Sonic Haven

Season 1 – Episode 1

"Foreshadowing"

Author's Note: To new readers: Julian Nikolas is Robotnik/Eggman before turning evil. The first three chapters focus almost exclusively on him and his turning into Robotnik. Sonic is in episode three and plays a major role from episode four onwards.

On the outskirts of Mobitropolis, the capital city of the Acorn Kingdom, a small black car was headed to the out of the way laboratory that sat at the base of a hill while a beautiful mountainscape painted the horizon on this foggy morning. The car came to a stop outside of the lab and the driver's door creaked open revealing an overweight doctor with a bald head and long orange mustache that hung from underneath his pointy nose.

The man took a step out onto the grass and heard it crunch underfoot as he stepped out of the car as it was still early spring, and the ground had yet to thaw completely. Ignoring the slightly slick frozen lawn he walked over to the building, which in its perfectly rectangular shape and utter lack of windows looked more like a bunker, and knocked on the green metal door, his knuckles twanging on the hollow object as he did so.

He then proceeded to wait for his friend and colleague to open the door to him. There were no other vehicles here, but he knew that his partner was inside nonetheless. After all, he was an early riser and always walked to the lab even in the worst weather.

The door opened in front of him revealing a light-blue hedgehog with dull red sneakers and a salt and pepper mustache that hung below his long black nose. The hedgehog's green eyes looked at him with a sense of relief. "Hello Julian." The hedgehog said in greeting. "How are you doing this morning?"

Julian shouldered passed and walked down the hall, straightening the wrinkles out of his red sweater. "I'll be much better when we finish this project Charles. Now let's get to work."

Charles' shoulders sagged a bit at his friend's tone. He'd always been a self-motivated, nose to the grindstone kind of man, but he'd been a little tense lately. Then again, who could blame him? Charles simply chalked up the short tone to an urge to finish their work and decided to think nothing more of it. He turned and walked down the long white hallway after Julian, not wanting to be left out of the next phase of the project.

The elevator at the end of the hall took them down two stories into the basement where the bulk of the lab resided. All around the concrete-walled room were parts to the device that they'd been working on for the last few months, various computer terminals, and a storage area full of metal shelves with various materials on them off to the left. Right in the center of the room was a test dummy that they were about to use to test the device which was designed to be worn on one's back.

Julian walked over to the lockers on their right, opened them, grabbed a lab coat, and then got to work. He sat down at one of the computer stations and began rapidly pressing keys which quickly filled the screen with codes that would be injected into the device when it was ready to be tested. He continued working on the software while Charles worked on the hardware, collecting pieces from around the room and assembling them into a lump of black metal with a dark red seam that ran from the top to the bottom along its back.

Only an hour in and they were already prepared for their first test. Things were going well today... at least so far.

Julain pressed a key on his keyboard and a robotic arm that hung from the ceiling over the dummy lowered itself down and placed the device on the mannequin's back. It strapped itself to the plastic person and slowly spread out until it had covered every inch of the fake body. A soft red glow filled the room as the device hummed to life.

"Success! A brillliant success!" Julian exclaimed.

Charles wasn't as confident as his friend. "It hasn't finished initializing yet Julian. Let's see how it goes."

Almost as if the machine could hear them, the hum became louder and louder until both Julian and Charles were covering their ears in pain at its volume. Julian noticed the metal on the dummy start to crack and split all around. "Get down Charles!" He screamed before ducking behind the desk.

Charles tried to get to safety behind some wooden crates but was too slow. The device exploded, showering the room in sharp twisted metal that pierced everything in sight. He raised his head up over the top of the crates to inspect the damages, then stood up, right hand grasping his left arm to slow the bleeding coming from a deep cut the shrapnel had caused.

Julian, upon seeing the damage himself, roared in frustration and threw his keyboard against the wall, breaking it into three pieces and scattering the keys around the floor. "Gah! Another worthless test."

Charles walked over to his friend. "Don't worry Julian. We'll clean up the lab and fix the problems in the prototype. It should only set us back a few days."

"And where are we going to get the money for more parts?" Julian asked shaking his head. "You know Charles..." He dropped his head in disbelief at what he was about to say. "I think that maybe we should've taken the grant money from G.U.N. when we had the chance." He was talking about the Guardian Unit of Nations, an international military peace-keeping force that he used to work for.

"Julian, you know what would've happened if we'd taken that grant." Charles said sternly. "They would be breathing down our necks right now and wondering what kind of applications it would have in the field of combat."

"I know." Julian said, waving his hand as if to shoo Charles' words away.

He did know. All too well. He was the leading scientist for G.U.N. as little as four years ago. He developed everything from weapons to explosives to transport, even armor in one instance. But that all changed after he saw the effect of his work.

Due to an international threat, the G.U.N. was left with no choice but to drop one of Julian's bombs on Shamar, devastating the landscape in the process. Normally he would have been far away from such a catastrophe, but this time he was on site testing his new armor in the Arid Sand desert. He witnessed firsthand the fallout of his own creation. He saw hospitals fill up and the town that was hit layed in ruins for months with no one to fix it.

From that day forward he vowed to never work for the military again. Instead, he put his efforts into building a robotic suit that would protect its inhabitant in dangerous situations so as to keep them from getting injured. If all went according to plan, the suits could also be used by those who were paraplegic, allowing them to walk again. It was a great idea, one that his longtime friend and fellow scientist Charles the Hedgehog had agreed to help him build.

