AN: I was planning on waiting a bit longer before writing this, but the
story is addictive to write, and hopefully for you to read. I'm also
working on a story set during the summer about Zero. If you don't know who
Zero is, read the last chapter of Overdrive. As for where Xander/Sonic is,
if you haven't realized yet, he ended up in the Artemis Fowl series. After
Eternity Code, so it will have a lot of fun, and I am working on expanding
Nicole's personality, she's developing, in both the comics and the series
with the Freedom Fighters, Nicole only had a rudimentary AI, and the reason
given was that they didn't trust the more advanced ones that Robotnik uses
due to the way that they work. Nicole's programming compiled information
and she achieved true sentience in Overdrive.
The blinding light had died and Super Sonic relaxed slightly as he realized that he wasn't in Hell like the portal had been made to do. But he wasn't on the ground either, miles upwards and above the clouds. The full power of the Chaos Emeralds pierced the clouds and showed a place he had never seen before. It was beautiful and serene, but it wasn't anywhere near Sunnydale, and he was rather sure he wasn't above the same world he had been in mere instants earlier.
Instinctively he flipped out Nicole.
"Nicole, scan the area and report," he said, the panic in his tone of voice pushing the AI to work as fast as she could.
"Location, five miles above sea level, nearest location, Ireland," she reported.
"Well, then I head home, plot me a course to Sunnydale."
"Connection to GPS satellites obtained, error, no reference to Sunnydale on local maps, the location on prior maps before the dimensional travel is empty, the only thing referenced as Sunnydale is a military base just outside of Los Angeles."
"What? Use the scanning program, locate any reference to the paranormal, and anything with possible technology that can get us home."
"Understood," the AI answered as Super Sonic lowered himself to the ground, gently touching ground.
"Scan complete, two sources of requested energy signatures, not an exact match, but it does fit closely with magical parameters that you requested, also there are three possibilities that may have the requisite technology to send us home, two of them match the magical signatures, the other, while the least likely to have the technology, is the most accessible to us, it is within fifteen miles, on the surface. One of the other two is buried nearly ten miles underground and the other is underwater at a depth that is not easily accessible."
"Just great, another Labyrinth Zone, just what I needed," Sonic snapped, his sarcasm coming back to him.
"Interesting, the computer technology does not reach my own level, I am getting a full upload from their system and filtering it."
"What?"
"I have identified the groups with the tech below ground and the one above ground, below ground there is a collection of races known together as fairies."
"Do they know that we're here?"
"Undoubtedly, our arrival here would have given headaches to every being with magical energy on the planet, the chaos energy disrupted the portal and left us here, also, I just sent them a little greeting by pining them."
"You're playing Ping Pong with them?"
"Honestly, don't you ever listen?"
"Whatever, what is the projected response to this situation?"
"Unclear at the moment, perhaps hostility."
"Oh great," Super Sonic muttered as he relaxed and changed back into Sonic and then to Xander, "The welcoming party wants to shoot us."
"Or it could be curiosity, I have insufficient data to make a conclusion as to how they would react."
"What do you mean by a glowing mudman!" Commander Julius Root of the LEP screamed at the centaur.
"Erm, well..." Foaly started to say as he brought up the scans, "Well, the computer got pinged and I back tracked it, found the source, they didn't even try to hide it, and brought up the satellite footage of the area, its within the scanning radius of that one you ordered put up above Fowl's place."
"He's behind this!" the elf roared, his face turning several new shades of red.
"No, this is something new, and the scans couldn't differentiate the figure, its not within normal sight of the camera, but on the edge, we just spotted the glow and that vanished before the camera could lock on and shift position, it showed a human standing there holding some sort of devise, we couldn't identify, but the glow coincided with that burst everyone felt a little bit back."
"Send a retrieval team, deal with this now!"
"Should I get Holly on it?"
"Short? Why not, she has the most experience in dealing with mudmen."
