Chapter 26: The Mislaid Plans
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Ruby Haze
Chapter 26: The Mislaid Plans
Fiona Fox thought of herself as a schemer at heart. Someone to whom deception and trickery came to her as naturally as breathing. It was not an instinct that Fiona thought she had in her when she was just a dumb kid. Before she realized that the only person you could rely on in this messed up world to have your back was yourself. Now that she was grown up, Fiona knew that her clever mind was the sharpest weapon in her arsenal. With her two go-to goons being a close second.
Whatever Bean and Bark were doing before she found them wasn't important. They needed someone with brains to direct them, and get them gigs. Be the shot caller. Bark wasn't going to speak up for himself, and Bean wasn't going to let the clients get a word in. She was the brains of her gang, with Bean and Bark providing the muscle needed to make her tactics stick. Not as strong as Bark, or as explosively deranged as Bean (the latter of which she was grateful not to worry about), Fiona was the one who laid out the game plan.
However, with her mark having changed into a dragon and gone flying after a smart aleck super badnik, her plot to steal Scarlet's magic ruby had gone completely off the rails.
"This was supposed to be easy!" she shouted as she climbed out of the rubble.
Fiona heard a pop, causing her ears to perk up in alarm. Examining her immediate surroundings, Fiona saw that the ground was covered in crystal dust from one of Scarlet's magic bubbles. The debris around the hole she was hiding in gave way and collapsed. He must've put a shield around her, and if it wasn't for that holding up the rubble…
Fiona Fox dismissed the thought. She couldn't afford to get distracted.
She looked around, taking in the absolute state of desolation that Scarlet and Metal Sonic left the Happyland park in after their fight. The rollercoaster was spent, having broken down into heaps of splintered wood. The merry-go-round had made its last rotation, the ferris wheel had lost a couple of spokes, and the carnival games were totally spent. Fiona hated Renfield, so she wasn't going to be shedding a tear for his dream going down in flames. Her only regret was that she didn't bring a camera.
With her ride having taken off, and this mission turning out to be far riskier than she initially bargained for, Fiona's next idea was to make her leave with that spare hover pod. Then a glimmer in the scrap pile caught her eye. Getting closer, she identified the shining object as the Mechanix. Scarlet hit them with one of those spells he cast by mistake, trapping Heavy and Bomb in a big, pink crystal.
After spending a period of weeks getting to know what he was capable of, Fiona could admit, if only to herself, that what Scarlet did was real magic. Technology that could open portals like he could wasn't portable enough to do the job. It wouldn't be something that just anybody could get their hands on, and Scarlet definitely wasn't smart enough to build it himself. The same went for the force fields, flight, and other powers.
Then there was the fact that technology didn't show you your greatest desire when you touched it. While everyone else was stunned by what Bean conjured up by touching the ruby during their ambush mission in Mercia, they weren't watching her trying to pull him off of it. The wizard completely missed that she'd accidentally touched the stone herself. What she saw while everyone else was distracted left her stunned.
Fiona saw herself, a few years older. Stronger. Sharper. More experienced. She wasn't the ruler of Mobius, because she knew what she wanted was well within the means of being a crime lord. For those who she let know her name, 'Fiona Fox' was a name associated with wealth and power. Feared and respected in equal measures, she'd spend her days surrounded by more money, opulence, and security than anyone else could ever ask for.
Robotnik's machines couldn't catch her. The Freedom Fighters would go to her to beg for scraps, and she'd only give them when their so-called 'hero' was the one they paraded out to do the begging. The power of the ruby made her completely untouchable. With but a wave of her hand, anything she wanted was within her grasp.
Never again to want. Never again to need. Never again to feel pain, or fear, or spend her nights being afraid of getting hurt again.
Never again to be powerless. Forgotten. Left behind.
All she had to do to make that happen was separate the magic gem from its current owner.
Did that overlander know how much power he was sitting on? How could he not?
Fiona got close to the badniks and started hammering at the crystal, using her spent missile launcher as a blunt instrument. She knew from asking around the Mercian rebel camps that those crystals weren't impossible to shatter. Scarlet's crystals broke apart over time, and got weaker when he wasn't focusing on keeping them there. After the repeated impacts caused cracks to form along the surface, she performed one last strike along the largest crack to wedge the crystal containing Bomb free from the rest.
