Emeralds Are Forever
by Pip the Bat
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Sonic, Tails and related characters are copyright to Sega
and Archie Comics. Pip [Mecha Bot VI] is copyright to me,
Pip the Bat. Serena is copyright to NetRaptor. Used with
permission. Spark is copyright to Ace Castle. He is not
used with permission but I've been told that Ace Castle
doesn't mind anyone using his character as long as they
don't kill him off, which I haven't].
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The sun beat down, prophesizing yet another luxurious
Summer's day. In a clearing in the forest way below, lay
Sonic and Serena Hedgehog, taking an early nap.
Serena yawned and stretched, glancing down at her
wrist watch. Another hour left until lunch still, and it
was a warm day... She made up her mind. She would walk down
to the stream and get a drink from there. It was more fun
that way, anyway.
She got to her feet, careful not to wake Sonic, and
began the roundabout half-mile walk to the stream. She had
the vague feeling that somebody was watching her all the
way along, but whenever she glanced cautiously around, there
was definitely not a sole in sight. When she reached the
stream, she dropped to her knees and cupped her hands into
the water.
As she was bending down, a sudden pressure came down
onto her neck, plunging her head under the water. She
tried to call out, but her mouth just filled with water, and
struggling was useless as another weight was being applied
to her back, preventing her from moving at all. Just as
she thought she was about to pass out from lack of air,
the pressure from her neck was removed, and yanked her head
out quickly, taking in a deep gasp of air.
But as soon as she had done so, the pressure came
again, forcing her head back into the water. Like the time
before, she was let up just in time to stop her from drowning.
"Cut it out, you bully," she spluttered, furiously. The
pressure on her neck, thankfully, was not reapplied. Instead,
a voice answered her.
"Why, exactly? I'm having fun."
She recognised the voice almost immediately. It was
Pip, Mecha bot VI, who had left Knothole about two months
ago after she had attempted to kill Sonic. Sonic and the
others, when they had discussed it at the time, had thought
that Pip had decided to become their enemy. She hadn't been
totally sure at the time. She was now.
The pressure on her back was removed also, and she
rolled over to face Pip, who was grinning broadly.
"Drowning people is your idea of fun?" she snapped,
glaring back at her.
"Well, I've never drowned anybody, so how should I
know? And I don't want to drown you either. I need your help."
Serena looked confused. "Why did you attack me then?"
"Just to show you what might happen if you don't come
with me. All you need to do is go to jail, don't pass go,
don't collect two hundred coins."
"What?"
"Basically, I'm going to kidnap you. So then Sonic will
come looking for you. And even if he doesn't, it won't matter,
because I've still got you as a hostage. You see, I want to do
a little trading for that belt of Sonic's, emeralds included."
Serena opened her mouth to say something all through
this, but at the end she just said: "Why? It wouldn't be any
use to you as you are. You know what it did to R.K."
"Hey, give me credit for some brains. I don't want to
use the thing. I just know that without it, Knothole will be
less able to defend itself. Then I can put my... Master Plan
into operation. I would think of a better name for it, but I
might give it away and then I'd ruin the surprise, wouldn't I?"
Serena didn't reply, but she got to her feet and
sprinted away from the robot in one swift move. She hadn't
got very far however, before something smashed into her back,
knocking her to the ground.
"I hate to tell you this," came Pip's voice. "But
you're going the wrong way."
***
Sonic had woken up and discovered the absence of his
sister. This normally wouldn't have worried him, but the
patch of grass next to him wasn't even slightly flattened
any more. Still, she'd probably got bored and wandered off
back to Knothole or some way into the forest. He got to his
feet and jogged back to Knothole.
***
It was the next morning, and Serena still hadn't made
an appearance. Sonic was quite badly worried by then, but
he hadn't told Slasher or anybody because she might have
just got back late and gone for an early walk, or any number
of other things. And there hadn't been any sightings of the
robots or enemies of Knothole recently, which leant another
point in favour of the harmless explanations.
He couldn't help worrying though. He kept wandering
restlessly over to the outskirts of Knothole, hoping to
see Serena returning. As the day wore on however, he began
to wonder if he ought to tell Slasher after all. It had
reached midday when he glanced into the forest once more.
This time he saw someone, though not his sister. Although
he had only glimpsed the figure for a moment, he could have
sworn it was Pip.
He quickly ran over to where he thought he'd seen
her. Sure enough, some way off was Pip, hurrying deeper
into the forest. Not stopping to think, he followed her
carefully at a distance, keeping her in sight but not
getting close enough for her to spot him.
