Overlander

"Good...good! We could use all the help we can get." Sonic stood up out of his chair, his youthful features brightened up at my answer "You can really help us here. You will be the second Overlander to help us"

"The second? You mean, the other people like me have not helped you?" I wanted to get an accurate picture of what was going on here.

"Sadly, yes. The last person to ever help the Resistance in any way was Kintobor. You know him as Robotnik now" Sonic paced back and forth.

"Wait, Kintobor is Robotnik? How did that happen?"

"Kintobor was a good friend of mine. A very good friend. He was a doctor, and head of the department of defense. That was until the accident happened. Or I should rather say, incident." Sonic paused his pacing and looked downcast "Dr Kintobor was working on a vaccine. A vaccine to protect all Mobians and Overlanders from all disease. The goal was to extend life, his ultimate goal was to prevent our children dying from a plague that was coursing through our lands. But instead, what we got was a nightmare." He clenched his fist tightly at this "Kintobor, being the good doctor that he is, insisted on testing the vaccine on himself. He was a good Overlander, one of the best. Only him and his assistant, Julian Snively, were the only Overlanders to help us Mobians. The rest were obsessed with war and committing monstrosities. Kintobor was like the father I never had. Snively, a brother to me. Snively was Kintobor's nephew. They had fled from the south, where the Overlanders inhabit, to come here and make the world a better place" Sonic's face turned into one of bitter resentment "that was the idea anyway. Someone did something to Kintobor's vaccine. Someone added something to it. When he injected himself with the new vaccine, something inside him changed. I was only a young one back then, but even I could tell, a couple of days after his vaccine, he begun to change."

"So, you mean to tell me that the man who did all this, was a good guy to begin with?"

"Yes, but whatever was added to his vaccine, had a serious effect on him. He became more mean, more cruel. Kintobor and my father were the best of friends. The night when Robotnik and his robots took over, my father, Jules, was killed in cold blood by the man who renamed himself Robotnik. Fitting name, huh?" He did not look like he expected an answer from me "Robots are machines, made from metal and circuitry boards. They have no feeling or emotion, they only feel what their creator programs them to feel. They can be good, as they were used in the past. Things like cleaning the city and helping the sick and infirm to collect their groceries from the store. But these, these were monsters that he created. He called them Swatbot's, machines designed in the shape of Overlanders and blown up to a larger size. Their strength is beyond that of even Knuckles, before he had some upgrades from Rotor. They were unfeeling killing machines. They had arm mounted lasers and were capable of independent thought. Think of it " he turned to me, his azure eyes staring piercingly into mine "A machine, capable of independent thought. Artificial life. Disgusting! Snively tried to intervene, but Robotnik took advantage of his nephew's love for Kintobor, and gave him the same vaccine that had done something to him. We still don't know what it did, but we believe it altered his brain, took control."

"That is...that is sick" was all I could manage. Machines that became robots, a vaccine altered to strip the host of its identity, this was a little too much, I looked around for somewhere to sit down. I sat on a row of chairs against the wall closest to me that I had missed before.

"And to make things worse. Kintobor, now Robotnik as he aptly named himself, found a way, using Chuck's previous research into curing old age, to make living things turn into robots."

It was only at this point, that I realized just how sick of a man we were dealing with. He had actually found a way to turn humans into machines. What kind of monster was this?

"It is late though, you should get some rest, we will talk more tomorrow. Sally will show you to your resting quarters. We have a room laid out for you already. If you need anything, just ask Rotor. We will talk in the morning, as for me" he yawned "I need a little sleep myself"

I nodded and turned to Tails, who was no longer there, but Sally was instead.

"OK, David, just come with me, I will show you your quarters." She winked at me and motioned for me to follow.

Oddly, if she were human, I could almost have sworn that she was flirting with me.

I followed her through several doorways – without doors – and corridors before we stopped by a room that actually had a door. Sally opened it and flashed me a smile. I noticed that I she had a very sweet smile, No teeth in it whatsoever. Just a plain, reassuring smile.

"Thanks Sally. Do you" I paused "do you also live down here?"

She laughed and nodded "I live just down the hall. Room 22, if I'm not in the lab, you will find me there"

"Lab?" I asked.

"Oh, Tails didn't show you that, I will give you a tour tomorrow, it's a bit more advanced than Rotors workstation. Just don't bring any electronics. Just a security reason, we cannot risk Robotnik seeing what we are working on. The results would be catastrophic."

"More advanced than Rotors workstation?" I found that hard to believe. Rotor was working with space-age tech and here was a princess telling me that she was working on even more advanced tech?

"Yes, oh..." she suddenly looked as if she were deep in thought "Do you have any skills?"

"Skills?"

"Like, are you a science geek, fitness maniac or what?"

"Oh!" Almost immediately I felt useful "I'm a savant"

"Savant? What is that?"

