Awoken from his dream suddenly, Manic stares in bewilderment at the room. The castle background of his dream returns back to the familiar walls of their hideout. His eyes finally focus on his blue brother, staring oddly at him.
"I was dreaming about Destructo coming after us," Manic explains.
"Hey, you don't have to dream about that. Let's go get'm," Sonic states, motivated to play their newly found game.
Cyrus did say they have a few hours of break since they took Robotnik's cargo ships. With the added bonus of more supplies for the Resistance, Sonic was able to redirect a ship back into the egghead's base, leaving some serious damage. And what better way to relax then with some Castle Conquest.
Both brothers immediately rush over to their gaming control, strap the helmets on, and start playing. They soon enter the environment of the game, searching high and low for their gamer friend.
"So where's the big D?" Sonic asks, slightly annoyed their friend isn't there.
As the boys are flying, a familiar triangular ship materializes above them, signaling the return of their missing person.
"Someone looking for me?" A nasally voice asks.
"Hey D-man, wanna go one-on-one or double up and go against the Gauntlet?" Manic asks, offering the play.
"I'd love to teach you two some respect, but, I'm in the mood to see if we can finally kick it in the Gauntlet," Destructo says.
"Cool. Let's do it to it!" Sonic exclaims, eager to see some action, even though it's virtual.
They are about to head over to the Gauntlet arena when Destructo suddenly mentions something interesting.
"Hang on, I got something for ya. Check this out," Destructo says.
The triangular ship suddenly stops as they turn a corner. He fires a laser beam at the nearby light. It only takes a few seconds of the beam for the entire thing to blow up, destroying all the lights on that corner as well as creating a massive hole in the wall.
"Whoahhh," Manic exclaims. "I'd never seen anything like that before!"
Sonic stares worriedly at the prospect of the new weapon. This tips the power scale definitely toward Destructo during a one-on-one.
"I wrote the software myself," Destructo admits.
Sonic and Manic share a look of concern. If Destructo can code any weapon he wants in the video game, they stand practically no chance against him. They should probably act buddy-buddy with him. At least until they are able to even up the playing field.
"I got something even bigger for you later," Destructo continues. "Download this first, if you want it."
Back in the real world, Sonic opens up a hatch on the game control, revealing a red download button. He presses it, listening to it beep as it downloads the new software.
"Downloading," Sonic announces to Destructo in the game.
Sonic closes the hatch and waits for the gift to download.
One file downloaded. Install?
With the game having a deep robotic voice, it's almost hard to hear the slight elevation in pitch as the game asks a question.
"Affirmative," the boys say in unison, excited to see that laser added to their ship.
Installation complete
"Wanna test it?" Sonic asks immediately, itching to press that big red glowing button that suddenly appeared on their dashboard in the game.
"Oh yeah!" Manic responds just as eager.
He steers the ship around the corner and faces Destructo's ship.
"Oh come on, guys. Y-You wouldn't," Destructo stutters, feeling threatened.
In defiance with that statement, Sonic presses the button. Blue lasers fire out in quick succession. One blast hits just behind Destructo's ship but the consecutive blasts hits it's target, surrounding it in a blow electric glow.
"Hey guys that wasn't very.." Destructo is about to complain but before he can finish his sentence, his ship blows up in a cloud of smoke and debris.
Sonic and Manic, witnessing the destruction, simply look on in awe at the new weapon to their arsenal. This will definitely work to even the odds against Destructo and anyone else in the Gauntlet.
"I like it," Sonic states.
Amidst the rubble, a glowing multicolor gate opens up. A familiar, not destroyed triangular ship reappears in the game. Since it is a video game, the brothers expected Destructo to come back. They just didn't think he'd come back so soon or regenerate in the same place. They stare sheepishly as his ship approaches them.
"Oh, haha very funny. Just for that I don't think I'll share the rest of my software," Destructo comments.
"Oh, come on!" Sonic whines childishly.
He steers their ship to join up with Destructo.
"New software? What is it?" Manic asks, intrigued.
"Ok, I'll give you a clue. No more lame castle walls. I created a whole new level," Destructo states, revealing the new software.
"Cool!" Sonic exclaims.
"But first, there's something I wanna show you," Destructo adds, ignoring Sonic's interruption.
"Hey great!" Manic states, hoping for another weapon download.
However, instead of the gift they were looking for, they see a concussion missile zooming straight towards their ship. Suddenly their entire view of the game has been shrouded in a black smoke and debris, signifying the destruction of their ship.
In the real world, Sonic and Manic remove their head pieces.
"Man, he really got us," Sonic comments, not hurt at all that their "friend" turned on them.
Though in retrospect, they probably shouldn't have fired the new weapon Destructo gave them on him.
"Yeah but he's sending us the download. Excellent," Manic comments, noticing the sent download on their control panel.
"Downloading," Sonic announces, opening the hatch and pressing the download button again.
One file downloaded. Install?
"Affirmative," Manic responds to the game.
Sonic closes the hatch and was about to place his helmet back on when a voice announces her presence.
"Oh goody, more games," Sonia states.
She approaches the two boys. Sonic, remembering how their game was interrupted before by their sister, sends out a little warning.
"Hey"
"No worries, I'm just passing through," she states, making a hand motion as if the thought of unplugging their game never crossed her mind.
Just as their sister moves off the the other room, the boys place their headsets back on.
Install complete. Activate play?
"That's a big affirmative," Sonic responds.
Suddenly the world on the headset changes to large intricate caverns that seem to stretch for miles in every direction. Stalactites and stalagmites cover the area, creating intricate columns and arches in the area. Just outside the multicolor portal is the triangular ship of Destructo, meeting them in the game.
"Nice shot Destructo," Manic compliments, harboring no bad feelings towards the dude.
"And nice game background. Ah yeah, killer software," Sonic adds.
"Thanks. Word is you guys did some good work too on Robotnik's cargo ships," Destructo states.
Manic gasps at the mention of their mission. How did he know? They just completed that mission an hour ago. There's no way word could travel that fast of their mission. Not to mention how did he know they were responsible for those cargo ships?
"Thanks, it's going to be months before he gets back to chasing us," Sonic says, ignoring the comment.
Destructo could've been an eye witness to when Sonic crashed into Robotnik's headquarters and then jumped out. There could be hundreds of reasons of how Destructo got that information so quickly.
"Oh I wouldn't be to sure of that," he mutters, laughing hysterically at the two hedgehogs.
His voice and appearance changes from the nasally gamer to the target of their previous mission, Robotnik himself. Sonic and Manic although shocked at the discovery are more worried about the glow around their ship and the spots of transparency they are noticing on the walls and floor.
Back in the real world, Sonia enters the room with her brothers, wanting them to enjoy themselves by offering a peace treaty.
"You guys what something to eat?" Sonia offers.
"Oh my gosh!"
All next trains of thoughts die in her throat as she sees both her brothers surrounded in blue glow. They are trembling in their seat, teeth bared and gritted from the intensity of the vibrations.
"It's Robotnik!" Sonic exclaims.
Those two words is all she hears from her brothers as they become digitized and disappear from the room, leaving nothing but their headsets to roll around on the ground until they become still. Sonia screams in shock as her brothers just disappeared from the room!
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed Ch. 1 of my first story! But first a disclaimer: Sonic Underground and it's characters do not belong to me (nor will they ever). Please leave a comment as I'd love to know how I can improve. Until next time!