Sleepless In Spagonia
Part 4
Day
No Need For Monsters
Sonic and Amy
Knuckles' Attraction
The Maze Of Mirrors
Sonic and Amy walked slowly through the market stalls and various attractions littering the narrow streets. Whilst there were many attractions beginning to appear, none were very interesting to either hedgehog, most of them the usual bog standard carnival fares. A shoot the target here, a ghost train there, all the repition was beginning to bore them.
Amy, here arm encircled round Sonics', scanned the area, looking for the distinctive sight of Knuckles the Echidna, when Sonic raised his arm, pointing to the end of the street.
"Look there's Knuckle-Head himself...is that a turban and a waistcoat he's wearing?" said Sonic, incredulously.
Knuckles, standing on top of a soap box with his arms raised shouting his pitch, stood outside a large tent which seemed to go on forever. On closer inspection, both Sonic and Amy found the outfit Knuckles was wearing was, at best, garish. The turban whilst white paled in comparison to the waistcoat which was of a dark purple colour with a paisley pattern.
"He looks like something out of the Arabian Nights." said a giggling Amy.
"Roll up, roll up, comes see the mystical maze of mirrors, ladies and gentlemen. We- oh hey Sonic, Amy, how are you guys doing." said Knuckles
"Hey there Sinbad, how's it hanging." Said sonic, smirking.
"Yeah yeah, it's all part of the pitch to get the customers rolling in, I mean if you don't play the part then whose gonna be interested." explained Knuckles.
"Shouldn't you be on the Floating Island?" asked Amy.
Shrugging, Knuckles stepped from his soap box and stepped in front of the hedgehogs.
"When the entire planet split apart the floating island crashed into the ocean near the Mystic Ruins, again." added the Echidna. "The Master Emerald stopped working, and about a week later, Tails contacted me about this festival and so I decided to set up an attraction, that I hope will surprise a few people, you two lovebirds want to go in?" he asked, a mischievous smile playing across his lips.
"Sure thing Knuckles, let's go Sonic!" squealed Amy.
Before Sonic could react Amy had grabbed his hand and was pulling him into the mirror maze.
Meanwhile, just across the street..."Bleugh, you call this a cucumber sandwich!" exclaimed the professor. "There is not the slightest smattering of butter and the cucumber's are of inferior quality, if I do say so myself my dear sir!"
Chip floating just behind the professor, watched nervously.
"Um professor don't you think your being a little picky?" asked the fairy
"Of course not my boy, if a sandwich is worth making, it's worth making well, in my opinion, and I certainly think this young gentleman could easily make an exceedingly good cucumber sandwich, couldn't you my boy?"
The boy in question was a spotty youth who had been rapidly regretting getting up this morning.
"I...um...well you see..." stammered the boy.
Before the professor could launch into a lecture, and the boy could stammer further, Chip interrupted.
"Exceedingly good huh?" he said. "Like the cakes?"
Sonic and Amy
Knuckles' Maze of Mirrorsthey had been wandering now for over 15 minutes thought the halls and Sonic was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Knuckles had gone mad. Apart from mirrors that either made Sonic or Amy look fat, thin, tall, short; there was little else. Adding to this, that at least five times, they had walked into a dead end that had a mirror that distorted them horrifically.
"Eeeww, Sonic you look horrible I didn't know mirrors could do that sort of thing to your reflection." said Amy, clearly disgusted
Sonic, looking at his reflection, felt exactly the same as Amy, the image was gruesome. Sonics' body had been inflated making him twice the size he normally was, his eyes, looking like something from a horror film, were a putrid yellow, making them look almost rotten. His teeth were sharper than normal, looking jagged and giving him a terrifying countenance.
"I'm not too sure this is what's meant to happen Amy." said Sonic, warily."I think Knuckles has messed up again."
"What should we do?" asked Amy, trying her hardest not to look at Sonics' reflection.
"Let's try and find the centre and see what's there."
