“You’re telling me.” Sonic said, coming out from behind another wall.
“Now don’t start that again Sonic.” Sally said following him out. “I think those two explosions within five minutes and the fact that those particular swat-bots wont be reporting in anytime soon” she said pointing to the remains of the robots. “Will definitely get Robotnik’s attention and we should probably leave as soon as possible”
“I agree.” Said Kytan from behind them
“So Mr. Kytan” Sally said turning around “Do you want to come with us or do you think you’ll be fine on your –”
He was gone.
“Well I guess that answers my question.” She looked over at where his pack was laying, it was gone too. “I think we should follow his example and disappear before anybody else arrives.”
“Yeah, ill scout ahead,” Sonic said, then in a blur he was gone, as was his style.
“I think it’s a good thing he’s gone” Antoine muttered as they left “I did not trust ‘em”
* * *
“The feeling is mutual dude.” Kytan said from the rooftop of a nearby building, watching them leave.
“So, you didn’t even bother too look for me did you?” Said a voice from behind him with a slight metallic twang to it.
“Hey, I just woke up. Plus I figured you could find me easily.” Kytan responded not turning around.
“Well you do have a point there,” M.A.X. said “but you could have at least tried to…oh forget it.” He sighed and let the matter drop. “So what are our plans now, we have the power source and the gun. What do you want to do with them?”
“I figure that the gem we keep of course.”
“Of course.”
“But the gun, even if it doesn’t work it could still be dangerous if in the wrong hands.” Kytan said still watching the freedom fighters leave.
“So whose exactly are the right hands?” M.A.X. asked.
“Theirs” Kytan answered pointing to Sally and the others.
“Huh, theirs? But you just met them didn’t you? Or are they old friends of yours that I never met?”
“Yeah I just met them and I don’t really trust them. But two things. One: If they really are freedom fighters I can trust the gun in their hands better than any others can. And I can’t keep it on me.”
“What about destroying it?”
“I don’t know how, and if I did it could explode or leak some kind of radiation. You never know what could happen when Robotnik is concerned.”
“And the second thing?”
“That young fox saved my life, I owe him. If he hadn’t I wouldn’t have been able to save myself in time because of that hit in the head I got up there. That reminds me I could use some aspirin, i've got a killer headache.” He picks up his bag taking a close look at it. “This got pretty damaged in the blast.” He said pointing to the burns and tears in it. “I hope it lasts, maybe I can patch it up on the way.”
“First:” M.A.X. said, “Could you please patch me up I got a few bad dents in that fall and I can’t exactly repair myself.”
“O.K. as soon as we get out of here” He said taking two small pills and washing them down with some water from his rations. “Lets get going before somebody finds out what we did, I already got the weirdest feeling that somebody was watching us up there. This place gives me the creeps.”
“Me too, lets go.”
The two of them packed up and climbed down from the rooftop, then they followed the same path that the freedom fighters had taken, not knowing that the weirdest things were yet to come.
* * *
Deep in the woods of the Great Forest, Kytan sat on a log tending to M.A.X.’s damage. They had been following the trail of the freedom fighters for a few hours. The trail had been very well hidden and difficult to follow, but they hadn’t become the best treasure hunters around without some pretty good trailing skills. Then M.A.X.’s damage had prevented him from going any further and they had to stop so Kytan could make repairs. Luckily they were far enough away from the city to not have to worry about any or Robotnik’s patrols finding them.
“But what about the trail of the freedom fighters, how can we follow it if we waste time here?” M.A.X. complained again.
“Sigh. The trail will still be there in the morning. And if you keep moving ill never get this done.” Kytan said with a smack to M.A.X.
“Hey! That hurt. What do you think you’re doing? I’m damaged goods here.”
“That couldn’t have hurt, you’re a robot, you don’t feel pain. Remember?”
“Well it could have hurt,” he said sounding hurt.
“You will be fine it’s nothing major. I did what I could but you still have a few damaged systems. So try to stay out of trouble till I can fix all of your systems OK?”
