Circuits, Crossed Rewrite
Social Jacking Chapter 2

by Xabin Doyarchu

	Cobar leaped to his feet at the sight of his fellow Legionnaires acting like zombies as they shuffled and shambled toward them. “What's going on?”

	Rotor began to speak his bewilderment at this turn of events, when a sudden pounding at the front door distracted him from the horror in front of them. “No time to speculate. As Sonic would say, let's juice!”

	Suiting up, Rotor grabbed Cobar and flew him out the back of the lab, dodging panicked Echidnas and zombie-hording Legionnaires as he did so. In the confusion, he didn't notice that he had dropped his syringe of modified nanites, which had been crushed underfoot back in the lab by the entranced scientists. As the full dread of the situation set in, Cobar grimly took out his personal blaster and, with a solemn nod to his walrus compatriot, started shooting it at his fellow Legionnaires. Fortunately for him, he had the sound mind to set it to stun, halting the advancing menace long enough for their prey to escape. Rotor flew them higher, the full sight of the chaos unfolding before them: Stilted, almost robotic-moving Legionnaires chanted the same baleful war cry they had heard from the scientists in the lab, lunging at and barely missing the non-augmented Albion citizens. As they swooped around, they found the city's leader, Remington, call out to them as he attempted to herd the frightened citizens to shelter.

	Rotor flew himself and Cobar down to the brown Echidna's side, weapons at the ready to shoot at any oncoming Legionnaire attack. “What the heck is going on here, Rote?” Remington asked, concernedly. “I thought you were supposed to break the Legion free of Eggman's control, not reinforce it!”

	“I dunno, either, Constable,” Rotor huffed, a little irritated at the presumed accusation. “The nanite serum I devised with Cobar seemed to do the trick with him, when suddenly this happened!”

	Cobar nodded, begrudgingly. “Yeah, otherwise, I think I'd wind up like them. Constable, I suggest taking the citizens to the northern bunkers and sealing them off; the rest of the Legion are still armed with their bombs, and whoever's controlling them seems keen on taking them down with us...”

	“WHAT?!” Remington gasped, incredulously. “You think Eggman would be so twisted as to turn them into – “

	“That's exactly what he intends on doing, Constable...” Lien-Da's voice, distorted by a flange effect that seemed to mix Eggman's voice with it, belted out loud and clear amidst the shouting. Turning toward her, the three recoiled in shock as they saw her – dead-eyed and with her electrical tendrils out, ready for a fight – shamble towards them with a dead-legged purpose. “We meet again, my dear Rotor. I should've realized you'd be behind my Dark Egg Legion's defection... But you, Cobar...” she turned toward the bespectacled Echidna, “I never expected you to be so chummy with him so soon...”

	Rotor growled at the “dear” Eggman spat at him, but ignored it for the current situation. “What's your game, this time, Egg-butt? Albion wasn't a threat to you!”

	“No, but they were in my way, and NO ONE gets in my way and lives. And now you've got my Legion begging you for deliverance! How touching. Too bad the only thing you'll deliver to them is Kingdom Come!”

	Cobar fumed at the Eggman-possessed Grandmaster. “What're you doing with the Legion, Eggman? What are you doing to the Grandmaster?!”

	Eggman chuckled through the female Echidna, swishing her electro-tendrils about in a way that amused only him. “Oh, you should've known by know about the control chip Lien-Da had installed, the one that would've given her mental control over every Echidna Legionnaire within range? I was originally content to let her keep it and have her mess about with it at her leisure, but I got curious, and as I rebuilt her after her... let's just say “premature detonation” at the hands of Regina, I got to investigating what she and Dimitri did to make it so potent.”

	“So, you built the tech into her new bombs, making the chip a moot point,” Rotor gasped, slowly comprehending the full danger they were in.

	“So... destroying the chip...” Remington sputtered in realization.

	“Did nothing to keep its power locked away. She didn't know she had it all within her from the start... or, rather, she didn't know I had the power within her, from the start. Now, be a good dear boy, and perish like a man...”

