Chapter One
Cinos the Hedgehog
10 years later...
Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep! Went the sound of the alarm clock. 8:00am, he didn't want to get up but he had to, he had to go to work in the filtration plant, it was the most boring job you could think of and the most disgusting, cleaning the gunk out of the filters, not a pleasant job.
He slammed his first down on the clock and rubbed his hand through his messed up quills, he didn't want to get up he just wanted to sleep. He was just about to drift off again when suddenly, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep! Stupid snooze button.
"Okay, okay I'm getting up!" Cinos complained slamming his fist down on the clock and sat up in bed, he can't manage the hours like this, he could swear he was getting more and more tired with every day, that's every single day, all year around. He only worked it because it was well paying and his brother and sister needed money. They lived on one of the outer colonies on the inner rim of the galaxy, his sister and brother and uncle.
It was amazing that only ten years ago Egg Industries, a major manufacturer of almost everything from medicine to food, to cars and clothes, had invented a star drive and began expanding to the outer reaches of space, starting up colonies on other planets to expand the Empire. His brother and sister were fortunate enough to be the first colonists to be sent to these new places. He got communications from them every month, video diaries and stuff, unfortunately it wasn't possible to have a telephone conversation, a 'Hi how are you?' 'I'm doing fine' type of conversation due to the vast distances it took to transmit, they wouldn't hear his message for over 100 years. So communication had to be done the old fashioned way by postmen and mail boxes.
Cinos rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms, they clicked loudly. "Lights" he commanded and the automatic lights flicked on. He slipped out of bed and into a pair of dull brown boots, a dull brown shirt and a green jumper, he then stretched his head left and right and heard his neck click.
His apartment was small and consisted only of his bed, an information screen which doubled as a mirror and a couple of books, in an adjacent room were his wash facilities which consisted only of a shower, a toilet and a sink.
Cinos looked in his mirror, he was a hedgehog in his mid to late twenties with an average build, he had dull brown fur and his quills needed combing but otherwise his fur was perfectly groomed. His dark eyes were outlined by the dark rings under them from lack of sleep.
He then opened the blinds on his window and he was greeted by the view of the street outside. Off in the distance you could see tall towers, long vent stacks blowing flames and even longer smoke stacks which spurted waste gases into the atmoshpere, it was also still dark. Wait a moment, it was still night outside! Cinos looked back at his clock again, it actually read 6:00am? Why was his alarm going off for six when he was supposed to get up at eight? It was always set for eight, it was automatically set for eight by the company they couldn't wake him up 2 hours early, they were required to fulfil his rest period of eight hours. Surely there was some mistake, but for whatever reason Cinos decided he was awake now. He knew he'd never get back to sleep.
"Screen" he commanded and the screen that doubled as a mirror flipped on to show the local news channel. Nothing much was going on, productivity is up, some trouble with the outer colonies trying break free from the empire and rumours suggesting that a bunch of rebels were hiding here on Mobius though the government denies it.
Cinos was just brushing his teeth and coming out of the wash room with the intention of going back to bed for a while longer to snooze. "Screen off" he commanded, but the screen didn't turn off, at least not to its mirror counterpart, instead it just went black.
"Oh, now what's wrong!" Cinos walked over to it and whacked his hand against the wall but it didn't help, this things been going wrong for almost two weeks. Once he's got enough credits together he'll pay for someone to fix it properly.
[Morning Cinos] a stream of green words said scrolling across the black screen. Okay that was weird, that usually didn't happen [You're up early] more words scrolled across the screen. [The Empire is lying to you, they are watching you, always.] Was this some sort of joke or something? Jokes like this were illegal and tampering with a vid screen was punishable by deportation to one of the penal colony worlds.
Cinos tried to turn off the screen by using the power button, but the screen remained stubornly on.
