"Sigma Alpha 2, heading due south over the city. We're en route, everything's a go."
A GUN Armed Forces helicopter whisked over the alliance's capital city, headed towards the large air base only a few miles from its current position.
"This is control tower; we have you on radar. Report cargo status of captured hedgehog aboard, over."
"That's a ten-four. Cargo secured on board and… What?"
"Didn't copy that, over!"
"He's gone! He's taken out everyone aboard and…"
Suddenly, a blue hedgehog burst out of the 'copter- he grabbed hold of the wing, swung on top, and quickly tore a piece of the plating off. This piece seemed to resemble a snowboard—which was exactly how the anthromorph intended to use it.
A human soldier leaned out of the newly busted door and trained a gun on the hedgehog. "Freeze! What do you think you're doing?"
The hedgehog ignored the man as he precariously balanced his makeshift board on the edge of the wing. The male human yelled orders at his recovering companions. "Get that hedgehog!"
"Talk about low-budget flights!" the hedgehog cut in before the soldier could issue any more commands. "No food or movies? I'm outta here!"
He cocked his head to avoid a whizzing bullet and grinned with a spark in his green eyes. "I like running better."
With that, the blue hedgehog leaped off the plane, improvised board in hand. Performing tricks to dodge the sudden volley of bullets, he grew exhilarated. This was what he loved.
Falling toward the capital of the GUN, Sonic the Hedgehog couldn't help but let out a "Yeeaaahhh!"
ooo
Original series concepts by Naoto Oshima and Yuji Naka
ooo
Capital City, the center of GUN authority, was nestled in a hilly harbor, and sloped downward to the bay. It would make for great snowboarding territory… if it actually snowed there. But, Sonic figured, the inclines were steep enough that any board could reach a pretty decent speed going to the bay—a perfect opportunity for escape.
ooo
Original games developed by SEGA
ooo
A small figure dressed inconspicuously in typical winter clothing slipped into the under-construction (and therefore empty) park. Quickly hurdling a fence, the figure plunged down a sheer drop to the ground and somersaulted into a ball on impact, rolling quickly to the other side of the path. Its tiny ear communicator pried in on the local military frequencies and faintly proclaimed: "Attention all units: suspect seen heading south…"
The mysterious figure turned it off once they figured out that Sonic was heading towards their position. It was exchanged for a pair of headphones while the figure flipped through their music player deciding what song to listen to.
They settled on a song that seemed fitting, given their situation: Escape from the City. From the first strums of the guitar, they knew the blue hedgehog would appreciate it.
ooo
meowthecat presents
ooo
The board screeched and sparked as Sonic rode down the street and took out a GUN robot with a nicely placed trick. Its hedgehog rider yanked the weapon's transceiver out, fastened it securely to his ear—all while continuing to hurdle down the hill—and sent a bank of cars flying as he nearly wiped out on a sharp turn.
Oops. Sonic briefly looked back and saw no casualties (good) and lots of property damage (even better). He didn't want any loss of life if he could help it, but busting up technology was one of his cherished pastimes.
Now let's hear what their chatter about me is. The anthromorph then listened to the speaker as they ordered their underlings to "block all major roads and capture the suspect." Pfft.
And with that, the blue hedgehog launched himself off a construction ramp and flew high over the nearest hastily formed barricade.
ooo
Rolling Around At the Speed of Sound
ooo
Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow!
He continued down the road, launching himself off of ramps and remembering to brake while turning this time. Sonic even grabbed some rings off the road and an energy barrier from an item box he crashed through on one of the jumps. Never know when these things might come in handy.
Can't stick around, gotta keep moving on,
The hedgehog anthromorph then dodged and weaved through a traffic intersection (careful not to hit the cars this time, since there were definitely people in them) to throw off the police. Noticing some dashpads ahead, he plowed through an antique trolley car and suddenly found himself flung out over a park.
The steep drop and traveling velocity at this point would've scared anyone but Sonic. This sort of stuff was routine: he kicked away his board and dove feet first to a graceful, if hard, landing on the ground.
Sonic looked around and noticed he was in a narrow strip of park hemmed in by walls on the sides. A second's decision led him to turn left and go deeper into the park…
Guess what lies ahead? Only one way to find out!
ooo
Sonic!
The figure threw off her hood (and headphones) to reveal the face of another hedgehog anthromorph—this time pink, but with green eyes similar to the ones of the blue hedgehog standing before her. She sprinted towards Sonic and nearly knocked him to the ground with a huge tackle-hug from behind.
"Whoa!" Sonic was only surprised for a moment before he realized exactly who his partner was going to be on this mission. He rolled his eyes, wiggling himself (with great effort) from his fellow hedgehog's vicegrip. "Amy."