Meanwhile outside...Knuckles stood with his arms folded, watching the crowd go by. Sonic and Amy had been gone for over forty five minutes now and Knuckles was beginning to worry.
"People usually only take about fifteen minutes before giving up and screaming for help." He said to himself.
"It's a sure sign of madness to talk to yourself y'know, Handsome." said a sultry voice.
Knuckles tore his vision away from the crowds, to the sound of the voice and saw Rouge the Bat. Standing next to her was the Shadow, his arms by his sides and his face unreadable.
"What are you two doing here?" demanded Knuckles.
"That's no way to greet a lady y'know, I might have had something to tell you."
"What do you want then?" asked the Echidna.
Shadow, stepping in front of Rouge, stopped in front of Knuckles and paused a moment before saying.
"Get Sonic."
Sonic and Amy
The Centre of The Maze
"He put the Master Emerald at the centre of the maze, is that knuckle-head crazy or something!?" cried Sonic incredulously.
"It's probably that that's causing those silly distortions in the mirrors." said Amy
the two hedgehogs had found the centre with a large amount of difficulty and annoyance, but they had reached it nonetheless and were shocked to find the Master Emerald at the centre.
"Knuckles must have been using the Emerald to make those awful looking reflections in the dead ends we saw." said Sonic.
Looking in Amy's direction when he got no reply, Sonic turned to find Amy examining the other mirrors.
"Y'know sonic I don't mind getting lost in here, it means I get to look at all the reflections of you."
Sonic, surprised by Amy's admission tried to find words to say but could only reply with a yell when he saw what was coming out of the mirror.
"YAAHH, AMY LOOK OUT!"
Turning around Amy was shocked and horrified to see the giant form of the disgusting looking version of Sonic they had seen before in the dead end mirrors. Stumbling out of the mirror the creature began slobbering all over the centre area.
"Ewww gross it's drooling all over the place." she cried.
Sonic, leaping into the air, span into a bowl and launched himself at the creature but merely bounced off of it. Landing a few feet away Sonic realised, after taking the time to examine the creature, realised it was very similar to the giant fat bellied Dark Gaia creatures he had fought at night. Spinning into a ball again Sonic launched himself continuously at the nightmarish version of himself until the creature exploded into tiny particles.
The explosion however caused the entire tent that Knuckles had erected to fall apart. Holding on to Amy, Sonic could only shrug his shoulders and smile cockily, at the flabbergasted Echidna when he turned around.
"Sorry Knuckles didn't have a ball of string handy."
As Sonic led Amy away past the still shocked Knuckles, Shadow stepped in front of him, his face as serious as always.
"Now that you've finished destroying the fixtures and fittings, Sonic, we have problem."
"What's the matter, is it Eggman?" asked Amy.
"It might be, G.U.N got Intel to suggest that the Doctor is going to try something when the clock strikes midnight tonight."
At this, Sonic realised what had been nagging him all day.
"The Bell tower hasn't ringed out once today!" he blurted out.
Shadow, surprised by his sudden outburst, recovered quickly and realised what the blue hedgehog had meant. Turning around and heading off in the direction of the tower, Sonic picked up Amy into his arms and sped off after the ultimate life-form.
Rouge, standing in front of Knuckles, waved her hand back and forth in front of Knuckles eyes as he continued to stare off at his now destroyed attraction.
"Yoo Hoo earth to knuckle-head..."
the time had come for his revenge. And he was going to seize it with both hands. The Doctor had given him the chance and he was not going to fail, he had copied the data of the Dark Gaia energy within Sonic and he would utilize for his own needs. The Bell tower had been converted and soon the people of Spagonia would soon feel the darkness return and take them over as Sonic dies on the streets, agonizing over his failure. It didn't matter that Shadow was here, he already had the ultimate life-forms data, and it would simply make things even more interesting. Metal Sonic was ready to end their struggle once and for all. Stepping out into the light, he looked over the city and saw the trail of blue and black moving towards the tower.
It was time for the Grand Finale.