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Some time ago…
Dust and tumble weeds blew across the Great Desert. Heatwaves rippled on the horizon as the sun beat down on the orange rock landscape. Tightening her bandana and wiping the grit from her eyes, a lone mobian made her way through the blistering heat.
Bunnie’s ears twitched in the slots of her cowboy hat, flicking sand from their fur. She tried raising the hood on her brown cloak, but the heat had been worse with her head and ears fully enclosed. Sand in her face was better than sweat drenched fur, she’d already learned how that felt from the backpack weighing her down. Although now, she wished it was still as heavy as when she’d started.
Fishing her canteen from one of the pack’s folds, she tipped the last of its water down her sand choked throat. As her tipping of the canteen made her look up, Bunnie glared at the blue sky. Not so long ago she could’ve been soaring above this wind whipped sand.
She shook the last drop of moisture from the canteen and shoved it back into her bag. Just as she was starting to wonder about finding more water, she spotted her destination in the distance; the Great Desert’s Dark Egg Legion chapter.
Square, crumbling brick and mud buildings comprised the basecamp. At odds with the old structures, shining metallic weaponry protruded from various roofs, providing anti-air defenses for any flyovers.
Bunnie’s face was blank as she spotted the legion forces trudging between the buildings. They looked like black dots at her current distance. Only Eggman would be stupid enough, or cruel enough, to make his forces wear black in the desert. Just one more reason she needed to get what she came for and leave as soon as possible.
Once she was close enough to be seen, Bunnie raised her hands above her head and walked slowly. Three legionnaires came walking out of the camp, laser rifles raised.
One of the group, a white furred rabbit mobian, stopped short of reaching Bunnie, and gasped. “We take her to the Baron.”
As the group made their way through the basecamp, Bunnie’s heartrate quickened as she realized she wasn’t being directed to her uncle’s headquarters, but rather the medical tents in the innermost part of the camp.
“Is he hurt?” Bunnie couldn’t help but whisper through her cloak’s hood. Her escort had insisted she hide her face.
The white rabbit walked alongside. “No, just seeing to one of the lil’uns.”
The group reached one of the tents. Bunnie heard her uncle’s voice from inside. The three from her escort took up flanking positions by the other tents as she stood in the doorway.
Bunnie’s eyes adjusted to the darker interior to see her uncle standing over a metal cot with a green shelled armadillo girl who looked younger than some of Rosie’s kids. More alarming still was the little girl having only one arm.
The Baron turned from the tired but smiling armadillo to Bunnie. “Hello darlin, I figured I’d see you round here soon.”
Bunnie stood rooted in the doorway, frowning. “How’d you know ah’d be…?”
The Baron’s cane clicked on the rocky ground as he ushered Bunnie inside. The wind of the outside desert cut out, replaced with a soft quiet.
“After I was summoned to Eggman’s flying fortress and saw what he’d done to the princess, Ah kept closer tabs on what was going on at yer New Mobotropolis. Turns out Ah didn’t have to dig for it. Eggman was all too happy to… brag about what he did.”
All the resolve Bunnie had mustered to trudge through the desert evaporated. She stared at her uncle as tears began welling in her eyes, and her hand traced her wedding ring.
Beauregard removed his hat and held it at his side. “Ah’m so sorry darlin.” Bunnie choked back a sob as she rushed into Beauregard’s open arms.
Over her uncle’s shoulder, Bunnie saw the little armadillo girl regarding them. The former half-robian swallowed hard and wiped her eyes, pulling away from her uncle’s hug. “Hey darlin, you doing alright?”
Bunnie approached Matilda’s bed. Beauregard frowned after his niece but played along. “She’s alright now. Got roughed up a bit by Jack’s gang.”
Bunnie traced Matilda’s remaining hand. The dull warmth of the metallic appendage made Bunnie’s eyes harden at the edges.
Matilda stared at Bunnie’s arm with a small frown. “You are flesh again.”
Beauregard took his chance. “Ah was wonderin bout that myself.” Bunnie’s eye lids came to rest halfway down her eyes, and her lips compressed into a thin line.
“Uncle Beau,” Bunnie spoke like she was about to dive deep under water. Beauregard’s grip on his cane tightened. “Ah want you to legionize me.”
