Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any and all affiliated characters. They are owned by Sega (Though it might be Nintendo now) and Archie Comics, all objects and items related to Sonic the Hedgehog, are their property, and claim no responsibility for the content of this fan-made story. The plot of this story alone, and any characters introduced by the author that have not made an appearance in either the comic series or video game series are owned by the author and should not be duplicated by others without the written permission of the author.
(Phew) that's a long disclaimer, but since this is my first fanfic, I don't wanna get in shit. Anyways now that I got the legal crap out of the way; I hope you enjoy the story and if you like what I wrote please R&R(read & review), if you feel the alternative, don't hesitate to tell me what I did wrong, I need to learn too right? P.S. I use the British spellings like 'colour' since I live in Canada, so no need to comment on that.
A Visitor From Afar
Chapter 1: The Arrival
Robotropolis; a vile, polluted city of metal and machines and the base of operations for the cruelest being to have ever walked the face of Mobius; Doctor Ivo Robotnik. The one and only goal of this bloated overlord is to see every living thing on the face of the planet transformed into his robotic slaves and turn the planet into his own private cesspool of waste and death. Of course the city was not always like this, during the reign of King Maxamilon Acorn, then called Mobotropolis; the place was a paradise, one where nature and technology co-existed perfectly. But sadly, after the former warlord Julian Kintobor overthrew the king and changed his name to Doctor Robotnik, it has since fallen into disrepair, and every aspect of the former beautiful city has been directed towards the production of war machines, and robots.
Not all hope was lost however; some of the inhabitants of the former Mobotropolis escaped the mad doctor's drones and escaped to a safe haven called Knothole Village. The Village was created during the past war with the humans, who called themselves Overlanders. This safe haven served as a refugee from the tin-plated tyrant and in time, the Freedom Fighters; a small band of Mobians who opposed the mad dictator made a stand from this hidden village. They fought valiantly against Robotnik for years trying to end his cruel reign. The Freedom Fighters, led by Princess Sally Acorn, was aided by many others but the major players in the fight were Antoine D'Coolette, supposedly Sally's body guard; Rotor the Walrus, the mechanical genius behind the Freedom Fighters sophisticated, non-lethal, arsenal; Bunnie Rabbot, part rabbit, part machine, but all heart; Miles 'Tails' Prower, the youngest by far, but possesses a tremendous potential; and of course the greatest hero on the planet(if only in his own mind) and also the fastest living thing alive, Sonic the Hedgehog. Robotnik endlessly toiled and experimented with ways to put an end to these meddlesome rabble-rousers; and this day was no exception…
"SNIVELY!" bellowed the overweight-overlord. A door behind Robotnik opened with a muffled whooshing noise as an obviously intimidated set of eyes peered cautiously around the corner, afraid to expose his entire body, and ready to bolt for it the instant it was needed.
"Y-Yes sir?" the small figure whimpered, barely able to be heard.
"Get over here now you cowardly worm!" Robotnik growled as he turned his head to the side a little, hands on his hips, not even trying to make eye contact with the puny assistant. Like a scared puppy Snively slowly crept around the corner, still ready to dash out the door if things got ugly, like they no doubt would, he thought. As he came around the corner his distinctively long nose was the first thing to completely round the corner, followed by a small, trembling and nervous body. Snively never took his eyes off the round figure of Robotnik as he almost tip-toed ever closer, still in fear that Robotnik was still furious with him after he had tried to take charge of Robotropolis after Robotnik had taken that unfortunate, but brief trip to the Void. He knew full well his Uncle would never let him live that down. Since Robotnik's last defeat, he had locked himself away in this stuffy old laboratory. Snively thought it strange that his Uncle had come to this particular laboratory of all place's though. After all, this particular lab was not a very high security facility compared to the other labs within the fortress, nor, from what he could remember, did it house anything very special. Still that was of little importance at the moment, what ever Robotnik had been working on here, he was prepared to reveal it, and Snively had a feeling in the pit of his stomach, that whatever it was , nothing good was going to come from it.