They had gone on like this for a while and had reached
a little glade when Pip turned round and looked him straight
in the eye. "You're not too bad at follow the leader, are
you Sonic?" she said, tilting her head to one side.
Sonic realised with a jolt of surprise that she
must have known that he was following her the whole time,
probably even planned it that way. "You were taking too
long to come after your sister, so I thought I'd better
encourage you a little," she added.
"What have you done to Serena?" Sonic snapped, eyes
blazing, taking a stance that would mean he could break
into a run at any second. He'd been in a fight with the
robot before, and although it had lasted a mere few seconds,
he had sustained several painful injuries in the process, a
very slight limp in one leg still gave credit to that.
"Nothing whatsoever. Much," she added, grinning
wickedly. "And if you want it to stay that way, I'd
suggest coming with me."
"It won't do her any good if I come or just run off
and try to find her."
"Well, one way she'll die and the other she'll live.
But of course, it's your choice. I'll just mention to her
that her dear brother just couldn't be bothered to give up
his freedom in exchange for her life..."
"All right, all right," said Sonic testily, still
poised to run. "What do you want?"
"Have you got your emerald belt with you? And if you
have and are thinking of using it, I wouldn't advise it.
You won't find your sister at all if you do, and as we
all know, that'd be a great pity, wouldn't it?" She
smirked at him.
"No, I haven't got it," said Sonic, wishing he'd
been wearing it when he'd had the impulse to chase after
her. "I could go back to Knothole and get it if you like."
"I'm not stupid Sonic. If you go back to Knothole
you'll return with Slasher and half the village. I've got
a strange aversion to great big dinosaurs who don't share
my views charging at me at several hundred miles per hour.
Which as we all know, means..."
"I know, I know, Serena gets it. Well what do you
want me to do then? Make it suddenly appear in my hand
or merely give it a whistle to bring it to heel?"
"Neither, which reminds me. The whistle, if you
please."
With great reluctance, Sonic handed over the
whistle which he usually wore about his neck, which
would emit a high pitch sound when blown, alerting
Slasher, wherever she was, to the fact that he needed
her assistance.
"Now, since you don't have the belt, I suppose
I'll just have to keep you along with Serena and offer
you both in exchange for the belt."
"What good is the belt to you, anyway?" asked
Sonic, grudgingly allowing Pip to firmly grip his
arm and lead him into another part of the forest.
"Not a lot. The thing is that it's good to you,
and I don't want a lot of useful things on your side
while I'm putting my major Master Plan into action."
"Which is...?" prompted Sonic, hoping that if she
told him and he and Serena managed to escape, they would
at least be forewarned against whatever it was.
"I won't tell you the whole plan," said Pip, giving
him the creepy feeling that she'd just read his mind. "But
let's just say that it involves the emeralds."
"The emeralds? But they're in Sapphire City."
"Were. I've got them now."
"Did you--" began Sonic, but Pip interrupted him.
"Did I hurt anyone? No. Oh, wait, I think I broke
someone's arm. Oh, and someone else sprained their ankle,
but that was indirect as they were running away."
"And what are you going to do with the emeralds?
They badly affect all machinery, so they'd be no good to
you either."
"The idea is, that I get myself used to the
emeralds' affects, starting small and ending with the
whole bunch."
"But that isn't how it works..." Sonic said,
hopefully.
"I hate to correct you, but I've been trying it,
and it is successful. Little pieces of emerald at a time
and then progressing, you see."
"Little pieces? What did you do to them?"
"Honey, I Broke the Emeralds," drawled Pip. "But
I heard somewhere that they'll merge back together again
when joined."
"And if they don't?"
"There's always superglue," said Pip, her grin
increasing.
Sonic couldn't think of anything else to say, so
they walked on in silence, Sonic in some discomfort;
Pip's grip on his arm was very firm indeed. Still, he
couldn't help thinking that whatever the Master Plan
was, he didn't really want to know it.
***
They reached another clearing after only a few
minutes and Sonic saw Serena, tied up and dozing by a
tree. The temptation to break free and try and run off
with Serena was very strong, but then again, so was Pip's
hold on his arm, and he couldn't move.
The robot whipped out a length of rope and quickly
bound him up like Serena, shoving him roughly over
towards her. Since his legs were tied up, he fell and
landed hard on his face next to her.
"Wupsie, better be more careful next time," Pip
told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
She strode off at a brisk pace into the forest.
Almost immediately, Serena came to life, managing
to give Sonic a quick half smile. "Are you okay?" Sonic
asked, manoeuvring himself into a slightly more comfortable
position next to his sister. "Did she hurt you?"
"No, apart from the fact she's forgotten that
normal creatures need food to survive, I'm fine. How
about you?"
