A Heavy Weight to Bear (Lest it Blow up in our Faces)

The distant echo of oil slowly dripping onto metal resounded throughout the cold, dark arena. Mighty the armadillo felt an unwelcome shiver worm it’s way up his spine as he craned his neck to examine his surroundings. Piles of heavy machinery sitting inactive, the monotonous greys blending into each other, the faint sound of ticking like a weapon laying in wait that he was unsure if he was imagining or not… It didn’t get much creepier than this. He gripped the large ring that he held in his hand a little tighter. At least he wasn’t alone in this desolate place.

Knuckles came to a halt right in front of him, before stretching out an arm so he could stop Mighty in his tracks. The red quilled echidna had his sights set on a tall wall. His gaze was directed towards the top, where a platform hung high above their heads.

A booming voice called out from a short distance behind the two, “You guys alright? What’s the hold up?”

The pair turned their heads to see Vector catching up to them. He, like Knuckles and Mighty, also held a softly glowing bound ring. A shimmering trail of gentle sparkles seemed to magically connect the golden ring to another, much smaller figure that bobbed in the air behind the tall crocodile.

Knuckles spoke up, “...This corner is a dead end. But it looks like there might be a path up there.” He gestured upwards.

Mighty held a hand parallel to his forehead, squinting and trying to get a good look at their target. It was hard to make out in the darkness. Still, he shot a grin over to his partner, “...Let’s make our way up then, shall we?”

A smirk crossed Knuckles’ lips and he gave an affirming nod. Then, his sharp claws dug deep into the metal surface of the wall as he began to scale it. He grunted softly as he climbed with steady determination.

After Knuckles reached the top and was able to clamber onto the raised platform, he turned around to look at his teammates on the ground below. He braced himself, bending his knees slightly and holding his bound ring tight in both hands, “ ...Alright Mighty, now!”

“Got it!” Mighty took a deep breath, before rushing forward. Whilst holding his ring firmly, he jumped to plant his feet on the wall in front of him. Knuckles was pulling hard… the cord of glittering sparkles that connected their bound rings grew brighter. Thanks to Knuckles’ strength and the strong connection, Mighty was held in his place so he wouldn’t fall.

Knuckles then thrust his ring upwards. The force sent Mighty flying high, as if an invisible hand had yanked on a string that he was tied to. Mighty had clearly been expecting the motion, as he curled his body to spin along with the momentum and attempted to land as smoothly as he could. Mighty connected with the floor of the platform steadily, now standing right next to Knuckles.

Vector’s ascent to join them was a lot less coordinated. After all, Charmy, the teammate he was paired up with, was too little to follow instructions as complicated as using the bound rings’ powers to heft someone up a steep wall.

Vector had basically been using the pull of the bound rings to drag the bee around like it was a children’s leash. He had fashioned a homemade harness of sorts out of an old shirt and used it to strap the kid to the bound ring itself so that he wouldn’t be able to wander off. The tool was large enough to where he could fit nicely inside the loop of the ring. Charmy had taken to grabbing the metal tightly with his hands whenever he was brought along on Chaotix missions.

Vector now had the tot tucked under his arm. Turning his back so that the bee was safely out of the way, Vector slammed his weight against a nearby rickety crate that was lying next to an abandoned assembly line. The box was heavy and full of robotic scraps and pieces. The horrible sound of wood scraping against the concrete floor stung their ears as Vector shoved it over to the base of the wall. Then, he clambered on top of it and attempted to platform his way up to where Mighty and Knuckles were waiting.

Charmy was gently tossed up, landing on the surface without being hurt in any way. Moments after, Vector’s hand grappled the edge of the platform as he tried to hoist himself up. By the time he had crawled up completely he was huffing out of breath.

Knuckles shared a glance with Mighty, before walking over to assist Vector in getting to his feet, “…Espio would have been able to climb that wall no problem.” Knuckles said. “…You still sure it was a good idea to bring a baby to this creepy place instead of him?”

After Vector stood, he shook his head. “I aint leaving Charmy alone with a babysitter again after the using-duct-tape-on-a-diaper incident last week. Do you know how hard it was getting that stuff unstuck from his fuzz?” He shuddered at the memory. It wasn’t like affording a caretaker for the kid every single time they had a mission outing was a viable option for Vector, anyways. “‘Sides, Espio will make sure things at the office are taken care of while we’re gone.”

Mighty was looking at the path in front of them, “…Let’s keep moving forward, guys. I have a good feeling we’ll find something up ahead.” While they hadn’t discovered much else than deactivated badniks in the abandoned factory, all of their sources had indicated that some sort of strong energy source lay in wait somewhere within these walls. The bound rings they held were proof of that. The further they got into the labyrinth of machines, the brighter they seemed to glow, resonating with some hidden power.

Onwards they marched. Their footsteps echoed resoundingly in the vast open space of the room. Mighty’s ears flickered when they caught the volume of that mysterious, steady ticking sound increasing. Louder, louder, louder… Was it getting closer? Maybe he hadn’t been imagining it, after all. That or he had gone crazy.

“Woah… Look at this thing over here!” Vector pushed ahead of the others, approaching a contraption that was 10 times their size. The sturdy machine stood like a boulder against a steel wall. It had a rounded shape to it’s top. A mess of wires and coils connecting to it’s base snaked their way off into different directions, tangling themselves around outlets and corners unseen. The front of the machine held a large dial with strange symbols marked across it. A large pointed piece of metal connected to the dial’s center. It was like a clock, only with no numbers.

Mighty stepped forward and pressed the side of his head against the metal surface. Cool to the touch, he thought he could feel the slight hum of an engine vibrating ever so slightly inside of the structure. There was another noise emanating from within the machine, like the beating of a heart. Looks like they had found the source of the everpresent tick, tick, tick….

Knuckles cautiously knocked his fist on the mechanism, causing Mighty to jump from the sudden bang reverberating in his ear. The machine didn’t seem to react at all, remaining in it’s standby state. Knuckles tilted his head as he looked up at the machine’s dial, “...This supposed to be some kind of timer or something? Doesn’t even look like it works anymore…”

Mighty backed away. He paused to survey the area and everything surrounding them. It didn’t look like there were any levers or switches on the machine itself, so how was it supposed to work? His eyes started to idly trail along the thickest cord connecting to it, a long tube that had been dragged upwards along the wall…

There! Embedded into the wall at a height that was close to touching the ceiling, the fat cord was hooked up to a shiny, yellow button that was begging to be pressed. If only it weren’t so far outside their reach.

Mighty directed the group’s attention to it with a point, “Think we could get it working with that? It did sound like it still has some power inside of it, like a battery.”

Knuckles gave him a perplexed frown, “Why should we try messing with Eggman’s tech, anyway? For all we know, the moment that thing turns on it’ll turn into some kind of robot death weapon.”

Mighty narrowed his eyes slightly at the echidna as a fond grin crossed his lips, “Nothing that you and I couldn’t handle together.” Then Mighty marched back over to the silently humming machine. “...Besides, this doesn’t seem like a weapon. It looks more like a clock… Maybe it was built to control the building’s power after certain times?” He suggested. Then he laughed, “...Of course, I don’t know much about how big fancy inventions work…” He had completely made that guess up.

Vector walked forward to be under where the button was, “What’s the worst that could happen by givin’ it a press?” The crocodile tugged on his bound ring until Charmy was pulled over. He took the bee into his hands before holding him high above his head. Vector’s voice rose into that high pitched, encouraging tone people took when speaking to children, “Go on, Charmy! Fly up and push the button! You know ‘push’, right? Like pushing your ball at home!”

“Push…” Charmy repeated. He made a motion with his hands, as if imitating the action. It caused him to wobble a little in Vector’s hands, but the child stayed put where he was.

“Yes, push, just like that!” Vector nodded upwards, “Do you see the button? Yellow button. Push the button!”

Mighty joined in with trying to cheer the bee on, “You can do it, fly up, Charmy!” It was hard to make his voice sound as sweet as Vector’s babying tone, given that Mighty’s natural register was a few octaves lower than most. It didn’t seem to have stopped him from being generally good with kids, though.

Charmy’s wings started beating, causing a buzzing sound to fill the room. ‘Fly’ had been one of the first words he learned to understand. No doubt it was due to Charmy taking to the air at such an early age- and in turn making Vector’s life Hell with how difficult it became to catch the surprisingly fast and troublesome toddler. Charmy began to hover, following the command.

It took several minutes of cooing and encouragement from Vector for the bee to make his way upward enough to be level with the shiny button. Charmy said again, “Push.” as he pressed his hands against the button and shoved.

A loud BRRRRing noise erupted out from the clock-like contraption. As if a switch had been flipped on a generator, an electric hum filled the room. The metal walls of the machine started to reverberate slightly as the pointed hand of the clock began to rapidly spin. The tick-tick-tick intensified. Then, one by one, overhead lights started to flicker on, illuminating the previously dark factory. It seemed to transform the entire place completely. Suddenly, the arena was painted in bright vibrant colors: Pinks and greens and yellows and blues that clashed in a contrasting mess of overwhelming eye candy. Mechanical whirs and clanks started sounding out from all directions as everything that lay dormant seemed to spring back to life.