[Knock, knock Cinos]
Knock, knock, knock, Cinos nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard it. Someone was rapping on his door. Who could that be at this hour? Cautiously he walked over to the door and pressed the pad on the wall to open it up, his smooth, silver door shot upwards to reveal the dull, dark blue corridor beyond. He leaned out and looked left and right, there was no one there. Stupid kids playing 'knock a door run' or something. He was about to step back into his apartment when he noticed something at his feet, a slip of paper that must've been pushed just under his door. He knelt down and picked it up, a white envelope it looked like. He turned around and closed the door behind him and opened the envelope, his pay slip wasn't due yet and neither was a message from his family so who could this be from? And what's with the cloak and dagger stuff? Probably some stupid joke he guessed.
Cinos pulled from it a sheet of paper with a message that looked like it was hand written, but nobody hand wrote anything they just typed everything out and printed it. The handwriting was disorganised and smudged but it was clear what it was reading.
Cinos, up early I see, no need to thank us. You don't remember me but I sure remember you, you feel like there is a lot you don't understand and you sort of feel incomplete. I have some news about your family. If you want to fill in the gaps do NOT eat or drink anything when your meal arrives and meet us in corridor 7AB on the ground level. Come alone or not at all and remember, do not eat or drink anything.
We'll be waiting
-MP
Was this some stupid joke? Cinos thought again, 7AB was close to the city limits, if he was caught there he'd be sent to the correction centre. He would've dismissed it just that if not for one thing, he does feel incomplete somehow, like he's not all here like there are bits missing from him. A jigsaw someone had only half completed, that's how he felt. Then there were the bad dreams, ever since he was seventeen he would wake up from a bad dream, a dream where he was beaten up, drowned and chocked in total darkness, he would wake up in a cold sweat and once or twice in his youth he actually wet his bed.
Corridor 7AB was not that far away, if he was quick he could make it there and back before his work shift started, but do not eat or drink? He doubted he could skip breakfast and survive the day until lunch but they seem to insist on it. He could get there, find out what they wanted and catch a bite on the way to work he guessed, if he ran.
It didn't take him long to get there, oddly it never took him long to get anywhere when he ran. He always seemed to get to his destination in a matter of minutes, even if it takes an hour to walk, he's there within minutes just by running, it was weird.
While he ran he looked up at the sky. Hanging in the air like a suspended second moon was the Egg Sphere, a large spherical space station the size of a moon that was slightly bulged at the top making it look like a giant egg, it had what looked like a bristly moustache and large eyes that looked down at the world, apparently it was modelled after a great scientist who brought peace to the world. The giant space station was also known as the Scrap Brain but the rebels call it the Death Egg because it spelt the end for the rebels on Mobius by monitored all communications coming and going from the planet through the interweb so one group of terrorists could not interact with another on the colony worlds. It also filtered searches on the interweb searching for key words that indicated a possible terrorist attack and even went as far as to automatically shut down any site or user that's accused of performing 'illegal' activities that resulted in a financial loss to the company.
Within no time Cinos was outside corridor 7AB, a white corridor of very basic architecture. He saw a few people walking around, two foxes and a wolf all were dressed in the same clothes as he was, the same dull green jumpers. It was all part of the uniform after all, 'unity is strength and unity through consistency' as the Emperor once put it.
Man he was hungry, Cinos spied a small hatch in the wall with buttons along the side of it, a food dispenser. He looked at the palm of his right hand, implanted in which was his credit chip which was a safe way of protecting money. All he had to do was press his palm to the plate beside the hatch and select what he wanted, for some reason he had a hankering for something spicy. He knows he was asked not to eat anything but his stomach disagreed with it too much.
"Cinos" said a voice, that snapped Cinos out of his thoughts. He turned and saw a young, brown cat.
"Lola? What are you doing up so early?" Cinos asked, Lola worked in the same sector as he did but she had a much cushier and well paid job looking after the computer banks.
"You got our letter" Lola asked.
"That was you?" Cinos asked surprised and he placed his hands on his hips "Is this some kind of joke? I need to be at work in a few hours, I can't afford to get caught like this."
"You followed our instructions and didn't eat or drink anything?" she asked disregarding his comments.
"Yes, I followed your instructions" he added a little acidly.
