Disclaimer:If I owned this game, I wouldn't still be writing disclaimers.
Ri2:Good point.;) Well, as for my defence I can say that I'm not exactly writing the messed-up story of Sand Oasis, but rather a fic where that jumbled thing is included in a (hopefully better written) frame story. : ) Sound good? I also wondered whether not-quite-straight Erazor might be responsible for the Invisible Unicorn. XD Thanks for the review!
Crimson-obsidian-rose:That would be double-chocolate-chip, thanks so much: ) I'm glad you think the chapter length is okay, I had been worrying that they might be too short. Also, I'm really happy that this chappie got a positive response from you, since it means that it's readable for non-players, too. Your reviews always matter to me very much, so thanks!
Luigifan1: Oh yes, the racecar. Well the twist is that on German highways there is no speed limit whatsoever, so a car from the USA would finally see this wonderful stretch of endless road where it could exercise its full powers without any limits. In America there's speed limits, so guess the reaction of that racing machine tasting total freedom for the first time. ;) Also, I think Sonic loves rather the beach than the actual ocean. XD That happening with the ring again is a definite possibility, btw. Also, the mental memos (emphasis on 'mental') are here to stay, so don't worry. Thanks for taking all the trouble with that review: )
Doran:Yes, those are nasty little buggers, aren't they? (blushes) I'm glad you enjoy the story, I hope you like this chapter as well. Thanks for the comment!
azngirlchibi: SO true. I could have spin-dashed them into oblivion just for that. If you could spin-dash, that is. Standing still was easy with the help of a heavy book, carefully balanced. XD As for Time Stop and Speed Break – if you want them to be there, they'll be there. Not quite sure when, but I'll do my best. : ) Uh, bipolar? XD You caught me again, I wasn't very happy with that part. Still, I guess I could probably say that Sonic goes through his emotions as fast as he does everything else, no? …no? oh, okay…then it won't happen again, promise. ;)
Rebell:hehehe, your review made me laugh out loud, that's an ingenious idea: ) You really like Knuckles, huh? XD Glad you like his portrayal in this fic, there's more to come. I also think it's a shame that he's becoming such a wreck of his former self in the games now, they shouldn't just sell him as comic relief. Well, good thing there's fanfic, no? ; )
Ember Rock: Well, I can assure you that any and all water poor Sonic has to encounter in this fic is purely and solely the fault of the game designers – though how often he'sdunked in there is entirely my doing. ;) German highways – yes, very fun, though fortunately, there's at least lanes painted on…otherwise you probably couldn't drive with all the accidents right, left and center. I do hope your SatsR copy is still whole, btw…XD thank you for another detailed review!
Feniiku: Yup, gotta love fanfic references – glad you're enjoying this so far, thx for the comment: )
D.C.111: Am I? Or am I not? XD Well, I'm happy that you like this story, too – welcome to the realm of SatsR!
Chapter 7: Stories of a Game
Last time…
"Well," Knuckles said, observing their five enemies in front of them, "time to get things moving. If they have no soul, then I won't hesitate to attack them if they're hostile."
Sonic stopped in mid-fighting stance. "…Knux, you wouldn't hesitate to attack a Chao kindergarten if they set foot on your precious island."
The echidna shot the hedgehog a withering glare. "The only kindergardener I ever attacked, Sonic, is you."
"It has grown a sense of sarcasm! Amazing!" The glare was countered with an appreciative grin, and the hedgehog was gone.
Sonic leapt from where he stood and curled in mid-air, a deadly blue buzz-saw hitting the purple monster. Without so much as a shriek, the creature vanished, exploding into a cloud of shining light balls that shot away. Sonic landed back on his feet and looked at Knuckles who had just experienced something similar with his opponent – the echidna stood frozen, one gloved fist still outstretched where he had hit the spirit.
"What was that?" the guardian frowned, his eyes searching the sands for any other remains of his enemy, but finding none.