“Would you look at that!” Vector was turning his head in every direction, mouth open in awe. “That turned everything in the factory on!” Then, he tugged gently on his bound ring to pull Charmy back downwards, “Good job Charmy! Now get over here…”

Before the group was able to celebrate their newfound ability to actually make out their surroundings, heavy clunking enveloped them. In an instant, they had been surrounded by a horde of badniks, seemingly upset after having been woken from their indefinite nap. Half of the robots drove low to the ground on tank treads. Their green faces were surrounded by a deep purple metal, and over each robot’s head were yellow maces littered with sharp points. The other enemies were levitating in the air, with some sort of droning engine keeping them afloat. These baddies were similar to the massive machine that the Chaotix had powered on: with a design reminiscent of a clock. A spiked ball swung below each hovering opponent.

Instinctively, Knuckles, Mighty and Vector turned to stand with their backs against each other so that they could cover each other against any attacks. Knuckles was quickly surveying each of the foes closing in on them. Then he yelled out, “...What did I tell you?! I knew powering up Eggman’s tech was a bad idea!”

Mighty had started to ready his fists. He wasn’t one to jump to fighting, but it was different when his friends were in trouble or they were on the defensive. “We’ll take them on, just stick together!”

Luckily, whenever they combined their strength and skills, it was as if their powers were united in a dream team. Vector belted out a fearsome roar that shattered a line of enemies from the sheer volume of the soundwaves emitted alone. Meanwhile, Mighty and Knuckles both lept forward for more of a hands-on approach to the action. When one of the wheeled machines swung its weapon straight for Knuckles, he skillfully dodged out of the way before counter attacking with a punch to it’s face. The metal smashed easily under his claws, and the robot crumpled into a sad heap on the floor. When Mighty focused his attention on two different badniks in front of him, one of the flying clock enemies’ spiked mace balls slammed into the armadillo from behind. Thanks to his shiny red armor though, the hit only felt like a slight tap on his backside. Once Mighty had knocked the opponents he’d been juggling away, he curled tightly into a protective ball before rolling full speed to bash into the flying attacker.

Within no time at all, the herd of badnik robots had been turned into piles of scrap. Stray sparks flew out from some of their now exposed motherboards and wiring, but other than that the creatures remained motionless.

Mighty walked forward. He nudged one of the robots with his foot to ensure that the thing was out for good. Then, he bent over to reach inside of the machine’s cracked open casing. His hands landed on a small ring… It was a similar brass texture to the rings the Chaotix handled in their everyday lives, only this one was a duller color. It lacked the lustrous shine that other rings had, almost seeming to emanate a bleak and eerie energy instead. Mighty straightened himself, one hand falling to his hip as he squinted his eyes closer at the object, “…I knew it. These guys are powered by those dark rings, too.”

Both Knuckles and Vector grimaced at each other. Then, they too moved to examine the bodies of mechanical beings that lay broken. “Better get them all removed so they can’t power up again.” Knuckles muttered.

Mighty wasn’t sure if he fully understood the dark rings, despite the fact that they were at the center of the Chaotix’s current case. He did know that for whatever reason, Eggman had been using them to provide energy to his automated army. Mighty supposed these things had been easier to obtain than kidnapping living breathing animal friends from their peaceful forest homes… He was sort of glad that the evil doctor had been relying on a non organic power source. But no matter what was inside of them, the machines were still deadly.

It took several moments for the group to gather up every dark ring that was nestled inside the machines or had been scattered onto the floor during the tumble. They would have to dispose of them all once they left this place so that Eggman couldn’t get his hands on them again.

“Alright, that should be the last of em…” Vector said as he scooped up a ring that had fallen out of one of the clock badniks. The crocodile then looked around, “...Now that this place is powered up, we should scope it out until we find the chaos ring!”

“Chaos rings, dark rings, bound rings…” Mighty laughed to himself, “Seems everything we do involves some sort of ring.”

“It can get awful confusing…” Knuckles was staring at one of the dull pieces of metal as if it were the first time he had laid eyes on one the things. “...But the chaos rings are no joke. Neither are the dark rings….. Or the bound rings.”

They were cut short by an especially loud whine coming from Charmy. The child had flown over and tried to lay his hands on one of the dark rings, only for Vector to have tugged it out of his grasp with a firm, “No, no touching this Charmy, it aint a toy!”

With that, the team made haste to search out the rest of the building in hopes of finding their target. They had already located and secured 3 of the chaos rings: Round objects of great power that shone in a variety of hues. The first one they managed to nab had been a sunny yellow color, but the second and third had been a cool aqua blue and a bright green. The rings were even larger than the bound rings, but somehow felt lighter when held. Each one emitted such a strong level of energy that they seemed to be almost as powerful as the mythical chaos emeralds that were described in legends. Perhaps the rings and those mysterious gemstones had originated from the same source, whatever that may be. Knuckles had originally been alerted to the presence of the chaos rings hidden in various locations on this very island by his beloved master emerald. It had emitted a harsh light, before bestowing upon him a vision of the evil doctor Eggman scrambling to snatch up the rings with clear malicious intent. Knuckles balled his hands into shaking fists… Whatever that madman was up to, there was no way the young echidna would idly sit by and let it slide.

CLANK, CLANK, CLANK. Loud tramping rattled them from their thoughts. The pair of red fighters readied themselves into offensive positions, wildly turning in every direction to pinpoint where their new attacker was approaching from. “...Heads up, Vector!” Mighty called out, “There’s another badnik!”

“Yikes!” Vector yanked on his bound ring in order to pull Charmy close. He tightly hugged the child to his chest, shielding him from any potential surprise attacks until they were able to locate their new foe.

A grey mass shuffled out from behind a whirring piece of machinery that was hooked up to an assembly line. It stuck out like a sore thumb now that the factory was illuminated in a rainbow of colors. Once it ambled closer, the Chaotix were able to make out more of the details. The badnik was short and low to the ground, but broad in stature. It resembled a weight that you might find secured to a piece of industrial equipment, only this thing was moving around on long feet reminiscent of the boards people strapped to their boots when they went skiing. They were connected to the thing's body by springs that bounced slightly from the shifting of the robot’s weight. Spindly arms that ended in ruby red boxing gloves jutted out from it’s side. It was gripping a round object in it’s right hand, but it was difficult to make out what exactly that object was from this distance. The robot wobbled from side to side as it noisily clomped over.

“…What a strange looking badnik… Even by Eggman’s standards.” Mighty’s posture had loosened. He had forgotten about taking a defensive position once he noticed how weirdly unarmed this robot appeared at first glance. In a pathetic way, it didn’t look like it would be good at attacking anything. No spikey clubs or laser guns to be seen on it’s personage.

“Careful!” Knuckles yelled out, before suddenly grabbing Mighty and dragging him back a distance. “Don’t you see? That thing’s got a bomb!”

One of the bright overhead lights glinted off of the object nestled in the robot’s glove…

Vector and Mighty both yelped out in alarm, leaping back. Was that thing activated?!

Mighty’s jaw clenched. He instinctively started to curl his body- he had to take care of that thing fast, lest his friends get hurt… but then he hesitated. Would rolling into that robot cause it to blow? He was confident that his own armor would protect him from such a blast, but his allies and this building were unshielded.

Suddenly, the bomb that was in the robot’s hand wiggled. Then, it leapt into the air, seemingly of it’s own accord. Now the group could see that the bomb had tiny robotic limbs of it’s own, but no facial features or markings of any kind. Was the bomb a separate badnik from the big hunk of metal?

Knuckles let out a yell that was uncharacteristically high pitched for him, “It’s getting closer!” His cadence might have been comedic, if they weren’t all in such danger. Knuckles then shook his head as if he were trying to steady himself. He clenched his fist, “…Maybe we should just knock it far away and take cover!”

Mighty grabbed Knuckles' shoulder, holding him back, “Don’t get reckless, big guy… Those muscles of yours are strong, but won’t protect you if that thing blows the lid off this place. Let me handle this.”

Knuckles opened his mouth to argue, but then faltered under the confident and knowing smile Mighty gave him. He knew Mighty was right, of course. Knuckles would just have to swallow his pride and trust in his friend to get the job done.

Knuckles looked over to Vector, “…Let’s get some distance!” He wasn’t entirely sure how far back the three should hide. The bomb didn’t look that large. But from experience he knew better than to judge Eggman’s weapons based on appearance alone. Some of those pesky small robots were quick enough to evade his punches and ruin his day.

As the others turned their backs and started to sprint, Mighty curled up tightly. The ball of armor started to spin, readying itself to go flying at the walking bomb.

Before Mighty could make his next move though, that heavy robot stepped in between him and his target. It had it’s arms outstretched, waving wildly as if in panic.

