Chapter 5: Short on Fuse, Big on Laser Guns

“This undercover stuff’s a whole lot easier when you don’t have a body made out of metal!”

Shorty the Squirrel definitely saw the benefits in being free of his Cybernik suit. True, Tekno had made him a new one since his original was destroyed, but there was a key difference between this suit and the old one: Shorty only needed to stay inside it when he wanted to do so.

As part of a cruel and sadistic experiment by Robotnik many years ago, Shorty had been kidnapped along with many of his friends from the Emerald Hill Zone. However, unlike his friends whom Robotnik imprisoned in robots such as Moto Bugs, Shorty was encased in a menacing “Cybernik” suit- the ultimate Badnik. The Cybernik was granted armour made from an alloy that was the hardest substance on the entire planet, as well as jet boots and wrist-mounted lasers. He would have been Robotnik’s general for the Badnik army, had it not been for a twist of fate.

Just before he was encased in the suit, Shorty had scrabbled to get free and, in the process, destroyed an all important piece of hardware, the hardware that would have given him Robotnik’s brainwashing program. At first playing along with the situation, Shorty saw his moment to escape and took it but, at the same time, was forced to allow Robotnik to realise the gravity of the situation.

Refusing to go along with Robotnik’s wishes, Shorty managed to defeat the evil Doctor in a battle and decided to fight for not only the freedom of planet Mobius, but also the general freedom of its people. If Shorty- or Shortfuse the Cybernik, as he renamed himself- had any say in the matter, innocent civilians would not be forced against their will to become terrifying machinations, literally, of Robotnik.

The irony of the situation was that Robotnik had finally designed a Badnik good enough to defeat Sonic, but Shortfuse would instead side against Robotnik. Robotnik had built Shortfuse too well and he was perhaps the most unbeatable creation he had ever devised. In moments of confusion and misunderstanding, or when Robotnik had at one point gained temporary control of the cybernetically-enhanced squirrel’s mind, Shortfuse had battled both Knuckles and Sonic to an absolute stand-still- and in neither case a definitive victor was crowned.

Many of the Freedom Fighters often feared that if Robotnik could gain permanent control of Shortfuse, there would be absolutely no stopping him whatsoever. Shortfuse need never rest as long as his system has enough solar power to keep going. But the main problem was one that manifested itself even when Robotnik was not in control: Shorty didn’t pick the name Shortfuse for nothing; his temper was ludicrously volatile even as an ordinary squirrel and his temper has flared up at moments when it was least necessary. Previously a full-time member of the Freedom Fighters, Shortfuse quit the gang after he realised his temper would only land him in hot water.

Whilst he still kept in regular contact with the group and enjoyed working with them on a semi-regular basis, Shortfuse saw himself as a lone worker and preferred working alone, keeping contact mainly with Tekno who had helped him many times before.

Recently, she had redesigned his suit. It looked exactly the same as the old one, but it had greater abilities. Not only could Shortfuse now use his tail as hugely heavy club, but he could also withstand heat to 500 degrees and breath underwater for 3 consecutive hours, due to an air supply that constantly refilled whilst the suit was powered on above ground.

Now, however, Shorty was not using his suit. He was on an undercover mission in the Metropolis Zone, attempting to find a criminal he had been on the hunt for for weeks and, needing to remain hush-hush until he could be certain what he was doing, had hidden his suit down a back alley in a bin. Another nice feature Tekno had installed was that the suit had a homing device connected to a wrist band she had given Shorty- by pressing a button on the band, the suit was there in minutes, sometimes less.

The criminal Shorty was searching for, Percival Q. Rat, was, apparently, an unlikely villain, but he’d been causing no end of distress for Shorty. According to police documentation and accounts that Shortfuse had “persuaded” out of Rat’s accomplices nobody had ever actually seen him, only communicated with him via a computer link. Weirder still, he had no birth certificate registered; so that could only mean he was using an alias.

Nevertheless, Shorty had followed directions given to him by some random hood he’d had to scare senseless as Shortfuse. The directions would, apparently, lead him straight to Rat’s hideout. Rat had been trafficking drugs, mainly, which was deplorable enough but he had also allegedly been the mastermind behind a series of heists in the Metropolis Zone, leading to a cost in the area of 300 grand. Shortfuse wasn’t about to stand for that.

He’d followed the directions to a tee, and was led to a somewhat shabby looking warehouse.

“This must be the place” Shorty pondered to himself. He pressed the button on his wrist band and waited for his suit to join him.