Snively was surprised Robotnik had done nothing to him as he finally walked beside his bloated master, it seemed as though Robotnik hadn't even cared about how long it had taken Snively to cautiously walk towards him in the least. "He must be very focused on something else if he's this distracted." thought the cowardly nephew. "Yes, Lord Robotnik? What is it?" Snively said, surprising himself by how much his voice trembled in fear.
"Do you remember the Void experiments Snively?" Robotnik asked in a surprisingly calm and serious tone. Snively knew exactly which experiment Robotnik was referring to; the one where Sonic the Hedgehog's Uncle Chuck, who had been robotisized during the coup, somehow regained his free will after an experiment went haywire and ended up sending Robotnik into the Void. The very same dimensional rift to which Robotnik banished King Acorn at the start of his revolution. Of course in Robotnik's absence, Snively donned his uncle's uniform, a few XXXL sizes smaller, and tried to destroy the Freedom Fighters and claim Mobius for himself.
Snively knew his uncle could hold a grudge like no other, so he only naturally assumed Robotnik had devised some new punishment for his disloyalty. Of course by now Snively noticed that Robotnik was staring at him, expecting a response. Luckily Snively had placed one hand under his chin to make it look like he was struggling to remember while his thoughts had drifted off to that unkind memory. "Umm… yes sir, why?" Snively asked hoping that Robotnik was leading the conversation in a different direction from what the one he was dreading.
Robotnik smiled in his usual, evil manner, the way that usually told Snively he had cooked something very devilish up. "Which also means that this meeting isn't about me!" Snively thought as he let out the air he had been holding and sighed in relief.
"As you remember Snively, last time we were testing the possibility of sending and retrieving items from the zone in this lab. Of course we never got to finish the test because of a certain miss-wiring problem. I have, however, since corrected the problem had have already run a few simple tests." Robotnik chortled.
Snively, now feeling a little more bold now that he knew it wasn't his fat on the fryer decided to press the conversation "Yes, and what were the results Doctor Robotnik?" he asked a little curious to boot now.
"Instead of sending one of those pesky robotic Mobians, and risk freeing their minds; I decided to send in some fully robotic probes. I sent the probes into the Void without any difficulty, but when I tried to retrieve them they did not seem to return at first. I activated their homing devises, and soon learned they had indeed left the zone, but some were nearly 12 Km outside of the city!" Robotnik said with a look of knowing bewilderment on his face.
Snively's eye's opened wide to this statement. "But sir if the experiment was anything like the first one, shouldn't they have reappeared through the Void's gateway?"
Robotnik smiled, already knowing the answer to that question. "That is what I was wondering myself for a time, but then I realized something that I had changed from the first experiment. The probes I had sent into the Void possessed self-return mechanisms built into them. Thus when they activated them they were not actually exiting through the Gateway; and therefore were able to appear randomly across a wide range. It would seem that I had inadvertently discovered that the Void has teleportation abilities!" Robotnik glowered wickedly as he turned to his nephew. "Think of it Snively, I could teleport legions of Swatbots anywhere I wanted, Mercia, Downunda, the Floating island…" he paused a moment savoring the next words for himself; speaking the words yery slowly for emphasis. ", right smack dab in the middle of Knothole." He chuckled cruelly.
Snively couldn't believe his ears, the thought of being able to send endless reinforcements into battle, having them appear in the middle of their camps, completely unawares. Such an advantage would finally end those pesky fur-balls' rebellion once and for all! "How soon before we can begin, my Lord?" Snively sounded like a child who had just been given a brand new toy, and he was very eager to play with it.
Robotnik only sighed as Snively stopped bouncing around with glee. "It's not ready yet, nit-wit, there is still a few more tests I need to run. Plus I must figure out a way to ensure the Swatbots appear where they are supposed to. Now, go fetch a Swatbot and bring it here! I wish to run a test with something bigger then those worthless probes, and to see if my new guidance system will work." Robotnik cackled to himself at his own brilliance, as Snively excitedly raced out the door to retrieve a Swatbot. "Not even the Hedgehog can escape me this time… after all he can't outrun something that he can't know is there… until it appears in right in front of him!" the mad doctor let out another howling fit of laughter, one that was clearly audible throughout much of Robotnik's fortress headquarters. In fact it carried so well that several levels below him a familiar vulpine crawling though the air-ducts could clearly make it out.