	With that, all pretenses dropped from the controlled Legion's facade, as they froze in place for a few moments... then, like rabid animals, started running with a swiftness none of them had seen, before, toward the evacuating crowd. Startled, Cobar started randomly blasting at the swarm, nailing quite a few of them into temporary stunned submission, only for them to be overtaken by their fellow Legionnaires. Rotor, for his part, started blasting away at the horde, himself, trying also to stun them, but there were just too many of them for him and Cobar to reliably hold back. Remington attempted to guide the civilians away from the attackers, only to stop dead in his tracks as they swept around and blocked his path. “We're cut off!”

	“Dang it, and I can't fly us all out of here...” Rotor thought fast, before pulling out a Warp Ring of his own. “I didn't want to use this like this, but...” Silently speaking a prayer, he tossed the ring in between the crowd of Albionites and the Legion, causing it to expand and open a portal to an unknown location. Shouting “Get in!”, he continued to fend off the Legionnaires as Remington and Cobar, realizing what was going on, started corralling the citizens into the portal. It was tight, but with effort everyone managed to get through safely, with Rotor being the last to enter, before the ring deactivated. Lien-Da whipped one of her tendrils into the portal as it closed, snagging the side of it and damaging it somewhat, causing it to deactivate on her side instead of Rotor's. Growling, she picked up the ring, sparking with electricity, and cupped her hand around it in a tight grip.

	“You win this round, dear Rotor,” Eggman echoed through her. “But I hold the trump card here. There's no escaping me, now...”

	Back with the rest of the displaced Echidnas, Rotor de-suited and tapped a communicator on his bandoleer. “Rotor to Teem Fighters, come in Team Fighters...”

	“Sonic here, big buddy. What's going on?”

	Rotor sighed a breath of relief and continued. “There's been a bit of a problem with the plan – “

	“A BIT of a problem?!” Cobar shrieked, terrified.

	“ – We had to evacuate Albion. Eggman's somehow gotten full control of the rest of Lien-Da's Legion, and is looking to use them as suicide bombers to take out the rest of the Echidnas. We managed to Warp Ring it back to the outskirts of New Mobotropolis, but it got damaged in the scuffle and now the Legion has it. It's only a matter of time before they find a way to fix it and follow us.”

	Sonic whistled, incredulously. “Man, I should've listened to you when you said this was a cockamamie idea... Okay, get your butts to the city, I'll gather up what we have of Team Freedom, Team Fighters, and the Secret Freedom Fighters for defense.”

	“Okay, but hurry, we don't know how long it'll be before they start coming.” Rotor sighed, tiredly, then spoke again, as if forgetting something. “Oh, and Sonic... Eggman used that term with me, again...”

	“What term?”

	The walrus grimaced as he forced himself to say the words. “'Dear' Rotor... Rotor, out.” Shutting down the transmission, he looked back at his companions and nodded in the general direction of the city. “New Mobotropolis is about 2 kilomarks east of here. We should get going.”

	Nodding in agreement, Remington took the lead and started moving the rest of the Echidnas out, with Cobar and Rotor taking up the rear. As they walked, Cobar found Rotor to be strangely pensive, and several attempts to strike up a conversation with him resulted in dispassionate grunts or outright hostility. About a quarter-kilomark from the city, the Echidna cyberneticist had enough.

	“Why did he call you that, Rotor?”

	Rotor glared at Cobar, frustratedly. “Really, Cobar, can we not do this right now?”

	“No, that line's been bugging you all trip, and I want to know why!”

	Rotor continued to glare at the Echidna, then sighed and continued walking. “To be honest, I have no idea why Eggman called me that. In case you aren't aware, he and I aren't nearly as chummy as he likes to make us out to be...”

	Cobar hummed at that, deep in thought. “Then why even say it to you? What does he know that bothers you so much...?”

	Rotor shrugged and went to speak, but stopped as they passed by a devastated part of the Great Forest they were in; scorch marks and burned lumber were everywhere, and a large crater was dug into the ground. There was obviously a large-scale fight here... a fight that Rotor knew too much about, but wouldn't let his companion know about. Wiping a tear from his eye, the walrus furrowed his brow and continued on in double-time, forcing Cobar to run to keep up with him.

	“Jeez, that must've been one heck of a battle, back there,” Cobar whispered to himself, thinking. After a moment, he seemingly put two and two together, and rushed over to the walrus. “That comment Eggman made to you... 'Must've reminded you of someone you lost, back there, huh?”

