Chemical Lake
The blue hedgehog rose to his feet, standing on the base of a grassy hill that overlooked a field filled with flowers growing and flowing into the wind as their petals took them.
His eyes were green and focused, scanning the area in the attempt to find what he was looking for. The legendary stone, the chaos emerald, what everyone sought for but moreover what he was bound to like second nature; connected to by spirit and soul. He let them get away from him again in an attempt to bring peace to his world yet again but he was unsure just why it was him that had to be the one with this destiny, this part of him that told him that it was meant to be this way.
He was not normally really much of a deep thinker; a thrill was what motivated him most of the time. Right now though, it was so quiet and the scenery so normal and untouched like nothing could interfere. That sort of thing made him relax most of the time but as of now he was sucked into this feeling of unrest and uneasiness, like something was waiting on the horizon to pounce.
"It'd be nice if they were easier to find," Sonic smirked, knowing full well that the chaos emeralds were not something that just anybody could come across.
The wind was moving his quills in the back of his blue head up and down, sending a slight chill down his spine. This was honestly very unusual for him; there was not much that could drive him to question whether there was something amiss.
There it was, what he sensed was coming. Diving from the clear blue sky came a cloud of gray smoke driven from the land of machines. It came down like a blanket and covered the area like it was reaching out to grab it and sent a wind so rough it uprooted all the plants in the area. What once was green and lovely was started to get overshadowed by this new threat, what had gone up and into the air by a mere intelligent man with too much time on his hands.
"About time, that was starting to bug me." Sonic said as he rubbed the side of his black nose, ready to get on his feet again.
He took to his speedy, what should be unnatural for any creature was possible with the endowed energy of the chaos emeralds within Sonic's body, like an overdrive of force he was able to run at a pace untouched by man or machine. The sky was not gray but as Sonic ran by the petals of the lilies and buds could at least find a place in the blue streak behind him, the wind beneath his feet.
He was looking into a world that only he could see; going so rapidly that the wind was no match for him. The quilled blue color that went all along the scenery like it was grown there for him made his way towards the dark city, the place that never had any form of life aside from gears and clicking noises.
There was not much time before he could look behind him and see that the world he loved was far away now and that in front was the place that outstretched its metallic form and ate up all it could. A scientist with intentions based on his own means created this, formed this with his own hands and crafted it to his liking. Because of this the world was thrown off balance and what the world started was coming to an end after every new invention and every factory and machine that resembled the people of Mobius.
Sonic's eyes were set on finding the emeralds, a power that no chemical plant or robotic monstrosity could drive out of him. There were too many threats that he had come across to name, one resembling his form known simply as Metal Sonic, one that took the image of his friends and some that were so absurdly crafted it was a wonder that the Doctor was not working in an amusement park. All of them were not a joking matter though, each time Sonic's strength seemed to be enough but in the case of the very air being disturbed only the purifying glow of the precious gems seemed to be a solution in Sonic's mind, or use it to destroy the source, he wasn't sure yet, he was after all, a tad impulsive.
Stopping so suddenly he made skit marks on the cement he had run down to, Sonic took another shot at finding a nice direction to point himself. "It'd be easier if Egghead just put out a sign that said, come and beat me."
His cockiness was showing there, one a certain knuckleheaded friend had teased him about. That was just his personality and it in reality probably served him better than a realists', I mean, how many people could wrap their brain around a hedgehog faster than lightning anyway?
Bearing down in front of him was that one particular mustache that seemed to be on every single thing the scientist could fit it on, almost like a personal icon or something. In this case, a building that stuck out like a sore thumb, or nose, you might say.
The city was glowing with different colored buttons and all the mechanical parts that went into each and every piece of the humongous city. There were skyscrapers that touched the sky in a menacing way, like they were held on their feet by a string and could fall into the huge set of buildings at any second. The color overhead was gray and foggy and though the colors of computer screens and gadgets and gears were predominant the area around it was more in focus. Nothing green grew, not even a spec of grass. Sign posts were set upwards but had worn down over time and with the vast amount of metal it was hard to picture any normal person walking by.
Neon was not Sonic's favorite shade, that's for sure. "He could at least put up some lampposts that don't glow green or something." He chuckled as he walked at a pretty normal pace now.
Tails was probably busy at the lab right now so Sonic felt like he was talking to himself right now. It was more fun with an audience after all, especially when you're knocking the Doctor out of his senses.
That cloud was probably not going to stop, not while something was there to feed it. Like one cue whenever Sonic actually took the time to walk for a change the Doctor made his appearance. Showing a smile wide and goggled eyes he appeared within a flying machine in the shape of a half circle with himself sitting comfortably in the driver's seat.
"Well well, was wondering when you'd show your face." Sonic laughed and mirrored Eggman's competitive smirk.
The Doctor sighed. "Honestly, it seems like every time I'm having fun you have to go and ruin it."
That was sure true, there was nothing Sonic loved more than foiling one of his plans. That was just what he needed to remind himself why he was spending all his time searching for the chaos emeralds when he could be kicking back enjoying a chilidog.
