Author's note: Well, I finally got chapter 2 done. The purpose of this chapter and the next is to show the characters comprehending the situation they're in, so they may not push the plot forward too much. Blah blah blah, I don't own these characters, blah blah blah. Enjoy!
Chapter 2 Not on Mobius Anymore
Eggman slowly rubbed his head as he struggled to move his arms. He was on the floor hunched over with his head resting on his knees. He tried turning his head from side to side, something he also struggled with, alerting him that his muscles were not fully awake. He ran his fingers over his bald head once more, realizing that his goggles were missing from their usual resting spot. He laid his fingers just above his nose, and chuckled at the result.
"Of course," he said in a low tone. "I put them on when I activated the machine." Every muscle in his body came to a complete stop as he was reminded of what had previously transpired.
"The machine," he said, scratching his head furiously as if that would make him remember faster. "I activated it. Did it work?" He looked around anxiously for any signs of Sonic and his friends being roboticized. However, the room was empty of any life besides himself. He noticed that all the lights were out, and the glass dome he was in was shattered at the top. He examined his gloves, stained red by the numerous cuts from the broken glass. He put on his usual scowl and decided he'd have to investigate a little to figure out if his machine worked.
He patted his back pocket, realizing that his gun was not on his person. He patted the floor of the platform he was on looking for it, ignoring the broken glass that littered the ground. Observing that all the lights were out, and the platform had been lowered to the ground, Eggman assumed that power to the immediate area had been lost.
He slowly stood up, bracing himself against the glass for support; he could slowly sense the feeling in his limbs returning. He put his goggles back onto his head before blasting a hole through the glass dome.
Eggman slowly wandered through his base with his head constantly turning and his handgun just a motion away. He noticed the damage that had been done by the intruders, making mental note to repair those areas later. "Blasted echidna," he grumbled, observing the holes that had been punched through the floor.
He walked through a set of doors and immediately started scanning the walls. "Let's see if we can get some power restored to the base." He played around with the controls for a while, trying every combination of button-pushing and lever-pulling that could possibly return power to his base. At last, he was met with a response as the lights overhead brightly flashed to life.
"Ha ha," he shouted loudly into the air. "Now, perhaps I can get a few answers as to what happened here."
. . .
"Ugh," Sonic groaned as he felt his side get poked.
"Did you hear that? It made a sound." Sonic didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded like that of a child. But at the moment, his eyelids felt like cinderblocks and refused to open.
"Does that mean it's not dead?"
"No, it's gotta be dead; it ain't moving."
"What is that thing anyway?"
"It looks like a big kitty."
"Don't be stupid. It's got spikes on its back; and besides, it's blue."
"Poke it with the stick again."
Sonic let out another grunt as the wielder of the stick made sure to jam him hard in the stomach with it. "Cut it out," he weakly moaned as he struggled to find any movement in his limbs. He would have kept quiet if he had known the raucous he would cause around him with his words.
"It talked; the blue thing talked."
"Cats aren't supposed to talk."
"I told you, it's not a cat."
"It's still not supposed to talk."
Sonic had had enough. He opened his eyes, and was met with a bright glare from the sun. He closed them tight again, only to open them once more. This time he made sure to open them gradually, letting the sunlight slowly drift into his eyesight. He could still only make out silhouettes of the bodies crowded around him, but he could tell from the voices that he wouldn't recognize any of them. This assumption was confirmed, as he found himself staring into the eyes of five bipedal organisms. They were human, like Dr. Eggman, but he could tell by their voice and appearance that they were only children; probably around the same age as Tails.
The thought of his friend seemed to reawaken Sonic's memory. A vision of Eggman's base flashed through his memory. He remembered running at the doctor as he pushed the trigger to his machine. He turned and saw Tails as they were all both enveloped by a bright light; after that, everything was a blur.
He groaned in frustration as he tried to push himself up, but found his muscles were still weak. "Hey," he said, the strength in his voice starting to come back. "Can you guys help me get up?"
The children all looked back at him wide-eyed, as if Sonic was about to leap at them and start tearing away at their flesh. "Go get the principal," one of the kids said in a loud whisper to another. Sonic watched as the kid who was spoken too nodded quickly and ran off.
