The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 1
A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion
Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Robotnik. He is copyrighted by SEGA, DiC productions, and Archie Comics. I promise this is not the only Sonic character who will appear, just the first.
In order of appearance, Silver Moon, Ebony Moon, Birch Loudcry, Katherine Cardinal, Jonathan Moon, Lars the Beaver, and Lara Keene, are all copyrighted June 22, 2005 to myself, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22, 2005 to me.
Notes:
I hope there will be fewer of these as the story progresses.
This story takes place in a sort of composite universe incorporating elements mostly from the Archie Sonic comic book, but with some from SatAM, and some from the more recent Sonic games.
While this section is written in third person, all the others following will be written in first person.
I have most of the story already written, but it wasn't originally written in chapter format. It was written in an episode format, with each document being a different episode.
Also some of these episodes are pretty long, therefore, I have decided, that if an episode is longer then 5 pages, it will get broken down into smaller subsets. These will retain the title of the original episode, however, they will be numbered depending on where they are in that particular episode.
Copyright information is displayed individually for each chapter.
Now let's get to the important part, thank you for taking the time to read my work.
The year: 3230
Time of Day: Two hours after sunrise, some time during the summer.
Location: A village on the south west coast of the former kingdom of Acorn.
Silver Moon was looking in her refrigerator. "Rats, we're out of strawberries." She said under her breath. "Jonathan probably thought they'd make a nice midnight snack or something." She smiled to herself. Her husband had been brought up with prepackaged city food for most of his life. It was her own silly fault she had introduced him to garden fresh fruit, that hadn't gone through the processors before landing in the produce isle of the grocery store.
She heard a door creak open down the hall, and then footsteps coming toward the kitchen.
"Good morning Ebby." She said, closing the fridge and turning around.
"Morning mom, where's dad?"
"He's on guard duty."
"Oh." Silver's ten-year-old daughter, Ebony sat down at the kitchen table and started putting butter on a piece of toast.
"Could I ask you to do a favor for me Ebby?"
"Okay."
"Could you go down to the gardens after breakfast and get some more strawberries, I'm afraid I just can't keep them in the house nowadays."
"Sure. Maybe I can get Kat to come with me."
"That would be nice. Just don't eat too many while you're down there."
"I won't." She took a bite out of her toast.
"You did a good job on this loaf mom, it tastes great. What's in it?"
"I found a large spread of wild grain near the gardens. I used it when we cut it back to make some more gardening room"
"Not bad."
"Thanks."
A little while later, Ebony set off with a basket.
She was about half way through South Cliffs when she heard someone calling her name. "Hey Ebby, I've been looking all over for you!" She turned around and saw Birch coming toward her. Birch was a wolf. Despite the fact that they were completely different species (Ebony was a raccoon) they were like brother and sister. Birch had been living in the village as long as Ebony could remember. He was sixteen. He caught up with her and took out a small box. He opened it and Ebony saw a ring nestled in folded up navy colored velvet. It had been made of gold with a blue sapphire set into it.
"Do you think Lara will like it?"
"Sure, she would."
He grinned. "Where are you going this morning?"
"The garden."
"You know, I'd love to come with you, but if I don't show up at the scout tower, your dad won't be too happy. I wouldn't either when it comes to that. Especially if I had been out all night like he was."
"Yeah. I guess I'll see you later."
"You too." He turned in the general direction of the tower and after one last wave, was gone. Ebony continued on her way. The sky was a beautiful forget-me-not blue this morning, there were small birds singing in the trees, and to her, the day could not get much better.
She made her way to the house where her best friend Katherine Cardinal lived. Ebony stepped onto the front porch of her house and knocked on the door. Kat answered it.
"Hi, you want to come pick strawberries with me?" She smiled.
"I would Ebby, but mom wants me to help out around the house today."
"That's all right. I'll save you some."
"Okay, mom would probably like that anyway."
"See you later Kat."
"You too." Ebony left and Kat closed the door. One little blemish on the morning wasn't going to ruin her day. She hummed a tune her dad liked to sing, and went on her way.
These were happy times. Times when Robotnik was little more then a shadow that hung over the grown-ups and teenagers. Ebony never could understand in those times, why her mom or dad looked so worried. Robotnik would never find they're village. Southcliffs was safe in her mind. There was no danger.
Both Jonathan and Silver had watched her growing up, sadly aware that if she made it into adulthood at all, it would be in a world full of hostilities, not the five years of peace in which she had been born. The short peace between the Great War and Robotnik's current reign of terror. And now, the temporary safety that they had enjoyed through remaining in hiding was all about to come to an end.
Jonathan Moon came running back to the village. He had to find the village leader. Lars was walking around the village to wake himself up when Jonathan found him. "Lars, I've got some bad news. SWAT-bots are coming this way." The old beaver's eyes showed concern.
"Thank you Jon. I'll start telling everyone to get to the fall back spot."
"I'll go get Silver and Ebby and meet you back here."
"Good, gather anyone else you can too."
"You got it." He took off for his own house. He almost ran into the door in his hurry, but he stopped himself just in time to be able to open it.