CLANG! The sound reverberated through Mighty’s whole being, rattling him to the core. When he unraveled his body from it’s protective shell, he felt his legs wobble beneath him. He soon failed to keep his balance and fell to the ground, struggling to get a bearing on what just happened. Had that big robot lept in his way, stopping him from attacking it’s badnik partner?

“Mighty! You okay!?” He heard Knuckles’ voice shout out from somewhere in the distance. With how Mighty’s head spun, he might as well have been a million miles away.

Slowly, Mighty tried to steady himself. He used his hands to help push himself off the dirty floor. Then he looked up at the machine, “…Wow, you’re a toughie, aren’t you?” It was unusual for Mighty’s attacks to not penetrate through metal like it was as fragile as paper. Maybe his opponent was reinforced somehow. A kindred spirit in armor.

Mighty tilted his head when he realized the robot’s bizarre waving hadn’t stopped. The thing bounced on it’s heels erratically. It weirdly looked like it was trying to alert Mighty to something, “…Are you trying to… warn me?” It was evident to anyone with eyes that the bomb was a dangerous thing to be hitting. But of course, it didn’t make sense for this robot to try and prevent the armadillo from blowing himself up. After all, it had been created by Eggman, hadn’t it?

Mighty continued to stare, his face twisting into perplexion when the badnik began making vague gestures with it’s hands. It was definitely trying to communicate something. But this game of charades was more confusing to Mighty than one of those complex maze traps he’d found himself in back in that horrible Eggman owned tower.

Cautiously, Knuckles began to approach once more, “…Mighty, what’s the hold up?” Vector was still keeping his distance, hiding behind a factory pulley with Charmy. However, his snout was peeking out and it was clear he was still watching from afar.

Mighty didn’t turn to look at the others, but he raised his volume, “…Something’s strange about this badnik. Maybe it’s malfunctioning?”

As if in response to Mighty's suggestion, the heavy robot rocked itself back and forth rhythmically. It sort of looked like it was shaking it’s head, only it didn’t have a head to shake.

“No? Are you not broken?” Mighty asked, an eyebrow raising.

“…Are you talking to it?” Knuckles sounded incredulous.

That was when Vector started yelling out as well, “Kid, if you aren’t gonna attack it, you should get outta there! That’s an Eggman robot!”

Mighty finally glanced over his shoulder at the group, “…Hold on, guys! Just… give me a moment.” While he logically knew it was unsafe to be conversing with a foe, his curiosity was getting the better of him.

Vector and Knuckles shared a look of bewilderment. Then, they began to hesitantly creep forward just in case they needed to snatch the armadillo away from the enemy’s grasp.

Once everyone had arrived at Mighty's side, they too could only stop and stare at the mechanical dance unfolding in front of them. The heavy robot was still hopping around sporadically, but the little bomb robot had ambled over to join it’s friend in the unreadable gestures. The bomb was no bigger than one of Charmy’s toy bouncy balls, with it’s abdomen painted red. However, it didn’t seem to have a lit fuse or anything else that indicated how close it was to exploding. It had it’s yellow gloved hands outstretched, circling around the bigger machine.

Vector blinked, “…What the heck are they doing?”

“They’re trying to say something…. I think.” Mighty answered. His forehead creased as his face fell into a deep frown, “…I couldn’t make heads or tails of what they’re trying to tell us, though…”

Knuckles sighed, “They probably just don’t wanna get pounded into pancakes by our fists.” He stepped forward, bringing an arm back, “…But I don’t have any mercy for something created by Eggman-“

“Easy, Knuckles…” Mighty held onto Knuckles’ side, preventing him from making any reckless moves. “Neither of them have actually made any attacks yet. Isn’t that strange?”

Vector was now struggling to contain the squealing bee in his arms, “No, Charmy-! No, you can’t play with those things, they’re dangerous!”

Finally, one of the robots made a movement that actually made sense. The bomb pointed directly at Mighty, before making a beckoning movement with it’s hand. Then, the badnik made a 180 and marched off in the opposite direction. The heavier machine started loudly clanking in it’s stead.

When Mighty started forward, Vector immediately barked out, “Where do ya think you're going?!”

“You aren't seriously going to follow that thing?” Knuckles was gawking at Mighty like he was a stranger.

Mighty winced. He slowly turned to face the others. He guessed it was a little stupid to automatically walk after two mysterious strangers created by a man hellbent on taking over the world. And here he was lightly telling Knuckles off for being reckless…

“For all you know, those badniks could be leading you right into a trap.” Knuckles pointed out.

“You're right…” Mighty conceded. And yet… his mind couldn't help but wonder. Why didn't those robots just attack them when they had the chance?

“I wonder where they tryin’ ta take you, though…” Vector idly muttered.

“No place good, that's for sure.” Knuckles said.

Mighty stared at the machines that were sauntering around a corner. “Maybe we could follow them… from a distance.” Mighty suggested, trying to emphasize the last part. “If they are causing trouble, I don't feel right letting them roam free. We should take care of them.”

Knuckles had been standing with a scowl, arms crossed. But his serious expression dropped, “... I guess you have a point.”

By the time they had decided to pursue them, the badnik pair had trotted out of their sight completely. So, the Chaotix had to be quick in scurrying over to the wall the robots had disappeared behind. Mighty peeked around the edge. When he spotted their targets at the end of the hallway, he motioned for his friends. As stealthily as a group of 3 and a baby could be, the detectives slunk down the hall slow and methodically. Their footsteps against the concrete flooring made soft clopping sounds… but it didn’t seem to even matter. No matter how much noise they made, the heavy robot and the bomb did not stop or turn in their direction even a single time. They were dead set in their mission of moving forward.

Eventually, both machines slipped behind an iron door. It looked like it had once been reinforced with power. A dust covered panel of buttons was embedded on the wall, suggesting that it had required a passcode to open. But the door seemed to have broken down, even if the arena’s energy had been rebooted. It hung open slightly.

Mighty, Knuckles and Vector shared an apprehensive look. But since he was still curious about where they were being led to, Mighty cautiously pushed the door open further, looking inside.

This new room was a much smaller space than the open layout of the main work areas of the factory. There were monitors lined up in rows hugging each wall. Half of them had black screens, but a select few of the computers were booted up and displaying some sort of indecipherable code. The computers had long cords winding around the legs of the tables on which they sat. In the center of the room was a large tank. It was the type of thing you’d see in some sci-fi movie featuring an experimental lab: made of glass with different beeping appliances measuring the power of whatever lay inside. And what lay inside was…

Vector gasped, “Holy cow…” He blinked, as if trying to discern whether or not what he was seeing was actually there, “...That’s a chaos ring!”

The ring was seemingly suspended in midair in the center of the tank, spinning slowly. It emitted a harsh, pink glow. The shine was coloring everything in the area with a rosy hue like a blanket of light.

At the base of the container that held the ring, the two robots were doing a triumphant dance as if in celebration. The bigger robot pointed it’s red glove at the glass, before gesturing over to the Chaotix.

“I can’t believe this…” Mighty had his eyes transfixed on the chaos ring. But then, he glanced down to address the badniks. “...Were you trying to lead us to the chaos ring the entire time?”

The heavy robot bobbed up and down, as if nodding.

“What?! But… Why would they do that?” Knuckles asked. He was glaring at the robots with suspicion. “...This is a trap of some kind!”

“...” Mighty tested the theory by taking a careful step into the room. When nothing happened, he pushed his luck further by walking all the way up to the display tank “...If this was a trap, it’s not a very good one. There hasn’t been a single weapon fired at me.”

That was when Charmy took to the air and flew in after Mighty. The kid pressed his hands up against the glass that held the ring, “...Red!”

Vector corrected him, “Pink, Charmy.” He was at the age where he had begun to recognize different colors, but couldn’t always properly name them. It probably didn’t help that pink and red were very close in hue. Since it didn’t seem too dangerous to enter this area, Vector left Knuckles standing alone in the doorway.

Knuckles refused to budge, “...Again. I won’t trust anything that works for Eggman.”

In response to that, the little bomb robot began to scour the room as if it were looking for something. Mighty wasn’t sure how that was possible, since the thing didn’t have any eyes. Despite that, it seemed to recognize something. It hopped over to one of the machines that was hooked up to the tank, pointing at the logo painted on it’s side. Eggman’s ugly mug grinned at them, with the art emphasizing his well groomed mustache and glasses. The heavier robot clomped over and, for the first time since the Chaotix had met the strange machines, it made an attack. It’s boxing glove smashed into the nose of the Eggman logo. The bomb seemed to share in the violent sentiment by balling it’s fists and stomping in anger.

Mighty felt silly when a huge grin crossed his face. Should he really be getting this excited over these goofy looking badniks? “Oh, I see! You guys hate Eggman too?”

Again the robots bounced repeatedly in confirmation. The bomb threw it’s hands into the air.

“So THAT’S why they helped us out!” Vector still sounded somewhat surprised by the turn of events. They had never met friendly robots before.

“That’s just what they want you to think!” Knuckles was grinding his teeth. Why were his teammates led so easily into trusting shady strangers? “I guarantee, the moment you try and take that ring, some sort of trick or alarm is gonna send an army of their badnik buddies to ambush us.”

