If you know nothing else about Sonic the Hedgehog, know this: He HATED submarines. The blasted things seemed specifically designed to make him miserable. Super tight, enclosed spaces made him jittery by themselves, but super tight enclosed spaces UNDERWATER?! It was everything he could do not to have a panic attack.
But it couldn't be helped. From what sonic gathered during the briefing between daydreams, the defenses this "Robotnik" card placed along the shore were so insane, that the only way to get anywhere close was to inch along as close as they could to the ocean floor without ripping the sub apart. It was weeks before they were within a hundred miles of the western coastline.
But, rather than being brought to the bridge of debriefing, Sonic was instead brought to the torpedo bay, where a hollowed out torpedo laid waiting for…
No.
"C'mon ya big baby," said the engineer with a crooked smirk. He tapped the top of the torpedo, which made an echo that wasn't exactly reassuring.
Sonic turned on his heel to glare up at the commander. He gave Sonic a wrinkled, sheepish grin. "This is the only way we're gonna have a chance to get you ashore," he explained. "If we get any closer, the risk of us being detected by the on shore sensors goes up tremendously. The torpedo is small and fast enough to not be detected until you've made landfall. Then all you have to do is get out of there before you're spotted. Can you handle that?"
Sonic kept his glare for a good two seconds, before he broke out into a chuckle. "Can I handle it, he asks," Sonic said. He turned around to look at the torpedo. "It's just…is this really the only way?"
"Don't worry, sonny," said the commander, who quietly pulled out a tranquilizer gun. "You won't even notice." He aimed the gun carefully at Sonic's back. The tranq, instead, hit the engineer, and Sonic had the gun in his hand.
He cocked an eyebrow at the commander. "You really thought that would work, huh?" he asked.
The commander regained composure, clearing his throat. "My apologies, but since the torpedo is hollowed out just enough for you to fit into, you'll have to be completely still for the entire trip, or risk running it off course."
Sonic placed a hand on his hip. "And you didn't think to just ask me to be tranqed?"
"Major Jones warned us about your…feelings towards needles."
Sonic pinched the bridge of his nose and handed the commander back the tranq gun. "Just get it over with."
The commander gave Sonic a salute. "Good luck, soldier," he said before pulling the trigger.
Sonic awoke with a sharp gasp, banging his head against the inside of the torpedo. Sonic pushed on the hatch, but it refused to budge. Craning his neck in very uncomfortable ways revealed that something about the way the torpedo landed had jammed the lock holding down the hatch. Sonic groaned and shuffled around until his foot was set against the hatch. With a grunt, Sonic not only opened the hatch, but sent the sheet of metal flying off into the distance where no doubt it would embed itself in the head of some poor confused robot.
Sonic crawled out of the torpedo and fell face first onto the sand, kissing it like it was a long lost lover. "Land! Glorious land!" he proclaimed. "Oh I'll never leave you again, my darling!"
"That can be arranged," said a monotone, synthesized voice from behind Sonic. Sonic looked up to find a squad of vaguely human sized and shaped robots armed to the teeth with mounted plasma weapons on their arms and shoulders. The squad leader, colored purple as opposed to the red foot soldiers, looked down at Sonic with a single red eye. "By which this unit means that we will put you six feet under the ground."
"Yeah, I got it," Sonic replied, deadpan.
"This unit was just making sure," said the robot. "You organics can be slow at times."
Sonic's eyes widened, and he stood up. "I'm uh, sorry, what did you call me?" he asked.
"This unit called you slow." The robot raised its arm cannon to Sonic's head. "Your new designation will be: Dead." In the time it took the robot to finished the last word of that sentence, Sonic had already made it behind him and aimed its arm cannon at one of the other robots. Before it could process this, however, it had already fired, sending a wave of green plasma ripping through the other robot's head. Then its arm fell off, as Sonic took that time to unscrew the bolts along its arm joints.
The rest of the squad finally realized what was going on, and whipped their weapons around at Sonic, who was standing right next to their commander. Sonic waved condescendingly at the soldiers. "Take your best shot, bots and gears. Trust me, you'll only get one." Before the commander could send out the order to cease fire, the entire squad unloaded their plasma rounds at Sonic, who simply ran to a safe location nearby, leaving the commander to be reduced to slag. Sonic gave a mock wince. "Ooooh, good thing your boss probably doesn't pay you. Turning your commander to chunky salsa is a big no no where I come from." The robots turned their guns once again to Sonic, who gave one last wave. "Love to stay, but I got shit to do. Toodles." And with that, Sonic disappeared in a cloud of dust that trailed out into the horizon.