The small fox gasped in surprise; pausing a moment. "Well 'Aunt' Sally said go find out what blubber-bolts was up to, might as well find out right from the horses mouth." Tails whispered to himself as he took a right through the maze of ducts and continued to crawl quietly through the ducts as he headed towards still bellowing voice voice.
Meanwhile outside….
"All right Sal, he's in." said a blue figure staying within the shadows so as to not be spotted. The figure backed away form an open air duct as he peered around the corner into the empty alleyway. As his face rounded the corner what little light was available in the city illuminated the well known face of Sonic the Hedgehog. Seeing nothing he returned his face from around the corner and raised his left arm to his mouth. "So far so good, we haven't been spotted yet." He said into his wrist communicator.
"Good work Sonic." Replied the hollow and distorted voice of Sally Acorn. "Stupid microphone, when is Rotor going to update this hunk'o junk so he can hear their voices properly?" he thought. "Just remember the plan hot shot, you're to stay out of sight, and distract the Swatbots incase Tails blows his cover. No heroic." Sally said over the communicator.
"Chill Sal, he'll be fine. After all he learned everything he knows from the best there is." Sonic boasted pointing his thumb towards himself.
Sonic chuckled as he heard a faint groan come from Sally before she replied, "That's what I'm worried about." Sonic checked to see if the alley way was clear again. Seeing that it was all clear, he burst off in a blast of speed that would have been too fast for any bots' that weren't paying attention to notice him. "Of course…" Sonic thought ", I doubt any bots that were pay'n attention wouldn't have noticed this speed demon anyways." He smiled, feeling a wave of over confidence flow over him, but it was short lived. He came screeching to halt near an old building and lay low near a pile of fallen bricks. Even if he could do this job by himself, and do it a lot faster, he still had a job to do; especially with his little buddy on the line. Groan "This is going to be a long wait." He grumbled to himself.
Back inside Robotnik's fortress….
Snively had returned with a Swatbot in tow; the large, heavy machine making loud metallic clanking noises as it approach its master. "Reporting-as-ordered-oh-lord-of-lard." The swatbot stated in its robotic, monotone voice giving a crisp salute, clanking its metal gauntlet against its equally metal, dome-topped head.
"Swatbot 3-5-6-8, deactivate for upgrade." Robotnik ordered. In response to the voice command the swatbot's optic sensor winked out as the rest of the robot deactivated, slumping over a little. Robotnik walked around to the back of the swatbot and opened a small maintenance hatch in the small of the swatbots back. He pulled out the guidance unit and expertly attached it within a matter of minutes.
Snively had to hand it to his uncle, he was and excellent mechanic and engineer, if not a little insane. Robotnik pulled out a few tools and within minutes the device was securely attached inside the robot and functioning properly. With a satisfied chuckle Robotnik closed the hatch and backed away. "Swatbot, reactivate." He commanded. In sync the robot beeped and booped back to life, correcting its posture automatically. "Report status Swatbot." Robotnik ordered. "Upgrade-detected-and-functioning-properly." The Swatbot chimed back.
"Excellent! Come wretched assistant." Robotnik snorted as he turned around and headed to a small door in the back of the room.
"But, Sir, aren't we going watch?" Snively asked bewildered by his uncle.
"Yes you dolt, but after the last time we tried this I got sent to the Void, this time we shall watch from the safety of this observation room." Robotnik shouted, visibly irritated. Snively shrugged and walked over to the room. As he got there however there seemed to be something wrong. The room was too small! In fact it seemed a bit too small to even fit Robotnik alone.
"Um, Sir, there doesn't appear to be much room in there for me." Snively said as he stared at the diminutive room.
"I designed this room to keep me safe, I wasn't anticipating having company." Robotnik replied sarcastically. "But if you would rather stay out there where something might happen…." He trailed off as he tauntingly reached for the door switch. Snively shrieked in fear and bolted inside. Robotnik chuckled to himself as he activated the door, sealing them off from the lab room. He then pushed a different button and a metal panel slid up revealing a window and the room beyond. Fortunately for Snively there was a decent amount of space to the side of the room where Snively would not get squished, however it meant not having a very good view of things. Thus he was forced to lean over across some of the control panels, and hang dangerously close to that spare tire of his uncles. Robotnik hardly noticed as he poured all of his attention to the task at hand. He reached down and hit a button; slowly a heavy door slowly slid apart across the room. Beyond the door loomed the swirling vortex of the Void. As the door opened wider the void began sucking anything that wasn't securely tied down into the great vortex. Papers, dirt, any lazily strewn about tools began to be pulled inside, but because of the swatbots weight it hardly moved.