"Ping ping," Bomb uttered weakly, half of his body sticking out of the crystal mass.
"Hold still," Fiona said, before lighting Bomb's fuse with a match.
"PING?!"
Fiona crouched down behind the sturdiest thing she could use as cover for miles, which was Heavy. Bomb detonated, damaging the pink crystal surrounding the larger badnik. With Bomb's body destroyed, Fiona could hear what sounded like a jammed crank or other mechanism building tension from inside the crystal, until Heavy's head spring broke out of the top and a fresh Bomb was released.
"Ping!" Bomb accused, pointing at her.
"Of course I knew that would work!" Fiona shouted back. "Now do it again!"
"Ping," Bomb grumbled, exploding a second time so he could get his partner out of there.
Heavy stumbled out of the crystal trap, magenta flakes sticking to both badniks' hulls.
"Gadzooks!" Heavy exclaimed. "What'd I miss?"
"Ping ping!" Bomb whined.
"Scarlet went after Metal Sonic, but there's something wrong with the island," Fiona answered, paraphrasing everything they missed. "Now a volcano's gone off!"
"This is most disturbing," Heavy said solemnly. "Do you have John's communicator code?"
She tried the number, but the line was filled with static.
"He's not picking up."
Heavy's lid rose again, a collapsible radio antenna sticking out of it.
"There appears to be a high amount of background radiation affecting my radar. Let's take you back to our workshop in Rock Hill so we can regain our bearings."
Resigned, she joined the Mechanix in the hover unit to their other base. She stared out from the forward window, taking in the darkened landscape of the Floating Island.
This was supposed to be simple. Tricking him into carrying all of their salvage from Robotnik's bases was only one part of it. Bean and Bark were going to take Scarlet out when she gave the signal, after he'd burned out his energy reserves, but then they had to escape the ambush from the Egg Robos. Her Plan B was to convince the Guardian and the Chaotix to do the heavy lifting for them, using the emotional blackmail she had on Mighty to sway him into taking the wizard down. Then Metal Sonic happened, and Scarlet went out of his way to make sure she wasn't hurt.
Why?
She didn't get it. Was he playing her? What was his angle? Did he already know what she was doing, and was giving her a window to back out before either of them lost face?
Was he really just being… nice?
Fiona had no idea, and the uncertainty was what was getting to her.
A green flash of light blinded the drivers, causing them to slow down until it passed.
"What was that?" Fiona asked.
"Ping!"
"I haven't the foggiest, either, but I believe that eerie light originated from the direction of the echidna ruins at the island's center!"
Heavy tilted the yoke up, setting the vehicle gently onto the outskirts of where the glowing flashes were focused, near the long river that wound around the island. Past the green lights, they could see massive rocks rising out of the ground, suspended by green auras. The loose stones arranged themselves into new forms, the jagged cliffs and spires forming into the rough shapes of walls and towers. Before their eyes, the constructions became increasingly defined, turning into finely-masoned bricks and architectural marvels.
"What on Mobius…?" Fiona gasped. "Is that a city?"
"No city we've seen on the Floating Island before," Heavy said.
The edges of this strange place were patrolled by tall, gray robots that Fiona hadn't seen before. They were as tall as SWATbots, yet their designs were subtly off in a way she couldn't place. Though, after years of dealing with Robotnik's machines, she could tell on instinct that these weren't made by him.
"Ping!" Bomb called out, pointing at the glowing figure at the center of the city.
The glowing being was the average size of a mobian, covered in immaculate gold and blue armor. His jagged, golden mask covered only the top of his white-eyed face, leaving a twisted rictus grin that was clear to see. Out of the back of the entity's head, she could see striped rows of red echidna dreadlocks. In one hand, he possessed a serpentine scepter of emerald green, which he waved to and fro like a conductor's baton.
Where the glowing man moved the staff, the masses of earth fit into place. He swung the rod forward, building a cyclopean, black citadel that stood tall above the rest.