Mighty had now turned his attention to the tank with the chaos ring hovering inside of it. “…Wanna test that? Vector, you and Charmy should back up.”

“…Got it, Mighty.” Vector made a quick quick motion with his hand like he was saluting the armadillo. Then, he stepped over to scoop the bee into his arms and joined Knuckles outside of the room. The two badniks stayed put in their positions, but the bomb moved to hide behind it’s more durable partner.

Mighty had once more curled into his signature ball of armor, before rolling full speed into the case. It’s glass shattered, raining down upon the room. Shards landed on every surface, but they didn’t seem to bother the reinforced steel of the robot, even when hit. No damage was done to Mighty either thanks to his hard plating, though he knew he would have to be careful when he left his protective shell not to cut himself on anything. He carefully stood straight and stepped over the metal rim of the tank to lift the chaos ring into his hands.

Though he always felt guilty when he teased his friends in a mean way, Mighty pressed his lips together in a tight smirk. He playfully batted his eyes at the echidna as he waltzed over. He held out the glowing pink ring in one hand, “Would you look at that… The chaos ring was unguarded! Not a single alarm to be heard.”

An icy glare drilled into Mighty, before Knuckles gave him a light shove, “Okay, knock it off…”

Mighty relented, but he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face as he stared down at the chaos ring. It felt warm in his hands, almost as if the energy pulsing through the ring was heating up it’s exterior. Now the Chaotix had four of the six rings. They were that much closer to their goal of being able to put a stop to Eggman’s antics on this island once and for all.

---

“What in the world have you brought into our home?” The chameleon’s eyes were wide. His scales were flushed with astonishment, making his usual purple appear to be a few shades paler than was normal. When those noisy lumps of metal had burst through the agency door, Espio had leapt to his feet whilst instinctively striking a defensive pose. He was pretty sure that his heart had been close to jumping straight out of his chest.

Mighty’s spirits seemed unusually bright and sunny. He looked at the lizard with a reassuring grin, “Espio! Meet Heavy and Bomb! They helped us find the chaos ring!”

“I thought we agreed we weren’t gonna call them ‘Heavy’ and ‘Bomb’.” Vector didn’t look up from his current task of untying a squirming Charmy from the bound ring so that the toddler could be set free in the office.

“And I told you not to name them at all.” Knuckles said flatly. He still had a grumpy glour plastered across his face. “You’re going to get attached.”

“…They helped you?” Espio tilted his head.

“Are they badniks?” A little voice piped up from the ceiling above. Mighty looked up at the pair of eyes that were staring down from the roof of the room’s sole evidence locker. Sitting on top of it was a young squirrel with yellow fur.

The squirrel stood up before stepping off of the locker. He extended his hands, and the air caught the flaps of skin that had been folded under his arms. He came to a gentle glide, landing directly in front of Heavy.

“Ray!” Mighty stepped over to playfully ruffle the hair on his head. “They are badniks, but they didn’t attack us at all. I think they hate Eggman as much as we do!”

“Really?” Ray had a hand curiously hovering in front of the robots, as if he wanted to try touching them but was unsure if it would cause a violent reaction or not. Heavy and Bomb stood patiently though, remaining in their peaceful state. Eventually, Ray decided to test the waters. He outstretched his palm in offering, “…Hi, Heavy and Bomb! My name’s Ray!” The kid gave the widest smile he could muster.

To the surprise of most of those who were standing around the office, Heavy took Ray’s paw in a friendly handshake.

Espio had his arms crossed. His tail idly flickered, “…I have never heard of a morally good badnik before.” He had braved getting closer to the strange pair so he could study their features better. Did they have any concealed weapons ready to strike? There was no doubt that Espio could avoid any such sneak attacks with his evasive ninja abilities.

“Me neither.” Mighty said. “It’s not that hard to believe though, with how horribly that guy treats the robots he builds. Have you seen him barking out orders? Makes me almost feel bad smashing them all up… Almost.” Though he was being optimistic about these new allies, Mighty couldn’t bring himself to pity the other badniks. They had hurt people and the environment. Mighty couldn’t let that slide.

“Guess there’s a first time for everything.” Vector stepped over to watch Heavy and Bomb carefully, now that his little bee had bumbled over to interact with them. The crocodile had an uneasy look on his face… But he didn’t stop the kid from grabbing onto Heavy’s red glove, trying to play with it. “I decided to let them come with us, since they seem to have knowledge about where to find the chaos rings.” Vector explained. “But we’ve all gotta keep a close eye on em, got it?”

“This is so cool!” Ray tentatively knocked on Heavy’s metal, testing it’s hardness. “Do you think they’ll be super strong and help you fight the bad guys?”

Heavy had not been reacting to the children poking and prodding him. However, when Charmy reached for Bomb, the big robot scooped the explosive up and held it out of the toddler’s reach.

“They better prove themselves useful.” Knuckles muttered. He made his way over to stretch out on the couch. “We don’t have space for any more Chaotix members.”

“They will not be staying in my room.” Espio asserted. He huffed thinking about it. He was shooting a distrustful look toward the machines, “...If they turn out to be undercover Eggman agents, they could crush or blow up the baby in his sleep.”

The Chaotix hadn’t owned a physical location for their agency for very long, and it wasn’t anything fancy. It had a crooked roof, rooms that Vector swore were lopsided in their construction, and deep cracks etched into most of the walls of the house. The building barely had any furniture. The main room they currently sat in only had a leather cushioned couch, the evidence locker and a desk that sat front and center where paperwork was stored. Most of the other rooms were decorated very sparingly. Even considering that there was a second floor, the amount of space they had was slim when there were so many people staying here. Vector had claimed the first and biggest bedroom since he was the oldest. Espio had to share a room with Charmy’s crib. Likewise, Mighty and Ray were stuck together, but they seemed to be very content with that arrangement. Knuckles liked to return to his home island when he wasn’t needed for a case, so he had insisted on not needing a room. Whenever he did spend the night he made himself cozy in the makeshift living room.

When Vector had first started the group, it had just been him, Espio and Charmy (though since Charmy was a baby, it wasn’t like he contributed much to their missions). They had solved smaller cases for Central City citizens in order to advertise their services and build their repertoire: finding missing objects, tracking down suspects behind thefts from local businesses, or that one juicy “gathering intel and spying on a cheating spouse” investigation. Once they had started to make a name for themselves, Vector, Espio and Charmy ended up encountering Knuckles and Mighty during different cases. Both mobians displayed extreme strength. After they helped the Chaotix in taking care of villains that were too tough for them to handle alone, Vector had asked if they wanted to join the team to do some good in the world. It was only after everyone pitched in together that they were able to scrounge up enough dough for the lease.

After a pause, Knuckles said, “I’ll watch them.” He figured he was most well suited for the job, given his experience guarding the master emerald. “They’ll stay out here in this room. You can trust me to keep you all safe.”

---

Argh…He’s… very difficult to move…” Knuckles grunted out. He was gritting his teeth as he pulled against the bound ring with all his might. Heavy tumbled unexpectedly. When Knuckles accidentally lost his grip, he fell onto his butt.

Mighty had been taking in the ocean view. There was a lot out here to appreciate… the waves gently lapping against the sides of the ship, the smell of salt intermingled with the breeze, the sun warming his skin… When he heard Knuckles though, he looked back over his shoulder. The echidna had only just gotten his partner onto the deck.

“Weren’t you the one who insisted you could handle Heavy’s weight?” Vector asked.

“If it’s a problem, we could always switch.” Mighty looked down at his bound ring. It was currently connected to Vector’s with a long trail of sparkles, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to sever the connection and give Knuckles a turn with the croc.

Knuckles shook his head abruptly, “No, I can handle it!” After a strong tug, He was able to get Heavy stumbling forward in the direction that he wanted him to move. The robot had seemingly expressed interest in tagging along to help with this outing. But now that they were here, all Heavy seemed to do was get confused and amble towards the opposite of where they were supposed to go. With every turn, Knuckles felt more and more like he was herding some kind of unruly wild animal. He was beginning to feel sorry for ever having judged the way Vector had to wrestle control of his rowdy baby.

“…You should be grateful that your partner doesn’t have a chance of causing you harm…” Espio was giving a wary side eye to the bomb that was figuratively strapped to his chest. He wasn’t sure how a badnik as small as Bomb was able to lift something more than five times it’s size, but that didn’t stop Bomb from holding his new bound ring high. Espio had inched as far away as the link between them would allow.

“Don’t worry, I’ll know you’ll be fine, Espio!” Vector gave the ninja a warm and reassuring smile. “That thing hasn’t blown up yet. And if it does, you’re the most nimble and evasive person on this team. So I trust you’ll be able to dodge it’s blast and stay perfectly safe.”

“As you say…” Espio did not sound entirely convinced, but still nodded in compliance.

“Now, we should probably get movin’.” Vector said. He marched over to the side of the boat that they had boarded, looking down over it’s edge. “…This dock is full of ships that have been taken over by Eggman’s robots. And, the bound rings grow brighter here, meaning there must be another chaos ring nearby…. Right?”