The computer screens turned black and a lime green cursor was all that showed on one.
"Wha?" the centaur managed to say as a line of text appeared.
[Hello...]
"Foaly, what is this?"
"I don't know, but I aim to find out."
He began to type back.
[Hi.]
[Interesting, your system seems to be a variant of the type Robotnik used, far more primitive, but workable.]
[Primitive! Who the hell are you to say that this is primitive!]
[I am Nicole, Artificial Intelligence designed by Princess Sally Acorn to aid in the defeat of Doctor Ivo Robotnik on the planet of Mobius, unknown if there is an analogue in this dimension, there was not in the last one I entered.]
[Dimension?]
[Yes, my ally and I entered this world through a rift caused by a demon in his world.]
[Demon?]
[Yes, a hostile entity known as Acaltha, it was supposed to create a gateway to a hell dimension, the blood of my bearer was used by another to open the rift, his blood should also have sealed it, but the chaos energy surge created an unknown side effect and we ended up here, no who are you?]
[Foaly, genius extraordinaire!]
[Genius is highly overrated without the courage to do more with it than sit at home and brag about it, do not brag about smarts if it is not useful when it is in need.]
The centaur almost screamed at the last reply
[Interesting,] Nicole continued.
[What?]
[I'm patching into your audio communications systems,] Nicole answered as the Ai wrote her voice came from the speakers matching it, then the screens returned to normal, "And I have just gotten a complete download of your database, what is recorded is rather interesting."
"Oh crap," Root managed to mutter, "Get that Retrieval team out now, and get Holly Short in here yesterday!"
Xander groaned as he heard an electronic chuckle coming from Nicole, the conversation the AI was having wasn't heard, but she was having fun at someone's expense.
"Nicole, please don't get them mad at us, we may need their technology to get us home!"
"Well, I found someone who's fun to annoy, one of them is a centaur and his face is almost milk white, and the others is turning all sorts of colors."
Xander shook his head slowly, the AI was improving on his own annoying tendencies to make them insane.
"Alexander, I am detecting nearly a dozen power signatures closing in on us, they don't appear in the visible spectrum, I'm only sensing them via air currents, wait a second, accelerating frame rate of sensors, got them, seems like a commando team, they have weapons drawn."
"I'll deal with them then," Xander said as he reached for a Power Ring but found none, "Oh crap, I can't transform."
"Then there will be the additional hazard of fighting invisible foes, Sonics sight can see them due to the variance between Xander and Sonic vision, Sonics are designed to operate faster than a humans."
"Now you tell me, suggestions?"
"Strike lower than on a normal person, they aren't very tall."
"I'm fighting midgets?"
"No, elves, try not to kill them."
"Don't worry about that, other than the Watchers, I don't kill non- demons, or well psychotic robots or deranged gods."
Xander lunged, twirling through a strike that he had learned as Sonic, a palm strike that connected with the closest target as Nicole's holoprojector went to work, "I'm going to project their locations, should make things easier."
The black haired warrior nodded, a snap kick sending another flying as Nicole showed him his foes.
"Surrender mudman," one of them said, a pistol of some kind materializing out of thin air.
"Nicole, advise," he whispered.
"Unknown, I'm still incorporating the data retrieved from the centaurs computers."
Xander closed his eyes and started to hold up his hands after clipping Nicole back onto his belt.
He focused for a moment and felt a power surge.
"What the..." the fairy with the pistol stuttered as Xander transformed into Sonic.
"Now this is more like it," the blue streak chuckled, "Alright slow pokes, lets dance!"
The LEPretrieval troopers began to back away, very slowly as Sonic focused, feeling the place where the barrier had been in his head, and felt the energy wash through him again, Super Sonic emerged.
"Julius," Foaly yelled, "We've got problems, the sensors for detecting rogues built into the retrieval teams helmets is reading a power level off the..." an explosion as the devise he was speaking of exploded, "...Scale."