"RISE, MY NEKRONOPOLIS! MAY YOUR DARK MAGNIFICENCE BLIND THE DENIZENS OF THE SURFACE WITH THIS MONUMENT TO MY GLORY!"
The warlock's insane cackles of delight spread far and wide, until they were cut off by a bolt of energy to the face.
"Who dares strike the almighty Enerjak?!" the being howled, superheated plasma dripping off his mask.
Enerjak turned to where the shot came from at the same time Fiona and the others did, where they all saw the red-eyed, sneering Metal Sonic.
"What, do you live under a rock or something?" Metal Sonic quipped. "Now that I lost that purple lizard and had a little pick-me-up from your energy turbines, I regret to inform you that you're squatting on Doctor Robotnik's property! So kindly vacate the premises and--"
The snarling Enerjak waved his hand, releasing a broad wave of destructive power!
"NO! The Floating Island is MINE TO CONQUER!"
Metal Sonic fired up his rockets and juked out of the way of the attack, which carved a deep groove into one of the distant mountains. Fiona didn't even need to put on her binoculars to see the devastating damage Enerjak was capable of.
While Enerjak was reveling in his power, Metal Sonic flew in a corkscrew and delivered an uppercut to the echidna's jaw with a sledgehammer attachment over his fist.
"Yours to conquer? Take a number, Enerjoke!"
With that, it was on. Enerjak projected his green blasts of energy at the evasive Metal Sonic, in what almost felt like a repetition of Scarlet's fight with the super badnik.
"You have made a fatal error, robot! Now perish for it!"
The key difference was Enerjak clearly reveled in his power. Scarlet fought with a lot more care and precision, being seriously rattled after his foray into friendly fire. This chaos sorcerer, on the other hand, threw his weight around with an almost childlike glee. His beams of force, bolts of lightning, and explosions of green energy went wide, bombarding his own city and robots. Enerjak was far more concerned with hitting Metal Sonic than the damage he was doing to his 'previous' city and the robots he put around it. Should this battle continue, he'd have to start over from the ground up.
As the two of them battled in the sky, Fiona began ripping foliage out of the nearby trees and putting them on top of the hover pod.
"What are you doing?" Heavy inquired.
She tilted her face towards Heavy and Bomb, not slowing down from her task.
"Camouflage! Now help me keep us out of their sight!"
The Mechanix got to work, helping her disguise their hovercraft until it was as concealed as they could on such a tight time budget. Meanwhile, Metal Sonic swiftly darted towards Enerjak for another attack. One that would turn out to be a tactical miscalculation. Two beams of light poured out of Enerjak's eyes, trapping Metal Sonic in a green energy field.
"C-Cheater!" Metal Sonic shouted, now totally paralyzed.
"For over four centuries, I have been denied my righteous destiny! I will not be defied by an arrogant machine for a second more!"
Enerjak spread his arms out wide. Fiona had a bad feeling about what he was planning, and screwed her eyes shut. Everything went white, and when Fiona opened her eyes again, Metal Sonic was gone.
Enerjak is untouchable.
"Let that be a lesson to all who would stand against the new god-king of Mobius!" Enerjak proclaimed, to seemingly no one.
Unless, of course, he knew they were hiding, and that was an open invitation for them to come out before he made them come out. Fiona froze, waiting to see when Enerjak would call them out, only for the divine being to fly away.
"That was a frightening display of force," observed Heavy. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah. Fine."
Fiona realized that Enerjak, for all of the blatant power at his disposal, hadn't noticed them at all. For a so-called god, his awareness left a lot to be desired.
That begged the question: Did he have other weaknesses she could exploit?
"Y-Yo! Mind lending me a waldo?"
Fiona and the Mechanix spun around. Behind them, they saw the smoking crater where Metal Sonic crash landed. The super badnik was in a sorry state, one leg and both arms twisted at right angles. His head was half buried in the dirt, one green eye indicating that he was critically low on power.
"Metal Sonic!" Heavy shouted, his arms raised into a boxing pose to go with his mitts.
"Ping, ping!" Bomb declared.
"Not too loud!" Metal Sonic said. "Think that chaos dynamo's gonna go easier on you three if he comes sniffing this way?"
"Give us one good reason why we shouldn't have you stripped down for spare parts while we have the chance to make it stick!"