“Ill try to not go flying out of any more 17th story lab windows for a few days” M.A.X. said his voice somehow dripping with sarcasm.
“If you can still be sarcastic I can tell that you’ll be fine, now get up.”
He got up and went over to a nearby pond to look at his reflection.
“Well you got out all the dings in my shell; I’m still one beautiful bot. But I’m still having trouble seeing into the infra red”
Kytan’s reflection appeared besides his also looking into the pool. “Well I did the best I could with the tools I have, plus I’m not exactly an expert at robotics. Just be glad I was able to repair your night vision.” He started snickering “You hit every single tree between Robotropolis and here.”
“Veeery funny, come on you orange furball lets get some sleep.”
“Boy, you hit a few hundred oaks and you get ugly.” He looked at the reflection of the moon between them. “But you have a point, we should turn in.”
Yawning his fangs glinting in the moonlight, he turned around and went back to his bag. “First I want to check that we still have all that junk that we went through all that for.” Opening the bag he started to go through the possessions within digging through the normal stuff to get to what he was looking for. Food provisions, computer hacking tools, lock picking kit, camping equipment, flashlight, assortment of small weapons, an old pair of night vision goggles, grappling hook and cord. (Normal equipment for a treasure hunter.) Finally he got to the things that they acquired during their little shopping trip to Robotnik’s lab: A blue power gem to be sold to the highest bidder, an experimental gun designed to de-evolve any creature it hits to right before the point of sentience on the evolutionary scale, the disk containing all of the files that Dr. Robotnik had on the gun and its effects, and one hell of a story to tell the kiddies.
“Good, still here, I was afraid that with all the damage done to the bag during the blast that they had fallen out of a hole and were now buried under all that rubble at the bottom of the building.” Kytan started packing up and making his bed for the night.
“It’s good to know that we didn’t do that just for the fun of it.” M.A.X. said preparing to go into rest mode to recharge.
“Yeah, now go to sleep before I turn you off, I don’t want to have to listen to you complain all night about your damage like last time.”
“Yes, mother”
Kytan just groaned and rolled over in his sleeping bag. It was like this every night; one of them would annoy the other till somebody gave up, you’d think that they were brothers the way they argue. It was like some kind of game to them. And tonight M.A.X. won.
* * *
Sleeping…Dreaming…
Sitting in front of a crackling campfire in the forest, sitting next to the young kitsune, the flickering firelight illuminating them and almost reaching the trees and bushes surrounding them from which the sounds of the forest at night come…suddenly the noises stop…looking around…seeing them, two glowing red eyes from the bushes, watching…watching…waiting…
* * *
Morning came in the Great Forest just like it did everyday; the sun slowly rose over the hills lighting up the forest in its gentle morning light, and as the rays of the sun filter down through the trees illuminating small patches of forest. The non-sentient creatures of the forest gradually rise to begin their day and slowly but surely the forest becomes alive with the sound of the dinural creatures of the forest rising early to search for food.
For the sentient creatures of the forest however, sometimes it takes more to get them to rise than just the rays of the sun.
“Hey! Kytan! Time to get up!” M.A.X. called to Kytan for the fifth time that morning.
“Come on already. I know you’re a nocturnal animal you lazy pile of fur, but we have to go and I’ve been trying to wake you up for 10 minutes now so GET UP!”
M.A.X. got the same reaction he had been getting for the past ten minutes; Kytan just mumbled something about another minute and rolled over in his sleeping bag. M.A.X. just sighed and continued his verbal assault in the hopes that Kytan would just get so annoyed at him that he would get up just to shut M.A.X. up. But today that wasn’t the case and after another five minutes he realized that he wouldn’t be waking up anybody that way today. So he got as close as he could to Kytan’s arm and sent a small electrical jolt through his shell and to Kytan.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Kytan yelled and sprang up a bit surprised -- but mostly angry. He took a swing at M.A.X. and before the robot had a chance to do anything he was flying back into a nearby bush while Kytan glared at him angrily.
