Lauren the Echidna Volume 3
Chapter 2
Sweet Dreams Are...
I stared up at Mephiles' evil green eyes as he laughed. He launched a few dark purple chaos spikes down toward me. My eyes widened as I knew I couldn't dodge them as easily as I could back when I was an echidna. I quickly dove to the side, still having some skill in martial arts and quick thinking, but also dove to a point where I couldn't dive no more, causing me to hit one knee gasping for breath.
"Gah...wh-what do you want from me, Mephiles..." I glanced up toward him with my eyes slightly narrowed, and my hair in my face covering the sweat.
"Don't you know, Berry...hmhmhm...I'm here to rid you of this world...you remember in that dream of yours...it all felt so real didn't it?" He smirked, as he still had a mouth from what I remember, then flickered over behind me, placing a hand on my cheek making me freeze in place. My eyes widened and I flinched to the cold touch after a second and stepped back.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about Mephiles...that was no dream, you guys were all there! I have a family now!" I shouted to him. He did nothing but frown, walking up to me again.
"None of that was real my dear Lauren...hmhmhm...you were only dreaming...except that...I entered that dream and ruined for you completely. That's how I like it." He smirked again and charged another purple chaos spike, and was about to fire. I stepped back more, finally collapsing to the ground on my back as he approached me. I gasped in this sudden fear, knowing I couldn't do anything about it the time.
"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HER!" That voice sounded...so familiar. I looked to Mephiles' left and gasped.
"Austin...NO DON'T!" But it was already too late. One of my friends, Austin had attempted to tackle Mephiles to the ground, but the second he touched him, Mephiles smirks and grabs Austin by the throat.
"Hmhmhm...my my, the girl's crush attempting to save her hmm? You're making a big mistake..." He smirked more and throws him back onto the ground, leaving Austin grunting in pain as he would again get up onto his feet.
"AUSTIN! Mephiles you get off him!" I ran up to Mephiles, suddenly landing a hard punch onto the back of his head, actually leaving a bruise that he grunted from.
"Gah...why you little bastard..." He turns around and grabs my throat doing the same to me as he did Austin. I grunted in pain and started to get up, but Mephiles pinned me down with his foot on my chest.
"Ngh! Gaaah...get off me!!" My shouting didn't do much, but as I struggled to get off of him, Mephiles suddenly stops and looks down to me with a frown.
"When there is no other people around, I will take you away and destroy you personally. You had better be prepared for your own demise, Lauren Berry. Hmhmhm..." He then disappeared in a dark purple flash, leaving me to get up onto my knees and sit there. Several people that came out of the school building and gym had ran up to me to help. I stood and thanked my classmates, but also looked to where Mephiles had disappeared. Looking around the school grounds, I notice that a large robotic snake was found in the middle of the soccer field.
I didn't waste any time getting there. Searching through the cockpit of the monster, I realize that it's empty. No captain or anything. Not even Dr. Eggman of all people. I narrowed my eyes and looked around frantically for anyone that I recognized. No one was around except for firemen and policemen that had gotten there a short time later. My eyes then drooped and I continued to search, suddenly finding myself inside the forests behind my school. Pushing every branch and leafy pile out of my way, due to it being autumn, I looked around frantically for anything that I recognized. Come to my attention, I find three figures collapsed on the ground, all out cold.
I ran up to them to see that it was none other than Team Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna...all there unconscious for some strange reason. I kneeled down to the blue blur, him being the first one in sight and budged him. After a few minutes of waiting, the hedgehog finally woke up to see me holding him up in his arms.
"Hey, you alright?" I smiled, finally glad to see his familiar face in view.
"Um...yeah, couldn't be better. Who are ya, kid?" He asked as he stood up, rubbing his head. I knew for a second that he didn't know who I was because nothing I remember didn't happen. I just sighed and told him.
"My name is Lauren Berry...I'm a student at that school. What happened to you and your friends?" I asked.
"Hmm...all I remember is fighting Dr. Egghead and that serpent robot." He looked to Tails and walked up to him, budging him as he finally woke up.
"Unh...what happened? Huh?" Tails looked to me and I just nodded to him, scratching the back of my head. It was then I found myself staring at Knuckles, who was also waking up from his unconsciousness. I walked up and placed my hand out, offering to help him up. He blinked and his eyes narrowed at first, but saw something in my eyes that told him it was okay. Knuckles grabbed my hand and stood up, grunting and holding his head.
"You alright..."
"Yeah fine..." He glanced at me and then looked to Sonic. His signature smirk wasn't there this time, as he saw something different between me and Knuckles.
"Do you and him...know each other somehow?" I hesitated to answer this, considering my whole 'dream' about them all and what all happened in over twenty years.
"...No. I'm a fan of you guys but I...honestly don't know any of you personally."
"I thought all fans would be excited to see their favorite heroes." Said Knuckles with a frown on his face.
"I would be...but after what I've been through...I have no reason to be excited. Sonic...could you do me a favor?" I looked to him.
"Sure, kid. Tails, Knuckles, you two should check out that robot. Make sure Eggman isn't up to anything with the remains of it." As the fox and echidna ran off to the robot, Sonic grabbed both my arms and pulled me down over onto his back.
"Where to, kid?"
"Okay first of all, my name is Lauren. Second of all...I need you to take me to Eggman's base...wherever it is on this planet...take me to it."
"Any reason why?" He quickly sped off at almost one hundred miles an hour, with me on his back.
"Whoa!...Okay, I just need to check something out. See if my own theory is true about something..."
"Whatever you say..." He kept running, soon hitting a large gap somewhere with a few trees surrounding the edges. Onward into the gap was a large metallic covered base out in the open.
"My question is how in the world could no one see this out here?" I asked myself as I crossed my arms.
"I dunno. But call for me when you're done here. Besides, this place is already abandoned." He smirked and gave me a thumbs up, then sped off at the speed of sound. I nodded and walked inside the base where Eggman was originally making his experiments and stopped to see the room I was transformed.
My eyes widened to see what I really didn't want to. The machine that had transformed me in my so called dream...
"Not here...? B-But...I know it was here...I saw it...how would it be..."
"Gone?" Said the same familiar voice from minutes ago. I turned around and blinked, seeing it was Sonic, jumping a bit to his sudden appearance.
"Y-Yeah..."
"That thing's been gone for quite sometime. After Eggman fiddled with it he couldn't get it to work. He said he needed...some key component for it to work." I blinked and looked down, eyes drooping to what I thought was to happen to me just like my dream.
"What's up with you, Lauren?"
"...Where's that machine now?"
"Um...somewhere in Africa now...Egghead moved it there for another purpose."
"...I'm gonna need another favor."
"You...want me to take you there?" He smirked with delight. "I like the way you think kid. One trip around the world coming up." He grabbed my arms again and pulled me down. Another few seconds later, we had arrived deep in the dense forests of Africa. I looked toward the base that was placed there, but was also empty for the time being. It gave me the chance to take a look at it. I went inside with Sonic by my side and we came up to the same machine I saw in the dream. My eyes narrowed as I clearly knew what I had to do to make things right.
My feet left the ground as I lept into the machine and turned it on from the inside. Sonic's eyes widened and he shouted,
"Wait, what are you doing?!" My eyes narrowed as the hatch doors closed and the machine activated.
"Saving my future..."