"And how do you feel?" Lola asked
"Hungry and thirsty, this better be quick, I need to grab a bite to eat on the way to work otherwise I'll never survive my shift" Cinos said.
Lola began leading him down a set of stairs, deeper into the lower levels of the city. "You might find it hard to believe but all food and drink are laced with suppression drugs"
"I've heard those crazy conspiracy theories" Cinos commented
"They aren't crazy conspiracy theories. They should wear off after 8 hours, but you skipped supper last night so they should be wearing off faster."
"How did you know I skipped supper last night?" Cinos asked but mysteriously Lola did not speak. "Where are we going anyway?"
"Down to the base section"
"The base section, are you crazy?" Cinos cried and came to a stop "Do you know the penalty for this is three years in the correction facility!"
Lola however didn't listen, instead she walked back, took him by the wrists and gently pulled him further down the stairs. What on earth did she want to show him and why did she have to be so mysterious about it?
Down and down they went and the lower they went the colder and darker the place became. Cinos noticed that as they went lower the air became more and more... he didn't know what it became but the air smelt 'better' somehow. A moment later Cinos suddenly felt dizzy, he grabbed the handrail and breathed heavily to clear his head, the dizziness went but he was left with a very bad headache.
"You'll experience a sudden headache and nausea, it's just withdrawal symptoms."
"Withdrawal symptoms?"
"The air is pumped with chemicals to make the mind more suggestible." Lola said.
"Are you just trying to scare me?" Cinos asked but curiously found himself still following Lola deeper and deeper into the complex. This place looked like it hadn't been used in years. The white walls became dark blue and grimy below level F3 and still they kept descending.
"Halt!" called a voice from the darkness "Who goes there!"
"It's just me, Lola" she called "and I've brought Cinos with me."
From the shadows stepped a young, humanoid wolf creature "Cinos? Truly? Don't you mean Son...?"
"I know who I mean!" Lola cut across him "Go tell Marcus we're on our way, quick!"
Just as quickly as he had appeared the wolf ran back into the darkness and slowly Lola and Cinos began to follow.
"What the heck was all that about?" Cinos asked, Lola turned on a small, electrical torch to light their way. "Who's Marcus?"
"Someone you'll want to meet." Lola said mysteriously.
"Fine let's get this over with!" Cinos said in an impatient tone.
"You're not worried what will happen if the Emporer found out you were with a pack of rebels?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you didn't say anything about Rebels?!" Cinos said backing slightly away "I should report this to my superiors"
"Then why don't you go run away and do it now?" Lola asked
Cinos made to answer, paused, thought for a minute and sighed "I'm curious, I want to know what he's got to say about my family."
"Defying the Imperial law to that degree? The drugs must be wearing off." Lola quickly looked behind them and around the area.
"What is it?" Cinos asked.
"Nothing, nothing" she said warily her large ears perking up and scanning the area around them like radar dishes "I thought for a moment I heard someone behind us. Come on" and she pulled Cinos along the corridor with her.
After what felt like hours they emerged from the darkness into a very large room, a chamber held up by rusting pillars. The decaying ruins of old Robotopolis, it was cold apart from the flaming torches that decorated the walls. The room was not unoccupied however, dozens of rebels littered the room sitting in groups on hard, cold floors huddled around small lights, others standing and talking while a few seemed to be on some kind of patrol duty with gun like weapons. The room however fell silent as both he and Lola entered.
Cinos didn't like this, for some reason he was getting a very chilly reception from everyone, they all kept their eyes on him for every single second as if they disliked him for some reason, was he about to walk into a rebel trap or something?
He turned around and a guard had taken up a position behind him, oh this was a trap!
"Ah Cinos!" cried an old squirrel from across the room, he approached and opened his arms out to embrace him, and he did though Cinos did not embrace back. "How good to see you again" the elderly squirrel said, he was dressed in tattered robes of some kind that had once been finely made.
"Again?" Cinos asked as the old rodent broke the embrace.
"Oh of course, you don't recognise me do you?" the squirrel said.
