Blast Away!

"Whoa! Look at all this stuff!" Sonic felt his eyes widen and he slowed down to a standstill in the broad entrance to the big room.

"Yeah…" Knuckles' voice was quiet with awe, and something Sonic couldn't place. "Just what does it all do?"

Sonic's eyes roamed the seemingly infinite trail of machinery. Huge metal blocks, some taller than houses, sculptured in bizarre forms, designed to perform obscure actions. Blinking lights on some indicated the automatons were alive, while others stood still and in darkness. Nevertheless, the metal surface was glazed flawlessly, polished and clear of even the tiniest trace of dust. That was something Sonic had to hand to Eggman: He put lots of efforts into his things. That didn't keep them from never actually working properly… or looking totally odd.

The blue hedgehog's eyes stopped for a moment to take in the round top of one of the tall machines. Painted in a shade of red approaching the brightness of Knuckles' fur, with golden, round plates attached to it, tipped with another ball-shaped thing designed with a painted face and an iconic moustache, it represented another case of Eggman's notorious self-presentation.

Sonic shook his head. In the eyes of a Mobian the huge, egg-shaped person with the ridiculously long limbs, the tiny eyes and the disturbing lack of fur wasn't anything of an attractive sight… but Sonic could even imagine that for one of Eggman's species that might be different.

Okay, it was hard to imagine that, but he tried his best.

Still, did Eggman find his own form so nice to look at he had to keep designing his robots, space ships, containers and other stuff in his image? Sonic thought of himself as a rather good-looking fellow… but he wouldn't like seeing stuff shaped like himself all the time at all. Eggman's tastes however seemed totally different. Somehow, that weirdo had something for huge statues of himself.

Tearing his gaze away from the bizarre machine, Sonic let his eyes wander over the rest of the strange devices again.

Eventually he spoke up, replying to Knuckles' question although the echidna had surely meant it to be rhetorical. "If you want me to hazard a guess, based on past experiences, it will shoot stuff at us, explode, electrocute us, trap people inside, start glowing… or do something that's a mixture of these things."

"I could have figured." A rare chuckle from his side told Sonic his comrade appreciated his sarcastic tone, what was in itself a slight surprise. Usually, in situations like this one, Knuckles tended to be unpleasantly serious.

It wasn't that Sonic was all jokes and fun. There were moments that called for seriousness and putting the jokes aside for a while. Even happy-go-lucky Sonic knew that, despite common beliefs. The way it looked, they were heading right for one of these.

"If I'm not completely mistaken, there's some kind of humming coming from the end of this dome." Somehow, the hedgehog still couldn't keep from adding a notion of irony again through pet-naming the place. "If it isn't Eggman trying out his musical side, I guess he's turning on one of his strange machines. Might as well be the latest doomsday device, don'tcha think?" The hedgehog turned to his friend.

Knuckles shrugged. "If so, I bet my hat that's where my Chaos Emerald went."

"Sorry, pal, I got nothing to put in. The few bucks I got with me are my last reserves and will only be spent on emergency chilli dogs." Sonic flashed a grin. "And I don't like losing… I bet you'd win that one."

Skipping on Sonic's chilli dog money, Knuckles pointed. "I think we should be going. Better get over there before Eggman starts… whatever he wants to start."

Giving the echidna a nod, Sonic deliberately started walking through the straight gap between the machine blocks around, heading for the source of the deep humming sound filling the room. "If Tails doesn't hurry up, he'll miss on the party…"

Following closely behind the hedgehog, Knuckles gave another vague shrug. "He might as well tell us what it was we trashed after we're done with it. I wouldn't mind."

Sonic chuckled. "I'm with you."

By now they'd gotten close enough to the other side of the long room to be able to get a first glimpse of their goal. Eggman's latest invention didn't look that much different from a few of the other devices in here.

A grin tugged on Sonic's lips again. "Told ya. It glows." He pointed. "And there's Eggman!"

The wannabe ruler of Mobius was separated from them by a layer of glass. Apparently, he had noticed their arrival anyway, he was gesturing wildly at them, or at some of the monitors he had in front of himself.

Doesn't seem too happy to see us… Getting smarter, are we?

The robots that suddenly turned up all around them were at least a proof Eggman's reaction was quick this time around. "I almost think he expected us," Sonic noticed.

"Hm." A grunt was the only reply he got out of Knuckles.

Frowning, Sonic flicked his ears and shot a side-glance at the echidna, but still kept a good part of his attention on the newly appeared guard robots as well as their creator up there in his observer's post. "Something up?"

"The Emerald's here. I can feel it."

Sonic's eyes narrowed a little. "Fine then. As it looks, we'll have to get rid of these guys first."

"Yeah." For a second, Knuckles' eyes searched Sonic's.

"Alright then." The hedgehog nodded firmly. It turned out as a signal for both of them; Knuckles plunged into a small group of robots to their left, while Sonic took that as a cue to start off to the right.

Not given much space to gather speed, he concluded to have more of an advantage in the air. More space to move around. Sonic was not only a great sprinter, he was also a great jumper. Getting a meter above every robots' heads was a piece of cake. Taking aim at the one standing closest to him, the hedgehog directed his jump straight towards it, tucking his body into a tight ball and stiffening his quills as he went.