Once Sonic was confident that the robots had given up on searching for him, he sped over to a nearby plateau, which was just close enough to one of the many 7 story tall control towers dotting the coastline that Sonic could get a good view, but far enough away that he could hide if need be. A part of him wanted to just run in and disable the towers himself before anyone knew the difference. That part of him was swiftly silenced when a Nakafly (basically a butterfly the size of a golden retriever) flew a touch too close to the tower, and was instantly reduced to a pile of ashes by an invisible energy shield. Sonic gulped, plan A was out.
It was then that Sonic remembered one of the few pieces of Intel G.U.N managed to acquire: the rebel group stationed in knothole forest to the north. They might not have a way through the shield, but they definitely knew the land, and the enemy, better than him. So, Sonic sped down the plateau and off into the distance.
The robots that controlled the towers, for obvious reasons, didn't get many visitors. Besides the occasional freshly roboticized citizen sent to one of the towers as an extra hand, the shields were meant to stay up at all times. If something happened, they would simply notify Robotnik via instant messaging.
The encounter with Sonic on the beach would've prompted such a message, but before the robian (roboticized mobian) technicians in the nearest tower could send the message, the lights went out across the bridge. One second later, the backup generator came online, and the lights flickered back to life. But one shadow remained in the middle of the room. A shadow that moved like the knives you never saw coming across the room. "The hand is on deck," he said in a creaky, slithering voice that could petrify a forest fire. The robians immediately stood from their seats, saluting the hooded human.
"Greetings, Hand of Robotnik," they said in unison. The hand of Robotnik was the man's designation, but the name he chose to go by (though it was also unclear if even that was his name) was Krueger. It was anyone's guess where the machine ended and the man began with Krueger, as not only was his entire body often concealed behind a dark purple cloak, but any part of him that was visible, mainly his hands and sometimes his face, were covered in cybernetic enhancements. A respirator covered the entire lower half of his face, which gave his voice a frightening echo. His eyes were replaced by cybernetic prosthetics that gave off a faint red glow beneath his shadowy hood. His arm, pitch black and running with wires, reached out to clasp onto one of the robian's chairs with talon-like fingers.
"I was in the area, and I was alerted to a disturbance on the coast," Krueger said. "I trust the disturbance has been…seen to?"
The robian nearest Krueger turned to look up at the gargoyle of a man before him. While the very conscious mind of the roboticized terrier screamed to run away in fear, the body that mind was trapped in lost the ability to feel fear or a need to survive long ago. Robotization removed that for better efficiency. So, there was no hesitation in delivering the bad news. "Negative, Lord Krueger," it said in its unfeeling monotone. "The intruder made it to shore with the help of an unmarked submarine. Moments after making its delivery, our defenses destroyed the vessel, but the intruder made it to shore before our sentries could notice it."
"But you did notice it, yes?" Krueger released the chair, having bent the metal like paper.
"We did, sir," replied the robian canine. "But our squad was unable to apprehend him. For further examination, we were able to salvage the coastbot's camera feed." The robian held out its hand, from which a small usb drive ejected from its wrist.
Krueger took the usb drive and placed it in his pocket. "Thank you, I will take this to Lord Robotnik for examination. As for your failure…" IN a flash, Krueger had his steel claws clamped over the robian's face. Two of his fingers jutted out and pressed themselves on the metallic orbs that were once the robian's eyes. The robian stood silent, unflinching, despite its conscious brain within screaming for its legs to move. Then, Krueger let go. "What would be the point?" he asked no one in particular. He returned his arm under his cloak and made his way out of the room. "Return to your stations. This is a robotnik matter now."
With that, the robians returned to work without another thought.
Western Naka was a dream come true for Sonic. A mountainous region filled with hills, valleys and canyons for him to run through at top speed. While the United Federation had its share of beautiful places, Sonic had been to each and every one and knew at least six of them like the back of his hand. Naka wasn't just beautiful, it was new. While Sonic didn't stop running, he had places to go after all, he slowed down just enough so he could properly take it all in.
However, Sonic's stomach soon made it quite clear to him that he should probably find a town. So, Sonic found a nice tall mountain, and, using it to give himself a better view, he found a small collection of buildings an hours run away. "Oh I hope they have chili dogs," Sonic mumbled to himself before taking off.