"I've never seen you before in my life" Cinos said crossing his arms over his chest. He was aware that for some reason he was feeling far braver then he should, Lola had said the air above was filled with a suppression drug or something.
"As I said, you don't recognise me" the squirrel said "I'm Marcus, I was a great friend of your uncle Chuck."
"My uncle is on the outer colonies with my brother and sister and has been there for nearly fifteen years" Cinos said convinced he'd caught Marcus in a dirty little lie.
Marcus looked like he was having some kind of internal struggle with himself, at one point he looked close to tears but appeared to hold them back and regained control of himself. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this Cinos, but your uncle, your sister and your brother are all dead. They were executed 15 years ago."
Cinos didn't speak at first, he thought he'd misheard, but slowly his words sunk in. This had to be some kind of joke, some kind of sick joke.
"No" was all Cinos could say "No that's not possible, they're on the outer worlds, I get a communication from them every month."
"Easily faked using advanced GCI technology, all part of his plan to maintain control of you" Marcus explained but Cinos wasn't following it. "Now I'm going to have to tell you a story, one you might not believe, one that you might not want to hear, but please hear me out, ask questions if you like but please don't argue until you have heard everything, then you can make your own decisions."
Cinos was wary of this old squirrel who treated him like an old friend but he nodded and said "Go on, I'm listening."
Marcus smiled "Long ago there was a scientist who went bad, he was called Dr. Ivo Robotnik and he set out on a quest to conquer the world and turn it into this massive empire of metal, smoke and pollution, few could oppose him but some did. His biggest threat were a band of rebels who called themselves simply as 'the Freedom Fighters' striking from a hidden base called Knot Hole, now they were by no means the only opposition Robotnik had to encounter but it was the greatest opposition because it was lead by Princess Sally Acorn who could inspire leadership in any who spoke with her, but more importantly it was also aided by a skilled, teenage warrior, a blue hedgehog who called himself Sonic the Hedgehog."
Marcus paused as if Cinos should recognise something, he didn't "Go on" Cinos asked.
"Sonic defeated Robotnik at every turn, the hedgehog was arrogant, cocky and won the respect of many of the rebels despite his young age. Robotnik had tried everything he could to eliminate that threat to his world conquest that he began researching into any technology to match Sonic. Genetics, robotics even pathological weapons, that's bacteria. But the first weapon to successfully match Sonic for both speed and agility was a machine simply called Metal, or Metal Sonic."
Metal Sonic, now that did trigger a memory, the memory, the nightmare of being choked and beaten up and drowned.
"Robotnik kidnapped a young fox by the name of Miles Prowler or Tails."
Tails, that also triggered a memory of sorts, Tails, Tails?
"He planned to use Tails as bait to get Sonic to a perfectly designed battle ground for him to face off against Metal. Sonic freed Tails but the speedy teenage could not match Robotniks tyrannical machine double, it was just far too well made. At first it was feared Sonic was dead when he did not return, but later we learned he was captured and imprisoned in an underwater facility, subjected to terrible punishment and torture."
More memories started to flood Cinos's mind, but he didn't know what to make of them. It was as if someone had opened his mind and placed memories from someone else's mind in his that didn't relate to anything in his own life. His head was starting to hurt. As soon as he saw a memory it would vanish beneath the surface again, leaving only the memory of remembering the memory like something was constantly trying to pull them away again.
"What happened to Sonic?" Cinos asked and gulped, he shivered "Is he dead?"
"Oh, he's not dead, he's here" Marcus said and Cinos looked around the room for a blue hedgehog, but there wasn't one. In fact he was the only hedgehog in the room.
"Where?" Cinos asked looking back at Marcus and for some reason he started to feel sick.