By this point, Knuckles had managed to force his partner over to stand with the rest of the group. So Vector looked down at Heavy for confirmation. The badnik bobbed up and down, lifting it’s glove to give a thumbs up.

Vector continued, “So all we gotta do is storm these boats, take out any badniks that are causin’ us trouble, and we should be able to find the ring hiding somewhere!”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Mighty stretched out his body, preparing himself for the fight ahead of them.

Knuckles and Espio both piped up to affirm their course of action, “Right.” “Roger.”

“Okay Team Chaotix. Move out!”

At Vector’s signal, the group began to rush through the first ship. It wasn’t long before they were ambushed. On the raised dock that met the ship’s hull, metal periscopes that rested in the hard ground pivoted towards the oncoming movement. As if reacting to the intruders’ sudden appearance, green tank-like badniks suddenly burrowed out from their hiding places. Three of the enemies charged at the Chaotix at full force.

Vector leapt out of the path of the machine that had been barreling in his direction. Then, the crocodile tugged on the bound ring. Mighty curled into a ball of armor and was swung at their attacker. He landed with a CRASH into the robot’s side, putting it out of commission. As soon as he unfurled himself, Mighty drove a punch into the second badnik that had attempted to slam into him from behind.

Espio was also competent in dealing with the foes. When the third and final submarine-like machine hurtled towards the lizard, he nimbly dodged the hit. Then, Espio unleashed the special move he had been training to perfect. Like a dancer he began to spin in place, swivelling on his feet. Eventually, his velocity was fast enough to whip the wind and stray leaves surrounding him into a mini tornado. When the green badnik was swept into the turbulent current, it somersaulted through the air before landing soundly onto it’s back. The poor thing rocked back and forth like a turtle that had fallen onto it’s shell.

Mighty finished the job by waltzing over and slamming his fist through the tank’s exposed stomach. Then he looked around, “...Where’s Knuckles?” Usually the feisty warrior was more involved in the action.

“I’m here!” Knuckles huffed, sounding out of breath. It was only then that he had managed to catch up with the group. It seemed as if he had fallen behind as soon as the mission had started. He was dragging the loudly clomping Heavy.

Knuckles was bearing his teeth, raising his arm so he could punch whatever was next. His face fell once he saw the smoldering badniks littered around the dock, “...Woah… You guys already took care of them all?”

Vector nodded. “...What happened to you? You usually pitch in more with fighting the bad guys.”

“...” Knuckles flushed. Then, he sighed and glared over at the machine he’d been partnered with. “...I guess Heavy is slowing me down more than I expected. Before I knew it, you guys had run so far ahead, I don’t think you could even hear me calling after you…”

“Eyes up!” Espio shouted out. He suddenly ducked— narrowly avoiding the speeding badnik that had been flying straight towards his head.

The group was enveloped by a hoard of flying fish. Most were robotic yellow piranhas with snapping jaws that torpedoed toward the Chaotix in droves. Two or three of the attackers resembled turquoise sharks with rocket jets for fins.

Everyone did their best to dodge. Knuckles crouched down, hiding behind the lump of metal that was his teammate. One of the piranhas smacked Heavy like a bullet, but Heavy seemed to be completely unaffected. The fish clattered to the ground after that. …At least the guy makes a useful shield. Knuckles thought.

Then, it was time for the counterattack. Vector let out a roar that vibrated through half of the enemies’ cores, causing them to shudder and then fall to the ground incapacitated. Knuckles pumped his fists up to strike a soaring shark. His claws punctured steel.

Once the group of foes had been completely dealt with, the Chaotix made haste to continue forward, lest they found themselves surprised by any more waves of baddies. The dock eventually connected the first boat they had boarded to a second, larger ship. All of the vessels at this port were a cool grey color with a thin yellow stripe painted across their middles. The ship had several floors. They had to choose whether or not they wanted to follow the path that led to the higher balcony of the boat, or if they wanted to investigate down by the ship’s lower hull.

Vector held his bound ring high in the air, examining it carefully under the sun. After some deliberation, he announced, “…The ring is glowing brighter up there… So I think we should check out the upper decks.”

There was a ladder on the ship’s side that looked like it would be convenient for scaling upwards. It was placed high over the heads of the shorter mobians, so they would have to jump or be lifted up to reach. Espio went first. He carefully but anxiously cradled Bomb under one arm, letting Vector pick him up so he could grab onto the first rung safely and start climbing. Once Espio had made it to the top, Vector and Mighty went next.

Knuckles leapt so he could grapple onto the ladder. He didn’t necessarily need it to be able to climb, but using it was a better idea than roughing up the boat with his spikes. Once he was holding on tightly, he glanced down at Heavy so he could wait for the robot to follow.

Heavy was bouncing on his springy heels, as if he was trying to gain enough momentum to make a massive bound. His attempt at jumping ended up being very sad, though. He was only able to rise a pathetic half-foot off the ground before gravity took it’s hold and yanked the weight back down to Earth. The loud clatter that Heavy’s steel feet made as they collided with the metal dock was startling enough that Knuckles almost lost his grip and fell.

Knuckles shook himself, trying to regain his hold on the rungs. Then, he looked back down at Heavy, “…What was that?! …Don’t tell me that’s as high as you can jump…”

Heavy made one more attempt at leaping into the air. When he did not reach any new heights, the robot slumped over. Heavy’s limbs grew limp and his body leaned in defeat.

“…How are we supposed to go up, then?!” Knuckles tested tugging his bound ring to confirm what he already knew. If this were someone as light as Mighty, Knuckles could simply climb up to the top of the ship and then pull his partner up with the power of the rings’ connection. But Heavy lived up to the name that Mighty had given him. Knuckles was strong enough to yank the thing around on the ground, but when he was dangling from a flimsy ladder holding his bound ring in a single paw? If Knuckles didn’t overexert himself, the ladder would surely snap.

“Knuckles! Are you alright down there?!” Vector was leaning over the railing of the ship’s balcony. His expression was twisted into one of concern.

Knuckles gave a heavy sigh. He raised his voice to a yell so that the others could hear him, “…I won’t be able to climb with this guy. You all go on ahead. We’ll look for the ring down here.”

“Are you sure ya wanna split up?” Vector asked.

Mighty walked over and patted Vector’s side, “I say we let him do his thing. Knuckles is real independent, he’ll be fine if we separate.”

“If you say so…” Vector raised his volume again, “Alright, we’ll meet up at this spot later!”

Espio, being at the front of the group, was scanning the floor that they had climbed to, “...It’s more heavily guarded here.” Badniks were lining up in rows. The robots were glaring hungrily at the newcomers boarding the ship.

Vector cracked his knuckles. “We must be getting closer to the chaos ring. Everyone get ready to fight!”

Smashing through enemies was getting tediously tiring at this point. The Chaotix didn’t have much of a choice though, as dozens of Eggman’s lackeys closed in and started to dish out attacks. Mighty and Vector pummeled through a mix of different marine themed menaces: more of the fish and green tanks from before, as well as new foes such as vibrant pink flying manta rays with shimmering grey rims. The machines were met with fists, kicks, animals rolling into them full speed, stray shuriken stars that flew out from the ninja’s personage and even big crocodile bites that crunched soundly through steel.

Espio felt a blast of air as something whizzed past his cheek. He turned his head and spotted several slippery badniks hiding in the shadows under the roof of one of the structures on the ship. They hung low to the ground, driving around on treads with small pink faces. They had massive, metallic hermit crab shells painted lime green that were nestled upon their backs. Each shell had pokey spikes jutting out like appendages.

With a distinct POP POP POP sound, a steady stream of bullets erupted from the barrels sticking out of the shells.

Espio leaped to avoid the shots fired from the crab robot closest to him. When a second enemy blasted another round of ammo, Espio had to spin and then duck low. His body hugged the ground. Luckily, the chameleon was fast enough to dodge the projectiles that had narrowly taken him out.

His eyes widened when he saw one more row of bullets headed straight for Bomb.

Espio didn’t have time to think. His body moved before his brain could fully process what he was doing. He had no chance to plan out whatever course of action was most logical when his mind was screaming only one thing— It was going to explode if it got struck.

Espio yanked on his bound ring with all of his strength. Since it was practically lighter than a feather, the little bomb robot went flying... directly towards Espio.

BOOOOM! The eruption ripped all of the Chaotix from their current battle to a disorienting scene from Hell. The sound that erupted out was so painfully loud, Vector winced and his hands instinctively shot up to cover his head. A piercing buzz began to ring through his ears. He began to cough, as the deck of the boat had quickly been enveloped by big billowing puffs of ash filled smoke. He had initially squeezed his eyes shut, but then squinted one open to try and make out his surroundings. It only made his senses burn.

Vector spotted Mighty, who had shut himself into his protective ball as soon as the explosion had been set off. Mighty uncurled himself by just a sliver so he could peek out at the damage before them. He was completely still as if in shock, but didn’t look to be hurt.