Bunnie turned back around to hold a long stare with her uncle. “Why don’t we take this somewhere private,” the Baron responded. He stepped to the side and ushered Bunnie towards the tent’s door. Looking over his niece’s shoulder he addressed Matilda. “If you need anything, just yell for one of the guards outside.” Bunnie walked out, but not before sharing a hesitant wave with the armadillo girl.
Beauregard and Bunnie relocated to the Baron’s residence. The silence from the outside winds was even starker in one of the camp’s crumbling buildings. Once they’d sat down, Bunnie gave a short account of Naugus transforming her back to normal, and an even shorter account of what had happened to Antoine.
Beauregard leaned on his knees across from Bunnie, his hat and cane set aside on his wooden table. “What happened weren’t your fault darlin.”
Across from the Baron Bunnie slouched backward in the creaking wood chair. Her hat obscured her eyes, and her arms were folded tightly across her chest. “Ah know it weren’t ma fault. It was Robotnik’s,” Bunnie spoke in an angry whisper, “But if I’d still been strong, I coulda protected him.”
Beauregard drummed his organic fingers on his metallic hand. “Or, it coulda been worse. It coulda been you not waking up in a hospital bed.”
Bunnie’s fingers dug into her folded arms. The smallest sheen of reflection came through the shadow on her eyes as she lifted her head. “Don’t you ever,” Bunnie spoke through grit teeth, “Imply my sugar-twan’s life is worth less than mine.”
Beauregard maintained his stare, his expression flat. “Ah didn’t mean it like that, but yer grievin, so I understand.”
“He ain’t dead either,” Bunnie growled, “And when he wakes up, Ah’m gunna be back to mah old self. Cybernetics and all.” Beauregard sighed through his nose as his expression hardened. Bunnie glared through the shadow of her hat. “Are you gunna give me what Ah need, or did Ah come all this way fer nothin?”
Beauregard straightened up to his full height, losing his sad expression. “Darlin, being legionized is the last thing you need.”
“Then we’ve got nothin more to talk about.” Bunnie started to rise from her chair.
Beauregard picked up his cane from the table and held it between Bunnie and the exit. “Sit. Down.” the Baron commanded. The two rabbits shared a hard stare.
Bunnie’s fists clenched at her sides. “I ain’t a child no more.”
“Then stop actin like one.”
Bunnie seized the Baron’s cane and shoved it back toward him. “Last I checked, when things got tough you went to Eggman for cybernetics. Now Ah’m doing just what you did and Ah’m the child!?” Bunnie hissed.
The Baron frowned up at his niece. “This ain’t the same, and you know it. You know the price that comes with legion parts. Besides, if yer so desperate fer cybernetics again, why not go to your rich Acorn friends?”
Bunnie’s glare faltered, and she turned away. “Because they’d never believe I’d want mah metal limbs back. It took me a long time to get used to em, and mah friends saw how much Ah wanted my old bod back before. They’d tell me Ah wasn’t thinking straight.”
The silence that followed was punctuated only by gusts of sandy wind at the doorframe and window. Beauregard rose from his chair, his legionized leg giving a dull hum of servos. “Ah can’t say Ah disagree with that assessment darlin.”
Bunnie turned back to face her uncle. Her glare was replaced with a half-lidded weariness. “Then Ah guess we’ve been apart longer than Ah thought.”
Beauregard held the top of his cane in both hands, standing alongside the doorway but not blocking it. “Where will you go? Back to your friends in New Mobo?”
Bunnie trudged toward the door. “Guess so,” she muttered.
Beauregard closed his eyes with a sigh. “You were never a good liar darlin.” The Baron gripped his cane and twisted it between his hands. The cane’s top sparked with electricity. The sound made Bunnie spin around to face the Baron, but too late.
Beauregard shoved the top of the weapon in her stomach. In a flash, blue tendrils of electricity rippled up and over Bunnie’s body, and the crumbling building’s interior was bathed in blue light.
