Author's Note:
The universe is a mix of SatAM (somewhere between episodes 18 and 21) and games. Many things that seem strange at first will make sense as the story unfolds, Robotnik's role being among them. More info will appear on my profile page.
Disclaimer: SEGA owns the characters used in this story. The storyline belongs to me.
Part 1: Underdogs.
1. Too Fast.
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The Great Forest
September 8th, 3236
Early morning
The forest was still waking up from its slumber at this hour. This far away from Robotropolis with its choking smokes and toxic wastes, the plant life still was as lush and healthy as it had been decades ago, before the tyrant had decided to claim the planet. It almost pleaded for an early wanderer to slow down, take in the beautiful landscape and take a deep breath of sweet air. Such wonders were becoming harder and harder to find on Mobius with every passing year.
A series of rustles broke the sleepy silence; it was when an unremarkable cluster of bushes shuddered as a robot made its way through them. A seasoned Freedom Fighter would identify it as a SWATbot at first, and frown in puzzlement seconds later. Something was visibly off with its look. The robot's normally bulky and clumsy frame looked slim and agile, for a change matching the battle machine's original purpose. It looked smaller, and the metal making its armor was painted with green and brown to merge into the forest background better.
Knowing that single SWATbots rarely wandered around in the forest alone, a sensible Freedom Fighter would decide it was the right time to retreat and return with some reinforcement.
Sensible fighters rarely became heroes, though.
Something in the grass caught the SWATbot's attention, and it lowered to one knee to have a better look at that particular spot. It reached forward, its metal fingers roaming through the thick greenness. Judging by the behavior alone, the bot was looking for hidden evidence of somebody's presence… or a covert path, perhaps.
A gloved hand reached out from the bushes to tap on the metal forehead.
"Hey, SWA–"
A cheeky voice never finished that phrase. The metal hand thrust forward, forcing a slender figure to gasp and topple. The unlucky attacker fell on his rear with an Umph!, obviously not expecting such an abrupt reaction.
Next moment, the SWATbot was pointing a laser weapon built into its forearm at the spot where the fallen enemy had been– only he wasn't there anymore. The blue anthropomorphic hedgehog wearing a cocky smile stood behind it now, leaning against a tree lazily.
"Gotten faster since we last played, huh?" He flashed a grin at the emotionless red visor turning to face him. "Let me show ya why they call me the fastest dude on Mobius!"
A laser pulse got lost in the forest mass, missing the elusive target. Fierce gusts of wind made the tree branches creak as Sonic the Hedgehog – the hero of Mobius and the most known of Knothole Freedom Fighters – started running in a tight circle around his enemy. Within a blink of an eye, a thick wall of swirling air surrounded the SWATbot, promising it a humiliating flight into the thorny bushes.
The metal frame shifted, desperate to find a stable position, causing a grin to appear on Sonic's muzzle. Piece of chili-dog, as always.
Next moment the hedgehog's eyes went wide as he felt the SWATbot trying to stop his attack. That useless piece of junk was actually fighting him, trying to push itself through the tornado and knock the attacker off balance! He bit his lip, adding to his speed. Had the bot succeeded in forcing whatever part of its ugly body into Sonic's way, that would hurt more than a head-on collision with a high-speed Hover Unit… and that was way past uncool.
The robot lost it first. Slowly, as if reluctantly, its feet parted from the ground, and the wind raised by the hedgehog threw it head-first into a tree trunk. The wood cracked, accepting a metal head in its embrace, and Sonic dealt one final blow to make sure it stayed there for a long while.
After it was done, the spiky ball uncurled and the hedgehog himself landed on his two feet. He was panting slightly while wiping a drop of sweat off his forehead automatically. Meanwhile, his sensitive ears have already picked up distant noise approaching him, and from experience he knew it was time for him to get a move on.
He darted off into the forest, knowing precisely that the SWATbots would obediently follow him to exactly where he wanted them. Sonic was enjoying himself so much at this moment. Adrenaline pumping in his veins; wind blowing in his ears; for him, those were the symbols of the freedom he had made his trademark, and he would take on as many SWATbots as necessary to maintain it.
A tiny wearable transceiver on his triangular ear vibrated, indicating there was an incoming message for him. The hedgehog swung his hand swiftly, pressing a button on the device and thus accepting the transmission.
"Faker!" growled a familiar voice. "Please tell me this commotion has nothing to do with you."
That stripy creep only called him faker when greatly annoyed. Sonic grinned; his day was now officially made. "Chill, Shadow. Can't a hedgehog say his fellow SWATbots a hi?"
"Don't forget what our mission is! You promised Sally to–"
Sonic pressed the button again, and the line went silent. He rolled his eyes, never stopping his run through the forest. "Blah, blah, blah… Can't he just come and have some fun, too?"
His companion mentioning Sally did bring a frown onto his features, though. There was a plan, and they were expected to follow it. In fact, personally Sonic was strictly advised to follow it. Having fought by the hero's side for years, the Princess knew very well how easily he often gave in to his urges.
But…
But he was running again. After a torturously long wait, Sonic the Hedgehog was running! Helping it was just beyond his possibilities.
Whoops!
The hero skidded to a stop as he realized he had already approached the familiar place he was heading to. At this point, the forest was becoming thinner, soon revealing a path running along the downside of a rocky slope– a high and steep one, in fact. Being the dumb robots they were, SWATbots were bound to decide that the hedgehog had taken the path, and then follow him. Meanwhile, said hedgehog just had to hide somewhere on the upper side of the slope and then push a mass of rocks onto the approaching machines to make sure they never returned to Robotropolis with good news.