"Cinos" Marcus said looking firmly into Cinos's eyes "I'm looking right at him"
Cinos took a small step away from Marcus, at first his mind refused to work or accept this information but when he was convinced he'd heard him correctly Cinos wanted to get out of there, he wanted to think the old man was insane but fragments of memories were flooding his head, he remembered Tails, a small brown furred Fox he had feelings of but very few memories, the same went for the name Sally Acorn, he had a faint image of her in his mind and feelings for her, very deep ones, but he couldn't remember her. Then there was Metal, whenever he thought of Metal he associated the name with pain, anger and fury.
Marcus placed a hand on Cinos's shoulder "Cinos, you 'are' Sonic the Hedgehog"
Nah, this was a trick or something, it had to be, Cinos' breathing began to quicken but his mind now felt like a muddle of thoughts and broken memories "How come I don't remember it!" Cinos almost shouted it out, he felt like he was on the brink of hyperventilating.
"I think you do" Marcus said "Surely some of what you once were must have bubbled up from the surface by now."
"I remember something, but..." Cinos added he really was going to hyperventilate but he fought it.
"When they captured you Robotnik decided he could use you to find the Freedom Fighters and crush the greatest opposition against him, but you refused to cooperate. Many times you tried to escape and often nearly succeeded, but once you encountered Metal and in your weakened state and deprived of food you were quickly dragged right back to your prison. Robotnik decided not to robotisize you, that's a process where you're turned into a cybernetic robot, he had a much crueller idea.
"Robotnik hit upon the idea of mind manipulation. Reality is only what we perceive to be real, so Robotnik set about changing the perceptions of Sonic the Hedgehog. He hooked you up to a machine and through a treatment of mind grafting and reward/punishment therapy he took your mind to pieces, ripped out what he wanted then he put it back together again the way he wanted. It took months but when he'd finished he'd extracted everything he wanted all the locations of the Freedom Fighters, all the names of the spys and who lead which group, everything. You were even tricked into betraying your friends and allies and Robotnik sent a team to wipe them out, all of them. Once the Freedom Fighters were exterminated he sent you back to the machine, broke your mind apart again, implanted new ideas and wiped your memory before implanting them again and repeating the process until very little was left of Sonic the Hedgehog. You must've been in there a long time because by the time he'd released you your fur colour had faded to a dull brown and you had become the hedgehog Cinos, a lowly worker in the filtration plant."
Cinos blinked a few times, the more Marcus talked the more scattered images he had, he remembered being tied down, his eyes forced open by a vice and made to stare up at a bright light that blinked on and off rapidly, he remembered massive headaches, constant beatings and waking up in pain, but the most vivid memories were of where he was submerged in cold water only to be brought out on the brink of drowning.
Cinos shook his head, no this can't be right this was some cruel trick, the rebels were just trying to confuse him. Sure the administration was a little on the extreme side but the government wouldn't go so far, would they? If it was true then the administration could effectively wipe or alter the memories of anyone with views they don't agree with. No, what was he thinking! He had always been Cinos, his memories were far too vivid to be implanted.
"No" Cinos shook his head "I don't believe it." but his voice obviously betrayed the truth of what was running through his head. He didn't want to believe it but there were... doubts, these 'other' memories he had were just as vivid, in fact they were more vivid then his 'real' memories.
"Have you ever been in a hurry to get somewhere and found yourself to be there much quicker than you expected?" Marcus asked "That was a talent Sonic possessed."
Cinos gulped slightly and breathed deeply to take it all in, he had found that many a times while running. Whenever he ran it was like he could travel faster than the average person and when he ran he experienced something he'd thought he'd never experienced before. Joy, excitement, fun, it was like he was a different person while running.
Sonic placed his... no his name was Cinos, Cinos placed his hands on his head, he could feel a migraine coming on. He couldn't breathe! He really was hyperventilating now! Lola was on hand with a paper bag for him to breathe into.
"I understand it is a lot to take in" Marcus said patting Cinos on the shoulder as he slowly gained control of his breathing.
"Why not just kill me?" Cinos asked next "If I was such a danger to him why not just kill me?"
"Because to kill you would've made you a martyr to any remaining Freedom Fighters, they were aware what Robotnik had done to you, if he had killed you then Sonic would've become a figurehead for a new wave of rebellion. Instead he kept you under observation like a pet and integrated you into his society as a model citizen and so you could not cause any trouble. Recently he's been relaxing his grip on you and we were able to sneak you out of Robottropolis."