“Let me get this straight...” Amy Rose was shocked at what she’d just heard, “You are prepared to give us all the override codes for any Badniks you helped design, plus entry codes for Robotnik’s old bases in the hopes that we may salvage some electronic gold from the proverbial wreckage...and you’re also willing to help Tekno and Porker Lewis with anything they require in terms of robotics and electronics?”

“That is absolutely correct,” Grimer replied

“Well...I...I guess I can’t turn you down. Welcome to the Freedom Fighters” Amy shook Grimer’s hand.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Kintobor said to himself, watching via CCTV cameras installed in the base, “Amy Rose and Grimer Wormtongue shaking hands- working for the same side!”

Momentarily, Tekno brought Amy to one side, “Amy, I sure hope Grimer is being sincere. He’s convinced me he’s no coward, but I do know for a fact that he’s a lying weasel of a man”

“Tekno, how could he be anything but sincere? I was there when the Chaos beast nearly destroyed the entire planet; Grimer left Robotnik’s side and he meant it”

The two looked around at Grimer who smiled and waved at them.

“On the other hand,” Amy said, worried, “Sonic may not see things the same way. We’ll have to let him down gently when he finds this one out”

Back in the Metropolis Zone, Shorty’s suit had rocketed its way to him, zooming through countless bemused crowds along the way. One quick change later and he was ready to infiltrate Rat’s hideout.

Shortfuse the Cybernik made his way over to the warehouse entrance, somewhat warily. He couldn’t risk wandering into a trap. And if his foe was as troublesome as Shortfuse reckoned him to be, he could well have been wandering into a trap anyway.

Shortfuse checked the door. Locked. There was no way anyone of average strength could open the door. “Well,” commented the tin-plated hero, “there’s no way anyone of average strength could open this door”. It was no problem for a super-strength empowered Cybernik, however, “It’s no problem for a Cybernik, empowered with super-strength, however!” quipped Shortfuse, leaving all and sundry to wonder who exactly is telling this tale.

Wrenching the door open with all his might (and Shortfuse was quite considerably mighty) Shortfuse decided on two things. First, the inside of the warehouse was very dark indeed. Second, warehouses are an incredible cliché when it comes to bad guy hideouts and should be stopped immediately.

Warily, Shortfuse made his way into the blackness within the warehouse. Suddenly, there was a rush of movement behind him and it became quite clear that somebody was standing behind him. Turning, it became even more clear that somebody was there when Shortfuse received an enormous punch in the face that sent him hurtling across the room.

“What the HECK is going on?!” Shortfuse found himself yelling, almost losing that “super-hero cool” aspect he’d worked years perfecting.

“Hey, Shortfuse...didja miss me?” A familiar voice. Shortfuse suddenly realised he was in grave danger.

“No...it can’t be...It’s impossible, you--”

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s quite possible, Shortfuse,” said the voice. A light flicked on and revealed his identity to our dazed heroic Cybernik, “And I’m sooo sorry I had to lie to you to make you come here! Percival Q. Rat’s a fake name, I’m afraid. But, you’ve probably guessed that by now...”

“OK, let’s roll!” Amy Rose yelled.

The alarm had been raised, Porker Lewis had been forced to alert Amy and Tekno to the trouble he was facing on the Floating Island. A second emerald, the orange one, had been stolen. If things kept up like this, it wouldn’t be long before the whole island plummeted from the sky. For a third time.

And then, of course, Porker had said, there would be the whole tedious business of traipsing around the planet Mobius, hunting down Robotnik, no doubt having a huge battle with him, before defeating him once more and taking the emeralds back to the Floating Island, whereby they would be replaced and the island would fly back into the sky soon afterwards. Porker hated having to do that series of events- particularly since he’d only just sat through them with the Chaos beast issue- but he apparently didn’t mind giving away the plot...hey, don’t go away, other fun stuff will happen!

“Amy, one question” Grimer had to chip in.

“What?”

“How do we get to the Floating Island?”

“Well, there are one of two ways. First of all, we can take our lovely little flying machine, created by Tekno, based off a design in one of Sonic’s comic books. We’ve only used it once, to be honest, and if we don’t keep it up we may have it taken from us...we couldn’t put it down as a justifiable tax expense”

“What’s the other way?”

“The hyper spring!”

“The what?!”

“Oh, it’s something Kintobor designed to get Sonic to the island in seconds. It wasn’t too safe...I think that’s pretty much why we got the flying machine”

“Not too safe?”

“Yeah, there was the...um...incident”

“Incident?!”

“Yeah, the...um...incident”

Tekno leaned in to the conversation, “Oh, yeah. That was nasty. The...um...incident, I mean”

“And it took so long to clean up,” Amy added

“FLYING MACHINE!” Grimer yelled

“OK, I think we have selected our method of arrival at our destination” Amy decided

“You...this isn’t real...”