Bunnie’s body sagged under the stun blast, crumpling into the Baron’s arms. “Ah’m sorry darlin, but Ah can’t let you go runnin off to one of the other grandmasters.” Bunnie spasmed in her uncle’s arms, her teeth gritting with effort as she fought the stun ray’s effects. She managed one last stubborn glare at her uncle, before her eyelids slid closed, and a single tear ran down her face.
Ratty mattress fabric rubbed against Bunnie’s back. Flickers of light played across her face, in tune with gusts of a dry wind and the sound of flapping fabric above her. Other than the random gusts, the air was still and stale. Bunnie’s hand moved below the mattress, colliding with rusty metal.
The former robian sat up with a start, her head still dizzy. She forced her eyes open.
She was in one of the camp’s crumbling buildings, but this one had been reinforced with black iron bars, drilled into the stone, bisecting the room. She sat on a rust covered cot, topped with an old mattress. Above her, gusts of sandy wind blew through curtains hung in front of an iron barred window. An equally rusted sink and toilet stood across from her, haphazardly installed into the wall.
“Hey!” Bunnie shouted. She heard a shuffling at the wooden door beyond her barred cell. Shortly after, the Baron appeared.
The two rabbits now stood on opposite sides of the iron bars. “Let me out, now.”
Beauregard tapped his cane down in front of him. “Fraid Ah can’t do that darlin. Not till Ah know yer headin back home, and not to one of the other loons under the Doc’s employ.”
Bunnie’s glare was liable to melt her prison. She closed the small gap between herself and the iron bars to be as close as possible to Beauregard. “So this’s how it’s gunna be?”
Beauregard’s hands clenched around his cane with an audible tightening of fabric and metal. “That’s up to you.” Beauregard turned to leave but stopped in the doorway, not turning around. “Once she’s on her feet, Matilda will be yer warden.”
“Somethin easy for the youngin to do while she heals, right?” Bunnie snarked.
“Somethin like that.” Beauregard left and let the door close behind him.
Bunnie stared after her uncle, then hissed under her breath, “You’ll regret givin me a babysitter, and not a jailor, Grandmaster.”
On the first day she’d searched for a weakness in her prison, but despite its dilapidation, there was no loose screw or bars set too widely apart. Next, she’d tried fashioning a file out of a piece of her bed frame, but the rusted bars made a gratingly loud sawing sound that she knew would draw attention if she tried in earnest to saw through her cage. She’d even tried prying loose the bars to her window, but to no avail. When all her immediate methods failed, Bunnie settled into a waiting game.
On the fifth day, Matilda materialized. She brandished a matching set of repaired arms that gleamed with the shine of a new car, though already showing a few scratches from the sandy winds. The cybernetics made Bunnie fume further at her captivity, and long for her old strength.
“Hello,” Matilda greeted in a flat monotone as she entered. Under one of her arms was a small wooden chair which she placed perpendicular to Bunnie’s cell. In her other hand was a small book.
“Come to read me bedtime stories have ya?” Bunnie smirked as she sat on her ratty mattress, leaning back against the wall. The freedom fighter ignored the heat permeating the stone at her back, maintaining her bored expression and folded arms.
“No. The doctors say I must test dexterity in my new appendage.” Bunnie couldn’t help but frown at Matilda’s tone. It was cold and flat, devoid of emotion. She was no stranger to kids having to grow up faster than they should’ve had to, but even Tails had never sounded this world weary, and this girl looked even younger than him.
“Is something wrong?” Matilda asked into Bunnie’s thoughts.
Bunnie readjusted herself against the wall. “Well Ah’m in a cage first of all.”
“Yes. The Baron explained things.”
“Oh did he now?” Bunnie grumbled.
“Yes. He explained you lost someone you love. He said you were angry and wanted justice for him. He said you thought getting legionized was the best way to get justice.”
Bunnie chewed at the inside of her lip. “That is about the size of it,” she admitted, “Ah take it the Baron told you to reason with me. Tell me how Ah’m wrong for wantin cybernetics.”
Matilda sat down in her little chair and propped her book open on her lap. “No. He did not give me any orders like that.” Matilda’s left arm seemed dexterous enough, but her right hand made loud servo noises as she tried to turn a page.
Bunnie watched in silence at the armadillo’s lack of progress for several minutes. Despite the handicap, Matilda never showed signs of impatience. She went at the page from different angles repeatedly, trying to get her index finger under the paper.