"Look, I'm not going to hurt you," he said, trying to sound calm and relaxed. "But I'm worried about my friends and I need to go find them. I just need one or two of you to get me back on my feet."
Sonic smiled as the boy on the far left, by far the shortest one, started walking towards him. "Tommy, wait," the kid next to him said as he put his hand on the little boy's shoulder. The boy whose name was Tommy shook it off and continued over to Sonic.
The boy placed his left arm under Sonic's chest and started to position his right arm behind the hedgehog before he was waved off. "Trust me," said Sonic, placing his hands firmly on the ground in a ready position, "you don't wanna grab back there."
Sonic felt the boy push upwards with all his might, adding his other hand for extra strength. He saw a girl walk over to his other side and start to pull him up by the arm. Sonic felt life slowly flowing back into his arms, and pushed against the blacktop to get himself upright. He stumbled back a few steps, as his legs needed a minute to regain their sturdiness. He then proceeded to stretch his legs, extending each one out and bending towards it. A dozen more kids had gathered around him since he first gained consciousness, alerting him that it was probably time to get going. He looked at the two who helped him up, gave them thumbs up, and sped off into the distance. He could only imagine the shocked expressions on their faces.
. . .
Knuckles plugged his nose to protect himself from the unbearable odor. He slowly made his way through the dark alley, all the while trying to take in his surroundings. He had woken up in an alley connected to his current one fifteen minutes ago, and had yet to figure out where he was. If it was the city like he suspected, it bore no resemblance to any of the cities he was familiar with on Mobius. However, he realized that he spent close to all of his time on his island, so he never visited the cities that much.
The stench he had been trying to avoid got incredibly strong, forcing him to turn to his left and vomit. Across the alley was a trash bin filled with animal carcasses. The ones hanging off the edge looked freshly killed, but the ones at the bottom of the bin were rotting away. Knuckles quickly moved past it, still making sure to keep quiet.
Due to his hasty movement, he walked into a hanging ladder while not looking. He rubbed his head as the "clang" of the ladder rang out in the tight alleyway.
"What the hell is that?" came a voice from the other end of the alley. It appeared the clamor caused by running into the ladder had alerted a couple of citizens. However, they didn't appear to be very friendly. Two men, both of them in shabby clothing and with suspicious faces, approached the echidna.
"Is that an echidna?" Both men were tall and skinny, and appeared to be malnourished. Knuckles assumed they were both homeless, forced to live in the alleys and scavenge for food. He had a feeling that was exactly what they were doing now.
"I've never seen an echidna stand on two legs. Is it frowning?"
"If you're thinking of cutting me up and eating me for dinner," said Knuckles, getting enjoyment from their shocked faces, "I suggest you keep looking. I'm not on the menu."
He smiled as one guy dropped his knife and ran the other way, not caring whether his partner was behind him or not. "You don't scare me," claimed the lone man, although his quivering knees claimed otherwise.
Knuckles watched as the man charged at him with the knife held across his chest, ready to slash horizontally once he reached his target. The echidna, unfazed by the man's hectic charge, slid under the blade and delivered a fierce uppercut to the man's midsection. He only flinched because of the loud noise that came from the man flying into some nearby trash cans.
"Who's out there?" came a shout from above. Knuckles put his hand over his eyes as he looked up at the flashlight shining down on him and the man. Like his partner before him, the man dropped his knife and ran off down the alley. "Freeze, don't move!" shouted the voice from above as he hurriedly made his way down the metal steps that led from the streets up to his apartment.
Knuckles, confident in his ability to handle himself, stayed and waited for the person to make his way down to the ground. The man who dropped down from the ladder was dressed in a brown trench coat with a hat to match. He immediately shone his flashlight on the echidna's face, making him flinch from the brightness. Knuckles could see the surprise on the man's face; he was not expecting anyone to actually wait around for him.
"Hey, do you mind pointing that somewhere else?" Knuckles once again took enjoyment out of seeing the man take a few steps back. "It's starting to hurt my eyes."
