Blue Star
Disclaimer: All characters belong to SEGA/SonicTeam. The inhabitants of Marble Village are mine :P
Author's Note: Argh, be warned, there's a MEGA LOT of dialogue here. That and it's just a filler chapter. Fear it :P
Part 7: The Marble Village.
Writhing blue darkness around him. Dark purely because it does not allow the light to penetrate it.
There! A sound!
He cannot move, for he cannot tell where the sound is coming from.
Something grabs him, it is crushing him.
And all the while there are voices screaming at him, accusatory and frightened.
He cannot move, he tries, but he cannot. The blue is fading away, fading dark.
"Arrrghhhh!"
Sonic sat up as he screamed, panting hoarsely. He was drenched in a cold sweat, despite having rolled so close to the lava pit in his sleep. It took a few moments for his location to register in his mind, and when it finally did he shuffled back away from the burning lake. He looked around for his bag, and found it camouflaged in a small tuft of grass nearby.
The hedgehog picked up the bag and listened, because the jewels' calm, ringing song had changed to a more frantic one. He frowned, looking around, before slinging the bag back over his shoulder. The gemstones calmed down, and resumed their quiet song.
"Were you worried about me?" Sonic muttered to the jewels, and rubbed his head. "Sheesh, what a nightmare… I…" He sighed and shook his head. "I need to move on I guess…"
Sonic got up to his feet, and shook his head to try wake himself up. The soft sunrise washed over the landscape, blending in with the glow from the lava behind him. It bounced off of sharp corners on the Spring Yard Zone ahead, shining brightly and making the metal constructs gleam. The hedgehog had to rub his eyes as he started walking.
"I'm hungry."
-+-+-
Sonic walked into the village that rested at the end of the dried grass of the Marble Zone, and looked around. He wondered about calling out to find out if anyone was there, but decided that if they were, they probably wouldn't appreciate being woken up by a complete stranger who smelt of petrol and carried a bag made out of leaves. Not to mention the fact that he was bright blue and no-one outside of the Green Hill Zone and the Emerald Hill Zone had ever seen him. He didn't doubt that it would cause some gawking, to say the least.
A giggle from behind a couple of the small, marble huts, followed by a scream and more laughing, indicated children playing. Sonic knew from experience how cruel children could be if they saw something odd, so he walked a bit faster. 'Strange.' He thought. 'I always heard that no-one lived in Marble Zone. Maybe no-one's gone through those ruins before. Makes sense.'
"Hey, whassat?!"
'Oh great. I've been spotted.' Sonic grumbled lightly to himself, continuing to walk towards the Spring Yard Zone, and trying to ignore the children who were behind him and yelling questions.
"Oi! Who're you and what are you doing in our village eh?"
"That guy's blue. Why's he blue? Why are you blue mister?"
"He smells funny."
"Hey what's in this bag here?"
Sonic stopped suddenly and whipped a hand round to grab the squirrel's wrist as he tried taking the bag. "I advise you leave other people's belongings where they are."
"Okay okay, I'll leave it!" The squirrel grumbled, rubbing his wrist when Sonic had let go. "What's your problem?"
"I had a very bad day yesterday. And I'm gonna have another bad day today." The hedgehog replied bluntly.
"You're no older than me, what's up with you? Shouldn't you be back home, playing?"
"No. I have… stuff to do. So leave me alone."
Sonic carried on walking, his ears flicking as he heard the children walking behind him. He turned to face the squirrels.
"C'mon guys, I just wanna walk in peace."
"I heard your stomach rumble. Are you hungry?" One of the girl squirrels asked chirpily.
"… Uh…" Sonic shook his head frantically "No…"
"Liar. C'mon, you can eat breakfast with us!" She grabbed his arm, and started tugging him along behind her. "C'mon!"
"But-"
"Don't 'but' my sis mate." The boy who had reached for the bag walked up beside them, whilst the other two squirrels followed them. "You may as well while you're here. And get a bath too, you smell funny."