Vector wobbled as he tried to stand. He didn’t remember exactly when he had fallen. Everything has been so instantaneous, he hadn’t yet realized what had happened. “…Mighty?… Espio?!” For some reason, his own voice sounded distant.

When he started hacking again, Vector moved one of his gloves to cover his snout until the smoke began to dissipate. The deck of the boat was charred, covered in a thin layer of a foreign black substance. Something was on fire. Small flames danced along the railing lining the edge of the ship. The light from the sparks was flickering around a motionless body that lay still on the floor…

“Espio!!!” Vector cried out, flinging himself towards the unconscious child. Espio was also covered in the explosive’s ashy residue. Bomb’s body lay next to the lizard. His casing was cracked apart, right along the line where the red had met black.

Vector fought back tears as he cradled a hand under Espio’s head, “Espio, kid! Please….”

“V-Vector!” Mighty dashed over, holding out his palms in a ‘stop’ motion, “Hold on, don’t move him!” It wasn’t a good idea to accidentally exacerbate potential injuries.

When Mighty joined Vector’s side, he began to tenderly feel Espio’s chest. Mighty gently pressed to try and determine if there were any broken bones. After furrowing his brow in careful concentration for several moments of examining, Mighty announced, “…He’s still breathing. But man, is he looking worse for wear…”

That was when the rocking started. The ground started to jolt beneath their feet, causing Vector and Mighty to tumble to the ground. A great force had begun to shake the ship back and forth, causing the broken down bodies of badniks to slide down the deck. Had some sort of sea monster grappled onto the ship?

“We need to get out of here!” Mighty nodded up at Vector.

Vector lifted Espio into his arms with the same level of cautionious he would use to carry a fragile glass heirloom. Mighty made sure to pick up the discarded shell of Bomb. He wasn’t entirely sure if the robot would still be functional after having fulfilled it’s self-destructive purpose, but he didn’t feel right leaving it on a dangerously damaged ship.

They used a separate ladder to descend than the one they had utilized to make it up to the top decks in the first place. They were considerably hindered now that they had to handle the extra weight of knocked out teammates. Vector and Mighty had to grip the rungs tight to avoid getting thrown off by the ever present shaking of the boat. The tremors only slowed once they had reached the bottom.

Once their feet had securely met with the floor, the sound of irregularly splashing water hit Mighty’s ears. He whipped his head around, scanning for any more potential attackers. He had hoped that the badniks would be done with them, since they weren’t really in the shape or mood to continue fighting. There wasn’t any sign of an attacker, though. They appeared to be the only ones on this level of the ship… Until out the corner of his eye, Mighty noticed an easy to miss glove that was clutching the railing.

“…Knuckles?!” Mighty immediately started towards the sight, leaving Vector behind.

Knuckles was dangling off the ship’s side, grabbing on with only one hand. His fur was completely drenched, salt water dripping from his quills. He had an almost deranged expression. His eyes were wide and crazed, teeth gritting against each other, and his body was shaking from the cold. He was being pulled down by the bound ring clasped tightly in his other paw. It’s sparkly connection disappeared into the ocean below. Along the ship’s hull, distinctive holes had been punctured in an unsteady row, indicating that the echidna had clawed his way up. “…Mighty… Get over here and help me!” Knuckles growled out.

Bomb clattered to the floor as Mighty rushed over. He grabbed Knuckles’ glove, tugging with all of his might. He almost lost his grip on account of how much heavier than usual Knuckles unexpectedly was. Mighty tried to exert his weight so that it counteracted against the hefty load. Soon he felt Vector at his back, wrapping an arm around the armadillo so he too could hold onto Knuckles. He was refusing to set Espio down, so the chameleon hung limp over his shoulder.

With their combined effort, Knuckles eventually made his way over the low ship railing. He kept his body strained though. Once Knuckles was able to stand, he had to keep yanking on his bound ring. Mighty realized that it must have still been connected to Heavy, who was hidden below the waves. He joined Knuckles in heaving their anchor up out of the water.

Thanks to the two of them being powerhouses, Heavy eventually CLANG-ed loudly onto the ground. But then Knuckles and Mighty collapsed, huffing and puffing as they tried to catch their breaths. Mighty was used to hauling around big weights, but even he had his limits. Something about the badnik’s reinforced and dense steel made it practically an immovable object. His arms were stinging with soreness. He couldn’t imagine how Knuckles must’ve felt, seeing as the guy had clearly been forced to struggle against that thing on his own while caught in the strong ocean current.

Mighty figured he would confirm this with him, “...You two… fell in the water?”

Knuckles’s eyes darted over to Mighty, but he didn’t respond. His chest was still heaving. He leaned back as he sat on the boat’s cold metal surface. Several moments passed before he answered, “...That thing practically had me killed.” He shot a dirty glance towards the robot. “...Was some sort of blast on the ship. That big, dumb lug got surprised and tumbled right off the side of the boat. He ended up dragging me into the sea. We’re lucky it wasn’t someone weak like Espio or that little kid. They would have drowned for sure.” Mighty didn’t know whether Knuckles was referring to Charmy or Ray with that last statement, as neither of them were present and Ray usually didn’t accompany them on mission outings… but he supposed it was besides the point. Knuckles continued, “I only made it out by fighting like Hell.”

That explained the earlier viscous tremors the vessel had experienced. Knuckles and Heavy had been strong enough to literally rock the boat.

Vector was anxiously pacing behind the two. After Knuckles had finished his explanation, the crocodile marched up to them, “...We don’t have time to be sitting around. We need to retreat. Now.” There was a slight bite to his words, but that was understandable given the stress of the situation.

Mighty got to his feet. Then, he held out a hand to help Knuckles stand as well. The echidna squeezed his palm tightly when he took it. Their eyes caught one another’s for a shared grimace, before they followed the Chaotix leader.

---

“They’re out. I ain’t gonna keep badniks on my team, especially after they threatened our safety like that.” Vector’s tone was cold. His snout was scrunched up in a hard scowl. Most of his attention was focused on tending to the injured chameleon resting on the springy mattress they had laid out next to the wooden coffee table. Espio winced in pain, but then groaned in slight relief when Vector pressed an ice pack to his chest.

“Vector, they didn’t do it on purpose…” Mighty murmured. He was sitting on the leather couch. His eyes darted over to the two robots that idly stood by the front door.

Miraculously, neither Heavy nor Bomb were badly damaged from the previous day’s excursion. Mighty had assumed Bomb’s explosion was a one-time-use deal. But after only half an hour had passed, both halves of Bomb’s outer shell snapped back together with a click! And he went back to functioning as normal. Heavy’s inner circuitry hadn’t been impacted by having been submerged in water at all, either. Both had returned to walking around as if nothing wrong had even occurred.

Despite their inability to fully communicate, Mighty had still taken note of the machines’ remorseful body language in the time since they had returned home to the office. Slumped over and slow, Heavy and Bomb had been clinging close to the members that had gotten hurt. Vector hadn’t let that slide, though. If either one got close to Espio, he batted them away forcefully with a big swish of his strong tail (though with Bomb, Vector seemed a little hesitant to push him too hard). Knuckles wasn’t keen on having any of the badniks in his space, either. He continuously shooed them away, all while growling like an angry dog.

“Kid, you don’t know whether they meant to hurt us or not.” Vector huffed.

“But… they were trying to help us before, weren’t they?” Mighty asked. He frowned, “And it sure seemed like everything that happened yesterday was an accident…”

“Mighty…” Vector inhaled sharply like he was about to shout, but then he gave a long sigh. He finally turned his attention away from Espio so he could actually address the armadillo, “Why are you trying to defend them? They’re enemies who injured your teammates.”

Mighty opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it when he realized he didn’t really have an answer. He had been so eager to make new allies that could help them in completing their current quest for the chaos rings. He wanted to give the badniks the benefit of the doubt. But Mighty couldn’t ignore Espio laying only a few feet away in total submission from his wounds. The sight made Mighty’s stomach twist up in knots.

“I bet Eggman sent them to slow us down.” Knuckles said. He was leaning against the front desk in a position that looked like it should be in no way comfortable, despite the relaxed demeanor he exuded. “He wanted to trick us into thinking they were nice, but programmed them to hurt us when we least expected it.” His fists clenched, as if he was ruminating on how he should have taken action against those robotic freaks sooner.

“….But you’re wrong…” Mighty muttered it under his breath at a volume the others shouldn’t have even heard.

“…Excuse me?” Vector said. All eyes in the room turned their attention to Mighty. Everyone’s glares chilled him. Even the baby, who couldn’t possibly have had a full understanding of what had happened, seemed to notice the shift. Ray had been keeping Charmy entertained in the corner with colorful blocks, but the bee paused and perked his antennae up.

“I mean-... Ugh…” Mighty groaned. The last thing he wanted was to upset his friends, so he started to backpedal. “Sorry, that wasn’t what I meant…”

Vector wasn’t amused. He placed the damp rag that he had wrapped the ice pack around down so that it was resting on Espio’s chest. Then, the Chaotix leader stood and strode over to Mighty. “Their intent doesn’t matter if they’re puttin’ people in danger.” He stressed the last word whilst narrowing his eyes. Vector was using that deep and firm tone that he usually reserved for dealing with crooks or laying down serious business. “I want them out of this house. Now.”