"Fine too, save the fact I think I've lost the
circulation in one arm. Do you know anything about what
she's up to? All she told me was that it evolved the Chaos
Emeralds."
"I worked that one out a long time ago. When I was
first left here, she kept shooting past, smoke pouring
out and everything, towards the stream. Then sometime
in the middle of the night, she came up to me and proudly
showed me that she could hold a whole emerald quarter."
She rolled her eyes.
They were both startled when a voice from behind
them said: "Well, if she was proud then, imagine how she
is now." They turned round as much as they could, the
ropes painfully cutting into their flesh. Pip was standing
there, the blue emerald in her hand, evidently having just
teleported there. "Isn't this so fun? I think I like this
one best." She threw the emerald into the air, catching
it perfectly. "Definitely."
"You didn't take long, did you?" said Sonic, glaring
at her, angry that she'd been listening to their conversation.
"Nope. I can use just about all the emeralds at
once now. I suppose I should send your pals at Knothole
a note asking for the Emerald Belt in exchange for your
safe return. And since I might not be very popular there,
I think I'll just have it dropped in on them." She held
out one arm. "Sharpeye!" she yelled loudly.
There was a flap of feathers and a small shape
dropped from one of the trees and landed on her
outstretched arm. Sonic saw that it was a hawk, one
of the few non-talking dumb creatures that still existed
on Mobius.
"Now take this to the village I showed you
earlier. Don't actually land, just circle over one of
the people there and drop it on them. Preferably the
squirrel or the velociraptor. Then, don't fly straight
back here. Just meander off somewhere. Now, did you get
all of that?" The bird gave a slight nod and took off,
the piece of paper Pip had handed it clamped in its beak.
"There we go," said Pip, cheerfully. "Sharpeye
just lives in the area and is nice enough to do me
one or two favours every so often. In return for
wiping out his enemies. Anyway, I asked them in the
letter to leave the belt at a certain place with no
tricks otherwise they'd never see you alive again.
I think that just about covers it, don't you?"
"So what have you been doing since you left
Knothole?" asked Serena, hoping that Pip would let
something of her plan slip. "Tails said you'd mentioned
finding the other Mecha bots."
"I haven't quite got around to it yet. Once I've
got this out of the way, I will do though. You know
what?" she added, her voice filling with unconcealed
contempt. "I heard that at least one of them works
for Robotnik. I mean, how sad and desperate is that?"
"You don't like Robotnik then?"
"Like him?" Pip sounded horrified. "Don't you
know what he did?"
"And which particular thing out of millions would
we be talking about here?" asked Sonic, in a sarcastic
tone of voice.
"About what he did to the bats, of course." Both
Sonic and Serena shook their heads. "Well, someone
betrayed a group of bats to him, and he captured
them. Being totally brainless, he didn't actually
know how bats find their way in the dark and everything,
so just to see if it was true, he blindfolded the lot
of them and sent then to walk through a big complex
place, from start to finish. They all did it in record
time of course, and he was impressed.
"But he still didn't know why it was. He thought
they might just have pretty amazing eyesight or
something so he..." She paused for a second before
continuing, disgust emanating from every syllable.
"He took out their eyes." Serena felt her stomach
lurch and a wave of nausea swept over her. "He sent
them through another complex and they still got to
the end, just as quick as before, so he decided to
find out if it was something else. What he did was
cut them open to see if he could find out." Serena
had closed her eyes at this point, and Sonic looked
as if he was about to throw up.
"Terrible, isn't it? Of course, if I ever find
out who betrayed them, they are going to find
themselves hung, drawn and quartered plus just about
everything else I can think of on the spur of the
moment or with pre-planned malicious thinking."
"What about Robotnik?" Sonic asked, recovering
slightly.
"Well, I thought you guys were dealing with him,"
said Pip, matter-of-factly. "Not to say he wouldn't
be in big trouble if I ever did meet up with him, of course."
"Oh." When Sonic looked up again, Pip had gone
again. He put an arm round Serena who was looking very
ill. Later, at nightfall, he finally dozed off to
sleep, only to dream of hollow eyed bats flying in
great never ending circles above his head, being
commanded by another, robot bat; Pip. When he woke up,
sweating with fright, it was to see a green and black
furry face close to his own. He almost yelled out,
before he realised it was his brother, Spark.
A crop of the black hair covered part of his face
as well as a red band around his head, containing the
eighth chaos emerald. Straightening up, he saw the
rest of his reassuring familiarity; the belt strap
holding Spark's knife, the metal arm, the yellow and
purple trainers.
"Spark?" he whispered, still a little drowsy.
"What are you doing here?"