Eventually, it was Bunnie who became frustrated with the repetitive noise, but she wasn’t about to tell a little girl struggling with a new limb to stop practicing. Then again…
“Hey honey?” Bunnie interrupted.
Matilda stopped her finger movements. “Do you want me to stop?” The way Matilda asked the question sounded more like she wanted to stop.
Bunnie smiled at the first sign of frustration from the girl. “Not at all darlin. Just a suggestion. What was it you did most before you got yer arm replaced?”
“That is a question,” Matilda stated.
“Alright, question then suggestion,” Bunnie corrected with a smirk.
“I helped with inventory. Moving equipment. I am stronger than the average legionnaire.”
“Ah already knew you were strong honey,” Bunnie said with a soft chuckle. “Now as for my suggestion; try liftin that table there.”
Matilda blinked once at the rabbit, then walked to the room’s other side and effortlessly lifted the table with her new arm. “My strength was not in question.”
“Ah know, stay with me. Now,” Bunnie pointed to the armadillo’s metal fingers. “Point your pinky out, while keepin the other fingers grabbin onto that table leg.”
Matilda did so. “Alright, now the next one.” They continued until it was only Matilda’s thumb and index finger holding the table, which was starting to wobble in her grasp.
“Okay sugar, now set it down,” Bunnie instructed. “Now give em a test.” Bunnie flexed her fingers one by one into her palm.
Matilda mimicked the action. “It is easier.” Matilda met Bunnie’s eyes. “Thank you.”
Bunnie smiled at the hint of relief in the armadillo’s voice, buried under the monotone. “Yer welcome sugar. When Ah first got mah limbs, Ah found doing bigger things was easier at first.”
“Yes. Should I try the book again?”
“Heck no. You gotta work up to that.” Bunnie waved a dismissive hand at that idea.
“Oh,” Matilda gave a sideways glance at the book she’d left in the chair.
“You been wantin to get back into that?” Bunnie pointed to the grey covered book with faded gold binding. The front cover had the image of a light brown furred hedgehog wearing a tiara leaning out a castle window.
“Yes,” Matilda admitted. For the first time her expression changed from a flat stare. Her brows creased and her voice became distant. “My brother gave me the book. I’d… like to read a little of it before he visits again.”
Bunnie’s voice became softer too. “He ain’t here? In the legion?”
The mask slid back down on Matilda’s face. “No. He is not.”
Bunnie’s eyes crinkled at the edges. For a moment she frowned past Matilda towards the wooden door out of her prison building, envisioning her uncle. “Right… Ah understand.”
“Is something wrong?” Matilda asked, hearing the grumbling undertone in Bunnie’s statement.
The caged freedom fighter shook her head with a sigh. “Not with you sugar, not with you.” Bunnie got up from her cot and came to sit in front of the prison bars. “Well, seein as we’re both stuck in here for a while,” Bunnie patted the sandy stone floor, “How’s about we read this thing together?”
Matilda blinked with wide eyes at the offer. “Okay. I’d like that.” Bunnie smiled at the little armadillo as she brought over her worn copy of Brother’s Grizzly: Fairy Tales of Mercia. After angling themselves to face perpendicular to the prison bars, Bunnie propped the book in between them.
“Once upon a time, there was a little ol frog who didn’t have nothin to his name and…” Bunnie cut herself off. “Wait, Ah’m sorry. Would you rather Ah stay quiet sugar? Ah’ve got a little-un back home I used to read to. Force a habit.”
Bunnie was thrown off by Matilda’s expression. It looked like she was trying to spot something far away, looking past Bunnie and the room. “No…” the armadillo’s voice was a whisper, “I think I like it…”
Bunnie grinned. “All right then, let’s see what our little froggy friend gets up to.”
The following days saw Bunnie helping Matilda improve her dexterity and read through the fairy tale collection. The freedom fighter began to look forward to Matilda’s visits. In spite of the sandy floor and scorching sun through iron bars, it reminded her of a simpler time.
