Jason rolled his eyes. Marcus began rattling off the digits of Mobius's mobile number, which Jason quickly input into his own phone for storage. Ari smiled slightly, pleased that Jason and Marcus were no longer butting heads, but something else was troubling her yet.
"About the SONIC agent...well, we have him here and he's unconscious. I don't think we can keep him here..."
"Understood. You are with Kayla, correct?"
"Yes."
"I want the two of you to set your communicators down on the floor on either side of the agent and leave the rest of the work to me."
Though Kayla's face was a picture of scepticism, she and Arikyrenne both did as Marcus requested and stood back. Meanwhile, Jason was firing off a quick text to Ash containing Mobius's number.
"I hope this works," Jason muttered to himself.
"I hope this works," Kayla thought aloud.
A thin, multicoloured band of light encircle Agent Reed and stretched up into the air. The cylindrical light touched the ceiling and then contracted, shrinking upon itself. It vanished as swiftly as it had come, and Agent Reed vanished with it. The communicators remained on the floor, looking innocuous.
"Excellent work," Marcus's voice said. "The SONIC agent is here with me aboard the Raker."
***
Ash watched as the Scope Head Gang set to work drilling at the base of the Mobile Glacier. He was vaguely disgusted when Kane's mecha piled up a huge snowball and launched it at Leon's mecha, much in the same way a parent is disgusted after finding a child drawing on the walls. Dizzy called, "Incoming message from Jason Rapidfire~!"
Ash reclined in his seat, crossed one leg over the other, and rested his chin on his fist. "Perfect. Let's let Mobius in on the good news that he won't be shot where he stands..."
***
Gyser and Alexia continued their haphazard progress in the darkness. Gyser squinted, not quite certain where he should be looking for the switch. He came to an intersection of corridors and was about to ask his niece which way to go. As usual, things did not go according to plan. A light suddenly appeared and shone in his face.
"Who are you?" asked a voice, clearly as startled as Gyser was. Gyser turned to see a nervous Frizonian holding a torch and staring at him in wonder.
The neon green hedgehog scooped up his niece and bolted, grumbling how he could not even come up with a witty response to the Frizonian's question. He could hear the Frizonian yelling, "Hey, come back here!"
"Just my luck that the meter man's wandering around here now. Where's this damn switch?"
"What's that?" called Alexia from up on his back. She pointed to a red light against the far wall. Barely visible underneath was text reading, Manual Override.
"Finally, something promising..."