"Maybe Robotnik will take you back?" he offered. "I'll put in a good word--"
"Don't," Fiona interjected. Not to silence Metal Sonic, but to stop Heavy or Bomb before they could permanently shut him up. "We need him alive."
"We do?" asked Heavy.
"Ping?" asked Bomb.
"You do?" asked Metal Sonic.
"We do. For all of the worthless words that came out of your motor mouth, you got one thing right. None of us stand a chance against Enerjak. Not if we're doing it alone."
"You aren't suggesting that we work with this thug, do you?" Heavy asked, incredulously.
Metal Sonic laughed.
"Look, fox! I don't think you know how this whole 'super badnik' shtick works. You help me, and I don't have the big man with the XXXL Egg-O-Matic send you to the roboti--" Fiona placed an orange and yellow boot on Metal Sonic's back. "H-Hey!"
She flicked the multitool she palmed off the Mechanix's hover pod to the flathead screwdriver, the end aimed at Metal Sonic's remaining good eye.
"You want to get fixed, you cooperate. You don't cooperate, I let those two break you down and turn you into Mister Scarlet's new punching bag. Capisce?"
"Alright, alright!" Metal Sonic said in surrender. "You've got my help for this, but after that, I'm jetting back to Robotropolis. Deal?"
As cathartic as it was to threaten to take a screwdriver to a Sonic's eye, Fiona had work to do. She took her boot off the badnik and gestured for Heavy to load him into the pod.
"Deal."
That was how Fiona Fox played the game. She used her head. She balanced personalities. She made arrangements. Now, she was going leverage what she had to pick off that wannabe god getting in the way of her ruby.
- - -
Chapter 26: The Mislaid Plans
Fiona Fox thought of herself as a schemer at heart. Someone to whom deception and trickery came to her as naturally as breathing. It was not an instinct that Fiona thought she had in her when she was just a dumb kid. Before she realized that the only person you could rely on in this messed up world to have your back was yourself. Now that she was grown up, Fiona knew that her clever mind was the sharpest weapon in her arsenal. With her two go-to goons being a close second.
Whatever Bean and Bark were doing before she found them wasn't important. They needed someone with brains to direct them, and get them gigs. Be the shot caller. Bark wasn't going to speak up for himself, and Bean wasn't going to let the clients get a word in. She was the brains of her gang, with Bean and Bark providing the muscle needed to make her tactics stick. Not as strong as Bark, or as explosively deranged as Bean (the latter of which she was grateful not to worry about), Fiona was the one who laid out the game plan.
However, with her mark having changed into a dragon and gone flying after a smart aleck super badnik, her plot to steal Scarlet's magic ruby had gone completely off the rails.
"This was supposed to be easy!" she shouted as she climbed out of the rubble.
Fiona heard a pop, causing her ears to perk up in alarm. Examining her immediate surroundings, Fiona saw that the ground was covered in crystal dust from one of Scarlet's magic bubbles. The debris around the hole she was hiding in gave way and collapsed. He must've put a shield around her, and if it wasn't for that holding up the rubble…
Fiona Fox dismissed the thought. She couldn't afford to get distracted.
She looked around, taking in the absolute state of desolation that Scarlet and Metal Sonic left the Happyland park in after their fight. The rollercoaster was spent, having broken down into heaps of splintered wood. The merry-go-round had made its last rotation, the ferris wheel had lost a couple of spokes, and the carnival games were totally spent. Fiona hated Renfield, so she wasn't going to be shedding a tear for his dream going down in flames. Her only regret was that she didn't bring a camera.
With her ride having taken off, and this mission turning out to be far riskier than she initially bargained for, Fiona's next idea was to make her leave with that spare hover pod. Then a glimmer in the scrap pile caught her eye. Getting closer, she identified the shining object as the Mechanix. Scarlet hit them with one of those spells he cast by mistake, trapping Heavy and Bomb in a big, pink crystal.
After spending a period of weeks getting to know what he was capable of, Fiona could admit, if only to herself, that what Scarlet did was real magic. Technology that could open portals like he could wasn't portable enough to do the job. It wouldn't be something that just anybody could get their hands on, and Scarlet definitely wasn't smart enough to build it himself. The same went for the force fields, flight, and other powers.
