Sonic was having a bit of a confusing day.
Realizing yesterday that his friend had likely been kidnapped was not pleasant, which he had discovered when he’d finally decided to go check up on her after not seeing her for four days (and though it was clear someone had tried to hide evidence of the kidnapping, the signs were there….Whoever had done it was clearly not as smart as they thought they were). Anyways, the max Amy had ever previously gone without stopping by his home, at least to check that he and Tails had been getting enough good meals and that his little buddy was getting at least semi-adequate sleep, was two days.
Still, it wasn’t like he was the kind of guy to keep close tabs on all of his friends and immediately start to worry if something seemed out of the ordinary….Honestly, that was more of an ‘Amy’ thing…and they all loved her for it (if quite frequently were also a bit annoyed by those tendencies). Still, after four days of not even hearing a peep from her and finding that his calls went to voicemail, even he began to get worried and decided it had been long enough that he couldn’t be accused of being too much of a ‘worrier’ or unnecessarily ‘invasive’ into his friends’ lives (things that Amy may or may not have been accused of from time to time…by someone). Tails would have probably started worrying even earlier…if, well, the tech-loving kid had happened to notice just how long it had been since Amy had last visited (or, frankly, usually even had an awareness of what day of the week it actually was).
Seeing the evidence at Amy’s home, he had called Rouge, who told Knuckles (it wasn’t like the tribalistic echidna could ever be convinced to keep a phone, or have anywhere to charge it), and broke the unfortunate news to Tails (the kid would figure it out soon enough otherwise and really wouldn’t appreciate learning that he’d been kept in the dark concerning the probable state of his friend/‘big sister’), and they’d all just finished a meeting about what they should do next. Assumptions were that it was probably the Eggman behind this…but he wasn’t the only enemy they all had, just one of the most annoying and frequently encountered.
However, before they could actually take any action, Tails received a security notice from one of his self-installed home defense systems (the kid was really a go-getter) that Amy actually appeared to be approaching their home.
Her arrival had been a big relief and brought a considerable reduction in the guilt he had begun to feel, thinking that he’d allowed something bad to happen to one of his friends, while also taking days to notice it. The fact that whoever had done this (probably Eggman) likely had done it out of a grudge against him (or at least that was how these types of things tended to work out) had only made those earlier feelings and the subsequent relief he experienced at Amy’s safe return the more extreme.
Anyways, it had been really good to see that she was, well, not ‘fine’, again, even he could tell that, but physically unharmed and hopefully soon on the way to a more complete recovery, once she had time to calm down some more and better accept that she was once again among friends and back in a familiar environment. Seriously though, seeing someone like Amy obviously bummed out and unsettled after a clearly unpleasant experience made him feel like being a little less ‘gentle’ the next time he needed to smash up all of the Eggman’s latest tech.
Still, by the end of the day, it had seemed like things were finally moving in the right direction and that they would all again be able to move on after experiencing another less than entirely pleasant moment in their lives (which, as was usually the case, had in fact been one that they had experienced courtesy of Eggman).
It was probably a result of just how much he had been stressing about it that he completely overshot even his typically ‘laid-back’ wake up time and hadn’t actually awoken until well after noon. He hadn’t been completely surprised that Amy looked to have headed out, but when he didn’t see Tails, not even buried in one of his workshops (whether awake or asleep - it could be either - depending on how much the little fox had pushed himself recently), or even a note to explain where either of them could be, he began to get a bit worried.
If they had gone out together, well, Amy was the ‘responsible’ one after all. It seemed like it would be totally odd of her not to have left any kind of indication of what they were doing or where they were going, particularly when it involved her ‘little brother’….But Tails, the kid just didn’t leave his workshop on his own, not unless prompted (or forced) by one of his friends….The only thing that made sense was that Amy had gone off with him somewhere….
Belatedly, he realized he hadn’t checked his phone…oops…which he must have left around…somewhere….Once he found it, he wasn’t surprised to see a text and a voicemail…but then saw to his disappointment that they were both from Rouge.
“Hey, Blue, guess you’re still sleeping or misplaced your phone again….Well, Red and I, we’re on a bit of a mission right now and we would appreciate it if you joined us at the coordinates I’ll be texting you as soon as you wake up….Amy…” And there was the strangest hesitation as his bat friend said his fellow hedgehog and friend’s name. “...Amy seems to have decided to take the fox off on a spontaneous ‘adventure’ to visit an ‘abandoned’ Eggman base by themselves….Knuckles and I are just about to meet up with them and make sure that everything’s alright. Anyways, Blue just get here as soon as you can…and if you maybe don’t find us when you get there or I don’t call you back to tell you to head elsewhere or just not to worry about this anymore…it’s probably best if you just keep checking Eggman bases until you do. I think fox boy should probably have a device laying around somewhere that could help with that. Anyways, ciao for now.”