“...” Mighty bowed his head slightly. His ears fluttered downward, his face still sullen. Ultimately, he knew that his boss was right. No matter how much the robots seemingly wanted to help, all they had accomplished was posing as handicaps and hazards. Mighty eventually conceded, “...I understand.” He started towards the door.

Ray had been tentatively watching, a tight frown stretched thin across his face. Though the tension in the air had been too thick for him to feel comfortable speaking up, he had watched the scene play out in full. Ray’s gaze darted from Vector to Mighty. When the armadillo reached the building’s entrance, Ray suddenly stood, “I’ll help you send them off, Mighty.”

Mighty paused in wait for the little squirrel to rush over. Then, they gently pushed Heavy and Bomb out of the office and started to walk.

Mighty was quiet. He kept his sights focused on the pebbles beneath his feet. After a long moment of silence, Mighty sighed, “...I’m sorry about that. I don’t know why I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt… Especially after they hurt Espio and Knuckles pretty badly.”

The dirt crunched under Ray’s blue shoes. He was keeping a steady pace, but he took his time in thinking his words over before he spoke. “…You were just pointing out that they wanted to help. I don’t really think you were trying to defend the bad things they did.”

Mighty nodded. “It isn’t a good idea for them to go on missions, since they only made it harder. I just wish the others weren’t being so hostile when they could still be useful allies to us. They still might know where the other chaos rings are…” At that point, Mighty stopped walking to stare at the robotic pair. They had been blissfully marching ahead of Mighty and Ray, not reacting to a single word being said. Mighty still suspected that they had to be listening, though… The badniks clearly understood spoken language, given how they would nod and follow basic instructions.

Ray had followed Mighty’s gaze. “…I believe you. I believe that they know where the chaos rings are, too.”

Mighty smirked. He raised his voice to talk directly at Heavy and Bomb, “…Too bad you can’t talk, eh? You’d be able to tell us where the rings are hidden without risking our lives by being out on the field.” A playful tone now danced in his voice.

Heavy and Bomb stopped to turn towards Mighty and Ray. They held out their arms and began to act out their strange game of charades once more.

Mighty laughed. Then he shook his head, “Sorry, friend. Don’t think I’d be able to figure out the locations just from gestures.”

Ray giggled as he watched his brother conversing with the mechanical duo. A faint trace of sadness was hidden in his smile, though.

Mighty seemed to share the same solemn energy. He hesitated, and an awkward beat passed. He eventually straightened himself to be taller, as if preparing himself to get the deed over with. “…Well… I guess this is it. Thanks for working with us for a while. But you two should probably be leaving now…” Mighty said.

Heavy nodded as if in understanding. The large robot held out a hand.

Mighty took it in a polite shake.

Ray shyly waved at the two, “…Bye Heavy, bye Bomb.”

Heavy let go of Mighty’s paw. The dense weight of the metal shifting made Heavy’s springy feet squeak as he bent downwards to scoop Bomb into his arms. Then the badnik turned his back and ambled past the bushes and into the trees.

Mighty and Ray watched them disappear into the distance. Once they were gone, they started to walk back towards the agency. Their pace was a little quicker than it had been previously. It wasn’t like Mighty felt happy to see those robots go, but at least now they could focus on the cases ahead.

“It would have been cool if those guys were real tough fighting machines, though.” Ray said. He looked up at Mighty with those sparkling eyes of his that made you certain that the kid thought the world of you. “They could have helped with all the bad guys… Just like you and Knuckles!”

Mighty smiled. “I don’t know… they’d have to be pretty tough to keep up with our strength.” Then, he reached a hand out to ruffle Ray’s fur playfully. “...Once you get older, kiddo, I bet you could take on badniks like that.”

Ray giggled as he tried to bat Mighty’s mischievous hand away, and then smoothed out his short hair so that it wasn’t sticking up in all the wrong directions. “...What? I’m not as strong as you are, Mighty!”

“You’re strong in your own way.” Mighty asserted. “You’re thoughtful and quick to bounce back if anything goes wrong. Those are great traits to have, especially if you ever join us for a mission and find yourself surrounded by bad guys. Being physically strong isn’t the only thing that matters. Being able to adapt is just as important.”

Ray listened closely. He nodded sagely, as if Mighty had just given him the wisest advice in the world. But then he rubbed the back of his neck and faltered, “Still, I couldn’t fight all the enemies on my own like you do.”

“…You don’t have to do it alone. We’re all a team.” Mighty lightly squeezed his shoulder in reassurance. “I’ll always have your back.”

Ray beamed at him, “…Thanks, Mighty.” He then glanced up at the sky. The kid was letting his imagination wander, “…I can’t wait until I can really be in the Chaotix with you.”

For all intents and purposes, Ray was already a member…. unofficially. He and Mighty were a package deal since he always followed Mighty around. He lived with everyone at the agency. Ray did his best to help out around the office in any way he could, whether that was through assisting Vector in organizing the desk or by watching Charmy when everyone else was too busy. But when Vector took Mighty into the group, the red fighter was the only one who had filled out any kind of employment paperwork. Vector had been hesitant about doing the same for the squirrel. “He’s just… a little young to be out in the field, is all.” That was an understandable thing to think, since Ray was only half of Mighty’s age. Ray wasn’t sure he was confident enough to venture out on perilous cases, anyways. Instead, he always opted to wait at the agency while the others investigated leads. This resulted in long hours spent watching the ceiling fan spin in the empty-of-people building, the deafening silence closing in…

Ray abruptly stopped in his tracks. Something had caught his gaze— a glint hidden in the leaves of a bush off to the side of the path.

“...Hm? What’s the hold up, buddy?” Mighty frowned, turning around once he realized his friend had fallen behind.

When Ray didn’t immediately answer, Mighty retraced his steps back to where Ray stood. He tried to get a look at whatever Ray was now staring at with intensity… It appeared to be fairly normal seeming foliage. Mighty squinted…

He jumped when he spotted the eyes. Dark and empty, they blended into the shadows cast by the leaves. But the pupils were bright red and menacing. They constricted upon meeting Mighty’s line of sight.

Before either Mighty or Ray had the chance to react, a creature leapt out of the bush at an incomprehensible speed. Becoming only a shiny blue blur, it zipped around them in an attempt to be disorienting. Mighty couldn’t follow the thing’s movements. Before he knew it, something had swiped at his soft stomach with razor sharp metallic claws, drawing blood.

Mighty stumbled backwards to the ground, his hands shooting up to cover his wound. He wasn’t used to actually suffering blows, since he was usually on guard enough to keep his hard back turned towards his opponents. Mighty’s front was his only weak point.

“Mighty!” Ray cried out. He rushed to his fallen friend’s side and dropped to his knees. Ray gasped when he saw red streaked across Mighty’s belly.

The attacker finally stopped speedily circling the two when it slid to a halt. It was a robot made of a deep blue metal that shined under the sunlight. It’s figure was reminiscent of a mobian hedgehog, with short triangle ears poking out of it’s head and a pointed silver nose. A whirring jet engine was nestled into a circular depression in the machine’s chest.

Mighty sat up enough to get a clear view of the robot, “It’s… Metal Sonic!” The two were able to easily recognize the foe who had been continuously interfering with the Chaotix’s missions. The badnik followed Eggman’s orders. He had been hellbent on stopping the detectives from acquiring the chaos rings, violently so. The group barely made it out of the world famous multicolored ‘Speed Slider’ roller coaster attraction where the cyan hued chaos ring had been hidden due to Metal Sonic’s ambush.

Tears pricked the corners of Ray’s eyes. He refused to leave Mighty’s side, but he was starting to tremble with uncertainty as he looked up at the menacing machine. He braced himself for Metal to come flying at them with those knife-like claws bared…

After glaring Mighty and Ray down though, Metal blasted off without a single word. His speed kicked a puff of dirt into the air.

“….Augh!” Mighty yelled out and quickly stumbled to his feet. He winced at the pain in his abdomen that intensified from the sudden movement, but his own wellbeing was the least of his concerns at the moment, “He’s heading towards the agency!”

“Oh no!” Ray reached his hands out to try and assist Mighty in standing. His head swiveled towards the direction Metal had started for. His eyes were wide with panic. “We, we need to warn the others!” Ray’s voice rose to a shout, “Vector!!! Anybody, we need help!”

Though Ray was loud enough that anyone in the general vicinity could make out his call, Mighty didn’t think that he could be heard from inside the Chaotix detective building. They needed to catch up with Metal Sonic, stat.

Mighty was unable to run at his usual pace. Any movement he made exasperated the stinging feeling that was seared into his stomach. Ray was clinging to his side, attempting to support him in walking. But if anything, he was only slowing the armadillo down more. He was trying to prevent Mighty from overexerting himself and thereby injuring himself any further, despite it being detrimental to their goal of reaching the agency in time.