Honestly Sonic had no idea how he knew where he was going. It wasn't that he could see anything. Still, there was a picture in his head telling him exactly where he was at the moment, as well as where everything else was. He almost never missed his aim.

In fact, he'd more often run into something with eyes open and looking, just through a momentary lack of attention, than he had crashed into stuff he didn't want to crash into while curled up. Maybe he was paying more attention to directions that way, because he usually only curled up in battles, and the adrenaline was great to boost his awareness. Maybe it was also possible that this mysterious, inexplicable sense of his that told him where he was spinballing or home-attacking was even more reliable than his sharp eyes. Sonic didn't know, and seriously he didn't care much.

With a satisfactory clanking sound Sonic's spines contacted with the robot's armor and he bounced off, heading right for the next. He touched down gently on his feet after the tenth contact, having for now cleared the space around him.

A quick look over his shoulder showed him Knuckles was doing good as well; a mighty punch planted right under a robot's chin sent the machine flying and smashing against the window Eggman stood behind and was watching the battle. To Sonic's big surprise, the robot rebounced off the glass without doing any harm to it. Not the slightest crack.

"Wow. New glass stuff, Eggman? Pretty neat," he allowed mockingly, hoping to provoke the human into coming out to personally join them. That always made the fights more interesting.

Eggman didn't reply, if he couldn't hear Sonic or just ignored him was impossible to tell for the hedgehog. The mad scientist seemed rather busy with his keyboards to Sonic. Probably ordering some more defence bots into the fray.

The fact a fresh bunch of them turned up in that moment proved Sonic right. Taking advantage of the free space he'd caused around himself, the blue hedgehog launched his body into a short sprint, ramming into the first member of the new squad full tilt. Soles screeching on the ground, Sonic slid to a halt again, watching the robot's breaking form hurtle through the air.

The flight this machine was clearly not designed for ended rudely when it collided with one of the glowing parts attached to the big, obscure apparatus that was Eggman's newest experimental doomsday weapon or something.

The robot vanished from existence in an almost disappointingly small pop, not even a real explosion… but it was enough to do some major damage to the weird, glowy thing it had hit. Electrical discharges let hundreds of miniature lightening bolts and a fireworks of sparks flicker over the device.

As if in slow-motion, Sonic watched the sizzling damage, watched Eggman's face take a look of total horror, watched the crazed scientist punch his dashboards in what was looking too much like sheer desperation, watched him turn and run to what probably was an emergency exit in the back of the small room he'd sat in, abandoning his machines…

The sparks were now rapidly increasing in numbers, and it seemed as if the entire, big machine was starting to glow while everything around, the air, the look of the walls, was flickering, getting in and out of a focus it didn't have.

"Uh, Knuckles? I think it'll blow up now," Sonic noticed, surprised by the weird sound of his voice. Distorted, blurred. Just like everything else was blurry…

Knuckles didn't react; he stood and stared open-mouthedly at what was happening.

"Knuckles!", Sonic shouted, rudely shaking his friend by the shoulders. "This isn't the time for standing around! This is the time for running away, and fast!"

The echidna nodded, finally. Gripping his arm, Sonic pulled him along as he did what he'd said. Run. And forced Knuckles to do the same even as things seemed to happen a little too fast for him to follow at the moment. What was a little weird 'cause usually the echidna wasn't that slow…

Sonic shot a glance over his shoulder as he bolted the way back they'd come, just to see something that looked like a bubble form, glowing in blindingly bright light, but still transparent as water, providing a blurry look to the other side of the huge lab. If it was an explosion, it was soundless, and it came without heat. But whatever it was, it was fast.

And it kept becoming even faster.

Grinding his teeth, Sonic felt unpleasantly reminded of the one time in his life he'd been not fast enough to run from something. Just a few months ago, the explosion or whatever it was that had swallowed up Eggman's amusement park plan had also swallowed up Sonic.

He'd run, ran faster than ever before, pushed himself beyond all limits… but it had not been enough. He'd survived only because the wisps, as energy beings unaffected by the purple sucking ball of doom, had rescued him and safely brought him down to Mobius. Fainted from exhaustion. Exhaustion from running. Sonic had never before considered it could come to that.

This time, it was starting to feel the same. Sonic ran, putting in everything he had. He was still holding on to Knuckles' arm, and he was still running past the large machines in Eggman's dome-like lab.

Still? He was going so fast… He knew the feeling of breaking the sound barrier, and he knew he had broken it seconds ago. How could be still be in the room? He should be out of this freaking base by now! This didn't make any sense!

But… Nothing made sense. The ground was blurring below his feet, the room before him seemed to tunnel and twist, the ceiling looping into the floor… It was dizzying, and Sonic was sure this wasn't an effect of exhaustion this time. He'd ran not near long enough, and the day before had been not near to as straining as that last time.

Another hasty glance back made Sonic yelp. The blurry, glowing barrier was right there, right behind him.

Sonic panted, eyes narrowed to slits. He had… to go… faster…

From behind him, he heard Knuckles scream out in pain or fear or something else, and Knuckles never screamed. A second later, Sonic's vision turned bright white, a pain as if he was ripped to tiny bits tearing through every fibre of his body. He thought he'd lost his grip on Knuckles, but the instant later he couldn't tell anymore. Could tell nothing anymore.

The world was gone. The floor was gone, and the air to breathe, and everything else. There was just the pain, and the light, and still, there was nothing.

Everywhere.