But when Matilda left, Bunnie never forgot her real mission. Accepting her enclosed environment, she worked herself in whatever ways she could. Push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, jogging in place, anything to get stronger. It would never compare to the cybernetics she would eventually regain, but it might be the edge needed to escape her backstabbing uncle when the time came.
He could think he was helping her all he wanted, but there was only one thing she needed. When the time came, she’d get out of this dust bowl and get her cybernetics back, no matter what it took.
About a week into her ‘visit,’ Bunnie was jolted awake one morning by alarms blaring. The door to her prison burst open and rocked on its hinges. Matilda marched inside without closing it.
“What’s all the ruckus? Is it… Jack?” Bunnie’s question trailed off as Matilda approached her cell with a key.
“No.” the armadillo threw the cell door open. “You are being moved by order of the Baron. Doctor Robotnik is coming.”
Bunnie’s ears drooped and her face paled. All thoughts of escape left her mind. If Eggman found her here, it wouldn’t just be her in danger; Eggman would have all their heads for keeping her secret.
Matilda led her ducking and weaving between the scuttling legionnaires. They were heading towards the outer edge of the camp. Instructions and shouts for aid were coming from everywhere. Sharp sanded winds bit at their backs. “Figure’s a storm would happen when Eggman shows up,” Bunnie muttered.
Bunnie yelped as Matilda held her hand in a mechanized grip to avoid separation as they went through a throng of legionnaires. “It is not a storm.”
Bunnie frowned at the little armadillo, but her response died out as a massive shadow eclipsed them, along with the entire base. The shift from standing in the sun’s rays to being in shadow combined with the harsh wind caused a shiver despite the desert heat. Squinting over her shoulder against the sand whipped winds behind her, which had all started blowing uniformly in one direction, Bunnie saw the silhouette of the Death Egg.
The battle station hovered over the camp, its thrusters keeping it aloft giving a deafening hum and blasting the sand of the desert into the base. Bunnie stared up at the Doctor’s grinning visage, mocking her. She turned back around and hurried to keep pace with Matilda. “Is he here cause a me sugar?” Bunnie whispered.
“Unlikely. I was with the Baron when he received the call. He did not mention you.” Matilda reported.
“Why bother callin if he wanted to make an entrance though?” Bunnie wondered aloud.
“We are to fully restock the station and receive something from him. Something we are meant to bring online.”
“Bring online?” Bunnie asked.
Matilda dragged Bunnie to a supply building well removed from the main camp and flung open its aging wooden door. “He did not say, but the Baron says with the Oil Ocean refinery recently repaired, he may want us to use it to activate whatever he’s bringing.”
“What on Mobius would need that much power to turn on?” Bunnie whispered more to herself than Matilda. The armadillo answered anyway, with her usual cold monotone.
“Likely a new weapon. He rarely builds anything else.”
Matilda continued dragging Bunnie inside the supply building, passing large crates both wooden and metal. They headed towards the back where dust had started to layer on the containers.
Matilda pried open a nailed shut box with her mechanized arms. Bunnie couldn’t help but give an encouraging smile and a soft punch on the shoulder for the girl’s feat.
Matilda gave a brief smile back, before the mask slipped back on. “Get in,” she instructed. Bunnie hopped inside the wooden crate, but hesitated to let Matilda place the lid.
“I have been ordered to seal you in,” Matilda admitted, “You cannot be seen or allowed to leave. Bunnie grit her teeth and glared towards the door, in the direction of her uncle. For the first time Matilda’s composure broke, and she looked unsure. “Those are my orders. Please… please comply.”
The stern little soldier had become an uncertain child. She looked at Bunnie with fearful anticipation. Bunnie’s angry expression melted as she realized Matilda was afraid she would be mad at her. The freedom fighter sighed and nodded.
Matilda smiled with a relieved sigh of her own, and her voice became softer, “Thank you, I will return to take you back to your cell when I have the chance.”
“Can you at least give me that walkie-talkie there on yer belt?” Bunnie pointed.
Matilda removed the device from her uniform. She lowered its volume before handing it over. “It is tuned to the Baron’s. You may listen to know when the Doctor has left. Do not speak into it, or else Eggman will know you are here, and we will all be killed for hiding you.” Matilda’s calm monotone was back in full force. Bunnie accepted the device, then sat down as the armadillo used her mechanized hands to nail the box lid shut.