The man took a deep breath in order to regain his composure. He put a stern face on, trying to not look intimidated. Knuckles figured he was some sort of authoritative figure; someone who wasn't supposed to show any fear when on the job. He remained calm as the man took out his gun and pointed it at his head.
"What are you?" asked the man, trying not to stammer. He wanted to sound as confident as he could. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Knuckles kept staring straight ahead, having seemingly not heard the questions he was asked. He was hastily trying to piece together the observations he had made into an answer as to where he was. This was now the third human he had run across; back on Mobius, Eggman was the only human he was aware of.
Knuckles started walking towards the man in the jacket, ignoring the question that was previously addressed to him. "You seem different from those other guys," he said, looking the man right in the eye.
"Other guys?" The man scratched his head, thinking back to the noise that brought him outside. "Oh, you must've run into some thugs. Not exactly uncommon if you're wandering around the alleyways."
"And you're not one of them?" asked Knuckles, who was now only a couple feet away from the man. Despite being over twice his height, the man remained unnerved.
"Me? No, I'm a cop." The policeman now realized that the creature in front of him didn't comprehend the world around him. He lowered his gun in an attempt to show the creature he meant him no harm. "What about you, huh? You haven't answered my questions yet."
The echidna crossed his arms in order to make himself look imposing. "My name is Knuckles; Knuckles the echidna."
The cop put his gun back in the holster and extended his arm. "Lieutenant Humphrey Beckard. But you can call me Hummer; that's what my friends always called me." He noticed the spikes on the knuckles of the echidna, and chose not to fully enclose his hand when shaking. "So what are ya doing here, anyway?" he asked after the formalities had finished. "If ya don't mind me saying, you seem a bit lost. Ain't ya ever been to Station Square before?"
Knuckles's thoughts had been confirmed; he was definitely not on Mobius anymore. "This is going to sound crazy," he started, still trying to remain calm, "but what planet are we on?"
Hummer looked back at him as if he was speaking another language. "Boy, buddy, you really are lost. Did you hit your head or somethin'? Don't worry, you haven't been abducted by aliens or anything; you're still on Earth."
. . .
Eggman got off the elevator at the fourth floor; the floor where the roboticizing machine was located. By this point, he was nonplussed by the degree of the damage caused by Sonic and his friends. However, these areas were noticeably worse due to the presence of the destructive echidna. Live electrical wires hung from the ceiling, hissing like snakes waiting for prey to wander close enough.
As soon as the doctor entered the room he could tell something was wrong. The wall on the far side of the room had been broken through, and he could still smell the gunpowder from the bounty hunter's rifle. There had been a struggle in the room, and it appeared Knuckles and Mighty may have stumbled across the machine.
He quickly made his way over to the machine, still staying alert for any unwanted guests. "I can't believe this," cried Eggman upon seeing the condition of his machine; a hole had been blown clean through it. To make matters worse, all but one of the chaos emeralds were gone from their slots in the machine.
"Foiled again by that blasted hedgehog and his friends!" he cried, kicking the machine. He took a seat against the wall and put his hand on his head, contemplating his next move. He looked around, surveying the destruction of the room. He had yet to make his way through the whole base, but he knew most of the rooms and hallways looked similar to the one he was in. It would all have to be rebuilt before he could even think about going forward with his plans. "And after all that time it took to gather all seven emeralds."
He took a minute to think back to the events right before waking up alone in his lair. He looked up thoughtfully, as if someone had flicked the on-switch in his brain. "That flash of light," he said faintly, remembering seeing his archenemy get enveloped in light. "It happened right when I activated the machine."
He briskly got back on his feet and made his way over to the machine and the spot where one emerald still remained. His thoughts were confirmed upon lifting the jewel, which dimly glowed with its yellow fluorescence. "The power has been drained from the emerald," he said, his eyes growing wide. "The machine must not have been destroyed until after I started it; it was working."
He pocketed the emerald, making a mental note to put it in a safe place later. He leaned against the wall and delved back into deep thought. The machine had been activated; that much was clear. And it was also clear that the machine had been destroyed, but not until after it had started up. The only question was: what did that mean? It appeared from his tour around the base that the roboticizing function of the machine had not been carried out. But the chaos emerald had been drained of power. Surely that wouldn't have happened if the machine was only running for a second or two.