	That took Rotor to pause, surprised. He had never thought of it that way. Could it be...? “I...don't see how that's possible. I mean, I did lose someone back there, someone special... but I didn't even know how special they were until after the fact, and Eggman surely wouldn't have known about anything, back then...”

	Cobar frowned, curious. “I... think I know what you mean. I lost someone special, recently, as well; before I was the Legion's head cyberneticist, I was a needlemole for the former Grandmaster, Dimitri. My role was to be a scout, spy, and 'outside man' for the Legion, as a way to keep track of allies and enemies alike. I was assigned to spy on Eggman during his assault on Angel Island, when I found out about the Egg Grape Chambers.”

	“I know of those,” Rotor confirmed, offhandedly. “Nasty little things. Nearly got caught up in one, myself.”

	“When I found out a bunch of Echidnas were being transported into them, I tried to hack the system and find a way to free them. Only got as far as tapping into the teleportation device for them and transporting a handful of them away before my access to them was cut.”

	“Do you know where you transported them, at least?” Rotor queried.

	The Echidna shook his head. “No, sadly; the connection was cut halfway through transport. I don't even know if they survived the trip, let alone where they went to... One of them was a good friend of mine, a member of the Flame Legion, at the time, whereas I was siding with the Frost Legion. We had our differences, but we still... cared for each other. I was hoping that, when the war was over and the Legion was made whole again, he and I could've gotten back together, but...”

	“I see...” Rotor said, sullenly. “My condolences, then.”

	“It wasn't out of order for Legionnaires to fraternize with each other, given our imprisonment in the Twilight Cage, but... I don't know if he ever cared about me... like I did him...”

	Rotor closed his eyes as he remembered back to that day, when Nicole had shown him excerpts of his beloved Tommy's diary, of meeting an exact replica, albeit temporary, of the turtle, and the words that echoed in his mind since then... Don't mourn for what we could've had. Be glad for what we did have together, and find someone else who you can share that feeling with...

	Cobar noticed Rotor choking up at the thoughts in his mind, and patted him on the back, gently. “Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up some bad feelings for you...”

	“It's okay,” Rotor sighed, swallowing his tears. “You've been... very supportive of me and this whole deal. I'm actually surprised you stuck with the Legion for as long as you have.”

	Cobar smiled. “Sometimes I wonder that, too. Sometimes it feels like my time in the Legion is long gone, but it's not something I can give up, easily. My loyalty to its ideals is a bit too strong for that, as well as to the friends I made along the way.” Clearing his throat, he spoke back up after a brief silence. “So, how are we going to free the Legion from Eggman's control, this time? Not like we can pin them down and inject the serum into their cybernetics, one by one...”

	Rotor nodded, deep in thought. “Eggman mentioned a control chip that Lien-Da had that he co-opted to gain mental command of the Legion.”

	“Yes... but only those with their inhibitor chip still in. I sacrificed mine to help develop the new serum, which is probably why I wasn't affected.”

	Rotor's eyes widened as the gears in his head turned. “Yes... which means we'd have to fry those chips to break them free of Eggman's grip. If we can get back to my workshop, we may be able to...”

	His thoughts were interrupted by a static-like crackling coming from his communicator. “Rotor? Yo, Rotes! Mayday, mayday!”

	“Rotor here, what's up, Sonic?”

	“Keep away from New Mobotropolis. Repeat, keep away from New Mobotropolis. Lien-Da must've worked faster than you gave her credit for, she and her Legion goons are in the city and we're fighting back as best we can. We've got them contained, for now, but...”

	“Keep them busy, and make sure none of them explode!” Rotor growled, panicking. “Keep them away from the citizens. If they get too close, Eggman's liable to trigger their bombs.”

	“Well, Ah hope ya have a plan ta' stop them, then,” Another voice, this time Bunnie's, came over the intercom. “They're getting rowdier than them feral Tasmanian devils Sonic says he helped fight off in Albion.”

	Rotor and Cobar stared at each other, before running toward the front of the line, Rotor suiting up and grabbing Cobar to fly him to the city as they passed Remington. “Change of plans, Constable. Stay in the Forest for now; Lien-Da and the Legion's cut us off at the pass, and we don't need them getting a hold of any of you, right now.” Cobar grimaced as he tossed the Constable his blaster. “We'll meet up later, hopefully...”

To Be Continued...