Then there was the fact that technology didn't show you your greatest desire when you touched it. While everyone else was stunned by what Bean conjured up by touching the ruby during their ambush mission in Mercia, they weren't watching her trying to pull him off of it. The wizard completely missed that she'd accidentally touched the stone herself. What she saw while everyone else was distracted left her stunned.
Fiona saw herself, a few years older. Stronger. Sharper. More experienced. She wasn't the ruler of Mobius, because she knew what she wanted was well within the means of being a crime lord. For those who she let know her name, 'Fiona Fox' was a name associated with wealth and power. Feared and respected in equal measures, she'd spend her days surrounded by more money, opulence, and security than anyone else could ever ask for.
Robotnik's machines couldn't catch her. The Freedom Fighters would go to her to beg for scraps, and she'd only give them when their so-called 'hero' was the one they paraded out to do the begging. The power of the ruby made her completely untouchable. With but a wave of her hand, anything she wanted was within her grasp.
Never again to want. Never again to need. Never again to feel pain, or fear, or spend her nights being afraid of getting hurt again.
Never again to be powerless. Forgotten. Left behind.
All she had to do to make that happen was separate the magic gem from its current owner.
Did that overlander know how much power he was sitting on? How could he not?
Fiona got close to the badniks and started hammering at the crystal, using her spent missile launcher as a blunt instrument. She knew from asking around the Mercian rebel camps that those crystals weren't impossible to shatter. Scarlet's crystals broke apart over time, and got weaker when he wasn't focusing on keeping them there. After the repeated impacts caused cracks to form along the surface, she performed one last strike along the largest crack to wedge the crystal containing Bomb free from the rest.
"Ping ping," Bomb uttered weakly, half of his body sticking out of the crystal mass.
"Hold still," Fiona said, before lighting Bomb's fuse with a match.
"PING?!"
Fiona crouched down behind the sturdiest thing she could use as cover for miles, which was Heavy. Bomb detonated, damaging the pink crystal surrounding the larger badnik. With Bomb's body destroyed, Fiona could hear what sounded like a jammed crank or other mechanism building tension from inside the crystal, until Heavy's head spring broke out of the top and a fresh Bomb was released.
"Ping!" Bomb accused, pointing at her.
"Of course I knew that would work!" Fiona shouted back. "Now do it again!"
"Ping," Bomb grumbled, exploding a second time so he could get his partner out of there.
Heavy stumbled out of the crystal trap, magenta flakes sticking to both badniks' hulls.
"Gadzooks!" Heavy exclaimed. "What'd I miss?"
"Ping ping!" Bomb whined.
"Scarlet went after Metal Sonic, but there's something wrong with the island," Fiona answered, paraphrasing everything they missed. "Now a volcano's gone off!"
"This is most disturbing," Heavy said solemnly. "Do you have John's communicator code?"
She tried the number, but the line was filled with static.
"He's not picking up."
Heavy's lid rose again, a collapsible radio antenna sticking out of it.
"There appears to be a high amount of background radiation affecting my radar. Let's take you back to our workshop in Rock Hill so we can regain our bearings."
Resigned, she joined the Mechanix in the hover unit to their other base. She stared out from the forward window, taking in the darkened landscape of the Floating Island.
This was supposed to be simple. Tricking him into carrying all of their salvage from Robotnik's bases was only one part of it. Bean and Bark were going to take Scarlet out when she gave the signal, after he'd burned out his energy reserves, but then they had to escape the ambush from the Egg Robos. Her Plan B was to convince the Guardian and the Chaotix to do the heavy lifting for them, using the emotional blackmail she had on Mighty to sway him into taking the wizard down. Then Metal Sonic happened, and Scarlet went out of his way to make sure she wasn't hurt.
Why?
She didn't get it. Was he playing her? What was his angle? Did he already know what she was doing, and was giving her a window to back out before either of them lost face?
Was he really just being… nice?
Fiona had no idea, and the uncertainty was what was getting to her.
A green flash of light blinded the drivers, causing them to slow down until it passed.
"What was that?" Fiona asked.