This time the threat was not visible as it normally was, not just a simple robot or machine that could stand in his way. No, it was the whole sky that Eggman was disrupting with that huge puff of air that emitted from the chemical plant neat the skyscrapers of metal.
This time however, luck was on Sonic's side. Upon closer inspection and Sonic's tendency to check out Eggman's flying machine when it was overhead he could see a small green sparkle to the left at Eggman's controls.
"Doctor, you wouldn't be hiding something from me would you?" Sonic said condescendingly.
Eggman looked irritated as the crinkles over his eyes furrowed his eyebrows. "Finders keepers losers weepers!"
That was as much as an invite to Sonic and this time Eggman had no robot set up for the occasion yet, the emerald was intended for that purpose. Sonic laughed, he was a step ahead of the egghead this time!
With a mighty leap Sonic jumped with all his might and landed at least thirty feet in the air until he was standing squarely on Eggman's glider. He tapped his foot as if he had been waiting there for some time. "Alright, have anything to show the rest of the class?
Eggman however, had expected this after all. All he needed to do was slide his hand and the human had initiated something unusual on his round floating machine. The metal place Sonic had been standing clamped under his feet and trapped his legs in a clamped manner.
Sonic looked far more irritated than Eggman was but was only now realizing this was serious; with his legs pinned he was as good as a rat in a cage.
"HAHA! FELL FOR IT!" Eggman gloated as he turned the controls of his glider and strapped himself in.
Sonic felt the blood rush to the front of his head as suddenly the whole flying machine was turned upside down, with Eggman having a front row seat behind him. His legs were in a metal vise that had enclosed on him when the Doctor set it in motion and now he was suspecting something not so good on the horizon.
Up ahead was the chemical plant, glowing and oozing different toxins that could effortlessly kill a whole ecosystem in a days' time. The upside down hedgehog in the machine that normally only seated one was headed towards what had to be a whole river or green liquid that stretched around half the city.
Eggman did have a chaos emerald too; it was comfortably in a case beside him safe from the cocky enemy's grasp. "Didn't see this one coming, did ya Sonic?"
Oh how Eggman enjoyed rubbing it in but honestly Sonic could not come up with banter right now, even trying to pull his way out he couldn't and his hands were unable to reach anything inside the Doctor's ship. He was scrambling to think of something but now all he could look at was that toxins river Eggman was directing him towards. What made it worse was a see-through shield was pulling up and over Eggman's seat to avoid getting any poison himself.
"Always come prepared. After all we never know when acid rain will occur." Eggman laughed eagerly, dragging it out as he slowly came towards his intended punishment for Sonic's constant interruptions.
"I forget, was it you that couldn't swim, or Tails? I don't think you'll have a problem this time. You're not gonna get a single stroke in!" Eggman continued his enjoyment in teasing Sonic.
Sonic was really concerned too; he was struggling to think of something quick before he was dropped in. There was no way he could avoid it either, he couldn't fly and there was no place to jump off of. The green acidic chemical disaster was a worst-case scenario.
"Ok, things are really starting to heat up." Sonic thought franticly.
All he could think about was how badly he wanted that emerald, the one thing that could really save him in this instance. He thought back to how Eggman turned the ship upside down in a spinning motion and this gave him an idea. Sonic didn't need his legs to get into a spin-dash motion so it was worth a shot.
Trying hard to fight the gravity Sonic curled his spikey body upwards into a ball and pushed up against the glass shield at Eggman's seat. He was making dents in the glass and reasonably Eggman was beginning to worry, shouting obscene words towards him for breaking the glass that took forever to fit the size of his ship. He moved the craft upright to avoid getting exposed to the poison they were now comfortably above and in that instant Sonic was able to break though, but still not able to reach the Doctor's emerald.
Eggman scoffed all alerted for he was too close to the chemicals at the moment and was beginning to cough as Sonic was. Closing his eyes Sonic stretched towards the emerald in a last-stich effort while Eggman was too distracted by his own coughing to stop him and by the tips of his fingers he was able to lift up the glass. The ship tilted as Sonic grazed the controls and within seconds the emerald flew into Sonic's hand.
Holding a chaos emerald now Eggman was panicking. "This isn't good."
No it wasn't, at least, not for the Doctor. Sonic grabbed onto it and used what he had learned from past experience to try something out again. "Chaos, control!"
With the blink of an eye Sonic completely vanished, throwing Eggman's ship to tilt from the change of waist and Eggman himself into a panic-attack. With the power of the chaos emeralds the blue hedgehog was taken to a new location, in this case, right smack-dab in the middle of the city where the factory was laid.
Eggman could be seen in the distance driving his machine filled with broken glass full force his direction but as Sonic happily stated. "You're too slow!"
With a blue glow of speed suddenly flowing through the city Sonic made his way through the factory destroying everything in his path with the added boost from the chaos emerald. Eggman smashed his fist against the controls. "That took me forever to build!"
Running out with a big, bang! Coming from the exploding and now on fire building, Sonic made his way back out of the city, heading the direction of the green paths and non-toxic areas, gleefully clutching on to his green prize. "Better luck next time, Egg-Head!"
End