"So you rebels? You are..."
"The last of the Freedom Fighters." Marcus finished for him "I've brought you here, now Sonic because we are gaining strength to move again and we could use your help, with you as a part of us we can gain more support and hopefully get our message heard."
"I don't even know if I trust you" Cinos said, "Why should I believe I was this great rebel Sonic?" he didn't know Marcus after all, this could all just be a test by the Emperor to see if he was still loyal to him.
"Believe what you want to, I only told you the truth, and I'm offering you the chance to join us but it is your decision." Marcus said "If you wish you can return to the surface and carry on with your life in Robotropolis de-clogging filters, but if you want to join us then it must be done now."
Cinos held his head again and sighed, he could still feel that migraine coming "I need a moment" he asked feeling his head.
"Of course, but before you go I want to return something to you" and from his robes the old Squirrel produced a pair of old looking, red shoes with a white strap and buckle on them instead of laces. "Your old shoes, maybe they'll trigger some memory."
Gingerly Cinos reached out and took them from Marcus. "Now I understand you'll have a lot of thinking to do. Don't worry about your work shift, it starts in an hour and a half, you have plenty of time to consider your actions." Marcus lightly patted him on the back "We'll talk in a little while."
His mind full of confusion Cinos couldn't think of anything else to say and just walked off towards a quiet area to think carrying these red shoes. As he did he caught a few words Marcus was saying to Lola.
"Do you think he will help us?" she asked
"I don't know" Marcus replied "There's not much left of the boy I once knew."
Cinos walked out through a small opening into a dark corridor and curled up in a small corner away from the main group, set the shoes down in front of him and began to think.
Could his sister and brother and uncle all be dead? No it just couldn't be, he'd received communications from them every month. But at the same time he did admit there was something off about those messages, he just couldn't put his finger on it but there was something wrong with the voices, he assumed the equipment they used to record it was faulty but it could have been faked? Modern technology allowed almost anything to be done, special effects in Telly-drama's were proof of that. But if Robotnik had altered his memories could he have altered what he thought his brother and sister looked like or sounded like to fit the faked messages? Did he even have a brother and sister?
He thought back to before he was fifteen, his mother and father had died in a boating accident and he was raised by uncle Chuck and lived happily in Robotropolis, but the more he thought about it the more he realised that though he remembered it, he had no feelings attached to those memories, they were just pictures, after the death of his parents everything felt... fake somehow. It was the inverse of these 'other' memories he was slowly seeing, he had feelings when the likes of Tails or Sally were mentioned, he could feel them but he couldn't remember them. He remembered a birthday party he had when he turned fifteen but he had no feelings attached to it, was it fake? Was Chuck fake, was the whole thing, his whole life a fake? Was he nothing but a lie?
He sighed and his attention instead turned to the red shoes. Sonic's shoes, 'his' old shoes as Marcus had said. They looked like his size at least. Slipping his work boots off Cinos took the red sneakers, undid the buckles on them and slipped his feet inside and tightened the belts up. When he did he was surprised to find that they almost fitted like a glove as if they were either made to measure his feet, or had slowly been stretched over years of use by his own feet. He stood up in them, he'd never had training shoes before, he only remembered wearing boots but when he stood up in these shoes and took a few steps the comfortable shoes felt more familiar to his feet than his grimy old boots ever did.
He tapped them against the concrete floor to test their fit further before he looked across the dark room he was now in, he was alone, no one around and no one to ridicule him if this went wrong.
Through instinct he bent his knees, leaned back slightly and using his arms he fired himself forward with all his might and ran as fast as his legs would go. Less than a second later he had slammed into the opposite wall unable to stop himself in time. He pushed himself off the wall and was sure his nose was broken, it looked like it was bent slightly upwards or had it always been like that?