Beauregard parked his rattling, faded green jeep just beneath the edge of the hovering battle station. Around him, various transport trucks and other jeeps rushed ammunition, fuel canisters, and all manner of other supplies from the base camp to the refueling station built into the center of the reconstructed Oil Ocean refinery. The one good thing to come out of Sonic and Bunnie recking the place was that Jack and his crew hadn’t had the means to rebuild themselves, and so left it to the legion.
Several thousand feet above the legionnaires’ activities, the hangar doors to the Death Egg slid open with an echoing shudder of metal. Located in the ‘teeth’ of the doctor’s visage on the battle station, it made the station’s face look as if it was frozen in the middle of a deranged laugh. Squinting up at the opening doors, Beauregard spotted four specks emerging from the station and flying down towards him.
Three of the specks became too fast to track as they began rocketing downward toward the Grandmaster. Beauregard’s jeep jostled as the ground was shook from under it. The cause was three robots landing in a triangle pattern around him.
The Baron looked between the machines. These were the ‘Metal Series’ the Doctor had proudly displayed the last time he’d been summoned to the Death Egg. Metal Sonic, Metal Tails, and Metal Knuckles.
The multicolored robots stood sentinel around the Baron, hemming him in. Beauregard’s only sign of worry was a small adjustment of his hat. Eggman loved seeing his minions squirm. No need to assume the worst yet.
Above, the final speck Beauregard had spotted began to take shape as it slowly descended. The Doctor sat in his Egg-Mobile, hovering just above the Grandmaster so that the rabbit would have to look up at him.
“Greetings Baron,” Eggman greeted with a wide smile.
Beauregard tipped his hat, with a neutral expression, “Doctor.”
Eggman steepled his fingers and leaned on the rim of his Egg-Mobile. “No need to save face cowboy, you haven’t earned my fury today. Whether or not I obliterate you depends on the task I’ve arrived with.”
“You mentioned bringin somethin online?”
The Doctor’s mustache curled with his grin. “Quite right! Metal Sonic,” Eggman snapped his fingers. The blue badnik began to hover off the ground toward the Baron. The Grandmaster waited until the badnik had reached his jeep to take what it carried.
By all appearances, it was a big metallic silver gear. It was the same size as the steering wheel of his jeep with eight points, and crisscrossed with bright blue, almost glowing stripes.
“And this is?” Beauregard asked as he held the gear with his metal arm, keeping it at arm’s length.
Eggman traced his moustache with a contemplative look. “My current theory, which will eventually be proven as fact, is that it’s a portal device. An unknown precursor to those infernal warp rings used by Sonic and his former freedom fighters.”
The Baron resisted the urge to point out the absence of a roboticized princess. “And you need the refinery to get it turned on?”
“Indeed. All power conduits aboard the Death Egg have proven too low. It would be a simple matter if I still possessed the Chaos Emerald but…” Eggman grit his teeth and gripped the side of his Egg-Mobile. “Until I’m able to access more information from its point of origin, that is your task.”
The Baron didn’t dare ask about the ‘point of origin’ with the Doctor seething over the missing Chaos Emerald. “As you command,” Beauregard tipped his hat again.
“There’s a good little underling,” Eggman chortled as he took the steering handles of his Egg-Mobile. “Once the Death Egg is fully restocked, you may begin your testing.”
Without further ado, the Doctor flew back up towards his battle station, followed by the Metal Series badniks. Once they were back inside, the Death Egg shuddered with the blast of maneuvering jets, their sound hammering against the ears of the legionnaires. The massive edifice to the doctor’s face slowly rotated and began its flight toward the refueling station at the center of the Oil Ocean refinery.
Within her darkened box prison, Bunnie numbly set aside the walkie-talkie. She left it on low volume, but her uncle giving orders for restocking the Death Egg became background noise. She sidled along the scratchy wood and leaned against one of the container’s warm wooden sides. Her hand encountered a sharp loose nail, but she brushed it aside, her mind racing.
Eggman had found an alternative to the warp rings. He might as well have said he won the war.