"Sonic! I'm so glad you're okay!" the pink hedgehog named Amy Rose happily exclaimed. "I was SO worried when I heard you—"
"It was all part of the mission," Sonic reminded her. He took off the robot's transceiver and crushed it in his hand. "We're not going to need this."
"Sure thing!" Amy enthused. "I've got a communicator right here that we can both share! Tails is on the other end too!"
Thank the stars; I was worried that I'd be stuck talking to Amy the entire mission. With a resigned look on his face all the same, he turned to Amy. "Listen, my transceiver was probably being tracked—"
"Because you nabbed it off of GUN, didn't you?" Amy's expression grew thoughtful. "Since it was a GUN transceiver, they'd be keeping tabs on it as part of their surveillance routines."
Sonic was legitimately surprised. He gave her a small smirk. "Looks like you're learning."
This was elating news to Amy, who was suddenly rocketed up to Cloud Nine. "Thank you, Sonic," she sighed.
The blue hedgehog sighed for an entirely different reason. "C'mon, we've gotta get going. Pretty soon they'll find where we are—"
Must keep on moving ahead,
Suddenly, GUN robots dropped into the park. This was going to be an inconvenient ride, but not unmanageable. "Heh." Sonic grinned confidently. "Looks like kicking-ass-time came a bit early. Not a problem—sooner the better, in my opinion."
The robots aimed their controlled plasma missiles in response…
No time for guessing, follow my plan instead!
…and fired.
Both hedgehogs dodged the blasts, Amy dragging out her trusty Piko Piko Hammer and lunging towards the enemies to protect her beloved. Sonic, however, was already in the action, using homing attacks on one robot after another until they were all picked off by the two hedgehogs.
"Take that! We make a wonderful team, don't we, Sonic?" Amy asked with stars in her eyes.
Sonic sighed (again) at the blatant overattachment. But hey, at least she's not doing half-bad in battle now.
Even though Amy could be annoying at times, they'd been friends since they were kids, before she was old enough to start crushing on him after a particularly daring rescue. She was also an essential part of their three-man band—Sonic, Tails, and Amy—though it had taken a while to get the swing of things, even with her hammer. (Pun!)
Trusting in what you can't see,
"C'mon," he smiled, "let's find the target and get the hell out of here. I'll take point."
The stars disappeared and Amy grew determined. The need to prove herself to Sonic aside, this was a REALLY important mission for them. If this succeeded…
Take my lead I'll set you free.
ooo
Follow me, set me free,
Trust me and we will escape from the city!
They proceeded, running along walls and taking out robots. But when they destroyed their attackers, they noticed something interesting.
I'll make it through, follow
Follow me, set me free,
Trust me and we will escape from the city!
"Huh? What're these glowing capsules?" Sonic asked. They were all structured the same, but the color they gave off was unique to each capsule.
Amy examined one. "Ooo! It looks like there are gem shards inside of them! How pretty! Can we take some with us?" She asked her partner eagerly.
Sonic rolled his eyes. "Sure, I guess. Although…" He stopped to think for a moment. "Tails would probably get a kick out of analyzing these thingies."
"YAY!" Amy exclaimed. She'd finally done something Sonic agreed with!
"Amy!" Sonic exclaimed back, "Not so lou—"
More GUN robots immediately honed in on their position. Sonic sighed. This was going to take a little longer than expected. She might be enthusiastic and determined about this, but she's still pretty inexperienced. Why Tails didn't leave Amy behind to coordinate at Command and be on the ground himself for this super important mission is beyond me… I'll need to ask him where the hell we need to go after we get out of here.
Amy sighed, frustrated. I always have to go and mess these important things up just when it seems like I've done something Sonic likes! She quickly scooped up two of the glowing capsules and pulled out her hammer once again. "All right!" She charged into battle. "I'm going to fix this quick!"
I'll make it through, prove it to you…
Follow me!
A few moments later, the partners were dashing through a park, Sonic doing flips off stray construction ramps (in an attempt to get to a good vantage point) and Amy taking out the robots below that would've picked him off.
Once the blue hedgehog made it onto the top of a short tunnel, he pulled out the communicator that Amy had handed off to him, flipped it back on, and stuck it into his ear.
"Tails! We're almost out of the park Amy met me at; can you figure out where the convoy's at from here?"
"Sure thing, Sonic!" Their young mission coordinator, a yellow fox anthromorph called Tails Prower (named so for the unusual trait of two rotatable tails he possessed), used the hacked GUN radio feed to estimate the trajectory of the traveling target. "The truck's traveling down towards the bayside base like we knew it would be. But to intercept it, you're going to have to decrease your altitude pretty rapidly, and that park goes west to east for a while…" he finished on an unsure note.