"Swatbot, enter the Void." He commanded. The swatbot heeded the order barely lifting its heavy metal foot off the floor before the vortex swept it off its feet and pulled it within the Void. Robotnik hit the same button as before and the Voids heavy doors closed in response. "As you can see Snively," he said pointing to a monitor on the control panel. ", this telemetry says that the swatbot is in the Void, and more importantly, that all is operating properly." Robotnik leaned his girth forward as he spoke into a microphone. "Prepare to activate self-return unit." He ordered into the microphone. The Swatbot replied dryly as Robotnik began a count down. 10-9-8…"
As the count down neared ever closer neared zero, the main door to the lab whooshed open suddenly. From around the corner a robotic voice could be heard shouting and cursing at something else. Suddenly Crabmeat, one of Robotnik's early 'Badniks clanked into the room holding what appeared to be a squared off light bulb. "Give that back you poor excuse for a side dish!" yelled a mechanical monkey as it too leaped into the room.
"Why Coconuts, that Christmas light looks good in your head!" laughed the robotic crab waving its claws, and Coconuts light bulb in the air. Normally the squared off light bulb sat atop the mechanical monkey's head, but instead glowing atop his head, in a bright green, was an old Christmas light that Crabmeat had found on the streets and had swapped for Coconuts real light as a practical joke.
"Why You!" Cocunuts' yelled as he pulled out an exploding coconut from the replicator on the back of his metallic body.
"7-6-5…"
Coconut threw the coconut at the offending crab, but the robot simply ducked as the explosive passed over him harmlessly. "Nah-nah, can't ya hit me? No wonder I'm the masters' favorite!" Steam started shooting out of the angry simians ears at that statement and whipped another coconut, this time the projectile passed in front of the glass window Robotnik and Snively were sitting behind and exploding off to the left somewhere destroying some miscellaneous equipment.
"What!" Robotnik shouted as he stood up, in the process smearing Snively against the glass; now resembling a bug who just hit a windshield. "What are those moronic machines doing in there?" he shouted, furious as hell.
"4-3-2…"
Suddenly Crabmeat, trying to dodge the incoming grenades passes in front of a large machine; resembling a giant laser cannon, as a coconut wizzes by, narrowly missing him. The grenade did not, however, fail to miss the controls of the machine. An alarm sounds as the doors to the zone of silence open rapidly. The machine begins humming loudly and grew ever louder as a static field could be felt building while the devise built up a massive electrical charge. Blue-white light began to gather at the tip of the machines muzzle. Coconut and Crabmeat had long since stopped fighting and were holding each other, shaking in fear of what was about to happen.
Just as the countdown reached "0'' the large machine discharges the blast into the zone with a brilliant flash of light and a deafening noise. The blast was so bright it even managed to find its way inside the air ducts to where Tails, now closing in on the doctor's position, and beyond all the way to the vents on the outer wall of the fortress. It blinded him for a moment and forcing him to close his eyes and cover his ears from the massive noise. His scream of surprise was completely inaudible compared to the noise of the cannon, and thus he remained undiscovered.
Even Sonic the Hedgehog, waiting outside, could see and hear the muffled effects of the blast from within the fortress. He had no clue as to what just happened, and since he needed to maintain radio silence, all he could do was wait and hope that nothing had happened to Tails.
As the blinding light faded away, Robotnik, Snively still pressed against the glass, rubbed their eyes vigorously to clear their vision from all the stars flying about in their eyes. When Robotnik stopped rubbing his eyes and looked out the window, he first saw the two cowering robots, but what really caught his eye, was the strange figure lying on the ground before the now shut doors of the Void Gateway.