A small, rickety sign that hung loosely on a withered old pine tree bore the town's name: Incipere. Sonic stopped well outside the town, as to not scare the locals, and he strolled into town with a whistle on his lips.
The main export of Incipere was dust, misery, and liquor that tasted like gasoline. Humans and mobians, all of varying degrees of disheveled, either wandered through the small town or just laid on a random street corner without the capacity to care about much of anything. Needless to say, Sonic was put off. He had been told, both by his commanders and by his own common sense that things in Naka were bad, but there was definitely a difference between being told and actually seeing. A part of him wanted to stay here and help these people, but another part told him we'll help them by getting rid of Robotnik. That'll help them more than anything we can do right now. Sonic had no choice but to hope the voice was right.
But Sonic was broken from his thoughts by, shocker, an actual sound. The miserable silenced was shattered like glass by a large bear being thrown from a nearby saloon. The barkeep dusted off his hands, then crossed his arms as the bear wiped a trail of blood from his mouth with a growl. "We got enough troubles here without temperamental old war dogs like you starting fights! Now beat it!" Shouted the barkeep.
From behind him, a coyote dressed in faded military garb pressed his hands together in apology. "M-my sincerest apologies for my friend," he said in a thick French accent. "Rest assured, Monsieur, we will be on our way post haste, we-" The door was slammed in the coyote's face before he could finish the sentence. The bear pushed himself to his feet, to be greeted by the coyote, who was tapping his foot and had his hands on his hips. "Well, are you quite happy now, Bruin?" he asked.
The bear, named Bruin, grunted down at the coyote. "Pinky in there had it coming," he said with a voice similar to a piston coming down on your head.
The coyote pinched the bridge of his nose and gritted his teeth. "Whether he deserved it or not is irrelevant. We needed information, and now we likely will not get it, so agréable."
Bruin huffed, but cast his eyes down in shame. "Sorry, Antoine."
"Hey," Sonic chimed in, appearing right next to the two. "You two need help?"
Bruin gave Sonic a light growl. Bruin was a bear that moved like a wall. Or a wall that moved like a bear, Sonic couldn't decide. He had an ammo belt across his chest, and a heavy machine gun hanging from his side. "What's it to you, hedgehog?"
Sonic held up his hands, smiling sheepishly. "Hey man, I wanna help. Is that so hard to understand?"
Bruin picked Sonic up by the scruff of his fur and looked him in the eye. "Yes, yes it is."
Antoine jumped up to grab onto Bruin's arm, pulling it back down to earth. "Bruin, calm down, and let us at least be hearing the boy out." Bruin grunted, but put Sonic down. Antoine turned to look at Sonic. "You must understand our distrust, Monsieur Hedgehog. Selflessness is, well, a rare commodity, to put it lightly."
Sonic shrugged. "Well, consider me a trendsetter. I'm from outta town. Way outta town."
"The blue fur told us that much," said Bruin.
Sonic knew he couldn't tell them the whole truth. So, he lied. "I'm a mercenary," he said. "I'm uh, looking for work."
Antoine crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "And you came…to Naka?"
"Put that way, it doesn't sound like the smartest move. But I'm not any more of a fan of this Robotnik guy than anyone else, and I heard that there were these freedom fighting go-getters working against him. Sooooo, here I am." Sonic put on his best smile for the two.
Antoine and Bruin exchanged sidelong glances, and looked back at Sonic. "Wow," said Bruin. "I have never seen so much bullshit piled up at once."
"It's astounding, really," Antoine chimed in. They both turned around and began walking off. "Be seeing you, garçon bleu."
Before Sonic could catch up with them, the saloon doors were kicked open again, and a very drunk human stumbled out with a shotgun. "Mobian filth!" he slurred as he aimed the barrel at Bruin.
Bruin grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the drunk. "Come for round 2, eh?" Bruin asked through gritted teeth. Then, Bruin blinked. When he opened his eyes, Sonic was standing over the tied up drunk, and removing the ammo from the shotgun. Sonic placed the shotgun in front of the human, but kept the rounds.
"You can keep the gun, you'll find more rounds," Sonic told him. He then placed the shotgun shells in his pocket and walked over to Antoine and Bruin, who looked at him dumbfounded. "Well?"
Antoine and Bruin shared another sidelong glance, the turned back to Sonic. "I think our boss will have a place for you," said Antoine, who grabbed and shook Sonic's hand. "I am Antoine D'Coolette."
"Bruin," Bruin said with his arms crossed.
Sonic smirked at the two. "I look forward to working with you two. I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."
