Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Sonic Underground Reloaded 2 ❯ The plan ( Chapter 4 )

Shadow and Sonic walked into Manic's room.

"Couldn't find her, but she may have gone a different way." Shadow said. "Did you hack his files yet, Manic?"

Manic motioned to his computer. "I just got in."

Shadow leaned on the desk.

"What did you find?"

"It's Ivo Robotnik, Gerald Robotnik's grandson." Manic replied. "He decided to make the trip here after going through his grandpa's online journals. He's decided to kidnap, then roboticize civilians before working his way to us. He figures he needs an army to go against us. Though he's not wanting to roboticize you, Dad. He wants you dead."

"No surprise." Shadow said. "So how is he roboticizing the civilians? They don't look different."

"Cyborganic implants." Manic replied. "It's irreversible. He catches you, that's it."

"We thought that last time." Shadow said. "But it was easily reversed once our scientists studied his works."

"Last time, it was just cybernetic enhancements grafted onto the victim's body and mind." Manic replied. "This time, he's replaced their insides with cyborganic parts. Their organic bodies are just shells."

Sonic started to walk away.

"Sonic?" Shadow called.

"I have to try to save Sal if she's there." Sonic said, adjusting his backpack straps.

Shadow ran over and grabbed Sonic by his shoulders. "Let Manic check the records first."

Sonic shook his head. "No time. She-"

"I just found the prisoner list." Manic replied. "She was a high priority prisoner, slated for immediate robotization. This was posted three hours ago. I'm sorry, bro, she's gone."

Sonic dropped his backpack. "This can't be happening." He mumbled. He left the room, headed to his bathroom across the hall, and closed the door.

Shadow and Manic looked at each other as they heard the shower running.

Shadow knew Sonic was only taking a shower to cry. He did the same thing back when he thought his family had been killed (not that he'd admit that to anyone, not even Aleena, though).

Manic shrugged and started scrolling through the roboticized list. "It looks like he got half of Mobius." He said. "Do me a favor. Scroll-"

"You know I'm not good at computer stuff." Shadow replied.

"Then call Jade for me and put it on speaker." Manic said, motioning to his phone.

Shadow picked up Manic's phone and typed in his password.

Manic barely glanced at Shadow. "Do you-"

Shadow set the phone, which was calling Jade on speaker, down. "Never use your favorite album name as a password."

"Hello?" Jade asked.

"Babe, hurry up and- wait. How do you feel about Robotnik?" Manic asked.

"Ugh. You already know, Manic." Jade muttered.

"Then come here now." Manic said. "Emergency."

"On my way." Jade said. She hung up.

Manic continued scrolling. "She can stay in one of the guest rooms." He said. "I know the rules."

Aleena walked in. "Sally's gone, isn't she?"

"Yeah." Shadow said. "Jade's on her way. As soon as she gets here, have Bunnie show her to one of the guest rooms. Then you, Sonic, and Sonia meet us in the room."

Aleena nodded and walked out.

Manic looked at Shadow. "What room are you talking about?"

"You'll see." Shadow replied. "Are you almost done?"

"I just downloaded the layout and highlighted the weak spots." Manic said. "Just one cell block of prisoners to rescue. It's the entire echidna tribe."

Shadow got his phone out and started texting Aleena. "That means he's been to the floating island."

Manic looked up at Shadow. "So?"

"So that means he may have gotten some Chaos emeralds." Shadow said. "Do you have any idea what that could mean?"

"The… Chaos… emeralds." Manic muttered. He typed the words into a search bar. "They're pretty powerful, but what could he do with an unstable substance?"

"To put it in terms you'd understand, think of the nightmare sequence in Terminator 2." Shadow replied.

Manic froze, his eyes widening. "Oh…."

Shadow read the search results. "Good. He hasn't found them yet." He said. "Can he tell when someone searches his database?"

"Not sure, but I hope not." Manic replied.

Shadow ran out of the room and banged on the bathroom door. "I know, but we have to keep that from happening to anyone else."

Sonic groaned and turned the water off. "Alright. What do we do?"

"Manic's downloading the info." Shadow said. "I'm getting Uncle Chuck, meet us in the basement."

Manic came out of his room. "The basement?" He asked. "Does it have to do with the big vault in there?"

"You'll see." Shadow said over his shoulder as he walked by.

Shadow led his family to a vault in the basement.

"What is this?" Manic asked.

Shadow entered a code and let the lock scan his retina.

The vault doors slowly opened.

"Whoa." Manic said, walking into the vault. "You've got a bigger arsenal than Sarah Connor."

Shadow nodded. "That's what I was going for."

Sonia walked in. "Uh… this must've taken years to collect."

"Twenty-two years." Shadow said. "Uncle Chuck and I set this up behind Dad's back when we first met Robotnik."

"So why didn't you use this against him to start with?" Sonic asked.

"Because I didn't have this much firepower at the time, I thought I had put a stop to him before he got working robots, and I didn't find out until too late that he was getting funded elsewhere and off the record." Shadow replied. "We didn't have time to get any of this when the coup happened."

Manic looked through some of the weapons. "Uh… I didn't think half of this was legal."

"It is for the Mobius military." Shadow said, gathering some of the weapons. "I'm over the military. The ones you're looking at are only illegal because it does give off small doses of radiation. Those are only to be used in absolute dire situations."

Manic grimaced. "That's… I have no words." He said. He pulled up the maps on his tablet. "Anyway, I sent this to you all."

Sonia looked at her phone. "This doesn't do us much good," She said. "We'd have to blow it up from the inside."

"I'm fast enough to get in there and back out." Sonic replied.

"The motion detectors will pick you up, Sonic." Shadow said. "If Robotnik's read the journals, then he knows you're one of the fastest hedgehogs on Mobius. He may have laser tripwire that'll fry you if you cross it."

Sonic folded his arms. "One of? I am the fastest thing alive. No one is as fast or faster than me."

Uncle Chuck and Aleena shook their heads.

"You didn't listen at all when Ma talked to you about your ego, huh?" Manic said.

"Whatever, Sonic. We don't have time for this." Shadow muttered. "Anyway, he'll know it's you, but we'll have to risk it. We'll go in and take out the factory. Manic, you'll have to come along to get us in the fortress. The rest of you can wait in the van and we'll tell you when to detonate the charges."

Everyone agreed.

"Oh, and we need our guards to take the prisoners to safety." Shadow said. "Sonic, get the van. I'll let Argus know what we're doing."

Sonic got ready to run out.

"Wait." Shadow said.

Sonic stopped.

Shadow motioned to one section of the wall. "Take one of the small guns."

"No." Sonic replied. "I already told you I don't like them and I don't need them anyway."

"What happens if you break your leg and swatbots are approaching?" Shadow asked.

"You got me there." Sonic muttered.

"It's just in case." Aleena said.

Sonic reluctantly took one of the small guns off of the rack and raced out.

"I should've made him rings like yours, Shadow." Uncle Chuck replied.

"There's a scary thought." Shadow said. "He'd probably annihilate someone if they cut in line at the chili dog stand."

Manic nodded.