Lying there unconscious on the floor lay the prone body of a green lizard creature, it looked almost human; except the head. As he stared in disbelief the creature began to stir, apparently waking up. The creature picked its chest up off the floor a little, trying to give itself a better view of the strange surroundings. The creature groaned as it rubbed its head. Robotnik noticed the creature had a large, Mohawk-like frill which ran from the creatures' forehead, and down its spine ending where the neck meet the shoulders. The skin between the frills' spikes being the same green colour as its body, but the boney spikes that gave the frill its shape were a golden yellow colour. The creatures face had a large muzzle extending out, having a distinct reptilian look to it, almost dragon-like. Its red eyes glanced around the room rapidly, obviously bewildered and confused by its surroundings, yet its eyes very wavered in fear, but a very stern and focused look about them. Standing up off the cold metal floor, Robotnik could now see more of what this strange creature looked like. The legs, resembling more the hind legs of many of the non-sentient life forms on this rock, were very bizarre to the Doctors way of thinking; most Mobians possessed a more human legs structure.
Its throat, a pure white colour, looked as though the underbelly colouring of the creature covered the chest down to about midway down its long, slender tail. The tail itself had a similar frill on the tip of it as on the top of its head, though much smaller. But what really had Robotnik really thrown of his wits was that this creature wore battle armor! Not a full body suit, but its chest, stomach, forearms, shins, and thighs were covered in a tough, polished metal armor. Its head had a helmet on that covered its forehead, and cheeks with an elegant curve on the under side of the helmet giving it an almost Spartan look to it. Shoulder plates curved up from the shoulder joint and instilled an intimidating air about the creature.
Robotnik finally composing himself after the initial shock reached down to the microphone and yelled into it. "Don't just cower there you Mecha-Morons capture that intruder." He shouted at Coconuts and Crabmeat. The two jumped off each other and prepared to attack. The creature could apparently understand them since it took up a defensive posture. Using its' right hand it reached over to its' left hip and drew a sword from its scabbard and by shrugging its' left shoulder in such a way the strap that was holding a circular shield fell from the shoulder and, sliding along the length of the arm locked onto the armored plate on the creatures forearm. It took up a new fighting stance as the two bots gave each other a look of uncertainty. Robotnik almost laughed out loud at the sight.
"To think, that creature actually that believes that it stands a chance against my robots with such primitive weapons?" he lightly chuckled at this and stood straighter, preparing himself for a short, one-sided fight.
Crabmeat was the first to charge the creature. Using its extendable arms he swung his right claw out trying to club the creature with its claw. The creature simply raised its shield and blocked the claw; absorbing the impact with ease. Then the left claw swung in.
It countered by bringing its' shield across it's body and blocked again, but before Crabmeat could pull the claw back the Lizard swung the glistening sword high over its head down at the metallic arm; dissecting it easily. The severed claw fell heavily to the floor with a loud crash.
Crabmeat was deeply distressed by this, flinging its other claw at the creature in retaliation. Again the creature blocked, but instead of absorbing the force with its arm, it instead swung the shielded arm at the claw, meeting the force head on, sending it flying away. After batting the claw away, the creature leapt forward, racing for the robots diminutive body. By knocking away his only remaining arm, Crabmeat had no chance of blocking the sword as it swung upwards at the body of the small crab slicing into the lower part of the bot, cutting upwards. The sword dug in; leaving a massive gouge in the small bot, now nothing more then scrap metal. The body collapsed to the floor, leaking black oil from severed hoses. Sparks flashed as its electrical systems failed. The creature stood there for a moment, baffled, as it stared at the metal innards of the robot.
Coconut, recovering from his shock reached to his back and whipped one of his exploding coconuts at the creature. At the last minute the creature saw the incoming coconut, and crouched behind the protection of its shield. The grenade landed dead center of shield, right on target, exploding with a great boom, a great cloud of black smoke engulfing where it had exploded. Coconuts pumped his fist in triumph and shrieked out "Bulls' eye!"
He turned around, expectanting to see the proud face of his master for destroying the intruder. But upon seeing his master, his expression was not of evil delight, but more of shock and bewilderment… at something behind him, no less. Coconuts' started to turn around when his shoulder bumped into something. His face drops as he looks straight up. There, towering over the small monkey stood the intruder.