The problem was that word of the project had been spread in the media and footage of old dysfunctional prototypes had been taken and leaked online. Now it seemed that the world was waiting for the two of them to finish their work and release it to the public. As the pressure continued to mount the funds that each of them had put forth for the project had waned, now essentially being completely gone.

It was this time a month ago, right when they'd started having budget issues, that the G.U.N. stepped in and offered them a grant to finish the project. At the time both Julian and Charles had agreed to keep the military out of it at all cost. Now though, Julian wasn't so sure that was the best idea. But whether it was or not, they had more pressing issues at the moment.

Julian rubbed his chin as he thought about the device's explosion and what might have caused it. "We're going to need a more stable power source." At that moment an idea came to him that was, yes a little far-fetched, but possibly genius. "We need a Chaos Emerald." He turned to face Charles who was looking at him with a puzzled expression. "If we could contain Chaos energy, theoretically we would have more than enough power to complete the initialization process."

Charles shook his head. "Julian, you know that those things are myths. I don't think we should be relying on something that people aren't even sure exist."

"Do we have a choice?" Julian asked.

Charles' shoulders sagged a bit. "Probably not." There was only one person who could help them track down a chaos emerald. "If we're going to get one, then there's only one individual who can help us, that quack nephew of yours, William."

Julian sighed, not wanting to face his nephew whom he'd berated for his belief in such mysterious gems many times before. "Then that's who I'm going to see."

Charles wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. But Julian was right. If the Chaos Emeralds did exist, then finding one would drastically advance the project. "I'll stay here and clean up the lab. Let me know what you find out."

Mobitropolis University was situated across town from the lab with skyscrapers all around it that made the three-story buildings on the campus seem ant like by comparison. All seven of the buildings on the campus were made out of large stone blocks painted a crisp white. A dark brown railing sat atop a staircase that meandered back and forth in front of him, leading to the redwood double doors that were the entrance to this grand structure. The weaving stairs were supposed to increase creativity in students or something like that, Julian really couldn't have cared less.

He walked up the stairs and into the building, not wanting to think about the conversation he was about to have. William had been researching Chaos Emeralds for years, receiving mockery from many in both the scientific and historical communities for his efforts. When he'd last spoken to his nephew he was close to finding one. At least, that was the story.

Walking down the wide hallway, feet clacking on the shiny wood floor, he stopped at a door that was old but had recently been painted red. The sign on it was black and had small white letters that read "Professor William H. Snively." Julian placed his hand on the brass doorknob and turned it slowly.

Inside the small room was a set of bookcases on either side that reached from floor to ceiling, completely obscuring the dark blue walls behind them. In the middle of the floor, which had the same stained wood from the hallway outside, was a desk that seemed to split the room in two. And at the far end, staring out of a large oval window was his nephew.

Before Julian could speak, William turned to face him and spouted his own verbal joust. "You never called." He said in an incredibly nasal voice. The sound that carried from him would have been odd from anyone else. But it fit William perfectly. He was short, especially next to Julian, who was a little taller than average. He wore a green jacket with a zipper in the front and a split tail in the back that fell down to his black pants. He was almost completely bald, save for five long hairs that sprouted from his scalp. He also shared Julian's large nose, but his was even larger and more pronounced. "You told me you would show me the device. Instead I get more information from looking up blog posts than from you."

Julian knew that this was coming, and he was prepared. "I told you that I would call when we had something. Right now all you'd be looking at is a pile of parts and a dysfunctional prototype model that explodes upon initialization. Hardly worth making the trip across town for, don't you think Snively?"

Snively's face fell into a deeper frown than it already had. He hated it when Julian used his last name. "I've already told you not to call me that!"

Julian smirked. "The name suits you so much more so than William."

Snively pulled the black leather chair away from his desk and sat down with a thump. "Just tell me why you're here."

He got right to the point. "I'm here to ask about the Chaos Emeralds."

"You mean the reason you mock my very existence? What about them?" Snively asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We're at an impasse Snively. We need a more stable power supply. The fission core isn't safe enough for prolonged use. A Chaos Emerald would be perfect." He held his breath and waited for Snively's response.

"So, two desperate scientists trying to prove themselves isn't enough? You want to make it three?" He said sarcastically.

"What do you want Snively?" Julian asked hesitantly.

He thought it over for a moment before answering. "I want in on the project."

"That's too much." Julian waved his hands in denial.

"You need a Chaos Emerald or you're finished. I provide the Chaos Emerald and you're back in business. Sounds to me like you don't have a choice." He said with a cocky attitude.

"Fine. You can be in on the project." Julian said hesitantly. "But I need the Emerald as soon as possible."

Snively stood up from his chair and started toward the door. "Then let's go. The closest possible location is outside of the Emerald Hills."

Julian was surprised. "Is there really one that close?"

"It could quite possibly be there. Though we won't know for sure until we check it out." He decided to explain. "A group of archaeologists in the area recently discovered some old echidna tribe ruins that reference the Emeralds. The ruins haven't been fully explored, so there could be one deep inside them somewhere."

"Well what are we waiting for?" He asked, stepping aside and gesturing to the door he'd been standing in front of. "Lead the way Snively."