"You shattered its composure." Shahra supplied, once more appearing from the ring around Sonic's finger, "I told you, they're patchworks made from fractured remains of stories – and now those bits and pieces of imagination are free to return to their original places. Later in your world, destroying a Mary-Sue like this takes several really scalding reviews, so it's good we managed it here." She smiled, while hedgehog and echidna exchanged a clueless glance.
"Sonic, what are those Sues she keeps going on about?" Knuckled hissed, his annoyance with the hedgehog momentarily overcome by curiosity.
Sonic shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe some rare exotic predator we haven't encountered yet."
A movement in the distance suddenly caught their eye and the conversation was cut short; Three other spirits had managed to come closer and were apparently about to attack – right after they had decided whether the blue hedgehog or the threatening palmtrees nearby were their actual enemy. Not waiting for them to possibly form a committee first, Sonic jumped, quickly eliminating all three by bouncing from one to the other in the air, not without adding a few graceful backflips, extra spins and an impromptu tap-dance on top of the last one's head.
Knuckles was not amused.
"Show-off."
"Oh come on, Knux, I know you thought it looked cool."
"For you, every single danger is a game!"
"Yeah, but where's the fun without that?"
"Without me, you'd already be dead, you know that?"
"And now with you I am dying of boredom."
"Pull yourself together, hedgehog, or I won't be so helpful next time." The guardian ground out, before striding on ahead, not looking back.
What has got his dreadlocks in a knot, Sonic thought, but didn't fight back. He waved for Shahra to follow and the three continued on in silence, passing through an area of shrubs and desert flowers which now seemed to grow more abundantly. Maybe a sign they were getting closer to more inhabitable places?
"Well." Knuckles said finally, as he had walked up a particularly large dune, "Guess we know now why we were walking through a field of ruins."
Glad that his companion seemed to be talking again, Sonic joined him on the top and immediately groaned.
"Not again…"
In front of them was water. And it wasn't the bath tub kind. Not even the term 'Swimming Pool' came close. No. Think Sonic Adventure DX, and it's the final boss fight with all your rings run out.
See Chaos grin?
"Stop whining, hedgehog, and get up."
"Knuckles, there are freakin flooded buildings out there! The whole plain is close to underwater! And stop calling me 'hedgehog'!" Sonic had sat down, his face in his hands.
"I'll start calling you by your real name as soon as you start behaving like your real self. Now come on." The echidna replied dryly, before launching himself off the top of the sand dune and gliding over the liquid surface towards the nearest stone walkway that was protruding from out the moist masses.
"My real self is hydrophobic, you jackass!" Sonic called after him frustrated, but to no avail. The echidna just continued walking, jumping, climbing and gliding from the various available surfaces, paying no heed to the fuming hedgehog he'd left behind.
"Great. Just great." Sonic muttered, inching towards the wetness and scowling at it as if it had just bubbled some very rude things about the hedgehog's resemblance to a massage ball.
Mental Memo: Next time you go Super, fight the Pacific, not Eggman.
Sonic sighed, accepting the inevitable. Shahra had also appeared and he tried to take comfort in that. "So there was a great flood of sorts and that's why the buildings are in pieces and why we haven't met anyone yet?" He asked, in an effort to distract himself from what he was about to do.
"I guess you could say so, Sonic. This here is the story of the Great Migration." The girl replied, floating behind him.
"They saw water and they ran. Smart people." Sonic muttered, but the genie didn't seem to hear.
"People fled because the sea was coming in a huge tidal wave. This is their abandoned city Sand Oasis."
The hedgehog meanwhile had taken a few steps backward and was now racing towards the edge of the liquid, kicking off at the last possible second. The blue hero couldn't glide like the Guardian, but as his limbs wanted to flail in panic and his heart was thumping like a dietician on the exit door of a Willy Wonka convention, he hoped, hoped, hoped to anybody listening that his momentum would carry him across. A huge held breath escaped his lungs as his feet finally made contact with the stone ground. Still trembling a little from spent adrenaline, he lowered himself on one knee, waiting for his muscles to calm down.