"Ping!"
"I haven't the foggiest, either, but I believe that eerie light originated from the direction of the echidna ruins at the island's center!"
Heavy tilted the yoke up, setting the vehicle gently onto the outskirts of where the glowing flashes were focused, near the long river that wound around the island. Past the green lights, they could see massive rocks rising out of the ground, suspended by green auras. The loose stones arranged themselves into new forms, the jagged cliffs and spires forming into the rough shapes of walls and towers. Before their eyes, the constructions became increasingly defined, turning into finely-masoned bricks and architectural marvels.
"What on Mobius…?" Fiona gasped. "Is that a city?"
"No city we've seen on the Floating Island before," Heavy said.
The edges of this strange place were patrolled by tall, gray robots that Fiona hadn't seen before. They were as tall as SWATbots, yet their designs were subtly off in a way she couldn't place. Though, after years of dealing with Robotnik's machines, she could tell on instinct that these weren't made by him.
"Ping!" Bomb called out, pointing at the glowing figure at the center of the city.
The glowing being was the average size of a mobian, covered in immaculate gold and blue armor. His jagged, golden mask covered only the top of his white-eyed face, leaving a twisted rictus grin that was clear to see. Out of the back of the entity's head, she could see striped rows of red echidna dreadlocks. In one hand, he possessed a serpentine scepter of emerald green, which he waved to and fro like a conductor's baton.
Where the glowing man moved the staff, the masses of earth fit into place. He swung the rod forward, building a cyclopean, black citadel that stood tall above the rest.
"RISE, MY NEKRONOPOLIS! MAY YOUR DARK MAGNIFICENCE BLIND THE DENIZENS OF THE SURFACE WITH THIS MONUMENT TO MY GLORY!"
The warlock's insane cackles of delight spread far and wide, until they were cut off by a bolt of energy to the face.
"Who dares strike the almighty Enerjak?!" the being howled, superheated plasma dripping off his mask.
Enerjak turned to where the shot came from at the same time Fiona and the others did, where they all saw the red-eyed, sneering Metal Sonic.
"What, do you live under a rock or something?" Metal Sonic quipped. "Now that I lost that purple lizard and had a little pick-me-up from your energy turbines, I regret to inform you that you're squatting on Doctor Robotnik's property! So kindly vacate the premises and--"
The snarling Enerjak waved his hand, releasing a broad wave of destructive power!
"NO! The Floating Island is MINE TO CONQUER!"
Metal Sonic fired up his rockets and juked out of the way of the attack, which carved a deep groove into one of the distant mountains. Fiona didn't even need to put on her binoculars to see the devastating damage Enerjak was capable of.
While Enerjak was reveling in his power, Metal Sonic flew in a corkscrew and delivered an uppercut to the echidna's jaw with a sledgehammer attachment over his fist.
"Yours to conquer? Take a number, Enerjoke!"
With that, it was on. Enerjak projected his green blasts of energy at the evasive Metal Sonic, in what almost felt like a repetition of Scarlet's fight with the super badnik.
"You have made a fatal error, robot! Now perish for it!"
The key difference was Enerjak clearly reveled in his power. Scarlet fought with a lot more care and precision, being seriously rattled after his foray into friendly fire. This chaos sorcerer, on the other hand, threw his weight around with an almost childlike glee. His beams of force, bolts of lightning, and explosions of green energy went wide, bombarding his own city and robots. Enerjak was far more concerned with hitting Metal Sonic than the damage he was doing to his 'previous' city and the robots he put around it. Should this battle continue, he'd have to start over from the ground up.
As the two of them battled in the sky, Fiona began ripping foliage out of the nearby trees and putting them on top of the hover pod.
"What are you doing?" Heavy inquired.
She tilted her face towards Heavy and Bomb, not slowing down from her task.
"Camouflage! Now help me keep us out of their sight!"
The Mechanix got to work, helping her disguise their hovercraft until it was as concealed as they could on such a tight time budget. Meanwhile, Metal Sonic swiftly darted towards Enerjak for another attack. One that would turn out to be a tactical miscalculation. Two beams of light poured out of Enerjak's eyes, trapping Metal Sonic in a green energy field.