"Ye cats, he's like 6 feet tall!" thought the monkey as every servo in his body froze in fear.
"Bet you thought that was pretty funny; didn't ya." The creature said in a very irritated, and obviously male voice. Coconuts jumped back and was about to pull out another coconut, but before he could, the creatures sword flashed across the robot. At first it looked like nothing had happened, but then, gravity took over… Coconuts body slide off his hips from the left shoulder to the opposite hip. His body had been cut clean in half from shoulder to hip! As for the rest of the body that remained standing, it finally succumbed to gravity, buckling at the knees; falling to the floor with a loud metallic clank. Just like before the creature stared at the sparking circuitry with a puzzled look on its face.
By now Robotnik was still slack jawed at the sight of two of his 'Badniks sliced in half by just one creature. Snively, equally baffled, reached down from his implanted position on the window and pushed the security button. Within seconds of the buttons activation, a dozen or more Swatbots flooded into the room; weapons trained on the creature. The creature whirled around to face these new threats, these new enemies were almost the same size as himself; so he considered them more of a threat then those two toys he had just kicked around.
"Set weapons to stun, I want that creature alive!" Bellowed Robotnik over the speaker. With that all of the Swatbots opened fire. The creature managed to block and dodge many of the initial shots, but the opponent's never relented firing long enough to allow him to move in and attack. A lucky shot managed to hit the exposed skin of the creature's right leg. He yelled in pain as several more blasts sneak past his guard and connect with the unarmored skin. The shots that did hit the armor deflected off the armor without making so much as a dent or even a scorch mark. After receiving 4 or 5 clean hits the creature collapsed to the ground unconscious. "Ugh… can't go… like this…" he groaned as the darkness slowly takes him.
Darkness, he could hardly feel anything, he tried to move but couldn't. "Where am I? What happened?" "Ohhh…" he moaned, focusing his racked mind to remember. "Last thing I remember…" he thought hard, searching for the answer in his head, but he couldn't seem to find it. Then, images rapidly flashed before his minds eye: dozens of metal clad warriors… they opened fire; beams of light spewed out of their arms… then, nothing. "I must have been hit, but where am 1 now?" As if trying to provide him an answer a sudden sharp pain brings him out of the hazy near conscious state he had been drifting in a moment before; awakening him to the cold, harsh reality.
"Argh!" he yelled as the pain stirred him rudely awake. He tried to get move, but found that his arms and legs were tied down fast. He opened his eye, but he could see nothing, just a black darkness. He tried to struggle a little to try and loosen the grip of the bonds, but to no avail. He quickly looked around again, but still saw nothing but darkness, every direction he looked was nothing but black nothing. Another sharp pain coursed through his entire body. "Argh!" he yelled again, louder this time; arching his back off the cold metal, the pain felt worse then the first time.
"Ah, he's awake, excellent. Snively, raise the tank." Came a muffled, yet sickeningly familiar voice. With a hissing noise, what the creature could make out as some sort of lid was slowly lifted off of some sort of table. Thus the reason he could see nothing distinguishing before. Light spilled in from surface of the table as the lid was lifted off; eventually lifting off completely. Now the creature could see his surroundings. The lab was square, with various monitors and controls lining the walls of the room. Some movement off to the side caught the creature's attention as it quickly forgot about its surroundings and focused on the new threat. Maneuvering around a workstation console on one side of the room, Robotnik casually waddled in front of the creature.
"Welcome… my boy, you've been given a great honor." Robotnik cooed, malice dripping from his words.
The creature tried to lunge off the table at the fat figure, but came short as the restraints held him fast, the rough edges of the metal restraints digging into his skin, blood dripping down the gashes. The creature, feeling the pain in his wrists looked down at them and realizes that the armored vambraces' had been removed. "What are you talking about?" He replied, hatred filling his words speaking through clenched teeth.
"Why, my boy, we're going to have a nice long talk, and then I'm going to robotisize you and make use of you and your swordsmen-ship skills to destroy that blasted Sonic the Hedgehog once and for all." Robotnik sneered. "And… if you choose not to talk, that's perfectly fine… I've been waiting to use this electric torture rack for some time; and you…" he said jabbing a finger into the creature's armored chest plate to emphasize his point. ", are going to break it in for me… Snively!"
