Chapter 3
Surprise
On the mainland, in a city called Station Square, a large city bus stopped at its usual location on Garden Avenue to unload some of its passengers. A young man named Christopher Thorndyke hopped off and waved farewell to his friends as the bus left, and he began his short journey back to his father's mansion. His closest friends were the Freedom Fighters, Sonic and the gang, who kept their temporary headquarters compound within his manor while they were stranded on his world.
It was late in the afternoon, and he was returning from his usual daily college courses. Sonic and the others were absent. Chris naturally assumed that they left to seek out the Chaos Emeralds, so he decided to burn a little time by relaxing with some late-day television.
As the boy flipped through the channels, he yawned more out of boredom than drowsiness. "Why isn't there anything good on TV at this hour?" he asked himself. Soon, he turned over to the local news network.
"Latest news. About ten minutes ago, three robots broke into a Walmart stock and stole almost all its contents…" a woman with a microphone reported.
Chris sighed. "Well, that doesn't happen every day…"
The camera panned over the surroundings. "The robots stole everything from food to clothes and toys. How much money they have stolen hasn't been published yet. Local authorities suspect that Dr. Robotnik is responsible for this crime."
"What kind of scheme is Eggman up to this time?"
The camera returned to the woman, "His latest scheme is currently unknown, but we will follow this case. This is Scarlet Garcia reporting."
Chris turned off the monitor, now seeming very serious. "Whatever it is, it can't be good. I better go check it out." He left to start collecting supplies for his inspection.
Much later... "We're back, doctor!" In the Doctor's lab, the three stoodstraight.
Behind the desk, the old Doctor was sitting with the scroll, not moving his sight away from it. "Good… I saw it on the news." He turned to the now silent machine and smirked. "Just in time, too…"
Some dampness emerged while the door to the capsule slowly opened. There was total silence as Eggman and his robot-henchmen stood completely still, waiting for the outcome from their project. When the door was completely open, the old doctor stepped closer.
In the bottom of the capsule, he sound a small, curled-up shape, which moves a little showing it is indeed alive. However, there was still too much fog to see how it looked. Carefully, he bent down and picked it up with one hand.
"It's so... small," Decoe breathed in wonder.
Eggman stepped away from the capsule and went back to the others, while holding it tight in his arms, almost like a father with his child. Once they were away from the fog, the appearance of this being is revealed.
"WHAT THE WHAT?!" they all shouted in unison.
Eggman held the life form away with one hand and stared at it with great despise. In his hand rested a toddler girl with soft golden hair… all over its body. It also had cat-like ears, and a short tail. It was a Mobian, but more to the point, it was…
"A Hedgehog? A female Hedgehog?! How could this happen?!" he exclaimed.
"Um… I have a theory," Bocoe grabbed the hair Eggman threw into the machine on and handed it to the doctor.
Eggman looked at it closely and aggressively snapped it with his free fist. "BLAST YOU, SONIC!" Even when he was nowhere around, the blue hedgehog was always able to foil his plans any day. He handed the baby furiously to Decoe. "Put it back in! There must be a reverse switch somewhere!" Eggman turned around in order to go back to the machine.
Suddenly, the toddler started to cry a little, then louder and louder. Panicked, the robots try to calm her down, but they were not programmed for child care. "How do we turn this thing off?!"
Eggman sighed tired. "Try cradling it." He grabbed some tools and opened the machine. Awkward, the robots tried to calm it, but it didn't seem to work at all. Out of irritation, the old man threw his tools. "I can't concentrate with all this noise. Give me that!" He went back to the robots and took the child out of their hands. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself..." He started to cradle the child, and it began to calm down.
For the first time, he looked into the eyes of his creation. For some reason, he started to feel unsure with what he was doing. The child playfully grabbed his mustache and pulled it gently. He sighed tired and became thoughtful.
"Aww... you got to admit she is kind of cute." Bocoe said.
"Yeah, and sweet," Bokkun grinned.
The Doctor didn't answer, still looking at her. The child yawned a bit and started to seem sleepy.
"So... are you going to put her back in the machine?" one of the robots asked.
The Doctor is mute for a moment, and then smiled a little. "Nah! I think she's fine the way she is. She may not be my flesh and blood, but perhaps an anti-Sonic may be what we need!" He rubbed her pink nose gently with his finger, and she giggled. "I think I'll call you 'Daisy,' after my mother."
"YAY! We're gonna keep her! We're gonna keep her!" Bokkun exclaimed joyfully. "Can I hold her?"
"Can I hold her, doctor?" asked Decoe.
"You held her before!" Bokkun exclaimed.
"Yeah, you did! I wanna hold her!" Bocoe said.
"No, I wanna..."
As they argued over who would handle the child, a certain human was watching them from the corridor. He had just arrived, so he was unaware that the child was created. 'They have kidnapped a baby?' Chris thought. 'That's a new low even for him. I must act now!'
When he was close enough, he spawned one of Amy's piko-piko hammers and threw it at the robots. They were so caught up with the baby, they were too late to respond, and they banged into the wall. "Chris: 1. Dumb-bots: 0," he said as he jumped over them.
Eggman, seeing him coming, pressed a button on the wall. "Guards!" Before he could say anymore, Chris smashed the intercom. Then he snatched the toddler out of his arms and stated to run off.
"No! Don't take her! I need her!" Eggman chased after him, but given his age, he couldn't keep up.
"You know, I don't care! There's a mother out there who misses her child, and I'm going to find her!" Chris reached for the door to his freedom.
But right before he could open it, two large Badniks beat him to it. Chris would have put up a fight, had they not taken the hammer away from him. Eggman laughed. One of his enemies was trapped, and he knew of a proper punishment. What he didn't know was that more enemies would come to rescue him; else he'd give them a proper welcome.
