noticed you weren't with us when we reached the clearing." He replied. "So we assumed you were caught."

"Sleet captured you for Robotnik." Shadow said.

"Oh, it figures." Sonic muttered. "I never trusted that guy."

"You don't have to worry about him." Shadow replied. "He's dead; so's Dingo."

Nikós bit his lip. "What about Ma?"

"She's a metal thing now." Sonic said. "We'll figure out a cure."

Shadow peered out the hole in the door Nikós came through. "We'll go through there, shut off the Metals at the control booth." He said. "Then we'll take out Robotnik."

Shadow led the way as Sonic and Nikós followed him down the corridor, to the control room.

Shadow walked over to the control panel. "I'll shut off the-"

"What?" Nikós asked.

Shadow opened the emergency cabinet and found the gas masks. He tossed a few masks to Sonic and Nikós. "Put these on. He'll try to gas us if he realizes we're here."

Sonic and Nikós put on their gas masks and waited for Shadow to enter the codes.

"Disabling the ether release valve system." Shadow muttered under his breath as he typed on the keyboard. "Shutdown robotics. Ooh."

"That's not good." Sonic said as Shadow rapidly and repeatedly pressed a key.

"We can't shut them down without triggering a massive self destruction sequence." Shadow said. "They're set to explode if I shut them off. They're powered by Chaos Emeralds. You do the math."

"Then how do we beat them without destroying the planet?" Sonic asked.

"Override the command." Shadow replied. "Nikós and I can get the keycard from Robotnik. You find Knuckles and Tails, then meet us back here."

Shadow handed Sonic a couple more gas masks. "Let's go."