That had been one of the stranger…and more concerning…messages he had ever received from his bat friend. Deciding he couldn’t waste (any more) time, he’d hurriedly located the item Rouge was referring to. His little buddy called it the “Eggman Base Database” (EBD), which had come in handy a number of times, as it kept a record of every one of the Eggman’s bases they’d ever encountered or otherwise learned the location of, and included some highly educated guesses from Tails on where others were likely to be found or potentially built.
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Anyways, once he’d arrived at the base Rouge had indicated and found signs of some kind of battle but no sign of his friends, he’d made ample use of his hedgehog speed to begin going through all the bases recorded in the device. It was when he hit base 27 of 64 that he decided he had likely found them.
Though all but the most decrepit or destroyed of Eggman bases would have some kind of defenses and robot presence, this one was very clearly in good condition and highly active, with a number of the mad roboticist’s more powerful bots and defenses immediately going into action at his presence. It was very clear to him that Eggman was indeed to be found ‘at home’ in this particular base, and that almost certainly meant his friends were there as well. Assuming, as was probably the case, they were all now the Eggman’s prisoners and – oh, man – that by sleeping in as much as he did, he may have let not just Rouge, Knuckles, and his little buddy, but also Amy get kidnapped, for a second time (and just a day after she had escaped from the first kidnapping)....Let’s just say bad didn’t even begin to describe how he felt about himself right now….He’d really have to do something to make it up them, particularly Amy…after they were all safe once more.
Fortunately, by now, he had kind of developed a sense for these things and didn’t have to search the base for very long before locating his friends, or at least most of them.
“Eggman, doesn’t doing this kind of thing get at least a little boring after awhile?”
Really, the number of times he’d had to free one of his friends or some other unfortunate victim of Eggman from a pod or capsule….Just, yeah….
Still, with a quick spin dash or three, his friends were out of what were obviously another version of one of Eggman’s, far too common, containment pods.
“Sonic!!”
The excitement and relief in his little buddy’s voice and expression were heartwarming (and honestly a little heartbreaking too, considering it was at least a little bit his fault that his friend, and other friends, had ended up in this situation).
“Hey, Tails, sorry it took me so long. I’ll, ah, have to buy you all a chili dog or do something else extra special to make up for it.”
“Oh, Blue, you don’t know how happy I am to see your spiky head.”
Sonic turned his attention to his very relieved bat friend.
“Hey, Rouge, again, sorry I didn’t get your call earlier...and that it kind of took awhile to find this base….There were a lot of them actually to go through….And, hey, good to see you too Knucks….”
All he received back from his echidna friend was a slight nod…but, in Knuckles speak, he knew it was an exuberant expression of appreciation and happiness to see him.
“Anyways, I’m really glad I could find you all before anything bad happened…but it looks like, bummer, he must be keeping Amy elsewhere. We just need to find where he’s keeping her and then we can….”
Sonic didn’t get a chance to finish before a strange noise distracted him, though not as much as the sudden flinches of his friends.
Ready for another one of Robotnik’s unfortunate surprises, though how much they could really be considered surprises was debatable, when they all seemed to be just another version of a new murderbot / weapon intended to destroy him and his friends (and take over the world, bring ‘glory’ to the Eggman Empire, and all that…etc...etc….). For a supposed genius, how little that was actually new about the Eggman’s behavior was actually kind of surprising. However, this latest one Sonic could say was actually a bit on the more unusual side, as it was clearly based off of his (unfortunately still missing) pink friend.
Turning to his surprisingly concerned looking other friends (he was fast enough he felt he could afford to ignore the new ‘Amy’(?) bot for a moment), he gave them a bit of a confused (and also disappointed) look.
“What’s with the strange, pink robot? Kind of lame for Eggman to start building something like this: He must have been running out of ‘good’ ideas now that he’s trying to make pretty sad looking copies of my friends.”
To his surprise, instead of immediately agreeing with him about Eggman's new level of 'lameness', his friends all winced before Tails began looking extremely upset, Knuckles suddenly became more ‘stoic’ than usual, and Rouge started swearing quite a bit (which normally she made a big effort to avoid doing around their younger friend). Also, Sonic couldn’t help noticing the sudden ominous heaviness that seemed to fill the air.
Meanwhile, in another room, two figures, one very rotund and the other also quite round, though on a much smaller scale, were watching events unfold through a security monitor.
“Welp, the blue rodent just signed his own death warrant. Pity, I had so been looking forward to having that robot hedgehog butler….You don’t suppose I should order Unit-Metal Rose not to…”
“Sir, there isn’t a place in this universe or any other where you would then be able to escape from her all-consuming wrath.”
Tapping his chin in thought, though even Robotnik’s sycophantically programmed assistant could tell this movement and the doctor’s subsequent response were mostly a front to cover for its builder’s extreme nervousness (and complete agreement with that statement), Robotnik gave voice to a ‘reluctant’ agreement.
“Oh, I suppose you’re right, Orbot. Better just to let her have this one. Proper employee compensation and all that.”
The orb bobbed for a moment in evident confusion.
“Sir, you have never once paid any of your ‘employees’.”
“Right you are, Orbot, but I do believe this one warrants an exception.”