"There was this bird who flew over and dropped
a scrap of paper with a ransom note on it right on my
head. I figured it might go back to wherever it came
from, so I set off after it. It flew around for a bit
then settled down on a tree. I thought it must have
been told just to deliver the message and go and was
about to leave when it flew off again. I followed once
more and here I am. Now, I suppose I'd better get you
out of those ropes." He brandished his knife and cut
through the ropes securing Sonic before moving over
and cutting Serena's, who had just started to wake up.
"Who tied you up, anyway?" asked Spark, as he
cut the last of Serena's binding cords. "It didn't
say on the paper."
"It was Pip. She's here and she says she's got
a plan of some kind. Let's just hope that by rescuing
us you might have ruined the whole thing."
"I think she said that it didn't really matter
whether or not it worked," said Serena, looking a
little worried. "Pip has definitely thought the
whole thing out."
"Pip a des sentiments violente. Not to
mention extremely annoyed. That's my plan you're
spoiling, you know." Pip was standing a few feet
away, her icy blue eyes glittering. All three
hedgehogs took fighting poses, hoping that they
might win through strength in numbers. "Still,"
Pip continued. "You haven't ruined my Master Plan
which I am now going to put into action. Good day."
She pivoted round on one foot and walked in the
opposite direction from them.
Sonic, who had been expecting a fight, stared
in confusement. "Should we follow her?" he asked.
"Of course. The plan is probably gonna effect
us all anyway, so its best to face it rather than
go back to Knothole," replied Spark, while Serena,
impatient to go, had already started off.
They ran through the woodland in the direction
that Pip had taken. After a few moments, they came
out into another clearing that they had never seen
before, and in the centre was a huge pedestal, which
reminded Sonic strongly of the one in the Master
Emerald Chamber on the Floating Island. Except the
one there hadn't got creepers and ivy growing over it.
On the pedestal there were seven grooves, six
of which were filled with six of the emeralds. Pip
was there, about to drop the last emerald, the blue
one, into the final hole. Sonic and Spark started
towards her, closely followed by Serena.
Pip turned round, casually holding the blue
emerald still. "You don't give up, do you?" she said,
and dropped the blue emerald into the hole. There was
a pause then a great flash of blinding white light
came from the emeralds, the hedgehogs only just
managing to shield their eyes in time. Flames had
burst out from the pedestal and now surrounded them,
cutting them off from both Pip and escaping.
Sonic glanced over to where Pip was, tearing
his gaze from the inferno around him. She was standing
in a ring of flame, something shimmery and see
through clasped in her hand. "I have it!" she called
triumphantly, holding the object aloft. Seeing Sonic
looking at her, she grinned.
"Ever heard of the Gemstones, Sonic? The three
orbs which together hold more power than the chaos
emeralds? This," she said, holding out her hand so
that Sonic could see what saw in it; a miniature
translucent light blue orb. "Is the Gemstone of Hope.
It has one or two powers of it's own which should
be fun kicking around with. Of course, I don't hope
to get all the Gemstones, that would be truly
impossible, but to have one should be a great lucky
charm."
So saying, she held it up in the air. "Tell
me what it's like to be deep fried hedgehog. Adios,
amigos." She glowed white for a moment, then vanished.
Sonic put all thoughts of the Gemstone and
Pip out of his mind, as dangerous combination as
the two might be, and tried to concentrate on how
they were going to get out of their current situation.
He couldn't really see how. Fire on every side, coming
closer to them...
He, Spark and Serena backed towards the middle
of unburnt ground. Sonic felt a hand slip into his
own and he glanced round to see Serena, looking
worried but not quite panicking yet.
Spark, who had been looking at the flames
closely for some time, suddenly let out an exclamation
and moved towards the flames. Sonic was about to ask
what he was doing, when Spark put his hands right
through the flames. Sonic stared in horrified surprise.
What was his brother doing? But then he noticed what
Spark had; the flames didn't burn. Looking down at
the ground, he saw that that wasn't burning either.
The flames were just... there.
Serena next to him gave a sigh of relief. They
were safe.
***
Tails looked at Sonic. "So... Pip's our enemy now?"
"Sure looks like it, little buddy. It's just lucky
that those flames weren't real, otherwise we'd have been
toast. I suppose Pip didn't realise they weren't either.
If she had done we really would have been in trouble."
"But she might have done and just not wanted to
hurt you."
"I doubt it."
Sighing slightly, Tails leapt off the log. "Guess
you're right. I've gotta go and fix some 'plane parts
now. See ya later."
Sonic watched him out of sight before getting
up and going to find Serena. "Life goes on," he murmured.
The End (for now)