“Hey! What’s the idea? You trying to light me up like a Christmas tree or something?”
“Sorry” M.A.X. said obviously not. As he got out of the bush he continued. “The sun has been up for an hour and a half now; I have been trying to get you up for fifteen minutes. We would have gotten up earlier but my internal chronometer has apparently malfunctioned. That was a last resort move, we have to get going.”
“Oh, sorry about the little hit I gave you then. I don’t know why I couldn’t get up.”
“Might I remind you that you never get up on time.”
“Well yeah I know.” He said with a sheepish grin. “But I guess I had a harder time getting up today.”
“You’re telling me.” M.A.X. said while shaking a twig out of a hole near his optical lens. “But tired or not we have to get going, we don’t know how much farther the freedom fighter camp is.”
“Relax, they cant be that much farther. They have to stay close to the city to continue to fight back easily. Plus I’ve got to have some breakfast I’m starving!”
“Ok, fine a small breakfast” M.A.X. said but by then Kytan had already gotten into the bag and was going for the food packs. Pulling out a breakfast bar and some water, he opened them and started eating. After a few minutes he paused and watched some of the wildlife gather their own food.
“I’m getting tired of this ration stuff, I miss fresh food. Forget this, I’ll grab some fruit on the way, come on lets go.” At that they packed up and after Kytan put on a cloak he got from one of his travels because mornings in the forest were cold this time of year, they set off on the same hidden trail that the freedom fighters had taken the night before.
* * *
After a few hours of walking through the forest they had yet to find any sign of the freedom fighters or any village where they might be.
“What are we going to do when we do find them?” M.A.X. asked while they climbed over a log. “They probably aren’t the most trusting group of mobians around. And after what happened last night, you just showing up at their camp might make them suspicious.”
“You have a point there; I guess ill just try to get them to believe that we mean no harm and that they have no reason to start shooting at us.” Said Kytan grabbing a small oval blue piece of fruit from a nearby Bluebell tree and taking a large bite out of it
“What? You mean that you’re just going to play it by ear again? I hope you remember what happened last time we did something like this to –.“
“Stop I think I hear something.” Kytan said stopping short and grabbing M.A.X. to prevent him from continuing. “Up ahead, sounds like a village.”
“We would have known about it sooner if my systems had not been damaged so much, I hope this reminds you to get me fixed as soon as possible.”
“Yeah yeah just hold on, I’m going to scout ahead, if it is their village I’ll tell you then go in.”
“And just what exactly am I supposed to do?”
“You’ll just wait here till I come back for you, no offense but I don’t think you will get the friendly reaction out of these people that we are hoping for.” He said taking another bite.
“Good point, I’ll just wait here, all alone and bored.”
“Don’t think of it like that.” He said with a smile. “Think of it as being my backup.”
“Fine, fine just don’t take to long.” He sighed.
“Don’t worry this shouldn’t take long.” At that he went ahead pushing the branches of a large fern out of his way and continued on the tiny trail to see if there was a village ahead and if there was if it really was the base of the freedom fighters.
* * *
Sonic, Sally and Tails were going to the mess hall to have lunch when Antoine and St. John came up to them.
“What’s the problem guys?” Sally said noticing the look of urgency on their faces.
“Let me guess.” Said Sonic with a smirk on his face. “You found out that Ant has a twin brother and somehow there are two of him running around annoying people?”
Antoine glared at sonic as he had done many times before but resigned from starting another argument because of the reason that they were there.
St. John just ignored Sonic and turned to the princess answering her question. “Antoine told me about this Kytan guy you ran into last night. I thought the encounter sounded a little suspicious so I investigated the name.” He handed her a printout. “Not much is known about him but this is what I could find out. His family ran like cowards to avoid fighting in the Great War when he was a few years old and that was the last anybody heard of them.”
“Well that was a great story but there’s a chilly dog with my name on it waiting for me”