Of course she had not heard the term before. "I mean, I can calculate numbers in my head, astronomical numbers"

Her eyes widened "Are you being serious?"

"Yes, I can work out any mathematical equation in my head almost instantly"

"That is...rather interesting, stop by my room tomorrow. I want to put that to the test."

I nodded, glad to finally feeling like I could be of genuine use to my rescuers.

My bed was different. That was putting it lightly. It was definitely not a bad bed. Just different. It appeared to be made from strong tree branches that had grown in a way to form a natural curvature that had grown in tandem of the spine of an Overlander. The sheets had been replaced with a soft green substance that was most certainly not moss. It was too artificial to be moss. Regardless, I shrugged and sat down on the bed. It was strange. The green substance that was completely smooth, encompassed me. It molded to my body-shape and was warm. In fact, it felt just the right temperature. Very quickly I found myself falling asleep when there was a knock on my door that jolted me to my senses.

Not wanting to leave the warm bedding, I got up anyway and walked over to the door. To my surprise, Sally was there. For the first time I noted that she wore only an unbuttoned blue sleeveless jacket.

"Hi" her voice was soft "just checking that you are settling in alright"

"Um...yeah. This is all new to me," I paused in thought "what country am I in?"

"Country?"

"Yeah, like, you know, where am I?"

"We don't have countries here. You are on the planet Mobius, and you are in my fathers kingdom of Acorn."

"Mobius? I'm on a different planet..."

"You don't seem like the usual Overlander to me. Where did you come from?"

"Boston, our planet is called Earth. Have you not heard of it?"

Sally shook her head. Somehow I had traveled to a different planet. And these creatures, were my only friends. Everything was so different, culture-shock would have been putting it lightly.

"Who are these Overlanders?"

"Evil." she stated bluntly and locked eyes with me. "Overlanders are evil. They worship the old gods, the ones that they think came before mother nature." her hand rose up with graceful swiftness and caressed my cheek. "Let your thoughts drift and I will show you"

I felt compelled to obey. My thoughts drifted so easily, my worries melted into the shadows caused by a flickering candle by my bed-side.

A lantern hangs above me. I am in a room, the only light is that which is being cast by the lantern. I could not make out the walls or even the floor. I could see a stone platform in front of me, a young lady, looked slightly older than a teenager, perhaps early 20's. She was naked. Her body was fit and well-toned. Something off about her though.

Her left arm. Her left arm was made entirely of metal. Wordlessly I watched as a man roughly 6'5" approached the young woman. He was naked except from a mask covering his entire head. Two horns sprouted from it, it was a goats head. The fur looked too real to be fake. I could make out a pair of black eyes behind the mask.

He approached her, his member fully engorged. He leaned over her, then he licked her neck all the way down to her waist with an obscenely long tongue. I couldn't tell if the tongue was even his, there was no hole where the mouth should be though. His tongue tracing her delicate pale skin. Her fine hairs stood on end, she shivered in apparent delight and the man seemed to take this as a sign of encouragement. He buried his face between her legs, the muscles in his jaw working frantically and finally the woman came to life. Writhing on the platform, she grasped his head and pushed his head down harder and moaned.

I felt dirty watching this. Unclean. Something I was not supposed to see.

Then there was light. The room lit up with candles lined along the walls. I was in an old cottage made of wood. The smell of decay, damp wood and copper hit my nostrils all at once.

The man had mounted the woman, without hesitation he thrust his large member inside of the woman. She cried out. It sounded oddly animal. Certainly more animal than human. In turn, the man started thrusting frantically inside of her.

Blood was pooling from beneath their loins, running trails down the raised stone platform. Desperate to look away from this obscene act, I looked around the room. There was no comfort there. Just dusty old chairs, a rotting chicken on a battered looking table teeming with maggots.

Everything about this was morally appalling. The man finally looked at. He pulled out of the young woman, stood up and faced me. His swollen member had turned a sickly shade of purple and appeared yet even more swollen. He grasped it with one hand and started masturbating in front of me. He took a sharp breath in as he appeared to climax. Only he didn't. Maggots came out instead, writhing around from his urethra before landing on the floor with a silent splat.

"We're gonna have some fun, boy" he ripped off his mask. There was no human head, his head was made of metal with two bright red lights where his eyes should be. "Hail the Mistress of Worms!"

Then I was back in the room with Sally.

"Fuck! What the hell was that?!"

"Sorry David, I can only show you what is currently happening, not the past. But this. This is what Overlanders are like here. They are sick, vile and possessed by a dark entity." her hazel eyes fixated on me. "They are also Robotnik's enemy. But ours too. These abominations seek to turn the world into one of darkness and cruelty. They are sick, literally sick. Something changed them. They used to be just like us. But now. Now they have become more monster than Overlander."

"Sally?"

"Yes?"

"Am I in hell?"

"No. You are not in hell. But these Overlanders and Robotnik are as close as you will come without dying."