Sonic the Hedgehog: The Novel

The Savior

Preview

"Why..."

the one word that continuously went through his mind as he sprinted across the grassy field, getting further and further away from his home. He'd dare not look back into the night, because if he did, they might be right there ready to pounce on him in a fury of metal and rage. Previously a clear spring night, the sky was now clouded with smoke from the burning of the town. He reviewed the scene in his mind. Never before had he seen so much terror; Children being ripped from their parents arms as they were swiftly taken over by the tyrannical force, powerless militia and armies desperately throwing everything they had at the onslaught in pure confusion; and in their desperation, had vainly surrendered in the hope of peace. Looking up, the man saw a forest at the top of the hill, a forest he had always seen in the distance before, from the top of his building. This time, he looked on it in a new light; its trees like a gateway to his only chance at safety.

With each step on the wet, dewy grass, the same words returned to his mind. Why was this happening? Who was responsible? Where else was it happening? When did it start? Is it my fault? He excused these thoughts, for now, knowing he had to put everything he had into running. Looking back, He wished he was faster when the event started. Had he reacted quicker, then maybe he would have been able to save them... his eyes once again clouded with tears as he sprinted up the steep incline. In his desperation, he tripped on a stray stone, falling face-first directly onto the hill. Scrambling to get up, he saw the city lit up with flames in the distance. The light shone into his eyes as he tried to rip his gaze away from the horror, but he couldn't. The surrealism of the situation paralyzed him. In the distance, the electronic beasts were making quick work of the city he loved, coating it with metal and building it up into a fortress.

Robots, in a swarm as thick as locusts were pouring out and into the city, bringing with them more robots out each time. It was terrifying to a simple engineer, who lived his life mostly in safety and without much conflict, especially nothing like this. In a few hours, he had lost everything. He didn't even know why. How could he? This unbridled wrath came within a split second out of thin air to swallow up the world. He had to do something. He had to go to the next city, find more survivors, to stop this invasion. As these thoughts were rushing through his brain, he noticed something about the robots in the city. They were all pouring out in his direction!

His heart stopped at this realization. They had seen him. He frantically struggled to stand, but a twist of pain rang up through his leg. He couldn't move. That trip had done more than displace him; his leg became sprained, as well as ripped up by the sharp tip of the rock. A stream of blood ran down his leg from his knee to his ankle. The forest was only a few feet away as he started to crawl, his arms grasping the vegetation and scraping on the rough needles that blanketed the edge of the woods. Breathing heavily, he grasped the trunk of the nearest tree, hoping to pull himself up behind it to wait out the apocalyptic mob behind him, when he felt a sharp pull on his ankle. His movements even more frantic as a large robot grabbed him from behind, its pincer-like claws digging into his skin, pulling him from the tree trunk into his certain doom.

"No!"

shouted the man as he hugged the tree tighter, pain like his leg was being ripped off stinging like lightning in his mind. He began to kick with his other leg to make the robot lose its grip, but it stayed solid and unmoving. He heard a whirring, and the man stopped feeling pain as the robot loosened his grip. It picked the man up and turned him to face his it. It was large and threatening, it's metal-plated face scanning him up and down, small electronic beeping was coming from its head as it processed what to do next. He turned the man slightly toward the city, the lights of its fire illuminating the situation better. The man's stained face started to lax in shock realization of what was before him. This creature was no robot. This threat was not one of the monsters that attacked the city. This beast was human. It was a man, like him, but different. One eye was sewn shut and covered by a sinister-looking robotic one, his whole body patched with weapons and steel, he was barely recognizable in the night. His emotions and expressions, if he ever had any, had been replaced with coding and wiring. There was coldness in his eye as he scanned the man, one of death and despair. The man realized with a shock what he was seeing. He had seen this before. This man had been...

"I'm so sorry"

the man uttered with a sorrowful tone, though he knew, the cyborg couldn't hear anything except for the coding in its brain. It then uttered one phrase in a distorted, reverberated voice:

"engage"

Two robots rushed up the hill and stood on either side of him. They had wheels and had heads that were oval shaped, the rest of their body coated with weapons and moving parts, enveloping their wheels. Each started transforming, their parts moving rhythmically into themselves, interlocking and spinning around to change their shape. Both of the robots begun to take the same form; they were two halves of a cylindrical structure. The man squirmed as he recognized the device. The cyborg then took one of his hands in its claw and slapped his other hand on the back of it. A searing, burning feeling quickly brought the man's attention to it. When the cyborg finished, his hand had a number imprinted on it in blue fluorescent print:

"0r73g"

His face went dark with horror as he had fully realized what was to become of him. He opened his mouth to protest, but he knew it was useless. He was then roughly shoved in between the two robots. As they closed in, the man struggled to escape. His efforts proved useless, as he was held in by the powerful unmoving arms of the cyborg. He started shouting and struggling; he wasn't going without a fight.

"Subject '0r73g' now in transformation sequence,"

the Cyborg said as the two robots merged. Hollow, muffled screams, and gruesome sounds could be heard inside as a transformation took place. The cyborg's audio receptors picked up on one more word before 0r73g lost his free will, shouted from the inside of the tank:

"I'M SORRY!"

the sounds of this scream rang through the night, into the city, now fell on deaf ears. The city was taken by this storm of invaders, its inhabitants replaced by similar cyborgs and now an undead army, it's once majestic skyscrapers tainted with a metal coat and fortified into weapons. Each building had one giant imprint on their side. It was a round shape resembling a man's face with round goggles and a mustache, and teeth that were in a large sinister grin just above a collar. These giant red and black prints slapped on each building like a label. Nobody from this generation or even from this world would have known what it meant, but for anybody in another certain world, it meant trouble. And from that other world, a savior would emerge to be this world's only hope.