"You're...nervous." Shahra stated, looking at him worried.
"Yes." Sonic simply stated, standing up as he thought his legs felt less like two puppies fresh out of the bathtub. Bad, bad comparison.
"Are you afraid of water?"
"A little," the hedgehog admitted grudgingly. Truth to tell, that was like saying Robotnik was a 'little' bent on taking over the world, but Sonic hated talking about his fear at all.
"Oh…I'm really sorry that you have to go through this, then…" Shahra bit her lip, wondering whether her magic would probably be enough to just conjure a carpet for the travelling across the plain, but Sonic interrupted her.
"No, that's okay. Sometimes you have to confront your biggest fear to move forward."
Mental Memo: Next time you say something so cheesy, make sure you don't survive that next jump.
Shahra didn't seem to mind, though. Instead, she had rather gone suddenly very quiet and now looked at Sonic in an odd way.
Sonic, however, was eyeing the large lake before him, inclined buildings with holes in them poking through the surface everywhere, and tried to judge where to make his next jump. Well, one good thing about falling into the water might be that it could perhaps extinguish the flame arrow…
Still wasn't exactly worth a horrible death by suffocation, though.
Eventually, Sonic went for a speed dash towards the left side and somersaulted through the air towards a house leaning sideways at an awkward angle. Minding the windows, Sonic ran along its side, but before gravity could catch up with him, he pushed hard against the wall again, flipping himself over in mid-air. The manoeuvre resulted in him first landing on a broken pillar and finally safely coming down on another stone walkway.
"Uh, anyway," He continued as if nothing had happened while he searched once more for surfaces to use on his way over the water, "how come there was a tidal wave in the first place?"
(On his own world, the hedgehog knew all about the origins of tsunamis – various egg-shaped causes and/or enraged demi-watergods sprang to mind - but he wasn't so sure why anyone in this story would have wreaked such destruction. One more thing to blame Erazor for, perhaps?)
"In the neighbour story someone thought it was a good idea to part the sea to let his people escape." Shahra replied, sighing. "It caused some massive destruction in the surrounding chapters."
Sonic gave her a long stare. "Some of the people here have weird ideas."
xxx
The sun had already a slightly reddish tinge and was hanging a little bit lower as he arrived on the other side of the plain where Knuckles was lying underneath a palm tree, smirking at him.
"Done a little bit of water ballet, Mr. Mermaid?" the echidna asked, the mischievious glint in his eyes letting Sonic know that the Guardian hadn't quite forgiven him for the 20 metres drop on top of his head.
"Very funny, Knucklehead. Go guard the Master Emerald somewhere underwater with sharks and leave me alone," Sonic replied uncharacteristically surly and trudged on, his nerves more than frayed after nearly falling into the giant lake during perilous jumps dozens of times.
"Oh yeah? Well I suggest you calm down." The echidna quickened his steps to catch up with him, "I just wanted you to acknowledge that this isn't some kind of joy-ride, but that you can get hurt.Okay, Sonic?"
"Yeah, yeah." Sonic brushed the hand the echidna had laid on his shoulder roughly away, but he only walked a few steps before then stopping and sighing, turning his head.
"Jeez, Knux, you're starting to sound like the mother I never had," he said, giving the Guardian behind him a lopsided grin.
"Don't push it, hedgehog, or I'll be forced to push you back in there," Knuckles replied in mock warning tones, jerking his thumb backwards at the flooded area.
"I'd like to see you try, you wash-out." Sonic shot back, but his eyes were twinkling again and he was punching the echidna playfully in the arm. They were both already quite tired out from the hours of travelling but it was exactly in this state that they could get along. Sonic knew it wouldn't be long before they were probably at each other's throats again, but for now he just enjoyed the easy companionship of his crimson friend – just as he would enjoy the next fight whenever it would pop up.