"What!"
"He has some sort of magic and its transforming him, just look at the screen!"
Root moved up and his jaw dropped open, the cigar falling to the floor as a golden hedgehog hovered a foot off the ground, radiating waves of energy as laser fire from the Fairy Blasters didn't so much as scratch him.
"How?"
"I don't know."
The blinding light had died and Super Sonic relaxed slightly as he realized that he wasn't in Hell like the portal had been made to do. But he wasn't on the ground either, miles upwards and above the clouds. The full power of the Chaos Emeralds pierced the clouds and showed a place he had never seen before. It was beautiful and serene, but it wasn't anywhere near Sunnydale, and he was rather sure he wasn't above the same world he had been in mere instants earlier.
Instinctively he flipped out Nicole.
"Nicole, scan the area and report," he said, the panic in his tone of voice pushing the AI to work as fast as she could.
"Location, five miles above sea level, nearest location, Ireland," she reported.
"Well, then I head home, plot me a course to Sunnydale."
"Connection to GPS satellites obtained, error, no reference to Sunnydale on local maps, the location on prior maps before the dimensional travel is empty, the only thing referenced as Sunnydale is a military base just outside of Los Angeles."
"What? Use the scanning program, locate any reference to the paranormal, and anything with possible technology that can get us home."
"Understood," the AI answered as Super Sonic lowered himself to the ground, gently touching ground.
"Scan complete, two sources of requested energy signatures, not an exact match, but it does fit closely with magical parameters that you requested, also there are three possibilities that may have the requisite technology to send us home, two of them match the magical signatures, the other, while the least likely to have the technology, is the most accessible to us, it is within fifteen miles, on the surface. One of the other two is buried nearly ten miles underground and the other is underwater at a depth that is not easily accessible."
"Just great, another Labyrinth Zone, just what I needed," Sonic snapped, his sarcasm coming back to him.
"Interesting, the computer technology does not reach my own level, I am getting a full upload from their system and filtering it."
"What?"
"I have identified the groups with the tech below ground and the one above ground, below ground there is a collection of races known together as fairies."
"Do they know that we're here?"
"Undoubtedly, our arrival here would have given headaches to every being with magical energy on the planet, the chaos energy disrupted the portal and left us here, also, I just sent them a little greeting by pining them."
"You're playing Ping Pong with them?"
"Honestly, don't you ever listen?"
"Whatever, what is the projected response to this situation?"
"Unclear at the moment, perhaps hostility."
"Oh great," Super Sonic muttered as he relaxed and changed back into Sonic and then to Xander, "The welcoming party wants to shoot us."
"Or it could be curiosity, I have insufficient data to make a conclusion as to how they would react."
"What do you mean by a glowing mudman!" Commander Julius Root of the LEP screamed at the centaur.
"Erm, well..." Foaly started to say as he brought up the scans, "Well, the computer got pinged and I back tracked it, found the source, they didn't even try to hide it, and brought up the satellite footage of the area, its within the scanning radius of that one you ordered put up above Fowl's place."
"He's behind this!" the elf roared, his face turning several new shades of red.
"No, this is something new, and the scans couldn't differentiate the figure, its not within normal sight of the camera, but on the edge, we just spotted the glow and that vanished before the camera could lock on and shift position, it showed a human standing there holding some sort of devise, we couldn't identify, but the glow coincided with that burst everyone felt a little bit back."
"Send a retrieval team, deal with this now!"
"Should I get Holly on it?"
"Short? Why not, she has the most experience in dealing with mudmen."
The computer screens turned black and a lime green cursor was all that showed on one.
"Wha?" the centaur managed to say as a line of text appeared.
[Hello...]
"Foaly, what is this?"
"I don't know, but I aim to find out."
He began to type back.
[Hi.]
[Interesting, your system seems to be a variant of the type Robotnik used, far more primitive, but workable.]