Eggman was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps echoing through the base. "Perhaps my robots are still wandering around," he said, pulling out his gun and heading in the direction of the noise.
When he started getting closer to the footsteps, however, he could make out two voices; neither sounded familiar to him. He quietly slinked his way along the corridor, deciding it'd better to investigate the source of the noise before revealing himself to them. He looked up just in time to see their shadows rounding the corner; they were heading back his way. Quickly, he located a side passage to wait in while they got closer.
"Most of it seems to be heavily damaged," he heard one of them say.
"Damaged or not," spoke the other, "this building is a remarkable find. The technology in here far surpasses that of our own. We'll report this right away to the supervisor, and come back with a whole excavation team."
Eggman had heard enough. "I wouldn't count on that happening," he said, stepping out into the main hallway, gun raised, to meet his guests. He was taken aback from what he saw.
Humans. Two of them. Just like him. They were both decked out in all beige, including a hat to match. As one of them had mentioned earlier, they appeared to be part of an excavation team. But Eggman had no intention of his base becoming an exhibit. Without warning he shot the man on the left in the head. He smiled maliciously as the man left standing stood, frozen on the spot, looking in shock at his fallen comrade.
"Wait, wait!" he cried, not wanting to end up like his friend. "There must be a misunderstanding. We're part of an excavation team; we've been checking out these ruins for two weeks now. When this building suddenly appeared last night, we were told to check it out." His voice got more frantic and high-pitched the more he talked.
"Ruins? Suddenly appeared? What are you talking about?" Eggman slowly walked up to the man, all the while refusing to lower his gun. His tall figure and sinister grin clearly intimidate the man, as he sank to his knees in a begging motion.
"Please, don't kill me. I promise I won't tell anyone about this place."
Eggman stared at the man through his black shades, disgusted. He spat directly on the man, who continued to blubber and sweat profusely. He put on the best sad face he could manage and sank down to be level with the man. "Now I just can't stand to watch a grown man cry," he said in a mocking tone. He roughly grabbed the man by the collar and picked him up.
"Now," he growled, pushing his nose right up against the man's face. "I've got questions, and you're going to answer them."
The man weakly shook his head. He was clearly too terrified to utter any words.
"You said something about my base suddenly appearing in these ruins. What did you mean? Where are we?" The man continued to whine unintelligibly, forcing Eggman to give him a rough shake. "Answer me!"
"W-w-we're in the Mystic Ruins. The closest city is Station Square; it's just a train ride away. Like I said, no one had ever seen this base before last night. It was just… here. Like magic."
Eggman dropped the individual onto the floor, having to take in the information that was just given to him. "What planet is this?"
The man looked back at the doctor as if he was stupid. He would soon realize this was a big mistake. "What do you mean?"
"Did I stutter?" Eggman moved closer so that the barrel of his gun was touching the man's forehead. "My patience is waning with you. What planet is this?"
"Earth, planet Earth!" the man shouted hysterically.
Eggman once again put on his signature grin. "Thank you."
He headed for the nearest exit, reminding himself to later dispose of the two bodies and clean up the blood. Somehow, the destruction of the machine had caused the emeralds to initiate another procedure; warping. Him and his base had been teleported to another planet, and he assumed the same had happened to his arch-nemesis.
He walked through the busted double-doors into the sunlight. His base appeared to be in the middle of a vast jungle that stretched many miles in each direction. On the horizon, as the man had said, he could see the tallest buildings of a nearby city.
"Perhaps fate hasn't been as unkind to me as I originally thought," he mused, stroking his mustache. "I've been given a clean slate; a brand new world to conquer."
To be continued...
Hope you enjoyed it. For those of you who are wondering if Tails fell off a cliff, don't worry; he'll be back in the next chapter. If you couldn't tell, I feel like Eggman doesn't always get portrayed as a serious villain, so I'm actually trying to make him, you know, evil. I highly encourage readers to leave comments; it usually motivates me to get the chapters out faster.