"C-Cheater!" Metal Sonic shouted, now totally paralyzed.
"For over four centuries, I have been denied my righteous destiny! I will not be defied by an arrogant machine for a second more!"
Enerjak spread his arms out wide. Fiona had a bad feeling about what he was planning, and screwed her eyes shut. Everything went white, and when Fiona opened her eyes again, Metal Sonic was gone.
Enerjak is untouchable.
"Let that be a lesson to all who would stand against the new god-king of Mobius!" Enerjak proclaimed, to seemingly no one.
Unless, of course, he knew they were hiding, and that was an open invitation for them to come out before he made them come out. Fiona froze, waiting to see when Enerjak would call them out, only for the divine being to fly away.
"That was a frightening display of force," observed Heavy. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah. Fine."
Fiona realized that Enerjak, for all of the blatant power at his disposal, hadn't noticed them at all. For a so-called god, his awareness left a lot to be desired.
That begged the question: Did he have other weaknesses she could exploit?
"Y-Yo! Mind lending me a waldo?"
Fiona and the Mechanix spun around. Behind them, they saw the smoking crater where Metal Sonic crash landed. The super badnik was in a sorry state, one leg and both arms twisted at right angles. His head was half buried in the dirt, one green eye indicating that he was critically low on power.
"Metal Sonic!" Heavy shouted, his arms raised into a boxing pose to go with his mitts.
"Ping, ping!" Bomb declared.
"Not too loud!" Metal Sonic said. "Think that chaos dynamo's gonna go easier on you three if he comes sniffing this way?"
"Give us one good reason why we shouldn't have you stripped down for spare parts while we have the chance to make it stick!"
"Maybe Robotnik will take you back?" he offered. "I'll put in a good word--"
"Don't," Fiona interjected. Not to silence Metal Sonic, but to stop Heavy or Bomb before they could permanently shut him up. "We need him alive."
"We do?" asked Heavy.
"Ping?" asked Bomb.
"You do?" asked Metal Sonic.
"We do. For all of the worthless words that came out of your motor mouth, you got one thing right. None of us stand a chance against Enerjak. Not if we're doing it alone."
"You aren't suggesting that we work with this thug, do you?" Heavy asked, incredulously.
Metal Sonic laughed.
"Look, fox! I don't think you know how this whole 'super badnik' shtick works. You help me, and I don't have the big man with the XXXL Egg-O-Matic send you to the roboti--" Fiona placed an orange and yellow boot on Metal Sonic's back. "H-Hey!"
She flicked the multitool she palmed off the Mechanix's hover pod to the flathead screwdriver, the end aimed at Metal Sonic's remaining good eye.
"You want to get fixed, you cooperate. You don't cooperate, I let those two break you down and turn you into Mister Scarlet's new punching bag. Capisce?"
"Alright, alright!" Metal Sonic said in surrender. "You've got my help for this, but after that, I'm jetting back to Robotropolis. Deal?"
As cathartic as it was to threaten to take a screwdriver to a Sonic's eye, Fiona had work to do. She took her boot off the badnik and gestured for Heavy to load him into the pod.
"Deal."
That was how Fiona Fox played the game. She used her head. She balanced personalities. She made arrangements. Now, she was going leverage what she had to pick off that wannabe god getting in the way of her ruby.
- - -
There goes our second POV switch up chapter. I wanted to do another one since the one with Rob O' the Hedge in Chapter 13, and now felt as good a time as any to do another!
Alas, I don't have a lot to say in the notes this time, except to say that I've considered writing my own datafiles for various countries and such in regards to Ruby Haze. Expansions of the material presented in the Complete Sonic Encyclopedia, with my own additions based on what's needed for this fic. If the people reading this have suggestions for where I might want to focus these hypothetical datafiles, then let me know.
Thanks for reading.
Alas, I don't have a lot to say in the notes this time, except to say that I've considered writing my own datafiles for various countries and such in regards to Ruby Haze. Expansions of the material presented in the Complete Sonic Encyclopedia, with my own additions based on what's needed for this fic. If the people reading this have suggestions for where I might want to focus these hypothetical datafiles, then let me know.
Thanks for reading.
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