At his masters command Snively turned on the power and sent a quick surge of electricity into the table. The combined screams of the poor creature, as well as Robotnik's maniacal laughter echoed throughout the great empty corridors of the fortress.
Elsewhere…
Tails had just about given up trying to find Robotnik after he lost track of his laughing voice, but the sudden cries of pain and laughter, pointed Tails back in the right direction in no time. The tormented screams making Tails crawl all the faster, now with a great urgency in his effort. As for the laughter, it only helped him to locate the fat-man faster. To Tails it seemed like forever before he locate where the screams were emanating from, but in truth it had only taken him about five minutes. When he arrived he looked down through the vent in horror to see Robotnik leaning over the strangest creature he had ever seen in his life; torturing the poor thing without mercy, trying to pump him for information. He couldn't do anything so long as chubby was there so he was forced to listen to the agonizing screams of pain. To Tails relief Robotnik held up one, cold metallic hand, and Snively shut off the power in response.
"My, my, my… that is a very lovely jewel you have there." Robotnik mocked as he reached for the ruby placed in the center of the creatures' armored chest. He casually reached out for the red jewel, and gingerly tried to pluck it off the chest plate; it wouldn't budge. With some forceful pulling, and resorting to using both hands, he finally he managed to yank the red gem from its fastening.
He examined the jewel, set in a golden shielded crest, as the creature weakly, but sternly protested; only to receive a blast of electricity from Snively to reward him for his trouble. "Ummm… not a Chaos Emerald, but still… its something I think I'll hang onto." Robotnik chortled as he plodded over to a cylindrical pedestal, placed the gem on top, and pushed a few buttons on the side of the pedestal.
"Come Snively… we'll return later when this creature decides to speak more then insults." Snively turned away from his station a smug, self-satisfied grin on his face, and walked out of the without looking back. Before Robotnik turned to leave as well he turned back to electrical controls and turned the power knob to minimal voltage. The creature winced in pain from the shocks. "Think of it as an incentive to start talking soon." He laughed as he left the room; the door silently whooshing closed as he left.
The creature was in obvious agony, that much Tails could clearly see, and now that Robotnik was finally gone, he could help the poor thing. He crouched inside the vent so he could bring his foot to bear on the vent cover. A swift kick and the vent crashed to the floor. Tails winced a little, since he had hoped it would just swing free on its hinge, not fall right off and make a lot of noise. "Still…" he thought. ", nobody's responding." He quickly hoped out of the vent landing much more quietly the blasted vent cover. The creature was well aware of his presence but the pain was too taxing on him to say anything. Tails bolted over to the control panel and quickly turned off the flow of electricity.
The creatures' large body slumped down, relaxing for the first time since the interrogation had begun. Tails sighed in relief to see that the creature was at lest out of pain now, though still not out of danger. Tails scanned over the control panel, trying to find the restraint release. Before he came across those however Tails did find the tables slant adjuster. He leveled the table off so at least the restraints were no longer digging into his wrists. A few moments later, he found what he was looking for and released the binding grip of the restraints.
The creature slowly sat up rubbing his chaffed wrists sorely. "Who are you?" He managed to say weakly sitting up from the table.
"Call me Tails." He said as he walked up beside the table.
"Thank you, Tails, you can call me Slasher." he said with a courteous bow of his large head. He tried to hop off the table and stand, but his legs gave out underneath him.
"Hey take it easy there." Tails warned as he rushed to creature's side to steady it. "Oof, you're pretty heavy, you know that." Tails groaned trying hard to hold the stranger up, he thought he saw a weak smile slip across Slasher's face, but the face showed far more signs of pain and exhaustion. It wasn't much use trying to hold the creature up, but he did help the creature lie down. Tails couldn't help but be awed at the size of this creature, he was easily as tall as a Swatbot, yet most Mobians never became much taller then about 4 feet, depending on the species of course.