"Jon, what is it?" Silver asked.
"SWAT-bots. Where's Ebby?"
"I sent her, oh my gosh, I sent her out to the garden, I'll go get her right away!"
"You do that, then make for the fall back spot as fast as you can." They both raced outside, just in time to see the first hover unit land. Jonathan grabbed a hunting spear that was leaning on a porch column. Silver paused a moment.
Jonathan saw her stop and turned back. "What are you waiting for, run! Get Ebby!"
She turned and ran for the gardens. She had started too late however, another hovercraft landed in her path. She tried to run around it but it was too late.
"I hoped it would never come to this, but there's no choice. My daughter needs me." She flexed her hands and eight ruby red blades sprang from her fingertips. "FREEDOM!" She yelled and lunged at the SWAT-bots that were issuing in torrents from the hovercraft. Two SWAT-bots were sliced to ribbons. She backed up and lunged again, and again. The third time, one of the SWAT-bots grabbed her. She sliced its head off and backed away, still swiping out at them.
Meanwhile on the front porch of the Cardinal's house, there was trouble brewing. Jonathan and Birch had been cornered there with the Cardinals and Lara. They had been trying to hold off the SWAT-bots while Kat and her mother had tried to get away. It was too late now. They were all trapped like rats.
Surrender biologicals, by order of Robotnik. They droned. Jon still had his spear, and he used it, sending one of the robots to the scrap pile with a quick throw of his hand. Birch was holding a knife, ready to keep on.
"If you do not surrender now, you will suffer the consequences."
"What could be worse then a living death?" Lara growled.
Suddenly a speaker crackled to life and Robotnik's voice was soon heard. "Well young lady, since you put it that way."
"Ahhhhh!" A laser shot from the SWAT-bot that had set up the link.
"Lara!" Birch rushed to her side as she fell, clutching her stomach. He lifted her hand from where it covered the hole and saw the blood pouring out. He quickly put it back. Katherine's eyes were wide, and her mouth was open in a terrible soundless scream.
"You will all come quietly and submit to complete roboticization. Resistance is futile." A SWAT-bot grabbed Birch and, after removing his knife from his hand, dragged him away. In his sorrow he dropped the ring box and it lay there for the rest of the fight. That didn't last very long either. Silver had been taken two minutes before. And those holding the Cardinals house were taken some time afterward.
When all was said and done, the SWAT-bots left the village in ruins.
Ebony had spent the major part of the morning, picking strawberries (and eating them) and now her basket (not to mention her stomach) was quite full. She followed the path back to South Cliffs, pausing to rest in the shelter of the mesa that separated their village from the beach.
She reveled in the sea air and looked across the salt marsh that was left over from a time when the ocean had actually sat here. Sunset Mesa had been an island then.
She stood up again and continued on her way back to the village. The sight that met her eyes caused her to drop her basket. She ran to the first place she could think of. Home.
"Mom? Dad? Are you here?"
No answer. She left the house and began running all over the village calling "Mom? Dad? Birch? Lara? Anybody! Where are you?" She even went to the cave that was supposed to be where they would meet up if there was an attack. No one was there.
"Where is everybody?" She yelled. There was no answer. She walked back into the village, starting to cry. Then suddenly she heard something.
"Ebony? (cough) C-can you h-hear m-me?"
"Lara?" She looked around and saw her lying in front of Katherine's house. She rushed over and knelt down beside her. "Lara! Where is everybody?"
"Gone. There was an attack and they've all been taken to Robotropolis."
"I've gotta get you out of here." "No Ebby." She said sadly. "I'm too heavy for you to lift. I'm afraid you'll have to leave me. Take what you need to survive, and find somewhere safe."
"But you need help!"
"No. (wheeze) I'm going to die Ebby. Even if I could travel, I'd never make it to the next village. There's nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Now go!"
"What about the others?"
"There's nothing you can do about them either, now go!" Ebony stood up and turned away, that was when she noticed the ring box on the ground. Birch's ring. She picked it up.
"Lara?" There was no answer. "Lara?" She turned around. Lara's eyes were no longer open, and she had stopped breathing.
"No! Don't leave me alone! Please! I don't want to be alone! Please, don't be dead! Don't be dead!" She sat back down, sobbing. "Lara."
A few moments later, tears still streaming down her face, she rushed back to her house and started searching for things she might need. Her dad had shown her how to pack to go camping, but never permanently. Blankets there were in the house aplenty, food too, and cooking gear, and a lot of other stuff that might or might not be useless.
She gathered together everything that might help her in the woods. When she was finished, she went into her parents' room and returned with a yellow shoulder bag. She put two folded up blankets into it and thought hard about what to put in next. She could make a shelter if she had to, so a tent wasn't necessary even if she had had one available.
She selected a package of dried meat, the loaf of bread her mom had made, and five apples from the fruit basket. Then, with some guilt (good upbringing), she took her dads hunting knife from it's place on the wall. Not that it would do much good, but to have a weapon with which to protect herself was something.
After one last look at the village that had been her home, she left. She ran away from that place as fast as her legs could carry her.
To Be Continued…