"Uh, that's very nice of you, but I really have to go."
"Go later. Food and bath now." The girl who was leading him nodded.
-+-+-
"So that's what's up?"
They were all sitting at a table, with the young squirrels positioned as close to Sonic as they could get. Sonic hadn't been too happy about having to have a bath, and especially not in a complete strangers' house, but the petrol soaked into his fur might've ended up as a problem. Sonic had just finished explaining why he'd been passing through the Zone, and it had taken a while, with the squirrels questioning him almost every other sentence. It turned out that they were all related, and their parents were quite happy to let him join them for breakfast. It was the girl squirrel that had pulled him along that had spoken. Her name was Suzie. The male squirrel was Rusty, and the two youngest were twins by the names of Kerri and Lucy.
"Why do you need to go to Spring Yard? They're not even anywhere near finished it yet." Suzie stated.
"I heard from Becky that it's practically a death trap at the moment." Rusty nodded in acknowledgement. "All moving parts and spiky things. Becky said it's not a good idea to go anywhere near it."
"Maybe, but I told ya, I gotta follow this guy who went that way." Sonic sighed and poked at a mug he'd been given. "And I really don't have time to sit around talking."
"You worry too much. From the looks of it he's only going to the least significant zones." Rusty shrugged.
"I don't think that that's what he'll be doing for long."
"Sonic, d'ya know what that big blue fog is?" Kerri finally decided to pipe up, and Sonic blinked at her.
"No… Well, I know what it is, it's Genocide City. But I don't know what it is."
"Uh huh, well it's the ghost of the Marble Hill City!" Lucy joined in. "Apparently, like, Green Hill Zone and Marble Zone used to be one really big city! Uh. Yeah, and then there was all the Blue Star happening and it completely destroyed it, leaving Genocide City behind!"
Sonic frowned, taking in what the squirrel had blurted out in rapid succession. "Oh?"
"Uh huh. Blue Star causes all sortsa trouble!" Kerri nodded. "I heard it ripped up most of the original city, leaving just the ruins in Marble Zone, and turning Green Hill from the forest it once was to the big fields and palm-trees that it is."
"Yeah, and it turned Marble Zone into the lava type place it is now." Lucy chattered again. "That was years and years and years ago though."
"A millennium or so." Rusty shrugged.
"Oh. Well… Sounds about right." Sonic sighed, all this talk about the Blue Star and the Genocide City getting him down. "I… I really have to get going now."
"Awww…. But we wanted to talk to you longer." Suzie whined.
"Yeah, not every day you see a blue hedgehog." Rusty agreed.
"You'll come back to visit, right?" Lucy and Kerri asked loudly, grinning and giggling when Sonic nodded.
"Yeah… Next time I pass this way, I'll say hi." Sonic called out "Thanks for the breakfast!"
"Oh, you're going already?" The mother squirrel walked up to Sonic and handed him a bag "Here, I packed you something to eat later on. Be careful little hedgehog."
"Thank you very much." Sonic bowed politely as he took the parcel, and slipped it into the leaf bag, which he checked still contained both of the singing gemstones. Satisfied that it did, he nodded. "I'll see you all again later!"
"Bye Sonic!" the young squirrels replied in chorus.
Sonic stepped outside, and the family followed him out to wave. The hedgehog grinned at them, and was gone within seconds, leaving them to stare at the dust cloud behind him.
He jumped high into the air occasionally as he ran, and watched the rapidly approaching mass of metal that was Spring Yard Zone. A small smirk played across his face, and he kicked up his speed. 'You think you're getting away from me? Think again, Doctor Robotnik.'
-TBC-
Again, my apologies for the sheer amount of dialogue in this chapter. Hopefully it'll be in a much smaller amount now I'm going back onto the game adaptation :P Keep following, I know you won't be disappointed