[Primitive! Who the hell are you to say that this is primitive!]
[I am Nicole, Artificial Intelligence designed by Princess Sally Acorn to aid in the defeat of Doctor Ivo Robotnik on the planet of Mobius, unknown if there is an analogue in this dimension, there was not in the last one I entered.]
[Dimension?]
[Yes, my ally and I entered this world through a rift caused by a demon in his world.]
[Demon?]
[Yes, a hostile entity known as Acaltha, it was supposed to create a gateway to a hell dimension, the blood of my bearer was used by another to open the rift, his blood should also have sealed it, but the chaos energy surge created an unknown side effect and we ended up here, no who are you?]
[Foaly, genius extraordinaire!]
[Genius is highly overrated without the courage to do more with it than sit at home and brag about it, do not brag about smarts if it is not useful when it is in need.]
The centaur almost screamed at the last reply
[Interesting,] Nicole continued.
[What?]
[I'm patching into your audio communications systems,] Nicole answered as the Ai wrote her voice came from the speakers matching it, then the screens returned to normal, "And I have just gotten a complete download of your database, what is recorded is rather interesting."
"Oh crap," Root managed to mutter, "Get that Retrieval team out now, and get Holly Short in here yesterday!"
Xander groaned as he heard an electronic chuckle coming from Nicole, the conversation the AI was having wasn't heard, but she was having fun at someone's expense.
"Nicole, please don't get them mad at us, we may need their technology to get us home!"
"Well, I found someone who's fun to annoy, one of them is a centaur and his face is almost milk white, and the others is turning all sorts of colors."
Xander shook his head slowly, the AI was improving on his own annoying tendencies to make them insane.
"Alexander, I am detecting nearly a dozen power signatures closing in on us, they don't appear in the visible spectrum, I'm only sensing them via air currents, wait a second, accelerating frame rate of sensors, got them, seems like a commando team, they have weapons drawn."
"I'll deal with them then," Xander said as he reached for a Power Ring but found none, "Oh crap, I can't transform."
"Then there will be the additional hazard of fighting invisible foes, Sonics sight can see them due to the variance between Xander and Sonic vision, Sonics are designed to operate faster than a humans."
"Now you tell me, suggestions?"
"Strike lower than on a normal person, they aren't very tall."
"I'm fighting midgets?"
"No, elves, try not to kill them."
"Don't worry about that, other than the Watchers, I don't kill non- demons, or well psychotic robots or deranged gods."
Xander lunged, twirling through a strike that he had learned as Sonic, a palm strike that connected with the closest target as Nicole's holoprojector went to work, "I'm going to project their locations, should make things easier."
The black haired warrior nodded, a snap kick sending another flying as Nicole showed him his foes.
"Surrender mudman," one of them said, a pistol of some kind materializing out of thin air.
"Nicole, advise," he whispered.
"Unknown, I'm still incorporating the data retrieved from the centaurs computers."
Xander closed his eyes and started to hold up his hands after clipping Nicole back onto his belt.
He focused for a moment and felt a power surge.
"What the..." the fairy with the pistol stuttered as Xander transformed into Sonic.
"Now this is more like it," the blue streak chuckled, "Alright slow pokes, lets dance!"
The LEPretrieval troopers began to back away, very slowly as Sonic focused, feeling the place where the barrier had been in his head, and felt the energy wash through him again, Super Sonic emerged.
"Julius," Foaly yelled, "We've got problems, the sensors for detecting rogues built into the retrieval teams helmets is reading a power level off the..." an explosion as the devise he was speaking of exploded, "...Scale."
"What!"
"He has some sort of magic and its transforming him, just look at the screen!"
Root moved up and his jaw dropped open, the cigar falling to the floor as a golden hedgehog hovered a foot off the ground, radiating waves of energy as laser fire from the Fairy Blasters didn't so much as scratch him.
"How?"
"I don't know."