The portal devices Knuckles and the Chaotix had shared with the freedom fighters had saved them more times than Bunnie could count. It was one of the few advantages they had against Robotnik. The ring’s only limit was the user having to know, EXACTLY where they wanted to go, and picturing that place in their mind with utmost clarity.
Eggman’s first use if he gained his own version would undoubtedly be the invasion of New Mobotropolis. The city shield would be rendered useless. Eggman could literally stroll in as he pleased, or more accurately, send in a horde of badniks and legionnaires. All her friends would be left helpless against his wrath.
Antoine…
Her quest for cybernetics would have to wait. Eggman couldn’t be allowed to get his own version of the warp rings. From the walkie-talkie Beauregard’s voice broke into Bunnie’s thoughts.
“Now hold on there Avery, you can’t carry that all by yer lonesome. Here, hang on Ah got the other side and… there we are.”
Bunnie stared at the walkie as her expression melted into sadness. Eggman couldn’t keep that portal device. Of all the Grandmasters why did it have to be Beauregard he’d entrusted it to.
Bunnie’s ears drooped to either side of her head. “Sorry Ucnle Beau,” she whispered to the walkie despite it not sending her voice. “But Ah’m still a freedom fighter.”
Feeling around, Bunnie found the nail that had poked her hand before. Taking the sharpened metal, she managed to hide it away in her hair. “Guess Ah’m going home soon after all,” Bunnie muttered. She had to warn her friends to start searching for wherever Eggman had gotten his warp ring alternative.
A short time later Matilda returned and extracted Bunnie, returning her to her cell. “I will tell the Baron you did not attempt to escape.”
Bunnie took on an ironic smile when Matilda wasn’t looking. “Thanks honey.”
Bunnie waited several days for the bustle brought on by Eggman’s arrival to die down to make her move. On the third night after the Doctor’s departure, Bunnie and Matilda had resumed their reading sessions.
“… and the maiden and prince lived happily ever after. The End,” Bunnie concluded another fairy tale.
Matilda closed the book and tucked it under her arm. “I liked that ending better.”
“Yeah, some of these old stories can be pretty gruesome. Ah always liked the happier ones too,” Bunnie agreed. Matilda started for the door. “You keep on with that collection honey. Ah’m sure yer brother will be happy you’re reading em all.”
“Yes,” Matilda nodded, “And… maybe we could do two stories tomorrow?” Matilda’s flickering between stoic and childlike made Bunnie’s heartache. She wished she could’ve finished the whole collection with the armadillo.
“We’ll just have to see sugar, goodnight.”
Once Matilda was gone, Bunnie fished the nail she’d hidden in her hair out and started picking her cell’s lock. It didn’t take much to get the dilapidated prison to release her. Once out, she grabbed her hat and jacket and made her way outside.
The camp was quiet. The desert’s heat was replaced with a bitter cold wind. The stars twinkled far brighter here in the absence of artificial light, but it still took a moment for Bunnie’s eyes to adjust. The only warmth came from the ground, still dispelling the heat of the day.
Bunnie wasn’t sure whether the silence was as pronounced as she felt, or if she was just nervous about getting caught; either way, it felt like everything she did was tremendously loud. Sand crunched beneath her feet, and her breathing she was trying to keep slow sounded like loud panting to her. Eventually she relaxed as she heard the snoring of the camp as she made her way between the crumbling buildings. As she made her way, she spotted a legionnaire’s cloak hanging out to dry on a clothes line and grabbed it, draping it over her arm.
Reaching the camp’s edge, the desert opened up before her, bathed in the night sky’s dim light. Bunnie hugged her jacket closer and shivered. She wished she could take one of the camp’s vehicles to reach the refinery, but that would sound the alarm.
After putting some distance between herself and the camp, Bunnie broke into a run. The movement felt more liberating than escaping her cell. Even the odd rock or sandy patch didn’t bother her. This was the freest she’d felt since even before being captured by her uncle.
Bunnie never had to slow her run as she reached the refinery. The metallic clanking of pistons and sloshing of oil through pipes drowned out the sound of her running. The refinery was a mass of smokestacks and factory buildings that stabbed into the night sky, creating a dark silhouette against the stars that almost looked like a cityscape. Black smoke further blurred the dim light, and oil pumps rose and fell gently as they pulled the black gold from the ground.
