Crumbling

A Giant Wave and No Escape

Robotnik rolled over in his bed, grumbling. Someone was calling for him, fussing up a good nap, and he wasn't very happy about it. If it was those idiot door-to-door salesmen again, he was going to attack them with his robot army. This thought gave him enough energy to struggle out of bed.
He pulled his suspenders over his pajama bottoms, checked his moustache in the mirror-it checked out- and started for the stairs.

"Ahha! Returning so soon, Shadow?"

Robotnik tapped his fingertips together. Shadow was not the type to swing by for a chat, he must have come with news.

"Have you seen Sonic?" he asked with the hint of a smile in his voice.

But Shadow had just about reached the end of his patience with Robotnik. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest and his eyes had a flash of irritation.

"Sonic was there when I arrived. I thought you said you had a shield up," he growled. He was all too eager to point out the inconvenience he caused, or expose the lie that he told.

"More importantly, after I fought him off Amy got worse. Help her."

This demand did not come with an ounce of pleading- it would be bad for Robotnik if anything happened to Amy.
Really bad.

xxx

Up in the clouds, Tails got a clear view of the floating island. Most of it was obscured by foliage, dotted with mountainous spires. Finding Robotnik's hideout might have been tricky, had he not made a double armored fortress towering high above all the trees. Anything less extreme wouldn't have suited him. It made Tails happy to complete his mission in record time.

"I've located Eggman's fortress," Tails announced into his walky-talky, "I'm going to inspect it for any weak spots."

xxx

Robotnik passed his gaze from Shadow to the walky-talky in his hand. That voice sounded like...Tails. He had heard all of Shadow's complaints, but this new information interested him far better.

"Opportunities are opening for us every step of the way! "he exclaimed, imagining Shadow was as excited as he was, "Why should foxboy look for vulnerabilities in my fort when I will welcome him through the front door? Bring him here, Shadow, and then we can talk about Amy. We will all talk about Amy together!"
Robotnik threw his head back and laughed. He then composed and moved on.

"As for the shield, I had to take it down to let Sonic onto the island. I'm going to put it back up right now, so there will be no speedy getaways for our little blue hedgehog."

The walky-talky began to crackle to life again.

xxx

Tails had descended into the treetops, debating with himself about the best course of action. But his voice was soon drowned out by a loud rushing noise. His ears swiveled, trying to pin the source. Strangely, though, the noise seemed to be coming from all around, and it was getting closer and closer. Then Tails looked up, and he saw it.

"SONIC! SONIC! RUN!" Tails shouted into the walky-talky,"THERE'S A-A TIDAL WAVE—IT'S GOING TO HIT THE ISLAND! RUN!"

xxx

The hedgehog huddled up in the tropical patterned sheets did not look much like Amy. She had her body to the wall with her knees to her chest. If she answered Sonic, it was only with meek sniveling noises; she hadn't really noticed him come in. Sonic frowned, looking quizzically at the girl huddled up in the corner- what was her deal? This was not cool, he decided, after getting a better look at her. Something was definitely going on with Amy and it had Eggman written all over it.

"Hey- did Shadow do something to you?" He asked stepping toward her and putting a gloved hand on her arm.

She knew right away who the gloved hand belonged to, before his voice even reached her. There was something so self-assured, so brazenly confident about Sonic that it came out in everything he did; even something so small as a touch. Amy turned to look at him, and for a moment the relief in her face wiped out any trace of discomfort.

"It's okay, Amy! I'll get you back home and you'll be right at rain, thanks to me," The blue hedgehog said in his usual candor, rubbing his nose in that cocky way.

Amy replied with her big, completely-infatuated smile and sighed happily. Sure, Sonic was worried about Amy- he wasn't heartless- but he was also positive it could be fixed relatively easily, so there was no reason to be too concerned. That was Tails' job, anyway.

However, just as Sonic was getting ahold of Amy to carry her away, he heard a loud... Distant... Roar. Mm... Maybe not so distant? Sonic's immediate thought was that it was one of Eggman's super Badniks, so he let Amy go and sprinted out of the bungalow to check.

"Hold on! I hear somethi- WHOA! TIDAL WAVE!" Sonic's stance went from a confident battle pose to a shocked, stumbled one as he turned to find the massive wave coming in fast.

xxx

Shadow's apathetic expression suddenly stretched into one of alarm. He flicked his head around to glare at Robotnik, as if he had planned this, and grit his teeth.

"I'll be back, Robotnik. Don't close those doors." He said, tossing the walkie talkie at the rotund man and activating his hover boots, blasting off toward his beach home.

Dr. Eggman set to work immediately after the message came through. He turned his back to Shadow, grumbling about wasted water power as he tottered away. To him, the solution was obvious, and frankly on his to-do list anyway, so this wave problem was just back-to-the-old-grind kind of stuff.

"I'm going to reactivate the shield, Shadow. That should be enough to screen the island off from this Tidal Wave. I know I don't need to remind you, but I would like Tails here within the hour," he called, but Shadow had long since left.

Robotnik brushed off the silence and punched in a series of buttons on his giant processor.