When the crooked roof of the building came into view, Mighty felt his heart steeply drop in his chest. The dust stained window on the front wall of the house was shattered. They could hear distinctive clashes of fighting and yelling drifting out from inside.

The door burst open, being swung hard enough that it was almost blasted off of it’s hinges. Metal Sonic flew out, propelled by the rockets in the bottom of his steel shoes. Cradled under his arms were all four of the glowing chaos rings that the Chaotix had worked so hard to collect.

Vector and Knuckles were hot on Metal’s trail. Both had their teeth bared, nostrils flaring in anger. Knuckles was waving his fists in the air, “Get back here!”

After a quick glance and an affirming nod, Knuckles and Vector agreed upon an unspoken plan. Vector bent over to lift the echidna off the ground using his mouth. The crocodile spun in place a few times to gain momentum, before throwing Knuckles full speed in the direction of the faux hedgehog. Knuckles straightened his body, stretching his arms out so he could glide through the air.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the speed machine. Knuckles slowly lost height and skidded face first into the gravel, while Metal Sonic zipped on ahead. The robot then flipped over so he was flying in reverse while watching the Chaotix. Even without a mouth, the narrowed pupils on the screen that was his eyes made Metal Sonic’s expression look devious and taunting. The pile of chaos rings was so large, they barely fit in the badnik’s arms. Each of the vibrant colors from the rings were reflecting off the deep blue metal like a light show. He was like some thieving pack rat gleefully making off with treasure.

Until Metal Sonic slammed into an obstacle with a resounding CLANG as a result of not looking in the direction that he was flying in.

The robot crumpled momentarily. The chaos rings clattered onto the ground. Metal Sonic wobbled, yet recovered from the collision with haste. He got to his feet and spun to face the object he had slammed into.

Metal Sonic was face to face with a heavy weight animatronic. The familiar looking badnik had it’s thin arms crossed in front of it’s body in a stern manner. A smaller robot was hidden in the shadow cast by the hunk of metal’s feet, partially obscured.

Knuckles’ voice was high with disbelief, “Is that… Heavy?!”

Mighty’s eyes were wide. He turned to look at Ray, “They came back!… They must have heard you shouting for help, Ray!”

Metal Sonic didn’t back down from the appearance of two new opponents. The copycat bot quickly scooped up each of the discarded chaos rings. He slipped his arm into the loop of each ring so that he could carry them securely. Then Metal Sonic lunged at Heavy like a voracious predator. Ear stinging scrapes flooded the air as Metal began rapidly scratching at steel. He was clawing with such deranged intensity that sparks began to fly.

Heavy remained standing like an immovable wall. After several minutes of being slashed at, thin lacerations were worn into his outer shell. Yet the marks were only surface deep.

Heavy suddenly clasped onto one of Metal Sonic’s legs. Though Heavy was shorter than Metal Sonic, he still had enough strength to yank hard and pull the leg out from under Metal’s body. Metal fell onto his back. He was evidently still fighting like Hell, as the rocket boosters erupted to life once more. No amount of kicking and flailing seemed to loosen Heavy’s grasp, though.

Heavy began to spin. The momentum was gained slowly, but both of his hands gripped tight enough onto Metal Sonic that the robot was swinging in circles in the air. One of the chaos rings loosened from it’s secure place. The hot pink ring went flying, striking a nearby rock. The emerald green ring was next, nearly hitting Mighty and Ray, who had become mere bystanders to the fight. Soon Metal was struggling to clutch onto the final, golden glowing ring…

That was when Heavy let go. After being released from the badnik’s persistent hold, Metal Sonic found himself being flung like he had been shot out of a slingshot. His skull smashed into a thick barked tree trunk with a CRUNCH.

The impact had sounded loud enough to cause some sort of damage to the machine’s internal mechanisms. Miraculously Metal was still moving. But when his head jankily swiveled around, they could see that the screen for his eyes had a deep crack running through it. The display was malfunctioning, a blotchy dark spot covering half of the robot’s view.

The injury only seemed to invigorate Metal Sonic’s rage even more. After unsteadily scrambling back up, the robot pounced towards Heavy once more.

Heavy scooped up Bomb, who had been sitting at his feet. He readied himself like a baseball pitcher, drawing his arm back so that he could chuck the explosive.

That was what spurred the Chaotix into moving. Vector was still close enough to the house to take cover inside. He called out for the others before ducking his head behind the door. Knuckles wasn’t too far away from the agency either. Mighty and Ray were in the most danger, especially given Mighty’s hurt condition. Ray grabbed his friend’s arm and hid behind a boulder sitting off to the side of the dirt path.

When the deafening blast erupted out, Ray covered his ears with his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel his heart pounding hard in his chest… Several seconds passed. When he braved a peek though, Ray realized that he hadn’t felt more than a rumble on the ground below them. Mighty was next to him, halfway curled up and groaning from the pain in his stomach, but he hadn’t sustained any new injuries. They had been safely outside of the bomb’s radius.

Ray climbed on top of the giant rock to get a better view of what had happened. The smoke had already begun to clear from the now charred yard. All of the grass was now gone, the remains slightly smoldering into the dirt. Surprisingly, none of the trees had caught fire. In the center of it all, a heap of metal was sparking. A giant dent had been driven into the thing’s previously smooth forehead— had Bomb struck him square in the face? Metal Sonic’s signature blue and yellow accents were covered in a layer of black ash. It was almost cartoonish how stunned he looked, pathetically splayed out on the dirty earth. Heavy was standing triumphant several yards away.

Metal Sonic twitched. When he eventually did move to stand, it was unnatural and stagnanted. Something was wrong with Metal Sonic’s neck, so his head was dangling dangerously. Metal was still for a moment more. He stared at Heavy with the same constricted pupil look of shock that had been frozen on his screen since the explosion went off. Then, Metal made a tactical retreat. The jet rockets sputtered on and the half-functioning robot fled, leaving the chaos rings behind.

“….Yeahhh!” Ray cheered out. He laughed, and then slid off the face of the boulder. “Mighty, Heavy and Bomb won!” He held out a hand to help him up.

Mighty winced as he was brought to his feet, but he was still watching the scene with wonder, “…Woah. I can’t believe that big guy sent Metal home crying to Eggman!”

“Mighty! Ray!” Knuckles’ gruff voice shouted out from afar. The echidna was sprinting over, “You guys okay?!”

“I’ve been better…” Mighty admitted. “Metal got me pretty good… But everything’s alright now.”

“Yeesh…” Knuckles made a face at the slashes on Mighty’s belly. He joined Ray’s side and moved one of Mighty’s arms over his shoulder to support him in standing. “Man, why are you always getting yourself into trouble when you run off on your own with Ray? Next thing you know, I’m gonna have to save you from Eggman himself…”

Mighty chuckled. “I don’t need a knight in shining armor, Knuckles…” Mighty was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, but he still appreciated Knuckles’ eagerness to fight by his side.

Knuckles chose to ignore the comment. “...Vector’s alright too. The baby started crying when that huge blast went off, so he’s inside.” Knuckles looked out across the yard to where Heavy was gently picking up both halves of Bomb. “...I can’t believe they helped us.”

Mighty wasn’t the type to gloat, so he didn’t say ‘I told you so’. He did try to take a step forward, though. “...Help me over to them.”

Knuckles and Ray heeded Mighty’s wishes. They carefully made their way over to the badnik pair, half carrying Mighty. Heavy seemed to look up as they approached.

Mighty had a wide smile on his face. “…Thank you, Heavy, Bomb. You saved us.”

Knuckles kicked a rock that was under his shoe. He was staring at the ground, failing to hide the redness from his cheeks, “Um… yeah, it was pretty great how you guys, uh… stopped Metal Sonic.” He awkwardly muttered. It didn’t sound like he was entirely willing to admit that he had been completely wrong about the duo.

Heavy didn’t seem to need an apology. The robot held out one of his gloves in a big thumbs up. Then, Heavy turned his back to the group. He started walking off towards the horizon, which the sun had started to set over.

“…Wait! Are you going?” Ray asked. He held out a hand, as if reaching out to stop them from leaving even if Heavy and Bomb were too far away for him to touch.

“Uh. I’m sure Vector would let you guys stay, after what just happened.” Knuckles said.

Heavy shook his body repeatedly.

“No?” Mighty frowned. Didn’t these guys want to help the Chaotix fight against Eggman?

Heavy only had one free hand, due to him cradling the broken body of Bomb under his left arm. But he did what he could to begin gesturing, hopping back and forth between his long feet. Mighty felt his own forehead furrow. The game of charades only left him even more confused as to what Heavy’s true motives were in life.

Heavy ended his dance with a drawn out wave goodbye. When the badnik sauntered away in the opposite direction, the oranges and yellows from the sky above glistened off of his steel body. A strange sorrow weighed down on Mighty’s chest… but no one moved to stop the robotic duo from leaving. As suddenly as they had stumbled into the team, Heavy and Bomb were gone.