Shahra watched the two, puzzled but intrigued.
That is…friendship…
xxx
"Are we there yet?"
"Sonic…"
"Okay, okay."
Sonic sighed half an hour later, as they were now wandering through what could already be described as alleys in between tall walls and undamaged buildings with the air of temples or houses of nobles. It still looked deserted, but there were faint traces of people visible – some plants had definitely been arranged and planted there by a thinking hand and Sonic even spotted a pair of high ceramic vases standing in their way, still whole and apparently containing mobian rings, as if their owner had left them here in a great hurry when the tidal wave came.
"You have rings in your world, too?" the hedgehog wondered, standing on his toes to peer into the vessel, feeling the power radiating from the golden objects.
"Not originally, no." Shahra replied, "They started to appear as soon as Erazor had begun to try to open the gate to your world. I think it's a sign that our two realities are starting to mix."
"…there's not a chance we could trick that Djinn into believing that these are those 'World Rings', is there?" Sonic mused, eyeing the round power sources. Subconciously, his hand trailed along the ring around his neck, which he had suspected at first of being a power ring too, but which had been prooved to be composed of some other metal. (Very,very unyielding metal, that wouldn't come off no matter how hard you pulled, as he'd found out.)
"Not really, master, I'm sorry…" Shahra said, smiling slightly and interrupting Sonic's train of thought. "The World Rings are of seven different colours and they have engravings upon them. He'd know the difference."
"Oh. Okay." Sonic pursed his lips, hopping down from where he had climbed up on the vase and continuing.
"Seven mystical objects of power with different colours? Now just why does this scream 'Chaos Emerald Rip-off' at me?" Knuckles asked caustically, but didn't pursue the topic further, as they entered into a corridor composed of blue painted stone arcs. He also didn't pursue the topic further when they came out the other side and suddenly giant spears rained from the sky.
"What the hell is this?!"
The trio was now racing madly through the broad alley and the hail of deadly projectiles, trying to avoid the shadows that would indicate where the next one fell.
"I don't know! They didn't say anything about hail in the weather forecast!" Sonic called back, grinning, but yelped just a milisecond later as one of the spears nearly clipped his tail.
"One of those things hopefully hits you in the mouth." The guardian muttered, but his scowl turned into a mask of shock as he looked on ahead and saw the wall blocking their way, cutting off the only route for escape from the alleyway they were racing through.
"Oh no! It's a dead end!" Shahra supplied helpfully, adding that special 'headdesk' element every situation of deadly peril needs.
"Maybe I can climb up that wall-!" Knuckles shouted to Sonic ahead of him, who had just realized what was happening, but the blue speedster was back at his side before the echidna could even finish his sentence. Another spear impacted only inches from them.
"No time, Knux! We'll do this my way!"
"…on second thought I think I'll rather face the spe-RAAAH-"
The scarlet guardian lost a rather large piece of his dignity (and nearly all of his limb) as Sonic had grabbed him firmly on the upper arm and was now racing head on towards the wall, ignoring the echidna's shocked cry.
"What are you doing, you can't possible hope to-"
But Sonic was already doing it.
Mobilizing his last reserves.
Racing up the vertical wall.
"It's against physics!"
"Physics are too slow!"
"It's against logic!"
"That's what Eggman said last time, too!"
"It's against-"
"Look, Knux, I'm trying to save our pelts here, so would you kindly-"
"WATCH OUT!"
The entire conversation had been taking place in seconds, words all but snatched from the mouths by the wind, but now the dreadful silence of sneaker soles no longer finding purchase in thin air drowned out all other sounds.
To be continued...
I said I wanted to write a game adaption. Now I'm cured. God, I never knew those levels would be so long! Expect drastic cuts for Dinosaur Valley...or not. Depends on my enjoyment of headaches when I'm trying to write that chapter. XD Still, I hope this is working for you so far and entertaining. Do you like it? Please read and review:-)