“Oh, it’s quite real, Shortfuse...You’re not the only one who can strike a deal to get a new suit built, you know. Dr Robotnik is really quite a pleasant employer. If only you’d had the sense to stay on the team!”

“You’re...you’re twisted”

“I’m vermin, aren’t I?” said Vermin the Cybernik, before letting out a terrible evil laugh.

Shortfuse was sure that if he could see under Vermin’s helmet, he’d see a sneering, smirking visage. And why not, in fairness? Vermin was one of few individuals who was actually on a par with Shortfuse.

Also a Cybernik, the key difference between Shortfuse and Vermin was that Vermin didn’t undergo failed brainwashing, mostly because he already loved Robotnik. Vermin also had one extra ability Shortfuse didn’t- his tail had a point on the end which not only could he plug into electrical outlets to gain power, but he had also been known to jab Shortfuse with it once and delete important Cybernik system files.

“I’ve been waiting so long for this fight, Shortfuse. A rematch to decide once and for all who the better Cybernik is...”

“What, beating you before wasn’t proof enough for you?”

“Before you had your little friends to help you out. It was never a one-on-one confrontation. What’s the matter, Shortfuse? Scared that I’ll beat you too badly? Or are you more worried I’ll trap you within your suit again?!”

Shortfuse remembered all too well what Vermin was talking about. He had been freed from his suit years before, able to remove his armour at will, but Vermin had managed to escape from the facility he was being detained in and delete the release mechanism file. Shortfuse had remained trapped within the suit until years later when he completely overloaded the system in an attempt to save his friends from Robotnik, who had developed God-like powers. Robotnik had hooked himself to a machine pumping himself full of pure power. Shortfuse had attempted to destroy the machine but the strain on his system was so great that his original suit had been destroyed.

Now in a new suit, Shortfuse realised how deadly the situation was- if Vermin trapped him inside his suit again, there may never come another opportunity for freedom. Shortfuse had to win this fight and, if possible, destroy Vermin’s suit. There was just no way he could stand living in that suit for the rest of his life.

Vermin leapt with incredible velocity at Shortfuse, pointed tail first. Shortfuse reacted quickly as ever and dodged. Vermin laughed, “Hah, still the same old Cybernik, eh, Shortfuse? Reactions and everything. How I HATE YOU!” Vermin’s rage seemed to fuel his power- he spun round and shot out a shock wave from his tail that caught Shortfuse totally off-guard.

In tremendous pain, Shortfuse slumped to the floor. He knew that if he didn’t fight back soon, and fight back properly he would be trapped within his suit very soon or, worse, dead.

“And now to kill a hero!” Vermin crowed. His tail stabbed at Shortfuse but, in the instant split-second before he could do any damage to the metallic hero, Shortfuse blasted out a violent pair of energy beams from his wrist-mounted lasers.

Vermin got shot back a considerable distance, knocking over some boxes in the old warehouse. Shortfuse picked Vermin up by the neck and commented, “Squirrel á la death isn’t on the menu today, scum”. Shortfuse thought for a brief moment. Squirrel á la death? What kind of useless comeback was that? What was he thinking?

Hurling Vermin back against the wall, Shortfuse activated his jet boots and sped at the evil rat. Vermin, unbeknownst to Shortfuse, had planned this whole thing perfectly. “Just a little closer, hero...” Vermin smiled to himself.

And then it hit Shortfuse. He’d flown, full-speed into what can only be referred to as a Cyber-Cage. It can probably only be referred to as a Cyber-Cage because that’s precisely what it was. Cyber-Cages worked on the same principle as holo-whips (which some of Robotnik’s Troopers had previously used) in that they could imprison basically any life form, yet were not actually tangible things in that they were, in fact, controlled by a computer. It is impossible to pick up a Cyber-Cage, you can only control it via a panel.

Fortunately for Vermin, then- yet most unfortunately for Shortfuse- he happened to have the control panel with him. But that’s not all he had.

Vermin got to his feet, “Hey, hero, I’ve got a surprise for you. The good doctor had a few setbacks building new Badniks but- guess what- he still managed to rustle up some Troopers for me!” Out of the shadows came about twenty heavily-armed Trooper Badniks. But that wasn’t the only figure who emerged from the darkness. No, somebody had been watching Shortfuse’s attempt at heroism.

Vermin cackled then said, “And here’s another surprise for you, Shorty boy!”

“Well, well, what do we have here?” the figure enquired, “It looks like the Cybernik traitor. I think it’s time to finish what we started almost a decade ago...”