Putting on the cloak she’d pilfered, Bunnie made her approach. Reaching the refinery’s fence, Bunnie walked to the nearest guard tower. Keeping her cloak low, she waved up to the guard on night watch, then pointed to her ears and shrugged.
Taking her intended meaning, the lizard guard made her way down the tower and exited out the side entrance of the refinery perimeter. “Got locked out? Or are you from camp?” asked the lizard mobian.
Bunnie let her hood fall back. “Ah guess you could say both. Sorry bout this honey.” Before the lizard mobian could recognize her, Bunnie punched her square in the nose. The lizard mobian staggered, and before she could recover, Bunnie had snatched her holstered laser pistol and turned the setting to stun. The lizard girl was rendered unconscious with a single shot.
Bunnie dragged the lizard girl into the tower and laid her down to sleep off the stun shot. Now inside and disguised, she walked with more ease, but always keeping her hood low. The silence from before was now filled with monotonous clanking and sloshing oil. The smell of petroleum and smoke was everywhere, and the pipework and processing plants towered over her.
It reminded her of the old days. Sneaking through Robotropolis… with her friends… with Antoine…
Bunnie shook off the memories and made her way deeper into the refinery. Whatever doohickey Eggman had dropped off would be placed in a converter, and the biggest converter would be in the refueling station for the Death Egg at the refinery’s center.
It didn’t take much to find the thing. The refueling station looked like a massive circular dish set between several of the refinery’s buildings. Two towering mechanical arms rose on either side, meant to hold the Death Egg in place when it was landed.
Bunnie made short work of the two guards outside the entrance, stunning them down, then propping them against the wall to make it seem as though they were sitting. Hopefully the stun blasts would last long enough for her to make it back out of the refinery and steal a vehicle. Holding one of their hands on a scanner, she unlocked the door and went inside.
The interior of the refueling station was at odds with the rest of the desert chapter’s equipment. Being newer and better maintained, the metal walls shined silvery clean, with only small traces of sand at the entrance.
Getting further inside, Bunnie found another blemish on the otherwise shiny new station. Rounding a corner she found thick power cables trailing the floor, pushed to the hallway’s edges in a haphazard pile. “Guess Eggman wadn’t kiddin about needin power for this thing,” Bunnie muttered.
Tracing the cables, Bunnie soon reached a larger room housing six power generators, three on each side. The cow sized cylinders hummed like turbines and were currently glowing with a pulsing blue light. Every port on the generators had a cable plugged into them, snaking down and mingling with the cables trailing in from the hallway. Tracing these, Bunnie saw that all the cables led to the room’s end.
Mounted up against the wall was a strange, newly installed apparatus that all the cables plugged into. It was a square frame of metal, with four prongs pointing inward from the corners. In the four prongs’ grasp, was the gear Eggman had given Beauregard.
Bunnie stared at the neon blue gear with a squinted frown. “All this fer that little ol thing?”
Bunnie didn’t have time to wonder further, because the fluorescent lighting of the facility suddenly switched to a flashing red, and an alarm began blaring through the refinery.
“Dang it!” Bunnie hissed, briefly aiming her weapon at the door. But no, it had to be the lizard guard or the camp. She had a little time before they knew where she was.
Reaching up she tried to pry the gear from its slot, but it held firm. Bunnie growled and seized the thing with both hands, fuming at her missing robian strength. The prongs bent outward under Bunnie’s pulling. The freedom fighter screwed her eyes shut with the effort. When she started to see red she let go and wondered if she’d pushed herself too hard, but the red was coming from the gear.
The generators lining the room’s walls began to cycle faster, rattling in their casings. The room became bathed in the red glow, not caused by the emergency lights of the building. Bunnie backed away from the thing, her eyes wide. She gasped as she looked down at herself; the red light had created a thin outline around her form, and it was growing brighter.
In a last attempt to stop whatever she’d started, Bunnie reached forward to push the gear back into place, but her hand never reached it. A bright flash of red light filled the room, followed by the generators idling down to their original speed. When the light cleared, Bunnie D’Coolette was nowhere to be seen.