"Hmm…" Sonic looked around for a quick way to get down… there WAS that loop de loop that led down the side of a building. He had no idea what it was doing there, but it'd make for a quick solution—and a fun sprint, too.
Oh yeah!
"Amy! Head for the loop! And watch it!" he added. "I think the drop could be steep!"
Danger is lurking around every turn,
The pink-quilled hedgehog emerged victoriously from the tunnel, putting away her hammer. "Sure thing, Sonic!" She smiled reassuringly. "I'll be A-okay!" A pun on my own name! He'll like that for sure.
Trust your feelings, got to LIVE AND LEARN!
The two ran up the loop… and then down the sheer drop of a tall apartment building. Sonic relished in the feeling of the wind whistling by them. He accelerated, Amy struggling to keep up behind him. She kept her eyes on her blue beloved to remain steady—while she'd gained a lot of speed over the years pursuing Sonic, he was still the best (and bravest) at daredevil stunts like these.
I know with some luck that I'll make it through,
As they got closer to the ground, they spied a set of springs in lieu of the traditional slope.
Got no other options only one thing to do!
Sonic hit the springs first, flying some distance before he landed on a rail and grinded up it with his special soap shoes.
I don't care what lies ahead,
As the slower of the two, Amy had a bit more time to hit the spring in a way that would launch her towards where she wanted to go—the straight red poles stretching over the top of the (yet another) park they found themselves in; they were probably used to hang banners during the holidays.
She grabbed ahold of one with both hands, swinging in a circle around it (thank goodness I wore leggings today) before throwing herself up to the next one and doing the same.
No time for guessing, follow my plan instead.
This gave her a break from the ground route, where Sonic was currently doing homing attacks from one robot to another.
After the last pole, she flipped herself upright and prepared to land on a high ledge. But just to make sure I don't overshoot… She took out the Piko Piko and began to whirl around in midair, creating a helicopter effect that allowed Amy to lower herself to the ground (relatively) slowly.
Find the next street no matter what that may be.
On the way down, she accidentally hit a mysterious gold GUN robot that randomly showed up out of the corner of her eye. It crashed to the ground and started sparking.
"That was odd," Amy said to herself. Once she landed, she gave it a good final WHACK, and the robot exploded. Then she noticed another odd thing. Pushed up next to the wall beside a wooden GUN crate was a large blue box with what looked like large outlines of a Chao's head on all sides.
Take my lead, I'll set you free!
She busted it open with her hammer to find an equally mysterious blue key that was also Chao themed. "Hmm!" She picked it up and put it with the gem shard capsules she'd collected. Then she turned to the (significantly shorter) way out of THIS park—a large pit that was still being worked on, if the construction cylinders and general bottomlessness of it were any indication. Is everything in this city under construction?
Follow me, set me free,
She could get across the pit just fine by helicoptering, but there was the problem of the GUN robots suddenly floating in her way. "Hey, Sonic!" she called down to her partner.
"What's up?" he asked as he finished off the last of the robots on the ground—at this point, GUN'd pretty much have all the abandoned park zones covered, so they needed to change scenery fast. He spied a sloping wall leading up to the ledge Amy was on. A spindash and he was right up there with her.
Trust me and we will escape from the city.
Amy wouldn't lie, she was a bit envious of Sonic's ability to curl up into a ball like that. "I need to get across the pit, but all those GUN robots are in the way…"
"No problem," responded Sonic in a significantly better mood after a good bout of running. "How about you take the low road over the construction cylinders and I take the high road? You've always jumped higher over platforms than I have."
"Sure!" Amy grew enthusiastic again, giving Sonic a smile and a blush.
I'll make it through, follow,
Follow me, set me free,
One pit crossing later, they found themselves in front of the exit… which was blocked with caution signs.
"Heh, this'll be no problem!" Sonic said confidently. "We can just somersault under these. But be careful," he turned to Amy, "you're going to have to start running right when you hit the street, and watch out for cars, too! You ready?"
"Ready!" Amy gave Sonic a determined look.
Trust me and we will escape from the city.
They somersaulted out of the park and dashed down the street. Sonic gave Tails the major intersection they just passed. "Wow! You guys really moved fast!" Tails enthused. "But… huh. The convoy actually seems to be north of you… and it looks like it's speeding up."
"Ha! Looks like all we've gotta do is lie in wait and—"
"Sonic!" Amy yelled, scared, "Something big's getting close!"
I'll make it through prove it—
Uh oh. Sonic and Amy both looked behind them as a loud noise got closer and closer. Its source finally rounded the corner…
"What the hell!"