He took a spot behind a lovely big stone that was obliged to cause a major landslide on its way down. A hovercraft full to the brim with SWATbots heading his way would be pretty hard to miss, but he peered into the woodland as intensively as he could. Now, his only worry was picking the right time to make his move.
Sally could be a skilled strategist, but when it came to field action, it too often depended on the hero's reaction and on-the-go decisions whether the mission would be a success. Real life always changed their plans however it wished.
His com had been vibrating annoyingly all this time. Sonic covered it with his palm, huffing in disapproval as Tails had never made disabling the buzz possible.
"C'mon, slow-butts…" He tapped his wrist watch impatiently, peeking around the rock and frowning at how his pursuers still didn't hurry to show up. "What's taking ya so long?"
The answer came in a form of a blow to the back of his head.
Sonic only had time to a make a tiny sound of surprise before falling to all fours… and feeling a mass of pebble shift under his grip. He thrashed about, trying to slow down his movement, which resulted in him only gaining more speed. He rolled down in a growing cloud of dust and stone splinters, as if being a weirdly shaped rock himself.
Sonic forced himself to concentrate and curl into a ball to minimize the damage to his vulnerable belly and muzzle. He succeeded on the second try, after a collision with a particularly big rock threw him into the air. Tricking him this time, SWATbots possibly possessed just enough brains to bring a stone shower onto his own head as well, so it would be best if he just rolled straight into the safety of the forest as fast as possible.
Apparently, the enemy could see through his plan as he spotted something fly past him from above. The hero huffed under his nose. What were they thinking? No projectile could stop this hedgehog from spinning into freedom!
Unless it was made of–
Splat.
–Mega Muck.
The blue ball finally landed onto the path at the feet of the slope and immediately had trouble uncurling fully. Those SWATbots above him had time to fire a load of Mega Muck – a super sticky substance invented by that Robotnik to counteract Sonic's incredible speed – in his way, and now the hero of Mobius lay crouched in a puddle of dirt with his elbows and knees safely glued to it.
Fantastic.
He squinted above his shoulder to estimate the distance between him and his enemies. At first, he didn't see anything; perhaps it had to do with the painful throbbing at the back of his head? Only after a moment of intense peering, he did notice several vague transparent silhouettes moving on top of the slope.
Sonic's eyes went wide. The SWATbots he knew couldn't become transparent! And the SWATbots he knew had just enough brains to run and shout at him at the same time; scheming against him was something they were not supposed to do! Something was terribly wrong with them, and it took the notion all this time to sink in.
It is something Shadow's warned you about, he heard someone say at the back of his head; the voice unnervingly resembled that of Sally. Of course, he had let the warning fly past his ears. And now he couldn't even reach out to accept Shadow's call and say how sorry he was.
His head whipped forward as his whole body tensed, resisting the glue. The hedgehog knew he could do it; he had already done it times before. Mustering all his power at once was the trick… as well as going that quick enough to outstrip the robots sent after him.
Careful footsteps were approaching him from above. The bots didn't try to bury him while they could… Felt like taking him to Robotropolis alive, huh? Not a chance here.
He squeezed his eyes shut from exertion. After yet another powerful push his left leg broke free. It brought a wild grin onto his face; the rest was just too easy.
The free leg started spinning and soon turned into a blur, adding to the force he was pushing himself free with. Before he could blink, his another leg was pulled out. With one last jerk, his hands were released from the trap as well. The fur he had lost today would probably take eternity to grow back, but in the end he was free as the wind again.
"Yes! Eat that, SWAT-butts!"
Euphoria went to his head, but not enough to make him forget about immediate threats. He couldn't see SWATbots while moving at such speed, but his hearing gave him a hint on their position. Too bad for them they had already descended almost all the way down the slope… Sonic rushed up in a wide arc, setting his initial plan in motion: namely, pushing all of the massive rocks on his way to produce a spacious landslide.
When he finally stopped on the path a good deal away from the Mega Muck blob, it all seemed to be over already. The landfall had died down, save for occasional streams of pebble. Sonic smirked and gave himself an inward thumbs-up.
Since he and Shadow still had signed up for a recon side-mission, it might be a good idea to approach now and take a closer look at those strange new SWATbots… maybe even take some parts with him for Tails to study. By the smell of it, some 'bots were already burning, but he still had a chance to find something valuable.
Funny thing, he thought while making a step forward. There's no smoke in sight. Plus, he didn't remember SWATbots stinking like this before…
Then there was a surge of pain in his left foot, and he yelped.
One look down was enough to recognize where the smell was coming from – the soles of his sneakers. Both of them were literally melting before his very eyes, promising his feet at least second-degree burns within seconds unless he took action.
Sonic fell on his tail without caring about comfort and tore the left sneaker off; the left foot was the one that hurt the most right now. The sock joined it in the dust as it was completely ruined as well. The hedgehog stomped his aching feet several times, trying to rid it of remaining bits of grey-ish substance that made his skin hurt.
He was in the process of getting off the second sock when a lazy click made him freeze. Trying not to make any sharp moves, he raised his gaze as his stomach already contracted, preparing for the most horrible sight.
Before his eyes was… something, shapeless, colorless, quavering like heated air above a hot water supply line on a sunny day. As Sonic kept staring at it, it slowly took form of a khaki-colored SWATbot with its laser weapon pointing straight into the hedgehog's peach muzzle. For once, the metal puppet spared him the usual comments about Priority One, but the gesture alone was self-explanatory.
Sonic's gaze jolted towards the remnants of his footwear fizzling quietly in the dust. Realization made his fingers sink into his sore limb he was still holding. For him, losing those sneakers meant losing his speed as well.
His ability to fight. His only chance to escape.
The hero looked back up at the SWATbot, and gulped. It all looked like a nightmare coming true.