Cinos could hear a lot of chattering behind him from the other rebels, the brown hedgehog was still uncertain if he should join. What had Marcus just told him? That he was once a rebel, a hero and a brave warrior but Marcus was also telling him that he Cinos himself was nothing but a lie, he was just an invention that was programmed into his head. He wasn't real.
Cinos slowly collapsed to the floor and tears started welling up in his eyes. According to Marcus he had become Cinos about ten years ago, so his life since then as Cinos, the friends he'd made, for the past ten years he hadn't been living his life, he'd been living the life of someone who was just made up. Cinos leaned against the concrete wall and began to mope as he became more and more insoluble. He wasn't real, everything he believed, his likes, his dislikes, they were all programmed into him. He was nothing but a lie!
If it was true then Cinos knew he should feel angry at Robotink, if it was a lie Cinos would feel angry anyway but at these rebels for such a cruel trick, but he couldn't deny the images he was having in his head and the dreams all apparent memories of a life he'd once lived. The more these fragments came back to him the more they tormented him. The memories he was seeing were so beautiful, so energetic, so much fun that when he recalled the last ten dull years as Cinos he only became more upset.
Cinos suddenly became aware of a light humming, a hum that was becoming louder and louder, and it was coming from further down the darkened corridor. From in front of him he could see a SwatPod coming towards him! He turned to run and maybe warn the rebels as well, but another Swatpod had pulled up behind him. Thankfully it looked like they hadn't seen him yet. Through fear and instinct Cinos ran towards an area in the shadows and hid out of the way of those menacing machines.
From his hiding place Cinos could see the winged doors on the pods open up and two Swatbots exited from each. Swatbots were tall, machine men in dark armour with large heads. He could hear more Swatpods hovering around somewhere in the darkness and landing nearby.
"SWATBOTS" someone cried. There was an initial sound of panic that was quickly calmed by another voice.
"Calm down, remain calm." There was a pause as silence fell "We are your prisoners, we surrender, take us to be processed, we ask to be treated fairly and with..."
BANG! That was the sound of a gun! Cinos heard a great deal of screaming and scuttling followed by more and more bangs of more guns. Cinos backed further down into the shadows the more bangs of guns he heard the more the screams were silenced.
Cinos felt someone grab him and he yelped, but when he spun around it turned out to just be Lola.
"This way" she called and pulled Cinos down the darkened corridor further away from the shooting and screaming.
"What's going on!" Cinos shrieked not wanting to accept what was happening.
"Robotnik's found us out!" Lola called "We have to get out of here!"
Lola pulled Cinos for what felt like miles, miles through the darkness of the under city, they ran and ran their feet echoing in the deep tunnels. It didn't sound like anyone was following them, there was no hum of a Swatpods no thundering feet of bots. Maybe they were safe now but Lola refused to slow down, she just kept pulling him further and further along.
"Lola! Lola can we stop now?" Cinos shouted trying to get Lola to slow down but she didn't slow down until they arrived at a big door.
"Through here!" Lola shouted and she opened the door, stepped through it and...
BANG!
Lola was thrown back into Cinos arms, her body went limp, her chest was bleeding heavily and her eyes were staring out vacantly with no expression on her face, Lola was dead and standing in the frame of the door was another murdering Swatbot.
"Look there's another one" it said. "That's our target" from behind him came another bot and loud, running footsteps from behind Cinos told him that more were on the way. He was surrounded. The bot in front of him raised his gun and levelled it at Cinos. The brown hedgehog looked down at Lola, her eyes were lifeless. How could they just do this? What had Lola actually done to deserve this? He reached up and gently closed her eyes.
Cinos didn't even look up at the bots, his attention was fixed firmly on Lola. They opened fire on him, there was a bright flare and Cinos blacked out all together.
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: The inspiration for this story came when I was just getting back into Sonic the Hedgehog games about 4 years ago and I thought. 'What would happen if Robotnik actually succeeded in defeating Sonic?'
[Edits 28/03/13] Made a few changes becasue I'm altering the story a little.
Hope you readers enjoy the new story.
-Cheers