"Ugh… crystal, get me to… the crystal…" Slasher said weakly; it sounded like he was on the verge of passing out. Tails looked to his left and immediately spotted what the creature meant; he also spied some of the creatures belongings as well, like his sword, shield and vambraces, resting against the pedestal. So, it took about a minute of grunting and pulling to pull the strange creature over to the pedestal. Tails propped the creatures arm over his shoulder and tried to help lift him up a bit. Weakly the creature extended its' arm and gently touched the crystal. A strange glow began emanate from the crystal, and slowly that same glow spread across the creatures skin until it cover its' whole body. Tails had to close his eyes form the bright light, and was amazed when the weight of the creature on his shoulder began to shrink down to a more manageable weight.
Tails looked to Slasher's face intending to ask how he had managed to lighten the load like that when his words caught in his throat. The creature had transformed! He was no longer the 6 feet tall, more like 3 foot five now! Plus his skin had changed from a lush, forest green to more of a crimson red, with a light grey belly and throat. His Mohawk frill no longer had skin spanning between the spike's; the golden yellow coloured spikes had also changed to more of a sky-blue colour, and had also shrank down in size. The armor plates, covering most of its body were gone; all that the creature wore was a brown, leather sash with various sorts of pockets along its length, something that reminded Tails of the belt Rotor always wore, except this one was made of leather. The only other things he wore were knee pads, and rectangular shaped gauntlets on his forearms. Tails had no idea why but for some reason the vambraces were unusually thick and on the front of them were two vertical slits. A small metal piece of armor covered the top of his hands. Under that were two black, fingerless gloves. The general appearance of the creature looked the same; the legs still looked the same.
While Tails had been observing this strange occurrence, he failed to notice that Slasher's hand still rested on the jewel, even after he had passed. Unfortunately the limp appendage knocked the jewel over, triggering some sort of pressure alarm. The jem fell from the pedestal and landed on the other side of the pedestal, out of sight of the now frightened Tails.
Sirens and alarms blared off, the noise almost impossible to be heard over; red lights filled the room with the eerie light as Tails looked around nearly in panic. He did keep himself in check however, and using his twin tails, he flew himself up, creature in tow to the vent he which he had entered in.
Outside Sonic could hear the alarms going off as dozens of Swatbots which had been standing guard at the doors piled inside to locate the intruders. "Uh, Oh…"
Suddenly Sonic's wrist-communicator began to vibrate; the signal to begin the diversion. "Time ta do it to it!" Sonic shouted as he peeled out of his hiding place causing all hell with the Swatbots. He trashed some of the bots to get their attention and proceeded to confuse the Swatbots by zooming dangerously close then disappearing again with his speed just as the Swatbot reached out to grab him. He kept this up for about five minutes before his communicator started vibrating again; the signal to pull out. With that he pulled out the power ring he had brought and ripped up the pavement as he raced out of the city in a sonic boom.
Meanwhile, in the time Sonic had bought him, Tails had safely made his way out of the city with his unconscious cargo, and brother, were the villagers in for a surprise when he got home! Let alone to mention the medical team…
Back inside Robotnik's fortress….
"Sir, it appears that meddlesome Freedom Fighter, Tails, somehow infiltrated the base and rescued the creature we were interrogating, sir." Snively reported sadly.
"No matter, Snively…" Robotnik replied, surprisingly calm and collective after losing his prisoner. "Those accursed Freedom Fighters may have stolen my prize, but I believe they left the real treasure behind…" Robotnik laughed as he watched a security video recording. The image showed Tails and Slasher; then all of a sudden as Slasher touched the jewel a blinding white light filled the screen and once the image returned, Tails held Slasher, now transformed. "And when I unlock that crystals' power, not even Sonic the Hedgehog will be able to stop me." Finishing his sentence with his fiendish laughter.
End Ch 1
Well hope this version of the chapter is better then the first one. Thx to Gail Strafer for pointing out some of my mistakes and suggestions to improve my writing style. I will also be chopping several of the later chapters up so they aren't so freak'n long! Stay tuned for the revised versions of the later chapters. I still need to keep writing the newer chapters so my time available for new updates will be split between that and rewriting the old ones. I need to get a lot of things happening in the next few chapters so don't start throwing things at me because it might be a bit dry for a while. In case anyone was interested, the creature in the story is from a series I created myself, even drew a variety of the characters on my computer.